Everything in Althea’s mind was filled with blocking the door, protecting the people inside. She alerted Gaia and the others about it, but they were all preoccupied with enemies outnumbering them.

She couldn’t wait for others and was forced to jump down. As soon as she landed, however, she felt herself lifted up, and calloused large hands grabbed her neck.

"Hey, gorgeous, finally caught you," a man said. It was someone past level 30, and definitely overpowered her, especially since he had companions.

Althea’s eyes sharpened and immediately attacked, using all her remaining mana.

Sharp rocks appeared from below them, shooting up in the blink of an eye. Some weren’t fast enough and yelled when they felt the hit, while others preemptively jumped up by pure reflex.

The men’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and then in anger when they got hit.

A moment later, her vines appeared and kept them in place even for just a second, and she threw out all the acidic water she had on stock.

"AHHH!"

"Damnit! That hurts!"

Elemental attacks had much higher penetration effects than normal attacks and had some effects even against higher-level people. Though she wasn’t able to kill anyone, she sure made them scream in pain.

Attacks from a woman ten levels lower than they were hit not just their skins, but their pride. Their previously amused and arrogant gazes turned to vindictiveness, and Althea immediately found herself surrounded by various attacks, one of her protection charms destroyed every second.

She ran away but was captured, and soon her last protection charm was gone. Fortunately, she had several high-level defense equipment on, so she managed to throw a few more attacks and escape from their hold, but unfortunately, not enough to escape being surrounded by them.

All this happened in the span of five to seven seconds, and the people around soon realized what was going on.

Seeing her captured, the guards and citizens immediately panicked.

"LADY ALTHEA!"

"MILADY!!!"

As she feared, her people were immediately distracted by her capture; some were directly slashed at the back, and others were hit by various elemental projectiles.

Her eyes sharpened, but she could not help anyone, as she was already barraged by attacks!

She saw Gaia head to her, and she shook her head. "Please protect the bunker!" she yelled. She wouldn’t be able to think straight otherwise!

The Lady had no choice but to head to block the door, going against ten people on her own before reinforcement came.

At this time, reinforcement was divided between trying to rescue Althea and help Gaia, either of which was very difficult, as the enemies who had gotten this far started getting more organized.

Obviously, an enemy leader has appeared!

People’s hearts stopped when various attacks—some elemental—surrounded Althea, and she was hit at the same time.

"LADY ALTHEA!!"

"MISS ALTHEA!"

People desperately fought their enemies, but even if they took them down together, there were not a few, and they were so far away from Althea.

However, to everyone’s surprise, when the smoke cleared out...Althea was still standing!

This time, much of her outerwear had already been obliterated, revealing an iridescent camisole underneath!

A high-level defense equipment! The type that could protect the entire being!

A derisive laugh sounded at the side, and the enemy group cleared way as the man approached. Obviously, this was this group’s leader.

"Unexpectedly, you’re so much more troublesome than any of us thought!" The leader of this group was none other than Waran, who was a bit injured but otherwise still energetic. "I thought we over-prepared, but it looks like we still underestimated you!"

"But...no matter how high the equipment, we’re all level 30 plus here," he said. "How many more attacks could it handle?!"

"ATTACK!!"

Althea was gasping for air at this time, pulling out all the energy reserves she could access. She had already consumed every mana item she had, and now her mana was recovering, but not fast enough.

While her defense equipment was still active, she had to take down as many of these enemies as she could!

"MISS ALTHEA! PLEASE HOLD ON!"

"WE’LL COME TO YOU!"

Her eyes shimmered as their screaming faces reflected in her orbs. She watched as her brethren died as she stood helplessly. So what if she was still fine? She was still useless at this juncture.

She summoned various earth spikes again, as sharp as they could, and at odd angles that were difficult for the enemies to avoid. Because she was surrounded, even if she didn’t target a particular person, she would hit someone.

She also didn’t waste time reusing the water she already ejected, changing their composition, and making them boil.

If the enemies’ levels were lower, she could’ve accessed their blood. But alas, she could not do that yet.

"DAMN!"

"She’s so annoying!"

"AHHH! I want to punish her so much!" Another yelled, screaming as an earth spike had impaled his leg.

There were also many who rolled on the ground in pain, feeling the acid burn on part of their skin.

The amount of damage she could cause, considering her level and condition, shocked everyone.

However, no matter what, the damage she caused could not compare to the barrage she received.

And the enemy also had other cards they decided to reveal after seeing her defenses.

Waran smirked, looking arrogantly at her. "Actually, I have a special tool I got from a city," he said, raising a sort of brass knuckle, except the metal was unknown or an alloy of various items.

To the eyes of an array user, however, Althea could tell there was a multitude of arrays inside, many of which were unknown to her!

"It can temporarily allow me to create an attack that would ignore the enemy’s defenses. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"It’s just one attack and had to be a physical one, but...it’s more than enough, don’t you think?"

"This is very expensive and difficult to use. Be honored to experience it, woman."

As he said this, Waran appeared right in front of Althea, fist raised high—

BAM!

His fist directly connected to the woman’s stomach, and—as if unblocked by anything—connected straight to her skin and internal organs.

At that moment, Althea felt as if some sort of explosion had happened inside her body, and she could barely hear anything else but her own cracked bones and squelched organs.

"LADY ALTHEA!!!"

"MISS ALTHEA!!"