Reidar lowered his wand, and the order snapped through the mental link between him and his summons with the force of a whip crack.

"Stand down," he said.

The sprites froze, and their elemental projectiles dissipated. The summons calmed and turned toward him.

A cold smirk curled Silas's voice in his mind. "Ah. You've realized your mistake."

The Archdeacon hadn't raised the barrier just to protect himself; he had raised it to harvest. Every fireball and every lightning bolt had been stripped of their destructive power and dispersed by the barrier, only for their mana to be absorbed by the magic circle.

<The circle's range is limited—that's why Silas is still here, why he hasn't wiped the city yet. He hasn't expanded its range yet, and that's why he is still working on it, but this doesn't mean it doesn't work.>

Reidar was trapped in a nightmare. Continuing the attack would mean Silas would use the already functioning components of the circle to gorge on the mana Reidar's strikes generated and level up.

But he couldn't retreat. If he retreated now, Silas would be free to leave the place. Lena, Jake, and the rest of the Spriggans were fighting the War Hounds, and if Silas went there, they would just die.

Not that he was in a different situation.

Reidar gritted his teeth. He had to keep Silas here, occupied and focused on him, yet he couldn't strike. He had to be a threat offering no power, a distraction that refused to be consumed.

"Smart boy," Silas's voice slithered into his mind again, laced with amusement. "But whatever you try to come up with won't save you. I can wait. The question is, can you?"

Reidar didn't respond to the taunt, forcing himself to remain calm. His gaze went to the building's foundations. The barrier shimmered aboveground, but the earth beneath…

That's when Reidar had an idea.

In the days leading up to this confrontation, he hadn't just been passively waiting; he had been grinding, pushing his skills and proficiencies to their limits based on the amount of time he had available.

While he couldn't raise every skill, he chose to focus on one that offered more survivability and that actually leaned on something else than mana: brute force. The Summon Twin Boulderbacks skill offered just that.

Reidar chose the Twin Boulderbacks for their strength. He had seen level-300 beasts tear lesser summons to pieces. Their mass let them endure what his creatures could not. So, he thought about doing the same, as the difference in tiers became so evident. The Boulderbacks were his only hope of buying time against such monsters.

Unlike his mana or elemental summons, the Twin Boulderbacks were engines of physical destruction. Their attacks didn't rely solely on mana but on the crushing weight of their bodies and the kinetic force of their massive limbs. Their bulk was a weapon in itself, capable of changing the area to his wishes.

And that was precisely what he needed now.

<If I can't break the barrier, I'll break the ground it stands on.>

Reidar reached out through his Skill Sharing trait, pushing the knowledge of the Summon Twin Boulderbacks skill into the minds of every capable creature under his command.

The ninety-six Elite Rift-Sprites grew stiff as the knowledge of the Summon Twin Boulderbacks skill flooded their minds. The Elite Rift-Sprites, the Spectral Mages, and even the Shadow Guardians then began to channel mana.

The ground groaned and cracked as hundreds of stone behemoths appeared.

First, it was two. Then four. Then eight. The skill cascaded through the horde. Within moments, the ground trembled as hundreds emerged. Reidar didn't give them the order to attack the barrier. Instead, he pointed down.

"Dig. Bring it all down."

They turned their massive fists toward the earth.

Stone shattered, soil flew, and deep trenches began to form, eating away at the stability of the land itself.

The foundations of nearby buildings were being ravaged, and the buildings themselves started creaking as the earth beneath them was ripped apart.

"What are you doing?"

The ground crumbled away in huge chunks as the Boulderbacks tore into the foundation.

"Stop!" Silas roared, his voice like thunder inside Reidar's head. "I'll gut you if you don't stop!"

Reidar's response was to incite his summons more. A deep, groaning crack echoed through the area, louder than any spell.

"Stop it!" Silas's voice held a note of genuine alarm. "Stop this madness, Reidar! Do you have any idea what you are doing?"

The earth beneath the church's base buckled, and a deep fissure raced across the area, splitting the stone like dry clay.

The building would not just tilt; it would implode as the supports snapped, and the massive concrete edifice would shear away from the bedrock, sliding into the crater Reidar's army had carved.

That was exactly what happened. The barrier flickered and then winked out as Reidar assumed Silas lost his focus.

Silas's scream of rage reached him. This time it wasn't telepathic. "YOU INSOLENT WORM! MONTHS OF PREPARATION! RUINED!"

Reidar felt it then—a surge of mana so potent his mouth flooded with the taste of copper. But it was mana, the one that came from gorging on the circle's stored energy. It made his skin crawl. He realized immediately that this wasn't just Silas losing his temper; it was a raw discharge of power that went beyond normal limits.

Reidar's chest tightened. He didn't need to look back to know what was happening. Silas was coming—powered by the very circle Reidar had just torn apart. He gave the Archdeacon what he needed. Fear locked his limbs for a second before survival instinct kicked in.

Reidar turned and sprinted. "To me!" he shouted, and a Feral Pack wolf reached him. Reidar vaulted onto its back. "Get us out of here!"

Four more wolves fell in around him as they tore through the ruined streets, a blur of desperate motion.

"Cover me!" Reidar shouted to his army, turning on his heel. He sprinted toward his Feral Pack, vaulting onto the back of a massive wolf.

He risked a glance back. From the boiling dust of the collapse, a figure emerged. Silas was royally pissed.

—[Silas Bishop—Level 370]—

Reidar's blood ran cold.

"Attack him! All of you, attack!" Reidar screamed the last order to his remaining summons, knowing it was a death sentence for them.

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.