Breakthrough

"Can you clarify?" George pulled down the raincoat hoodie part off his head.

"My mission is to be your bodyguard correct?"

"According to what you said, yes." He nodded to her question.

"But nobody here knows this and assumes that I am just some adventurer also headed to the dungeon. If this secrecy is to remain, then how should we interact with each other?"

"Just treat me like you do with the party members?" George raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Y-Yeah, but..." Melissa bit her lip and averted her eyes.

"But?"

"But you're different from the others." Melissa unintentially raised her voice a little as she tried to look him in the eyes. Her professional appearance deflated like a balloon.

"It feels weird trying to do that. I don't do bodyguard jobs and I'm not a very good actor."

George could see her lack of confidence.

"Just pretend you're not a bodyguard." He relaxed his posture in an attempt to bring her confidence back. "Just focus on your acting skills. Pretend I'm a normal person. If you have acting skills then this should be difficult."

Melissa thought for a few seconds of his words before the confidence in her eyes returned.

"Thanks. I'll ponder over your words."

George merely nodded without saying anything.

"I have another question."

"Ask away." George has always been very patient towards most matters as long as it is not an emergency. He really did not mind being asked questions.

"I hope this is okay to ask, but what are your-"

*Rumble*

Suddenly the ground began to shake at a moderate intensity as if another earthquake was happening.

Loose rocks and boulders on both sides of the cliffs began falling to the ground, creating small dust clouds that were suppressed by the rain. The trees swayed heavily as small creatures hidden in them fled for their life. This included animals hidden in the ground who ran out of their holes while the birds took to the skies in massive droves.

George's expression became very serious as he grabbed onto the tree next to him for support. Melissa also had a similar expression as she grabbed a tree.

*screaming sounds*

His expression changed when he heard Bernice scream.

Glancing at the camp ground behind him in the distance, he saw Emma yelling for everyone to get around her.

Meanwhile, the giant rock canopy above them shook as cracks formed everywhere on it. Tons of rocks fell off all around and threatened to hit the members.

In particular, a lot of cracks formed at it's base connecting to the cliff.

"[Shield]!"

Emma shouted as a giant shield appeared, encompassing the entire campsite.

Large rocks pounded at the shield from above, causing it to ripple slightly each time.

With a serious expression, Emma directed more of her standard magus towards her spell while glancing around at everyone.

Seeing the party members fine, she quickly looked over at George and Melissa in the distance who were at the very edge of the rock canopy.

George began to move in their direction but Emma brought up her hand, indicating for him to not come forward.

He nodded in understanding and yelled at Melissa.

"Get away from the rock canopy!"

Melissa was already planning to do that as she turned into a shadow to flee.

George let go of the tree, put on his hoody, and quickly ran away from the area.

Emma was slightly relieved seeing the two leaving the area.

Any normal-sized rock canopy would not be a big deal considering her rank, but the size of this rock canopy is hundreds of meters in width, almost touches the other side of the cliff, and is very thick in mass.

Emma estimated in her head that it would take all of her standard magus just to lift all that rock.

The natural solution would be to move all the members and equipment outside, but at the rate the rock canopy is deteriorating, this is next to impossible.

Adrenaline flooded her body as she prepared for the worse seeing the unstable canopy.

"[Shield]!"

After mumbling the short chant, she casted another spell which materialized next to the first one.

A slightly smaller shield appeared within the larger shield as she funneled standard magus into it.

However, Emma still did not feel confident.

The voices of her members drowned out as she focused all of her attention.

"[Shield]!"

Emma casted another slightly smaller shield within.

Her face turned pale as she split her attention to three spells.

Even with her [Multi-Casting] skill almost at max level, maintaining three spells is her limit at the cost of all her attention. Anymore than this and she will be risking her life.

However, Emma valued the life of her members a lot and especially Bernice. She would rather put her life on the line than see Bernice becoming injured.

Emma clenched her teeth so hard the pain forcefully cleared her mind.

Her magical aura soared around her and ascended upwards to push against the belly of the rock canopy. This caused boulders of rock and fragments flying as her aura catapulted them.

"[S-SHIELD!]"

A fourth [Shield] spell flickered into existence as she diverted a forth stream of standard magus into the spell.

Emma's face turned even more pale as blood ran down her nose.

Her vision rapidly narrowed as everything in her surroundings became dark, her only focus being on these spells. The sounds of Bernice screaming at her became a white noise in the background.

"N-Not enough! [S...S-Shield!]"

A fifth [Shield] spell slowly materialized into thin air and flickered as if about to collapse.

A fifth stream of standard magus slowly moved towards the spell and entered it, forming a fifth smaller shield.

The rock foundation collapsed and the entire rock canopy fell directly down towards the party.

Emma spat out a mouthful of blood as her face turned pale white. Her eyes became bloodshot as blood tears ran down her face whilst glowing a light blue radiance at the same time. Her soul began to collapse as a splitting headache clouded her mind.

The wall of approaching rock became slow in her eyes as if minutes were passing by.

A faint smile appeared on her face as if she could see her life flashing before her eyes.

Somehow, walking the edge of life and death stimulated her already powerful potential into action.

Her understanding of her standard magus exploded and broke a major bottleneck.

Several magus nodes within her unlocked in succession, flooding her body with even more magus energy.

Emma's aura exploded in size and soared beyond her limits to S-rank, sending Abe, Hester, and Bernice along with the tents and equipment flying to the edges of the shield.

The sheer concentration of standard magus caused it to condense into light blue flames that flowed upwards and blasted against the belly of the approaching rock wall like a laser beam. Her standard magus flowed into her five spells like a stream of water, causing the shields to glow brightly in radiance.

The sheer intensity of the flaming essence turned the rocks hot enough that they started to glow and melt, blasting the edges of the rock canopy away and splitting the entire canopy into many pieces.

However, that seemed to not be enough as the rock wall continued to fall.

*Bang!*

The entire rock canopy hit the ground like a giant explosion had gone off.

Tons of dust filled the valley that not even the rain could suppress.

At the same time, the Eleven Gods above the planet's atmosphere in their divine kingdoms opened their divine eyes to observe the conjoined mountain area.

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Notes:

* Great to be back from vacation.