"Not here, huh." I scanned the sewer but couldn't detect any life or death presence and jumped out of the manhole and onto the streets.
I could spot people in the distance moving around in an orderly manner unlike before and summarised it was the work of Katarina.
"But ruler magic sure is handy."
Despite the threat of the monsters right above us, I could see just a few traces of panic and even that was in the minority.
Katarina said her magic only amplified what was already there in it's base state but I was beginning to doubt that.
"About the mastermind." Abandoned buildings, hospitals, sewers. I searched almost everywhere a bad guy might use as it's hiding spot.
All except one.
"But I don't hink that counts as a hiding spot though..."
I looked at the sky that was covered with monsters and I clicked my tongue.
...
"Good job out there, princess." Rompeltiskavemistos aka Rompe, greeted Katarina as she entered back inside the mansion.
She had just finished pacifying the people and making sure everything was going according to plan and for now, it was.
"Umm... May I ask where your bodyguard went?" She turned and looked at Rompe as he asked the question and thought for a moment and replied,
"He went to look for the person behind the attack." Rompe furrowed his brows at her words and she added, "It's fine. Despite how he looks, he's actually quite strong."
"Is that so?" And with that, Katarina found a blade made of light in her stomach and turned to look at Rompe in disbelief.
"W-why?"
...
I stopped in the middle of the air and frowned as I looked at the city below.
I could detect faint traces of Katarina's magic being activated and wondered what could have happened.
"Even if anything did, I can't imagine someone strong enough to take her down that easily.
As she was, even the lich king from when we met each other won't be able to beat her.
"Speaking of it, what did she do with that guy?" Katarina said she needed a guardian but now that she had become stronger than the individual in question, I doubt she'll have need for him.
"That's not my problem right now." I looked at the city barrier and set my hand in front of it.
"Lifebound arts," I held my middle finger back with my thumb and poured power into my fingers.
"Barrier destroying flick." A small crack appeared in the and it expanded and that section of the barrier shattered and small bits of mana rained down.
"RARRH!" The rhinos roared and began charging the hole and I kicked against the air and shot through the opening using the force to rip through them with ease.
"I should probably do something about this barrier." I placed my hand on the barrier and ignored the rain of blood and monster bits and began feeling out the inner workings.
As a pure healer, I couldn't use barriers for the life of me but most barriers come with an auto regenerate function so all I needed to do was just to supply the energy.
I watched as the barrier sucked out my my mana and looked at the rhinos that were looking at me with madness. And caution. One that clearly did not belong to a crazed monster.
"I have you, puppet master."
...
"What is that monster?" Erina looked through the eyes of the scared stiff rhinos and cursed under her breath.
"It was supposed to be an easy mission."
Take down a defenceless princess and collect a huge amount of money.
That was what they told her.
"And yet, what the hell is that? I wasn't informed about this." If it was simply destroying the monsters, Erina would not have been that shocked.
"He's... Not using magic to strengthen his body!"
For an ordinary person to destroy a barrier and defeat countless rhinos with a single attack without using any magic was nothing short of insane.
"I gotta get out of here." Erina waved her hand and a stone inscribed with a rune appeared in her hands.
It was a teleportation stone and was used but those without the ability to use the magic themselves to escape.
"I have you, puppet master." Erina froze as she was about to crush the stone as the voice of a young boy rang out like a death sentence.
And then she found herself falling."
"Eh?" She looked and found that a perfectly circular hole hae appeared in the griffin she was riding.
"I really hate midair battles so let's take this to the ground."
And with that, a massive impact slammed into her chest and her ribs shattered under the pressure as she shot towards the ground like a cannonball.
Before she lost consciousness, she looked up to see a white haired boy staring at her as he fluttered his legs in the air.
'I see.' it was at this point that she realized what was going on.
'He can't use strengthening magic.'
...
"That takes care of her." I looked satisfied at the shooting star I created and nodded satisfied and turned my attention to the rhinos.
Despite having lost the person who was manipulating them, they didn't stop their attacks against the barrier and as if to demonstrate their freedom, they ran into it even harder.
Some of them were introduced even knocked off and slid to the ground where they took the impact with their bodies and slammed at the barrier from the side.
"At this rate, it's only a matter of time before the barrier is overcome."
It was times like this I really wished I had Katarina with me.
Her magic has a wider range that my attacks so she would have been able to take care of all the monsters in a flash.
"Well, no use crying about what you don't have." I kicked against the air and sent myself flying away from the city.
Of course, I wasn't running away.
It's just...
"I need to test something out."