Loop & boom

Magic depth

Entrance zone

Julett took the lead and went ahead, behind her were Ginj & Sunip with their shields up, Sunip was using a battle axe as his main weapon while Ginj used a sword

Behind the three was Jan and behind him were Merwin and Ginnab with their staffs preloaded with spells

Our assassin Nemu was free to do as she like while the Archers Thena and Riv were already using their vision enhancement ready to fire monsters on sight and to beware of traps, Mina and I were at the back , being on high alert I steeled myself to perform my job as usual

{ Okay then let's get this job done }

***

In no time at all a group of 7 rock scorpions surrounded us and started attacking our party ,but the attack of the monsters was met by a ferocious counter from the party

The tanks quickly activated<Aggravation > a skill used for taunting monsters and got their attention for 3 seconds which was more than enough for Julett to swiftly penetrated the rocky carapace of 2 rock scorpions with her spear covered in magic flames in a blink while avoiding their pincers and stingers that contain poison strong enough to melt boulders

Jan drew his great sword and also engaged in battle, covering himself with mana he took one step forward and reappeared above one of the scorpion and dived down with his sword and cleanly splitted the rocky arachnid ending it's life swiftly

Merwin :" Fireball "

BURRRR

Ginna :" Magic missile "

Boooomm

From the back of the formation the mages fired their preloaded spells and instantly ended 2 rock scorpions

Nemu who was hidden in the shadows also came out from one of the remaining scorpion's left and casted a skill on her weapon ,a giant shuriken with a hole in the middle,the throwing star was the size of her body and she is currently using it as a melee weapon

" Malefic slash "

Blue solid mana covered the shuriken and with a spin to gain momentum the shuriken cutted through the scorpion like butter and the assassin jumped up to avoid the pincer attack of the last enraged rock scorpion and from above in the air she locked on as she prepared to throw the shuriken

" Assassin art ' Kyodai shuriken ' "

Mana jetted out from her core to the shuriken and solidified on it enlarging the throwing star by atleast 4 time before she throwed it with full strength

Tsssrrsh!!

Boooom

The 1st battle ended ,remains of the monsters laid bare and ravaged

Julett looked here and there before calling out

" Regroup "

Heeding her words we Regrouped to check out status

Thena : " No one's gravely injured ,Chris just finished collecting the monster cores , we can continue of Ginna and Merwin are good on mp "

Ginna :" I'm good and so is Merwin "

Merwin :" Hey atleast ask "

Ginna :" We can continue Julie so don't worry "

Julett :" Good (nods) ,now let's continue "

Merwin :" Oiii "{ Does no one care for my opinion?? }

***

After the fight at the entrance zone we marched deeper into the magic depth , after an hour we finally reached the labyrinth zone filled with traps ,but with Julett who was highly sensitive to mana we didn't get caught in any magic trap and thanks to the keen eye of our archers and dearest assassin we were also able to deal with all of the manuel trap

Afterv about 3 hours of wandering around in the labyrinth with no luck in treasures we finally found a path that leaded down towards the deeper levels

Ginj : " Can you feel it Sunip ?"

Jan :" I think everyone can Ginj "

Sunip nodded

Mina :" { The mana is highly concentrated down there } (anxious) "

Everyone could feel the energy emanating from below ,even me who can't use magic could feel the ominous wind that and feeling of eerieness that emanated from below

Chris :{ The depth ruler must be down this floor }

Julett :" Ready your butts guys, the boss monster this time seems stronger than usual "

All of us looked at our leader who looked back at us

" Oh c'mon boss monster sounds waay better than depth ruler "

Mina :" My lord ,our brave leader never gets anxious does'nt she? "

Jan :" God Vir please guide the way and carry us through this battle and our leader's death flags with your grace, amen "

Everyone else except Julett :" Amen "

Julett :" Again with that stupid superstition of yours Jan "

Feeling unpleasant because of the teasing she got from her teammates Julett furiously walked down the path

Sunip :" Leader!! Wait for uss!! "

Merwin :" Hey don't just March on alone you dumbass leader!! "

The whole lot of us followed suit

Another hour passed by ,the path we've been walking on continued downward without a single monster encounter, the atmosphere would be beyond creepy had the cave path not been illuminated by the luminous stones

Chris :" This is strange guys "

Jan :{ No monster encounter on the ruler's floor is indeed strange }" I agree "

Julett :" Indeed,{ We should've encountered hords of monsters by now ...unless }everyone stop for a moment "

Sunip :" What is it leader? "

Julett :" Everyone "

We all listened

" I think we are caught in a loop illusion spell "

Thena & Merwin :" Huh? "

Nemu :" { I really hoped I was wrong with my guess } "

Jan :{ barnacles !}" Death flag I said ".

Chris :{ Makes sense but damn this is shitty }

Ginna :" What should we do then Leader ? Loop illusion traps only appear in A rank magic depths so we didn't prepare antinite for this trap "

Ginna the mage asked with a grave expression

Riv :" I knew I had a bad feeling about this mission Arrg "

Riv the Demihuman Archer stated with much frustration

Julett :" ...{ What should I do ? Think} Merwin it's a magic trap so do you think you can disable it? "

Merwin replied with much dissapointment

" No I'm sorry, it's outside my area of expertise "

Julett :" Damn it "

Chris :" Umm leader I have a suggestion "

All the attention went to me

Julett :" You do Chris? "

Chris :" Yeah but you might not like it very much "

***

Julett :" Your suggestion is rather bold for someone who can't use magic Chris I must say ,you do know that you will be the one under the most risk of this suggestion of yours actually work "

Chris :" I'm always flattered to see you worried for a mere Rev like me leader but don't worry about me and do what you thinks is right "

Jan :" I'll guard him well leader so give the word to our tanks "

Thena :" What are you talking about you are the mid fielder here ,you have to guard us as well, Chris is the most expendable one here and besides he is willing to die for us so- "

Julett :" THENA!!! "

Thena immediately stopped talking and shrugged as she apologized

" Sorry Chris "

Mina the priest patted on my back and apologized for Thena as well

" Please forgive her Chris , it's hard for a person to drop old habits "

" Don't worry about it , it's a thing I'm used to at this point "

Julett :" Now everyone! "

Julett spoke up and as usual we all listened

" I will take charge of the mid field and cover the dealers on my own tanks will be the vanguard, Jan will protect Chris and Mina this battle of attrition will largely depend on how long you last so ,sorry but we will be counting on you "

Mina nodded :" I'll give my best Julett so you better give you best too "

Julett smiled and replied with a nod ,then Sunip walked behind and Gingj walked ahead and they all assumed battle formation

Sunip :" We're ready for whenever Leader "

Julett :{ Maybe I should be careful of this death flag that Jan keeps talking about in the futer } "Okay then, everyone steel yourself, this madness that our porter thought up ,after thinking about it ,Merwin ,Ginna and I think that fortunately or unfortunately it's most likely going to work ,after the tanks use <Aggravation > with buffs from Mina and Ginna , monsters will approach us from directions unknown and numbers unknown, but that will cause the illusion trap to overload and break "

Ginna :" I still don't like this plan ,{Damn Rev, thinking something so insane yet logical} "

Nemu :" No one does so stop complaining "

Ginna : " Arrg "

Julett:" Now!!! "

Ginna :" Enhancement art : Skill buff !"

Mina :" Holy script : Talent Blessing "

Blue wave of programmed mana rushed at Ginj while golden divine power enveloped Sunip

Sunip & Ginj feeling the power of their next skill overcharged took deep breath and prepared to shout out the sound skill

"<AGGRAVAAAAAATE >"

The scream released a red wave of magic frequency throughout the entire place and as planned

Rumble rumble rumble

Julett :" From the front only!! Sunip move you butt to the front!! "

Sunip hurriedly ran towards the formations front

Julett :" Archers!! Flame arrows "

Thena & Riv :" Aim : Flameshot "

Mana burned on the Arrows tips as they released the arrows of fire that produced sonic booms on flight

Illuminated by the arrows flame the party saw what sort of monsters came from the darkness

Approximately hundreds of ghouls ,cavebats & rock scorpions

Julett gripped her spear tightly and roared

" Reddrakes !! soaaaaarrrr!!!! "

With her battle cry all hell broke loose, the tanks pushed ahead activation their barrier and shield skill ,they already gave up offence for extra defence, Ginna and Merwin unleashed all the spells they could ,while Ginna fired large spells and took care of 10 in one go, Merwin used rapid fire with her staff that was designed for such attack but now she could kind of understand what Chris was saying now

Merwin :{ It takes both mana and stamina to keep this up }" Fuck I hate it when I'm wrong!! ".

Nemu ran past her saying " who doesn't "

Covering herself with blue mana she chanted a skill and cloned herself into three jumped in the air and charged her shuriken, all of her did

" " " Shuriken art : Mizu shuriken !!" " "

The mana changed its nature to water and compressed on the blade and was thrown at high speed on the monster and on contact

BHOBOOOMMMM!!!

A high pressured jet explosion blew atleast 12 monsters apart, Nemu landed drained of mana ,she conjured kunai knives made of compressed magic using her remaining mana and continued fighting on

A minute passed and fatigue started to pile up but as planned Mina started to cast an AOE healing spell that recovered health and stamina for 20seconds and cast individual heals whenever one of us sustain heavy damages

As I was having the worst time of my life of not for this healing from Mina right now I would have no life

Jan stood infront of me with his sword covered in magic to sharpen it further, a ghoul approach us and was instantly cut into 5 pieces in a blink as ghouls don't die even when decapitated ,so one has to throughly chop them up like this , Jan as a <Master I> had no difficulty in this subject but me,well

Chris :" Haaaa"

Currently I'm have been fighting this ghoul man to man with my dagger and I have to ask myself

" WHY THE FUCK DID I SUGGEST SUCH AN INSANE PLAN ???!! "

While grabbing the ghoul's neck to prevent it's mouth from eating me up

Slash !!!!

Jan :" Concentrate!!! "

After lending a hand Jan went back to fighting a duo of rock scorpions that came at us

Chris { We can do this, but man can I do this?? } :

Julett :" You okay Chris ?!! "

I looked to my left

And saw a spectacle that I would have hard time forgetting

" { How TF did she managed to kill all those ?} I'm -"

Standing in the middle of the bodies of 5 rock scorpions ,20 cave bats and about 32 ghouls and while killing more she asked me that

" -fine "

Julett :" Be careful okay ?"

" You too leader "

Another ghoul came at me so I went back to fighting man to man with the monster

Julett :"{ I should end this as fast as possible } "

Refocusing to her fight, the noblewoman spun her spear at high speed while slice the monster and making her way towards the frontline, Julett shouted

" TAKE COVER GUYS !! "

Sunip :(panicked )" Wait leader surely you don't plan to-"

Ginj :{ oh shit} ( dragged every fibre of his strength out to defend himself)

Thena : (screamed)" This is a close space you dumbas-

Julett before they could finish, jumped ahead of the tanks and swung the tip of her spear that was covered in pure concentrated red mana to the ground

" IMPLOSION!!!! "

Trrrieeeeeeeeet

BoBHOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

End of chapter