Dan was evilly chuckling in his cave as he watched the party. Usually, the quest the party was on wouldn’t have the farm completely demolished by a multitude of otters. At most, around five to six otters would have stolen a couple of the shells, the encounter even letting adventurers come to firm land so as not to be too difficult. However, considering who was doing the quest this time, Dan had altered everything to give the overpowered friends a good what-for. So, instead of a few otters, he had the farm run sacked by around 20 of the viciously cute furballs.

  “That will teach them,” Dan said as he continued to chuckle evilly while rubbing his non-existent hands together.

  “How is a normal party supposed to do this quest?” Arctur questioned as he looked at many otters on the island shore.

  “Not sure, maybe they go back and get help?” Alexion pondered.

  “We aren’t doing that right?” Adri asked, worried that the two would vote on such a boring course of action.

  “God’s no! This is going to be a great fight!” Alexion said with a big smile.

  “Oh yeah! Though I want to get closer beforehand, rather not fight that many in water myself,” Arctur told his friends.

  “Sure, that works,” Adriana answered before diving down.

  Adriana did not get too close to the island's shore. Instead, she made it about halfway to the otters before popping back up. She would distract the furry little balls to let Alexion and Arctur get closer. Luckily, the otters had yet to spot her, and she used some mana to launch a large wave at them. The wave would keep her out of their sight for a bit and would also act as her first attack. Of course, the moment the wave began and grew to about ten feet tall, the otters noticed. That was when she received the first surprise of the fight.

  The trio didn't know what the otters were capable of, which was one of the reasons why Adriana was the first to start the fight. It was also why the two boys were heading closer to land. They were both comfortable fighting in the water, but not against that many opponents with unknown powers. The team might be strong, but they were also smart and knew better than to be too overconfident.

  Now, as for the surprise, well, her wave was torn apart as explosions rocked the water. The explosions quickly dismantled her wave, and it harmlessly splashed into itself before it got the chance to make it halfway to the fluffy monsters that were all staring at her.

  “Guys, they have some sort of shockwave explosive magic, be careful,” Adriana mentally told her two friends before churning out some more mana.

  Adriana launched another wave; however, now expecting it, she waited for the otters to blast it apart. Except this time, instead of letting the water splash harmlessly, she compressed it into spears and, in one fell swoop, threw them at the otters. That finally got the otters to move as they dodged the attacks, causing sand to fly everywhere, and they all began running towards the water, which was also when her two friends popped out.

  Popping out of the water in a splash, the two guys knew they had to quickly reduce the number of enemies. To that end, they were both fully enhanced. Arctur's eyes were already glowing green while currents of electricity sparked through Alexion’s skin. Then the moment they landed, Alexion was the first to strike, launching powerful currents of electricity towards the two closest otters. Not having expected the attack, the two were easily struck and fried in one fell swoop by the attack, which consumed a good chunk of the elf’s mana.

  Following Alexion’s attack was Arctur's as small blades of grass erupted from all around the grassy shore. The blades launched into the air, turning hard and sharp before tilting and launching themselves at the otters. Sadly, Adriana’s earlier attack had caused many to scatter, which meant that only three were outright killed, while only four more were injured as the small needles of grass pierced the furry bodies of the otters. Of course, by then, the otters were no longer in shock, and they rushed at the trio.

  The elf managed to dodge the first two otters that seemingly launched themselves at him without care. However, the monsters were smarter than he gave them credit for, and the first two had set him up perfectly for the third one. The otter slammed into his side, releasing an explosion on contact that launched him sideways and away from Arctur.

  Arctur dodged three explosive waves thrown at him by three of the otters he had injured. The fourth one, having chosen to chase after Alexion with another three of its companions. It seemed they were setting up four vs one fights, at least for the most part, since seven of the furry monsters ran into the water. Still, he had more things to worry about as a fourth explosive blast took him in the shoulder. The attack made him falter as he was put off balance, but that was fine since he used the momentum of his shoulder being pushed to dodge a charging otter, causing it to pass right in front of him and hit the ground instead, sending sand flying everywhere as its explosive attack found a target.

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  Adriana launched a couple more water spears at the otters as they ran into the water. However, she hadn't made the attack with any target in mind and simply wanted to rile them up some more. Her goal was to have a fun chase in the water, something she hadn't been able to do much. Honestly, she was not worried about the otters at all. Explosive powers or not, their lives were over when they entered the water. The only thing she did do upon diving was send out a pulse of energy, highlighting the otters as they swam towards her.

  Stabilizing himself with wind, Alexion clutched his side as he landed softly on the sand some distance from where he had been. The attack had hurt, but it wasn’t even close to being debilitating, and he quickly took in the battle, seeing four otters running at him, with one of the ones Arctur had injured in the lead. Smiling to himself, Alexion spent some mana and encased the lead otter in a small vortex of strong winds. Then, before it could get its bearings as it was tossed around, Alexion sharpened the winds further, turning the vortex red as blood and fur churned about.

  Quickly turning around, ignoring his shoulder pain, Arctur ducked, dodging two explosive waves before launching himself to the side to dodge another incoming otter. Coming up after a roll, he stomped the ground as he spent some mana. His stomp caused sand and dust to launch upward, making the otters lose sight of him as they were all encased in the cloud. Sadly, his strategy to buy time did not last for long, and more explosions cleared the dust away in waves of force. Still, at the very least, Arctur had been able to stabilize himself, instead of being forced to dodge constantly.

  In the water, Adriana was playing catch the mermaid with explosive blasts. A game that was beginning to make the water turn quite turbulent, which for anybody else would have made the game rather deadly. However, she was just enjoying herself, actually laughing as she easily dodged explosive blasts and otters trying to slam into her. The otters were fast; she had to give it to them, but not fast enough.

  Alexion tried the same trick against the other three otters, but it did not work. Having seen what happened to their friend, the moment the wind appeared around them, the three furballs caused explosions that scattered his magic. Seeing this and deciding it wouldn’t have been fun to kill them like that anyway, Alexion rushed the three cute explosive creatures.

  They tried to hit him with more explosive blasts in his run, but he easily dodged, deflected, or countered them with his own magic. Then, when they were finally close enough, one rushed him, trying to slam its tail against his face while the other two targeted his feet with explosive blasts. Obviously, he wouldn’t let them turn his feet into mush and lifted them while letting his breath out in a burst of wind and sending the third otter away from his face with a powerful blast of wind.

  Moments later, his feet landed on firm ground again, and he smiled at the two otters in front of him. The two otters didn’t appreciate the sentiment and launched themselves at him, one going for his nether regions, the other his chest.

  With the sand being cleared away, Arctur only had a few moments before the otters targeted him once more. Spending some more mana, he tapped into the ground and caused the earth to come up and swallow one of the injured otters. Of course, by the time that was done, the three other otters were already running at him, and only seconds after their run began did they unleash another three blasts of power in his direction. In response, Arctur countered the blasts with his own blasts of green energy, the otters already on him before they could send another barrage.

  In a hurry, Arctur summoned a wall of dirt in front of him, which delayed the otters by a second as their attacks tore the hastily created wall apart. However, that let Arctur strike one of the fur balls before it could do anything, and he launched hardened pieces of earth from the air at one of the otters, turning its body into a pin needle of jagged rocks and killing it.

  The very turbulent water was rocketing around Adriana. She was still fine, but it was getting to the point that she was beginning to have issues without spending a lot of mana to stabilize the water. Then, finally, the worst thing that could possibly happen happened. Adriana failed to dodge an explosive blast. Alright, that wasn’t true. She dodged the blast, but the water caused her hair to shift back into the explosion, and some of it was torn apart. That was the moment the mermaid decided the game was done, and she released a powerful pulse of water that quickly stabilized the entire area she was in.

  The otters were taken aback by the sudden show of force. They believed they were in control of the situation, causing the mermaid to run for her life. Of course, they hadn’t been sure why she had been laughing, and were sure she had lost her mind. However, as the water calmed, they hesitated to continue attacking as one of them was quickly crushed by a sudden pressure around their body, turning them into a pulp of blood. It was then that the otters realized they were never in control and had always been at the mercy of this adventurer.

  Watching the fight progress, Dan was annoyed. He had expected to see the adventurers get their butts whooped, hoping to especially teach the mermaid a lesson. Yet, there she was playing tag with his Boom Otters.

  “God, she is overpowered!” Dan roared, getting worried looks from the beasts respawning and resting around him.

  Still, it was fine, after all, Dan had plenty of time to give the trio a good what-for. His Doom Otters and most minions he had thrown so far might have failed, but his bosses were still left. In fact, the more Dan thought about it, minions would never be a match for the stupid team; they were too much of a threat. Thankfully, they seemed to be staying for the long haul, which meant Dan had plenty of ways to teach them a lesson.