Imperfect technique

It was hard to convey his worries and caution without looking and sounding annoying. Still, Zane was someone who did things at the beat of his own drum for years, and he knew that the Lirene could cause more consistent damage over time. That was why he wanted to keep her away from danger… but he was starting to get that he sounded as if she was made of glass.

"All right, you can make your own decision during the fight. Just make sure not to enter the range of my sword, and don't suddenly approach from behind," Zane said.

"If you are so quick to understand the reason for my anger, that also makes me understand that I am being a bit unreasonable," Lirene said. "That is so annoying…"

"You can't complain about that when you are doing it again…" Zane said. "Anyway, I will be counting on you to watch my back."

Lirene nodded, and then they began to focus on the task ahead… to make sure that things would end well, they needed to defeat the first group faster than the second group arrived. It would be better if they could deal with all of them like that, but it was definitely impossible.

Once the first group was close, Zane jumped from the back of a dune to attack them. They all raised their swords to block him, and some even jumped backward. Still, even when they used their weapons like that, Zane ended up splitting five of them.

The blast pushed several of them away, but then the high pitching sounds began to cross the area, and more of the monsters began to fall.

The monsters raised their guards against the enemy that they couldn't see, and Zane used that chance to split in half two more enemies. However, he had to raise his guard since the next group had arrived.

"A lot sooner than I had expected…" Zane thought.

The third group was only one hundred meters away as well… fortunately, Lirene finished off the first group with her bolts. However, the second group was waiting for the others to come… in no time, thirty enemies surrounded Zane. Lirene killed some of them with her bolts, but she had to reload… during that time, the enemies dashed with their knives in their hands. Lirene left her hideout and began to spam her ice arrows without any other choice.

The focus of the enemies split when they saw Lirene, but they still threw their knives at Zane. In the end, he clenched his teeth before using his buffs and swinging his sword in a wide arc with all his might. He felt like his muscles were about to be ripped apart. Still, not only he blocked all of the attacks, but he also created a blast that pushed the enemies away, making them lose their balance.

Lirene used that chance to kill a lot more of the enemies, and she hit all of those that had been stunned due to the blast. Still, she couldn't help but frown when she saw Zane still standing in his place.

The final group of enemies was approaching, only fifty meters away. Still, even so, he was supposed to have enough time and energy to kill several of them.

In the end, he only moved when the final group was passing through the fallen enemies. He raised his sword, and Lirene noticed that it was glowing red… no, it was actually burning!

When the enemies swung their swords, Zane did the same thing and hit one of them. Still, the impact caused an explosion in front of Zane that caught all of the enemies in the area in front of him… once the dust dissipated, Lirene saw some burned statues falling until they became dust… Zane's attack killed more than twenty of the enemies instantly.

"Well, that wasn't half bad…" Zane said.

Zane used all his mana and a good part of his stamina, and the system didn't even recognize that as a technique or spell. Still, he was satisfied.

Despite her surprise, Lirene kept attacking the monsters, and it didn't take long for the battle to end… it ended all too quickly, but only because Zane's attacks destroyed their best weapon: their encirclement and because the first attack turned them to sitting ducks to Lirene.

"Now I understand why you said not to get close…" Lirene said. "For someone who doesn't want to increase your magic power, you sure can come up with some techniques."

"It isn't complete, but before I noticed that when the concentration of mana in my sword increased and I got pissed, the mana began to turn into flames,' Zane explained. "It isn't half bad, but it is too costly."

"It would be weird if you could use such a technique that can cause this, and it isn't costly…" Lirene said while looking at the path of destruction that Zane created with his strike.

The ground and sand had burned in an area of five meters wide and twenty meters long… it had been, indeed, a powerful attack. In any case, Zane's initial plan to run for it had been discarded, and they got all the blue spheres, they barely received any damage, so they achieved the best outcome as well.

After they finished with the spheres, they headed toward the exit of the floor. It looked like Lirene didn't have many more bolts to use, but she still didn't want to let go of her weapon. At the same time, Zane looked at his sword… the previous attack sure damaged it…