Never mind, I should stay here to take advantage of the monster being distracted by the rest of the group. I let my sword rest, and raised my arm, aiming for the eye.

A tiny beam of light formed, it shot towards the monster. The beam of light connected, the monster holding its eye in pain.

Since there was an opening, I gripped my sword and bolted to its location. When I got close enough I jumped on its back and plunged my sword into the open wound. I began moving it around, pulling the sword out only to end stabbing it again.

I continued my actions since it was too busy recoiling in pain. The injuries had caught up as there was a dip on its performance. The spells and arrows were able to deal more damage due to the period of vulnerability.

I carefully jumped off, making sure my landing was safe. I hated the thought of breaking a bone. I safely landed, my body being fine.

All of a sudden influx of icicles surrounded the monster as it roared, even though it struggled with the pain it still managed to have enough mana for this spell.

My eyes scanned the icicles, counting a total of forty two, each varying in sizes. The spell was definitely its trump card, the mana consumption would be too high for a monster of this level, which meant it was a last resort attack.

To make matters worse the time it takes to gather the sufficient amount of mana is low, the spell was able to be launched any second. This was a terrible position to be in, I had just finished jumping out of the monster.

Immediately I grabbed the nearest person, Rona. Since she was part of the frontline, she was going to sustain the most damages if the spell was used.

I yanked her by the collar, definitely hurting her as she groaned. However there was no time to treat her with care. I threw her behind me with enough strength to send her right where I was previously.

The sound of ice breaking could be heard behind it, indicating how I missed. Nevertheless the result is the same, she’s protected by the wall. She’s only going to be a liability if I keep her around.

I slammed my hands on the ground. An ice wall formed around me, my surroundings went black due to the wall protecting me.

Then I proceeded to use another barrier, however it took some time to cast. In the time, my ice wall was immediately broken by the icicles.

The attack had begun.

Luckily this bought me enough time. I finally finished the cast time, but because I prioritized casting time, the spell was far from the actual spell.

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A single purple petal.

The barrier in front of me was a single purple petal. My arms stretched out to support the barrier, a requirement to keep it up, all because of the lack of preparation

Each icicle broke with the immediate impact of touching the barrier. I, however, knew this wasn’t the real attack. To my expectation an icicle the size of a spear was coming in my direction.

You would think it would be no problem yet the opposite occurred. It connected with my barrier, cracks began forming on the petal.

There was no way of escaping this. Let’s say I decided to run away, the other icicles would just pierce me to death. I had to either evade this spell or be forced to receive damages. The barrier had to be kept up so I had no choice but the latter.

The icicle broke through my barrier. The high speed it was approaching was nothing to scoff at. I attempted to evade it, taking some steps back and attempted to cut it with my sword.

“—!”

“Ghk—!

Pain.

A sharp pain in my thigh made me stumble to one knee. The throbbing was like fire burning my body. My muscles tensed as I struggled to remove the icicle. I coughed, I no longer felt any coldness instead my body burned.

Fuck it got my leg.

You are smarter than I expected, you piece of shit.

The spell ultimately pierced my leg, rendering me imobile. Even with this I still let my hand rest on the ground as I put another barrier. Another single petal, this time being a blue flower petal.

I protect myself from the incoming spells which if ignored, the penalty would be death. The rest of the icicle weren’t on the same level yet the barrier couldn’t keep up, cracks once again appeared.

“Haaah.”

I let one of my hands soak on my leg, my red hand was then placed on the ground. I proceeded to do the same with my other one, and just when I was ready to counter attack, the attacks stopped.

One by one each spell exploded, leaving the monster with no way of attacking. This surprised the monster as it was left frozen, unsure of its next action. Unfortunately I couldn’t seize the chance, the best I could do is wait or attempt to retreat.

Suddenly, I saw a figure run past me at great speeds. The slash of a sword cut the monster's finger, blood gushing out then dripped. Next was the same finger but from the other hand.

Before the monster could react, it was cut in half. The monster roared a final time as it collapsed into the group, its body twitching. Its body finally turned into a mana stone, not an unrefined one.

I barely dodged getting crushed by a sudden increase of speed. It was extremely helpful so I thank whoever helped me.

A bleeding girl stood with a sword in her hand and the other a mana stone. Her head bled, her lip cut. She let her sword drop, a thud echoing. Her brown hair swayed as she leaned against a wall, her hand on her head.

“Ugh…it’s over,” she said, short of breath.