The battle across the Great Plains came to a halt. The relentless barrage of clashing metal and magical explosions from tens of thousands of adventurers suddenly subsided. The focus of the entire battlefield shifted to a single point on the eastern wing. A golden-green pillar of wind erupted, piercing through the clouds. It carried an incredibly oppressive physical and magical pressure.
At the center of Orario's formation, Zald ceased his assault. He locked his arm muscles, halting the momentum of his Afterglow technique. The massive man plunged his Greatsword, Grattor, into the earth. Turning his gaze toward the eastern wing, he squinted at the towering pillar of wind, analyzing the fluctuations of power radiating from it.
Before him, Ottar and Leon Vardenburg did the same. They grounded their stances, bracing against the gale that swept toward their position. Beside them, Bell Cranel and Ais Wallenstein also lowered their weapons, breaking their offensive rhythm as the anomalous pressure disrupted their formation's balance.
High atop a ruined pillar, Alfia barely moved. Her heterochromatic eyes stared intensely at the surging Anemo energy. She was assessing the sudden shift in power radiating from the two elf girls of her Familia.
"So, Dina and Vena have grown even stronger, huh," Zald said, breaking the silence. His voice was flat, yet it carried clearly to his five opponents. Shifting his gaze back to the front, he stared intently at Ottar and Leon. "That power just now... that pressure is already on par with the two of you, Ottar, Leon."
Hearing Zald's statement, Ottar and Leon's expressions hardened slightly. Both of them were now Level 8 adventurers. Zald possessed the discerning eyes of a veteran who had witnessed thousands of battles. If he claimed the pressure of the two elves on the eastern wing rivaled theirs, it meant Orario's right wing was now facing two Level 8-class enemies.
Zald pulled his greatsword from the earth and rested it effortlessly on his shoulder. He glared at them with blatant provocation. "What now? Will you continue this fight?" he asked. "With that kind of power over there, your formation will crumble from the flank. It's obvious your chances of winning are zero."
Ottar and Leon's answer was simple. Retreat was not an option.
Ottar tightened his grip on his massive black sword. He lowered his stance slightly, reigniting his feral instincts to attack. Beside him, Leon Vardenburg readjusted his greatsword and shot a piercing glare at Zald.
"We won't surrender here," Leon shot back. His tactical mind raced, calculating their odds. The eastern wing could not be allowed to fall. If those two elves breached the defensive line, the Orario forces would be massacred.
Leon glanced over his shoulder without shifting his body. "Bell, Ais," he called out firmly. "You two better head over there and handle those elves."
Bell hesitated for a moment. He glanced at Zald, who still stood like an immovable mountain before them. "But, Leon-sensei... what about you guys?" he asked. Bell was extremely reluctant. Leaving Ottar and Leon alone to withstand Zald's physical onslaught was a highly risky move. A single misstep from either of them, and Zald would cleave them in two.
Noting Bell's hesitation, Leon raised his greatsword and pointed it directly at Zald.
"You don't need to worry about us," Leon commanded. He had no intention of repeating himself. "Go. Besides, Ottar and I have some history with this man that we need to settle ourselves."
Hearing this, Ottar nodded. The Boaz warrior exuded a much thicker, murderous aura. He was ready to fight tooth and nail to avenge his past defeat at Zald's hands.
Seeing their unwavering resolve, Bell finally realized that his presence would only interfere with their personal score. He nodded and looked at Ais. She had already activated her Ariel magic, enveloping her body in a tempest of green wind. Without another word, Bell and Ais dashed away from the center of the formation, hurtling straight toward the eastern wing at full speed.
On the eastern wing, the giant pillar of wind finally dissipated. The energy merging with their very beings had been completely absorbed by Dina and Vena. Both had now adapted to their new Level 5 status. This instantaneous Falna update multiplied their physical capacity and magical limits exponentially.
The twins landed smoothly on the ground. There was no longer any lingering anger or the vacant stare of the past that had previously possessed their minds. They now held absolute control over their consciousness and their wind elements.
They stared straight ahead. There, Hedin Selland and Hogni Ragnar were just picking themselves up from the dirt. The two Freya Familia executives looked battered from the previous impact. Hedin's glasses were cracked, and Hogni's light armor was dented at the shoulder, but their combat instincts were far from dulled.
"You two are no longer worthy of fighting us," Dina stated flatly. She twirled her wind blade. The sound of the air swirling around the blade was incredibly faint, indicating a highly dense and efficient wind compression.
"It's best if you just surrender," Vena added. "The level gap between us is simply too wide now."
Hearing a demand to surrender in the middle of a battle caused a vein to pop on Hedin's forehead. Hogni growled in anger, gripping the hilt of his sword, Victim Abyss, tightly. To both of them, surrendering to an enemy was a grave insult to the pride of the Freya Familia.
Hedin immediately raised his magic staff, channeling his Mind into his weapon. The lightning magic circle of Caurus Hildr began to form in the air, emitting sparks of pink electricity. He calculated his attack trajectory, targeting the area around Vena to lock down her movements. Beside him, Hogni lowered his center of gravity. His leg muscles tensed to their absolute limit, ready to launch a high-speed slash at Dina's neck.
However, seeing the reaction of the two Level 6 adventurers, Dina and Vena simply sighed.
"Why is the Hedin here so different from the Hedin in our timeline?" Dina mused. She compared the man in front of her with the Hedin from the Barbatos Familia's timeline. The Hedin she knew was a cold, calculating strategist who would never let cheap provocations ruin his judgment on the battlefield.
"It feels like his strategic genius has been reduced to this," Vena replied. She shook her head slowly, disappointed to see the Freya Familia commander fighting purely out of rage and ego.
Without any warning whatsoever, Dina and Vena attacked.
They didn't rely on complex footwork techniques. With their Level 5 status amplified by the air-manipulation effects of the Anemo Calyx, the sisters eliminated the air resistance in front of them. This allowed them to move at a speed that completely bypassed the visual perception of ordinary enemies.
Hedin and Hogni lost track of them. Their eyes failed to read the movements of the two elves.
In less than a second, Dina appeared right inside Hogni's defensive guard. She slipped past the swing of his Dainsleif sword before it even reached the midpoint of its arc. Simultaneously, Vena materialized on Hedin's left flank, completely evading the range of his lightning magic circle.
Each of them launched a single physical strike.
Dina slammed the pommel of her wind sword squarely into Hogni's chest. The impact was brutal and precise. Hogni's ribs shattered instantly, and his internal organs absorbed a kinetic shock that paralyzed his respiratory system.
On the other side, Vena delivered a swift kick to the side of Hedin's neck. The strike hit a blind spot right near a major nerve. The impact sent a massive shock to Hedin's cerebral nervous system, instantly severing his consciousness.
Crash!
Hedin and Hogni were blown backward violently. Their bodies slammed into the muddy ground, tumbling for several meters. Blood spilled from their mouths.
The two Freya Familia executives were instantly incapacitated. The physical damage from those strikes was simply too massive for a Level 6 body to endure. Hedin and Hogni lost consciousness on the spot. There would be no further resistance.
Seeing their two commanders brought down in a single move, sheer panic broke out among the Freya Familia's support ranks.
Heith Velvet, positioned in the rearguard, abandoned formation. The Freya Familia's ace healer sprinted forward toward Hedin and Hogni's fallen bodies. She raised her magic staff high. Light began to glow at its tip as she prepared to chant a high-tier healing spell to repair the internal damage of her two commanders.
However, barely three steps in, the tip of Vena's wind blade came to a dead stop right in front of Heith's face. It was mere centimeters from her skin.
Dina and Vena shot Heith a piercing, warning glare. That look froze the healer in her tracks. Heith stood paralyzed, not daring to utter a single syllable of her incantation.
"It's best you refrain from healing in this battle," Dina warned. Her tone was completely flat and straightforward. "This is our payback for this timeline."
Vena lowered her wind blade slightly, ensuring Heith wouldn't make a move. "Don't worry, though, they won't die. Even though they're both severely injured right now, we calculated our strikes. They will live."
Dina turned and cast a blank stare at Hedin and Hogni's unconscious, bloodied bodies. "And we were already being merciful, considering what they did to us in this timeline."
Heith swallowed hard. She didn't understand what they meant by "this timeline." But as a healer accustomed to treating fatal injuries, she could tell that the bone and nerve damage her captains sustained was calculated with terrifying precision. Those attacks were expressly designed to incapacitate instantly without taking their lives. The fact that these two enemies could hold back at such blistering speeds proved just how massive the power gap was. Heith lowered her gaze and slowly dropped her magic staff.
Right at that moment, the sound of high-speed footsteps echoed from the west.
Clang!
The black blade of the Hestia Knife forcefully parried Vena's wind blade, forcing the elf to pull her weapon back and take a step in retreat to maintain her balance.
Bell Cranel landed squarely in front of Heith, dropping into a low stance with his dagger drawn. His leg muscles tensed, ready to respond to any sudden attack.
A split second later, a fierce gust of wind swirled beside Bell. Ais Wallenstein appeared with her sword, Desperate, in hand. Her Ariel magic howled fiercely. The wind generated by Ais's spell collided with Dina and Vena's air domain, sending sparks of energy scattering around them. The two of them now stood as the final shield to protect the healer.
Dina and Vena were entirely unfazed by the interruption. They looked at the two arriving adventurers calmly. Their wind weapons stabilized, swirling steadily in the air once more as they readjusted their combat distance.
"Ais and Bell, right," Dina said, recognizing the two.
Vena smiled faintly. She corrected her posture and directed her focus specifically toward the white-haired youth.
The clash between the two elves who wielded anomalous power against Bell Cranel, who was hiding his true status, aided by Ais Wallenstein, was officially about to begin. The stage of the battle had shifted.
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