SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

There was no more time to think.

"Yulia, with me!" Alex said.

He activated Advanced Body Reinforcement and burst forward. Yulia snapped out of her thoughts and rushed after him without another question.

The fast Level 10+ Titan Reef Crab reached them first.

Its long pincer shot toward Alex like a spear, but Yulia understood her role immediately. She planted her feet, twisted her body, and drove a Piercing Punch into the monster, forcing it to turn its attention toward her instead.

Alex curved around the fight without slowing.

His focus climbed higher with every step as everything unrelated to the battle faded from his mind. Whether Yulia could defeat the fast crab or even hold it back no longer mattered.

Alex wasn’t their babysitter. He had spent the entire expedition helping everyone level up and grow stronger for moments exactly like this.

If they still couldn’t survive after all that, there was nothing more he could do.

He was already taking on the hardest battle in the cavern alone.

The first Level 10 Titan Reef Crab reached Alex before the others could surround him. He slipped past its raised pincer with frightening speed and cut through the gap in its leg armor.

The monster collapsed as its leg fell away, but Alex was already moving toward the next target before it hit the ground.

The number of monsters was not too much, but a few of them were exceptionally strong. Since this battle would decide whether Joseph lived or died, there was no reason to keep saving his free stat points. Alex decisively invested them into Mana.

[Mana: 15 → 17]

Fresh mana surged through his body, making his heart swell. With more mana, he pushed Advanced Body Reinforcement further, allowing him to push his body even closer to its limits.

The second Titan Reef Crab swung both pincers at him, but they sliced through empty air. Alex ducked beneath one attack, stepped around the other, and cut through another exposed joint before sprinting onward.

The third monster lost a pincer, the fourth lost two legs, and the fifth barely managed to turn before another precise slash crippled it.

He moved so quickly that none of the monsters could even brush the edge of his clothes. Every swing of his sword targeted the gaps in their armor instead of their thick shells, leaving crippled Titan Reef Crabs scattered behind him.

He wasn’t wasting time killing them. Incapacitating them was enough as long as they could no longer interfere.

As Alex dashed toward the seventh Level 10 Titan Reef Crab, a sudden sense of danger ran through him.

He turned his head toward the back of the cavern and saw two enormous Water Spheres already flying toward him. They were moving far too quickly for him to evade.

He swung his sword without hesitation. It felt like he had hit a steel wall.

Compressed mana flooded his arm while the mana vibrating inside Mana Thread accelerated even further, allowing his blade to split both Water Spheres cleanly in half. For a fraction of a second, it looked as though he had stopped the attack.

Then the broken Water Spheres slammed into him anyway.

The sword had only broken the thin layer of compressed ’something’ surrounding the water.

The liquid itself continued forward with its momentum and crashed into Alex’s chest, sending him flying backward.

He slammed into a nearby Titan Reef Crab, and both of them rolled across the cavern floor.

Alex recovered first.

Before the stunned monster could rise, he drove his sword straight through its head. Then he looked toward the back of the cavern without wasting another second.

The blue-patterned Titan Reef Crab hadn’t moved from its position. Its pincers remained spread apart while another pair of Water Spheres floated above them, held perfectly in place.

’Is that a Spell?How is it launching compressed water without using kinetic mana? If it can separate propulsion from the element itself, could I eventually use the same principle with Fire Bullet without causing an explosion?’

The thought caught him off guard.

His first reaction wasn’t concern over the monster’s powerful ranged attack. Instead, his mind instinctively tried to understand the technique itself, searching for a way to learn from it.

The leader fired again before he could think any further.

This time, Alex didn’t try to cut the Water Spheres apart, knowing it was useless. He dashed sideways, weaving between the eighth and ninth Level 10 Titan Reef Crabs so the incoming attacks would hit them instead.

The Water Spheres struck both monsters with enough force to dent their shells and throw them across the cavern, while the leader showed no concern whatsoever for its own subordinates.

Alex immediately changed direction.

He sprinted at an angle that placed the giant Level 10+ Titan Reef Crab directly between himself and the leader. If the leader continued attacking so carelessly, perhaps it would end up crippling its own strongest defender as well.

To Alex’s surprise, the Water Spheres vanished.

Instead of the leader attacking, the giant Titan Reef Crab stepped forward and swung its enormous pincer toward him.

Alex could avoid the strike easily enough, but doing so would force him into fighting both monsters at once. Breaking through the giant crab’s nearly seamless armor would take too long.

Before he could decide, someone charged into the giant crab from the side.

Frank slammed his shield into the monster with a roar, forcing it back just enough to interrupt its attack. The enormous crab immediately retaliated, swinging its massive pincer with enough force to crush a person.

"Alex, go ahead! I’ll keep this one busy!" Frank shouted.

The pincer crashed against Frank’s shield with a deafening clang.

His boots dug into the rocky ground as he absorbed the impact, his entire body shaking from the force, yet he refused to give even a single step.

He stood like an unmovable wall between Alex and the giant crab.

Alex never heard him.

His concentration had almost reached its limit. The moment he saw someone intercept the giant crab, every other thought about the giant crab disappeared as his attention locked completely onto the leader.

His plan was simple. He would dodge the next Water Spheres, close the remaining distance before the monster could create another attack, and force it into close combat where his sword gave him the advantage.

Then something blurred across his vision.

A sharp impact struck his abdomen before he even realized the leader had attacked. It took him a brief moment to understand what happened. The Titan Reef Crab compressed its Water Spheres into thin water needles, trading size for terrifying speed and piercing power.

Alex immediately forced even more compressed mana into his brain, pushing his focus even higher despite the pain spreading through his stomach.

He knew he couldn’t stop both needles, and reinforcing his entire abdomen would be useless against attacks that concentrated.

Instead, he shifted all the mana protecting his stomach into a single point, placing it directly in the path of the needle aimed at his liver.

The compressed mana formed a wall just thick enough to stop the deadly needle before it reached its target.

It barely held, but it was enough. The second needle punched through his abdomen like a bullet, burst out through his back, and left behind a trail of searing pain.

..

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