This was Floor 28, and the Poison Vermis was a rare sort. Individually they weren't strong, but in terms of the threat they posed to adventurers they were the kind of monster that was extremely troublesome. On top of that, like the "Rookie Killers" and the "High-Class Adventurer Killers," they had the trait of swarming together, so calling them "New World Killers" wouldn't be wrong at all.
And according to the Guild's assessment, their potential was at least equivalent to mid to upper Lv.3, while certain special individuals, such as a Strengthened Species of the Poison Vermis King, might even reach Lv.4 or even Lv.5.
That alone showed what a serious threat this monster was.
Just then a dense rustling, like tens of thousands of dead leaves scraping together, surged out of the open ground ahead.
Leon's expression shifted slightly, and every ice clone turned toward the source of the sound at once.
A gray-and-white "tide" was writhing along the ground, closing in. It wasn't a tide at all. It was Poison Vermis, packed together, pouring out in sheets.
Leon had never liked bugs or spiders, and this was the worst version of both.
An old favorite escaped his mouth on instinct.
"Damn!"
"Enemy attack!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Before he'd finished speaking his body was already moving. He opened with a transcendent-tier spell, just to make his feelings clear.
"Circle Linking, Secret Art: Transcendent Magic Circle!"
"Blizzard!"
Snowflakes falling. Winter is coming!
A howling wind roared out, and everywhere anyone could see, the terrain turned into a Winter Wonderland at terrifying speed.
"Huh?"
"What is that?"
As mages themselves, Aura and Margaret knew what they were looking at, and they stared up at it slack-jawed, completely stunned.
Aura parted her lips slightly and murmured, "Mr. Leon's magic range and strength have gone up again..."
"So this is the terror of a Lv.5 Mage?"
Persephone drew her longsword and put her back against Kureha's, and said quietly, "And that was cast on Instant Cast. If he used a full chant and charged it up in parallel, he could probably match the artillery of Loki Familia's Nine Hell, Riveria."
Aura thought about it for a moment, then shook her head firmly. "The two are different in nature, you can't compare them. Mr. Leon's Blizzard is a channeled spell. After it's cast he still has to concentrate to maintain it, and while Blizzard can attack multiple times over its duration, its attack power is much lower compared to true wide-area annihilation magic, because its real purpose is to construct a battlefield favorable to allies and mages while slowing and weakening enemies."
"Lady Riveria's wide-area annihilation magic is the classic artillery type. It aims for enormous burst damage in an instant. It's a trump card that turns a loss into a win, a decisive strike!"
"The two are different in nature, so they can't be compared."
Persephone smiled faintly at the corner of her mouth and didn't argue the point with Aura.
After all, Nine Hell was elven royalty, admired and respected by elves the world over, and Laurier and Aura, both young elves, were no exception. If she picked a fight with Aura over it now, with that single-minded stubbornness bred into elves, it would never end.
As for which was stronger right now, Leon or Riveria?
That was down to whoever you asked.
But if it came to raw one-on-one combat power, Persephone would vote for Leon without hesitation.
For no other reason than that True Essence of All Magic of his being absolutely broken. Instant Cast plus charging, it was the god of the mage mirror match. Without some means of close-quarters fighting, a traditional mage in front of Leon probably wouldn't get a single spell off before having to type GG.
...
"Frost Nova!"
"Ice Lance, Ice Lance, Ice Lance!" (xN)
Leon himself stayed hidden behind the formation, keeping only one ice clone as a close bodyguard while he focused on controlling the rest. He kept up the Blizzard blanketing the battlefield while meeting the tide of Poison Vermis.
These glass-cannon monsters that relied so heavily on their "special attack" were nothing but sitting ducks in front of Leon, and with his Blizzard's coverage expanding further after Lv.5, fighting them didn't feel like a life-or-death encounter. It felt more like playing an FPS.
For instance, by controlling the ice clones, using Concentrate and Accuracy plus Divided Concentration, he could lock onto targets quickly and efficiently, then Instant Cast Ice Lance and turn each Poison Vermis into a sieve.
"FPS are great fun...!"
He was smiling and showing off, and before the words were out a sharp gust of wind cut toward his ear.
There was a crack of impact.
"?"
Leon's expression changed and he yanked the ice clone in front of him into the path. A second later an axe split the clone that took the hit into a heap of ice shards. But because of that, the enemy who'd ambushed him lost any chance at a second approach.
In the barely one second it took for the ice clone to die in his place, Leon moved fast as the wind, appearing behind another ice clone, and in doing so he also entered the range where Persephone and Kureha could support him.
The monster threw its head back and let out a furious roar at its failed ambush.
Leon narrowed his eyes and quickly sized up this new enemy of the Withered Bone Wasteland. The information on it flashed through his mind and he reached a judgment.
Withered-Bone Troll, Lv.4 elite monster, can use the deadwood lying everywhere in the wasteland as Plus and Max versions of super natural weapons. Specializes in close-quarters melee.
Lizardman, also a Lv.4 elite monster, also skilled in close-quarters killing.
His gaze swept over the natural weapon traps scattered all around, and he understood.
So that's it. Apart from underhanded "special attack" snakes in the grass like the Poison Vermis, almost all of the Withered Bone Wasteland's main forces are monsters that specialize in melee and close combat...
A rapid ringing of steel on steel came from one side, where Kureha was locked in a fierce fight with a Lizardman. Surprisingly, in the blade-to-blade exchange, for the moment she was being pushed back.
Persephone covered her while calling a low warning to Leon.
"Careful, these things aren't just good with blades. They're extremely tough too."