Firing her rail cannon, Shiro watched as Stanley’s magnification spells amplified the power of the blast, driving it through the chest of the guard.

  Watching the guard stumble back into the side of the ruins that connect to the mountains, Shiro knew that he wasn’t done yet. Glancing to the side, she could see Nan Tian’s guard melting from his attack as it wasn’t able to do anything in retaliation.

  Glancing at her guard, Shiro gestured for Stanley to back her up as he nodded his head.

  Dashing towards the guard, Shiro created a tier 6 magic circle while Stanley did the same.

  Flickering in front of the fallen guard, Stanley narrowed his eyes and slammed his palm into the Giant’s body.

  "Shatter!" He commanded as a tier 6 magic circle expanded out in an instant.

  As if reality was glass, a web of cracks could be seen spreading through the guard.

  *KRRRRRR!!!

  The sound of his chassis shattering under the pressure could be heard as Shiro appeared just behind Stanley with a special shotgun in her hand.

  The barrel of the shotgun was long and thin while the chamber wasn’t like usual shotguns. It was similar to a revolver chamber which housed several shots.

  Pulling the trigger, the recoil of the gun pushed Shiro back as a cavity was instantly created in the guard’s head.

  Snapping her fingers, the pellets morphed themselves into razor blades and started to shred into the guard’s body. After a few seconds, the guard stopped moving due to most of his body being reduced to ash thanks to the duo’s attacks.

  "Seems like you two didn’t have much trouble." Nan Tian smiled as he walked towards the two.

  "Well it took more than one attack. For guards like this, I think it’s better to attack their whole body rather than attack them with concentrated attacks." Shiro replied while glancing towards Nan Tian’s guard who was nothing but a melted pile of mess right now.

  "True." Nan Tian agreed since he saw their fight and noticed how the Guard could still move despite having a cavity opened up in his chest.

  "Anyways, how are we doing for mana?" Shiro asked while holding out the cuffs once more.

  "I’m alright but entering the mountain with full strength is probably recommended. After all, we might not have time to recharge in there." Nan Tian said as he started to recharge his mana while Stanley did the same.

  Once he was sure that the two were back to full strength, Shiro dismissed the cuffs and glanced at the mountain.

  "Now, do you suppose there’s a second entrance or is this one the only one available?" Shiro asked as Stanley paused for a moment.

  "Hm…… I don’t think there is. Last time I was here, I surveyed the surroundings of the first mountain and I wasn’t able to find anything of the sort. There was only one entrance and it was also the exit. I did try to strike at the walls of the place but they were highly mana absorbent and it would be difficult to carve a second entrance through this place. Even the damage I did to the walls last time was a byproduct of me using some of my strongest spells which drained my mana." Stanley replied.

  "We’re also not familiar with the layout so there is the chance that we could completely miss the chambers." Nan Tian reminded.

  "True. Seems like it’s the front door then." Shiro shrugged since they were essentially knocking on the door of their enemy and shouting out about their entrance.

  Summoning her sword as a precaution, Shiro followed behind Stanley and Nan Tian as they entered the ruins leading deep into the mountains.

  The pathway was rather dark as there were no sources of light other than the entrance but this was also good for Shiro since she gained a boost to her strength.

  "Come here, let me enchant us in case there are any creatures that are light sensitive." Stanley said as he enchanted them with True Sight.

  While he only had to face golems in the first mountain, he didn’t know of the dangers in this mountain so he had to be careful. There was probably a lack of light for a reason and he didn’t want to go in blind without knowing the reason behind this.

  Just as they enchanted True Sight, Shiro could faintly hear the sound of gears moving as the entrance was sealed up.

  But before it could fully close up, Shiro slammed her hand down and summoned nanobots to keep the door open.

  Upon contact, all of the mana was drained from the nanobots as they were reduced to ash.

  Furrowing her brows, Shiro quickly retracted her hand before her mana could be absorbed.

  "Don’t worry, we can probably make an exit manually at a later time if we need it." Stanley said as Shiro nodded her head.

  Walking through the darkness with her guard up, Shiro wasn’t able to use her boundary since she can only use it when she’s attacking someone. She hadn’t mastered the defensive version of boundary otherwise it would be helpful in this situation since it’ll reveal enemies that can’t be seen or detected with mana.

  As they were walking through the darkness, Shiro suddenly felt a tingle near her neck as she quickly ducked down and slashed up with her sword.

  *CLANG!!!!!

  Watching her sword slam against a blade, Shiro’s eyes widened as cold sweat dripped down her face.

  Seeing that his attack had failed, the owner of the blade scuttled back into the crevices of the ruins. Despite having True Sight, the darkness was still hard to see through but Shiro knew that the owner was quite small. She wasn’t able to get a good look but it was enough for now.

  "Be careful of the crevices. These things don’t emit killing intent nor does mana sense pick them up." Shiro warned in a hush tone as both Stanley and Nan Tian frowned.

  Summoning their weapons, they prepared a few magic circles and scanned their surroundings.

  Suddenly, Shiro felt the same tingle again but this time it was near her wrists.

  Quickly retracting her hand, she was a little slow as her wrist was almost cut all the way through and her hand was barely attached. Activating her life fire, she coated her hand in fire as the wound closed up. But as the fire lit up the corridor, they sensed killing intent all around them as the three quickly grouped up with their backs to each other so that they could cover their weaknesses.

  "Did you see anything?" Nan Tian asked with a frown after seeing the cut on her wrist.

  "Nothing. I couldn’t sense anything until it was about to hit me." Shiro replied with a frown.

  Dismissing the light, the killing intent faded away once more but the feeling of danger was still around as they now know the enemy could bypass most of their senses.

  "Do you think we should hurry down or make our way down slowly?" Nan Tian asked with a frown.

  Staying silent, both Stanley and Shiro weren’t sure since the enemy was unknown.

  Going forward could prove to be worse but if they stay, there was a chance for the enemy to surge towards their spot.

  Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro opened her mouth.

  "Let’s kill one first so we understand what we’re up against."

  Agreeing with her suggestion, the three kept an eye out for any suspicious movements.

  However, despite their guard, they were harmed quite a few times by the sudden attacks as the speed of this foe was on a whole nother level. With the addition of not being able to sense their killing intent until the last moment, it was hard for the three of them to keep this up.

  But soon their patience paid off as Shiro was able to freeze one in time just as it tried to cut her leg off. Grabbing it with her hand, she could see that it was a golem that looked like an insect. It had two long blades attached to its body like wings with several smaller blades along its belly.

  Similar to how her mother uses thin blades, these insects are able to strike out with impressive speeds that make it hard for them to dodge.

  "If a whole group of these appear, it’ll be hard to survive. Let’s travel slowly for now and make sure that they are within sight." Stanley suggested as the two agreed.