Julius could only shake his head as he sensed the barrier slam into place. He had attempted to stall the activation, but he was a second too late. However, during the little clash of wills, he was able to get a gauge of the opposing Tier 5's aura. From what Julius could glean from that small confrontation, the man wasn't as powerful as some of the other Tier 5s he had come across.

It felt less experienced and forged than a combat-focused Tier 5 should have. That led him to believe that this person focused on something other than pure fighting. The barrier was an example of this as well.

The one thing that Julius was worried about was the rumbling of the ceiling and the surrounding stone walls. He should have expected it, but they had literally walked into a space where the enemy could drop an entire mountain on top of them. He should have suspected something like this when he saw the delicately built stone architecture. There were obviously some earth mages around.

Many of the people who accompanied them were frightened by this sudden ambush. Some tried to attack the barrier, but they were just wasting their energy. The barrier wouldn't break under such attacks. Otherwise, Emil would have already broken it himself.

Speaking of Emil, the man was currently focused on keeping the ceiling from falling on top of them. He was constantly disrupting the earth mages' attempts and used his domain to smack aside any large stone slabs that made it through.

Some of the calmer ones, including the adventurer team, were helping Emil. They utilized telekinetic bursts and various abilities to support the ceiling and block falling debris. They understood that if they let the mountain fall on top of them, they would be finished.

Julius used his perception skill to see if he could sense anything. Unfortunately, the barrier had some kind of anti-spatial enchantments, and while it didn't completely block out his senses, he wasn't able to get as clear a picture.

What he was able to sense was the sudden appearance of a lot of people. It was like some kind of stealth had hidden them. Neither Julius nor Emil had sensed them. Julius wondered if they had been hiding deep in the stone walls with the help of someone's powerful skill.

The stone was hard to sense through, and he wanted to slap himself for not recognizing the danger when it was staring him in the face.

As Emil was delaying the ceiling from collapsing, he sensed this group of people approaching. However, what really caught his attention was the massive bear shaking the ground with each step.

This bear was ginormous, at least ten feet tall, and it wasn't even standing on its hind legs. It also had completely stark white fur. The huge monster's eyes were a cold, icy blue, but what had Julius scowling deeply was the beautiful suit of armor buckled around the bear's body.

The armor matched the fur of the bear; it was made of some white colored steel and rippled with blue pulses of mana with each step it took. The armor looked like a masterpiece of equipment and art.

What was even more worrying was the fact that this bear was easily Tier 5 and a powerful one at that. It definitely wasn't the same willpower he and Emil had clashed against moments earlier.

The man riding on top of the bear's back was likely the person who had activated the barrier and with whom Julius had clashed wills. The man certainly didn't look like a fighter. He was covered in enchanted armor from head to toe. The armor was just as beautiful as the bear's, but its elegance was ruined by the smug look on the Tier 5's face.

Right behind the massive bear were a large number of bandits, as well as around a dozen other bears. They were slightly smaller, only standing around eight feet instead of ten.

Julius was beginning to understand why they called themselves the Frost Bear Clan.

He heard Emil choking out a laugh upon seeing the bears. "Seriously? How much Blightfrost Steel did he use to make all of that armor?" He muttered under his breath.

Julius glanced over at Emil and was glad to see that the man didn't seem overly burdened from maintaining the ceiling's structural integrity yet. However, he was curious how long the chief could hold up when that massive bear made its move.

The enemy Tier 5 chose this moment to speak to them; his nasally voice echoed throughout the cavern. "I almost didn't catch that mark of yours. If it wasn't for the fact that I was warned, you might have caught us unprepared."

Julius frowned. What did the man mean by 'warned'? Did someone from the village betray them and tell the man?

He let out a sigh as the mark he had been feeling suddenly started to move toward them. Julius was half expecting the man to walk out of the crowd, but Julius was surprised when he saw the dead corpse of a man instead. His mark was still active, but the man was obviously dead, and they threw the body at their feet.

"Velton was an idiot, but he at least allowed us to drag you out of your little village, Emil," the boss stated mockingly toward the chief.

If the man was expecting a reaction from Julius or Emil, he didn't get one. This non-reaction seemed to annoy the man, and with a twitch of irritation, he leveled his arm and pointed at them.

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The bandits seemed to understand the command and began to prepare their attacks. They had the most aggravated smug looks on their faces as they looked at them. Many of them seemed to be aimed toward the ceiling. Since the barrier extended all the way up, they probably thought it was easier to bury them.

However, as they were busy doing this, Julius used [Void Step]. The giant mass of mana coming from all the bandits hid his disappearance from the Tier 5's senses for just a brief moment. It was barely a fraction of a second, but that small opening was enough.

Julius didn't get to truly appreciate the baffled look of surprise on all of the bandits' faces as he appeared right beside the Tier 5. He ripped a gauntlet created with aura-woven mana and channeled with [Void Strike] toward the man. The bear reacted faster than the man and leaned its rider out of the way of the attack, thinking it was targeting the man with the nasal tone. However, Julius wasn't targeting either of them, and his fist smashed into exactly where he was aiming.

At the long staff tied down on the bear's back.

Julius had quickly realized the barrier felt familiar to the one he had dealt with at the bandit camp; thus, he was pretty confident that he could teleport out of it. He also knew that the barrier likely relied on a magical focus. Therefore, he knew what his target was, and that was all he needed.

Neither the bear nor the man was swift enough to understand Julius's actual target. His fist made contact with the staff, and he made sure to use his aura to pummel the enchantments of the pole, ripping them apart.

The pole was much more resistant than the rod from before, but he used more kinetic energy than his body could typically handle and managed to increase his output just enough to shatter the pole. The result of the broken item was immediately apparent. The barrier flickered for a brief moment before it blinked out of existence.

The mana that was being fueled through it backfired, and a loud explosion blasted outward from the perimeter of the barrier, shaking the cave even more.

Thankfully, he was just in time because the Tier 5 had finally reacted to what Julius was doing and swung his armored forearm into Julius's chest. He barely had enough time to teleport away using a [Void Step], but still got clipped on the side.

When he reappeared, his fist that he had used to destroy the pole was a mess. The bones were all over the place, but he nodded to himself in satisfaction. His improvement in kinetic energy was already showing. If this were a month ago, his fist would have burst into a fine red mist from all of that kinetic energy.

The fact that it was somewhat intact was a testament to his work and effort.

The side that was hit by the Tier 5 was a little worse. There was some kind of insidious mana leeching into his body from when it made contact. It was already slowing down his movements and reactions. However, it wasn't anything a good surge of [Phoenix Renewal] couldn't handle.

He healed all of his wounds in an instant, and before the bandits could start to react, he was already tearing into them.

Another [Void Step] had him in front of an older Tier 4, one of the more powerful auras he had sensed from the bandits. The man reacted quickly to Julius's sudden attack and was preparing a thrust with his sword.

Julius was already two steps ahead, though. He had splintered a small needle from his aura-woven gauntlet and sent it blistering toward the man, forcing his opponent to either dodge or block it.

As he was doing this, Julius clamped down on the man with his aura and kinetic energy. His skills, Concepts, Emblem, and willpower fueled this attack with savage intensity. He barely felt any resistance from the Tier 4, and the needle that had a faint glimmer of spatial ripples from [Void Strike] pierced the man's defenses without any issue.

The days when he had a hard time penetrating Tier 4's defenses were gone. However, it was unfortunate that the man had managed to move just a couple of inches, enough to survive the needle.

That being said, it wasn't enough to stop the fist that crashed into the Tier 4. [Void Strike] completely eviscerated the Tier 4's lower jaw, spraying blood everywhere as half of his face was gone in an instant.

Julius didn't stay to admire his work, though. He was already on the move and attacking the nearest Tier 4. He didn't know if the man was shocked at seeing his comrade go down so easily, but he was even less prepared for Julius's attack.

It only took a slight squeeze of kinetic energy to freeze the man. Julius didn't even bother to use [Void Strike] with as much power, just barely enough to give him that extra offensive boost. He remolded the gauntlet so that it resembled the end of a spiked battle mace and blasted the poor bandit in the face. He compensated for his lessened [Void Strike] with even more kinetic energy, and the bones of his hand got crushed into several pieces under the intense pressure.

However, the Tier 4 got the worst end of the deal. His head exploded like an overinflated balloon. Julius was forced to dodge using another [Void Step] to avoid the dozen attacks that smothered his position and then had to use a small barrier to deflect a sudden blast of pure mana from the Tier 5 who had somehow tracked him and who just had that fast a reaction time.

The barrier was barely enough to give him time to slip aside, but he found himself face to face with the gigantic alpha bear, whose claws, covered in Blightfrost Steel, tore at his face. He didn't have time to teleport and was forced to block with his arm. The gauntlet on his arm melted down his forearm and took the brunt of the attack.

However, it was not enough. Not even close. The bear's overwhelming strength felt like a literal mountain pressing on him, and Julius was forced to use the bear's power against it to send himself blasting away, trying to get as much distance from the fucking massive bear as possible.

He slammed through several bandits along his way and killed some of the weaker ones instantly before slamming into the wall with a ferocious bang. He wasn't able to absorb all of the kinetic energy from the attack and groaned as he felt his spine shatter into dust.

He didn't have time to recover as another terrifying beam of mana was heading right at his face. He was forced to [Void Step] out of the gaping hole he was blasted into, but found another salvo of attacks soaring at him.

However, right as he was about to teleport away, he sensed an explosion of mana, and Emil appeared right in front of him. A single swing of the enormous warhammer in Emil's hands wiped out the attacks in a loud shockwave of rock and dust.

Julius noticed a large grin on Emil's face as the chief glanced back at him. "Wonderfully done! Let me take care of the Tier 5. If you can, focus on the rest of them. How does that sound?" Julius wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but it almost seemed like Emil was excited or something. Something that he couldn't help but admire.

Julius threw back a mirthful grin of his own as he healed himself back to perfect health.

"Sounds like fun," he chuckled out and narrowed his eyes toward the bandits, who were suddenly hesitant, unlike their previous arrogant attitudes when they had all of them trapped.

In just one attack, the momentum had changed back to them. Now the real battle would begin.

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