Everyone immediately entered a combat stance. Aria, the Paladin elder, and Douglas positioned themselves on three sides of the team's perimeter, acting as the vanguard to withstand the first wave of attacks. The Catgirl Ranger drew her bow, each arrow seeming to possess an auto-targeting system as it precisely struck the Mutated Animals' eyes, throats, and vital joints.
Feidric began casting buffs and shields on everyone. Meanwhile, the two Druids in the party started their incantations:
"Thorns Surround!"
"Summon Lightning Spell!"
The first spell caused a dense ring of thorny vines to erupt from the ground around the party. Any Mutated Animal charging on land had to cross this barrier, their paws being riddled with holes just by stepping on it.
As for the Summon Lightning Spell, the moment the Druid finished her incantation, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking a Mutated Animal squarely on the head.
Druids exclusively use "Natural Magic." Many people mistakenly believe Natural Magic is limited to manipulating plants, but that's not the case. While Summon Lightning Spell calls down lightning, it's still a form of Natural Magic. This differs from a Wizard's Lightning Bolt, which creates a lightning attack from the caster's own magic power. Summon Lightning Spell, in contrast, truly summons lightning—the raw, natural lightning of the world.
So-called Natural Magic is, in essence, "the power of nature itself." A sufficiently powerful Druid can even trigger tsunamis, earthquakes, and tornadoes.
With her teammates all engaged, Cipher didn't remain idle. In the past, she might have slacked off on the sidelines, letting Aria handle more of the fighting to gain combat experience. But Aria had long since passed her growth phase and undergone enough trials. Now, on the path to the final boss, there was no need for Cipher to hold back.
She took a deep breath. Golden divine power flared around her like crackling lightning. In that instant, from Cipher's perspective, time seemed to freeze. Everyone—allies and Mutated Animals alike—remained locked in their current actions and expressions, utterly motionless.
But time hadn't stopped; she was simply moving too fast. Cipher leaned forward slightly, adopting a sprinter's stance. Then, pushing off with the balls of her feet, she shot forward.
The massive circle of thorns on the ground couldn't hinder her in the slightest. With a light leap, Cipher used the animals trapped within as stepping stones, bounding across their bodies in a few quick steps to clear the thorny area. She rapidly scanned the surrounding Mutated Animals—about thirty to forty of them, not a large number.
No need to hesitate, then. She picked the ugliest "tiger" and dashed toward it, unleashing a simple, direct roundhouse kick. The heel of her high-heeled shoe struck its head with pinpoint precision.
Cipher wasn't known for her strength, but that didn't mean her attacks lacked power. After all, when speed reaches a certain threshold, it becomes indistinguishable from force. A seemingly ordinary roundhouse kick, if delivered at near the speed of light, would possess astonishing destructive power.
The "tiger's" head instantly burst like a tomato. But before the slow-moving juices could splash onto her, Cipher was already gone, appearing beside another Mutated Animal.
She repeated this process, delivering a casual kick to each Mutated Animal as she passed. In moments, she had lapped the entire battlefield. Finally, she fixed her gaze on the motionless eagle in the sky. Pulling a coin from her pocket, she tossed it lightly into the air, aimed, and kicked it like a soccer ball.
Pfft—
Instantly, the eagle's body exploded as if struck by an anti-aircraft shell. A massive hole tore through its center, nearly ripping it in two, leaving only scraps of flesh connecting its upper and lower halves.
Only after completing all this did Cipher leap lightly back to her original position in the center of the team. Then... Divine Speed ended!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!
The sound of the surrounding Mutated Animals' heads exploding one after another echoed through the air. The Paladin elder, the accompanying Druid, and the Ranger all stood frozen in place. They had only glimpsed a golden flash streak past, and now... all the monsters were dead?
"What happened?"
"Huh?"
"How did these animals..."
Only the Paladin elder, without a second thought, turned his gaze toward Cipher. In response, Cipher winked at him, her cat tail swaying gently behind her, saying nothing.
These Mutated Animals weren't actually weak. A single one of them would likely have been enough for the Adventurers' Guild to issue a quest requiring a fully equipped team of Silver Adventurers to subjugate.
But for the group present, they were hardly a threat. Cipher's team was obviously powerful, the Paladin elder was formidable himself, and the Rangers and Druid were all at least Gold-rank. After all, this mission involved investigating an Outer God, so the Paladin elder had brought the strongest members of his tribe.
Though the Rangers and Druid were still bewildered, the battle was undeniably over. The Thorn Magic on the ground dissipated, and Feidric left the group, crouching beside the nearest Mutated Animal corpse to examine it.
Cipher also leaned in. After observing for a moment, she realized the animals' condition was similar to the zombies in the All Nations Alliance, which had been infected by flesh corruption. It was a form of "flesh-level" contamination—something had forcibly altered the animals' physical bodies.
But there were differences. These animals were more deeply mutated, with more extensive physical alterations, and they were stronger.
Cipher explained this to the others, then added, "Surely there isn't a Conjuration School wizard in the forest who summoned a corrupted demon, right?"
However, after hearing her explanation, the Paladin elder replied, "That's unlikely. According to your description, those demons possess extremely potent abilities to spread disease and corrupt the environment. If such a creature appeared in the forest, no matter where, a Druid would detect it immediately."
Just as the elder could sense every plant and tree around the entire tribe, every Druid possessed such extraordinary perception. A sick tree would stand out like a firefly in the dead of night—incredibly conspicuous.
After a pause, the elder suddenly added, "Unless another Druid deliberately concealed these traces..."