Over the past day, the two spellcasters cast various weather-predicting spells over a hundred times to get a grasp on the surrounding weather. However, the end of summer does mean some issues occurred.

While a rainier season came about in fall, they all simply accepted that sparse rain clouds had to be contained and utilised. But with a whole week to prepare, they all firmly believed that the group’s full power could beat whatever approached.

On the second day since Icy first felt this oncoming threat, Darak couldn’t help but question the team’s logic here. “Why don’t we just hide out in a city for a while? Once we’re all Mithril rank, it’ll be far safer.”

Indeed, for a cataclysm to finally appear meant that either a literal horde of beasts prepared to overwhelm them, or something above mithril tier…

With enough mana, Icy knew he could create a storm powerful enough to kill master tiers, so it was just a matter of gathering so much. Fortunately, with cities nearby, they bought a large stock of mana recovery potions and ground down other mana-laden plants.

“I really didn’t expect him to send something this dangerous already… It is that chimaera creator, right?” Darak spoke up as the group ate a meal. Over the past few days, as they all began preparations, they all silently accepted where this threat came from, but never did they actually talk about it in depth. The worry was so great that they deemed survival a more matter.

“Probably. But it’s more likely he sent another monster instead of coming personally, even if he’s insane, there’s no way he’s stupid enough to get himself killed. What worries me most is that no mithril tier opponent has ever set off Icy like this.”

Icy followed off from Mala’s words on the matter, “It’s not him… This cataclysm is– I can’t explain it. There’s just a sensation, even though I’ve never felt it before I understand it rather well. It’s like comparing a hurricane and earthquake, both devastating but far too different.”

Nothing he said could really translate just how the mountainous danger overwhelmed him.

In the first place, this evolution was only possible due to the danger sense of his Auric spirit, his Stormbringer bloodline and a great increase to his Mutation rate which put the stat to 15. The number might have tripled, but that didn’t actually mean the wackiness in natural evolutions increased that much.

Well, for all but one of the five evolutions he took…

Name

Icryladrom (Icy)

Title

Nexus Aid Bonus II

Magic Primary II

Spellcaster 3

Species

Dragon

Bloodline

Dragoncored Ice-cream

HP

100%

MP

100%

Level

56

EXP

22%

Unallocated Stat Points: 0

Strength

0

Luck

13

Agility

20

Growth

20

Magic

100

Mutation Rate

15

Anyway, Icy was certain that the impending storm felt more like an earthquake than a hurricane or solar storm. From that, he anticipated it to either be a dreadfully powerful chimaera or some completely unrelated threat that exceeded mithril tier.

How that even related to the Blossoming wizard creating these chimaeras was a good question…

Rebecca popped out of stealth to make a quick statement on the situation. While increasingly talkative the past two years, what really changed is how often she complimented the group. “Don’t worry about it. As long as that bastard doesn’t come personally, I trust we’ll manage. You two didn’t even have to use those ridiculous abilities against that one.”

“Still can’t believe you picked that maestro option over the ephemeral body transformation,” Jaren brought up a common point of contention. Not because they disagreed with Icy’s personal desires and choices, but rather because the dragon’s argument for it was hilarious. However, Icy just rolled his eyes in response, not that one could easily tell as the balls of ice cream lacked irises and pupils.

“Just find a mana hotspot for me to set up an array already.”

Jaren rolled his eyes too. He only got back half an hour ago to eat and rest, did the dragon think scouring a forest for such a place was easy?

Some of the group laughed while others just watched, it always helped to have soft conversation with several guillotines and swords above their head at all times. Of course, this situation all reminded them deeply of that first meeting well over three years ago. How things changed so wildly… But this relationship had taken a lot of time to build so well.

“This is a lot nicer than back then,” Raccelline spoke up. She rarely joined this playful banter about abilities with the group as she often didn’t know how to add to the conversation without sounding like a ‘kid’. But right now she felt the change most. Back then as the only one who actually tried to be close to the unknown ice cream dragon, everyone else stayed mostly silent and focused on their own things in preparation.

Too young to really articulate her own feelings, the other six all saw things for what they were.

Incredible luck.

* * *

Over the next few days, the harrowing storm drew far closer, so much in fact that his senses lost most of their accuracy. Whether it finally met them in a day or three was completely unknown, and the group resorted to keeping watch for now. They already moved a fair distance from any bit of civilization, so they could only hope that adventurers and merchants were far away when the thing arrived.

Icy finished implementing a few arrays at a region of dense mana as found by Jaren. It’d taken a while on account of mana gatherer trees working to stop random hotspots, but once found it was easy to remove the local beast occupying that spot and take full control. The three arrays that Icy set up focused primarily on offensive might, but that didn’t exclude one which partially acted as a barrier.

A very basic barrier at that, with its only unique modification being a way to allow verified individuals to pass through either way. However, their attacks could only pass outwards, an obvious countermeasure. Icy merged the generic barrier with an effect to focus vision on distant objects. Reduced in worth due to the forest around them, it was better than nothing.

Another array simply gathered a specified amount of mana and fired an attack which resembled the spell Comet Blast. While an Adept true spell at 168 words, it was generally easy to create arrays which used abilities similar to spells beyond the creator.

Comet Blast produced a comet-like object of pure mana, and hurtled it towards a target, rather expected. Although, much like something burning up as it fell to the surface, this attack’s head is covered in a layer of crystalline mana as shielding between the array and whatever they wanted to hit. The comet devastated its target with a large explosion on impact, so protection on the way was required. What sort of cruel joke would it be to use so much mana on a spell, and then a weak Firebolt blew it up mid-journey?

Also, this is the sort of stuff used to blast through city defences… Or very rarely deal great damage to an army of opponents. The mana costs left all seven of them disgusted.

The last array was far simpler, creating a large-scale ‘field’ effect with a function similar to Degeneration. This spell needed no introduction, as Icy occasionally used it or related dark element spells to deal with flesh-and-blood opponents.

With such a large effect, albeit merely half a kilometre in diameter, they ensured relative safety as cut limbs became excessively hard to stem the bleeding of. Unless more monsters with sacks of life essence remained.

With no churches nearby, Manus remained in the dark about their situation. Darak instead focused on condensing the divine power within his bones to maximise their storage. Two years ago they talked it over, and he replaced around 20% of his marrow for this, not even close to the initial danger point that the manual warned of. He could do nothing else in this time period besides gather plants and clear the surroundings to reduce casualties.

No one expected support from nearby cities to arrive, Mithril ranks and Mature wizards are far from suicidal enough to join this sort of battle.

Jaren, Korridan, and Raccelline focused heavily on gathering the mana-filled plants Icy needed; aside from needing to evade node trees, very few places in the forest stopped them.

Lastly, Rebecca primarily scouted the forest in the direction Icy indicated the storm to arrive from. But prior to that, she was the one who bought out potion stocks from nearby towns. Unless one of them suddenly evolved now, more preparations were difficult.

Six days passed since the initial senses warned Icy of this danger, but still, nothing seemed to approach. Was it perhaps some sort of invisible opponent that none of their senses noticed?

Well, given that Icy saw through the effect of a divine relic, he chose to believe that no stealth below that of the great languages held up in front of Elder eyes. Every day just meant that the pile of dried and crushed plants grew in size, not to mention Mala actually further refining some of the more valuable parts through a distillation process.

The resulting liquid is not a potion, and was actually extremely toxic as it did not remove any toxins in the first place, instead concentrating them, on top of lacking the absorptive elements added to real potions which allowed such rapid regeneration of a wizard’s MP.

At one point, the group considered including a fourth array which granted them all Assisted Flight, or even just a simple air-walk effect at all times, but as they couldn’t be sure of their opponent, the idea left their heads in due time. Also, Icy tested it and concluded that just the mana upkeep of such an array put the barrier and Degeneration effect at risk.

The battle neared, and for the final matter they all checked equipment and cleaned things up where necessary.

Mala and Darak both revealed wooden staves, the most noticeable difference between the two was Mala’s fitted with a polished purple gem at the top and a dark wood akin to walnut. Darak’s staff also had a wooden head, but no place for a gemstone existed, instead one could mistake the staff as a cudgel due to it.

Almost bursting, mana flowed from Mala’s staff, while Darak’s revealed a considerable quantity of Divinus runes. Not enough to be a divine relic, but at least a powerful tool.

Korridan wore the mentally-controlled arm and withdrew not only the spiked shield from before, but a greatsword with an exceptionally thick and wide blade. The thing was practically a shield of its own. Plastered in engravings on both sides, like the other two warriors, after making ample use of the ores within the pillar’s subspace they purchased enchantments on new equipment.

Jaren’s bow was rather normal, simply far stronger than his last, but the enchanted quiver and arrows at his side allowed them to teleport back within a 15 km range. His bow came with a small enchanted eyepiece near the handle too, it helped with aiming beyond a few kilometres.

Rebecca chose regenerating, enchanted armour, which slightly blended her very spatial presence, one of her few lacking areas these days. The enchantment she purchased on her crafted weapon, another curved dagger, vibrated at high frequency to better cut through bone and scale.

As an odd one out, Raccelline used that blade Icy took from the ruins long ago, but they fitted it with a proper handle and hilt for balance. The dagger made for her fit her size better, but when in need for a stronger weapon she took the best available.

Now a waiting game… Mala and Icy awaited the moment to empower their team with more spells. For now, they just occasionally cast spells up to the sky.

Their enemy was truly playing a suicidal game, allowing a dragon to prepare. The group couldn’t help but stare at the large dark-grey rain clouds above them, hardly enough to cause a downpour or storm on its own, but a little nudge was all it needed.