Feeling the pulse of energy coming from behind, Brance looked away from the Kobold soldiers crowd and towards the Sanfords in surprise. Although their Evolution to Tier-1 wasn’t nearly as flashy as what he and Cynrik had undergone, Brance could tell it was still significant.
Gabby and Benny opened their eyes simultaneously and proceeded to stare at their hands in stunned silence. They were fully aware of the difference of power between beings of Tier-0 and Tier-1, but they never realized it would be this big. The main thing they both noticed was something Cynrik and Brance would have if they weren’t such overachievers.
All of their Stats had risen to their cap, a perk of reaching Level 20 Prestige. However, since the brothers had already hit that milestone beforehand, they were left unaware of this forceful Stat increase.
Seeing their confused faces, Brance stepped in, “Hey, both of you quickly choose your Class, Gabby, Archer, Benny Warrior; we all have an obscene amount of XP pooled up and waiting, so don’t level up anything individually yet.”
Breaking out of their illusions, the two Sanfords quickly nodded and started scrolling through their system panels, searching for their pre-established classes, leaving Brance to redirect himself to the meat wall of lizards slamming their bodies against his [Shield Wall].
Although it had only taken a few short seconds for Gabby and Benny to Evolve to Tier-1 and subsequently get scolded by Brance, in that time, the Mana Barrier had lost over 10k HP, forcing Brance to keep adding in small bursts of Mana to repair it. With each body slamming itself against the dome, it would lose around 20-50 HP, do that 30-40 times, and it starts adding up. The constant drain of MP was even leaving Brance woozy, causing him to dig his toes into the solid ground underfoot to keep stable.
Knowing it was only a matter of time before they got through, Brance sent off one more desperate call into the mind link.
[I can only hold out for another two minutes at best, Cyn.]
Cynrik was sprinting full speed in his party’s direction when he heard this. ‘Now or never, I guess.’ Still not emotionally recovered, Cynrik withdrew his final two Mana potions and chugged them down, bringing him back up to 80%. Taking in a slow breath and willing the newly formed Fire Mana in his Codex towards his feet, Cynrik stomped the ground, creating a small shockwave, and launched himself into the air like the Hulk. Only instead of solely relying on his physical strength, thin spouts of flames erupted from the soles of his feet, propelling him higher into the air.
[Coming in hot, look up.]
Cynrik’s eyes quickly located the small dome of Mana which was protecting his party, as well as the tidal wave of reptilian bodies slamming themselves against it like fools.
[When I say, drop your skill, and cushion my landing with Wind Mana, I need to preserve what little I have left to get us into the Shadow Realm.]
At first, Cynrik’s words confused Brance until, out the corner of his eye, he spotted him a hundred meters up in the sky with a thin trail of fire coming out of his feet.
[The fuck, are you flying?] Brance had seen his brother jump by propelling himself with Fire Mana before, during the Physical Exams, but he hadn’t gone nearly as high, fast, or far.
[NOPE, JUST FALLING WITH STYLE! GET READY TO CATCH ME!] Cynrik was yelling into the mind link unintentionally, the loud howl of wind smacking his ears distorting his perception temporarily.
[SHIT!] “Gabby, Benny, get ready, look…its…a bird, it’s a plane.”
Gabby immediately spotted Cynrik as he flew through the sky thanks to her [Eagle Eye] and couldn’t help but correct Brance, not getting the reference her crush made. “Um, Brancie, isn’t that Cynrik.”
Clicking his tongue and ignoring the little girl who just called him out, Brance spun around, ignoring the Kobolds, and kicked at the ground two paces to his left and one behind, forming an X on the hard stone. “Guys, listen up, I want Benny to make a thick [Water Sphere] and Gabby to assist me with [Telekinesis], my idiot brother is dropping from the sky like a rock, and we need to catch him. X marks the spot he’s gunna land; Benny, start forming your sphere on the X, keep it about my height.”
As Brance spoke, his eyes trailed after Cynrik, who was approaching in the air rapidly.
[How do you wanna do this, Cyn? Are you breaking the dome, or am I gunna drop it?]
High above the ground, Cynrik’s eyes narrowed. Brance’s concerns were warranted. From his vantage point, he could see his brother marking the projected point of impact before saying something to the Sanfords.
‘He’s running low on MP, so he is putting them to work. Brance probably wants Benny to use [Water Sphere] as a crash pad while reducing my speed with Wind Mana and Gabby’s [Telekinesis]; it’s a good idea, in theory; still, gunna hurt a bit, but whatever, ain’t nothin a potion or two can’t fix. Worst-case scenario, I can use a sudden burst of air myself.’
Without Brance saying a word, Cynrik accurately determined his younger brother’s plot and could see no fundamental flaws except a single glaringly obvious one. The Mana dome.
[Are you able to open specified portions?] Extending his arms and twisting his body at the peak of his climb, Cynrik adjusted his body midair, hovering in place for half a second thanks to his inertia, before angling his body into a downward dive.
[Uhhh, I think I can open it…gimmie a second.] Brance focused his vision on a single tiny point at the top of the dome. Slowly his right hand slid along the handle of his shield, and he willed a fist-size hole to open up. In doing this, he was basically replicating the sensations he felt when he pushed MP into the dome to strengthen it.
Gabby and Benny watched in awe as Brance slid the energy away from the chosen portion and moved it towards where the Kobolds were attacking with a wave-like ripple of energy.
[Yeah, I can open a hole but are you gunna be able to hit the point. Pretty sure I can open the whole ceiling; the main thing will be if you can hit the X I made, haha.] Brance stressfully chuckled; he was just ready for this hellacious day to be over so he could go to bed.
[Bitch, I can use FIRE AND WIND, you think I can’t land on a manhole cover sized X on the ground, tsk. Just be ready to catch my dumbass. Also, when you open up the top, redirect all that excess Mana into the areas they are hitting and disperse it in a shockwave. Let’s give them a little fright before we vanish from sight.]
Cynrik smirked as he made his descent. Below he could faintly hear the shouts and growls of the nearly 50 bodies who were repeatedly slamming either themselves or weapons against the Mana dome. Cynrik’s eyes traced an imaginary line to his destination; meanwhile, his fingers never stopped moving. Each finger twitch caused a small burst of Wind or Fire Mana to shoot out his fingertip at random intervals, slightly correcting his course.
[Ready up, time to impact, 13 seconds, open the hatch in 10.] Slowing down his breathing and clearing all useless thoughts, Cynrik informed Brance to get ready.
“12 seconds, Benny form the sphere now, Gabby on my mark.”
[11.] Cynrik began his countdown and watched a person-sized ball of water manifest inside the dome, to which he adjusted his course, picking it as the landing zone.
“10.” Brance looked up and began channeling the Mana surging around him to move to the front of the dome.
[9.] Clenching his fists tightly and extending his arms forward, Cynrik rocketed down to the ground like Superman.
“8, Start forming your Mana Gabby, 7.”
Gabby responded by bringing her hands up and squinting. Her actions caused three round disks to appear in a tower-like formation, one on top of the other, and by opening her arms vertically, they got into place above her brother’s [Water Sphere]. Unlike what Brance had asked, she chose to use [Floating Disk]. Although the skill was meant to create stable footholds, she could easily adjust them and repurpose them. In this case, she had thinned them to their extreme, allowing them to be used as a tool for slowing down forward momentum.
“6, Gabby add one more Disk, 5, 4.” Seeing Gabby veer off course from his initial plan didn’t bother Brance too much, as he quickly realized her idea was better than simply trying to catch Cynrik.
Gabby exhaled loudly, with sweat running down her forehead due to exertion, and she created a fourth Disk.
[3, these bastards don’t even realize something is happening, 2.] Cynrik grinned evilly while lining himself up ideally before shouting at his brother.
[NOW!]
Clenching his teeth, Brance held up one hand over his head and grabbed at the air before thrusting his arm forward as if throwing a baseball. The dome’s top suddenly slid off like the sunroof of a car and slammed into place at the front of the dome, effectively reinforcing it. Then using the same hand, Brance willed what little Mana he had left into an air current and directed it towards the rapidly approaching figure of Cynrik, 20 meters above.
SPLASH
For the first time, everything went according to plan. Cynrik slammed into the air current, reducing his speed by 1/3 before hitting the tower of four Disks, which brought his pace all the way down from terminal velocity, 240-290 km/h, to 15km/h, and with a splash, he landed, coming to a complete stop thanks to the ball of water.
But that wasn’t the end of things; seeing his brother touch down unharmed, Brance lifted his shield from its resting place and violently thrust it forward while running two steps towards the edge of the dome. In doing so, the dome broke apart, minus the portion in front of the party, exploding it outward, knocking every one of the Kobolds, including the leader, back several paces and onto their butts.
Cynrik quickly kicked off the ground and out of the sphere heading to Brance, grabbing both Gabby and Benny along the way before casting [Shadow Leap].
“Later, Lizzys. (Parfaus Lizzys)” But not before sneering at the dumbfounded Kobolds and leaving some parting words translated to Slants.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong Fam. PS Check out the Discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg
Current Power Stones 166
250 Power Stones 1 Bonus Chapter (Incomplete)
500 Powerstones 2 Bonus Chapter (Incomplete)
750 Power Stones 3 Bonus Chapters (Incomplete)
1000 Power Stones 4 Bonus Chapters (Incomplete)