One Last System

"Yuck," I muttered a small moan of disgust.

In our rush to reach the place the voice came from, I hardly looked at what I was stepping on. And the world quickly punished this kind of carelessness.

"You okay?" Mia asked, her lips doing a pretty poor job at hiding her smirk. The corners of her mouth trembled a little as she averted her eyes, pretending not to see anything.

"Yeah, I will manage," I replied, releasing a long, exhausted sigh. Still, that didn't slow down our rush at all. "I just hope we will get there in time."

'And that it won't be just an ordinary trap,' I thought, fighting off the bad premonition I had about the event.

"That's good to hear," Mia said with a smile.

My random misfortune clearly improved her mood. And as silly as it was, if that was all it took to put a smile on Mia's face, I was ready to learn some pretty weird habits.

"Still, it feels good," I threw out a random comment a short moment later.

"What?" Mia leaned her head to the side, her breakneck pace not affected by this change at all. Yet, as weird and dangerous as it was to run through the forest while looking to the side, Mia's cuteness made it impossible for me to reprimand her.

"To stretch out bodies," I explained my thought from earlier. "As important as that city is, we can't really confine ourselves to it," I admitted.

This thought run far deeper than that, but there was no need for me to elaborate on it yet.

Maybe Mia would come to the same conclusions on her own? If that were to be the case, explaining everything now would only spoil her potential to learn and grow.

And in case she would fail to notice the things I observed, I would happily tell her about them once an opportunity would come.

"I'm glad to hear that." Mia smiled lightly before pulling her eyes to what was in front of her. Then, her expression stiffened, only to turn into confusion as the girl landed heavily on the ground.

"I..." the girl hesitated before throwing a quick look at my face. "I lost it, the trail," she admitted.

"So did I."

My face darkened as I raised my vigilance to its limits.

There could hardly be a monster or enemy capable of matching my strength.

An advantage like that was exactly why I did my best to improve. Still...

I lost the trail of the voice as well.

'Was that a soundalike?' I thought.

My mana surged, coating several sacks full of formation stones with thick mana.

'It's better if I don't use the engine, not yet,' I decided.

As strange as it was for the sound to suddenly break off like that, it didn't necessarily mean an ambush. It could very well be...

Snap.

I never got to finish my thought.

The earth below my feet exploded, as two sets of massive, metal claws reached out from below to bite my bottom half.

A strange field appeared all over the place, making it somewhat more difficult to move mana around. A thick ray of light shot from the sun next, burning right through the robe on my back.

'Is that it?' I asked myself, finally realizing my mistake.

Ever since my power exploded, those who were far below me would simply sneak under my radar.

Just like a man would rarely be on alert because of an ant crawling in the corner, my perception simply protected my consciousness from unnecessary information.

"Arty!" Mia shouted, pointing her hand in a certain direction.

'That's my girl,' I thought, my lips forming a relaxed smile.

I knew what she wanted by the time her hand moved to point at it. Still, she clearly noticed it before me.

In other words, Mia got one better over me in terms of reaction speed and ability to adjust her power to the situation!

'She really is a genius, isn't she?' I thought, standing still while the attacks of the ambushers washed off my shield.

They weren't anywhere at the level of breaking through the outermost shields of mine.

'If I pulled out my formations, they would likely fall into desperation,' I thought, a sense of pity welling up in my soul as I watched the poor disciples of some abandoned sect do their best.

"Okay, let's wrap this up," I said, raising my hands only to gently clap them together.

The moment my hands collided, I sent a surge of both kinds of energy at my disposal.

I didn't aim it at any of the opponents but opted to collide the two kinds of mana right between my hands.

The amount was minuscule, meaning the force would be manageable as well. And ultimately, the ability I came up with amounted only to a small sound.

But that sound shook all the mana flowing within the area. And for the cultivators who still grew by absorbing the mana from the air, the change in the natural state of the spiritual energy couldn't be any worse.

The entire balance of their cultivation, still based on the natural energy around, turned into disarray.

While not harmless on its own, it caused their moves to get sloppy, and their attacks lost their weight.

Right now, they lost all their ability to fight.

"Now then," I muttered, turning my eyes towards the place Mia pointed at a moment earlier. "Rise," I spoke, adding some grandeur to an otherwise simple act of forcing a lump of clay, earth, and leaves from the ground.

And there it was, a small cave dug out from the soft bedding in the forest.

The entrance was cleverly masked. Thanks to a huge amount of herbs forced into the makeshift door there was no way for monsters to sense people below. A sturdy, wooden frame supported the entire trapdoor from below.

The craftsmanship of the entire piece wasn't on another level... But the clever combination of tricks and genius solutions to small details proved the ability of whoever made it.

Yet, when I looked down into the cave, my insides revolted.

There were at least seven different corpses inside. There were only two bodies that still showed some signs of life.

The marks around the place didn't leave any doubts.

A stinky, rotting pool between the legs of a young female disciple. Her wide eyes were frozen in an expression of terror, her throat slit open. Her hand desperately clutching at yet another corpse, this time of a young, handsome boy.

A boy whose once handsome face was now in tatters, with several cuts turning it into a bloody mess. That, coupled with his smashed genitals only proved just how hard his end was.

"And here I thought about saving them," I thought, looking to the side.

I hardly used any mana during the fight. Mia was so stunned by the weakness of the attackers that she didn't even bother to move or react at all.

Yet, the commotion was just as great as usual.

And I could perfectly sense the group of invading monsters heading our way post-haste.

"Mia," I muttered, stepping inside the cave only to then turn my eyes to the girl. "I leave to decide what to do with them..." I hesitated for a moment, only to close my eyes and shake my head.

I then raised my face again and looked at my beloved.

"I leave it up to you," I said, before turning around and heading deeper into the dugout to check on the two survivors.