After graduating from the Solari’s warrior school, Rose had felt so powerful. Even so, she had understood why they were going to send her away for real training, but only because she knew more training was good. However, she hadn’t really understood what that truly meant until she began fighting monsters.

  The Solari had only taught Rose and her compatriots the basics of magic. They had had plenty of weapons and overall fight training, but when it came to techniques, those like her, who would end up as melee fighters, did not receive the same training as clerics. Even then, clerics didn’t learn as many spells or the workings of magic as those who went to academies or had some form of Innate Magic. This is not to say that clerics couldn’t fight in melee since they were indeed trained in such forms of combat, though it was done with a different set of expectations, and it varied on the overall path the cleric wanted to walk. Ultimately, the paladins were Sol’s army, and the clerics often acted like the rest of the population.

  Albeit a magical and powerful population, but one that helped run the church and its many branches. This left the clerics working in many broader fields, while paladins were specifically created for war.

  War was a steady but dangerous business, and because of the multitude of scenarios and enemies warriors could encounter, the Solari were very specific in what they taught their young warriors. Meaning they taught a very limited number of techniques with the only goal of letting their young fighters survive to expand upon them.

  Though techniques could be taught, the process of doing so could be rigid, and rigidity in combat was, to an extent, dangerous. Since techniques relied heavily on concepts, images, and imagination, only some of the simpler, visual techniques could be taught safely. Even then, it had taken Rose longer than she liked to adapt her Shield Bash and Shield Wall techniques. After all, she had spent years doing exactly what was required of her, and once she learned the techniques, her mind had never considered switching them up. She had used them exactly how she had been taught to use them.

  Everything changed when she began fighting monsters. Monsters were unpredictable and powerful, which meant she couldn’t use the same old techniques against different monsters and expect great results. It was to this end that warriors were also only taught a certain number of techniques. The Solari wanted their warriors to develop techniques that suited their own fighting styles. Techniques that they imagined and whose potential wasn’t locked behind what they had seen, but what they needed. It was one thing to see someone use a very rigid Shield Wall and simply copy it, and another for a warrior to form their own view of how a Shield Wall operated, allowing them to make adjustments on the fly.

  So, the redhead waited for her party members to unleash their various range attacks, which they informed her of via telepathy. After all, they were beginning to understand she enjoyed meeting a rush of monsters with a Shield Wall, but naturally, they could not shoot through her Shield Wall. At least for now, they couldn’t.

  One slash of lightning and darkness was followed by a bolt of lightning and a beam of white energy. Each of the attacks was aimed at one of the uninjured hell mantises, which were slowed down as they dodged in different directions. This allowed six mantises to continue their jumps forward, and that’s when Rose unleashed her Shield Wall.

  A wall of golden energy came to be, extending from Rose’s location and covering a wide area, but not as one single large wall. Rose had specifically created her shield wall with large holes in the spots where the weakened mantises were moving. There were three wounded mantises in total, and the plan was to kill them first and fast. Still, there were three other red bugs that were uninjured and rushing towards the team. Of course, these ran into the golden wall and couldn't break through. Rose had made sure to pour plenty of mana into the wall to stop them from simply charging through.

  However, now, with three injured hell mantises across the wall, the party could start the fight properly. Lili jumped through one of the shield’s holes, which quickly closed up. Ignoring the three hell bugs slamming their dark blades into said wall, Lili charged at the other four. Her job was to annoy the four monsters that had stalled until the party dealt with the rest.

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  One of the injured bugs was quickly bound by white silver chains, and not long after, a red drake jumped on it. Drex would be able to kill the weakened creature without spending much mana, bound as it was.

  Another of the injured creatures managed to dodge Tesilim’s katana swing by a hair and forced the elf to jump back, dodging the creature's dark and now flaming blade. Meanwhile, the final hell mantis found itself being squished by roots that kept regenerating.

  For her part, Lili was having no issues whatsoever. The four mantises that had dodged the party’s attacks had chosen her as their new target. The creatures were fairly weak, and she easily parried, dodged, or simply let her armor take on the flaming-bladed limbs. Obviously, she also added the occasional empowered kick, stab, or blade of darkness to keep their attention. Of course, she was moderating her attacks so as not to consume mana, but they still did plenty of damage, and when the rest of the party eventually joined her, the four mantises would be quickly killed.

  With two of the hellish bugs basically dealt with, Jasmine threw a beam of white energy at Tesilim’s opponent, making it switch targets as it jumped towards her. The bug didn’t last long after that, and mid-jump, Tesilim teleported behind it, stabbing his sword in the bug's head.

  Getting the go-ahead from Alyx, Rose dropped her shield and rushed one of the mantises she had held back. Alyx was already midway through another chant when the combined attack of Tesilim and Jasmine finished the final injured mantis, Drex having killed his already. Finishing his chant as Rose arrived in front of her chosen target, Alyx unleashed blades of metal at a new mantis. Some blades cut deep into the monster, but it managed to jump out of the way or simply parry a few with its sharp, flaming limbs.

  Tesilim was glad he had a teleport spell, and seeing as all injured mantises were done for, he gave a mental command to Drex, telling him to back off. The drake mentally growled back but did as instructed. So, with his drake no longer spending mana, Tesilim did the opposite and teleported right in front of the final uninjured mantis, at least the ones that had been clawing at the redhead’s golden wall. His cut was met with two claw blades, stopping it dead on its track. Of course, that wasn’t all Tesilim had prepared, and he smiled widely at the bug-eyed creature.

  Jasmine was going to beam the monster that had stopped Tesilim’s sword slash, but she decided not to when the elf unleashed a powerful point-blank lightning attack. Instead, she decided to help Alyx with his mantis. She switched her shield to an enhancement and went to meet the creature head-on.

  Rose had made sure to catch her target's attention with a Sun Slash, and the bug had responded in kind by jumping in her direction, its blades aflame. Rose took the two stabs of the creature on her shield, deflecting both. She followed this up by yelling, “Shield Bash!” Her shield glowing and blurring forward, smacking into the monster's head.

  Rose had expected the monster to stumble back as things often did when getting smacked with her Shield Bash, but instead, its oddly triangular head with round crimson eyes caved in as blood gushed out.

  “Guys, their heads are their weak point, at least one of them,” Everyone heard Tesilim in their minds. He had unleashed a fairly powerful Lightning Slash from his katana, and it had smacked right into the hell bug's head, making it explode.

  Lili heard Tesilim and smiled. She hadn’t said anything, wanting to give the team a nice fight, but with the cat out of the bag, she knew it was over. It didn’t take her long to dispatch her four targets, her speed letting her strike their heads with impunity. From there, it wasn’t long before the entire team was standing around looking at their kills. Well, except for Drex, the drake was chewing on some of their more meaty limbs.

  “As much as it saddens me, I don’t think we have time to properly loot these things,” Tesilim said, getting approving looks from Jasmine and Rose and prideful looks from Lili and Alyx, whose faces indicated they were proud of him for using his head. Of course, then they went and did the opposite of what he had just said.

  “Actually, we do. Their two-bladed limbs are the only good things about them, though their blood has some decent albeit weak fire properties,” Lili explained, already in the process of filling a few vials of blood.

  “Let's cut them real quick, then we can keep going. It's not like a few minutes is going to hurt, and I know you three need gold,” Their friendly gnome stated, pointing at Tesilim, Rose, and Jasmine.

  “How much does each limb go for?” Tesilim asked, already in the process of cutting his second limb.

  “About five to ten gold each. They're still D Rank, so it's not much,” His girlfriend said as she put her blood vials away.

  “Well, that’s not much.”

  “It’s better than nothing,” Rose grunted, and Tesilim agreed.