Whatever Kaya would have said about what looked like an obvious case of pretty privilege was shut off when attacks were aimed at not just her but also Dean who had remained seated on the ground with wide eyes, looking around at the terrible scene unfolding around him.

Twenty Lizards aimed their blasts at Dean and right as he was holding his hands up to his face—as though that would shield him—a green spell circle appeared. It teemed with energy well past the Third Circle;

A Fourth Circle spell.

Even as the spell circle then conjured a thick layer of vines that were enough to block the blasts but barely blocked the blowback, Dean's mouth fell open in realization that all three of the ladies who had come to his rescue were at the Fourth Circle.

One was wild enough. Two was insane. Three was impossible. At least, it should have been. Yet, recent evidence showed that it was not.

Kaya didn't quite notice Dean's expression because her eyes, furrowed in focus as they were, were on the many Fire-Cracking Lizards gathering all around them.

"You could at least try to cast a spell, you know," She said with a frown.

"R-right…" Dean said but try as he might, he couldn't muster his mana.

After ten seconds of him fumbling, Kaya rolled her eyes. But when she spoke, her voice was actually quite kind.

"Just stay back then," she said as she commanded her nature motes to infuse into the grass beneath Dean, strengthening and elongating them until they created a spherical chamber of grass around him.

Dean moved then and pressed his face against the wall of the spherical chamber around him, pressing his eyes against the tiny holes in the structure to see what was happening outside. And what was happening outside was yet another blast from more than ten lizards who seemed very determined to do him in.

*BANG!*

"Shit—!" Dean let out but even though he had been pushed off the wall and hit the one behind him, not even a bit of the blast touched him. Despite the holes, he only suffered some blowback.

The grass looked charred on the inside but even as Dean noticed the damage, Nature Motes were infused and the grass was mended. He was just wrapped up in a cozy feeling of security. As though, in here, he was untouchable.

Dean's mouth gaped and again he got close to peer through the holes, this time looking for Kaya to look upon her serious side profile—with her slightly pointy ears that told of her half-elven parentage—in awe of her magic.

Meanwhile, Kaya actually let out a sigh of relief that the structure held.

She had called the Nature all around her to action since she arrived and still, all the spells she had cast—at the Third Circle—had not provided the best defense. She was glad that switching to Fourth Circle Magical defense turned out to be good enough.

Though it did confirm that the attacks of the Lizards—especially when they combined their blasts—were well past the Third Circle. Which meant that, if Aylin was to be believed and the pressure Nodes of the Lizards were now useless, the red energy not only made the Fire-cracking Lizards immune to paralysis but also increased their Danger Level by an entire star.

From Three-Star Beasts to Four-Star Beasts.

Just one star difference. But given how much of said difference Kaya had confirmed existed between the Third and Fourth Circles ever since her advancement, that single star boost was a significant concern.

Also, the trio of ladies soon learned that killing the Lizards was not so easy. The layer of red energy around the beasts made them very sturdy.

Hell, Aylin dropped a gigantic pillar of ice on about seven of the Beasts who were clumped quite close together. The spell was at the Fourth Circle and it hit with such force that the Beasts were practically drilled into three-foot deep holes.

There was a blast and an explosion destroyed the Pillar while the Lizards leaped out, got about six feet in the air—three feet above the actual surface since they started from a three-foot hole—and primed to shoot beams of fire at Aylin.

She reacted quickly with a defensive spell but the force still sent her spinning out of control yelling out in a loud and very irate voice,

"FUCK!!!"

Eloise noticed this and it confirmed a problem she was already facing. She had cast quite a bit of attacking spells already and the Lizards were shrugging it off. To make things worse, she had never quite cared about Combat Magic so she wasn't all that capable at Mana management.

When she had 'fought' Marcus Arognite, she hadn't been at all bothered with defensive actions. This time she needed to take defense seriously. And all of her defensive spells needed to be cast at the Fourth Circle—a magical level she was still new to—hence her speedy loss of Mana.

Even when she ditched defense and tried evasion, she needed to cast Fourth Circle movement spells because the Lizards, powered up as they were, and in such massive numbers, were capable of following her movements when she used Third Circle movement spells.

This meant that if she didn't want to run out of Mana and be at the mercy of the ugly things she just proclaimed a desire to kill—she was sure they'd understood her—she had to make every attack count.

Alas, when the beasts were shrugging off her attacks and not even passing out like the Burrowing Moles, this became a problem and hardly an effective strategy.

Eloise bit her lower lip then as she unleashed a musical tune ready to conjure a defensive spell. And then her eyes widened and twinkled when she remembered/realized she had just the thing to deal with her deficiency.

With that, the blast hit and she was enveloped in a thick black cloud of explosive smoke. The sound and the effect were so impactful that Kaya paused in her spell casting to stare in horror. She hadn't seen Eloise's defensive spell deploy on time for that collective blast.

"E-Eloise…" she said in a low voice.

And then she heard the boom of the explosion freeze in mid-air. It was a strange thing. She saw the cloud continue to roll and the power and effectiveness of the attack remained. But the sound that had accompanied it seemed to have been stripped away and gained form as a tune that distorted the air enough to be visible.

And then the tune was infused with Mana and became a musical note that unleashed a deep tremulous bass of sound that spread all about to strike the Lizards, vibrating right through their layers to smack them directly in the face like tiny little bitch-slaps that knocked them senseless.

From within the explosive cloud, a second sound played. A thrilling tune that accompanied the tremulous bass in a beautiful harmony. The harmonious sound became a field of Musical notes that dispersed the explosive cloud and revealed Eloise behind it.

Her eyes were wide and her expression was one of elation that she had managed that simultaneous move of defense and offense for a fraction of its usual Mana cost.

In her hands were the instruments that made it possible; Two Wands with glowing enchanting symbols.

Eloise took a moment to stare at the wands in her hands. She remembered how Caius had said he got her two in case one broke considering how more breakable wands are compared to staffs and other Arcane Tools. But then he had also said she could use both at the same time if she wanted.

At the time, Eloise had thought that the second part was wasteful thinking. Now she knew better…

One Wand for defense and another to attack. Together, they created harmony that not only reduced her burden of Mana costs but also created beautiful, powerful music.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.