Silas narrowed his eyes at the figures in the distance. He watched as several people climbed over the reinforced wall.
'There's eight of them,' he thought, channeling mana into his sword.
"All of them are at least A-rank hunters with a platinum core," he said, frowning. 'Two of them should even have diamond cores.'
Silas knew what that meant.
"Someone spent a lot of resources to get these A-ranks to diamond core."
It wasn't impossible for someone with an A-rank affinity to reach a diamond core, but it was only possible with immense resources and funding.
Silas slowly walked out of the entrance, his sword glowing in an ice-blue color.
'Someone that advances purely on resources isn't on the same level as a real S-rank diamond core,' he thought, frowning. 'Still, fighting six platinum cores and two diamond cores on my own will be challenging.'
The number disadvantage wasn't his only problem, though.
Silas felt limited. he couldn't use his strongest attacks with the town surrounding the dungeon.
"If it comes to it..." Silas mumbled, gripping his sword tightly before shaking his head.
'If they gain control of the entrance, they could start weakening the barrier through rituals or formations. I've seen it before. Give them enough time, and they'll find a way to reach or kill Logan.'
"I can't let them get through me."
The people advanced rapidly, but Silas showed no emotion.
Raising his sword in the air, he summoned hundreds of ice shards.
The enemy hunters didn't stop advancing. Instead, one of the diamond cores created a massive hurricane and sent it flying toward the ice shards.
The other diamond core stood still for a moment. Until a massive portal tore open behind him, and a colossal drake stepped through.
Silas used his own wind element, cutting straight through the hurricane coming his way.
'A summoning element,' he thought, frowning. 'Really rare and incredibly mana-intensive. There's no way he should be able to even form a contract with a beast like that.'
'It looks like an S-tier Stormbane,' Silas thought, pointing at the drake. 'This isn't good.'
The ice shards floating above him started spinning wildly before they accelerated toward the drake.
At the same time, the group of hunters split up, leaving five behind to cast long-distance spells while three platinum cores advanced for close combat.
The drake, sensing the ice shards approaching, roared wildly. Electricity bounced between its scales while its eyes turned a bright white color.
The sky above them started darkening. Countless lightning beams rained down, crashing onto the ground between them.
Silas didn't waste any time and made himself lighter using his wind element. He dodged the lightning strikes falling from the sky effortlessly and advanced to the first platinum core hunters.
The three melee combatants didn't hesitate either. One of them turned into a shadow, while the other two raised a massive warhammer and a spear as they charged at Silas.
Silas got to the man with the warhammer first, dashing toward him with his longsword raised.
The man slammed the warhammer into the ground in front of Silas, summoning a massive earth hand to try and take hold of him.
Silas wasn't fazed. Raising his left hand, a precise light beam shot forth from Silas's third affinity.
The light beam cut through the earth hand and continued on to the man holding the warhammer.
He tried to block the beam using his hammer, but it was of no use. The beam went straight through his hammer and obliterated a large portion of his head.
'That's one,' Silas thought, spinning around.
Behind him, a woman slashed a dagger toward his throat.
Silas took half a step back, dodging the knife before ducking down and cutting through the woman's neck.
'Two,' he thought, immediately raising his hand to create a thick crystal shield using his last affinity.
Not even a second after, a giant beam of lightning energy crashed into his shield.
At the same time, a thick tree branch pulled one of his legs into the ground.
'The drake is a big problem,' he thought, using his sword to cut through the branch while his other hand kept channeling crystal energy into the barrier to stop the drake's lightning beam.
Having cut through the branches, he swiftly propelled himself out of the lightning beam's path using a wind blast.
As he regained his footing, Silas saw something from the corner of his eye that made him pause.
"What?'' he said, seeing several people fly through the air, crash-landing in front of the dungeon.
"Shit," he cursed, turning around immediately.
He could tell they were just bronze cores by how badly they were injured during the landing. Hell, some didn't even move, probably killed on impact.
'They must've been masked by the drake's mana in the clouds,' he thought, using his wind element to cross a hundred feet within a second.
Before he could get to the dungeon, the drake blocked his path using another massive lightning beam.
Without hesitation, Silas created another crystal shield around him and pushed through.
As he pushed through the lightning beam, barriers of conjured metal, summoned vines, and reinforced earth rose to slow him. He cut through them all without pause.
Finally arriving at the dungeon, he flew down the stairs, catching up to six unlucky bronze cores and obliterating their bodies.
Crashing into the mana barrier inside the cave, Silas could only watch as one of the bronze cores started healing his teammate.
'Two out of fourteen made it,' he thought, angry.
Jumping out of the cave, Silas looked at the destruction around him.
The enemy hunters and drake hadn't limited themselves to just the mountain area like he had. The five-stories-tall wall had been obliterated, and even now, lightning continued raining down miles around them.
Silas cursed under his breath, eyes shifting toward the town. 'If I tried to throw up a barrier over the town, I'd burn through my core in minutes, after which I would be killed, leaving Logan to fend for himself.'
Silas wasn't that worried about the two that'd just entered the cave. With the items and affinity Logan has, it should be doable. But Silas understood; if he died, more of the enemy bronze cores would be sent in to deal with Logan.
'I have to stop this drake as quickly as possible,' Silas thought, closing his eyes as he apologized to the innocent lives that would be lost.
Silas raised his hand into the air once more and slowly created ten ice spears, each one three times the size of the drake.
He pointed at them, and the spears began to spin wildly as icy dust swirled around them.