Winnie waited patiently for a while. When she saw that the three remaining bandits produced no more military magic machinery or related equipment, she relaxed and prepared to deal with them.
Of course, she could not kill them all.
They were merely a handful of bandits, yet they possessed the most advanced military magic machinery currently available. Their background was anything but simple.
Even setting that aside, finding out how these four Individual Magic Shield Defense Devices had fallen into the bandits' hands was important in itself. As a researcher at the Xinfei Merchant Guild Magic Research Institute, Winnie had a duty to investigate.
But just as Winnie was about to act again, she suddenly heard a low voice above her.
"Hmph! Pinning my hopes on you useless fools really was a waste of time."
Along with the voice came an abnormal surge of mana overhead.
Alarm shot through Winnie, and she flew backward without hesitation.
The intensity of those mana fluctuations told her instantly that they came from a spell of at least the eighth level, perhaps higher-far beyond anything she could currently handle.
But she could not fly nearly as fast as the spell could strike. She had barely retreated any distance when she felt an intensely bright light rushing toward her.
In that split second, Winnie recognized it as an advanced wind magic spell: the eighth-level lightning magic spell, Lightning Blade.
Even among eighth-level spells, this one had exceptionally powerful single-target destructive force. As a Level Six Mage, Winnie would suffer serious injuries even if she managed to withstand it.
But the spell was so incredibly fast that she had no way to dodge.
In desperation, Winnie directed a thread of mana inward, quietly activating a device she had kept concealed against her body.
A pale blue