"Great," Damion muttered to himself when he saw the Deep Stone Eel launch a rock at him the size of his head.

A quick Blink allowed Damion to dodge the attack, but dodging was not the same as winning and he knew that eventually the Demonic Beast was going to get lucky.

Another rock was spat his way, but he was able to easily dodge again. This time adding more elevation. He was a sitting duck in the air, but he had not had much luck fighting the creature on the ground either. Aside from the one punch he landed, that had not even broken the creature's skin, Damion was the one taking all the hits.

Since Exile did not appear to be strong enough to let him banish this creature he needed a different approach to fight it. He could of course resort to his primary affinity, Ice, the strength of his EX Ranked affinity would likely overcome the disparity in their magic powers that was preventing Exile being effective since his Spatial affinity was only D Rank. However, he started this fight as a Spatial mage and aside from a little cheating with Earth and Holy affinities that he had artifacts for, he wanted to finish it that way.

As Damion rushed towards the ground, he realized there was one method he had not tried, which would likely work, so long as the Deep Stone Eel followed him.

Damion continued to fall towards the ground, the Deep Stone Eel had already relocated to be beneath him but was not spitting any more rocks at him. Perhaps the Demonic Beast thought if it did not spit more rocks Damion would simply fall right into its mouth. That of course was not his plan.

About ten meters from the ground, Damion cast Portal, opening the hole in space about five meters to his right, but at ground left, so he could fall right through it. The exit to the portal was high in the sky. With a quick Blink, he aligned himself with the portal and fell through it.

The Deep Stone Eel watched as Damion plunged into the ground, or at least so it thought. The Demonic Beast turned and dove into the hole that its prey had fallen through.

However, just as it was sticking its head through, Damion shut off his spell. Portal vanished and acted like a spatial guillotine, decapitating the Deep Stone Eel.

A couple quick casts of Blink and Damion was on the ground nursing his injured leg with Minor Heal and his Light affinity artifact. A moment later, the Deep Stone Eel's head crashed into the ground a few meters away.

Walking over, Damion stored the head and the body of the Demonic Beast in the Magic System Inventory and was about to cast Portal to take him to somewhere safe when he heard clapping.

Looking around, Damion spotted a number of people sitting in an air car not too far away. Each person was an A Rank mage, and the person clapping was at S Rank.

"That was most impressive," said the S Rank mage, a woman with shinning blue and white hair. "I am Julia Levine."

Even if Damion had not recognized her name as being an S Rank Lightning mage, True Sight told him of her affinity and Rank.

Stolen story; please report.

"James Picard," Damion replied, bowing his head slightly as a sign of respect.

"Ah. You are the mage that reported the cluster of A Rank gates."

"That is correct. Though, if I had known the Deep Stone Eel was around, I might have waited in a different place."

"Still, to use Portal to kill a Demonic Beast that is chasing you, most inventive. I will have to tell Ingrid when I see her next of that trick. I wonder how it will fair against S Rank threats."

Damion was startled to think he had come up with a tactic that impressed an S Rank mage so much that she was going to share it was Ingrid Fletcher, the only S Rank Spatial mage.

"Have you explored any of the Breaches yet?"

"Not yet. I thought it best to wait. While I can test the type and Rank of a Breach, I have no way of knowing exactly what is inside until stepping through and, inventive tactics aside, we Spatial mages don't exactly excel at combat."

"Very well. We were able to gather nine A Rank mages on short notice to respond. A team of six will go in and clear each Realm Breach in turn, everyone else will remain out here with me to secure the area. A Mage Association representative is on their way with containment units, but it will take them some time to get here overland. Mage Adair, you are the A Rank with the most authority here, you may select your team."

A tall man with a head full of grey and red hair stepped forward and began calling out names. Some Damion recognized as members of noble families, while others were completely new to him.

"Zachary Forlani, Emilee Guptill, Floyd Flores, Derrick Levine, and James Picard, you all will be with me for the first clear. After we come out I may switch things up to let people rest. In the meantime, the rest of you scout the area and make sure there aren't any more Deep Stone Eels or any other Demonic Beasts around."

The four mages who did not get their names called out, split up and started exploring the area. Damion did not know any of the mages here personally and being the only B Rank around he felt somewhat small.

"Emilee, help Mage Picard out with his leg. I doubt he was able to fully heal it with the Light affinity artifact he had."

The Light mage walked over to Damion and cast a spell he recognized as a tier 4 Holy spell, Restoration. The powerful mana coursed through his body and a few seconds later, all his aches and pains vanished.

"Thank you," Damion told Mage Guptill. He was happy to have a proper healer around. If not, he was afraid he would have to use one of his Health Potions to fix his leg up after everything was said and done.

"Don't worry about. I'm glad we've got a Spatial mage with us. Too many times I've responded to one of these Association requests and we barely make any profit since we can't carry enough with us."

"Well, as long as we don't encounter anything humongous, I should be able to collect everything we find in these dungeons."

"Good to hear, Mage Picard," Mage Adair said. "We are going to start with the closest one and move clockwise. As much as we all want to make money so we can afford some quality gear upgrades, remember, we are here to clear these Realm Breaches as fast as possible to make sure we don't end up with a dungeon break. Any questions?"

"I have one," said Derrick Levine. "Are we splitting shares equally with all the members of the team, my aunt included?"

Mage Levine's aunt to whom he was referring was, of course, Julia Levine, the S Rank mage in charge of the overall expedition.

"Yes. Even split for everyone. Even if they don't come into one of the Breaches. That is how it works. Even Mage Picard gets the same share. Though, he of course is going to get the finder's fee for eight A Rank dungeons."

"Must admit, I am a bit jealous," Mage Flores said, slapping Damion on the back in a congratulatory manor.

"I've never looked up what the finder's fee for an A Rank dungeon is. I've only ever found Unstable Breaches before, mostly low Rank ones at that," Damion told them.

"It's an Aether each. Even if you don't actually take the Aether coins, it's still 1,000 platinum per find. You can retire in the lap of luxury."

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