Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain
Chapter 472 - Don’t Ask

 Ryan was feeling like crap. The blood loss might make him fall unconscious at any moment. So, he hurried to empty all his mana again. Thanks to the spears, he recovered plenty of mana while one of the Reptilians was slowly being killed by him. Still, even with that, he managed to slay only three more of them before raising another curtain of smoke. Ryan decided to approach the magic barrier at the nearest point. Still, he changed his mind when he saw another group of heavily armed Reptilians. It looked like another group of bosses decided to join that fight too.

"… Let's move to the other side of the barrier," Ryan said, slightly annoyed.

 He hated to admit it, but Ryan wasn't in a condition to fight another group of one hundred Reptilians. As soon as he gets a chance, he should escape and stop pushing his luck after that mess up.

 The Reptilians already knew what Ryan might do, so they dashed to leave the curtain of smoke and follow him, but while keeping their formation, they wasted too much time. When they tried to split, Ryan slowed down the fastest ones with a few explosive bolts. In the end, Ryan and the Reptilians reached the other side of the barrier pretty much at the same time, but only Ryan gained something with that. Without hesitating, he pierced his spears in the magic barrier.

 The monsters entered a single line formation and raised their shields in order to keep advancing when Ryan pointed his crossbow at them. Much faster than before, he killed the Reptilians. Still, despite the corpses leaving behind, the bosses managed to keep advancing at a steady pace. Even though Firing Posture was working…

 However, in the end, Ryan just had to improvise a little bit to solve the situation. Firing at their feet, Ryan caused explosions that not only messed with their balance but also damaged the ice shields in their weakest points: the borders. As if that wasn't enough, Ryan also had a pleasant surprise…

Congratulations! The class Archer has reached the max level. Reach the max level with another class to sacrifice them and obtain a special class! Don't worry. You won't lose the bonuses in status and skills you acquired by sacrificing those classes.

 Ryan's bolts suddenly caused more damage, and he started to decimate the bosses by destroying their legs with relative ease. Upon noticing that Ryan obtained a sudden power-up, the Reptilians tried one last all-out attack by throwing their ice shields at him to block his field of vision, but that didn't work. After a few more seconds, all the bosses had been eliminated.

 After sighing in relief, Ryan started to focus again and attacked the magic barrier with his explosive bolts. Although Ryan was causing a lot of damage and also draining a lot of mana with the spears, Ryan couldn't see the barrier weakening.

"So freaking annoying…" Ryan sighed. "Still, the other bosses didn't follow us for this side of the barrier, and they didn't show up until now, so I guess the mages who cast this can't just open holes in it to make them enter."

 To make sure that was indeed the case, Ryan attacked the magic barrier nonstop. Even if dozens of Reptilian mages were keeping the magic barrier active, they could only do so as long as they have mana, and Ryan doubted that they could keep it active forever while he keeps attacking.

 It took a while, but Ryan's predictions were confirmed. He could tell that the magic barrier was getting thinner, and the mana he was draining was decreasing as well. Suddenly, the magical barrier disappeared entirely, and Ryan used that change to return to his domain by using Teleport. Furball greeted him by barking as if nothing had happened, even though he was covered in blood and bruises.

"You have disappointed me, buddy," Ryan said and then fell to the ground. "As if… this mess was solely caused by me."

 Ryan used Full-Heal, and then his wounds started to close at an insane pace. However, the exhaustion didn't leave his body when he used Stamina Restoration. He needed a break, but Ryan couldn't have one while such an army was so close to his domain.

"I killed one hundred of the bosses, and one hundred more were ready to ambush me there," Ryan said. "Based on what I know, at least two times more bosses than the army should have… Still, I don't know if those others will come. The Reptilians wouldn't be stupid enough to leave their base behind and bet everything on defeating me… probably."]

 If they were really that desperate, they should have brought other species to help them. In the end, they were all Echidna's minions. Given that she was the mother of monsters, she probably had many more species like Reptilians under her control, so why not make them work together?

"I guess being like her wouldn't use such plans to defeat a single human," Ryan nodded to himself. "If she was really serious about hunting me, she would use several monsters like Cerberus to do it. As for the Reptilians, they are working alone to show their might to their master, or something like that."

 Ryan felt safe to assume that the Reptilians were the only monsters working for Echidna in North America. While that doesn't mean other creatures will keep coming to take what Ryan had, it was a relief to know that such troublesome creatures wouldn't work with another army.

"Where have you been?" Femradiel suddenly asked. "I noticed that your presence disappeared from my radar for a moment."

"… I just went to check a few dungeons in the area," Ryan replied after a few moments of silence.

"Really? Didn't you fall in some trap after getting carried away?" Femradiel asked.

"If you already know, then don't ask…" Ryan sighed. "Anyway, you should hurry. I want to level up the Combat Archer class, and I don't know if I will have the chance to do it today efficiently thanks to those oversized lizards."