"Just try to grab hold of the stone with your mind," Gerald said. "Oh, and you probably need your Magic Eyes to do that, so Elly and Blum, you probably won't be able to do it…"

The three already knew what Magic Eyes were since they experienced it, and for the rest, it wasn't important. Still, it didn't hurt to try.

"Oh, okay…" Sera was the first to take a shot at it. She extended an invisible tentacle-like Mana arm and tried to grab the piece of stone floating in the air. However, as she came closer, she felt it was getting harder and harder to keep it stable. It was as if her mind was actively trying to sabotage her, making her control crumble.

She became red in the face and as the 'tentacle' approached the stone, and at half a meter away it just couldn't continue. Any movement forward would make it disintegrate, almost as if an invisible barrier was preventing it from advancing.

Gerald encouraged her to continue verbally, but he knew in his heart she couldn't succeed. He already figured it out a while ago, but the Aura he could see would also prevent others from using magic directly on a foreign living body.

That was, of course, if they were both at full health and about the same strength. A powerful being could simply ignore the weakling's attempts at stopping them, just as Gerald ignored Eneth's feeble grasp.

Then there was the consciousness dilemma. If someone was sleeping or unconscious, their passive protection would be way weaker. One of the rare examples was when Gerald was in a coma and Tabbris could easily use his Ice magic on him. When the mind was asleep, the body was unguarded.

If a person knew what he was doing, he could expand or contract this Aura to various effects. He could retract it and let others heal him or perhaps extend his aura like they were doing now in an attempt at stopping the other caster from completing the spell.

"Huff, this… is impossible!" Sera huffed in exhaustion after a while. Streams of sweat ran down her temples.

"You are forcing yourself too much, focus with your mind, not your body," Gerald said. He noticed her control was still lacking. She still placed too much of her focus on her body instead of it being a 100% mental effort.

"Okay, next!"

Xilia stepped forward and tried it out. She appeared way calmer and composed on the surface, and barely any changes showed on her face. It was as if she was simply looking at the stone, nothing else.

However, on the inside, she was cursing loudly. The stone before her was like an unmoving mountain, and she couldn't budge it no matter how hard she tried. The funny thing was that the stone wasn't still in reality. It was gently swaying in the wind, almost as if it was weightless.

She almost felt like the stone was taunting her, it was extremely annoying.

Elly didn't do much better. Her face immediately became red and veins almost popped out of her forehead as she exerted herself, to no effect.

Eneth didn't even try to take the Stone Bolt back as he already had the painful experience, while Blum was quick to surrender after realizing he was no match for Gerald's might. Out of respect for his boss, and also because he didn't want to waste his energy for no reason, he decided to simply try it out for a few seconds to get the feeling of it, and then stop.

"Alright, good, now you have all experienced what a stronger opponent can do, or how hopeless you are against him," Gerald said, totally not boosting his own ego. "Now let's try again, but this time I'll adjust my strength to mirror yours. Sera, would you like to go first?" he invited.

"… Sure, I guess."

As she exerted her mind this time it resulted in some actual changes. The stone shook and slowly, with great effort on her part, Gerald's grip loosened and she took control.

"I did it!" She shouted triumphantly and took the floating stone closer. Her face told of her exhaustion, but still, she wore a bright smile nonetheless.

Gerald clapped his hands, "Excellent! It seems that 0.1% of my strength was just about right… Okay, who's next?"

"... Wait, what?!"

"Me, me, me! Pick me!" Xilia jumped up and down and waved her hand.

They went through the exercise again with each mage participating once. After they all successfully grasped the technique, Gerald urged them to train among themselves and so they did.

It was almost like a football game, they just had to snatch a stone instead of a ball from each other. And instead of using their limbs, they used their minds. It was great fun.

***

The rest of the warriors that weren't participating went back to the wall and helped defend. Although Goblins couldn't cross the barrier alive, that didn't mean the rest of the monsters would be the same.

Hobgoblins could force their way through, although not without severe burns, while the Orcs and Wargs they were riding could swiftly get across, sustaining only minor injuries to their skin.

Some warriors that were fighting on the other side before the barrier formed were almost all dead. When their path of retreat was cut off, they were at the mercy of the beasts.

Some had friends who created rings of ice or stone through which they could jump back inside, but most weren't so lucky. In panic they rushed back, resulting in being burned alive, or torn apart by monsters when they turned their back on them.

An outraged mob was formed after many of their friends were brutally murdered, and the warriors couldn't even vent their anger since nobody knew where the barrier came from and who was responsible.

In some other places, people celebrated the barrier as it came just in time as they were getting overwhelmed, and gave them a few precious moments to take a breather. There the casualties were already high, and the sudden Flame Barrier helped mitigate even greater losses.

***

The situation came under control for a bit and it seemed even the monsters realized their efforts were futile. They slowly retreated a few hundred meters and remained there.

Gerald got bored from just sitting around in the meantime, so he decided to check on the niter production. The workers, although unwilling at first, were eventually convinced to go back to work. The environment was completely safe and they could work in peace.

The refinement was going slow, but the first tests were proving to be excellent and already produced a handful of the precious white powder.

"Good, a few more days and it should be ready," Gerald commented as he examined the niter in a small cloth sack.

"Keep up the good work, but be careful to keep the final product away from the flames," he warned and stored the sack in his Ring. Although niter by itself wasn't flammable, it was a strong oxidizer and could make a fire go out of control.

After returning back to the camp, and seeing that there was still nothing to do, he decided to take a walk along the wall and collected some scrap metal. He still needed a lot of it.

As the day turned dark, and night came, the two groups gathered around the campfire once more and leaned on the building behind them, resting and chatting in high spirits.

Gerald also sat down near a fire. Only his flames were self-made and much, much hotter, and filled with metal weapons and scraps of discarded armor.

The heat was well contained inside a Sound Barrier that he repurposed to block any escape of hot gasses. The light coming from melting metal was like that of a small sun but with a distinct lack of warmth.

Elly came and sat beside Gerald. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Making a weapon. I'm going to kill the Giant," he answered without moving his eyes from the Forge.

"Aren't you boasting a bit too much?" Tabbris suddenly spoke, appearing out of nowhere. "Usually you would need a battalion of Master Mages to bring one down."

Gerald lifted an eyebrow and glanced at him, "I got my ways…"

"You mean this?" Tabbris pointed at the blob of molten metal in the air that was slowly taking shape. "What even is this? An iron bowl? A cauldron? A barrel maybe?" He shook his head in dismay.

'Close, though it is a container…' Gerald mused but didn't answer.

"Another one of your ideas? Honestly, sometimes I wonder if you really belong to this world…" Tabbris casually said and turned around with his hands behind his back. He glanced over at the barrier.

Gerald's body shuddered subconsciously, but he quickly got himself under control and changed the topic, "Why are you here anyway? Don't you have work to do?"

"Of course!" Tabbris grinned, "I'm here to supervise… And also to enjoy the show."

"Show? What are you talking about?"

"You know Spark? The Grandmaster Fire Mage?"

"I think so, I heard of him before… Why?" Gerald stored away the glowing metal. Time in the ring didn't flow, so items there remained unchanged forever.

"He's here in the capital. He's going to be coming here in a few hours with his group of Mages. And I'm here to see the spectacle."

"Here?" Gerald asked, "You mean right here where we are? What for?"

Tabbris scratched his chin and said, "Well, maybe not right here, but somewhere at the northern wall. We should still be able to see it through. His magic…" He looked around where most defenders were resting. "Still, I expected this attack to be way worse, I guess the barrier worked great, huh?"

"It's okay…" Gerald answered unenthusiastically.

"I see the attacks slowed down… That's good! Luckily we can get some rest before dawn."

Gerald frowned, "Don't say that, you are going to jinx it…"

"Oh? Superstitious? I never knew that about you," Tabbris grinned.

"I'm not!" Gerald frowned. "But is better not to take chances."

"Oh come on, what's the worse that could happen?"

Gerald silently cursed in his mind and focused his ears. It was the quietest evening in the last month. "Okay, maybe I was-"

"Incoming!" a guard in the watchtower suddenly shouted. "Hobgoblins! Thousands of them!"

"Huh, what a coincidence…" Tabbris made a surprised expression and then shrugged, "Well, it's just Hobgoblins after all. It's not like hordes of Orcs and Ogres would suddenly attack…"

"God fucking damn it, Tabbris!" Gerald barked and jumped on his feet. He gripped his spear and ran up the wall to see.

Thousands, tens of thousands of Hobgoblins were running full speed across the plains towards the city. They carried bows and spears covered in mud and blood. Those were of a distinctive human origin. Most likely plundered from nearby towns and villages.

"Orcs! Orc and Goblin Shamans! Watch out!" the lookout shouted from his watchtower. Seconds later the sky was filled with balls of flame striking the barrier and exploding like fireworks.

Some managed to fly above it, but they exhausted most of their power before striking the ground. Nonetheless, some wooden houses and thatched roofs still started catching fire.

Thump, thump, thump!

The sounds of something massive moving at high speed attracted Gerald's attention. Like a power hammer beating on a piece of metal, the sound traveled in rhythmic waves to his ears. He could feel the powerful strikes shake his body ever so slightly.

Squinting his eyes he could see a humanoid form running from afar. At almost five meters tall, it towered over the rest of the monsters as it charged forward. Its body was like a giant barrel and its limbs like centuries-old tree trunks. It carried a weapon in one hand, a young uprooted tree, and used it as a club.

Tabbris stood behind Gerald and whistled. "Wow, is that an Ogre? Man, we sure are lucky that the Gian- Mmph!"

A strong hand suddenly covered his mouth, shutting him up.

"Not another word!" Gerald hissed.