Boom!
Everyone was suddenly pushed a good distance away but no one was hurt. The intruder could cast fire magic. If it were any other folks, they would have gotten it bad or even died instantly but these folks were ex-specimen.
"Hmph! Just a bunch of kids, what do you wish to accomplish here, tell me who sent you and I might consider sparing your lives leaving you with only a broken limb or two" the woman said.
"I don't know guys, shouldn't this be the other way round? I mean, she is clearly the intruder, but the way she talks will give a third party the wrong idea about who is really who", Rose said.
"Ok, no more holding back, but also don't show all your cards immediately, it's clear she is in the demi-god realm based on the amount and quality of magical energy she is giving off," Gabe said.
"Did you just say demi-god realm? I am in the third quadrant of the mortal realm, and I know you guys should be at the same level so how do you think we can beat someone who is a whole realm above us?" Willow asked.
"Beatrice was also in the demi-god realm, but when she was she tried to control her magical output as much as possible. I guess she had an injury. Even at that, she was still able to produce power up to a fourth quadrant mortal, in the end, I still beat her", Gabe said.
"Thank God you said she was injured. This one here isn't, I think we should just run away," Willow said.
"Willow don't let fear cloud your judgement. How can we run away from a being in the demi-god realm, and if we can run away and escape from her easily, doesn't that mean we can also overpower her easily, it's not like we own a high-grade escape artifact. Also, apart from Cole and you, none of us has a mana core, we have never practiced magic before and basically have no magical energy. Well at least for now," Gabe said.
"What's our next move?" Jack asked.
"Let's trust Willow to provide us with enough cover. She will cast restriction spells on the enemy while we give the enemy heat" Gabe replied.
So they went for the second round with everyone aware of the role they should play. The woman planned to use the same spell she had used at the beginning in order to show her superiority.
All of them, ex-specimen, having full confidence in Gabe's plan went in for the attack not caring to even put any defense up. The woman smirked at their idiotic move and unleashed her spell again but it was delayed as Willow had also made her move. Willow could only only hold back the intruder for half a second but that time frame was more than enough as the woman received four solid hits.
"Aaaah!!" The intruder screamed.
"You fucking brats, I will kill you all, no amount of begging not even the fabled plot armor is going to save you!!" She shouted.
'I know I've heard that line before, not too long ago, in fact, just a little over two weeks back,' Gabe thought.
He then attempted to speak with the intruder.
"I am starting to think we kind of have a misunderstanding in some way, can we just... What the hell is that!"
Gabe could not believe his eyes as it looked like the woman had brought the sun down to the earth.
"Is she trying to kill us?" Abel asked with a shaky voice.
"What do you think genius," Jack replied.
This time no one held back again. Jack, Abel, and Rose still had some vials of geno serum left. Without wasting time they wore their bracelets, loaded them with a vial, and clicked a button on it. The contents of the vials were instantly injected into their bloodstreams. Within five seconds their gene alteration processes had finished as they had transformed into a half-man half beast form. Gabe also transformed with the help of the system and Willow cast a movement spell on herself.
In a flash, everyone had scattered from the area of the mad woman. This was how they saw the intruder, a mad woman, the very definition of a goddess with a fiery temper as that was how she looked at that time.
The intruder saw everyone fleeing at unimaginable speeds and was pissed off because with the way they were moving, if she didn't act then, they would all escape the area of effect of her spells.
"You think you can hit me and get away with it? Fireball!! Supernova!!"
Bang!! Boom!!
Her spell was utterly devastating as it had a double explosion effect. It first hit the whole area just like any ordinary fireball but then after the first explosion, all the dispersed fire and magic came together again and exploded once more with the latter explosion greater than the former.
After the debris, dust, and smoke generated from the powerful magic attack had settled, figures, a good distance from one another could be seen standing up, looking like zombies that were rising from a graveyard after an apocalyptic event.
Gabe's whole skin was burnt, and Willow was knocked out cold but apart from that, she was ok because she had cast a barrier and Gabe had also taken ninety percent of the blast for her. Rose's legs were missing, Jack's right arm was gone and Abel's shoulder was impaled by an iron rod, pinning him to a wall that also survived the blast.
Everyone except Gabe had lost all hope. They looked up in bitterness and pain as the figure of the mad woman was getting larger as she was getting closer. Gabe was also staring, not at the intruder but at a string of notifications he was seeing on his system interface.
* Host has experienced a high-grade magic spell and survived...
* Host has gained insight into fire magi...
...