Chrysalis

Morrelia braced herself, though it likely wasn't necessary. Inside her heavyset Legion armour, she could be battered with a tree and barely feel it. Even so, she braced herself.

The wave, when it came, was almost visible. A ripple of ultra-dense mana rose through their legs and passed the tops of their heads in a thousandth of a second, sending her reeling. She felt as if she'd been punched in the gut, but a whine from her armour caught her attention. Lifting her arm to check the script on her forearm plate, she could see the enchantments fizzing, shortly before her back began to burn.

"VENT!" a nearby Centurion bellowed, sprinting along the front of the line. "Your armour is overloaded!"

She'd been drilled a thousand times on how to handle the more powerful armour and that training kicked into gear now. With practised ease, she triggered the mechanism in her forearm plates, then extended her hands in front of her. All along the line, her fellow legionaries did the same, and after a few seconds, during which the heat within the armour became absolutely unbearable, the excess energy was released through the hands in a blast of heat. With so many performing the vent at the same time, the air in front of the line shimmered with heat haze, but Morrelia didn't care. The cores mounted on the back plates of the armour no longer felt like they were going to melt through the metal and into her back, which was all she cared about at the moment.

What in Pangera was that?

She was desperate to ask, but knew better than to break discipline as they stood in line. If she actually thought about it, she was able to figure out most of it. The wave had broken, that much was clear, and the incredibly dense mana had oversaturated the cores, flooding the enchantments worked into the armour with far too much energy. It normally wouldn't be a problem, but these suits, Potestas armour, had been designed to pull in as much of the ambient mana as they could.

Designed as a halfway point between normal Legionary armour and the invincible Praetorian suits, Potestas armour was intended to help acclimate the wearer to a higher level of mana intake and output. Only those who could successfully utilise the armour to its full potential would have the option to progress to the next stage.

She'd been doing reasonably in training, but the wave had come and everything had to be put on hold, putting a halt to whatever progress she'd been making. Clearly expecting the wave to cause a major disruption, the Legion had pulled everyone who could wear armour and swing an arm to fight, which meant even officer training had been suspended.

more fighting in the armour than practising on the field, and she'd rather

mindful of your exhaustion, we won't be relieved from this position for eight hours. If

one who couldn't

still too high, the cores sizzled away on her back, but within tolerance. Morrelia lowered her gauntleted hands to her waist where she pulled free her two swords. Made with the finest metals she could get her hands on, these blades should be able to stand up to the pressure exerted from the

caverns and tunnels that stretched for thousands of kilometres when added together. Deep down, if you knew where to go, you'd find an entrance to the fifth. All the monsters that spawned within had very few ways to break out into the open air of the fourth stratum,

drills, no more training, no more lessons, no more sparring, no more repetitive

smiling," the Legionary on

turned to face him. Ertan,

believe you're not,"

just shook his

and clash of monsters had become a constant barrage

contribute something," she replied, slamming her

the first monsters burst out of the cavernous tunnel mouth. Clawing and biting at each other, the two beasts, one a golden lion whose coat gleamed with a metallic shine, the other a sinuous jade dragon, ignored the arrayed soldiers as they battled against each other. That turned out to be a mistake as the lion was knocked

bounce up and down on the spot like a jittery trainee, but her body

and began to hurtle across the hundred metre gap between the Legion and