Sherron looked just as beautiful and majestic as when Lev had last seen her. For several minutes, she floated above the wall, taking stock of the situation.
"You're gonna have to move the artillery up and ahead," She addressed Alec.
Lev's mentor simply nodded his assent, having reached the same conclusion. Lev himself just looked between the two, and the four support mages who refused to look at the Exalted. When Sherron landed, they all bowed at the waist.
"We greet the Exalted," their voices rang out in unison.
Sherron only looked at them once, "Be at ease."
The support mages straightened instantly, still not looking at her. Lev just stood there, confused and slightly nervous about how he was supposed to act. It was the first time he had seen Sherron act so… rigidly.
So when she turned to him, he just gave her a little wave.
Her lips twitched before she hugged Lev. He was pretty surprised but didn't resist the rare show of affection from the lightning Exalted.
"You idiot," she whispered. "None of your advantages will matter if you get yourself killed."
Of course, she heard about my brush with the troll.
Lev wanted to say something arrogant and playfully brush it off, but the experience was still raw in his mind. He vividly remembered himself sent flying, unable to defend himself.
In the end, all that came out was a sigh. "I'll be more careful."
Sherron gave him a searching look as if she could see through the illusion, before pouting slightly with a small smile. "Orianna would've been devastated. Also, it's nice to see your mind staying out of the gutter."
Huh? What? I mean, she isn't wrong…
Lev didn't know if she could read his aura to that degree, or if it was the scary sixth sense of women enhanced to the extreme with Perception, but she had realized before him that he no longer felt horny. It was most likely his body now fully affecting his mind, unable to really feel such feelings.
He had just held an extremely strong and beautiful woman in his arms, yet all he felt was the simple joy of being hugged.
Small blessings.
"So, is the wave that bad?" Lev asked, changing the subject.
Sherron raised an eyebrow. Lev was asking for intel that wasn't made public most of the time. "Maybe. I also had free time and wasn't stationed anywhere in particular."
Lev mentally shook his head. Even at the peak of strength, she still had to follow orders. He would probably run away if someone forced him to stay put.
"I can feel your distaste for authority," Sherron remarked, amused.
"I harbor no such views," Lev said, much like a liar would. "Do I need to move or can I keep shooting? The wave seems to be starting in earnest now."
Sherron just waved a hand at the grassland, motioning him to attack freely. She and Alec wrapped themselves in a bubble, their voices silenced for whatever discussion they were having.
****
Sherron observed Lev fire arrows for a few seconds, the projectiles nearly as strong as her lightning lances from when she was a Classer.
It brought her a small amount of smug satisfaction when Lev infused the arrows with lightning arrows instead of fire, despite having a converter for both in his backpack.
Lightning was simply the superior element, after all.
That was an endless debate between her and Orianna. Sherron argued that killing monsters faster was a better option, whereas Orianna countered that preventing Master teams from getting overwhelmed would save more lines in the long run. Her class was especially good at that.
Neither was wrong, but that was how debates worked. So they never reached a conclusion, which was perfectly fine by both of them.
Just rush to the evolution already. Sherron sighed in her head. Her friend was a treasure more precious than anything else, but she could just be so stubborn.
"He definitely looks up to you," Alec brought Sherron out of her thoughts. "Lightning, speed, and range. The inspiration is obvious."
"Or it's just the most obvious path for him," Sherron rolled her eyes. "But yes, I am a shining figure to be inspired by."
She almost struck a pose, something she would've regretted to the ends of time in front of a support squad. Lev was fine, he knew the worth of keeping the childish part of oneself alive and healthy. Too much seriousness never ended well, resulting in too many Masters single-mindedly focusing on their jobs.
Little wonder they broke.
"How'd he almost die under your watch?" She asked, watching a third-threshold monster crawl out of the pit. One of the many to come.
"I was keeping an eye on the pit itself because of a small horde that climbed the upper layers. He somehow ran into a level 130 troll in the Ivory terrain."
It was hundreds of kilometers away from the wall, yet she could see it clearly. It was the main focus of her class after all.
"That thing spawned so close to the wall?" Sherron asked, unpleasantly surprised.
Dozens of meters above her, a smooth, slender, and long lance of lightning took shape. The lightning mana was condensed and stabilized to a near-solid state, one of the greatest factors of her long range.
Alec nodded solemnly. "It seems bad luck will follow him wherever he goes."
With a thought, it flew forward, striking true after an instant. The flight took less time than a blink, hitting the nasty brute in the head. It didn't die, of course, such monsters were too durable to die from a single attack.
"You told him?" She questioned, eyes on the stunned monster.
"Yeah."
By her side, Alec loaded his artillery pieces as well, and they both launched another attack simultaneously. This time the brute's head turned to pulp, putting it down for good.
[
Your group has slain [Shade Brute - Level 561]
]
Sherron hid a smile at Lev curiously looking at where the lance had just formed and vanished with a sonic boom. To his low perception, both of those things happened in a single instant.
She could feel his aura almost jumping up and down like a kid given expensive gifts, both in awe and excitement. It was so easy to read yet so pure, just happy to be alive again.
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Lev looked at where the lance was, then at the artillery pieces, and then the direction of the pit, where echoes of the distant impacts originated from. She could see the gears turning in his head, trying and failing to understand the speed of the projectiles.
He shrugged, the movement so natural to him that even the armor controlled by his mind also shrugged. She couldn't hold back at that, as the bastard Alec removed the Bubble around them, and laughed.
****
Sorry for being a plebian who couldn't help but be fascinated. Lev thought, red-faced, as Sherron's pleasant laughter reached him.
He wouldn't ever admit how much he liked the sound, or how he would willingly act childish to hear it, but it was one of the best things he had ever heard.
Sherron was the most distrustful of him at first, a man in a child's body. That changed over time, and Lev didn't realize how much he had yearned for her approval in the early months till she fully accepted him.
She was one of the twelve Exalted for Monarch's sake. Someone like her being distrustful of you was the most nerve-wracking experience at first. She could've removed Lev with a single thought if the worst came to pass.
Shaking away those thoughts, Lev pointedly ignored the support squad that seemed to be just as blown away as him. They would probably melt into a puddle if they heard Orianna's laugh.
The line of monsters was now close enough for Lev to observe the individual monsters. True to his mentor's words, there were no dormant monsters in the wave. None that he could see anyway.
But he wasn't worried. There were dozens of Masters down below, several kilometers away from the wall.
The strongest monsters naturally went after them, unable to resist their vastly stronger auras compared to the weaker defenders in front of or atop the wall.
That left the weaker monsters to charge forward. Lev could now feel the wall shake from the real might of Master teams on display. The horizon slowly turned blue and orange, Fire and Lightning being the most common destructive elements.
He ignored the distant battles, focusing on the hordes closing in on the wall. Taking a deep breath, he caught the first prowler in the leg instead of its head, the monster dodging in the nick of time. That was enough for an Adept mage who took down the momentarily hindered monster with a precise fireball.
Lev focused on similar shots, just aiming to hit anywhere for agile monsters like prowlers, and vitals in the case of monsters that focused on strength, such as trolls. They were still fast, able to leap for a dozen meters or more, but quick reactions weren't their strong suit.
Notifications piled up as Lev's mana slowly dwindled. His high total Wisdom ensured that his regeneration was just as prodigious as his total capacity, but each arrow was empowered to his limits.
Twice, Lev felt the bow become more familiar in his hands, signifying levels for his archery skill. There was a big change at some point, which forced him to check the notifications.
[
Your group has slain [Shade Prowler - Level 108]
…
Your group has slain [Shade Brute - Level 130]
…
Your group has slain [Troll Warrior - Level 124]
…
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 92
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 93
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 94
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 95
Arcane Archery has reached 2nd Level 3
Arcane Archery has reached 2nd Level 4
Incisive Edge has reached Level 10
Incisive Edge has reached 2nd Level 1
Whirling Rim has reached Level 10
Whirling Rim has reached 2nd Level 1
Needle Precision has reached 2nd Level 2
20 Free attribute points
]
The heck? Extension skills can level the original skill?
That was news to Lev. He doubted they did much in terms of improving the original skill, which meant that the two skills were probably close to leveling already.
[
Incisive Edge - 2nd Level 1:
Any barriers formed with a cutting edge will have their sharpness increased by 70%. You will find barriers faster and easier to move, increasing their speed by 35%.
2nd Rank: The projectiles negate most of the air friction and other similar environmental deterrents to their speed.
]
[
Whirling Rim - 2nd Level 1:
Increase the penetrating power of your barriers by making them spin. Any barriers formed by you spin 60% faster and have their penetration power increased by 20%
2nd Rank: Different mana types enhance barriers more efficiently, increasing the effects of infusion.
]
Lev blinked at the exotic second ranks. They were so different from his expectations that he had to read them several times.
Okay, to begin with, they are way better than what I was hoping for. The increased infusion effects of mana types are pretty nice. Lightning will make them even faster, fire will make them explode better, water will make them smoother, and earth mana will make them more durable, etc.
He decided to test the rest on the spot. Forming a disk atop his hand, he commanded it to spin at full speed and launched it forward.
The difference… was much more prominent than he thought it would be. The disk accelerated to its full speed in less than a second, fixing half the reason he had picked up a bow in the first place.
He brought it into his backpack and charged it with lightning mana. It worked as advertised, increasing the speed slightly more than it used to, and also making the lightning mana a little more stable as a nice bonus.
Lev was happy with the changes and was about to continue shooting when he paused.
My archery skill is an extension skill of those two…
Eagerly, he formed an arrow and observed the changes closely. The lightning mana was less erratic, which was a great start. Nocking it, he empowered it to its limit and watched the arrow fly faster than before. He couldn't track it visually but he could feel it with his connection to the arrow.
His lips parted in a goofy grin at the result. The new second ranks had, indeed, applied to his arrows.
****
[
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 96
…
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 100
]
Lev waited for his mana to regenerate, annoyed at seeing his level hit 100. His skills were still far from the end of the second rank, which was irksome, to say the least.
There was also no notification to initiate an evolution which made sense. His mentor hadn't even bothered to talk about the requirements beyond a single mention. Lev would be able to start the evolution in a few more skill levels at most, far before reaching the end of second rank with all his skills. He wouldn't do that of course. That would reduce the quality of his offered classes.
"So, I don't want to be that guy, but why are you here?" Lev asked the Exalted constantly attacking Monarch knows what. He could only observe the famous lances form for a few instants before they vanished with a loud boom.
"Why? Do you not want me to be here?" Sherron quipped back with a grin.
Lev sighed. "You know what I mean. I'm getting tired of waiting for something to happen already. There's no way you wouldn't just deal with the wave by yourself if you weren't anticipating something."
Sherron glanced at the support squad behind them, her stern gaze conveying a silent warning, before she turned to him again.
"You're right. Hakim, Alec, and I are tasked to take down the ascending Giant."
Color drained from Lev's face as his back stiffened. The support squad fared even worse, eyes wide in terror and legs fidgety, ready to bolt at a moment's notice.
Giants were the almost legendary monsters responsible for the pit in the first place. A horde of them had carved that huge cavity in the ground a century ago, and it took all twelve Exalted to put them down. The only reason they could even do so was because Shade Giants got most of their strength from their size and durability, which turned them into a target to eventually wear down.
Rumors had it that the battle lasted for nearly a week, almost costing humanity two Exalted.
"They're fourth-threshold monsters, above level 1000! Why aren't we evacuating everyone?" Lev stammered, stumbling over his words.
Sherron snorted, the action no longer as convincing as it would've been a few minutes ago. "Calm down, would you? Giants are pretty dumb and will target the strongest human around. I will just need to occupy its attention while keeping population centers out of its aim. They can throw things very far."
Lev stilled and gave her a long stare. "In what world is that supposed to make me feel better? That you will be the sole target of a fourth-threshold monster?"
Sherron's eyes softened as she replied. "It's my job, Lev. Besides, do you think we haven't prepared as much as we could in the case of more Giants?"
Lev ruminated on that, feeling slightly better after that reply. "Wait, aim?"
Sherron nodded. "It can form extremely dense stone to form blunt weapons or to throw it. It wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that one of those throws could reach Windkeep at full strength and an unfortunate angle."
Lev's mind took several seconds to process that. His breath came faster and faster as he understood what she had just said, sitting down on the wall.
He giggled. It just came out without warning, accurately showing his mental state.
Giants can throw boulders across a distance that would've been an entire country on Earth. Because, yeah. They just can.
It took some willpower to not laugh like a maniac. With deep breaths, he slowly calmed himself till Sherron casually addressed him again.
"You'll get used to it."
Lev laughed.
