A few minutes later, Lev upped his output to allow the team of harvesters and earth mages to come closer.

No words were exchanged beyond a thankful nod for making their job easier. The troll giant's core was harvested with practiced efficiency, and the earth mages buried all the weaker corpses so as not to let them become a hindrance. Lev didn't really need such assistance, but he appreciated the effort nonetheless.

Dozens of cores later, they quickly ran back to their assigned spot, where they were picked up by a carrier and deposited on the outer wall.

He took the bit of downtime to fly up and enter his bubble, which hovered half a kilometer above the battlefield.

"I forgot to mention this before, but take these," Lev said and held out the communication crystals in front of his teammates. They each took one with undisguised curiosity, prompting him to explain. "They're communication crystals with two functions. Pretty simple, test them out."

With that, he jumped back down through a temporary hole and rolled his shoulders. The wave had been ongoing for nearly an hour by now, and Lev could feel the stronger monsters approaching from deeper into the forest.

"Does this work?" Kayla's voice reached him through the crystal, transmitted directly to his head.

"It does," Lev sent back and focused on the pythons barging out of the treeline, each monster as tall as a house.

[Brown Pythons - Level 322]

[Brown Python - Level 330]

…

The ranged support on the wall deemed the monsters too dangerous for Lev to deal with alone. Several arcane arrows were fired, and they continued to split into two until, instead of the initial four, thirty-two of the projectiles bombarded the monsters, shearing through tough scales.

Lev didn't bother trying to convince them otherwise. With a few of his arrows in the mix, the small group of snakes fell quickly, and he dragged them closer with his ropes for the harvesters to have an easier time when they returned.

More harpies fell before a new type of monster that he had never seen before revealed itself. It walked on six legs, similar to a horse but much, much more terrifying. Pitch black in color with sickly pale yellow eyes that gleamed with bloodlust, Lev was instantly on guard when it devoured a quarter of the distance between them in a few seconds.

"What the hell is that?" asked a concerned Amelia, likely unable to track its movements.

[Yureimane - Level 411]

"A yureimane, whatever that is. Level 411," Lev replied to all of his teammates while preparing all his countermeasures. Ropes were completely repaired and infused, arrows were rapidly formed and enchanted, and lightning now streamed into the orbs in his bubble, the constructs serving as improvised batteries.

Walls were stationed in front of him, along with dozens of invisible shields under his willpower. When it was only a few dozen meters away, Lev fired a lightning slash at it.

Abruptly, a flash of mana lit up a few meters to his left, and only the fireball from his arm prevented the monster from taking a bite out of his side. Hurled away from the proximity of the blast, he quickly flew higher and looked for the monster, finding it completely invisible to all his senses.

More mana suddenly became noticeable in his Mana Perception, and he quickly fired a lightning bolt above him. The monster still dodged, vanishing into a mist-like gate and once again because invisible.

Illusions and invisibility, Lev noted, heart thundering in his chest. Several yureimanes burst out of the ground far below, all of them running on air with eerie synchronization. Not giving them a chance to get close, he infused several lances with a large amount of lightning and fired them at the illusions. Surprisingly, they had enough cohesion that his lances exploded on impact instead of just going through them.

Knowing what was going to follow, he infused even more lightning into his armor and released it all in an uncontrolled wave around him when a flash of mana appeared behind him, only a few meters away. A sphere of blue expanded from his form, rapidly growing, yet still failing to catch the monster.

Lev also gulped as a terrifying detail stood out in his mind. Instead of becoming easier to follow, the creature's invisibility was now even harder to detect, and the time to react to its appearance was also shorter.

The next time the illusions appeared mid-air to his left, he didn't hesitate in bombarding the location with overloaded lightning arrows. None of them found the monster and decimated the illusions, and Lev focused his all into scanning his surroundings with Mana Perception.

It didn't work, and this time, the monster had to dodge an insanely fast arrow coming from the wall that disrupted its invisibility for a moment. Lev made use of the opening and sent all of his ropes in that direction, feeling them brush against something unseen and releasing a burst of lightning on contact.

A hateful squeal washed over him, echoing in the grassland despite the open space. His shoulders stiffened when a large amount of mana rose from the ground, all of it belonging to the monster. Within seconds, there were dozens of yuriemeres running at him from all around, nothing betraying them as illusions or fake-

Illusions, Lev's eyes widened, breaking out of the aura attack and immediately firing a dozen arrows to his sides and a massive lightning slash in front of him. Fire infused his armor was channeled into the fireball formation, and the moment he felt sharp teeth clamping down on his arm from the only remaining opening, behind him, he released the densely compressed fireball.

The fiery ball shot down the Yuriemane's throat, and that was all the time Lev had to use his other arm and push its mouth upwards. Unfortunately, his left hand was pulled back half mangled and torn, the monster unwilling to let go even as its insides were swiftly disintegrated.

A torrent of fire burst out of its mouth, eyes, and ears, and several shields moved ahead of him just in time to block the explosion of boiling blood and gore, as well as the subsequent blast of fire.

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[

Your Group has slain [Yuriemane - Level 411]

Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 260

]

Lev let out a relieved breath, then froze. Carefully checking the remains of the monster revealed a mournful truth. Its core was destroyed, something likely worth many platinum, given the rare combination of abilities. Hell, people would pay in epic items if it showed absurd properties such as Light.

Whoops.

It wasn't like he had much of a choice. Without an explosive attack like that, the monster probably would've lived and continued to be a pain. Stargazer's blade was certainly sharp enough, but the major issue was actually landing a physical attack on the monster. Lev had only managed to hit it once by using his arm as bait anyway.

****

Much of the wave passed like that. Lev alternated between using his own mana and Stargazer's, letting them both regenerate all the while. He knew that the most dangerous part of the wave had yet to arrive, as the strongest monsters came from deep within the forest. That took time.

He glanced behind him when several new Masters joined the field. Carriers were constantly on the move, taking away all combatants who weren't of that rank, and he knew that it was almost time to give it his all.

"There's still time," Sherron's voice came through Jack's crystal after seeing Lev start trickling lightning into his armor. The intensity flickered, going from low to high in repeated pulses.

"I know," he replied, testing how many tasks he could focus on while maintaining the rhythm. As a smaller part of his mind controlled the bursts of imbuement, the other counted his arrows and lances, scouted the treeline, created a bath for his walls in his secondary bubbles to dip them in sap, enchanted those constructs, reformed shields and enchanted them as well, and also checked his total mana reserves.

Quickly supplying the wall treatment with sap, he exited the bubbles and focused on the forest again. Lev's hackles rose as a strong aura approached, considerably heavier than the gecko he had fought earlier.

His anticipation turned into wariness when another aura revealed itself, and then into grim resignation when several third-threshold monsters approached at once, not a single one of them that he could deal with by himself.

Well, that sucks, he sighed and rose higher, unwilling to get close to the approaching calamities. Supporting the strongest defenders from afar was going to be the goal, and it was further cemented when Sherron used her powers in front of him for the first time in a while.

Lev created an opening for her to step out of and carried the bubble away so his teammates wouldn't be overwhelmed. The decision proved wise when her presence rushed out in a domineering wave, pressing on his shoulders like a physical weight.

Grabbing his bubble, he created even more distance as Sherron raised a hand, eyes calmly taking in all the monsters present. A torrent of lightning gathered in her open palm, shaped into a sphere that slowly elongated.

The output rose twice in quick succession, giving form to a massive lance that seemed solid despite being formed of lightning. It towered over her, yet the creation felt tame, awaiting the Exalted's orders without showing any signs of destabilization.

She turned towards him for a brief instant, the movement too fast for him to track. The impression of her beautiful eyes staring at him remained still, like an afterimage that refused to fade.

Fiiinee, Lev huffed, unable to hold back a big smile regardless. I'm prepared to be thoroughly humbled. Bring it on.

More power was channeled into the lance before Sherron deemed it ready. With a single nudge, it flew up with an ear-shattering shockwave, swiftly moving out of his sight.

Lev still focused with all his being on the distant, unnoticeable projectile. Within seconds, the bright sky turned brighter, and then was illuminated even further as hundreds of lightning projectiles appeared in quick succession.

Hundred turned into thousands, and his mind struggled to take in the scale of the attack as the extreme number of darts descended at once. Sounding eerily similar to a normal rain, every single piece of lightning sought out a monster by itself, too fast for the creatures to have any hope of dodging.

Trolls, harpies, snakes, orcs, bears— every single monster up to a certain point in the second threshold was targeted, and Lev stretched his Perception as much as possible to take in the result.

The lightning darts, merely as long as his hand and as wide as two fingers, didn't discriminate in body parts. They only aimed to come in contact with the monster, and he could only watch with his mouth ajar as all of the monsters simply disintegrated.

Outrageously potent lightning mana was backing them, ignoring all fleshy resistance and drilling into their bodies while only leaving behind a small trail of ash. Several times, the lightning jumped from one enemy to another, never letting any of the fuel go to waste.

Within too little time, there were no more monsters on the battlefield, only a few stragglers that were put down with ruthless efficiency. Lev, now back in his bubble, could only watch in stunned silence with his teammates, utterly gobsmacked by the insane display of power.

"Well," he giggled, turning to look at his teammates. "Were you guys able to see it clearly?"

They just nodded, absently staring at the grassland that was once dotted by hundreds upon hundreds of monsters.

Already stunned that they were, Kayla almost stumbled to the ground when the third-threshold monsters were within a few dozen kilometers. The aura mage had the highest sensitivity for auras, just like Beatrice, but Kayla was way lower in level.

Jack quickly helped her stay upright as Lev took the bubble even further away, flying over the outer wall and back into the human territory. He was the only one able to breathe without problems, having blanketed himself with his aura tightly.

Then things became much worse when two new auras suddenly descended on the battlefield, rapidly closing in from the opposite direction. From the northwest, the psychokinetic sibling duo appeared high above the battlefield in eerie silence, their gaze roaming all the defenders present. Everywhere they looked, a palpable pressure followed, causing every set of shoulders to instinctively lower to a greater presence.

Stephan and Stella, Lev recalled all he knew about them, which was almost nothing beyond their names. Squinting his eyes, he could just barely see two dots in the sky, too far to make out anything but the armors covering their forms. Or at least, it seemed like they were in powered armor.

Glancing back at his teammates, they were struggling to even stand. The decision was easy to make after seeing that, and Lev was about to return to Whitefall and stay there with them when even more combatants joined the field, these ones moving towards them.

A warm, gentle presence covered them after a few seconds, finally letting his teammates breathe. Lev stopped the bubble with a big smile, creating an opening for Orianna and Alec to step through.

"I was wondering why you, of all people, were going away from the fighting," Alec said, taking in his teammates. "It seems I've missed out on a few important events again."

Lev didn't reply before getting his obligatory hug. "You're still under the impression that I'm still as reckless as I was back in the pit. Your student has grown."

"Yeah, now you're 'only' going to fight monsters double your level from afar."

Lev grinned. "Precisely. But also, no. I was going to remain with them in Whitefall."

Alec stared at him for a split second longer than usual, both conflicted and proud. Lev understood. He had gone through quite a bit in a short time. Most people didn't just change so much in a few years, especially on Monarch, where humans lived for centuries on average.

Then Lev turned to Orianna and extracted another hug before getting to the heart of the matter.

"Are things that bad?" he questioned, not saying it outright in front of his team. "Should I leave?"

"No, actually," Alec answered, now staring at the treeline in the distance. "This is tame as far as eight-rated waves go. You will still need to fight a few weaker monsters. I say weaker, but they will all be well above your level."

"The usual," Lev quipped, unsurprised.

"Yes," Orianna answered after giving headpats to his teammates. Lev tried not to pout at being left out, more interested in maintaining an image. "There won't be many, though. Those two are… messy in their fighting. You will see."

"The siblings?"

"Yep."

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