My Servant System

Chapter 1176: Chapter 1175: Tests of Power (1)



The march into the city was fueled by adrenaline and stamina boosting potions that heightened our senses, gave us energy and even helped repair some of the smaller damages we had received deep within our tissues from the fighting so far.

When paired with the healing potion that took care of the larger and more obvious wounds, all of us were back in fighting shape physically, though the next potion that soothed our minds took care of the mental aspect since we had already been fighting for a little while now. Having our bodies and minds restored to roughly where we had been before the battle had even begun was what we needed now that we were marching over the rubble of the walls to reach the cultists inside, and many of the soldiers were fueled by the confidence and anger from what had happened minutes earlier.

Seeing their leader dispatch four Fiends back to back had bolstered their confidence to the point that they were assured of victory, while the anger from seeing themselves, their comrades or some of the civilians being hurt or worse pushed them forwards even more, and the cultists were going to become the outlet they needed to let that anger out.

As for me, I just reverted my thinking to the more primitive and problematic version that saw the cultists as nothing more than bundles of experience points that I needed to go out and harvest, and since I had already accumulated quite a large amount of experience from the deaths of those Fiends, well... the high of leveling up was only just settling in, with the promise of an even loftier high spurring me on quite nicely.

Going from the less dangerous but numerous monsters to the more unpredictable and varied cultists was also a change of pace I was more willing to get in line with, and as we stepped over the rubble of the wall I definitely didn't mind having to look over the backs of the soldiers in front of us to see my new targets.

For now we were marching in uniformity while the cultists stood in even rows waiting for us to get close enough to engage, but unsurprisingly to me they reciprocated the barrage from earlier with their own, launching spells down onto us from over their own lines.

Magic soon whipped through the air heading one of two ways; towards the cultists or towards the soldiers, and the almost identical appearance of barriers above us both made this rather anticlimactic, though that could change at the drop of a hat...

The enchantments on the shields flared into existence to block the cultists magic with the help of their wielders own magic, while the cultists were once more enshrouded in a barrier made from Fiendish mana, something that only made me wonder how many more of them we would be finding within this city.

Either way, I held back for now as I watched the spheres and lances thrown from both sides explode and splinter harmlessly against the barriers, knowing that this wasn't the time to waste my own mana as the fighters on both sides eagerly ignited the flames of battle once

more.

For a few seconds there we really were just staring at one another as the spells continued to sail harmlessly through the empty space between us, but after the realization sunk in that there was no way this battle was going to be that easy our soldiers began to march forwards once more under the order of their leader, who gestured for everyone to close the gap.

Turning their mana towards defending themselves instead of attacking, our troops protected one another and thickened the barrier even more, and this was where I felt that I could spend the drops of mana within my Core without feeling like it was a waste.

The closer we got, the more runes I carefully drew in the air around me as I prepared a spell that I hoped would tear a hole through their barrier to allow us entry, and beside me Leone copied my spell while tweaking it to fit her mana even more, the clashing glows of cyan and crimson looking as beautiful as ever as we walked side by side.

They would take a good chunk of mana out of us, but considering the power they would put out it was well worth it, especially if it meant giving our portion of the line an advantage over the opposing line.

Jahi could feel the build up of mana behind her, and without breaking stride she placed herself between us and them, sheltering us both behind her shield as she concealed our spells for as long as she could before planting her feet protecting us completely.

The Ritual Circles were rather large, and despite the complexity with which they operated - the various runes were all woven together into a single spell, but there were still dozens of them – it was quite the simple spell, one that would do the job we required of it rather well.

Compressing and structuring our mana into a beam, we would drill through the Fiend's mana just opposite of us and crack it open on our side, granting us entry unless they closed those holes immediately.

Sending those Ritual Circles into the air above us, Leone and I channeled our mana upwards and gradually activated the beams, sending Ice and Fire Mana spiraling towards them at incredible speeds and with incredible power.

Crashing against the barrier, each of the beams slammed against the mana and instantly began to chew away at it, with my Ice burrowing into the barrier and spreading throughout its surface while Leone's Fire simply burned everything that it touched, heading straight for the other side.

Shouts filled the air as the cultists tried to bolster their barrier, but it only took a few seconds before these supercharged spells did their job perfectly; Leone's punched through the barrier and began to carve away at it crudely while mine splintered the layers of mana and weakened more of it, allowing the other spells to blast away chunks of it steadily.

The wall of the city was down and now the 'wall' between us and the cultists was breached as well, so without much hesitation our soldiers rushed forwards with their shields raised, preparing to take advantage of this and punch through the barrier to reach the cultists inside.