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It had only been a single day since they had joined forces, a mere handful of hours spent in each other's company, and yet Arianna could already sense a marked increase in her own strength and mastery over her mystical faculties. 

It wasn't as if she had managed to ascend to the next minor stage within the Nascent Novice realm, nor had she undergone some profound epiphany that allowed her to truly comprehend the fundamental underpinnings of her cultivation path in an entirely new light.

No, the boost in her capabilities was far more subtle, yet no less tangible for its understated nature. She could feel that the control she exerted over her Aether Innate Spirit, that innate attunement that granted her access to the spiritual realm and all the wonders it contained, had grown markedly sharper – more refined and precise than it had ever been before.

This heightened command over her spiritual faculties allowed Arianna to draw upon far stronger elemental spirits from the ethereal planes, granting her the ability to conjure forth searing gouts of mystical fire that outstripped even the blazing conflagrations she had used to dispatch those mages who had initially sought to apprehend her.

This undeniable boost in her strength and capabilities... Arianna knew precisely where the catalyst for this evolution had originated. 

From the moment she had immersed herself in Gladius's sublime presence as he 'Soothed into the World,' her mana senses had been expanded and heightened in ways she could scarcely fathom.

Her mind had been elevated, granting her a broader, more expansive perspective that allowed her to perceive and wield the mystic forces with a deftness and precision that had previously eluded her grasp. 

Yet even with this increase in the potency of her Mana-fueled assaults, Arianna couldn't help but acknowledge the stark reality that it was Gladius who was truly carrying the bulk of their lethal efforts.

As devastating as her barrage of fire arrows might have been, she could only maintain such an onslaught for so long before the strain on her mana reserves forced her to relent, to allow the flows of mystical energy coursing through her body to stabilize and replenish themselves. And each individually guided salvo required her to pour a considerable sum of her own mana into their volatile formations, shaping and propelling them through sheer force of will and focus.

Compared to the sheer, overwhelming lethality that Gladius seemed to exude with each effortless flick of his wrist, each casual arc of that silver spirit blade, Arianna's contributions seemed almost paltry in comparison. It truly did appear as if a single slash from Gladius's sword was enough to reap a brutal tally of three – sometimes even four – of the fearsome Nascent boars in the same breath.

As she watched him continue to cut an inexorable swath through the rampaging herd, Arianna found herself wondering – just what were the limits of Gladius's combat prowess? 

From what she had witnessed thus far, he clearly wasn't even exerting the full half of his true might, and yet these peak Nascent Novice beasts could not hold even a flickering candle to the overwhelming force he commanded.

A part of her couldn't help but muse that he could most certainly face off against Nascent Apprentice mages, perhaps even those who had ascended to the Nascent Expert stage, and still emerge as the victor in such lopsided conflicts. 

But she couldn't say for certain until they encountered a being of that elevated power, though her instincts told her that Gladius harbored the ability to erupt with a harrowing display of power that would utterly eclipse what she had born witness to here.

In what felt like the mere blink of an eye, the once-fearsome horde of Nascent boars had been nearly eradicated, their corpses littering the bloodstained earth in smoldering, mutilated heaps. 

But Gladius, it seemed, had deliberately left one of the beasts alive and relatively unscathed.

In that split-second of reprieve, he shot Arianna a pointed look, shaking his head almost imperceptibly to signal that she should refrain from acting against the lone survivor. 

Arianna, her lips curving into a subtle smile of dawning realization, nodded her assent and allowed her mana reserves to stabilize, awaiting Gladius's next move with bated breath.

Gladius, for his part, didn't need to exert any particular effort to draw the raging boar's undivided attention. Nascent beasts at the Novice stage possessed little more than the barest flickers of spiritual awareness, driven almost entirely by their most primal instincts and urges.

All that mattered to this lone survivor was the fact that the apex predator who had so ruthlessly butchered its kin now stood before it, seemingly at ease and dismissive of the threat it presented. This perceived arrogance, this blatant disregard for the boar's fearsome might, proved to be more than enough to send it hurtling toward Gladius in a bloodlusted frenzy.

Its thunderous footfalls caused the very earth to quake, shockwaves of force rippling outward as dust, dirt, and small rocks were blasted away from its path by the sheer, overwhelming intensity of its charge. 

The beast's crimson aura of berserk energy flared to unbridled heights, amplifying its physical prowess to levels that would have rivaled even the mightiest hurled boulders or siege engines.

But Gladius merely smiled in the face of this onrushing avalanche of primal fury, almost as if he were pleased by the beast's impressive display of speed and raw power.

In that moment, his sword sense locked onto an aura lurking nearby – one that was desperately striving to conceal its presence, to go utterly unnoticed amidst the chaos and pandemonium that had engulfed the woodlands.

But to Gladius's heightened perceptual abilities, honed to a razors' edge through his profound attunement to the fundamental forces underlying all existence, this interloper's aura stuck out like a blazing beacon amidst the shadows. He could sense the disturbance they represented, an unnatural flow of negative, sinister energies that seemed to disturb the very peace and equilibrium of the world itself on a fundamental level.

His connection to this realm, this symbiotic bond that allowed him to resonate with the ebb and flow of all things, granted Gladius the invaluable ability to detect anything – or anyone – whose presence ran counter to the natural harmonies of existence. 

And in that moment, he could perceive the distinct sensation that some malicious, unseen entity was deliberately targeting him, their intentions undoubtedly nefarious in nature.

With his sword sense zeroed in on the source of this disruptive aura, Gladius allowed his body to take on an ethereal lightness, his feet treading upon the air itself as he blasted forth in a burst of unfathomable speed that caused even Arianna's keen eyes to lose track of his movements.

Within the span of a solitary heartbeat, Gladius had already closed the distance separating him from a large, seemingly innocuous bush – the very one concealing the interloper whose aura had drawn the full weight of his focused perception. 

His hand streaked out like a bolt of ethereal lightning, clamping down upon an unseen figure before they could even think to react, to mount any semblance of a desperate defense.

"Ah– You?!" a muffled voice cried out in stunned disbelief, the words uttered by an indistinct figure now firmly entrapped within Gladius's iron-clad grasp.

The being he had so effortlessly ensnared was clad in the unmistakable robes and regalia of a mage, their vestments dyed in a somber, unassuming black that seemed to leech all color and vibrancy from their surroundings. 

In one moment, this mysterious mage had been carefully monitoring Gladius and Arianna's combat prowess, perhaps seeking to gauge the extent of their abilities for some nefarious purpose.

But in the next breath, everything had changed in a manner too swift, too abrupt for their mind to fully process. 

One second, they had been a silent, unseen observer – and the next, they found themselves utterly helpless, caught within the vice-like grip of a force that should not, by all logic, have been able to perceive their expertly concealed presence.

Gladius flashed the captured mage a light, almost mocking smile as he wasted no time in flinging their hapless form straight toward the rampaging boar beast that had been hurtling toward him with such single-minded determination.

"Ahhh–!" The mage's startled squeals were abruptly silenced as their body was brutally impaled upon the wicked, curved tusks protruding from the boar's gaping maw. 

The razor-sharp ivory spikes tore through flesh and bone with sickening ease, punching straight through the mage's chest cavity to pulverize their heart into an unrecognizable slurry of gore and viscera.

"Now kill the beast, Arianna," Gladius spoke, his tone utterly devoid of any particular inflection or emotion – a simple statement of fact, as if issuing an order to swat an irritating insect.

No more than a second later, a single streaking azure of elemental fire lanced forth from Arianna's outstretched palm, the blazing projectile arrowing straight toward the lone remaining Nascent boar with unerring accuracy. 

The beast, distracted by the sudden and unexpected impalement of the hapless mage it had been charging toward, could not react in time to mount even a feeble defense.

The searing arrow of mystical flame punched through its eye socket with explosive force, the volatile energies contained within detonating in a blinding conflagration that engulfed the boar's skull from the inside out.