I bursted out of the Steel Dome that Qin Yue used to protect us from some asshole that was throwing lightning from the sky. Feng Liu wasn’t particularly keen on me doing this, and even wondered if there really was someone in the clouds, but, I mean, duh, just by looking over at that other crazy woman with the Darkness and Hellfire Magic being hit by a bunch of lightning at the same time kinda made it obvious that someone was doing that on purpose.

Though, I could understand why he was doubting it. If there was a mage powerful enough to control the weather and not only use lightning but also cause a storm, then we’d be in really, really deep trouble.

The reason why I was so confident after flying out of the dome and up to the rainy sky was that I could sense the magic and the mage doing it. It was strong, but not that strong, so it was likely that the rain and all of these dense clouds are nothing more than a coincidence that whoever’s up used as an opportunity to attack us.

That was probably also how they managed to find us, since those stupid knights from Leyfall insist on wearing shiny golden armors in the middle of a jungle, and with just a glance from up here, it was easy to pinpoint us and aim those Holy Magic artillery strikes on where the general army was.

Those Holy Artillery Strikes are amazing if you ask me. Almost nobody has the required amount of magic power to shoot that much or even empower that many things… save for maybe that elf bitch that we met before…

I would rather not waste time fighting someone in the sky and go directly to her, but I’m sure that by the time I’m done here, I would have enough time to join Feng Liu and Qin Yue to give that bitch the punishment that she deserves.

Still, these goddamned clouds in the middle of the night were making it kinda hard to find the asshole around here. I could perfectly sense him not too far away from me, but I couldn’t properly see him.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just force him out.

By making my magic power swirl around me, I managed to do what this person was doing, and with the help of the clouds, I was able to create a few lighting chains all around me.

“Come on oooouuut,” I teasingly said, just like a mother playing with a child.

In one quick motion of my arm, all the bright lightning around me swirled and shot in the direction of where I was sensing the magic. They illuminated the clouds, and at the back of it all, they hit someone. I couldn’t exactly tell who it was, but from the silhouette alone, it seemed like a man.

I could also see that a blue mana barrier activated as soon as the lightning was about to hit him, which would’ve been impressive if I had actually tried to fry whoever was there. Still, I really didn’t want to play games with him, so I called out to him.

“Gonna stay hiding the whole time? Afraid to approach a girl like me?” I teasingly asked, pouting my lips and placing a finger on my cheek as I tilted my head to the side. “Am I really going to have to hunt you down? Awh… Are you one of those men?”

Immediately after teasing, a wave of… really weak mana washed over me from the man’s place. I didn’t even bother defending against it ‘cause I already knew what he was doing, which was…

“Don’t mock me, infidel…” the man said with a groggy, tired tone of voice and a near whisper. Not at all what I was expecting. “Can’t you see that this is the will of the Holy Gods?”

He used a magic spell to talk to me directly. I mean… I could understand not wanting to shout in the middle of the rainy clouds, the winds, and the lightning, but I wasn’t that far away, and I didn’t see a point in wasting your mana to do this. However… This was one of those crazy religious people, so no wonder he’d do something so silly.

Still, if he wanted to spend his mana just to talk, then I wouldn’t stop him. “Man, what compels people like you to join these sorts of things? Can’t you see it’s all bullshit?”

“It’s not,” he said, not at all riled up by my taunt. “These clouds… the rain… even the lightning”—a lightning bolt traveled through the clouds as if commanded by him a long distance behind him—“they are all the will of our Holy Gods. Ouzus gifted these clouds to me just so I could claim victory for Him and Them.”

“Ugh,” I replied with disgust and my tongue out, nearly sagging my shoulders. “I’m so sick and tired of this shit. I don’t care about you, your Gods, or whatever cult nonsense you’re trying to peddle. If you’re going to get in the way of me killing the bitch that attacked us, then I’m going to do to you what I’m going to do to her, and then do it to her.”

This guy may be able to fly through the clouds, and even use lightning, but he probably doesn’t know that I’m an S- ranked mage, and the best in my class when it comes to magic sense and magic manipulation—both of those things being in the S rank skills as well. In contrast, I don’t think that this guy is even in the system. If he knows how to do magic, it’s probably some made-up spell that he figured out in the middle of the hills.

And to prove it to him, I was going to use that magic field he used to talk to me—a really big blunder on his part, since… I stretched my right hand forward, and condensed the magic field he summoned into a path directly to him. Within that same split second that I did that, I simply ignited the whole thing into my Burning Fields of Fire—S ranked skill.

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The air from my palm to wherever that guy was suddenly burned in a bright orange flame, which was followed by a booming shockwave from the mana itself being released after being compressed into that path. If that guy was good at all, then he’d survive that, but if he wasn’t then… Good riddance, I guess?

I watched for a moment to see if a body dropped, or if anything expensive fell from his charred body, but I was quickly attacked back by a lightning that traveled inside the same mana field that I had compressed, going straight for my hand. It singed me slightly, causing me to retrieve it, but it only hurt me to the point where it would at best just feel like a small prickle on my skin.

I struggled to handle this lightning, however, slowly getting in control of it, just to lose it and cause the lightning to fly into the clouds.

He didn’t manage to harm me, but… I still lost when it came to control. He might be a bit stronger than I was giving him credit for.

I was also getting tired of staring into the clouds. Getting rid of them wasn’t going to be easy since these clouds stretched from some mountains to all the way to the horizon, and while I might be strong, I wasn’t strong enough yet to manipulate something like this. Still, if I could clear away the clouds around us for a moment, then no doubt it would be enough time to kill this bastard.

By gathering enough mana in my hands and quickly expanding it to cover the whole area around us, I turned the mana into a mix of both water and air, and with it, pushed away the clouds that were surrounding us.

This wasn't a proper system skill… but it would be registered once I was done here.

Powerful gusts of wind spread in every direction, like a bomb going off without the explosion in the sky, until the light of the moon finally pierced through, making it possible for me to clearly see who I was facing.

The man flying in the distance—just by the edge of the clearing I just created—looked no different than… a homeless man you’d find in some random city of America. He had long brown hair, messily swaying in the wind, which looked like it had never been combed. His skin was pale, but unlike my porcelain-like skin, his looked like someone that hardly ever got sunlight or any sort of care.

This guy had a rather scrawny look, especially when I paid attention to the sunken cheeks, messy brown beard, and the tired look with heavy eyebags. Still, despite being in the middle of a battlefield, facing someone like me, his expression was just like someone who got woken up to deal with a boring issue.

“What’s with that look?” I asked with a frown of my own. “Aren't you afraid to die here?”

“What is there to fear?” he answered back almost immediately. He wasn’t using magic to amplify his voice this time, but I was trained enough to hear him. “The Holy Gods are looking after us. Victory is more than assured.”

I scoffed while shaking my head in disappointment. “If you keep believing in that, you’ll just end up at the bottom of a ditch. Or what? Are you going to say that if you lose that ‘that is just their will’?”

“Their will is for me to win,” he replied, and soon after, the clouds that were behind him moved, like tendrils trying to grasp something, covering his figure once more.

Though, why would I just let him do that? Might as well interrupt him, so with a swipe of my arm, a Master’s Wind Blade—A ranked—flew from my arm, covering the distance in the blink of an eye, and splitting the clouds that were trying to hide him. The blade kept going past him, cutting the clouds and revealing him, but the middle of my spell simply crashed with a barrier, leaving the guy with a nonplussed expression.

What was his deal? Why would he keep looking at me like I wasn’t a threat or anything like that? Was I just being too nice? Well, maybe I should stop teasing this asshole and show him what’s good.

I gathered my mana inside of my body, the Runic Tattoos in my body helping me in feeling the path of my magic as I willed it to become what I wished. I lifted one hand to the sky, and the mana transferred from my body to over my head. Blue motes of magic turned into orange and rearranged over me, creating what appeared to be a sun, illuminating everything around me with an orange glow.

And yet… this guy just looked at it like it wasn’t a big deal! Doesn’t he know that this is a Meteor? One of the most powerful S rank skills you could learn?

If he was just going to eat it and die like that, then I wasn’t going to complain. Easier for me and everyone else.

The orange ball above solidified into a red flaming rock, the heat radiating from it causing the water droplets that were still hanging on me to turn to steam, and the clouds around to move even further away.

I brought my hand down, and the Meteor barreled to the guy, leaving chunks of flaming rocks behind as it fell.

This man didn’t move. Looking at it with the same tired expression he’d carried the whole time. But just when I thought he was going to allow it to hit him, the clouds all around him suddenly stirred, as if a tornado was being summoned, and I realized, the guy hadn’t been idly standing by, he was casting a spell of his own, only that the magic was being directed to his back and away from me, making it harder to sense.

The tornado that he created enveloped him right before my Meteor hit him. It exploded soon after, sending chucks of flaming rocks everywhere. I pointed a finger at the explosion and took control of those rocks, swirling them in the air, before propelling them down on the guy again, trying to batter him up like a rain of rocks, but the tornado was able to push them away.

Slowly, I realized that the tornado was taking shape. It appeared like a tornado-like arm was swatting away the flaming rocks of the Meteor, while another arm just like it formed to the side, pushing away the rocks that I was picking up and flinging once more. Eventually, a head made out of a turbulent cloud appeared on top of the tornado, while the bottom remained just like a tornado that was about to touch the ground.

Did he turn himself into that? It was an interesting way to control a summon. I might not have seen anyone try that one before, but I could tell that it wasn’t just a spell. He summoned a Wind Mana Beast to cover him, one that had a pair of blue lightning-like eyes open once it was fully formed.

With a thunderous roar, wind blasts exploded from the summon, and the rocks I was pelting it with turned to dust.

A shame, really. It took a bit of mana to create that Meteor, but… I had to admit that the skill was mostly a thing for show, used on enemies that were slow or didn’t know what was coming. I’d have to try something a bit more serious if I wanted to deal with this guy.

Though, I was amazed to see that someone from his place knew a bit more than just lightning skills, and it seemed like he was also pretty good with defensive skills. I sighed and sagged my shoulders. I didn’t want to… but I might have to get closer and use other combat skills like Shen Xi used to do… which was going to be a pain in the ass.

I looked ahead once more at the large tornado-like summon, and with a sharp intake of breath, I gathered my mana once more. With the amount of time I’d spent already up here, there was a chance that the people down below were going to get worried, and they might think I needed help. No chance. I wasn't going to waste more time.