Supreme Monarch

Kylyra charged at the group of around eleven more frost salamanders that had appeared from underneath the earth with her battle ax raised high above her head like a hammer of justice, or something. Just like the last time, she sent power to her legs and leap up almost as though she had freed herself from the restraints of gravity, and her weapon was suddenly engulfed in a pinkish-red flame.

°Frenzy Crash.°

BOOM!

Gravity once again laid claims to her body as she crashed back down to earth in an impact that sent shockwaves of pink flames all around her. Just like the last time she had used the skill, the target of her blade had been crushed under the force of such a devastating attack. The pink flames that had gusted out of the impact had also sent the other frost salamanders into a frenzy driven by nothing but their bloodlust.

They instantly ignored their previous targets and dashed towards the succubus in what most would consider staggering speed. Anne quickly cast 'protection blessings' on Kylyra again and several more enhancement spells and also boosted her cold resistances just as a few frost salamanders had blasted her with their freezing breaths.

While she could now resist the freezing effects of the attack, she still took damage and because Anne's Mana reserves were important to her survival. She would not cast healing spells on Kylyra as it took a lot of mana and Kylyra had the racial skill. 'Self Heal.'

As soon as her body began its healing process, Kylyra charged in again at the approaching horde of monsters with a wild smile on her face.

"Alright, let's dance."

Her bat-like wings flapped a few times and her body shot up just as two frost salamanders were about to crash into her. If she had an effective long-range attack, it would've been a good idea to launch an aerial assault on the land-based creatures from above.

However, all her skills and abilities were meant for close combat. She hovered in the air for only a few seconds before deciding on her next course of action. Dohel didn't seem like he could go on any longer and she needed to be the one to take care of the rest of these monsters. 

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Her pink flames held no burning effects and thus, was an ineffective attack against these monsters whose only weakness was fire. To make up for their lack of Dohel's fire abilities, she would need to be extra creative.

"Psychokinesis."

Using her only ranged spell, she caused a psychic attack on the monsters. Although the skill did not work well on non-humanoid creatures, it should still be able to buy her a few seconds to get her bearings as she prepared her next strings of attacks.

However, her feet were yet to touch the ground when she noticed from the corner of her eyes that the monsters were still charging straight at her and had even gotten within range to send a claw strike at her.

It would seem, her spell had been immediately resisted as the monsters had already surrounded her even with the interference of Larut and Aine's long-range attacks.

'Shit, what happened.' Kylyra was confused, that spell would last a full ten seconds on humanoid creatures of her level so even if these were just monsters. They were still a full level weaker than her and should still be affected for at least 3-5 seconds.

She hastily avoided the razor-sharp claws that were launched at her and tried to use the spell once more.

-Failure. 

Without a moment's rest, the monsters all assaulted her with multiple claw strikes and bites.

She flapped her wings again and used the increased maneuverability of flight to avoid most of the attacks. Only take the ones that were not fatal as her body continuously healed itself. 

She tried to cast a different spell on the closest Frost salamander but her mind suddenly felt burred as she noticed that her spirit was somehow in a weakened state and she could no longer control her mana enough to use any type of spell.

Thinking of the reason why such a thing was happening to her, her head suddenly felt hot and she instantly felt irritated as she quickly realized why. Her eyes narrowed as she briefly glared at the cloaked man seated peacefully on the carriage. It was his fault. 'Damn it, why did I listen to Dohel, that idiot.'

As succubi were beings of pure lust, creatures that reject their lust can metaphysically harm them. She hadn't realized it earlier because she hadn't engaged in any illicit activities in so long as she could usually make do by eating good food but when the hooded man had rejected her advances in the restaurant even after she had used her, sexual Inducement racial trait.

The shock had definitely damaged her and because she could not use the skill, Lust Empowerment with food, and also hadn't bothered to have sex with anyone since then. She was unable to recover on her own and this was the result.

Kylyra gritted her teeth and raised her ax to meet the maw of the frost salamander about to bite her head off. Blocking its bite attack, she slammed it to the ground while trying to fend off the others. 

Larut no longer used his bow as he drew his short blade and charged in to help Kylyra from being completely surrounded. Aine also used her dark vines to restrict the movements of a few of the monsters.

With Dohel still unable to stand, Anne needed to now occasionally attack with fireball which was the only effective attack against the fast and nimble frost salamanders that had an incredible amount of durability and various other resistances to other elemental attacks.

The battle was more of a brawl at this point and the party was finding it hard to take a breath. Anne was running low on Mana and she did not have the time to use a recovery potion which was actually quite expensive. Although the price paled in comparison to her life.

The group was struggling to stay alive but their experience and adequate teamwork even without their leader had allowed them to reduce the frost salamanders numbers to less than five which had lessened the pressure on them a little. 

Suddenly though, several mounds of snow shot up from behind them, and around six more frost salamanders came out from underneath the earth and immediately lunged at them.

"Damn it, not again." 

Larut couldn't help but yell in frustration. As the only ranger in the group, it was his job to always be aware of the situation around them as well as the enemy's location and numbers. So the fact that he could not sense these ambushing Frost salamanders frustrated him to no end.

"Aine use a defensive spell."

"Sorry, I'm out of mana."

"Damn it!"

"I'll intercept them, Larut, cover me."

"Huh... I'll try."

Sigh... "While this was somewhat educational, it's about time to put an end to it, wouldn't you agree?"

For a moment, the party hadn't been able to tell where that voice had originated from, but they soon mentally traced its location and naturally, it was the mysterious merchant know as Lix whose strength was still a mystery to them.

He spoke with such a calm and casual tone that it made them feel like he had only been watching a bunch of idiots play around in the snow. Larut wanted to refute the voice saying something along the lines of, we would be able to handle it ourselves. However, he immediately caught a glimpse of Anne and Aine who were breathing heavily with some level of difficulty as they were almost completely exhausted.

Before he could even think further, the man known as Lix raise an arm and spoke once more, this time, his words only compromised of the incantations of a spell:

"Overtier Max Magic - Flaming Arrows."

Larut, Aine, and Anne were stunned. They were well aware of the hidden strength of the mysterious merchant known as Lix but had assumed he would be a warrior-type fighter based on his incredibly high physical strength.

However, reality had been a completely different story as it turns out that he was also capable of using magic. Still, they felt a bit of confusion about his choice of spell. It was indeed true that the frost salamanders were incredibly weak against flames and fire-based attacks, but, the flaming Arrows spell was just a spell that summons a few arrows at a time.

While he could kill at least one of the frost salamanders with that, it would only serve to piss the others off and that might cancel out Kylyra's crowd controls skill's effect, which would only serve to make things more difficult for them.

Perhaps he could only use low-tier spells and was only serving as a distraction for his partner Nadine who seemed to be a relatively high magic caster herself. Although she had two halves of a bo-staff strapped to her waist which would suggest that she was also adept at fighting.

Kylyra was in the midst of a brutal and exhausting battle with several large frost salamanders when she heard the spell the mysterious Lix was about to cast. She held no hope in it being of any use in their current situation and she didn't feel like anything would change unless he came down personally to help. 

She quickly prepared her skill, Frenzy Crash as a precaution against the inevitable backlash that would create several uncontrolled rampaging frost salamanders. If they were allowed to run rampant without anyone to directly aim their bloodlust against.

However—

What happened next sent chills down their spines and their throats went dry. The rarely bright and sunny winter day has further illuminated the sky in a constellation of arrows. 

The sky was lit up by hundreds of flaming arrows that had just appeared out of thin air. It was something that did not seem possible even from a high-tiered spell and yet, here it was.

With a wave of his hands, the arrows flew like they had minds of their own, and not even the tough scales of the frost salamanders could protect them from the onslaught. The arrows penetrated their skin like hot knife through butter and every single fronts salamander on the battlefield was instantly covered in holes as they dropped down to the down lifelessly.

"How... How is this possible." 

Larut voice was shaky as he asked that question even though he did not expect a response. The girls around him didn't seem to understand how one had created hundreds of flaming arrows with a basic Tier 2 spell.

"... Amazing."

Naturally, the ones most affected by this were the two girls who specialized in magic and understood it way better than him. The twins Aine and Anne were of course, dumbfounded. They were aware of what a metamagic was and what the overtiered meta magic was used for.

"That was incredible, way beyond what our master can do."

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"Agreed, this is the first time I've ever seen something so simple and yet I can't even understand it."

It was common knowledge that one needed to have a vast amount of mana reserve to be able to use it. However, they were off the impression that it could only increase the strength of a spell by a single tier. Yet, what they saw now had defiled everything they had thought was possible.

"Are you lot alright? You all look a little pale."

"Huh, yeah— um... thank you."

Snapped out of her daze by Tyler's words, Kylyra spoke in a stuttering tone that did not suit her personality. The other members of Unrivaled had also snapped back to reality as they were professionals and knew they could not spend much time standing around in a dazed else they would be ambushed again.