Chapter 169: Deadly Assault

Due to Ben having spent most of his time in Tatonia under princess Felicia's care, he didn't really have an accurate model on what strong looked like.

Granted, considering that he'd been under Archmage Finn's tutelage, he had an idea what the peak looked like. But the issue with that was, first, he'd never actually seen the man fight.

Sure, he created the small world where Ben resided, and his manipulation of runes made it feel as though he were manipulating the world itself. But due to that, he felt less like someone with measurable power and more like a force of nature. So it wasn't really accurate to use him as any standard. And using Felicia wouldn't work for obvious reasons.

So sure, Ben learned runes and created artifacts, steadily increasing his capability, but in relation to the rest of the world, he didn't really know where he stood. And for all he knew, he was either at the absolute bottom of the barrel or actually very capable. But he wouldn't be able to tell.

Not before now, anyway.

As he drew on the ground, part of his attention was on Aubrey who had begun pulling her bow the moment Xander gave his command, and as he did, he began to feel his skin prickle, and his eyes went wide from the sheer pressure exhibited the further back she pulled the bow.

Her muscles were taut as the arrow she pulled... didn't look to have any special effect other than being absurdly durable. Ben could tell due to his strange perception that let him see reality in layers, and the mana given off by the arrow was minimal.

This did not make it any less terrifying.

The thing that really caught his attention, though, was her breathing. There was this distinct sound that followed her drawing the bow, and he would later come to learn that this was her using Mana Breathing, amplifying the arrow further.

The bow finally seemed to reach its limit, and Aubrey let the arrow fly. But to Ben's surprise, there was no loud explosion or the sound of the sound barrier breaking. Heck, he didn't even feel the wind get stirred up when the arrow was released.

He wanted to ask, but when he saw her drawing the bow again, he shut his mouth and continued drawing.

...

"It seems they were able to react in time." In the far distance, a robed figure watched the dome of ice fade away through a crystal ball, voice calm despite their surprise attack failing.

"Unsurprising. But they are only delaying the inevitable." Another robed figure said as they drew the last line in a large black and purple magic circle, the thing lighting up with a resonant him before going dormant. Around it, 8 more figures could be seen standing as they finished up their parts of the circle which gave off an ominous aura.

"Never say never. They may be fledglings, but they are still dangerous. The Royal Hunt proved that." The one with the crystal ball shook their head. "It's best we resolve things and ensure that no unexpected situations ari—"

The figure's words were cut off abruptly as his head exploded. Blood and brain matter spraying behind him. His body was still for a moment before it fell, and the surrounding figures all froze, shock evident despite their faces being hidden.

A secondary explosion caused their heads to snap in the direction of the sound, and they saw a single arrow embedded deep in the base of the mountain near where they stood. This arrow soon dissipating into nothing a moment later.

There was a moment of silence, then one of them stood abruptly and—

BANG

Another head explodes, and another arrow is embedded in the mountain side before dissipating.

The robed figures spring into action, magical barriers getting erected and pre-existing spell formations activating to form defenses, and yet the result was the same as two more of them lost their heads in quick succession.

"I can't see them coming!" One one them yelled, and for good reason.

In the first place, their position had two more main spell formations besides this first one they'd been working on that served both to detect any incoming attacks and keep them hidden. So in the first place, there shouldn't have been getting caught off guard like this, let alone seen.

However, they had the misfortune of encountering Aubrey.

As Ben noted earlier, despite the obvious power in her shots, likely due to her grafting her Information clones unto herself. As soon as she let an arrow fly loose, it simply disappeared without any trace, making it almost seem like an illusion.

The reason for this? Well, Aubrey had taken Curtis's words about 'Information Magic' very seriously. She did not simply stop at creating more information clones to process and generate more projections. Rather, she began treating Information itself as something to be manipulated, much like how fire mages manipulated fire, or ice mages water.

In the first place, the arrows she fired weren't things she'd seen before and copied the information of to use as projections later. Rather, she picked up from the vast amounts of information she already had, brought it together, and projected it onto the world. So it wasn't copying information but recycling it to make something new. That, already, was an astounding feat.

However, what made things even more terrifying was what she did after.

While her arrows were fast and powerful, far faster than supersonic speeds and even beyond that, they still0.l traveled, and thus could still be detected. And as powerful and experienced mages who were used to high intensity environments where even things like lightning were perceived and reacted to, they should have been able to react to her arrows, right?

Well, that's where the information magic came in.

The instant Aubrey let her arrows fly she would 'edit' out keep pieces of information that allowed them to be detected. Like wind resistance, visibility through light, sound, and so on.yf

The result? The arrows existed, but she removed everything that allowed them to be detected, making them near impossible to detect before someone was struck by them.

This wasn't as simple as casting a spell on the arrow to make it harder to detect. No, Aubrey was simply removing the things that allowed it to be detected in the first place. So for all intents and purposes, the arrows didn't actually exist.

And yet they also did.

This paradoxical existence made detecting, and therefore reacting, to them a tall order. And this was only the tip of the iceberg. Because beyond shooting these arrows and detecting their surroundings, Aubrey hadn't done anything else.

So considering she's unlocked the third page of her book and also improved in all sorts of ways during the training, yet is already this effective... Isn't that just terrifying?

***

"This distance should be sufficient. We'll work on suppressing their movements while team A focuses on precision strikes to take them down or keep them occupied." Meanwhile, a team of 5 robed figures stopped a couple dozen miles away from the group. Such a distance would have been a lot for ordinary people, but at this stage, strikes at such range were to be expected.

As for how they dared move despite the massive open area? Well, they naturally had a high level stealth spell cast on them, so unless one had perception at an even higher level, detecting them wouldn't be possible.

When the instruction was given, the remaining 5 robed figures nodded in unison and either took out staffs or wands to began casting their spells. But just then...

"Look out!" The leading figure swiped his wand, and a wall of darkness bloomed in front of the squad, only for a devastating sphere of immolating heat to smash into it a moment later and expand rapidly, eating through it like fire through paper.

One of the other robed figures immediately cast a spell before the barrier failed completely, and the group was teleported a distance away, allowing them to watch as that area was completely vaporized by the sphere before it shrank rapidly, leaving a crater of intense heat.

And in its center, a figure could be seen.

"Oh wow. Y'all reacted to that. Well, it's not odd, considering that you are professionals, after all." Falael tilted her head as she stretched lightly, and the robed figures eyes' narrowed at this scene.

Rather than respond to her question, they began chanting, and Falael laughed.

"Nice! It would be lame if Y'all lost your composure from that. I've been fighting the same people for so long that I don't really have anyone to compare myself to. You lot should suffice." She smashed her gauntlets together before entering a boxer stance, and as soon as her right leg hit the ground, her aura exploded before a magic circle bloomed beneath her feet, glowing with starlight.

The energy from this circle rapidly discharged and appeared behind her head, condensing and forming the image of a star.

Her hair flared up as she grinned.

"Well, then. Let's get this party started. Shall we?"