"If all of you were easily pushed back by my gauntlet attacks, do you seriously think you have any chance of defeating me? You should have run while you still had the chance!"

Another laugh comes from the silver-coated man as his fists continue to charge up, glowing brighter and brighter white.

"I'm the strongest one in this Sector! I can feel the mana coming off you three, you're all newly ranked up. You may be skilled, but you don't stand a chance against me!"

The white glow from his gauntlets begins to spread down his arms and soon covers his body until the Sector 4 leader is covered in a glistening silver and white aura. He hits the desert floor feet first with a ground-rattling thud.

Arie, Maria, and Fisher all land around him in a triangular formation, glowing with their respective personal magic.

In the blink of an eye, blue mana crescents and white arrows are released in a barrage against the man all at once.

But before they even make contact with his defenses, the white aura of mana around the enemy expands in the shape of his body to deflect every single attack. He swings his fists two times, letting out dual pulses of energy at Maria and Fisher.

This time, instead of trying to block, the two of them have time to dodge.

"Like I said before, it's pointless to run!"

The white energy that's usually propelled from his fists comes out from his shoes seconds later, shooting the silver man forward with blinding speed. He aims right for Fisher as the swordsman jumps out of the way from his previous attack.

The air ripples as the two metal fists clash with the ultimate water defense, mana shielding, and dark blue sword of the water mage.

He grits his teeth and looks the man in the eyes who captured and tortured his longtime teammate.

Still, even with all of his strength, the newly ranked-up Elite hunter gets pushed back with ease. Mana residue flies in the air as Arie and Maria fling attacks from the side to support, but none make it through.

The silver-coated man charges up his fists again all while continuing to punch the blue barrier over and over, pushing Fisher back.

He continues to laugh manically while pushing at the barrier.

"You kids really thought you could take on 2 Sector leaders and make it out of here alive. You must have been given false information, or-"

But his words stop as the blue eyes of the swordsman start to show a glimmer of red.

An odd feeling comes over the Sector 4 leader as his heightened mana control senses pick up the odd shift in power that fills the air.

Crimson tendrils of dense red mist start to wrap around Fisher's arms and flow down his sword. Next, the bright blue shield of water starts to become stained blood red.

As the Leader hesitates to make his next punch, the swordsman takes this opportunity to send out an attack of his own. A dark red crescent of water comes out from his sword, but the man manages to snap himself out of it and block before it's too late.

An incredibly loud clang shakes the desert sand as the Aura of the Red Hydra fully covers Fisher, and his attack makes a dent in the Sector Leader's armor.

The man is shocked... He jumps back in surprise, placing both gauntlets up in a fighting stance with a baffled expression across his face.

"How- What is this skill...?"

As he says this, the eerie feeling of the red energy that activated around the water wielder starts to creep into his mana senses from behind him as well from two directions.

A blood-red arrow and an icy crescent surrounded in the crimson energy come flying at him to pierce through the solid steel defense of his back and right leg. Blood trickles out onto the desert sand.

The Sector leader yells out in pain, glowing brighter white and recovering his body in a layer of silver to protect the slash mark and arrow hole from the previous two attacks that broke through.

"There's no way! You all have this skill? So are you not from the Association? Is this a private dealing, is this-"

Another three crimson attacks manage to hit the man mid-rant. Fisher collides with the man's charged gauntlets again, expelling energy and leaving another dent while Arie and Maria land blows to his exposed back and legs.

The three team members now zip around, leaving trails of red energy behind.

Just moments ago they were entirely outmatched, but now it doesn't even seem fair. Although it's impressive the leader has enough strength, defense, and mana control to block one Red Hydra aided attack at a time, that's not enough. His speed and agility are severely lacking to stack up against these 3.

While occupied with Fisher in one-on-one combat, Maria and Arie zip around sending one attack after another to weaken him slowly.

Over a dozen attacks are sent out, and the desert sand is stained with the silver man's blood.

He continues recharging his gauntlets and activating his steel defenses in hope that one of the three attackers misses a beat.

In the pattern that's occurring now, he only has enough time to cover his vitals and slowly use up his own MP stores.

At the same time, Arie, Maria, and Fisher are meticulously sending off attacks to wear down the man like he's an overpowered boss in a dungeon. Their main concern is the low amount of mana stores left too. Plus, the possible dangers of exerting this much MP with the buff in such a short time.

Arie sends off another arrow and steps off a red orb of light to get a better position for his next attack, while Maria sends off an ice-imbued attack, thinking carefully about when to activate her buff.

Fisher clashes again with the man as all their mana collides with another loud clang.

In all the noise, Arie yells out as he feels the presence of another hunter coming from up above on the cliffside.

"It's time, let's finish this!"

The desert floor begins to rumble, and glowing red spears of rock come from below to fill the battlefield.

Abby flies down to enter the fight, yelling for Fisher to move out of the way.

The swordsman allows himself to be blown back by the remnants of the final bursts of the Sector leader's gauntlets as the green-haired healer lands on the desert floor, pulsing red. She uses her earth magic to wrap Hydra-imbued liquid rock around the silver man's ankles.

He takes a step back, channeling white energy into his boots just like his fists to crack the stone away, but Abby has already sent up more to cover his legs and wrap around his chest and arms.

More pulses of energy crack the stone, but in his weakened state, the leader is trying to conserve as much mana as he can. Abby has just shown up with a full MP bar.

He lets out a muffled yell while trying to run from the assault, but Abby's earth magic is slowing him down to an alarming degree.

She turns to Maria and nods. Maria places her sword in her item box and takes a step forward while raising both hands toward the Sector 4 Leader.

A whisper can be heard escaping from her lips after a deep breath in and out.

"Ice Age."

The blue glow that erupts from Maria's hands outshines the crimson aura of the Red Hydra momentarily but is engulfed in a blood-red veil a fraction of a second later.

Arie and Fisher both run in opposite directions away from the blast as Abby slowly backs up while hovering higher and higher up on a platform of stone, keeping the struggling Sector leader in place.

Beneath Maria's feet, the desert freezes solid, and out from her hands, 7 pillars of crystal-clear ice shoot forward. The first impaling the leader straight through, and the 6 that follow trap his frozen body in a hexagonal-shaped pillar of ice.

It's all over in an instant...

Everyone watches in awe at the sheer amount of Ice summoned from the blond hunters palms. It wouldn't seem believable if they didn't see it with their own eyes. Even with the red wisps of Hydra's soul creeping around the impressive mass of ice, the power exerted from a single strike is far greater than any attack they've ever witnessed.

The desert falls silent, and the sand starts to settle.

Golden rays of the morning sunlight glimmer through the structure of ice down on the frozen sand below.

Level-up notifications ring in Maria's head before her buff automatically deactivates and she falls to the ground, passing out. Soon after, Arie and Fisher instinctually power down their buffs too, collapsing to the desert floor.

Abby falls to her knees last with a grin across her face while activating a restoration circle, spotting Lydia make her way down the cliffside with a million questions racing through her mind.