"What the fuck?!" Red Lady felt a bad feeling and looked back. She expected to see her warriors facing Lucien but actually saw him smiling at her while the eight mercenaries were in bloody pieces on the ground.
"Devil." Red Lady could only think of that word when she saw the bloody scene. She, as a mercenary leader, had already seen a lot of blood and brutality, but nothing like cutting people in half in a few seconds.
She was confused as she no longer knew whether to continue heading towards Olivia or face Lucien... The second she stopped to think, she saw Lucien equip the golden bow...
"Shields up!!!" Red Lady gave the order, and her warriors quickly made a barrier around her. The blessed shields would block anything, but Lucien didn't aim them...
"Cornelius!" Red Lady shouted, but Lucien had already fired the arrow, which flew at super speed towards the Magic Band's leader.
*Woosh*
Lucien saw that Cornelius and his mages were doing a lot of damage to the adventurers, so he shot an arrow at him... Cornelius had no mercenaries with blessed shields protecting him, so Lucien's black arrow should be fatal, but...
*Smash*
The arrow broke into thousands of particles when it hit a barrier that formed a meter from Cornelius. As a great enchanter, the powerful leader of the Magic Band had several treasures and defensive spells ready to protect his life.
"Barriers now!!" Cornelius realized that he was in Lucien's aim, and order his mages to cast defensive barriers around him quickly, preventing Lucien from fire more arrows at them.
"Heh." Not only Cornelius but Red Lady, Olivia, and others were paying attention to Lucien. They saw when he smiled towards Cornelius, and everyone was confused.
*Tremble* *Tremble* *Tremble* *Tremble*
The battlefield began to shake, causing adventurers and mercenaries to lose their balance... A hole opened under Cornelius' group, making him and his mage sink into the earth.
If it weren't enough for them to get hurt in the fall and their barriers to break, a fire came out of nowhere, burning the mages to death.
Some mages have fire affinity, but they died from the rocks, which continued to move and fall on them into the hole. Other mages have earth affinity but were quickly burned by the intense fire.
The most powerful mage, like Cornelius, had defensive treasures, which were being activated to protect their lives... But then earth thorns appeared above the hole and fly towards everyone who was still resisting.
"AAAAAHHHH!!!" The mages' cries rang through the battlefield while the earth was still trembling. No one noticed Rose, Maggie, and Astrid from the edge of the clearing. The two girls were casting their spells easily with a smile on their face...
Rose felt her earth magic far more powerful and accurate than before. She could make everything tremble slightly, while the ground near Lucien was normal, and the area below Cornelius collapsed intensely. She knew that this improvement in her power came from her beloved hubby, and she could only smile with happiness.
Maggie was thrilled. She used to be able to use her fire magic only after channeling it for a minute with full concentration, but now she managed to use it quickly. Not only did Lucien make her very happy, but also much more powerful than before. Of course, she would be pleased, even if she was burning mercenaries to death, it was still a happy time.
'Hubby, are we doing well?' Lucien almost laughed when he heard the same question from Rose and Maggie in his mind. They were on a battlefield where people were dying, but the girls were still in the mood to compete for his attention.
It was good that the girls couldn't hear themselves in Lucien's mind. He answered the same for both. 'Focus on the battle... Later I will reward you.'
The girls continued to bomb the hole with their spells, but Cornelius was still fighting. Using his treasures and spells, he and his mages were casting barriers while trying to resist the fire and rocks.
Rose had to focus her earth magic on Cornelius. As she did not use earthquake spell and only made small tremors not to disturb Lucien, the battleground stopped shaking, allowing mercenaries and adventurers to continue fighting.
After Cornelius and his mages mysteriously sank to the ground, Klaus took the opportunity and started killing mercenaries again.
The mercenaries who were over two hundred before were now 70 still alive. The adventurers that were in 100, now are only 30, divided into three groups.
Olivia was still in the center with Jeanne, defending Glen, two archers, and the support wizard. Mason was panicked before, but after seeing Lucien and Oya, he reached a new level of panic, where he was sure his end would not be easy.
Klaus's group had about ten A-rank adventurers who were now fighting Red Lady's warriors. The powerful lizardman suffered several wounds from Cornelius' constant attacks, but he has high endurance, and after drinking a few recovery medicines, he continued fighting aggressively.
The other adventurers had lost most of the members of their squads, so they joined a group, which was fighting several mercenaries. Both groups were suffering injuries every second, and some were dying.
Lucien used a few more arrows to balance the numbers of mercenaries and adventurers further while Red Lady was increasingly confused without knowing what to do...
It didn't take long for her to conclude that the mysterious earth mage should be near. Red Lady thought Lucien might have other tricks or allies hidden, so she had to change her plans quickly.
"Archers, fire at him!" The archers who were firing at Olivia's squad turned to shoot Lucien while the shielded warriors positioned themselves to open their guard only enough for the archers to get a good view of Lucien.
Red Lady was sure that Lucien couldn't shoot them while trying to dodge the arrows... But she had no way of knowing that he could hear everything on the battlefield, and he was always one step ahead of her.
*Woosh* *Woosh*
Two arrows, almost shot at the same time. Four archers, killed before they could pull the string of their bows.
"DAMN!!!" Red Lady didn't even have to give the order as the mercenaries with shields raised their guard again when they realized that any breach was enough for Lucien to kill them quickly.
Olivia was paying close attention to Red Lady's movements. The mercenaries were defending all angles, but after Lucien killed the four archers, the squad lowered their guard towards them...
"Glen! Fire at Red Lady, use everything you have." Glen understood Olivia's order. He realized that Red Lady's squad had let their guard down and started to prepare his charged arrow. He needed a few seconds, but Olivia and Jeanne were defending him while the mercenaries were focused on Lucien.
Lucien could also hear Olivia well. He wanted to fight Red Lady and her group just enough to keep her and Olivia from dying, so letting Glen fire the powerfully charged arrow at her was not an option.
Of course, he had everything under control, and a mental message was enough...
Astrid was at the edge of the battlefield, 150 meters away from the center, along with Rose and Maggie. She was ready for anything and smiled when she heard Lucien ask her to deal with Olivia.
She was already a powerful A-rank adventurer before, but after receiving Lucien's "love," she had significant changes. Her body was much stronger and faster than she could have imagined.
The powerful manticore-woman had already equipped her great claw-shaped gauntlets, so she warned the girls that she was going and jumped towards the center of the battlefield, trusting her high agility to reach Olivia quickly.
"Heeeehhhh??" Astrid was used to moving by making small jumps like a lioness, but she didn't know how strong she was and when she realized she was more than 20 meters from the ground...
Her jump was incredible, and she couldn't help being confused for a second before she smiled while falling towards Olivia's squad.
Olivia was very anxious as she waited for Glen to fire his arrow. She could already see the severe damage that the charged arrow would do in the group of Red Lady, but then she heard a shout from the sky...
"Oliviaaaaaa!!!"
She looked up and saw Astride falling like a bomb on them. Olivia didn't think twice before jumping to the side.
Glen also heard the shout, but he was focused on his charged arrow, thus being unable to react quickly.
Jeanne and Mason could not react even if they wanted to, as they were not as agile as Olivia.
The wizard was channeling barriers, so he acted instinctively and raised his hands, aiming his barrier towards Astrid.
*Smash*
Astrid, boosted by the fall, used her incredible new strength to punch the barrier, which broke into thousands of yellow particles...
*Boom*
Not stopping at the barrier, Astrid's devastating attack hit the wizard, who turned into meat paste, before creating a crater in the ground. Glen, Jeanne, and Mason were sent back by the shock wave created by her blow.
Olivia had made an evasive move very quickly, but she still felt the force of the shock wave, which caused her to lose her balance and roll on the ground.
Even though Astrid was always very mysterious, Olivia knew her strength well or she thought she did because it didn't make sense for her to become so powerful in just a few days.
Olivia didn't know if she was more confused by Astrid's terrifying new strength or the fact that she was attacking her "allies."
"Ravenous!?!?! Have you gone crazy?" Jeanne has high resistance and got up quickly after falling to the ground a few meters from Astrid. She questioned the manticore-woman severely.
"What is your problem?!?!" Glen also got up very angry. He had already done several missions with Ravenous, and even though they didn't consider themselves friends, they had nothing against each other.
Astrid was still feeling the energy running through her body... The feeling of power was so good... That adrenaline made her want to fight more and more... But not attacking adventurers and mercenaries, but "fighting" Lucien... Not the type of fight where would have blood but other liquids.
"I know things got out of hand, but... We are still allies, Ravenous..." Olivia stopped overthinking and tried to make Astrid realize the mistake she was making.
Astrid still had a knee and hand on the ground after making her "superhero landing." She stood up slowly while looking at the shocked Olivia.
"Hahaha... I had nothing against you before, but... Now you are my husband's enemy... So don't expect mercy from me."
Olivia, Jeanne, Glen, and Mason were even more shocked after heard Astrid's bold words... Of course, for different reasons.
Olivia couldn't believe that Astrid would attack her after a yearlong friendship, where she helped the manticore-woman without asking too much in return or for information about her mysterious past... And all of it for a man she knew just for a few days.
Mason was even more afraid. The husband she was talking about was the man he tried twice to harm... He knew his end was getting closer and closer if he didn't manage to get out of there quickly.
Jeanne could only think of the word "husband," and how he managed to make Ravenous his wife so easily... And that power of hers? Jeanne was always Ravenous's rival, but she got so powerful after a few days with Lucien... She started to think that he was really doing some strange magic with the girls...
Glen wanted to blame Astrid, but he thought for a second if he were in her place, he would do the same thing... He couldn't help but wonder if he would fight for Lucien against his former companions, so...
The "yes" appeared quickly in his mind after looking at the smile Astrid had on her face as she gazed at them. He also can't help but wonder how she got that explosive increase in strength, so he ended thinking out loud.
"What did that man do to you?"
Astrid also had a high increase in her senses, so she heard Glen's whisper. She couldn't help but respond as she ran towards Olivia with the intention of knocking her out.
"Love... The wildest and most powerful kind of love!"
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