Not far off, a small hill stacked from the carcasses of every manner of monster loomed to one side, a shocking sight.
The great majority of the corpse pile lay charred black and curled in on itself, as if violent flames had licked it away in an instant, giving off a stomach-turning smell of char. A few of the rest had been sliced apart by some exceedingly sharp force with a master tailor's precision, their cut faces so unnervingly smooth.
The traces were plain to make out. Needless to say... this was the "masterpiece" left behind by Margaret's karmic flame and the mithril threads Irisviel controlled through her alchemical magic, Angel's Poem.
"Iri, Margaret, nice work!"
Laurier paid the monster corpses carpeting the ground no mind at all and threw the two of them a thumbs-up.
Irisviel wiped the fine sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, then, in thoroughly unladylike fashion, tipped her head back and guzzled down an entire Potion, only then heaving a long, blissful sigh:
"Ahh, I'm alive again! For a second there I thought my lungs were going to burst..."
Margaret was in much the same state.
Her hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to her forehead in a mess, her small face flushed red as she bent forward, hands braced on her knees, breathing hard.
"Margaret, here, drink a Potion and catch your breath."
A potion was held out in front of her, and Margaret didn't stand on ceremony; she yanked out the stopper and poured it down her throat.
"Whew... Iri, th-thank you..."
By the time the heat of battle had drained from the fighters and calm had retaken the high ground, they were all staring at the monster corpses blanketing the ground in disbelief, dumbstruck, scalps prickling...
"D-did we do this?"
Iri pointed at herself, disbelief written across her face, eyes gone wide.
Persephone pushed up her glasses and gave a soft laugh. "Of course."
...
As everyone knew, a Mage was often a party's single most crucial trump card.
In solo combat they might fall short of warriors. But in team combat, with someone shielding them, a Mage freed from any need to guard themselves, pouring every last scrap of focus into magic, could unleash firepower on a devastating scale.
After all, Magic by its very nature stood a full dimension above ordinary attacks.
Add Skills into the mix, and so long as the Mage's own attributes weren't complete garbage, and the magic they'd mastered wasn't some quick-cast job, one of those feeble "little spells" so weak they could double as an auto-attack, then in most cases they could deal terrifying damage a full level above their own.
As for high-potential prospects like Irisviel and Margaret, who would be earmarked for focused training even inside a major Familia, it went without saying.
Precisely because the two of them were capable of killing Lv.2 monsters, throughout this string of battles in the Great Tree Labyrinth, Leon and the other Lv.4s had almost never stepped in, confidently leaving the battlefield to Kureha at Lv.3, Laurier and Aura at Lv.2, and Irisviel and Margaret at Lv.1.
An arrangement like that had, of course, been settled beforehand. It preserved the core members' stamina and cut down on supply consumption, and better still, won the girls substantial real-combat training and a massive haul of Excelia.
"Leon, once you've got the Tree Dragon's gem, leave the cleanup to us. While we rest, take the time to update Iri's and the others' Basic Abilities."
Leon, still "gold panning" atop the Tree Dragon's carcass, answered without lifting his head:
"Your Revelation's acting up again? We cleared this wave barely a few minutes ago, and there's more?"
Jeanne sank to one knee, caught up a pinch of soil in her gauntleted fingers and rubbed it together, then rose, slapped her palms clean, and turned to Rose and Persephone:
"Get ready. My skill tells me the scale of this one is almost certainly a Monster Party... There's very likely a Strengthened Species hiding among them. No telling how long it's been lurking, or how many Magic Stones it's eaten by slipping through the chaos..."
At those words, everyone's expressions turned a shade graver.
Persephone drew back her hood, rested a pale hand from beneath her cloak on her sword hilt, and knit her brows slightly:
"What a nuisance. A lone Strengthened Species is one thing. The most repulsive kind is precisely this sort of cunning creature mixed into a massive horde of monsters."
That was what she said, but she wasn't afraid.
For their party, a Strengthened Species was, well, no big deal. At most it was a "nuisance" that would eat up some extra time, nowhere near the level of a "crisis."
After all... with four Lv.4 "big shots" in the party, they couldn't exactly swagger all over the Middle Floors, but strolling straight through was a given.
"Iri, there's no rush for you few. For now, focus on recovering your strength and Mind. Leave the rest to us."
Rose raised a hand to stop Aura and the others as they moved to act, then drew her sword and shield and took up position alone at the mouth of the narrow passage. Her eyes curved sweetly as she spoke softly, her tone as gentle and gracious as ever, like the older girl next door:
"My, my~~ Three days exploring the Great Tree Labyrinth, and I've spent them all drawing maps and cleaning up battlefields. It's about time I got to limber up a little myself, don't you think?"
Something in Rose's tone... for some reason sent a sudden shiver through Laurier.
Rose's smile is so devious.
So scary!
Just then, Leon, draped in his oversized cloak, leapt down from the giant Tree Dragon's carcass.
One hand cradling a basketball-sized Tree Dragon gem, he beamed:
"A Monster Party, hm? Fine by me. If I don't vent some Mind soon, it won't even be a question of full or not... it's about to overflow. Can't go wasting it."
Even before the words finished leaving his mouth, he snatched a handful of Magic Powder from the pouch at the small of his back, flung it into the air, and began loosing a series of low-voiced calls:
"Word of Truth: Endurance!"
"Strength Blessing!"
"Arcane Wisdom!"
"Frost Armor!"
"Ice clone!"
...
The flood tide of monsters funneled together by the Monster Party moved fast.
But too bad for them... Leon and the others had readied themselves even faster.
The instant the vanguard monsters came face to face with the group standing ready and waiting, what greeted them was magical bombardment, long since primed to loose!
"Blizzard!!"
A howling gale of biting wind and ice crystals rampaged through in an instant, transforming the passage into a domain of extreme cold.
A sharp crack!
The mushroom men, Killer Bees, and brown bears that had just charged into the blizzard's reach slowed visibly. Some unfortunates even had the "Freeze" effect trigger on them at random, sealed whole into blocks of ice, and were promptly crushed by the momentum of the beast tide surging in behind, bursting into ice crystal fragments that filled the sky.
...
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