Just as a note on shielded vs not shielded: While we're never specifically shown it, Frieren makes it pretty clear that clothing enchanted for defense is just a basic thing for adventurers to have. Part of the reason no one even thinks of Zoltraak (fuckin phantasy star-ass spell name there) as a killing spell anymore is because equipment has improved enough to soften it. Not really a big deal, just saying we lack a lot of clear feats of meat durability for her because how those base level defenses are working is kept fairly ambiguous. Though when something actually pierces her clothes, she doesn't seem terribly bothered, like Lernen's surprise attack that put a big gouge in her shoulder. Actually Lernen's surprise attack gives us a good benchmark for the quality of defensive gear: We've seen a normal Zoltraak will punch through multiple huge stone slabs. Frieren gets a bloody shoulder after it rips through her shield.
IIRC he was in the village for three years. Though even if he were only cleaving like a foot into it per day, it's still a pretty wild feat, especially with it being so tall. I think the way he just meteors that huge dragon right into the ground is probably the better feat though.After a few Edit: months, I think of him whacking at the cliff
This one is weird and speaks to how Frieren was trained to be deceptive. I don't think we're even wholly sure just what she did there. That said, I don't know that it's much of a feat against Fern's defensive speed so much as a feat against her senses as you note. The way Fern reacts feels like someone pulled out a bazooka in the middle of a fight with an 11th century swordsman who doesn't know what a gun is, so I think she didn't even see anything to defend against. (hilariously, I was reminded of a scene in Snarfquest where Snarf shoots a dragon with a gun)Despite Fern's insanely fast defense and magic sensing, when Frieren focuses completely on her she instantly penetrates Fern's defense and incapacitates her, Fern being completely incapable of reacting to or even sensing her magical attack.
Anyway yeah Frieren rules. I think it's safe to call her a very fast mountain buster with multiple layers of active and passive defenses that can stop or soften instant-death type stuff, and trained almost exclusively to mislead opponents. She's also exceptionally good at analyzing and undoing magic. So good that she was able to undo the Midas curse, with curses in Frieren notably being things that usually require active divine intervention to beat. It's funny that she's considered not really a combat mage, when I'd say she seems more built to win fights than someone like Wirbel (though Wirbel is great).
I always thought it would be funny to put the main three in Overlord, a setting where people have not really investigated the whys and hows of magic, so some MMO player beats them at everything partly by having maybe a decade's worth of MMO meta (and then massively by virtue of being OP), where Frieren's world has had attack/defense meta going back and forth and being refined for a thousand years to the point of now having something like magic graphene shields. So they make a fun counterpoint to every isekai setting by being aware of and adapted to the rules of their world.