I turned my attention over to the clouds, where a meteor exploded a while ago and a Storm Summon appeared. How Hana hadn’t dealt with whatever was up there was quite surprising, because that meant that there was someone with a bit of power flying up there, or... that she wasn't taking it seriously. However, it wasn’t the only summon on the battlefield. I turned to look down some distance away at the Earth Summon slamming the ground and being slammed by that Beastkin Woman, Reeta.
“Hm…” I pondered with my eyes going from one side to the other.
I wasn’t completely sure of where to go. I didn’t want to have a repeat of what happened back home and lose someone important that was working with me… but between Hana and Reeta, I would much rather make sure that everything was fine with Hana instead, regardless of how good looking Reeta was.
“I’ll go support Hana,” I eventually said to Qin Yue, who was flying not too far away from me.
Qin Yue didn’t turn her eyes to me as she simply nodded in response. “I’ll handle that Earth Summon.”
“Are you sure? It might be a better idea to support Hana, make sure that everything goes fine with her and then come down here and deal with whoever’s behind that summon with our full force,” I suggested, my eyes on Qin Yue, trying to find out what she was thinking from what little expressions she usually did.
But her face remained just as emotionless as usual while shaking her head. “That wouldn’t be necessary.” After saying that, Steel Swords were summoned to her back, making it look like she had silver wings. “You know that Earth Magic and all of its variants are my specialty. I’ll take care of this Earth Mage.”
“Well… if you say so,” I replied. There was no way for me to change her mind if she was so determined to do this. “I’ll go support Hana, then. You’ll be okay on your own, right?”
She nodded and then threw me a rather unexpected glare. “Of course I will. Besides, I’ll be with that voluptuous woman that you like so much.”
“Huh?” I asked back, quite confused about what she just said.
“Hmph!” she exclaimed, looking away from me as she turned a serious face once more. “Get going already.”
Without waiting for me to say anything, she boomed from her position, flying over the treetops as she went directly to the giant Earth Summon that was throwing rocks at the air, and sending trees flying all over the place. I couldn’t understand what that last thing was all about, but as long as she was giving it her all for this mission, then I could leave it for later.
Lightning illuminated the rainy night, and my attention was brought once more over to the clouds, where the Storm Summon was swinging its arms and lightning was popping out of them, directed at Hana’s figure.
I shook my head to remove the confusion from Qin Yue’s words, and with a booming flying spell of my own, I flew at full speed over to the clouds. The rain, and the height that I was gaining quickly dropped the temperature around me, but being someone with high magic power, I didn’t have to worry about the cold, since with a bit of a magical aura, I should be able to keep the natural elements away from me.
When I was about to get close to Hana, she used a powerful wind spell, causing the Storm Summon to fall back slightly and to lose itself into the clouds that were behind it. Not a good move, now she wouldn’t be able to see where it went…
“Why’d you do that?” I asked right after stopping a certain distance away from her.
“Why are you here?” she asked back with her usual raspy tone of voice and a frown. “I don’t need your help.”
“Maybe. But we didn’t come here to play. We’re here to get rid of that ‘Holy Hero’, Eletha,” I replied, and readied my equipment.
I was about to summon my weaponry, but Hana stretched her hand to the side, signaling me to stop, so I just raised an eyebrow and waited for her to say why that was. Surely it wasn’t for some childish reason like ‘I can take it on my own’ or ‘I don’t need your help’.
“I don’t need your help,” She said and my cheek twitched. “I can take it on my own.”
“Ghk!” I nearly let out a mock. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or to get angry about it, but with a sigh, I simply crossed my arms and looked at her. “Okay… fine. I’ll give you a few minutes, and if you’re not done with this by then, I’ll take care of it.”
“It won’t come to that,” she quickly replied and around her left arm, a current of lightning started spiraling.
From beyond the clouds where the Storm Summon was lost, a current of powerful air was pushed out, with a few chained lightning striking all over that current. In a second, it made its way to where we were, particularly to me. There was no need to avoid such a weak skill, so I stood in place but a pale blue barrier was summoned to my front. With an eyebrow raised, I looked over at Hana. She had blocked it.
“Don’t bother attacking this guy!” she shouted at the clouds. “You’re fighting me!”
She quickly turned her arm to the clouds, and the lightning that was running all over it was shot forward. A blinding blue light illuminated the clouds and I could see both the figure of the Storm Summon and the person flying inside for a second. It looked like that person was also quite calm about this fight… as they had their arms in their pockets. They were either very confident about this, or Hana had been going really easy.
“Why are you wasting so much time with this? This person is clearly not worried about you,” I said, slightly cocking my head to the side.
“It’s not as easy as you think,” Hana replied, nearly grinding her teeth. “Those clouds are so dense.”
“Then just get rid of them?” I replied, still not quite understanding why she was having such a hard time.
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“Grr…” she growled, and after a moment, a lot of Magic Power was gathered in her body.
The tattoos that covered her body glowed in a bright blue light, and the air around her was heated. I could even see the air shaking with the powerful amount of mana she was moving, and the clouds started moving apart, allowing more moonlight to shine down on us and even the jungle below.
However, it seemed like her foe also noticed what was going on, and instead of allowing the clouds to be cleared, they started creating even more clouds. They were dark, with non-stop lightning going from one place to another. It seemed like this person was indeed quite strong, since I knew very few people that could counter Hana’s magic at all.
I uncrossed my arms and reached my hand to the side. I had to be ready. I was still going to allow Hana to fight, but only until the point where she wasn’t getting hurt.
“Fuck you,” Hana said with a spiteful whisper, aimed her hands forward, and from her palms, a bright blue beam was fired.
It was a condensed beam of pure mana. I would’ve rather she used a particular element to counter the storm, but she was a master of mana, so I wasn’t going to question it.
The beam crossed the air in a second, clearing away the dark clouds that were forming, as lightning hit the beam, trying to destroy it, but they weren’t nearly powerful enough to make it lose even the speed at which it was flying. The light from the mana beam allowed me to look into the cloud, and the figure of whoever she was fighting started desperately moving once they realized that this wasn’t a simple mana beam.
Hana was also able to see that person move—and even if she couldn’t, just with her mana sense, she should be able to easily track the person in the clouds.
After a couple of seconds, the figure in the clouds dodged away, but only stopped at the distance that would assure them that the beam would simply pass by them.
A mistake.
Hana quickly changed the direction of the beam, and like a snake, the beam’s front turned to follow after the person inside the Storm Summon.
They didn’t have time to react, and in their desperate attempt to move away, they were forced to block by raising the arms to the front, a move that the Storm Summon matched right before the beam crashed with them.
An explosion of pure mana illuminated the sky, making it seem like a blue moon bloomed in the middle of the clouds, pushing them away to leave a wide clearing of the rainy clouds. The lands under us, where soldiers shot at each other, and knights clashed their weapons were also brightly illuminated by this mana moon.
After a couple of seconds, from the left side of the explosion, a steaming figure could be seen flying away. Whoever that person was, seemed to still be alive, and it appeared like they wanted to run away.
“Oh no, you won’t!” Hana exclaimed, summoning large and wide spikes of rocks all around her, which were then set on fire, with a few lightning bolts running all over them.
With a burst of speed, Hana flew after the figure, and I followed after her—just to make sure that everything was fine.
Hana swiped her hands, and each fiery rock spike flew from her sides, breaking the air as they followed the figure. These spikes were fast, and even despite that, Hana also forced them to fire Mana Bullets from the front of the spikes, making it look like she summoned drones, all of them firing bullets at her target.
The person they were shooting at nimbly dodged from one side to the other, and while doing so, the Storm Summon that had been greatly reduced started forming once more. It wasn’t quite as large as the clouds that it was surrounded by before, but there was no way that they were going to survive if they allowed themselves to be pelted by Hana like this.
With expectations and my hand to the side, I watched, ready to see if there was something that this person could do, but the first Fiery Spike closed in on them, and exploded. Fire, lightning, and rocks exploded in every direction. It wasn’t quite as powerful as the moon that Hana used before, but in this case, each spike was falling one after the other, creating the same kind of explosion in the air.
I relaxed my hand. Hana was overwhelming, as usual. But it was quite disappointing that I didn’t have a chance to do anything about it.
However, it was then that I felt a strange magic coming from the person in the Storm Summon. I had felt it before in the last few days, and I would’ve been confused otherwise if I hadn’t.
“Soul Magic?!” Hana exclaimed, freezing momentarily in the air. “Here?! There’s no fuckin’ way that someone else is able to use that kind of magic!”
But it was indeed like that. I could also sense it just the same as that skeleton that Althea Sanctus carried everywhere. This could mean trouble for us…
I finally relented and summoned to my hand my weapon of choice. I had a few to pick from, but this one was the best.
A cannon-like metallic weapon appeared on my arm, about the same size as my body. It was glossy black, reflecting the moonlight on it, with a just as shiny spike protruding from a hole at the front. It was a piledriver.
“I don’t need your help with this! We’ve seen what that stupid skeleton does and—”
“We’re not taking our chances here. We thought that that Eletha girl wasn’t a problem, and Shen Xi paid for it—No, we’re ending this right now,” I interrupted and lifted my weapon to aim it at the explosion of elements from which Soul Magic was being used.
“Tch,” Hana clicked her tongue and turned her attention back to our foe. She gathered just as much magic as she did before, with her tattoos glowing the same. It was good to see that she wasn’t going to take any chances either.
The explosions cleared, and inside, a figure made out of gray clouds was forming. The person from before was nowhere to be seen. The figure wasn't bigger than a normal human being, but the power coming out of them was something that could go well beyond the normal S ranks. We couldn’t allow it to finish forming. I clicked on my weapon’s trigger, and the spike fired.
Faster than Hana’s mana beam, and faster than any lightning, the spike flew through the air, leaving a white streak. In that same moment that it was fired, it pierced right through the person that I shot it at.
Nobody could block it, and hardly anyone could possibly survive it if they were directly hit by it. This wasn’t going to be the first one. Though, it was surprising to see that this figure managed to block it with their arms. But it was only for just the blink of an eye, as the spike pushed them away, and into the horizon, where they crashed with one of the many mountains there were in this country.
An explosion of a bright white pillar followed, like a tower rising in the horizon, which then disappeared after that moment passed.
“I think he’s dead now,” I said and sighed while shaking my head. “I feel like I just wasted my life’s savings… but there was no way I was going to take a chance with that person.”
The spike, like the weapon itself, was made out of a magical metal that only started appearing in this world when the people from the other world appeared here. We called it Arretium, and it was capable of increasing magic and magic power several times. That spike was as pure as one could possibly want it, so the amount of power I delivered on top of that person was enough to wipe out any S rank fighter in the world.
I unsummoned the smoking piledriver and focused my attention once more on the mountain, trying to sense if, by some miracle, they survived.
“Arhg, you killed him,” Hana said, the sides of her mouth pulled down in a frown.
“Certain about that?” I asked without removing my eyes from the point of impact.
“Yeap. His magic was wavering until he hit to the top of that mountain, where it lasted for a second longer once it exploded and then it poofed, just like a Red Zone monster,” she replied with a nod.
I would much rather prefer going over to the place of impact just to make sure, but I had to trust her. If she said that the guy was dead, then he was probably dead. So I turned my eyes down. We still had more to deal with. “Then let's join everyone else and find the one we came here for.”
Having dealt with this, we flew back down to the jungle, the sky half-clear and my determination to get this done as strong as ever, especially after using one of my spikes.
We weren’t going to fail.