An important mission with the possibility of clashing against extremely powerful opponents from the Diamond Kingdom. Even so, the Magic Emperor had still sent a group of rookies to carry out this mission.
Six people from the Clover Kingdom, four of whom were rookies. Not only were they outnumbered, but the quality of their forces was also at a disadvantage compared to the enemy's.
The Diamond Kingdom had dispatched a team of eighteen people, two of whom belonged to the ranks of the Eight Shining Generals.
It was truly a mission that exceeded what could reasonably be expected of them.
Watching Mars stand before them, Klaus, Mimosa, and Noelle could not help but have every nerve in their bodies pulled taut as they kept their eyes on the opponent and watched for any move he might be preparing to make.
In this world, the quantity and quality of one's mana determined everything. Mars completely overwhelmed them in terms of mana, so there was not the slightest room for doubt that he was far more powerful than any of them.
"You people are in my way."
Mars looked coldly toward Brian's group, his face and his voice alike betraying not a single trace of any emotion.
Mars's body suddenly erupted with an enormous amount of mana, far surpassing what he had revealed for Brian's group to sense when they had first come face to face.
Right beneath Mars's feet, a wave of crystals suddenly shot up from under the ground and launched itself straight toward Brian's group at blinding speed.
Razor-sharp crystal shards flew at all five of them in a straight line. It was a simple attack, one that did not cost Mars much effort at all, and yet every single person present could feel the tremendous power behind it.
Seeing Mars's attack bearing down on them, Brian reacted immediately. He quickly used a spell from his Grimoire to defend.
"Earth Creation Magic: Target Block!"
A square block of stone rose up directly in front of Brian's group and completely stopped Mars's attack in its tracks. The collision between the stone block and the crystal shards produced a loud shattering sound, and tiny fragments of crystal scattered in every direction.
Brian immediately sensed just how powerful the attack Mars had just launched truly was. This attack was not inferior in strength to the spells in Yuno's Grimoire, or more precisely, it was not inferior to Yuno's simpler spells.
Using nothing but his innate magical ability without even drawing on his Grimoire, and yet the power of the spell had already reached this level. When he did use his Grimoire, Mars's attacks would certainly be even more terrifying.
"Listen, we should avoid fighting him head-on. The best approach is to stay hidden and not let him find us."
Brian turned and said to the others. "His magic is not something we can match by going straight at him."
"What? You mean we're going to run away? What about our mission?"
Klaus immediately spoke up in opposition to Brian's words. Perhaps it was the pressure radiating from Mars that had made him lose some of his composure and clouded his ability to think clearly.
"No, what I mean is that we'll conceal ourselves and strike him from blind spots."
Brian corrected himself, and at the same time began explaining his plan to the others.
"I'm the only one with magic strong enough and suited for fighting him directly. The rest of you will support me from a distance, keeping watch and waiting for exactly the right moment to strike him when he's not paying attention."
"Wait a moment..."
Noelle heard Brian's plan and reacted right away. "Are you sure you can face him alone? I know you're very strong, but this is too reckless!"
The others said nothing, but they all agreed with Noelle that Brian's plan was somewhat reckless.
"I know my own limits. He won't be able to do anything to me."
Brian spoke with certainty. "If I focus on keeping him occupied without getting greedy about defeating him, there's no way he'll be able to beat me. As long as we coordinate our attacks from enough directions with enough power behind them, he won't be able to defend against all of it. When that moment comes, defeating him will only be a matter of time."
Saying this, Brian did not forget to turn to Klaus, who had by this point regained some of his composure after realizing he had just behaved rather unprofessionally.
"I can use a spell to create a hiding place for everyone. As long as I'm still standing, he won't be able to attack anyone. So I'm asking you to take command of everyone while I focus on keeping him pinned down. That's not a difficult thing for you, is it?"
Hearing and feeling the trust in Brian's words, Klaus gave Brian a serious nod in return.
"You can count on me."
"Good."
Brian gave a satisfied nod after receiving Klaus's agreement. He glanced briefly at the other three to confirm, and none of them raised any further objection to his plan.
As for Yuno, there was nothing more to say. He trusted Brian completely and supported his plan wholeheartedly. Only Noelle and Mimosa were still somewhat worried about Brian's safety with such a risky plan, but neither of them raised any obstacle.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Mars spoke up when he saw Brian's group standing in place whispering to one another. While Brian's group had been discussing their plan, he had not been standing still doing nothing either.
He had observed that up above, there were quite a number of earth Golems looking down at him. The number of these Golems he could see was not large, but he was certain that the ones he was currently seeing were not all of the Golems present in the surrounding area.
Based on the elemental magic of the spell Brian had just used to block his probing attack, he had also confirmed that these Golems belonged to Brian.
Nearly all of Mars's attention was focused on Brian, and also on Yuno. Mars naturally recognized the four-leaf clover emblem on the Grimoires of both of them, and he could not afford to take either of them lightly.
It was not only because of the significance of the four-leaf clover, but also because he could sense that the mana of these two completely surpassed that of everyone else in the group of five standing before him.
The only ones capable of giving him any real trouble were these two, and no one else.
"Whatever plan you have, it won't do you any good."
Mars had gauged something of Brian's capabilities from his earlier probing attack, so this time he had no intention of holding back.
Mars's Grimoire flipped rapidly through the air, turning to a page bearing an offensive spell. It did not look like an ordinary Grimoire, but rather like something assembled from two separate Grimoires bound together into one.
"Crystal Creation Magic: Laevateinn!"
An enormous sword made entirely of crystal gradually took form in the air after Mars used the spell from his Grimoire.
Just from looking at the size of the crystal sword, Brian's group instinctively understood how tremendous the offensive power of the spell Mars had just cast truly was.
"Die!"
Mars swung his arm upward, and the enormous crystal sword floating right beside him followed the motion of his arm and came slashing down toward Brian's group. Despite its considerable bulk, the speed of the sword's attack was not slow in the slightest.
Seeing the crystal sword coming down at them, Brian immediately used a spell from his Grimoire to defend, and at the same time, to carry out the first step of his plan.
"Earth Creation Magic: Earth Cocoon!"
"Earth Creation Magic: Earth Shield!"
Brian cast two spells simultaneously, something that was not particularly difficult for him.
A cocoon made of earth rose up from beneath the ground and enclosed all five members of Brian's group inside it, making them invisible to Mars from the outside.
Following that, a shield made of earth gradually formed directly above the earth cocoon. Brian had poured a large amount of mana into creating this shield, and as a result its size was on par with Mars's crystal sword.
Boom!
Mars's crystal sword struck Brian's earth shield, and two tremendously powerful spells collided with each other. Mars's attack was stopped without much difficulty at all.
"Hmm...?"
Seeing his attack blocked so simply, Mars narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Brian's earth shield. That attack had not held back in the slightest. He had put his full strength into swinging the crystal sword, and yet even so he had been unable to overcome Brian's defensive capability.
At the very moment Mars was still slightly taken aback that his strike had been stopped, the ground beneath the area around the treasure storage room suddenly began to shake violently in rhythmic pulses. And by the time Mars sensed that something was about to happen, it was already far too late for him to do anything to stop it.
Before he could react, the ground beneath Mars's feet suddenly heaved upward, forming walls of earth that rose continuously higher and higher. And it was not just where he was standing; an entire area was being divided and sectioned off completely by these earth walls that sprouted up in a manner that was simultaneously chaotic and yet strangely ordered.
"What kind of spell is this...?"
By the time Mars had processed what had just happened, he was standing inside a maze, with tall earth walls enclosing and surrounding the entire space on every side.
"I see, so this was your plan."
A maze had been erected in the open space just in front of the treasure storage room, completely transforming the terrain and making the area where Mars and Brian's group would be fighting many times more complex than it had been before.
Looking around him, Mars could see nothing but tall walls blocking his entire field of vision from every direction. In an instant he also realized that he had just been completely isolated by Brian from the rest of Brian's group, and that he had lost sight of all of them.