When the snow cloud began to settle down since the enemies felt the group's presence, Jake dashed at them. The ice trolls swung their clubs at him, but Jake destroyed them all with his sword before cutting the neck of the monsters. He didn't feel any resistance when he destroyed the weapons… in fact, he could barely feel the weight of the sword.
"Commander, I have finished the analysis of the Dragon's Heart," Virgilius said.
"Is this really the best time to talk about that?" Jake asked after he spun around and cut the neck of five enemies.
"It is made of the best and rarest mana conductor in the world," Virgilius said. "The blade is made of mithril, and the hilt is truly made of a dragon claw."
"Why did it take so long to analyze that?" Jake asked why there wasn't any description of the use of the blade. I suspect that the recovery is due to the hilt."
"Mithril is basically massive concentrations of mana. Under normal conditions, it will repel other sources of mana," Virgilius explained. "However, by holding it, you should be able to make full use of it."
Jake could understand the meaning of that… it was time to test if that sword could help him use the technique that Jake wanted to learn…
Some enemies decided to ignore Jake and then dashed to attack the backline. Karina and Julian moved to intercept them. However, before they could fight the enemies, Louise used her lightning bolts and then exploded the heads of the first group. When the next group came, Louise only focused on draining the mana of their clubs, and then Arilene summoned her ghost archers… so it was the same as usual. They hit their faces with arrows.
"Shouldn't you guys be saving some mana?" Karina asked.
"Well… I am kind of pumped while seeing Jake fight," Louise said while forcing a smile.
"I don't want to be treated like I need to be saved again," Arilene said.
"Slow down a little," Lana said. "I will buff their parameters in order for them to deal with the trolls."
Louise and Arilene did exactly that, and thanks to it, some trolls managed to approach them. Lana buffed Karina's speed and Julian's strength to the limits. The first dashed toward the enemy faster than he could follow with his eyes and then, in the blink of an eye, reached his back and jumped to attack his neck. The creature lost control over its body once the knives pierced its flesh.
Meanwhile, Julian got a bit more reckless and went to trade blows with the ice troll in front of him. The weapons collided, and usually, he would have lost the trade, but at the last moment, he used Reflect and Mana Blade at the same time, and then the enemy's weapon broke. Even before his momentum could end, Julian pierced the enemy's heart with his sword and killed it.
Julian and Karina checked their conditions and confirmed that they could keep going like that. Lana's buff just started as well… Still, before they could do anything else, they saw a flash of blue light coming from Jake's direction, and in the next moment, they saw dozens of enemies being split in two and a rain of blood began to fall around Jake… that was enough to make everyone in the area feel goosebumps. They didn't know what Jake did, but they knew that it had been pretty brutal…
"It seems that I really can control my mana well inside the sword… I don't have to worry about the control anymore, so we can head to the next phase," Jake said while looking around for my enemies.
"I analyzed the data of Louise's skill, and I confirmed two important factors about her ability to drain mana," Virgilius said.
"She treated you like an ally, and you are spying on her without permission…" Jake said and then sighed.
"I asked her, and she said that she was fine in giving you a hand," Virgilius explained.
"You made something worse; you didn't tell me that beforehand and even told her that the research was for my sake," Jake said.
"Wasn't that the truth? I thought that I had to do everything in my power to help," Virgilius said.
"You can tell me the details once we have some moments of peace," Jake said.
Jake sighed… it was useless to complain now. In any case, there were still some ice trolls left, and they still dashed at Jake. His first experiment was over, and he didn't want to go showing that technique, even if incomplete, over and over again.
Jake used Flash while moving around and targeting the vitals of the ice trolls and making blood follow him and when he was unable to do that since the enemies swung their weapons at him, he aimed at their legs and got rid of their mobility. Karina and Julian approached to offer some assistance, but then the giant ice birds spammed ice spears around the battlefield.
"... What are they doing?" Jake asked while looking at Frederick and his friends.
Frederick and the others were dealing with the first group… but another one came from the East while everyone was busy… Julian and Karina began to run while zigzagging and managed to avoid those, but that was giving too much time for the trolls to recover…
Jake prepared to decimate the enemies with his Mana Blades, but before he could do that, some dark clouds appeared above the enemies, and then dozens of lightning bolts fried them up. In the next moment, Louise got dizzy, and then Lana gave her a shoulder to lean on.
"Sorry, even though I keep trying to avoid mana depletion, this always happens," Louise said.
"Not a problem. We can deal with trolls in a few moments and then move on," Jake said. "Lana will help you move."
"We have a problem. More armies of monsters are coming to surround us," Frederick said. "We either keep pushing forward and don't wait for the back line to offer support or we advance and risk being attacked from behind."
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