--<3rd PoV>--
The three stood close together, their backs facing the valley, its depths shrouded in darkness.
With nowhere to run, it was time to fight.
Without delay, Ray activated both his domains.
Golden and bluish light enveloped a radius around them.
Instantly, Seraphina and Lilia felt a surge of heightened efficiency, sharpened focus, and a vivid, high-state-of-mind sensation stirring within them, a feeling akin to waking up from a dream like state to a clear world appeared.
At the same time their control over mana intensified, attacks strengthened, and his recovery accelerated, as if world was pampering them as their favorite child.
Doing these two things, Ray stood with the cube in his hand, its shape constantly shifting, his eyes closed. "Give me a few minutes," he had said.
Seraphina had simply nodded, unsure of his plan.
She did remember him saying that something he once made could be remembered by him, but to recreate it for the first time, he needed to understand the whole logic—like the internal workings and yada yada so on—which she didn't understand, but she knew it would be useful.
Like the sword with moving teethes over it.
Chainsaw or something he called that.
Though what he was attempting now remained unknown to Seraphina, she complied.
With Lilia's spirit magic as support and Ray's mysterious ability providing unique buffs—boosting her strength by 10% and sharply reducing any potential mistakes—she knew she could hold out.
"So, let's trust him," she said, swinging her lightning aura-infused sword in a semicircular arc, unleashing a wide-range attack that cleared monsters within a 20-meter radius.
Seeing the wasteful attacks she was using, her past self might have cursed at her, but the rapid mana regeneration from Ray's mana-dense Mana Domination Domain gave her room to experiment.
"Why not try some large-area attacks? Maybe I should use this chance to train," she mused, continuing with her on slaughter.
As another wave of the endless hornet swarm surged to fill the gap, the ground erupted with earth spikes, followed by barrages of fire, wind, ice, and lightning from multiple directions.
But that wasn't all. Unlike Seraphina's kills, when these magical attacks struck, a purplish-black miasma-like energy emerged from the hornets' bodies, flowing back to the source of the magic—the caster.
Lilia.
She stood beside Ray, her airheaded charm replaced by fierce determination.
She was also making full use of mana regen provided by Ray's Mana Domination Domain.
The battle raged on, and Seraphina noticed a pattern: whenever Lilia killed a monster such thing will happen, even when it was her summon who did it.
'Not to mention after every such occurrence, her attacks will get stronger.' Seraphina stared at the destruction caused by Lilia which from no angle looked like something which was a 3rd circle mage's doing.
She had known that she had a strong skill, one which was classified as pretty ominous one.
Which even without use affected her greatly, and she was abandoned because it made her look like a cursed individual.
But as sever were its side effects it was also equally strong.
But it was unbelievable to the very least.
Afterall hearing and seeing are two different things.
It's like she was approaching the attack power which was similar to the attack power of Seraphina herself at the base form, though even if they fought the result will be the same but this improvement was nothing to scoff at.
'Tch, that's why I hate people with skills,' Seraphina thought, a mix of jealousy and frustration simmering in her mind.
'Always cheating their way through while people like me are forced to take the hard road.'
She felt a pang of disappointment for not awakening a skill herself.
'Hah, at least as Ray's subordinate, she's on our side. I should be thankful Lilia's not an enemy.'
She thought as another explosion roared in the distance, and Seraphina glanced at Lilia, her crimson hair whipping in the wind, armor hugging her toned curves.
'This girl really is born to be a missile launcher when battling armies,' she thought, impressed by the devastation.
Mentally evaluating the girl to be a really important asset more than what she previously expected her to be.
'Just hope this unending stream of monsters ends before we get worn down too much or Ray wakes up with one 'good' idea.'
'But there was something more important than that.' She thought having seen Lilia's careless way of fighting.
It's high output but less thoughtful, not experienced nor knowledgeable in team battle and cooperation.
She resolved to call her out after the battle, stressing the importance of teamwork and task distribution to avoid overexertion and fatigue.
But the monsters were adapting to their pace. More and more were sent forward. If the earlier ones were F-rank, testing the waters, the ones coming now were D-rank—faster, sturdier, tougher than before.
This made it harder to wipe them out with a single large attack.
"Tch," Seraphina clicked her tongue. "These poisonous bugs... can't even attack them from close range."
It was a tough situation for her, who preferred active close-combat engagement over defending and stalling for time. But there was no other choice. Great Green Poison Hornets were among the most unpredictable monsters.
They had 17 species living in the same group, nearly indistinguishable without careful examination. Each possessed unique properties, far more versatile than mere size differences.
Some carried multiple poisons—paralytic, deadly, acidic, hallucinogenic, and more. That alone was manageable, but others exploded upon death, spreading their lifelong-developed poison. Some exhibited mage-like behavior, spraying poison over long distances.
These traits made them particularly tricky for Seraphina to face.
If she were alone, fleeing at full speed with her aura at maximum output might have been an option. But this time, they were a group.
Not to mention, she had destroyed their entire colony in her honey heist, unknowingly killing most of the unborn monsters.
But these hornets were just the start.
As time passed the monsters also started to behave strangely.
Previously if they were like a crowd of angry mob charging mindlessly now they were acting as an army with proper tactics and collective thinking.
Under this change of course the battle became much harder.
And both of them were forced to fight actively while being forced to act purely defensive not having time to act as freely as they could.
Even the amount of power increasing for Lilia's attacks had turned miniscule as if the power stacking had reached it's limit.
"First Form: Flicker Step!" Seraphina shouted.
Lightning covering her figure like a second skin, enhancing her speed, reaction and rage to the maximum, allowing her to cover smallest smallest of weak points.
With the area engulfed in fire and magic explosions with dirt and smoke spread across the surrounding.
She was the not so silent predator.
Her movement fast as teleporting.
Every move calculated and precise.
Her hand holding her sword in the diagonal shape swung repeatedly in impossible angles cutting down any monster which enter her range, like traps ready to be triggered.
"Second Form: Pulse Shear!"
Her sword covered in golden lightning cut through multiple monsters at ease.
With no waste of movement, each ark took down at least 3 monsters.
Of course Lilia was the one to thank for as she was the one taking down the weakest one of them only allowing E+ rank or higher one to pass through.
Slowly the monsters were getting better at fighting with their tactics and group combat.
But they were not the only one getting better, Seraphina and Lilia also had developed a sense of understanding allowing them to cooperate better.
The difficulties were harder but overcoming them they were also making progress.
But this can't continue forever, even if mana regeneration was doable.
Forcing your body to recover this much mana continuously for a long time in a short time is never a good thing.
Not to mention physical exhaustion also existed.
Disregarding that, they could have held on, if and only if there were not the particular group of monsters now in front of them
"No way..." Lilia exclaimed, shocked.
Even Seraphina was speechless at the absurd situation in front of her.
in front of them now were:
The Great Green Hornet Queen and a dozen of Great Green Hornet Guards were there right in front of them.
Both of these were genuine B+ rank and B- rank monsters.
It is hard to see those monsters as they never leave their den always protecting their base and children.
"So why are they here... " Seraphina said but then she herself realized that why were they here.
"They are here cause you destroyed their home along with their unborn children." Lilia commented staring hard as if trying to drill down her gaze through her skull.
"Uhahaha... ha..." Seraphina could only give out a shallow laugh under the watchful eye of the not so friendly now demon elf.
But behind that shallow laugh, Seraphina was also pretty serious.
Looking at the menacing appearance of the Hornet Queen and Guards.
It was obvious that things would not look good.
Hornet Guards were B- rank difficult monster individually if you evaluate time.
But don't compare them to the silverback werewolf Ray had defeated before.
That monster only becomes B- when there comes full moon, ray had defeated it when it was still day.
With Hornet Guards being in dozens with the Queen herself their to cast buff on them.
The Hoard of monsters will be almost impossible to escape from.
'Now only that option is available.' She thought.
"Haah~" She took a long break.
'I have never been so much cornered for a long time. Hope the side effects are not as sever.'
She mentally steeled herself.
"Okay here goes no-" but just as she was completing the sentence, she saw a blinding light followed by a huge concentration of mana passing beside her.
VWOOOM!
A deep, vibrating sound as the beam cuts through the air, making the surroundings look glittery and beautiful.
"Woohoo! Hell ya! Take that you Beedrill wannabee! Your end will be bright and beautiful completely unlike you!" Ray's rarely cheerful voice sounded.
As Lilia and Seraphina both moved their surprised gaze towards him. They saw him holding a large oversized futuristic blaster cannon looking around 3 meters in length half a meter in height and 20 centimeters in width resting on his shoulder with its backside looking somewhat transparent with bluish while swirls in it.
This was his aura being supplied to it, to refill the canon for further use.
This was the Device Ray had made after serious of mental calculations consisting of multiple errors and corrections.
A hyper blaster Aura Cannon.
Inspired by the Tier one Spell mana bullet, but instead it is much more compact, dense and large area covering. Not to mention it uses Ray's Attributeless Aura as fuel rather than normal mana which alone makes it dozens of time more destructive.
"What are you guys looking at?" Ray said looking at the shocked look on the faces of both the girls.
"I am late but I one shotted the boss, didn't I?"
With that both of their expression visibly relaxed and they heaved a sigh of relief.
BUZZZZ!!!
But then suddenly a loud buzzing sound caught their attention.
Ray's even more so.
"Impossible..."
___________________________________
To Be Continued:
A/N: From now on I won't go into over descriptions, you might have sensed it now. maybe I will speed up. And sorry for late updates. Shit happened and I am getting more and more late. So I won't make any promises, will just try to be as fast, as i could.