After hearing her friend's answer, Ryuu stared silently at the fireball streaking toward the two-headed dragon and voiced the question on everyone's mind.
"Can you even still call that a rapid-cast spell?"
"Last time we saw him, his Fireball was already way beyond spec, but it wasn't anywhere close to the level of long-chant or super-long-chant wide-area annihilation magic."
"But now..."
As blinding white light illuminated the entirety of Water City, they threw up their arms, squeezed their eyes shut, and ducked their heads, bracing against the shockwave of searing heat.
"Monster!"
...
If Leon had heard her question, he'd have fired back with that shit-eating grin of his:
"Well let me ask you this. I didn't use a Chant, so why wouldn't it count as rapid-cast?"
But the battle was raging at its peak, so he obviously had no time to spare for the peanut gallery.
Otherwise he absolutely would have gotten a line in, just to mess with Alise's head.
Center of the battlefield.
Leon's nuclear strike landed dead center. With an earsplitting roar, the two-headed dragon was instantly swallowed by the terrifying blaze.
There was no need to confirm visually. The sheer agony in Amphisbaena's shriek, its voice cracking and warping, told everyone exactly how devastating that hit had been.
If they could see its health bar, they'd have watched a massive chunk vanish in an instant.
...
Rolling thunder shook the entire floor.
As everyone knew, Floors 25, 26, and 27 formed a special tri-level structure.
If the massive shockwave was causing large-scale seismic activity on the lowest level, Floor 27, the floors above weren't getting off easy either.
The shockwave kicked up towering waves. Waterfalls reversed their flow, channels overflowed wildly, and the embankments were submerged in moments. The entire Water City shuddered violently.
From the ceiling above, thick roots and debris from the upper Great Tree Labyrinth broke loose and rained down. Rocks, broken timber, and all manner of jungle detritus came pouring down like a monsoon, hammering into the pools and smashing against the embankments.
Leon's party and the Astraea Familia members alike were caught in the chaos, everyone scrambling to dodge the barrage falling from the sky.
That was when Jeanne drove her Banner Lance into the ground, stepped forward, and took the opening stance for deploying her barrier.
"Everyone, rally on me!"
Leon caught her movement out of the corner of his eye and understood instantly.
"O my banner, protect my brethren!"
"Luminosité Eternelle!"
A golden sacred barrier erupted outward, walling off the cascading rubble and rotting roots.
Not stopping there, Jeanne noticed the Astraea Familia members scrambling toward them in disarray. Her eyes flashed. Without any visible extra effort, she refined her mental energy into a massive surge of magic power, and the already imposing golden barrier expanded outward again, doubling its radius in seconds.
Sensing Jeanne's intent, Leon braced against the shockwave while channeling True Essence of All Magic to charge his next spell. He turned and shouted to the Astraea Familia.
"Alise, get inside Jeanne's barrier!"
Seeing that golden shield holding back every piece of falling debris, every tongue of flame, every wave of water, and every chunk of stone, Alise snapped to attention.
"Everyone, pick up the pace! Faster!"
"Yes!"
One after another, they splashed through the flooding waters. As the entire labyrinth quaked around them, Alise and her group finally dove inside the barrier a split second before a massive rotting root came crashing down from the ceiling where they'd been standing.
The enormous root from the Great Tree Labyrinth above plummeted at terrifying speed.
Its shadow blanketed the entire water surface and embankment almost instantly.
Then it hit.
A deep, thunderous impact shook the earth, and even inside the barrier the tremor was unmistakable.
Leon's reflexes kicked in and he caught Kaguya, who'd just rushed in and hadn't found her footing yet, steadying her before she could stumble from the shaking.
"Careful. Get your balance."
Kaguya's cheeks flushed pink. She caught the teasing glances from her companions and hastily shook off Leon's hand, hurriedly adjusting her damaged kimono to cover the exposed skin at her shoulder and neck, keeping her head down so no one could see the flustered look in her eyes.
"Kaguya, tsk tsk tsk..."
"And you said there's nothing going on between you two!"
"Ohhhhh..."
"Heh."
They hadn't bothered keeping their voices down, so everyone inside the barrier heard every word. Jeanne, Rose, Kureha, and Persephone, even in the middle of danger, couldn't resist glancing at Kaguya. Seeing her with her lips pressed tight and her hands clutching her collar, the women all understood perfectly.
"Hehe."
Jeanne shot Leon a knowing smile, then her expression went serious. She turned away from him and poured all her focus into refining magic power to reinforce the barrier.
Debris kept raining down from the tangled roots above, impact after impact, but no matter how violent the hits, they only sent faint ripples across Luminosité Eternelle's surface without budging it an inch.
Watching Jeanne standing there gripping her Banner Lance like a valkyrie, the Astraea Familia members couldn't hide their envy.
"A super-rare wide-area defensive barrier spell, and the strength and range are this high..."
"I'm kind of jealous, not gonna lie..."
"A large-scale barrier spell like this... I think only Lady Riveria in all of Orario has one?"
"Didn't expect Demeter Familia to be hiding one too."
Listening to her companions murmur, Alise, Lyra, and Ryuu exchanged looks, revising their assessment of Leon's team upward yet again. Their absurd leveling speed and ridiculous combat power had already been enough to turn heads, but who would have guessed even their magic was this far beyond the norm?
Devastating frontline combat ability, massive group-wide buffs, wide-area debuff curses, and now a top-tier defensive barrier on top of their insane growth potential...
They're a team with zero weaknesses. A perfect hexagon...
What the hell happened to them in less than a year? Where did Leon and his people even come from? I've never heard a single thing about any of them before. Tch...
Sensing the complications all of this implied, the Pallum girl furrowed her brow.
What a pain...
...
...
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