They ended up on a barren piece of land. The clouds were few and scattered, and the violet expanse of space was visible. It reminded Rafe a lot of the demon continent on Aeon.

  “A devastated world,” Aska commented.

  “There are plants that can grow even on planets devastated by their stars,” Quinsia said. “It is possible to make food and the like here.”

  Maybe it was, but for the longest distance there was only the dark soil. They were on a plateau interspersed with a few hills and hillocks. The vegetation was so sparse, and what Rafe could see looked dead and desolate.

  “That is not our priority,” Devila interjected. “We need to head for that cliff over there. This is an open battle field. Vision is key if we want to—”

  “There are three groups congregating on our location even as we speak. I'd give us two minutes tops,” Rafe interrupted her. “And there are already about ten groups closer to the cliff than we. They are already fighting it out.”

  “How do you…” Devila started but then she shrugged and unclasped her whip from her belt. “Let's make a triangle formation since there are three heading this way.”

  She looked between Rafe and Quinsia with a frown. Rafe felt something try to analyze his soul. The veil skill activated automatically. He could manipulate it a little. It would be easier to manipulate once he got a skill that allowed him to analyse people in turn, so that he knew what information they'd find least suspicious and or interesting.

  “Why are you hiding your level?!” Devila snarled. “We are supposed to be a team.”

  Rafe paid her no mind, instead trying to find which of the teams was stronger via his aura senses. They were really close to each other in ability. Even close to his team.

  “Fine then. You stay in the middle. We'll protect you,” Devila commanded with authority. “Aska and Quin, you each take one side, alright?”

  Silence for a beat. Then Quinsia raised her hand a bit.

  “I don't mind being in the middle. I am a healer after all.”

  “No!” Devila growled. “If one of us gets eliminated, then I fail this floor. Just do what I tell you to!”

  Rafe was going to complain but thought better of it. It was a chance to see the abilities of the system era. He had fought people hundreds of levels higher than him in the pre-system era. But even the monsters in the tower were harder to deal with than higher leveled monsters pre-system. He shrugged and went to stand in the center of their formation as Devila had told him.

  With her whip dragging along the ground, Devila went to wait for the now visible enemies. Aska and Quin shared a look before both went to take up their own positions. Rafe unclasped his hammer from his back and prepared to intervene.

  He did not focus on any specific fight. He flared his racial ability to its fullest, watching his teammates and their souls. He needed to practice his newest ability anyway, and what better time than now. Still, at his lie level, it was much more difficult to see other people's souls than his own.

  When Aska started to cast a spell, Rafe saw a beacon light up in his soul. And the mana and essence in the atmosphere answered. Rafe frowned as he studied the phenomenon. He could see almost three affinities to the spell. It was a chain lightning spell as it turned out.

  Too bad his opponents were not so easily taken care of, a shield wielder stepping forward and activating a skill that pulled the whole attack into his shield. Without even posing, a warrior used the tank's back as a launching pad and jumped in a move very similar to an earth shattering technique.

  Aska protected himself with an earthen wall that was immediately sheared in half. The warrior made to attack right away even as an archer in the back pulled back an empty string. Nine arrows of pure mana formed out of nothing on the bow. He released, Rafe twitched to go to his teammate's aid.

  Aska had been trained by master Granderel though, and even as the warrior seemed about to cut him, the slash seemed to go in the wrong direction.

  Aska manipulated space to have the sword move further from him the more the warrior pushed. Rafe frowned, his ability reacting to the space mana more than any other mana he had seen before. The arrows looked like they were going to hit their mark, but then they scattered at the last second.

  Rafe didn't know what was going on, except that there was some space magic bullshit involved. Yeah, Aska was going to be alright. As for Quin though…

  Rafe frowned as he looked at her tight dark suit of armour. It was some kind of shadow armour, only the design seemed out of place. The visor reminded him of power rangers, and so too the ridges and subtley different shades of black on some parts. She was dancing and weaving among her opponents with two daggers.

  She was doing even better than Aska, if he was being honest.

  An explosion sounded to Rafe's left. He turned to see Devila dancing with her long whip keeping a party of four at a distance and a flock of shimmering golden paper birds floating around her. Talismans, is what they were. Devila was no doubt a strong mage.

  Rafe could see her mana pool swirling as she drew more from it than someone below level fifty should have been able to. She also had very precise control of it.

  Instead of drawing essence from the environment like Aska, she drew the excess energy for her spells from talismans she had already drawn. She was also trying to weave a giant essence collecting circle or formation as she danced among her enemies. Rafe had the distinct impression she was showboating. Playing with her prey before she finished it.

  Her whip flew around like a snake, barely under her control. It was animated by pure mana. No wonder she claimed she was the enchantress' heiress. She fought very similarly to the other woman. She was also trying to do a lot against opponents who she perhaps could have overwhelmed in a second with a few talismans. She was complicating the fight.

  Rafe had enough experience by now to know the girl was a child trying hard to impress. In a sense, they all were.

  None of his teammates needed his intervention though. He let his attention drift to his aura senses even as he continued trying to study their souls and how the magic they used worked. His head whipped back in shock.

  “Devila! Might want to wrap that up,” Rafe warned in a panic.

  “Huh! What are you talking about?” the woman asked, still using her elaborate footwork to keep her enemies at a distance.

  Rafe didn't know why he hadn't thought about it. Probably because he'd never had to fight on a team with mages before. Flashy battles like the one they were having was bound to attract attention.

  There were two more teams approaching Quin's position. There was one approaching Devila’s and it seemed stronger than even their team, but the healer was the greater priority in Rafe's book. Rafe flew toward Quin's position but then he noticed the fighting from Aska's side had stopped.

  “You bastard!” a fuming tank screamed.

  He unsheathed a sword even as he started to run toward a panting mage on all fours. Rafe thought Aska was fine, but then he noticed the man trying to ignite his mana pool with his soul sight. It sputtered and died. Rafe changed direction and headed toward the mage.

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  “We've got incoming!” he shouted to the others. “Two converging on Quin and one on you Devila! Aska is out of mana. We may need to retreat.”

  His hammer met a rising shield and he activated his heavy blow skill. A shimmering wall of a fiery barrier appeared to block Rafe's blow.

  Oh, come on! he shouted internally, but he had somehow expected this. He planned to ask his teammates about it once the battle was done.

  His hammer collided with the barrier. He was unable to overpower it this time and instead he was launched backwards and collided with his grounded teammate, sending them sprawling in a tangle of limbs. Still, he had caused the tank's charge to stop and his momentum to die.

  The tank stumbled a bit, but then he was running again and he had a shortsword this time aimed towards Rafe.

  Rafe was already on his feet, letting go of the Warhammer to get his spear instead. He thrust once, bounced off again, thrust again. All the while dancing around his opponent. He was trying to study the reactive force field. Well, it was just reactive. And he was fast. His first idea was to overwhelm it with hundreds of hits a second.

  The large warrior reeled back but the force field held. Rafe frowned. Then he withdrew to try his next idea. The shield wielder charged. Rafe stood with the butt of his spear against the ground. He was frowning at the man. His plan was to make the guy lower his guard even for a second.

  The man reached Rafe and lunged with a vertical slash. Rafe pretended he was frozen until the last second when the man smirked in satisfaction. Then Rafe dodged and thrust as fast as his super-coiled, super-tense muscles could. The reactive force field activated a moment too late. The man had already been gutted like a fish.

  Then he went to help Aska. Rafe supported the heavy mage with his shoulder as he tried to lead him to a place far from the action. He found Quin trying to head back toward the centre of their formation. Devila had ignored his advice. Instead, she was now actively trying to fight off two groups of coordinating warriors. Rafe shook his head as he went to help Quin.

  “Dragon's breath!” a mage yelled as Rafe rushed towards him.

  Rafe activated his Parry skill but still got ready to dodge just in case. To the mage's credit, the fire was hotter than normal. It was not hot enough. Rafe's skill created a tiny hole in the flame thrower-like attack. Rafe forced himself through, trying to make himself as small as possible by manipulating his muscles to the utmost.

  The mage was surprised when he saw Rafe's spear come for his throat. No mage in the F- rank would be able to cast a true Dragon's breath, Rafe knew. There was only a little resistance akin to the reactive force field this time. That had Rafe frowning. He had to find out what the force field was as soon as he could.

  There were still a couple of enemies to deal with now. And now with their teams eliminated, the fighters had very little to lose. Rafe and Quin quickly found a rhythm though. Rafe attacked and took the enemy's attention. Then Quin would come out of nowhere and land a decisive blow. Not always a killing blow, but always a crippling one at the very least.

  She had probably figured out Rafe couldn't be relied on to kill any of the melee oriented enemies.

  “Thanks,” Quin said as she tried to keep her breathing even. “Aska?”

  “He's fine,” Rafe answered, trying to calm himself before he went to help a now struggling Devila. “You should join him. If more teams approach, find a way to hide. You do have a few skills with shadows, don't you?”

  Quin narrowed her eyes at him. Then she nodded and sauntered off to join Aska.

  Rafe dived straight into the fray, jumping into combat with a black masked assassin whose gender he would have been hard pressed to guess. There was a hooded figure who'd also managed to weave her way through Devila's mana infused snake-like whip. Rafe kept an eye on the warrior.

  He also kept an eye on Devila, and he saw the moment the woman finished the magical array she had been drawing on the ground. She withdrew her whip and jumped, using a wind cantrip to float backward gracefully. She had been holding back five fighters all on her own. They all charged forward to attack.

  “Raedis, no!” the hooded shortsword wielder screamed, and one of the charging warriors froze.

  He was seven feet tall and his skin was purple and he had swollen tattoo like marks on his skin. Only they seemed natural. He was a beast of a being, and he had back facing horns, like those of a mountain goat.

  Three of the other four warriors were caught in the formation. Once they entered it, they could not get out. They bounced off the air like it was some kind of invisible glass. They only realised their predicament when the runes they hadn't seen before lit up below them.

  Then the short sword wielder used a movement skill similar to Rafe's, but probably of a higher rarity. She was charging for Devila. Rafe knew he was only fighting the assassin to buy time. He couldn't kill her unless he had a lot more time. He changed his target immediately and headed in Devila's direction.

  The warrior mage realised what was coming and started to rummage through a shoulder slung satchel for a talisman. She started panicking the closer the shortsword wielder got. She might have been strong, stronger than Rafe currently no doubt, but he had so much more experience.

  “Shit!” the girl cried as the hooded warrior, who was a woman based on her voice earlier, came closer.

  Rafe shook his head even as he pushed his skills to their fullest. The shortswords didn't touch the girl. Instead they intercepted a spear thrust that would have taken the warrior through her chest. The reactive force field was already starting to form anyway, so Rafe wasn't sure he would have finished her off. The warrior took a step back and prepared to engage him but then she froze, looking at him under her hood. Rafe did not let his guard down.

  The array finished its charge. Then a beam of white mana shot far into the sky, carrying a red mist with it. The fourth warrior screamed in anguish.

  They were all part of the same team, Rafe realised, the warriors Devila had trapped. That meant one of the two teams she had been engaging was still alive and well.

  Rafe gaped at the beam.

  “Look out!” Devila warned.

  She was looking behind him. Rafe was in a bind, cursing the limited range of his spatial awareness ability. He didn't know who the enemy was or how they were going to attack. He couldn't turn around as that would take from his reaction time. He couldn't just roll in any direction without knowing what the attack was.

  Then, in that fortuitous moment, his precognition acted and he saw the large purple fist headed towards the back of his head a second before it would land. He only moved his head a bit. And then he pushed the butt of his spear upward, fast enough that the demon's reactive force field wouldn't react even as his groin was smashed.

  The demon grunted at first, but then took a step back and screamed as it moved its hands toward its groin.

  A red beam of death appeared out of nowhere, aimed toward a now gobsmacked Devila.

  “Hey!” he complained as he knocked the beam out of the air, “focus, won't you?.”

  The mage scrunched her brow. She did not deign to answer his question.

  “I think this ambush is turning tricky,” a cocky voice called out.

  Rafe followed the voice, finding its owner holding what looked like a gun pointed in his direction. It started to shine even as Rafe watched and another beam of red energy shot towards him. It did look like a very technologically advanced gun. Only it didn't shoot bullets.

  Rafe cut the beam in half using his spear. The blonde man flicked his long hair and looked down his nose at Rafe.

  “I suppose there is no profit to be had. I don't see any reason for us to persist in this. Come along Raedis.”

  A snarl answered the man's instruction, but the horned giant was soon running back to his team. Rafe decided not to pursue. The assassin Rafe had been fighting activated a sudden teleport skill and appeared next to the gun slinger.

  Rafe wanted to say it was impossible, but then he remembered he was the only one with a basic class, probably. It was entirely possible someone here, or even many someones, had epic classes. Some even had more than one, like Quinsia.

  “You bastards!” the guy from the party Devila had devastated cried. “How can you just abandon—”

  Rafe put his spear through the distracted man's chest without hesitation. The first team was completely destroyed. The second team was the one Rafe had been wary of though.

  He watched the last of them withdraw. The hooded woman he'd pushed back. Her hooded head was turned towards him. He saw the gun slinger look her way nervously. He saw her nod subtly. Then the man cleared his throat and ordered the retreat. Devila unfurled her whip.

  “Stop, Devila!” he shouted as the girl made to follow the now retreating foes.

  “You don't command me!” she growled as she turned. “You never command me! No one does.”

  “Sure, sure,” Rafe said, lifting his hands in a calming gesture. “But you're almost out of mana. Quin and Aska are down for now. We can't be separated, otherwise we all lose.”

  The woman frowned at him. She frowned at the escaping team.

  “I can track them, now that we've fought them once. They were stronger than most, I think,” Rafe said.

  Devila still looked uncertain, switching her gaze from him to where Quin and Aska were to their retreating foes. Her eyes were frantic for a few moments. Then she took a deep breath and seemed to be getting a hold of herself. She closed her eyes. When she opened them they were back to their confident gleam. She opened her mouth to say something but then hesitated.

  “I'm almost out of mana? How could you tell?”