I skimmed a bit of HP off the top from each of the townsfolk, pushing my health back to full and turned back into my draconic form as I got up to stare at the legendary rarity, overgrown fire pigeon from the fourth layer. The orange-red bird burst into flames again, and this time, it took aim at some of the archers on the wall.

“Not on my watch!” I growled, rising up once again to meet it in the air.

The orange-red bird burst into flames again, before it swiftly turned my way.

…Was this thing doing this intentionally?

The Phoenix managed to get me last time because it pulled off Atria’s trick with the element of surprise, and there’s no way I am letting it do it again a second time! As I rushed towards it, I fired an arcane breath to attack its incorporeal form, fire form.

Seeing that, the phoenix spread apart around it, creating a hole for the arcane breath to pass through.

“Naïve!” I yelled, as I fired mana blades at its body, which was now spread thin.

It had no time to dodge or block!

Just as that thought crossed my mind, the phoenix suddenly grew massively in size, moving to envelop me rapidly.

I panicked and tried to fly backwards, only to be struck from the back by massive fireballs, launching me back into the phoenix’s embrace. The monstered cawed loudly, and the last thing I saw before its fiery embrace took me was the malicious grin glinting in its crimson eyes.

As soon as I was enveloped, I felt the heat rise dramatically, to the extent that it bypassed my magic-resistant scales. The flames turned white and rapidly began depleting my health.

I tried to claw my way out of the flames, but they more than matched me in strength. I then tried to fire a water breath, only for it to be vaporized before it even left my maw. Wind and arcane breaths were just as ineffective, leaving me trapped and helpless as the white-hot fire burned me.

Seeing that my defenses were being pierced and my attacks were ineffective, I transformed into Nisos’s form and tried to siphon health again from the others to buy time, but the rate at which I regained health was quickly being overwhelmed by the damage dealt. My hair and skin began to burn, and I felt my insides being cooked to a crisp.

I need to do something, and I need to do it now.

A foolish, desperate idea rushed to my head, and I began weaving mana into the shape of an intermediate-grade magic circle.

Apprentice-grade magic circles, which were a grade above the elementary-grade ones, were essentially just elementary-grade circles with an additional layer on the outside that connected to the borders of the inner circle, achieving more complicated effects. Intermediate-grade magic circles, meanwhile, were a collection of apprentice-grade and elementary-grade magic circles put together inside a larger magic circle, as well as commands of its own, making them work together to achieve one complicated effect.

I winced, as my skin began to bubble with funny looking burns. Trying to ignore the pain, I concentrated on finishing the circle.

For the intermediate-grade circle I was creating, I simply created three identical elementary-grade circles, haphazardly connected them with mana lines, and wrapped them together with a giant border. On the elementary-magic circles, I connected the words ‘water,’ ‘cold,’ ‘frost,’ ‘burst,’ and ‘now.’ I had no need for any kind of restrictions, so I didn’t create a second border around the elementary-grade magic circles.

I had lost my vision, and my health was now measured in the hundreds, but my spell was prepared, and I flooded it with as much mana as I could. The mana moved through the mana lines and quickly crashed into each other and the words, a clear sign of the circle failing.

I grinned.

With so many violent, energy-filled commands that had nowhere to go, the spell’s failure went explosive, and with it, a deafening explosion of frost blasted both me and the phoenix.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

***

Anbu Shullat

Just as the legendary, rank A monster enveloped Kiara, its flames burned so hot that they turned white, making the nearby archers on the walls wince at its brightness and heat.

“Kiara!” I yelled, trying to pry open the sphere with my mana manipulation as the Ionian and the Tameryian launched attacks at the sphere from a distance, though we were only met with failure.

It was as if we were toddlers trying to push against a troll, with the rank A monster being so comfortable in shrugging us off that it launched a fire breath at the wall while in fire sphere form.

A large earth wall rose from the ground to meet it, succeeding in stopping its momentum, but melting into lava in the process.

Thousands of flying monsters descended from the air, no longer having been occupied by Kiara, rushing to attack the archers.

“Shit!” Theos yelled, as many tiny earth shards flew towards the flying monsters. Many of them were cut down, but not nearly enough to stop them in their tracks.

“Archers, aim above!” Lord Heri commanded, and the archers aimed forward and towards the sky, where the monsters were coming.

Free of the barrage of arrows, the amphibious monsters began to rapidly close the distance towards the walls. I began looking around, desperate to find anyone or anything that might give us a solution to our predicament.

Nothing.

I turned grimly towards the horde, which was mere dozens of meters away, determined to slow as many of them as I could. Even if it may be a drop in the bucket, it might make Theo’s fight at the end of the kill zone a little less desperate.

Suddenly, a massive formation of frost burst from the sky, reaching into the ground and covering the dirt in ice.

You have killed a [Scorching Phoenix Lv. 42]!

3,796 EXP awarded!

Experience gain from kill split between combatants based on contribution.

Experience gain divided between [Divine Challenger] (100%) and [Tenacious Revolutionary] (0%)!

A titanic, hundred-meter-tall ice crystal had formed right on top of the charging monsters, swallowing thousands of them as it forced the rest to move around the massive structure, buying the archers enough time to bring down the last of the flyers before turning back to the coming horde.

A new wave of arrows flew towards the monster horde, and this time, many of them carried elemental powers as they struck down more of the monsters with significantly greater efficiency.

“Anbu, find Kiara and bring her back! I can heal her!” Lord Heri yelled from atop the walls.

I used mana perception to try to locate Kiara in the jagged ice crystal.

“It’s no use… I can’t see her!” I yelled back.

The entire ice structure gave off an intense wave of frost mana, flooding my vision. I’d need to climb over the ice and get in there to find her.

“I am going in to look for her. Cover me!” I yelled to Lord Heri as I dashed forward.

The elemental arrows and wooden shards flying at the horde began focus firing to open a path for me.

Taking the chance before it closed, I dashed through the horde and jumped towards the ice crystal.

Fortunately, I was fire-attributed, so I was uniquely suited to burning a foothold through the ice as I began to climb one step at a time. Nearly a minute into the climb, I was almost to the center of the ice, where it was thickest.

I had a hunch she was at the center of it all, so I began using what little mana I’d regenerated to burn through the ice.

I took a look back, and the monster horde was failing to make any progress. If anything, it was slowly being pushed back by the archers’ fire.

I turned back and kept burning through the ice, though I ended up only making it about a meter deep.

‘Damn it, I am out of mana…’

I cursed, glaring at the infernal magic ice.

I am not going to leave that girl to choke to death inside the frost – especially not after she dealt with the largest threats facing the entire town. I took a step back to stand at the edge of what was beginning to look like a cave of ice, then I stabbed with my spear-mace, shattering a few chunks of the ice.

‘I’ll get you out of there with my bare hands if I have to!’

Determined, I stabbed again and again, kicking out the chunks of ice that I broke as I desperately continued to search for Kiara with my mana perception.

***

‘…Is that Kiara?!’

Minutes after digging relentlessly, I saw a strange mana signature slightly above me and to the right.

Reinvigorated by the signature, I began to dig in its direction, and my hunch turned out to be correct. At the center of the ice was an incredibly complicated, five-meter-wide spherical magic construct made of frost mana. Once I’d broken a path towards it, the construct faded, dropping Kiara’s body in mid-air.

I rushed to catch her, as her staff and the phoenix’s body crashed to the side.

“Wait, what?!”

The wooden staff looked just fine, as if there wasn’t a single scratch on it, but the orb that was on top was missing entirely.

‘What kind of wood is that…?’

Shaking my head, I holstered my weapon and grabbed the staff. As I was about to head out, I took one last glance at the Phoenix.

It would’ve been a shame for Kiara not to get anything out of that fight, so I walked back towards the monster and ripped out the mana core from its chest, before putting it in my pocket.

‘If she wants the rest of its body, she can get it herself when the battle’s over. The ice is going to preserve it well.’ I thought as I carried her on my way back to the battle.