As the Astraea Familia's resident strategist, Lyra had already picked up on the unknowns and anomalies behind all of this while her companions were still mesmerized by Jeanne's powerful magic.
Especially after she'd finished piecing together every piece of reality-defying intel Leon's team had displayed. Beyond the envy and astonishment, she felt a chill that went past anything she could rationalize.
Anomalous.
Unknown.
Terrifying.
A depth she couldn't see the bottom of, like staring into an abyss.
...
...
Leon's nuclear fireball had thrown the entire Water Labyrinth into chaos.
The ground split, the ceiling crumbled, and towering waves crashed everywhere. The Monster Rex, thrashing wildly through the water in agony, churned up surge after surge, plunging the entire cavern into total pandemonium.
When the turbulence finally eased, everyone watched the slowly dissipating smoke and dust with grim expressions.
Waves lapped against the embankment one after another. As Amphisbaena gradually regained its bearings, the surges subsided, leaving only the sea of fire from the nuclear blast still roaring across the surface.
Rose raised her shield at the very front of the barrier, amber eyes locked onto the black dragon silhouette thrashing and rolling through the flames on the water, vigilant every second for the two-headed dragon's counterattack.
She didn't believe for a second that a single charged and chanted Fireball from Leon could empty a Level 6 Monster Rex's health bar, let alone when Amphisbaena was the only dragon species among all the Monster Rexes.
A Monster Rex's massive body granted it absurdly high vitality, and on top of that, the unique properties of a dragon species pushed its stats nearly an entire tier above other monster types.
That was exactly why Rose judged the thing was absolutely not dead. At most, that hit had left it critically wounded, but nowhere near enough to strip it of combat capability.
Sure enough, the calm lasted less than three seconds.
The next instant, an earth-shaking dragon roar erupted from the sea of fire, Amphisbaena's fury given voice.
Two long serpentine necks rose from the flames, and the massive red slit-pupils of its dragon heads locked onto the insects inside the barrier through the steam. A wave of savage, violent pressure exploded from its body.
Its tail lashed the water, shattering the waves. Both heads reared back, its chest swelled, and cyan sparks lit up between its fangs once more.
"Amphisbaena's counterattacking!"
"Jeanne, crank it up! Reinforce the barrier! Dragon breath incoming!"
"I see it!"
Jeanne sucked in a deep breath. Her eyes hardened with absolute resolve as she let out a sharp shout, golden magic power detonating from her body.
The Banner Lance's crest flag, whipping in the wind, transformed entirely into a stream of golden light. The barrier shielding everyone thickened visibly, losing its former transparency and taking on a dense, heavy solidity.
Even its color shifted, bright gold darkening to a severe, deep gold.
"Brace yourselves! Incoming breath attack!"
Leon's warning hadn't even finished when the cyan dragon breath slammed head-on into Jeanne's barrier.
The impact hit like a cannon shot.
"HAAAAAAH!" Jeanne screamed, pouring everything she had into the spell.
"Hold the line!"
Amphisbaena's rage-fueled cyan breath blazed like a furnace cranked to maximum output, warping the air with its heat.
The thundering stream of fire hammered against Jeanne's magic barrier without pause, sending golden ripples cascading across its surface.
As time dragged on and the two-headed dragon realized this level of firepower couldn't crush the insects, its jaws swelled again. The output spiked, and the breath began shifting from cyan to white.
Seeing that, Jeanne's expression changed. She was already straining.
At the end of the day, she was only a fresh Level 3. Even with Holy Maiden boosting her to a permanent Level 4 baseline, the gap between that and a Level 6 Monster Rex was enormous. The fact that she hadn't been instantly overwhelmed by an attack driven by raw emotion was already impressive as hell.
"Jeanne, let me help."
Rose pulled the Golden Oath amplification aura back from beneath everyone's feet and onto herself.
The Astraea Familia members blinked in confusion, wondering if Rose had run out of Mind and couldn't sustain the spell anymore. Then, the next instant, Rose's maneuver left them absolutely floored.
Rose switched Golden Oath from group amplification to individual amplification mode, instantly applying the massive enhancement to herself. But she wasn't done. Using the spell's friendly-target amplification mechanic as a bridge, she transferred the single-target massive enhancement aura from herself to Jeanne under her own precise control.
The result: Jeanne, with a base of Level 3, now had both Holy Maiden and Golden Oath stacking on top of each other, rocketing her effective stats to Level 5.
The magic barrier, already buckling under the dragon breath, visibly thickened and stabilized. The sheer weight of security radiating from it left everyone speechless, Leon included.
Leon stared at Jeanne and Rose pulling off that ridiculous combo and completely lost it.
He sat there for a long moment, but since he'd never been the eloquent type, all he managed in the end was two words:
"Holy shit."
He'd never expected this. He'd always figured Jeanne was a... well, a utility tank. Her main role in the team was command, soaking hits, threat detection, and protecting teammates.
As for actual combat power, he'd never set his expectations high. Whether you looked at her innate abilities, her personality, or her general approach, she wasn't some battle-junkie berserker type. The fact that she could permanently fight one level above her own was already past what he'd hoped for.
But it had never crossed his mind that Jeanne and Rose, these two frontline tanks, could pull off a combo that pushed their effective power up by two whole levels.
Since when could Jeanne hit Level +2 combat power outside of her self-destruct skill?
Even Leon himself couldn't manage a +2 level hexagon build without charging up first.
As for raw damage output, with his stats maxed at 1599 across four categories plus skill amplification, Leon's magic attack power didn't quite span a full two levels above his own. But 1.9999 levels? Definitely. And if he added charge time on top of that...
...
...