Due to his sudden attack and coupled with the fact that he wasn't on guard, Bartan was sent flying tens of meters back and blood started flowing out from the corner of his lips due to the internal injuries he received.
Peng~
Just as he was about to crash into the rock behind him, a thin water barrier appeared behind him and caught him.
"Peh! You've got amazing speed and physical strength despite being a fire elemental mage. It seems you've improved a lot since the recruitment. It's very surprising." Bartan spat out the remaining blood in his mouth and praised as if he was an elder appraising his junior.
"However, as I said before, you will still die today." Suddenly, his tone changed and face became cold. The mana around him started to swirl intensely.
"Mm?"
Max frowned upon seeing this while the electric woman couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment "You're already a high stage two-star mage?"
When below five-star realm, you can't tell the cultivation of a person just by seeing them unlike most beasts who normally has distinct characteristics according to their cultivation.
Therefore, there are a few established ways by which one can identify someone's cultivation. The most prominent among them is by sensing their aura.
Like when Adrienne, the second envoy, released her aura in the recruitment, everyone who knew how to gauge aura to some extent could tell that she was above the initial stage three-star realm.
However, for the mages in the two-star realm or below this trick doesn't work because one's aura don't mature until three-star realm. That's why when Bartan released his aura, Max only felt that he was strong but couldn't guess the approximate level of his cultivation.
However, there is another way to roughly guess a person's cultivation which is by checking the intensity of the mana swirl.
Right now the mana intensity around Bartan had surpassed the middle stage and reached the high stage two-star realm.
Max looked at the electric woman's surprised expression and understood that not even his teammates knew about his actual strength even though they also should have fought together many times. This showed how cautious he was in doing everything.
'Thankfully tomorrow I had Leticia was too or Belen alone wouldn't have been able to give me enough LPs to raise my mana to the peak stage and I would have really died today in their hands.' Max thought while letting out a sigh of relief.
He then suddenly looked at the electric woman and said in an emotionless voice "Is it worth it to risk your life just for some resources? I'm giving you a last chance to safely escape."
Hearing this, the electric woman who was getting ready to attack him along with Bartan hesitated. Although Bartan turned out to be a high stage two-star mage, Max wasn't alone and two of their teammates had already been killed. She also started feeling that this deal wasn't worth risking her life for.
Bartan"s complexion became gloomy noticing her hesitant expression. He knew that if she went away, his chances of killing Max would be almost negligible since there wasn't much difference between the different stages of two-star realm.
He took a deep breath and hurriedly said "I'll give you double the promised amount if you help me kill him."
Previously, he had promised them 100 mana stones each upon the completion of the task. Now that three members were already dead, he didn't mind doubling her reward as long as she help him kill Max.
The electric woman's eyes flashed upon hearing this. Her grip on the sword became tighter. Max noticed this couldn't help but sighed in pity. He didn't want to kill a woman but her choice has now forced him to do so.
Weng~
His expression became cold and suddenly, the mana around him started to swirl furiously. In just a few seconds, its intensity surpassed the level of high stage two-star mage and reached peak stage.
"What?" Seeing this the electric woman became dumbfounded and the instantly regretted her choice just now. However, she still gritted her teeth, ready to risk her life.
Bartar shivered in terror upon seeing this. Even in his wildest imaginations, he didn't expect him to be in the peak stage. One should know that in this world of magic, although others things such physical strength, magic weapons etc gave people an edge over others, the ultimate thing was still mana.
Even if you have strong magic weapons, high grade magic spells but have small amount of mana, you'll die since you won't be able to utilize these things properly. However if you have enough mana then even if you only a basic spell, you would be the last winner, of course, some other things were also important.
Standing around a hundred meters away, Haory and others were also shocked by this revelation. Although, they knew that he had become very strong and with his new spell, he could easily kill middle stage two star beasts, they hadn't expected him to have broken through to the peak stage of two-star realm.
Max didn't say anything or wasted any more time. He waved his hand and two 300 MP fireballs appeared in front of him which then shot out towards both Bartan and the woman each. Immediately after his figure became blurry as he moved.
Boom!
Seeing him attack them, both Bartan and the electric woman regained their composure. A water snake materialized in front of Bartan before it lunged at the incoming fireball. Both the water snake and fireball exploded into nothingness.
Swish!
The electric woman also channelled her mana into the sword and covered it with the electric sparks before slashing the fireball in two.
Surprisingly, after being sliced, the fireball simply dissipated without exploding which wasn't normal since it had properties to explode upon contact unless Max was actively controlling it and preventing it from exploding.
However, Max didn't pay much attention to this since these fireballs had done their jobs. He had successfully appeared beside the electric woman whose defense had become lax for a moment.
Whoosh!
With an expressionless face, Max struck towards her back. The electric woman's hair stood on ends seeing this since his simple punches were enough to injure someone who didn't have any guard up, like he did to Bartan. Moreover, he seemed to have strengthened his punch by mana which would cause serious injuries to her delicate body if struck.
In the nick of time, she used her sword to defend to her back.
Clang!
His fist collided with her sword which was flashing with electricity, producing clanging sound. He jolted back and his hand became numb for a few moments.
Bang!
Although she had successfully blocked his punch, she was thrown back into the rocks due to the power it contained.
Sou! Sou!
Just then, five water snakes shot towards him from different angles which made it difficult for him to dodge. Therefore, he didn't even try to move and conjured up five 100 MP fireballs which shot out to meet the water snakes in mid-air and exploded along with them.
Following this, Bartan started spamming water snakes and the electric woman came back and started attacking with her sword which immediately put Max in a disadvantageous position. He would dodge the electric woman's sword attacks while countering Bartan's water snakes with his fireballs.
'No, I can't fight passively like this.' Max thought and got ready to cast [Death Rain] on the electric woman which would give him chance to move back and start casting his strongest spell.
Sou! Sou! Sou!
Just then, three wind bullets and sand spikes shot towards Bartan while snake like vines shot towards the electric woman. Belen and others had come forward to help him after killing one man.
Tong! Tong! Tong!
The electric woman brandished her sword as fast as lightening and cut down all the vines in half while Bartan used his water barrier to defend against Leticia's wind bullets and Haory's sand spikes. His water barrier seemed at least two times stronger than the time he used it against Flavia.
"Fuck!"
Seeing them join the fight, Max cursed and hurriedly shouted "Focus on defense!"
Belen and others were confused by this. However, they obeyed his instructions. Belen erected two three feet thick walls while Haory used her sand to make it sturdier.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just as their defense walls were constructed, a few attacks struck the first wall and it was almost destroyed. They finally understood why Max said to focus on defense. It seemed they hadn't been attacking with their full power until now.
Bartan smiled wickedly and conjured a few water bullets which then shot towards the walls and completely destroyed the first wall while the second wall was also damaged.
His water bullets had high destructive and penetrative power but their speed wasn't fast enough. That's why he hadn't used them until now since Max would've dodged them easily and that would have been a total waste of mana.
Seeing Belen and others come forward and join the battle, he was very happy. Previously, they were more 300 meters away from him and he couldn't afford to attack them because Max wouldn't have let that opportunity go by to catch him off guard to deal a serious blow.
However, now that they were in range, he could attack them and force Max to expend more of his mana since he was sure that he would try to save them as their relationship seemed very good and he didn't seem like someone who would sacrifice his teammates to kill his enemies.
