"Are we really running in there?" Kris asked, looking at the explosions currently blowing up the space in front of us.

I turned towards Ava and nodded at her, "Can you give us an opening?"

She nodded, "Of course, my Divine. I have been looking for an opportunity to test my limits~"

She raised her staff and started to chant, prompting several magic circles to appear around her.

All of us watched as the air swirled around her as more and more magic circles appeared.

As though sensing the danger, the four armed Anomaly raised its fist to let another bolt of lightning strike against it to shoot it at her, trying to interrupt her spellcasting.

Jia Lian stepped in front of her and raised her shield, projecting a translucent blue wall that blocked the lightning bolt from reaching Ava.

Unperturbed, the four armed Anomaly tried again, punching even more bolts of lightning towards us and striking against the shield that Jia Lian had materialised relentlessly.

Both Olivia and I stood right behind her, ready to intercept the lightning bolts in case Jia Lian’s shield collapsed.

That turned out to be unnecessary as the magic circles around Ava lit up in a flash of light before congregating around her staff, transforming into one giant magic circle that expanded into the sky.

The magic circle then disappeared into small particles of light before a hole tore itself open in the sky, allowing an especially giant rock to come through.

"Ava?" I muttered, looking at the meteor that was the size of a skyscraper.

"Ara, ara? It seems like you’ve helped me make it even stronger, my Divine~ It’s a good thing I did not try to do this in the last rift~"

"Everyone brace yourselves!!" I called out as the meteor crashed down onto the field, the entire rock exploding upon impact and throwing pieces of itself flying in all directions.

One of them crashed into Jia Lian’s shield, leaving a crack on its surface as the rock shattered into pieces.

The shockwave hit us a second later which was followed closely by the dust cloud.

Jia Lian groaned as she held her shield with both hands, desperately trying to maintain her shield even as she slid back a few feet from the impact.

I stood behind her and held her shoulders, surprising her a little.

But when she realised it was me standing behind her, she dug in her heels and pushed back against her shield with me supporting her.

I let some of my life energy flow into her to strengthen her and she even managed to take a step forward despite the force pushing against her.

The dust cloud slowly dissipated as the artillery shells continued to bombard the area.

When we could finally see again, the open field in front of us had been turned into a giant crater with the remains of the meteor laying inside it.

Pretty much all of the Anomalies that had been unfortunate enough to be standing within the impact zone had been reduced to dust.

Behind the crater, the hill had also suffered damage as the top had been shaved off, causing it to lose half of its height.

The remaining Anomalies as well as the four armed Anomaly had hid on the other side of the hill to avoid being crushed and all of them looked especially pissed at us.

Fortunately, the giant meteor basically cleared out the space between us and the hill of Anomalies which meant that we could just head directly towards the hill right now.

And because of that...

I concentrated on the space in front of me while maintaining line of sight with the top of the hill.

It took me a moment before a large door materialised in front of me while another door appeared at the top of the hill near the four armed Anomaly.

I made sure to make the door big enough so that everyone on my side could go through it without any issues.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I jumped through the doorway and pulled out my sword, the rest of my Guardians also following through the door behind me.

"The big one’s mine, I’ll leave the others to you guys!" I called out.

My Guardians yelled out an affirmative while I charged towards the four armed Anomaly.

It turned to me, its nostrils flaring and its arms unfurling in preparation to fight.

I flew directly towards the Anomaly, my sword held at my side. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The other Anomalies tried to defend their leader as they rushed towards me from the sides, flanking me from the sides.

Two of them jumped towards me, their fists pulled back and attempting to punch at me.

Before they could reach me, Olivia jumped out and punched at the Anomaly, her fist smashing into the Anomaly’s face and sending it flying away from me.

Kris jumped at the other Anomaly, his greatsword slashing down to slice the other Anomaly into half.

With the path in front of me cleared, I changed my gravity and accelerated towards the four armed Anomaly, flying between the two arms that it had raised in front of its chest before it even realised what was going on.

Up close, the size difference between the Anomaly and myself could not be more clear as its chest was already as big as I was tall.

I coated my sword with Jia Lian’s ability before plunging the blade into its chest, slipping it right between where its ribs should be.

The blade penetrated through the skin and muscle like I was cutting through paper, the Anomaly letting out a loud roar more out of indignation than pain.

I was not done yet as I focused my lightning to travel down my arm and into the sword, using it as a lightning rod to start electrocuting the demon that I had just stabbed.

Now the demon started to roar in pain, which was a good sign because I was afraid that it might be immune to lightning since it could shoot them out as well.

I noticed a shadow moving towards me and I quickly pulled out my sword and leapt up into the air.

Right on time as well since one of the demon Anomaly’s hands slammed down on its chest. Had I been just a bit slower, I would have been crushed under its palm.

It then raised up both of its upper arms, prompting lightning from the storm cloud overhead to strike them and wrap them with electricity.

I dove back towards it, intending to get close before it could shoot them at me.

Unfortunately, I was not fast enough as it levelled both palms at me before shooting out two bolts of lightning one after the other.

I swung my sword to slash in front of me, deflecting one of the lightning bolts away before shooting my own bolt of lightning to counter the other one.

The growled at the sight of its attacks being deflected before leaping back, attempting to escape from me and create distance between us.

I reached out my hand and materialised a shadow tendril that shot out from my wrist to curl around its finger. Before the tendril disappeared, I used it to pull myself towards the Anomaly and I accelerated towards it again.

This time, I raised my fist and punched it in the chest before it could defend itself, throwing my full strength behind that punch.

The impact sent it stumbling towards the edge of the hill before it stepped onto empty air, the entire Anomaly falling down towards the basin and rolling downhill.

I chanced a look behind me to see my Guardians still engaged in battle with the other demon Anomalies.

Fortunately for them, the top of the hill was relatively narrow for the Anomalies so they were not able to use their numbers to their advantage if they wanted to fight on even ground.

In order to try and flank my Guardians, they would need to be at a lower elevation and fight them on uneven ground which gave my Guardians an advantage instead.

Seeing that they were able to deal with that fight, I turned my attention back to the four armed Anomaly that had managed to stop its fall by smashing its fists into the ground, stopping just short of the Mana Crystal veins.

It was looking up at me with clear rage while I floated in the air above to look down at it.

The Anomaly raised all four of its arms and actually gave me a come hither motion.

Oh? So it even knows how to taunt? This one’s actually smart it seems... Which also means I could do this...

I cracked my fists and my neck before stretching out my hand to give the Anomaly a thumbs down, showing my clear disdain for it.

I honestly didn’t know if this would even work since it might not even understand me but surprisingly...

The Anomaly let out an earth shaking roar and bent down to tear up a giant piece of earth before throwing it at me.

Oh wow... Did I really hurt its feelings that much?