“What a pain in the ass.”

While the explosion was able to knock me off my feet, it was only because I was surprised. I wasn’t injured or anything. Golem threw another sapling towards me. I answered by throwing my shield at it, causing it to explode without coming close to me.

“It detonates with the impact.”

I circled around the golem. My main goal was to see how often it could produce those saplings. After dodging two more saplings, I was able to calculate that it couldn’t just machine gun those saplings. Good. This wasn’t my first rodeo against poison users. Most bugs used some kind of toxin.

Two things mattered with poison: Potency and dose. I already knew its potency. However, if that dust filled the air, it could overload our resistances. What’s worse, it could fly to the barrier with the wind. Considering the barrier wasn’t airtight it could create a big problem. Maybe Lily could use winds to blow it away or Ama and Nocturna could purify it but I didn’t want to risk it.

“More the reason I should kill it quickly.”

I ran towards it. It moved its arms to smash me. Since it was slow, I was able to dodge and slash at it. Seeing what small damage I did heal in seconds was kind of disappointing.

“Annoying.”

I complained as I backed away. I had to use some resources if I wanted to kill it quickly.

Hmm. I have to one-shot it using a lot of mana. It shouldn’t be a problem. Gökbörü could share his mana with me. Even though his mana pool was smaller than mine, the fact that we could share mana basically meant that we recovered mana twice as fast.

Even though Arcane Overload was a problem with spending an immense amount of mana, I could take it. A small price for getting rid of this annoying mid-boss.

I felt Gökbörü’s mana flowing to me as I closed on the golem once again. I activated Armor Collapsing Claw once again at its full power and put more and more mana into my sword.

(Frost Booster is activated. Your weapons will be enchanted with ice element for 10 minutes. During that time your weapon’s power will increase by 5 percent. Enemies hit by ice element will slow down and may get frostbite if their resistance is low.)

Activating the option in my ring, purple ice crystals started to grow on my sword. Even though I used it against Valeria, its durability didn’t go down. Must be because it was in a dreamspace.

Maybe because now my mana was stronger or maybe because of the mana amplification on my sword, purple snowflakes fell around me. I was basically a walking purple blizzard.

I dodged golem’s arm and released the mana building up in my sword in one go, point blank using Mana Erupt.

“Holy shit.”

The impact was cataclysmic. An explosion of frost and splinters erupted from the point of impact, engulfing both us and the golem in a swirling vortex of destruction. The air grew frigid, and ice shards shot out in all directions. The golem let out a thunderous, agonized roar as it was overwhelmed by the sheer force of the attack.

I stood at the center of the chaos, my armor and cloak billowing in the icy gales. The once-formidable golem had been reduced to a shattered, splintered mess, its pieces scattered across the ground. I was fine as my armor blocked out most of the attack. Gökbörü popped his head from my chest plate and let out a soft growl.

Breathing heavily, I surveyed the aftermath of his attack. The wooden golem was no more, only its roots remained. My hands shook due to the force of my attack.

“My back.”

The after-effects of Mana Erupt were nothing to scoff at. I felt my body heal with Regeneration though I was too dizzy to move for some time. I probably spent around 60 to 70 percent of my maximum mana for that attack. I looked down and took a deep breath to get rid of my dizziness.

“Hold up.”

The ground beneath lost its color.

“Woof!”

I raised my head and saw the golem regenerating itself.

“This motherfucker…”

It was absorbing the nutrients from the ground to heal itself. I had to pull its root if I wanted to put an end to it!

I tried to lift my body and move but I fell down on my knees. Shit! I thought I could deal with the effects of Arcane Overload since I experienced it several times before! Maybe because the mana I spent was bigger than ever before, it was too severe.

I watched helplessly as it regenerated more and more.

“Fireball.”

I heard a familiar voice chant before the golem got struck by a fireball.

“Amaterasu!”

“Woof!”

Amaterasu walked with elegant yet confident and powerful steps. She wore a serious expression on her face.

“Mage Hand.”

Amaterasu lifted her right arm in the air. With her movement, the wooden golem was lifted in the air. I watched with my mouth agape as even its roots were pulled out of the ground.

“Fire Arrow.”

A dozen of fire arrows hit the golem and destroyed it completely. I looked down at Gökbörü and saw that his mouth was also open. We looked at each other and closed our mouths.

Damn. Arslan needs to be careful otherwise he is going to get destroyed.

“How is the barrier?”

I asked while trying to get up.

“Nocturna took over. She has more mana now. A story for later, perhaps?”

She was dead serious.

“A long one.”

She nodded.

“Morrigan is behind that wall fighting against the masked man. I am fine now. We have to join her.”

She got in front of me.

“Take a step back, Poyraz.”

I jumped back without arguing with her.

“Solar Flare.”

A blinding burst of intense light erupted from her, illuminating the entire area in a brilliant, golden radiance. The thorny vine barrier, unable to withstand the overwhelming power of this magical assault, began to disintegrate rapidly.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I squinted my eyes, my Enhanced Senses betraying me.

“How is your mana?”

I asked, worried about her spending too much.

“I have more than enough.”

She answered with a commanding presence. Damn. This was the first time I was seeing her go full out. She was powerful. How strong was Regal, the guy who defeated both her and Arslan?

“I will focus on protecting you if that’s okay. I have relatively good fire resistance and Gökbörü can cool me off. You focus on blasting that bastard.”

She nodded and I manifested another shield. Even though I wanted to get my hands on that Swamp Thing rip-off, it was more logical for me to protect Ama since her firepower was a direct counter to his plant magic.

With our plan in place, we advanced toward the heart of the battle. The first thing I saw was the blurry figure of Morrigan covered with blood and fur. She had only her black dagger and her normal dagger was nowhere to be seen.

She was fairly far away from him which told me she wasn’t having a lot of fun. Her only way of damaging him was melee combat but he could hurt her from a distance. The fact that he was this far away meant he was winning.

“Another misguided sheep.”

Man mocked Ama as soon as he saw her.

“I am no sheep. I am the Kitsune, here to punish you for your sins.”

He stumbled back a step. Why? He moved similarly before too. When was it? Hmm. It was when Morrigan mentioned her mentor. What was his name? Grandpa Adonis…

This feeling is…

“Fire Arrow!”

I had no time to analyze the situation as Ama released a dozen of fire arrows. Masked man stomped the ground and a wall of vines blocked the first half of the arrows. However, the remaining ones managed to hit him. He stumbled back. Morrigan capitalized on the opportunity and rushed forward. Her stance was so low that she moved more like a tiger than a human. She gripped her dagger with both of her hands. I noticed shadows rapidly gather along her dagger to form a longsword-like blade.

She pounced on the masked man like a cat and stabbed him right in the middle of his chest. A part of me wanted to say “Yes!” but I knew that it was too easy.

My fears came true as a red wave of energy pushed Morrigan back. The masked man doubled over while grabbing his chest. Black blood poured out of his wound.

“Greater Fireball.”

Amaterasu had no intention of giving him a second to rest as she threw a massive fireball as soon as Morrigan was out of her way.

“Spirit of Black Tortoise.”

I heard the man chant while holding his hand out. A semi-transplant tortoise as big as a car appeared in front of him, blocking Amaterasu’s attack.

“He can summon spirits? How?”

Amaterasu exclaimed in shock.

“Is there a problem?”

I asked not knowing what was wrong.

“The ability to summon spirits belongs to shamans! Someone as corrupt as him shouldn’t hav-“

Tortoise looked back at the man and let out what I could swear was a sad sigh. Then it disappeared in thin air.

“Perhaps he is tricking them somehow to summon for a short time.”

Considering the tortoise left as soon as it saw who it was summoned it was the only reason I could think of. But why did it let out such a sad sigh?

“It doesn’t matter.”

Morrigan hurridly said as she circled around the man. She got behind her and launched her attack on the man’s neck. But before the blade did so much as to touch the man, she was pushed back by a pair of wings. They looked similar to the wings of raven creatures he summoned before.

He slammed his staff on the ground. At first, nothing happened. However, just a second later ground beneath us started to shake.

“What now?”

This damn bastard! He was too tough.

“This feeling is…. Spatial disturbance! He is summoning something!”

Goddamnit again? I grabbed Amaterasu without saying anything as soon as I felt something rising from beneath us.

“This feels like the time we encountered the wurm!”

“That’s not possible! He can’t summon a dragonic subspecies! That’s just absurd!”

Amaterasu protested from my shoulder.

“I’ll also hope it is not a wurm.”

I don’t want to travel inside it again. After I carried Amaterasu away to a safer distance I looked back.

“You gotta be shiting me.”

Something big was coming out of the ground. First, the twisted horns, like sinister crescent moons, pierced the surface, casting an ominous shadow over the land. Then, a monstrous, segmented carapace emerged, each dark, jagged protrusion dripping with corrosive ichor.

“Behemoth…”

My encounter with behemoths before my death flashed in front of my eyes. This thing reminded me too much of those dammed anti-tank bugs Horde produced.

“Woof?”

Gökbörü must felt my feelings as he poked his head out my chestplate and nuzzled his head to my face.

“I am okay. Just remembering unpleasant memories.”

“He must be on his last legs.”

Morrigan landed beside us.

“Morrigan, you are…”

Amaterasu wanted to say something when she saw Morrigan’s condition but stopped.

Morrigan’s wounds were nothing bad but she looked drained to the bone. It had been more than 5 minutes yet she still had her transformation on.

“Summoning something big and controlling it must drain him. You guys kill or keep it busy while I kill him.”

Both Ama and I opened our mouths at the same time to protest and voice our concerns for her but feeling massive amounts of mana we only could look at the giant beetle. Massive amounts of mana were being focused on its maw.

I looked back and saw that the barrier was behind us.

“We have to block that!”

Amaterasu looked at the barrier and back to the creature.

“I’ll match with you. I’ll give it my best attack.”

My mana was fully replenished.