"I still don't think we're safe out here."

Jared turned to the speaker, Rosy, the warrior meeting his stare.

"Relax," Lorene, the archer, put a hand on Rosy's shoulder. "The Master looks young and probably is, but his strength is not in doubt."

"How? His aura seems strong, sure, but why is he alone? If I remember correctly, his level isn't even above 300."

"You saw how he withstood my attacks earlier," Jared added calmly, not sharing the girl's worries. "Trust me, there's way more to him than what he has shown so far. Even the clothes he walks around in are of Epic rarity."

"What?" Lorene questioned, her expression somewhere between a smirk and a grin. "I knew that jacket looked sturdy, not that it was that strong. The pants, too."

"It's not like that's the full extent of his aura, either," Jared continued. "The Runic Warlord personally came to visit him, so there's a reason he's keeping it exposed like that. We just have to trust in both of them."

Their conversation paused as the Master barrier mage left his invisible construct, quickly flying down and landing next to the driver. A few words were exchanged before the carts slowed down, surprising them enough to share glances.

"Probably monsters," Lorene spoke first, standing up from her place on top of the fifth cart to look around. "I don't see anything, though?"

All of them turned towards the Master mage when his armor suddenly reappeared from thin air, a glorious amount of mana coursing through its form. The armor's color changed and turned to lightning as the mage rose, flying up a few dozen meters before shooting off with a loud shockwave.

A small trail of fire was left in his wake, observable to the startled spectators. Within seconds, they are up and prepared for combat, tensely waiting for the monsters to show up.

A few moments passed, then some more. Nothing attacked them, and confusion reigned when the barrier mage simply returned to his invisible construct at the same impressive speed.

"What's happening?" Rosy asked, the most tense of the team.

"Hey, look up," the final team member, Asta, finally spoke up. All of them followed his gaze, only now realizing that there was a… thing visible high in the sky.

It looked like a spider with four legs, each balanced upon an unseen surface. The top reminded Jared of a stinger with its length, though a third of it looked like a box of metal.

"The hell is that…" Lorene began, only to trail off when they felt the mana being funneled into the construct. There was so much of it, Jared's breath got stuck in his throat when he noticed that the enchantments just kept guzzling down all of it.

A few seconds of that ridiculous display later, the cannon was almost glowing to the naked eye. Everyone watched in silence as nothing else happened for a few seconds, then the fire appeared.

Like an unending wave of red and yellow, a ridiculous amount of fire mana kept appearing in the small construct. All of it was visibly channeled to the middle of the wider part, where it was compressed into an orb that could be seen through the layers of enchantments and everything else.

"If that thing explodes…" Lorene chuckled and shook her head. "You're seeing the same thing, right?"

"Yep," Jared nodded once, dumbly staring at the ever-intensifying ball of fire in the cannon. "That's more mana than several of our team combined."

A threshold was reached at that point. Without prompting, the cannon fired a thin, condensed beam of pure flames. Stable and too uniform to break down easily, the attack covered hundreds of meters in a blink, landing somewhere far ahead of their carts with a thunderous impact. The cloud of fire that rose was easily visible despite the great distance, and Jared had to scramble to prepare his skills when the approaching shockwave became visible.

He shouldn't have worried. Out of nowhere, tall and transparent blue walls materialized around the carts, negating the approaching cloud of dust and force without any signs of strain.

****

Hot damn, Lev patted the still-intact cannon with a wide smile, resisting the urge to dance around like a kid.

That beam had been, by far, the coolest thing he had ever done.

It was like a dream come true. His inner child was doing backflips, and even the mighty hunter with a Wisdom Boost was smiling like a lunatic, just barely holding himself back from trying again.

Deep breaths, he thought, and acted on it. First, results. The attack was faster than my arrows, only a little slower than extremely overloaded lances. Damn, I can't even blame the cannon. Those lances are just that strong.

Speed is not a concern if I chain the attack with other things, so that gets a pass. As for potency and damage, I'll go check that out in a bit. Stability and range went beyond expectations. There was almost no loss during that.

The best way to deduce that was by how much the heat had increased in the surroundings. Lev doubted that the folks on the ground had felt anything, which meant that the current cannon utilized most of the mana without any leakage.

Other than that, it was a big success.

High on the accomplishment, Lev imbued lightning into his armor and quickly flew to the target of the beam. The large wall he had stabbed into the ground was completely destroyed, scattered chunks of the solidified mana slowly disintegrating.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

So, the attack is strong enough to shatter my fully powered wall, which is saying something.

The damage got a pass, too. It was unfortunate that, without more time to prepare and a better stage, he couldn't measure the limit of the beam. That wouldn't be so hard, as they had to stop to rest in a bit.

What stopped Lev from conducting any extensive testing was the sheer cost of firing the cannon. That singular shot had cost him nearly a third of his pool, and much of it had gone to simply keeping the cannon powered and stable. With the formation he had devised for actually shaping the fire, that side of the process was pretty efficient.

Already, his pool took longer than usual to fill up completely. As the designated guardian of the test run, he couldn't afford to be lax and waste mana anymore.

Returning to the bubble, his mind didn't even register the second-threshold core that had been wasted on the experiment. There were too many of those in the ring, and he rarely made use of them.

That's going to change now, though, he idly mused, sitting back down on his seat in the bubble. Can't test anything new with the hunters, however. Sparring is gonna remain tame, and I need to keep regenerating my mana during that.

Overall, the next hours passed in peaceful silence, interrupted only by the occasional gunshots. His revolvers were to blame, as each non-combatant now had one of them. Lev debated giving Galecannons to those who could handle the recoil, but held back. Once they made it to the stronghold location, the monster density would decide if he needed to resort to that.

When the suns dipped below the horizon, Lev landed next to Melvine. She took the hint and made the horses gradually slow down.

Given the weight of the cargo, it took minutes to stop the momentum and for the carts to come to a halt. Lev brought several light crystals and made poles for them, copying streetlights from Earth. The unassuming constructs were rather expensive, containing small mana crystals that absorbed tiny amounts of ambient mana to produce light.

Once a large area was illuminated, he nodded at the waiting teams and jumped off the first cart. A few dozen meters to the side, he formed a barrier platform spanning dozens of meters outwards, before enclosing it with high walls. An opening remained to allow everyone to enter, and with a small conversion of his mana, several enchanted spots were created for his flames to concentrate in, illuminating it all rather nicely under the dim light of the two moons.

The three teams followed curiously, not asking any questions. Once Lev was done making the stage thick and durable, he turned to them.

"Now, the rules are simple. You can either spar by yourselves or against me, and no one will aim to maim or kill. Clear?"

A chorus of agreements rang out, a few warriors straightening in anticipation. The mages were more subdued, not exactly sold on the reliability of hastily created barriers.

"Can I go against you first?" a warrior woman asked, holding a greataxe with tensed muscles.

[Warrior - Level 233]

"Sure," Lev said, creating a replica of Stargazer. A few hops later, he was in the center of the makeshift arena, a burst of fire illuminating the barriers even more without producing any heat. His control was improving rapidly, especially because of the constant practice with his orbs that was currently on pause.

The moment he nodded at her, the warrior exploded into motion. A stamina-powered enhancement was already running at full strength, and he could acutely feel how much pressure her steps put on the barrier ground.

Glaive and axe collided in a straightforward swing, the fighters testing out the waters. Neither weapon gave way since he was controlling his strength to match the woman's.

Disengaging, the women powered some enchantments on the axe before rushing in again. Her swing felt more dangerous this time, falling on him from above. Lev stepped back to dodge, then took another step when she reversed the swing without breaking a sweat.

Not bad, he thought, keeping an eye on her footing and muscles. I can't really tell what she's going to do next, probably because of my inexperience in facing humans.

Either way, it was a good opportunity for him to train. Holding the glaive's pole tightly, he waited until her next swing. It was wide, meant to bisect him, so he jumped. She couldn't alter the trajectory in time, allowing Lev to form a barrier platform under his foot and use it as leverage to dash at the woman.

She reacted with admirable speed, dropping her axe and punching the side of the glaive. Lev's kick almost smashed into her face, just barely dodged as she stumbled to the ground. Before he could push her, the axe flew back into her hand, firing a mana slash at him in the same motion.

The glaive blocked it with only a chip to show, which he fixed with a single thought.

"This is ridiculous," the woman laughed, her hair already damp with sweat. "I'm not weak, you know? All the people I've sparred with are proof of that."

"I can tell," Lev said, tilting his head slightly. "It's just that the gap between Adepts and Masters is simply that wide."

She shook her head and retook her stance. "I've faced Master mages, too."

A few minutes later, Lev was still facing her, giving the woman the chance to fight at full strength without a care in the world. Her kick smashed into his chest when he allowed it to, most of the resulting force absorbed by the plates.

She clicked her tongue and took a few steps back, letting her enhancements fade away.

"Good fight," she bowed her head. "Thank you for the opportunity and training."

Lev nodded, hiding his surprise. It felt nice to be recognized for his goodwill, though he would rather not get used to the feeling.

"Can I go next in a ranged battle?" the archer from Jared's team asked. He wondered if she knew what she was going up against, agreeing with the request regardless.

Waiting for her to reach a distant position, Lev himself slowly backtracked to do the same, wondering how best to approach the spar. There were plenty of options, as he was the strongest when fighting at range, though his musings paused as he noticed something interesting.

Wind.

That was an element he rarely saw amongst humans, for most people opted for the more destructive options. Wind also had its fair share of lethal uses, but it obviously fell short when compared with the ease and effectiveness of something like lightning.

Regardless, it was a very strong element that had a lot of utility to offer, such as the solidified arrows and the field of compressed air around the archer.

"Ready?" Lev asked, summoning a total of ten shields for himself.

"Yes," came the reply, accompanied by a large, barely visible arrow.

A shield moved on its own accord, guided by willpower that could somewhat reliably block Adept attacks. Granted, the arrow was faster than expected due to the element's speciality, putting a small hole in his shield as it penetrated at the cost of its rigidity.

The archer didn't wait to observe the result, quickly forming another arrow as tens of small wind blades flew at him. Inside the local field, Lev noted with interest how the compressed air empowered the projectiles instead of hampering them, improving their speed and cohesion.

Like a small domain of sorts, he summarized as his curiosity about the combination of skills only rose.

After dodging and blocking the barrage with his allotted shields, he idly noted that one of them had shattered as multiple arrows took form around him. The projectiles were fired at the opponent's extremities to avoid any deep injury, and he slowed his Perception as much as possible when they entered the field of compressed air.

Pressure descended on his arrows from every direction, opposing their velocity not directly but in a less controlled manner. No doubt, the archer had to constantly fill her field with mana, and given the widening of her eyes, Lev's arrows were way stronger than she expected.

Even then, all of them stopped dead before reaching her, at which point she immediately conceded the match, realizing just how outmatched she was.

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