Space-Based Cannon

The roar unleashed a sonic wave, mixed with snowflakes, that surged toward the crowd.

Rienta frowned and patted Stark on the shoulder.

A pale blue lotus flower, constructed from Magic Array Pattern, quietly appeared.

At this distance, they not only dodged Frieren's attack, but even charged towards them.

This wolf-like Magical Beast is somewhat capable, but not much.

At this moment, Stark had already charged towards the wolf-like Magical Beast.

Frieren and Fern attacked simultaneously, their [Ordinary Offensive Magic] generating beams of Mana that struck first despite being delayed.

However, the wolf-like Magical Beast was extremely agile, and with just a few leaps and turns, it dodged all the blazing beams of Mana.

Rienta didn't move; instead, she took a step back and stood behind the group.

It wasn't that he was slacking off; it was because before arriving in this area, Frieren had instructed him to give the fighting opportunities to Fern and Stark as much as possible.

Fern and Stark both agreed to the plan.

Given the opportunity to legitimately slack off, Rienta naturally wouldn't refuse.

On the battlefield.

A man and a wolf are engaged in a fierce battle.

Stark kept swinging his Poleaxe, but to little avail.

Despite its massive size, the wolf-like Magical Beast was surprisingly fast, managing to not only engage in close combat with Stark but also perfectly evade Fern's [Ordinary Offensive Magic].

Seeing that his attacks couldn't touch the wolf-like Magical Beast at all, Stark gritted his teeth and unleashed a beam of golden light from his Poleaxe.

[Sky-Splitting Strike]!

The wolf-like Magical Beast seemed to have anticipated this, and with a slight exertion of its limbs, it easily dodged the attack.

He twisted his entire body and kicked at Stark.

Bang!!

A deafening roar erupted, sending up clouds of dust.

Seeing that it had failed to kick the human in front of it away, the wolf-like Magical Beast was clearly stunned for a moment.

Immediately afterwards, beams of Mana energy rained down on the area.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Flying in the sky, Rienta silently added a name to Fern's attack in her mind.

[Acacia Rainstorm].

It applies a saturation-style [Ordinary Offensive Magic] coverage at a frequency of dozens of times per second.

But soon, Rienta realized something was wrong.

Besides the torrential rain of Mana beams, there was also a slow-moving beam of Mana rushing towards the cloud of smoke.

It happens roughly once every two seconds.

Rienta turned her head and looked at Frieren was trying her best to look serious.

"..."

Isn't this paddling a little too obvious?

Rienta wanted to offer a reminder, but then she thought that it had already been agreed beforehand that Fern and Stark would be the main force in this battle.

Although it wasn't explained beforehand, Fern should be able to understand, right?

Just then, Frieren was slacking off, also looked at Rienta.

Their eyes met briefly before instantly looking away.

'Strange, these are clearly two people slacking off staring at each other, but why does it give off the feeling of being caught slacking off?'

Rienta coughed lightly and refocused her gaze on the center of the battlefield.

Holding Poleaxe, Stark stared intently at the wolf-like Magical Beast in the distance, his body surrounded by pale blue lotus flowers formed from Mana array patterns.

The wolf-like Magical Beast had retreated to a distance, its green light growing ever brighter, and its long whiskers swaying gently in the night breeze.

The battle was silent for only a moment.

After seeing that the wolf-shaped Magical Beast could not break the [Rho Aias], Stark charged forward once again.

Unlike before, this time he completely abandoned defense, and every attack was aimed at the wolf-like Magical Beast's vital points.

After making a few more probing attacks, Fern flew to Frieren and Rienta's side.

"It can read our Mana reactions."

"They are indeed a bit difficult to deal with."

Frieren verbally agreed with Fern, but her hands continued to slowly and steadily release [Ordinary Offensive Magic] every two seconds.

"..."

Fern looked at Rienta on the other side with a hint of helplessness.

He noticed that Fern's gaze had fallen on him.

Rienta pointed to the sky.

Fern blinked, then immediately understood, and shouted loudly towards the center of the battlefield:

"Stark, run!"

Having said that, Fern stopped watching the battle below and began to fly into the sky.

On the ground.

Stark narrowly escaped the wolf-like Magical Beast once again.

One side boasts high speed, the other high defense.

Neither of them could injure the other, and for a time the battle was very close.

Leave it to me!

Stark didn't quite understand why they had to run, but he trusted Fern.

Taking advantage of the moment when Stark was replying, the wolf-like Magical Beast suddenly pounced forward, opening its ferocious maw, attempting to swallow Stark whole.

As soon as Stark turned around, he saw the wolf's fangs, which were already closing.

But he wasn't worried at all; instead, he started to gather his strength on his own.

Time seemed to slow down.

Stark exhaled a puff of white air, gripped the axe handle with both hands, and then slashed fiercely at the wolf-like Magical Beast's upper jaw.

As the golden light flashed, a sound of metal clashing rang out, Stark could even see the sparks generated when the axe handle and the wolf fangs collided.

Without pausing, he used the recoil from the collision to swing his Poleaxe in a circular motion in the opposite direction, aiming once again at the wolf-like Magical Beast's head.

"[Double Sky-Splitting Strike]!"

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

As someone who frequently sparred with Stark, Rienta was naturally able to see all of this clearly.

But when it comes to dealing with it, he really can't think of any other way besides [Intangibility].

The same applies to wolf-shaped Magical Beast.

It saw it clearly, but precisely because it saw it clearly, its body reacted a beat too slowly.

The wolf-like Magical Beast let out a mournful howl, its massive body suddenly turning around, not only dodging Frieren's Mana beam but also creating distance between itself and Stark.

A deep, bone-revealing gash appeared on the wolf's head.

The two bright green eyes that once shone were now reduced to one.

"Roar!"

The wolf-like Magical Beast let out a deafening roar.

The meaning behind it is obvious to anyone.

Without hesitation, Stark turned and ran.

The wolf-like Magical Beast now only had eyes for Stark.

With limbs slightly bent, he suddenly exerted force, and his entire massive body transformed into a streak of light as he charged forward.

In the sky.

Rienta watched the chase below, leaned close to Frieren, and whispered:

"Lady Frieren, if you continue to slack off under these circumstances, be careful Fern might get angry!"

Frieren sighed, muttering something under her breath.

But at the same time, dozens of Magic Array Pattern appeared around him.

Intense beams of Mana emerged from it, shooting straight at the wolf-shaped Magical Beast below.

In terms of scale and frequency alone, it is no less than the previous [Acacia Rainstorm] of Fern.

High in the sky.

The people below had become nothing more than tiny black dots in Fern's eyes.

Only the beams of Mana were unusually conspicuous.

Fern let out a long breath and pointed his Staff at the wolf-like Magical Beast that was running below.

A massive Magic Array Pattern appeared at the tip of the Staff.

Below, Frieren, noticing that Fern was already prepared, smiled slightly.

Beams of Mana shot toward the wolf-like Magical Beast at an even faster rate.

The wolf-like Magical Beast was overwhelmed and could only frantically dodge.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Stark stopped running and turned to slash at the wolf-like Magical Beast.

The wolf-like Magical Beast leaped and landed high on a boulder.

"It's over."

Rienta and Frieren exchanged a glance and landed together beside Stark on the ground.

Even faster than the two of them was an attack from Fern.

A massive beam of Mana, nearly ten meters long, enveloped the wolf-shaped Magical Beast above the rock.

This time, the wolf-like Magical Beast didn't have time to react.

Along with the boulder, it vanished into the beam of Mana.

As Rienta landed on the ground, she unleashed [Rho Aias] to block the swirling snowflakes, silently adding the name of the attack to her mind.

[Space-Based Cannon].