The bear was already on top of Emil, lashing out with powerful swipes of its arms. Thankfully, the chief no longer had to focus on keeping the ceiling from collapsing on their heads. Since the barrier was no longer up, the bandits must have decided that collapsing the ceiling wasn't as viable a strategy since they were now at risk of getting hurt as well. This freed up Emil to fight the Tier 5 and the man's gigantic bear without too many distractions.

Of course, some earth mages were still dropping the occasional spike of earth from the top of the cavern, but Emil and the other Tier 4s from the village were handling them. It wasn't exactly hard to spot a massive boulder falling from the sky.

Since Emil was kind enough to distract the Tier 5, this allowed Julius to go on a rampage of his own. There were a lot of bandits, and while most of them were Tier 3, a good number of them were Tier 4 in their own right.

What was even more worrying was that the bears were all Tier 4. So despite having almost two dozen Tier 4s of their own, the Frost Bear Clan clearly had the number advantage. Julius hoped that he might be able to alleviate some of the pressure by removing some of the Tier 4s, as he had already done.

On the other hand, he spotted that woman from before using her battleaxe with scary effectiveness. She was mowing down Tier 3s like they were wheat in a field. Even the Tier 4s who went up against her were blasted back by the incredible force she was able to generate. The bandits appeared to give up the idea of stopping her and instead focused on slowing her down.

While the woman had enormous power and skill, she didn't seem to have many other supporting abilities. This meant blasts of icy frost and other attacks were constantly hindering her. They didn't kill or hurt her too badly, but she certainly slowed down for the time being.

The adventurer team was quite the pain in the ass as well. They were fighting like a well-oiled machine. Each member supported the other, and nobody was ever in any real danger. They were the ones being attacked by the largest number of the enemy Tier 4s. However, the bandits clearly didn't work together as well, which was exemplified as they got pushed back bit by bit.

It also showed just how much better Jakob and his team were. The quality difference was evident, and the bandits also noticed it.

On the bright side, he had already gotten some juicy notifications for smashing those two Tier 4s.

[Void Strike lvl 3 -> lvl 5]

[Void Step lvl 7 -> lvl 8]

The two skills synergized very well together, as one would expect from skills with such similar names. The more he learned in one of the skills, the more he could leverage that knowledge to help the other skill.

The cost of [Void Strike] was already drastically reduced, and he was still making improvements as time went on. He was thinking about how he could slightly speed up the activation when he was forced to tilt his head as a bolt of stone tore at his face. He unconsciously siphoned some of the kinetic energy from the attack and used this to fuel some of his dash toward the earth mage who had thrown it.

As much as he wanted to use [Void Step] and [Void Strike] constantly, he tried to be mindful of his mana consumption. One skill was already expensive enough, but two mana-intensive skills made things much more complicated if he wanted to conserve his mana.

Fortunately, he possessed other skills and abilities that enabled him to do this. In fact, he had been specifically training his kinetic energy for this exact situation. He fueled his body with kinetic energy and blasted toward the earth mage who was still throwing attacks at him.

The man felt like a Tier 4, but he was a weak Tier 4. At least that was what Julius sensed from the man's aura. There was no weight or sharpness to it. It felt soft and pliable. That was also the reason why Julius was able to slam his kinetic energy onto the weak Tier 4, freezing him in place.

The earth mage still had an Authority to help him, but it didn't really make much of a difference. Julius's willpower and aura were more than enough to swat aside the attempts to escape, and he slammed a leg into the mage. They reacted fast enough to create a shield of stone over their skin, but that wasn't able to blunt the force of the blow that much.

The mage was still sent flying into the other side of the cavern. Julius was about to chase after them when he felt a large group of bandits suddenly attack him. These weren't even Tier 4s, though, and he quickly created a dozen spikes of mana over his shoulder, shooting them at these bandits. He barely blinked as the constructs razed most of them to the ground and kept on screeching through the air. He was forced to dissipate a couple of them to avoid hitting some of the people on his own side.

It was as if this was the moment when the Tier 3 bandits realized that he wasn't such an easy target despite his age and collectively decided not to attack him anymore. He was fine with that. His goal was to hunt down the Tier 4s before they could have too much impact on the battle.

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He spotted his next target and blasted himself forward. However, he found his way blocked by one of the Frost Bears. Thankfully, it wasn't the boss bear, but it was still huge. The creature's mouth was larger than Julius's body, and its paws were not that much smaller, not to mention the short swords it had for claws that shone with a dull blue light.

Julius didn't back down, though. He had fought his share of bears before and thought this one would be no different. He rushed toward the bear, answering its roar with one of his own. A smile slowly crept onto his face in anticipation of the clash.

Even with his improvements in kinetic energy, he found himself surprised when he wasn't able to win the strength contest. He stumbled back as the bear shoved him and tried to remove his guts with one of its claws.

Julius smacked the paw to the side and shot a spike of aura-woven mana at the bear's face. The bear didn't have the armor like its leader did, but Julius quickly found out that the pelt of the bear gave it more than enough durability. The spike barely managed to penetrate it, and even when it exploded, some kind of skill from the bear reduced the force.

It became evident that the bears were the true threat, not the actual bandits. He jumped out of the way of another claw, and when he spotted a small opening, he shot back toward the legs of the bear. The height difference made attacking it a bit weird, but since it was so big, it found that it had trouble when Julius entered its guard.

It tried snapping its jaws at him, but he was too fast and avoided the teeth. He then slammed an upward elbow, crashing against the bear's face. This caused it to let out a loud cry and lift its head. Julius took this opportunity to get low and blast the bear's leg with as much kinetic energy. He also used a bit of [Void Strike] to aid him.

[Void Strike] helped him penetrate the layer of defenses, and his kinetic energy did the rest. Sharpness and Force Concepts rampaged through the bear's leg, and it buckled under its own weight. It tried to attack Julius once more, but Julius had already sensed its movements and kicked himself away.

The bear's leg was still intact, but it was somewhat of a mess. The fur was practically gone, and in its place was an ugly, bleeding sore. Still, the bear wasn't done and used some ice magic on itself. Julius watched as it used a skill to freeze over its wound and stop the bleeding.

It was actually something very similar to what he had seen ice affinity healers do at the healing clinic. Only a bit more rugged and wasteful.

The bear let out another roar, and Julius was about to respond in kind when he spotted the incoming bear from behind. He swiftly turned around and sent several spikes at the monster's eyes. This bear was on all fours, running at him, and had activated a defensive ice skill. The spikes of mana crashed into the bear, but because of the hard shell it created around its body, the spikes weren't that effective.

He turned back to glare at the first bear. "Seriously? Backup? I thought we had something special going on," he said in mock disappointment.

The only answer he got was a roar and the sight of a bear charging at him, with the same defensive ice skill activated.

***

Sten POV

He grumbled out in frustration. Things had been going so well. They had everything set up perfectly, and they had walked right into their trap. He had even gotten tipped off by one of the villagers he was blackmailing that one of the recently arrived adventurers had placed a tracking beacon on one of his men.

It was too embarrassing to admit to everyone else, but he would have never found the mark if not for being warned. The person who made it showed impressive skills. It blended into the idiot Velton's mana wonderfully. It was truly a piece of art, comparable to his own creations.

He let out a sigh. While they didn't have the same advantage now that the barrier was broken, they should still be in a good position to win. He and Ondayg should be more than enough to take down the village chief. Or at the very least, delay until his men and the other Frost Bears took out the rest of the rabble.

At least that had been his hope. The same boy who had shocked him by teleporting through the barrier and destroying his precious staff was behaving like a demon across the battlefield. He was everywhere, wreaking havoc and ripping apart his men like nothing.

According to his sources, the village should not have someone like that at its disposal. Their main worry had always been Emil and that old man Aeron. Luckily, the old man never left the village due to his deteriorating health and old age; thus, drawing out Emil had been the best option.

The only recent addition to the village's forces was a person from the Shattered Winter School. At first, hearing the name of such a reputed school made him nervous, but he quickly learned that the school had sent a mere Tier 3 boy, and while he was supposedly a healer, Sten wasn't worried.

However, he didn't connect the details from Velton's last words about a boy killing all of them until now. He was almost sure that this boy was the representative from the Shattered Winter School. Furthermore, he did not think the boy was Tier 3. There was no way a Tier 3 could move that fast and get past his barrier. It was likely some artifact or item that shrouded his true tier.

Seeing such a young boy terrorize his men forced him to realize that the reputation of the Shattered Winter School wasn't for nothing.

He should expect nothing less from a school founded by Cain Steelborn.

He tried to send a few shots toward the boy, but Emil was always there to block them. The man had similarly realized the boy was an integral piece of the battle and decided to protect him.

Feeling things slip away and unable to think of a different way out of their deteriorating position, Sten realized he needed to do something. So with a click of his tongue, he activated his trump card, and an absolute flood of mana rushed through the cave, all centered on his armor. The Blightfrost Steel creaked from the pressure of such power but still held up.

Sten wrestled control of this energy and let out a chuckle. He hadn't planned on wasting such a trump card, but he didn't want to risk losing here. He gave a grim smile at Emil and dashed in, catching the man off guard and blasting him off on the other side of the cave.

He would try to take out the Tier 5 as quickly as possible so that he could deal with that boy afterward.

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