As he heard the sounds coming from his right side, his senses immediately heightened and he became alert.
He slowly moved his neck and looked from the small holes in his vine cot.
There, he saw some black shadows sneaking towards them.
'Who are they?' He frowned and started circulating his mana.
Fire elemental mana started to swirl around his right fist without making any sound.
Due to him solely focusing on the [Calidus Brachium], his control over it became more refined which reduced the cast time by ten seconds.
Furthermore, he found one more way to save the time when casting this spell. That was to gather and compress the mana required to activate the spell in advance, around his fist.
However, this task wasn't as easy as it sounds like because, he had to hold the compressed mana and not let it disperse until it was time to cast the spell.
To do this, one had to have high affinity with their mana and great control.
Fortunately for Max, his affinity was high enough especially the fire elemental mana affinity and although, his control couldn't be classified as 'outstanding', his improved intelligence, that not only enhanced his senses, but it also passively increased his control.
With some practice, he was able to gain enough control to hold the compressed mana around his fist for approximately twenty seconds.
There are two most time-consuming steps when casting a spell. First, the mana injection and second, moving it in some complex ways according to the description of the spell.
However, since he was able hold the compressed mana, the first step was almost eliminated, he was able to cut the casting time by half and when needed, he only needed to move it according to the spell which didn't take as much time.
Therefore, he started compressing his mana the moment he saw these suspicious figures and because he wasn't really casting any spell only manipulating his mana, there weren't any fluctuations and they weren't able to sense anything wrong.
However, soon his eyes widened noticing more than ten figures.
Even if he could take them by surprise, using his [Calidus Brachium] he could only kill one among them and would need around forty seconds to cast again which was enough time for them to attack and stop him.
'Fuck. What should I do? If only, I had an area destruction spell like [Death Rain]...' Max cursed before instantly becoming joyful 'Although, the [Death Rain] isn't too powerful and can't do much harm to the beasts of middle stage or higher, it is enough to kill human who don't have their guard up.'
Quickly, a plan formed in his mind. While gathering the mana for [Calidus Brachium], he waited for them to come in 200 meter radius that was the maximum range of [Death Rain].
He then used his mana to create light gusts of wind that tickled Rima and others faces in a weird pattern.
It was their sign of alerting everyone if there was danger nearby. Leticia had come up with this idea after Bartan's attack. This way the enemy wouldn't know that they were aware of the danger and could take him off guard.
Rima's brows furrowed slightly before returning to normal. However, she had stopped cultivating and stimulated her mana to the limits, ready to attack anytime.
Haory and others also woke up but didn't move and only stimulated their mana.
In a few seconds, the figures entered the 200 meter range.
'Now!' Max shouted inwardly and cast the [Death Rain] which only took two seconds before the fire arrows shot towards them with lightening fast speed thanks to Max expending 200 MP extra.
…
After searching for two hours, Bartan and others finally arrived where Max's group was staying.
When they were 500 meters away, Bartan and other saw them sleeping on the trees.
Bartan signalled them to stop and said in low voice "That guy has sharp senses. So, we have to be careful and not make any noise until we are in two hundred meter range. Only then can we attack or they might be alerted."
After the last encounter, he was a bit familiar with Max and knew that his senses were extraordinary compared to others in the two-star realm. Therefore, he didn't want to take the risk of alerting him and kill while he slept.
Seeing that no one responded, his expression became cold and he grimly said "Understand?"
"Yeah. Can we go and kill them already?" A man said lazily and pointed towards Max and others "They are asleep or cultivating right now. Do you think they can notice us if we sneak up to them? They are only two-star mages. Scaredy cat."
Hearing this, rest of the group also looked at him with disdainful gazes. They thought that he was too scared of him and being overly cautious. However, the masked woman frowned and said in displeasure "Can't you be a bit more careful if he is saying this?"
Hearing her say this, everyone become a bit more respectful and nodded. This was because, this masked woman was the strongest person among them apart from Bartan had a dangerous background.
After that they cautiously sneaked towards them. When they stepped in the 200 meter range, Bartan turned to look towards the other members of his group and said in hushed voice "Everyone, kill them as fast as you can. You'll get your promised-"
Shua! Shua! Shua!
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However, he stopped speaking mid-way when he noticed that the forest had suddenly lit up and heard the sound being pierced.
His expression changed drastically and shouted "Everyone scatter and dodge!"
He and the masked woman reacted instantly. He used his water barrier to cover himself while the masked woman used dark chains and easily struck down the arrows. However, others weren't able to react in time.
"Ahhh…"
Screams sounded in the quite forest as one-meter-long fiery arrows pierced the rest of the members of their group.
When the arrows stopped raining down, three people had died with their head or heart pierced. Two were severely injured and didn't have much fighting ability left while the remaining four also received light injuries. Only Bartan and the masked woman were uninjured.
'Retards. Didn't I warn you to be alert.' Bartan scoffed in his heart while hiding behind the trees. Their life and death didn't matter to him as long as he could kill Max.
He then started casting his water bullets spell while ordering others to attack them.
…
Max almost couldn't hold and shouted in joy seeing this. He didn't expect to have such result. However, it wasn't time to be happy. He jumped down from his cot and moved towards Bartan's group while shouting.
"Everyone focus on defence as you attack." Rima and others nodded and also jumped down.
Belen, Rima and Haory took cover behind the trees before they started attacking them while Leticia also ran towards Bartan and others.
Her speed was as fast as Max now. In a few seconds, she arrived before one man who only had slight injuries and started attacking with her wind blades while easily dodging his attacks.
In just a while, wind blades, sand spikes and vines wrecking havoc among Bartan's group and didn't let them catch a breath.
"Fuck!" The masked woman cursed upon seeing their fierce assault. The ones who escaped the fire arrows with slight injuries quickly became more injured.
Shua!
pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ Suddenly, her figure seemed to have merged with the darkness and moved towards Belen and others. She first decided to take them out before fighting Max and Leticia.
"Where are you going?"
Suddenly, she heard a cold voice beside her and saw Max only meter away from her with his fist raised that was burning with crimson fire.
BANG!
Without giving her any chance, Max punched at her back without holding back. However, he underestimated her. In just a second, a dark shield appeared in front of her and blocked his punch.
"Don't underestimate me, pretty boy." She smirked while holding the shield.
Crack… Crack… Crack…
However, her smugness was soon turned into astonishment and then disbelief as her dark shield started cracking and soon broke into pieces.
Max looked at her coldly and then kicked out at her abdomen. However, he was also surprised to see his [Calidus Brachium] being blocked.
Bang.
She was hit and spit out a mouthful of blood before being thrown back.
Swish! Swish!
Before she could crash into the tree, dark chains materialised from her back like spider's legs and dug into the ground and trees, stopped her from crashing.
"Pfff…" Slowly the chains vanished and she dropped down on the ground and spit out the remaining blood and giggled.
"Hehe, I didn't expect you to be actually this strong. It seems that guy was saying the truth."
Max frowned. The woman in front of him didn't seem to afraid even after knowing his true strength and from the way she was looking at him seemed like as if she was looking at her pray.