The Lurls Make Their Move

As Ed's greatsword started to glow an icy blue, the sphere that had been silent all this time suddenly started to make a noise like a fan that started to turn.

The sound became louder and louder before a semi-translucent sphere of a barrier appeared from nowhere that was big enough to cover even Ed.

Hearing the shrieks of Lurls, Ed set Raz near the floating and glowing sphere as he whispered in an urgent tone, "Raz. Uncle Ed has to leave for a second, but if anyone who isn't a human tries to approach you. Make sure to press that red triangle on the floating ball, okay?"

Curious about what the red triangle did, Raz could only nod and promise, "Don't worry I'll be a good boy and sit here."

"Good," Ed responded as he smiled and gave Raz a little pinch on the cheek before he wielded his greatsword with two hands while charging out of the entrance into the cavern.

While Raz had no plans of going out of the entrance, he wanted to get a closer look at what was happening and painstakingly got up off the ground before waddling over to the floating orb.

Although the Immotus technique had strengthened and sped up his body's development, he was still basically an incredibly short toddler, which made the next task the challenging part.

At the moment, the barrier was only a few inches from poking out of the entrance and only needed a slight push to make it possible for Raz to watch the action while staying safe in whatever barrier this was.

Raz stood as tall as he could on his tippy toes and outstretched one hand while grunting with effort, "Hnghh, come on just a bit more."

To reward his effort, the sphere seemed to wobble up and down every so often, which made it momentarily short enough for him to get his fingertips on the sphere to push it forward a bit.

Even with his entire pathetic body weight behind it and all the strength in his fingertips, the sphere barely moved the needed amount. However, it got there as Raz stuck out his head while staying within the barrier, so only his eyes peered around the corner, and what he saw astounded him.

Strewn throughout the cavern lay the limbs and severed bodies of a few Lurls that were obviously done in by Ed's handiwork while some were charred, presumably from his father's magic.

In the back of the cavern, a metal cage with an unconscious figure slumped on the cold, rocky floor rested, which Raz had overlooked before due to the brief glimpse he had of the entire place.

Now Ed and William stood side by side in front of the cage with their weapons drawn as they stared down the five Lurls left. Only two bright green Lurls were left, while the two dark green ones and the gray one also faced the two humans.

Looking at his brethren's dead bodies, the gray Lurl suddenly squawked out a variety of sounds before he raised his staff up as it started to glow slowly. Although Raz couldn't tell, Ed and William could feel the mana that radiated from the lake start to converge onto the staff, and a serious look appeared on their faces.

The two suddenly ran forward toward the gray Lurl in an attempt to stop whatever he was doing, but the other four Lurls were in their way.

The dark green Lurls looked at each other and made a gurgling noise as they picked up the smaller, brighter green Lurls and tossed one at Ed and William, respectively. The two didn't think much of the usual bright green Lurls who had gotten stronger from the mana water because they still were barely equivalent in terms of combat power to a low-stage Apprentice who could die from any attack thrown by a Magus at Ed's and William's level.

Ed used his greatsword to easily sever the green Lurl in front of him like a knife through hot butter. Meanwhile, William spoke in Lamit as a small dagger of fire appeared from his hand and easily burned the Lurl to death as it shrieked in pain off to the side.

But before either of them could relax, the dark green Lurls had actually used their fellow Lurls as bait and purposefully hid behind them to take the two Magus by surprise in a sneak attack.

Both reflexively threw out their attacks again at the Lurls, but instead of being slaughtered as they should have. The Lurl attacking Ed managed to tank the blow from the sword resulting in only a shallow wound, before swinging his scimitar at the large man.

Ordinarily, Ed wouldn't even register the attack as a regular Lurl champion only had the combat power of a high-stage Apprentice, while Ed was a low-stage Fledgling Magus. Although technically, they seem close, in reality, the gap between the two ranks was like a vast chasm that couldn't be crossed.

If you told a person that you had beaten an enemy one stage above your own stage, then most people would not find it unbelievable as geniuses and the talented could do such things. However, defeating an opponent one whole rank above one's self would be deemed almost impossible and laughable.

This is why Ed became flabbergasted as his instincts told him to block the attack, to which he raised his greatsword to meet the incoming strike.

When the scimitar met the great sword, sparks started to fly off due to the collision before the dark green Lurl was launched two steps back while Ed took one step back from the large impact that verberated throughout the small cave, echoing off the stone and dirt walls.

But this result was enough to shock the man, as Ed muttered in complete disbelief, "Impossible! It's simply not possible... Unless the mana water strengthened their bodies to the equivalent of a Fledgling Magus!"

The thought of such a thing sent shivers down Ed's spine since if this were the case, then things wouldn't be so simple anymore.

While Ed seemed to experience shock after shock, William fared better even though the Lurl Champion had grown stronger. It was still simply overpowered after William summoned his dagger of flame once again to block the scimitar and then summoned another one that chased after the Lurl.

Trying his best to dodge like a rabbit being chased by a wolf, the Lurl Champion survived for only a few more seconds before the two daggers made of flame caught the creature before it started to burn and shriek.

The Lurl Champion tried to do everything to escape, even going as far as to chop off the air that was impaled by a dagger, but no matter what movements it made. The daggers seeked the Lurl like a metal to a magnet that would not be swayed.

Soon the corpse plopped to the ground with ashes and soot staining the rocky floor. William suddenly turned towards the Lurl facing off against Ed and spoke in Lamit before the daggers started to move in a figure-eight motion before launching like arrows toward the creature.

Seeing its impending death looming, the Lurl shrieked as it ran away. The pair began to prepare to give chase until a loud croak reverberated through the cavern as the gathering of mana seemed to overspill, and they looked over towards the gray Lurl.

The gray Lurl seemed to have shriveled up as it appeared smaller and less lively, but behind it, a large pillar of water started to form as it began to take shape and released a large roar that deafened anyone in the cave.