Otterson's charge had just begun, and the otter had not managed to make much distance. However, the magic the otter unleashed made its presence known almost instantly, as an explosion created instant turbulence in the water. Luckily, even if the turbulence was quite strong, it still had to affect quite a considerable distance, and by the time the movement of water reached the three friends, it wasn’t enough to distort their movements. This was especially so after the three friends had used the few seconds that Otterson had given them to begin their enhancements.

  More importantly, as the otter charged, Adriana was able to squish six of the eight otters that had been with the Beast Lord. This had surprised her, as she had been aiming to kill all eight of them but had found that the remaining ones were able to put up much greater resistance than expected. This had instantly told her that the two otters were much stronger and would become a problem, so she had shared the information with her friends.

  “That is unusual, they weren’t like this before, still, you two take them out, I will stall the lord,” Alexion had told them, and after giving their friend confirmation, the three friends separated.

  Having ended their telepathic conversation, Alex finished charging up his attack and sent a lightning bolt towards the lord, who was still coming straight at him. As for the other two otters, they had started to follow their boss after recovering from Adriana’s pressure; however, upon seeing his two friends separate, their paths had deviated to target them instead.

  Seeing the lightning bolt coming, Otterson used his control over water to condense it and use it, along with an explosion, to absorb and scatter the attack. Afterwards, instead of trying to retaliate from afar, the otter decided to double down, and its speed increased even more as it looked to close the distance between itself and the elf.

  Adriana saw as Arctur began to glow green, and spears of vine and roots began to manifest around him. She knew what he was trying to do and decided to help him out as she once again attempted to crush the two otters. Annoyingly, she felt once again as the two otters released concentrated explosions around themselves, scattering her magic and making it harder to control the suddenly turbulent water. Even so, she managed to buy some time for her green friend by slowing the two otters.

  Alexion realized that he had underestimated the Beast Lord, as the creature managed to increase its speed to an astonishing degree, drawing closer to him than he was comfortable with. So much so that the elf was forced to put up his shield, as the lord crashed into it. Sadly, that wasn’t enough, and the damage inflicted by the lord's attack was able to outdo the amount of mana Alexion could feed his shield, causing the entire thing to destabilize. Of course, after it destabilized, the lord easily broke through, slamming into Alexion. Luckily, most of the power of the point-blank explosion had been used to break through, and the lord impacted against him, sending him tumbling through the water before it could release another explosion.

  Adriana felt the explosion as she felt the pulse it sent outwards, increasing the turbulence of the water once more after it had begun to calm. Looking over to where her elf had been, she found that he had been sent blundering through the water by whatever attack the otter lord had landed. Of course, even if he was starting to stabilize, the lord was already swimming in his direction, closing the distance by the second. Adriana knew she had to intervene and began creating blades of water all around the Beast Lord, causing the creature to slow down as it dodged.

  Dodging, however, became harder, even with its small and agile body, as Adriana intensified her attack, and after the otter was cut a few times, causing its blood to tinge the water, it decided to scatter the blades of water with massive but less powerful explosions. Obviously, these explosions only increased the turbulence of the water, but not yet to the point where the three friends would have an issue. The explosions also quickly became less effective as Adriana focused on staggering the multitude of attacks, causing the pressure to begin building in her favor once again.

  Arctur was finally ready to unleash his attack, and even though the empowered otter tried to stop him by sending a few blasts his way, he was able to dodge or counter by sending a few spears its way. He had also done this to slow down the creature further, and now it was time to end their small battle. By this point, Arctur's glow had intensified to an incredible degree, bathing the area with a slight green hue.

  Dozens of vines and root spears flew towards the otter, Arctur having made sure to stagger them, having predicted what the otter would try. Sure enough, upon seeing the numerous spears coming its way, it waited until the very last second before it unleashed another incredibly concentrated explosion. The explosion destroyed many of the spears, and the following rush of water caused many to veer off as the momentary and powerful currents caught them. Sadly for the small furball, Arctur had expected this. Then, there was the issue that the attack seemed to have taken a lot out of the otter, so it was unable to do much as the rest of the spears punctured into its small body, killing it almost instantly.

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  Alex was annoyed and somewhat angry at being hit, so, considering that his girl was buying him some time, he had used the moments of peace to charge up an attack. The attack was a crackling bolt of lightning, much bigger than the one he had used earlier, and one surrounded by powerful wind. Otterson, still distracted by the mermaid's attack, was not aware of this until the bolt was almost right on him.

  Except that the bolt never hit the Beast Lord, the party had forgotten about the other empowered otter, and it now swam right in front of the powerful attack. An attack that was more than enough to kill it, the bolt frying it alive as the wind cut its body apart. Usually, killing a Mini-Boss would not have been possible in one attack, at least not one so weak, except that the otter had a smaller pool of vitality and, more importantly, it had taken the hit head-on without any real defenses.

  Otterson, who had never stopped dodging the blades of water, saw its fellow sacrifice itself, and his anger rose to a new level. He unleashed a massive explosion all around him, using almost half of his mana. The blast was enough to completely halt Adriana’s blade as they were destroyed with ease, but more importantly, so much force had created a level of turbulence equal to that of the special area where Tigress could be found. Of course, the party had not been expecting this, and they were all pushed around, the boys more so than Adriana, which left her as the most obvious target.

  Adriana had no time to react to the lord. By the time she had stabilized enough, he was basically on top of her, and she was unable to slow it down. Instead, she put up her shield at the last second, ensuring to pour plenty of mana into it. Sadly, the lord struck during that period when the shield was vulnerable, and its attack broke through, its furry head slamming into her stomach and sending her spinning through the water. She was thankful that, at the very least, it was using all its mana for enhancement and hadn’t deemed her worthy to strike her with a point-blank explosion.

  Alexion was forced to use his ring in order to increase his recovery, and he saw as the otter struck Adriana. So, now that he was somewhat stabilized, the elf sent a bolt of lightning its way. The attack struck true, but only pissed off the lord even more, and the angry furball rushed at him, its speed having increased since last time. Nonetheless, Alexion had time to charge up another attack, or at least he thought, since the moment he began, the water around him exploded. The attack wasn’t strong, but it covered the entirety of his body, which displaced him and stopped any channeling he had started.

  Otterson’s body hurt, but he would teach that elf a lesson, granted his time was running out as his current level of enhancement was a little too much. Still, it would be enough to get to the damn elf before he had time to recuperate, and more than enough to use one last powerful explosion.

  Arctur stabilized again, but found himself further away from his friends, especially after Adriana had been sent packing. Nonetheless, he began swimming towards Alexion as fast as he could, hoping to help the elf with the encroaching Beast Lord.

  Meanwhile, Adriana had decided to stop playing around so much. It was clear the lord had it out for her elf, and she would not let anything happen to him. Annoyingly, this decision of hers had come rather late, as she was rather far from Alexion, though nothing she couldn’t change as she burned mana to increase her enhancement. It only took a few seconds, and her body was burning like never before until she finally reached the same speed the Beast Lord had been operating under when he struck her. The problem was that the lord was almost on top of her elf, and though she would be able to help out at range, she was worried it wouldn’t be enough.

  Alexion managed to stabilize, but he knew he wouldn’t have enough time to dodge or do much of anything as the lord approached. The lord was only a breath’s distance from him, and even as the elf summoned his shield, he knew it wouldn’t be enough. However, that’s when time began to slow down, and Alexion could feel the energy radiating from the otter's enhancement as well as the amassment of energy on its furry head as it slowly got within an inch of his shield.

  Thankfully, that wasn’t all Alexion felt at that moment; he also felt the energy of his girlfriend as she poured what had to be an ungodly amount of mana to reach him from where she was. Additionally, Alexion saw the tinge of green around his shield as Arcturs barrier began to manifest, even if he knew it wouldn’t be enough.

  The thing was that Alexion didn’t want to die, and even if it meant showing some respect to the damn otter, he would have to get serious.

  In less than a fraction of a second, the elf's body burned as he channeled too much godly mana, and his eyes turned to orbs of water. Then, as the otter's head shattered through Arcturs barrier, and began to make contact with his shield, Alexion activated a technique ensuring it worked along his girlfriend's magic.

  “Crushing Depths.”

  The words were not spoken, but they echoed in his mind as time resumed. Then the otter shattered his shield, but before it could do anything else, the technique took effect. Its body was crushed, its squished entrails slamming lightly into Alexion’s chest as the elf floated there, his heart beating way too fast, his body steaming as energy came off him in droves.