After using the tunnel that Brian dug to enter Sosshi Village, Brian's group of three successfully saved the unlucky man who was killed just before anyone could arrive to save him in the original story.
They then stood in front of the villagers who were being threatened by the group of mages to protect them. As a result, they were attacked by the mage using Ice Magic with an extremely sinister strike, aimed at them and the people behind them.
"Damn it!"
Magna cursed as he looked at the massive block of ice that the mage threw toward him and the others.
In theory, Magna believed he could use a large amount of mana to unleash a powerful attack spell to destroy the ice block rushing toward him. But if he did so, it would be difficult for him to continue fighting because his mana would be too depleted.
Fortunately, Magna was not alone here; beside him were Brian and Noelle as well.
"Leave it to me, Magna."
Brian stepped forward, his Grimoire flipping rapidly to the page recording the spell he wanted to use.
"Earth Magic: Stone Skin!"
"Earth Creation Magic: Stone Gauntlet!"
Simultaneously using two types of spells, Brian rushed forward with his body reinforced and his arm encased in the Stone Gauntlet, directly facing the massive ice block rushing toward him.
Boom!!
With just a single punch reinforced by two types of spells and a sufficient amount of mana, Brian completely destroyed the mage's massive ice block into many small pieces, causing them to fly everywhere without harming anyone accidentally hit as they fell.
"Hmm...?"
The mage using Ice Magic, seeing Brian easily destroy his attack, immediately widened his eyes, "Just how much mana does this guy have...?!"
The amount of mana Brian was emitting at this moment was incredibly vast, making it impossible for the opposing mages not to sense his formidable strength.
Not only the source of mana, they also saw Brian's four-leaf clover Grimoire; immediately, they all knew he was no ordinary Magic Knight.
Boom!!
The ground beneath Brian's feet cracked due to the pressure from the massive source of mana he was using to reinforce his body. His Grimoire continued to flip rapidly to another page, this time a different type of his spells.
"Noelle, Magna, you two watch over the villagers. I will handle them."
Brian spoke softly; immediately after, he stomped his foot hard on the ground, gathering strength to charge straight toward the opposing mages, aiming for the subordinates of the Ice Magic mage to attack.
"W-what...?"
Before these guys could react, Brian had successfully closed in on them. He used his arm not equipped with the Stone Gauntlet to throw a straight punch into the stomach of a random mage among the three subordinates.
"Ah!"
Brian's punch to the mage's stomach was so strong it made him vomit everything he had in his stomach, also leaving him without any strength left to continue fighting.
He collapsed to the ground, both hands clutching his stomach writhing in pain because Brian's punch was truly too painful. But it didn't stop there; he was hit by an additional powerful crowd-control spell that Brian had prepared for him and his comrades.
"Earth Creation Magic: Earth Coffin!"
The ground beneath where the mage was punched by Brian suddenly rose up, covering him and burying him in an extremely thick layer of earth and stone; this layer of earth and stone had a shape no different from an oversized coffin.
Earth Coffin, a type of spell that helps Brian create a coffin made of earth with the function of completely imprisoning the enemy, while also neutralizing the ability to use magic and the consciousness of the person trapped inside.
The coffin created by Earth Coffin was extremely durable and incredibly difficult to destroy; only Brian could be the one to open the coffin lid.
The only weakness of this spell was that Brian had to approach the target at a very close distance, and at the same time, the target must no longer have the ability to fight, or be unable to react in time to the extremely slow formation speed of this spell; only then could this spell successfully imprison the target he chose.
"Stay away from him!"
When Brian defeated and successfully captured one of their comrades, the group of mages immediately became terrified and proceeded to keep their distance from him.
Three of them stood in two separate directions: the mage using Ice Magic stood alone, while the two subordinates stood next to each other, constantly glaring at him.
The mage using Ice Magic stared intently at Brian, constantly wary of his next move, while also not forgetting to use his brain to think of a way to deal with him.
Based on his own experience, plus what Brian had demonstrated to him, he concluded that there was an extremely large gap between Brian's strength and his own.
The amount of mana between the two sides was too disparate, and in a world that considers mana as everything like this one, it was no surprise that Brian could overwhelm him.
He certainly had no chance of winning against him if the two sides engaged in battle.
"One guy..."
Brian counted softly as he looked toward his enemies; he then immediately charged straight at the two remaining subordinates among the group of mages.
Brian's speed when reinforced by mana was incredibly fast; he could easily approach the group of mages without giving them any time to react while he moved close to them.
"Ah!"
And once again, the two subordinates could not withstand Brian's completely superior speed and strength. They were immediately defeated by him with a single punch to the stomach.
"Damn it..."
The mage using Ice Magic watched Brian defeat his subordinates and gritted his teeth; he had no chance to resist him, only able to stand and watch his two subordinates about to be imprisoned by him into his two coffins.
However, in a fleeting glance, the mage using Ice Magic suddenly realized Brian was looking at the villagers being protected by Magna and Noelle.
His head suddenly clicked; he saw an opportunity for himself to escape from this place.
"So that's how it is..."
He flashed a cruel yet discreet smile, his Grimoire flipped rapidly, and his body erupted with a massive amount of mana, almost all the mana he had.
His actions could not be hidden from Brian and the others; they all looked toward him warily.
"You are definitely the strongest person here, which is why you fought and let the other two watch over those useless people."
The mage using Ice Magic smiled as if achieving his goal, "They certainly don't have strong magic, or are rookies, so they have to stand and guard in the back."
Finishing his words, he immediately pointed his hand toward the top of the heads of the villagers being protected by Noelle and Magna.
An extremely powerful magic was cast by him; unlike the previous simple attacks, this time he used an extremely strong wide-area attack spell.
Countless massive and sharp ice shards appeared right above the villagers' heads; some of them were even pointing directly at the children present in the crowd.
"You bastard...!"
Seeing his clear actions and intentions, Brian immediately had green veins popping; he couldn't help but roar.
His roar made Magna and Noelle become tense, especially Noelle. Both of them looked up at the sharp ice shards above their heads and trembled.
Just by looking, the two of them knew how strong the spell just cast was, and they were completely useless in this situation.
Right at this moment, as if wanting to make the situation even worse, Brian suddenly extended both hands to both sides, one hand toward the coffin imprisoning the first mage he captured, the other hand toward the two who were just caught by him.
"Ice Magic: Ice Slide!"
The mage using Ice Magic used one more spell; he created a slide made of ice; just looking at it, one knew he was preparing to escape using this slide.
"You can't possibly save people and chase me at the same time, right? Your two comrades certainly can't do anything about my spell; only you can save those useless people, but it looks like you aren't free-handed at this moment either."
He turned to Brian with a challenging voice; he also saw Brian's unusual action and guessed for himself why he extended both hands like that. This made him even more confident in his plan.
"I think you can save them, but it seems that capturing my subordinates has restricted your actions significantly. What will you choose: chase me, or release all my subordinates to save those useless people?!"
"Come on, choose, Magic Knight!"
Brian's face at this moment looked extremely unpleasant; he couldn't help but look toward Noelle and Magna while having to be wary of the actions of the mage using Ice Magic.
"Hey, Noelle, Magna, can you two do something? I can't handle two things at once!"
Hearing Brian's voice calling them, both Noelle and Magna broke out in a cold sweat upon realizing how bad the situation was.
Originally, they thought Brian could both defend and pursue the mage using Ice Magic while the two of them supported him in saving the villagers, but it seemed things didn't go as planned when he had to keep his three coffins imprisoning three subordinates.
"Hey, can you do anything about these things?"
Noelle looked at Magna, her voice clearly showing helplessness as she understood clearly that she couldn't help with anything in this situation.
"No, I can't take care of all those ice shards..."
Magna broke out in a cold sweat looking up at the sharp ice shards above his head and the surrounding villagers, "Damn it..."
"It can't be...?"
Noelle looked at Magna, then looked at Brian; in her heart, a feeling of helplessness that she absolutely loathed suddenly surged. She couldn't help Brian and was too useless to protect the others.
However, just when Noelle least expected it, a little girl among the villagers ran to her.
"Big sister, please help us..."
The little girl's plea for help, and her eyes filled with hope, moved Noelle's heart which was sinking into despair and helplessness. The villagers standing around her also looked at her with pleading eyes; their hope had been completely sent to her, and it enabled her to act in this terrible situation.
Noelle's mana suddenly exploded extremely powerfully, and Brian flashed an implied smile toward the mage using Ice Magic upon sensing that.