Story III / Part XXII: Before The Red Dawn (X) / Preparation (I)

"This way, everyone."

A Sylph Elf came to us and guided us to the fifth floor. From the main floor, I can see the huge ghost is standing in the center of the room and it's holding a little ghost girl hostage. On the second room, there is only vast and long corridor, nothing interesting there. On the third floor, we can see many small rooms similar to inn's rooms and this floor is perfect for resting place.

On the fourth floor, there are many big and empty rooms that are suited for warehouse. Finally, on the fifth floor, the rooms here are neat and lined properly. To be honest, this floor is perfect for making a control center since the walls here are still strong enough to hold against big attack.

After surveying the fifth room and observing the Mages' work, we continue to the sixth floor and we found nothing besides ruins from the collapsed rooms there. But in my opinion, this floor has a perfect angle for Mages and Archers to launch their attack rather than the fifth floor. Moreover, the Mages can use the ruins as magical projectiles for extra damage against that huge ghost.

On the seventh room, there is nothing here but empty corridor. The place and angle it's perfect for Archers who use longbow and long-ranged attacks. Then, we continued to the eighth until tenth floor, but it has similar shape like the seventh floor but the angle and place isn't good for Archers and Mages. From the tenth floor, we were walking upstairs until we reached a gate that connected to outside of the hill. Then, the Sylph Elf excused himself and walked downstairs.

Zack crossed his arm, "So this the top of the hill? Quite a beautiful view in the middle of this chaotic time…"

"Well, at least we need to savor every bit of this scenery in our mind and heart. Who knows whether we can return home alive or not?" Kenzia glances away.

Zack chuckles, "You talk like we are going to die tomorrow, Rahealis-dono."

"Of course. This mission is just a "cover" to secretly sending best adventurers to assist the kingdom's main army after all. By the way, did you hear a strange and terrifying rumor that circulating around the kingdom? People said that "calamity" would come again a few daesh from now. If you did hear that, then that's the reason why that Ice Queen sent us as few from the best adventurer parties in the Elven Alliance to here."

"…In order to "clean up" the remaining threats on the south that the army don't want to deal with and protect them from pincer or ambush attack." Nan glances at Kenzia.

"Don't forget that we are also tasked to find "their" nest. They don't want to sacrifice their precious army and they decided to use us in form of "charity" by rewarding us with ridiculous amount of silly rewards. Did they know even best adventurer parties can't last that long when facing against "them"? What a cruel joke that we got from the Almighty Queen that supposed to protect her own citizens."

"O-oh…I-I can't believe what I heard. You sound like you wanted to start a rebellion against the kingdom…Alexandria-dono…" Naval and the others are glancing at me while sweating nervously.

"Nay, nay, nay! I was joking! It was just a joke from me! Don't take it too much! If I rebel against the kingdom, my father and mother will be beheaded for sure!"

"…Rather than discussing this dangerous topic, how about we discuss how to place our force? The Mages contacted me before and said the main room is ready to use."

"…N-n-nya-hahaha…let's go everyone." Said Viorelle while laughing nervously.

Viorelle and Nan walk downstairs ahead of us, followed by Naval, Kenzia and Zack. I followed them and walked to the gate, but suddenly I heard something called my name from back. I turned my body to north and seeing the crimson clouds that slowly crawling to the place where I am standing right now. They are still far away from me, but my body is trembling very hard whenever I saw them.

It's like my body is telling me to run because I don't have any chance to survive on this mission. But, I'm no coward, I have faced countless danger as a Knight and Adventurer, from the smallest ones until the most terrifying ones that almost cost my life. It's my choice and it's my responsibility, I don't want to disgrace both of my parents and my family's honorable name. I can't.

"Nya…I can't believe Haru-chan can talk like that…and his face…was also scary…nyaa…" Viorelle rubs her shoulders to calm herself down.

Zack crossed his arm, "Well, I had seen that expression before when we were in the [Land of The Dead]. I can only say that when he is showing that expression, he is at his patience limit."

Naval shakes his head, "Y-yeah…it's like he is very upset with…um…I wonder what's happened between them?"

"No one knows that. Let's forget this matter and focus to the huge ghost below us, let's go."

"Nya, nya…Well, I bet you can't hold back anymore, nya? What a greedy EXP hunter nya…OW—!" Nan smacked Viorelle's head.

"I'm your older brother, Viorelle! Stop calling your older brother with "Nan-chan"! Seriously, what's wrong with your head?!"

Zack, Kenzia, and Naval laughed very hard when they saw that. Meanwhile, they didn't notice there is a man with white hair walks behind them with gloomy expression. They kept talking about the man with white hair until Naval suddenly felt an unpleasant aura tickled his neck and he looked back, he saw Haru have been walking behind them with irritated expression.

"A-Alexandria-dono?!"

"Oh my, oh my…what a lovely neighborhood auntie that I found here. Are you done talking about me?"

"A-aha-ahahahaha…maybe it was just your imagination, Alexandria-dono. Y-you know, sometimes an abandoned ruin can trick your senses?"

"What a lovely trick they threw at me. But I believe even the wall won't stop talking about "Poor Ishizaki-dono, he still hasn't had enough money to hold a wedding reception" whatever crap it is."

They kept walking to the fifth floor with nervous expression while being glared by Haru. On the fifth floor, many people are busy setting magical leylines and circles when the others are carrying supplies from their own base. Then, Mikazuchi came and asked the party's leaders to come with her to the newly established meeting room.

On there, the Enchanters, aka the strategists and other people have been waiting our arrival. I can see a lot of papers scattered on the table, mostly about the formation and maps. I also can see they had marked few parts in the rooms and written something over them such as the size of the rooms and so on. I sat myself on the stone chair and picked a paper that written as "Rogue Position" in front of me. Then, Daendles, Hope and Vetto walked to the chalkboard that they brought from nowhere.

"Before we begin, we as Enchanters will lead as the leader's proxies so our position will be automatically set as "Vice Leaders" in this raid mission. Zack-dono, Kenzia-dono, Viorelle-dono, Naval-dono, Victor-dono, and Ishizaki-dono, who is the one among you that want becoming a leader?"

I raised my hand and Daendles nodded. Seriously, I don't know why I suddenly was raising my hand, but when I saw the ghost from its back, I somehow felt like I had met that kind of ghost long time ago…somewhere. Moreover, my mind is telling that I need to lead this subjugation even though my body refused to raise my hand.

"As we told before, Ishizaki-dono offered a tactic called [Teleportation Battle]. The Mages will teleport the Vanguards and Scouts at the specific spots when they are being ordered to, and if they landed a Vanguard in wrong position, the Puppeteers and Arachnes will place them in the right spot. The demerit of this tactic is excessive mana consumption. But from the data we got from our Leaders, the Mages, Warriors and Rogues have required skills and abilities that we will need in this raid. Moreover, our mana potions supply is enough for us to survive in two movanth. After hearing this mission, is there any of you here want to object this tactic?"

There are many people in the meeting room raising their hand, but mostly they weren't asking about the tactic, but the exact amount of the potions and who exactly will become the ones who deal the highest raw damage and DPS among them.

"Obviously, the Mages. The Mages and Berserkers will take a turn to deal high raw and DPS damage, so—"

"It will take a long time, Daendles-dono. The Rogues can put all the aggro to the Knights."

"Are you sure, Ishizaki-dono? But if the Rogues act as support, we don't have enough DPS dealers."

"We will retreat The Rogues regularly. Did you remember Rogues could use their [Aggro Exchange] to limitless number of receivers? But the cooldown time depends on the user's skill rank.

"But who will become that Rogue?" Nan asked.

"It will be me." I said that with confident tone while pointing out my thumb to myself.

Zack raised his right eyebrow, "Hmm…? Sounds you have some brilliant plans inside you head…"

"Yes, I did. I have many of them. But I need to confirm something first. Won't you give me your hands, Zack-dono, Kenzia-dono, Naval-dono, Victor-dono, Viorelle-dono, and Daendles-dono?"

"Well, because you called me "Victor", I'm in."

"Same here. Looks interesting for me. Then, what we will need to do?"

---------------------------

Long after that, on the ground floor, there are six people are running from a slash from huge scythe. The man with red hair and a Cat Sith girl screaming very loud when the huge scythe almost cut their body into two.

"HHOOOLLLLYYYY SHHIIITTTT…!"

"NYAAAAAA!!! TATSUKETE NIII-CCHHAAANNN!!!"

(Hmmm…as expected, but I won't know whether this ghost has same species with that one I met long time ago until I manage to drop its' HP Bar into four) After thinking that, Haru raised his hand and they suddenly teleported back to the meeting room.

"Haah…haah…you are insane…I almost died…" Zack wiped the sweats from his face.

"Now let's continue the meeting, Daendles-dono. I have one main plan and one backup plan. I also have many extra plans on my mind already, be sure to write them."

Haru sat on the stone chair and he begins to explain his plans to everyone inside the room. First, the recovery vanguards such as [Paladins] will become both Healer and Defender at the same time. The [Defenders], [Champions] and [Guardians] will protect and exchange aggro only. Meanwhile, the [Guardians], [Berserk Healers], [Champions] and classes who have similar roles like them will be attacking the boss when they are being told only, so they won't participate directly in the battle.

Then, [Battlemages], [Battlepriests], [Magicbladers], and [Arcane Warriors] or classes that have similar roles with them will support the defenders while attacking the boss, but their attack interval must be lower than any kind damage-oriented classes. Any classes who focused on raw and DPS damage will be attacking the boss normally, but the [Enchanters] will strictly command them, so they will not use skills that consume high amount of Stamina Parameter and skills that don't raise their aggro too much.

I told them that I will put few Defenders such as [Knights] or [Musketeers] as stairs' guardians as an anticipation if something happens. I also ordered them to close every entrance on each stair with [Earth] Elemental Magic and imbue them with high rank [Anti-Demon], [Anti-Magic], and [Anti-Undead] Spells. When Daendles asked my why, I just answered him "for anticipation."

"I'm just afraid if something from outside interfere with the battle and it will break the formation. Also, please remember there is still a high chance "they" will appear in this dungeon."

"Oh, so like that, understood. Construction Teams, go!"

After Daendles ordered the Construction Teams to go, I continued explaining my plan to them. Now I told them about The Rogues. Normally, the Rogues will act independently except The Archers. Then, I told Daendles Robert and Erick will lead the Rogues and the Enchanters will handle The Archers.

"Let's talk about the Mages…" I opened another paper.

The Mages will be stationed on the second until fourth floor. The Mages that stationed on the second floor will handle debuffing the enemies and we agreed to divide the Healers into smaller squads with twenty people on each squad. The Healers will also attack the boss with their life magic and nature spells.

The Mages who are tasked to buffing the vanguards will be stationed on the third floor. I asked Daendles to line them into ten or twelve lines. The first line will be buffing the vanguards with same spell and when their mana depleted, the second line will change them.

We will use buff spells that have long duration and no cooldown time so they can stack buffs for all people. If they don't have the buff spells that I listed, we can use [Magic Transfer] Ability from The Arachnes, so the Mages who don't have spells that I listed can use their mana to cast it directly without making them learning the spell first.

For example, Luna doesn't has [Meteor Shower] that Tim has, but she can use that spell by using Rania's mini spider. It will transfer same magic formula from Tim's mind to Luna's mind, after that Luna will be able to use Tim's [Meteor Shower] with same power and rank like [Meteor Shower] Spell that Tim has. So, Luna only need to use her mana to cast [Meteor Shower] without making her learning it first.

But this ability to transfer magic is only temporary. If Rania's take back her underling or if her underling dies, the receiver won't be able to use the user's spell again. So, the mini spider will act as media and bridge from the user to the receiver. With this way, we can cut off a problem called "spell range" that becomes a trouble for any kind of Mages.

"That [RA] [Racial Ability] of Arachne's and [Summoner] Class's Skill is really convenient in this kind of situation. Oh right, do I need to prepare exactly twelve lines or can I add more?"

"You can add more of them if you want. Oh, by the way, the corridor can only fit six lines, so other mages need to wait in parallel dimension."

"Of course. I will do that. Alright Ishizaki-dono, do you still have other strategy or plan?"

I smiled and continued my explanation. Next, I explained about stacking buff. Normally, stacking buff spells more than ten will make your body feels exhausted after the duration and during the duration, if someone doesn't attack their enemy to release their power, their body will feel a great pain. In order to make The Vanguards and Scouts keep focus, the Healers need to cast [Pain Remover], [Pain Reduction], [Pain Resistance] or any spells similar to them periodically.

So, The Enchanters will keep monitoring everyone's status and will be ordering the Healers when they can cast the spell and who will receive that spell. Moreover, the timing must be accurate. Otherwise, the person will collapse from the great pain.

"Oh right, but do we really want to stack more than ten buffs at the same time? Who will be buffing the Mages?"

"For your first question, yes. But if the battle goes serious, we will stack more than ten buffs, maybe fifty or lower than that and for your second question, that [Magic Transfer] Ability of Arachne and Skill of [Summoner] Class also can transfer buff from the user to the receiver. So, we only need one or three high caliber Mages who have buff spells that suited for Mages only. I do remember Viorelle-dono has one and Naval-dono has two people who can do this job, am I right?"

"I do! I do! I have one nya…" Viorelle raised her hand and Naval nodded.

The Vanguards and Scouts will receive their buffs through this method, so they don't have to worry about returning to the Mages' area and jumping again to the battlefield.

"The Mages on the fourth floor will act same like vanguards, attacking the enemies with healing spell, [Light] Attribute Spells, nature spells and other spells who can deal high magic damage…yeah. I do have one last strategy if that huge ghost's fourth big HP Bar breaks. But I do need to confirm something first in the battle tomorrow. That's all from me. You can continue your discussion, Daendles-dono. I will go back to my base."

I stood up and left the room. On the way outside, my mind becomes hazy and my body trembles whenever I remember the name of the ghost that I saw earlier. Moreover, that ghost name is a name that I don't want ever to see again, a name that becomes a nightmare for me long time ago…"The Abyssal Reaper".