| 11 | Rank Up

Krom heard Lenna's muttering and flicked her forehead in response, "Think outside the box. Even if you still had the wakeboard, you wouldn't be able to put up a fight. You would simply lack the footing for a good offensive."

Lenna rubbed her forehead and glared angrily, "footing? What footing?! We are in the middle of an ocean!"

Krom pointed to his left, saying, "Look."

Cray and Lenna followed his finger.

Although it was a little hard to see, there was a slightly submerged sand bar about 700 meters away!

The sand bar was shaped like a circle about 50 meters wide, with the majority being slightly submerged, but a section towards the edge was not submerged and shaped like a crescent moon.

Cray swung the storm jar towards it, "We can lure the elementals there. Let's see how those watery bastards enjoy being on solid ground for once!"

The elementals quickly realized that their enemies were trying to run away and swam after them beneath the surface of the water, only visible because their eyes glowed blue.

Rapidly gaining ground, the elementals surrounded Ruro from beneath.

Krom smiled in an amused manner, "Incoming. Be ready."

The water began to spiral around, forming a giant vortex.

The vortex began to pull Ruro in.

Cray quickly took a lightning-stone from his pocket and fed it to Ruro, causing the lightning markings on its body to turn blue, and sparks to flash across the turtle's eyes.

With a burst of speed and blue electricity, Ruro broke free from the vortex and swiftly approached the sand bar.

As they neared the sand bar, Krom told Cray, "Once Lenna and I get on the sand bar, quickly go a safe distance away. About 100— No, 150 meters should be enough."

"I can't let you sacrifice yourself!" Exclaimed Cray.

A glint flashed across Krom's eye, "This won't be OUR sacrifice. This will be THEIR massacre."

Not elaborating any further, he held out his hand and said to Lenna, "Let's get going."

Lenna nodded and grabbed his hand.

Krom pulled Lenna in and jumped across fifty meters of water to the sand bar, making a large splash as he landed.

"Don't die!" Shouted Cray as he quickly got further away.

Krom glanced back at the elementals, "Good, they are still following."

They were still a bit of a distance away but would reach them soon.

He turned to Lenna and took out a small rhombus-shaped glass container from his storage ring before handing it to her and saying, "Drink this."

Lenna held it up in front of her eyes.

It held a light-gray substance with small white strands occasionally running through it.

She shook it lightly, only to find that it was almost viscous in nature.

"What is it?" Asked Lenna.

Krom smiled, "You want to get stronger, right?"

That was all she needed to hear. Not hesitating any longer, Lenna downed it in one go.

She could feel it slide down her throat before a cool sensation took over her body.

A moment after the cool sensation faded, she felt... Nothing?

Lenna looked at Krom questioningly, "Nothing happened?"

In response, Krom said, "You'll be able to tell what it is when you start fighting."

Right after Krom finished speaking, the four elementals jumped out from the water and landed opposite them.

"Ah, speak of the elementals," exclaimed Krom.

Krom casually walked towards the edge of the sand bar where it was unsubmerged and said, "Well, you have fun now. I'll watch from the sidelines."

Lenna sighed and thought to herself, 'When are you actually going to participate in a fight.'

She was more than happy to fight by herself, but she didn't want to always be the weaker one.

She took a deep breath before focusing on the elementals.

It would by no means be an easy fight, but Lenna was determined to obtain their essence.

The elementals made the first move.

Tendrils of water began to form around their arms as they dashed forward.

Lenna saw they were trying to surround her, so she ran forward to meet the closest one.

The elemental swung down its water tendrils at her with enough force to make the air ripple.

As they crashed down, she quickly dodged to the side and shouted, "You'll have to do better than that!"

Lenna rapidly closed in on the elemental as she weaved between the tendrils that swung with more ferocity with each passing second.

The elemental loomed over her; its ocean blue eye sockets glowed brightly.

The water tendrils abruptly liquified and fell back to the water as the elemental leaped backward and made a circle with its hands out towards Lenna.

She was about to pursue it but saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

The four elementals had encircled her, and they all held their hands in the same circle shape.

Lenna frowned, "Well, this isn't good."

Despite not trying to get surrounded, she had underestimated their intelligence.

An uncountable number of water bullets shot out from the elementals' hands, attacking her from all directions.

She tried to evade them, but she was quickly being overwhelmed.

Small cuts and grazes began to appear on her body.

A bullet grazed the side of her chest, tearing her shirt in the process.

"Hey! My shirt!"

She gritted her teeth in annoyance, but she was pinned down by the barrage of water bullets.

There was nothing she could do.

Her relic was quickly getting more and more holes. It would wane if this continued!

Right when she thought things couldn't get any worse, suddenly, a water tendril grabbed her leg, "Eh? Ah!"

'It must have been from before!'

Lenna quickly broke free from the tendril, but the damage had already been done. She had no way to dodge.

Time seemed to slow down as the storm of bullets became closer and closer.

If she couldn't dodge it, she would have to brute force it.

"Flash Freeze!"

Fwoosh! Boom!

"..." Silence covered the battlefield.

An elemental was sent flying backward while rapidly turning into an icy statue. The elemental shattered while speeding through the air. Where Lenna had been just a moment ago was now an icy crater.

The elementals momentarily froze, trying to process what just happened.

She had been in one spot one moment, then the next, one of their brethren was blown away.

Where the elemental had one was stood, Lenna had taken its place.

Lenna widened her eyes as gray strands of essence flew into her.

She began to laugh, "To think that this was the elixir's effect! Incredible."

Flash freeze was several times stronger than before. At first, she thought it had been forcibly empowered, but she quickly realized that was wrong. Rather than empowered, it was more like her technique had been refined.

The elixir had brought out the highest potential for the technique at her current level!

Her breathing quickened. Even with her high level of mana manipulation, she felt as though a whole new world had opened. If she could remember the feeling of a mastery level technique, her strength would increase leaps and bounds.

She grinned, "Let's start round two, shall we?"

Seeing this from the side, Krom shook his head with a knowing smile. He naturally knew the effects of the elixir because he was the one who made it! Krom would have to explain it to Lenna later.

He returned his attention to the fight.

"Flash Freeze!"

Lenna instantly appeared before an elemental and swung her leg at it.

Unfortunately, it managed to raise its arms to block the kick in time and was sent back several meters before stopping.

Its arms shattered into shards of ice, but they would regrow in a moment. Unfortunately for it, Lenna only needed that moment.

The other two elementals were standing in a line, and she would take advantage of this.

She swung her hand and shouted, "Hailstorm!"

Much more numerous than before, hundreds upon hundreds of thin ice needles flew through the air.

The elemementals quickly crossed their arms to protect themselves but were steadily pushed back by each needle as their arms became peppered with them.

Despite their weak appearance, each needle packed a tremendous amount of force.

Lenna stared at the three elementals who were now standing together, "Is that all?"

The elementals exchanged a glance with each other. They realized that they would perish if the fight continued like it was.

Unbeknownst to them, though, Lenna had little mana left and was internally getting nervous.

The lead elemental reared back its fist.

Lenna tensed her muscles.

The elemental suddenly swung its fist, not at Lenna but the armless elemental next to it!

The elemental's chest was pierced clean through by the fist before the lead elemental tore apart its body.

It repeated the process with the other elemental, leaving Lenna dumbfounded.

Krom had a dark expression on his face. He knew what was about to happen, and now his suspicions of a decay influx were confirmed.

Normal C-rank elementals would not do this...

The two slain elementals turned into essence and got absorbed primarily by the lead elemental, with only a third of the essence going to Lenna.

The C-rank elemental's mana sharply spiked as its eyes glowed with even more intensity.

Water abruptly surged towards the elemental as a large cocoon of said water began to surround the elemental. Only a silhouette was visible.

The cocoon began to increase in size rapidly.

"7 meters, 10 meters, 16 meters... It just keeps growing!" Exclaimed Lenna as she backed up.

It kept increasing in size until it was a whopping 25 meters tall!

The cocoon burst and caused water to rain down over the majority of the sand bar.

One hundred fifty meters away, Cray stared wide-eyed at the sand bar. He cursed, "What the hell! Why is there a B-rank elemental!?!"

The elemental looked like it did before with the dark segments and water holding it together, but pulsating blue crystals ran along its spine, and three large rings of water rotated around its forearms.

Lenna frowned, but the essence from the two other slain elementals made its way towards her and was promptly absorbed.

She felt something change inside her and like a barrier had been broken. She was very familiar with this feeling. She had experienced it three times before.

She smiled and flexed her hand.

"Nice job hitting B-rank, elemental. But you made a mistake. You shouldn't have let me absorb your friends' essence..."

Krom smiled in an intrigued manner as Lenna raised her hand to the sky.

"Rank! Up!"