"What should we do, JoonChul-ssi?! Everyone is charging this way!" HwanGi exclaimed while gazing at the numbers of players sprinting toward the tree.
'Those.. 'Helpers'! What the hell are they trying to do?' I gritted my teeth, averting my eyes from Tanzanite to HwanGi.
"Frostina, create a shield with your skill right now." I shouted to get everyone's attention before witnessing a ton of attacks descending down in our area.
Shifting my eyes toward Mirai while I was instructing everybody. "Everyone! We need to hurry and go to that tree before we get destroyed by these player's attacks."
[Player '500' has activated the Skill, 'Snowflake Barricade' Lv. ???.]
Shielded by millions of transparent snowflakes thanks to Frostina, we were now able to see what's on the other side.
If we were to use Mirai's cocoon again, we wouldn't be able to see our way to the tree.
Even if we risked not using Mirai's tough defense, it was better than tripping from the ground or bumping into something because of the unseeable cocoon.
Then again, Frostina's snowflakes are powerful in its own right. Like how the barrier just managed to prevent its own weakness which was a fire right in front of me.
"Oh my gosh! I thought I was going to get roosted!" Alaine, who stood by the part where a fireball blasted at the shield, gasped astoundingly.
"Let's go quickly." I uttered which everyone listened.
Instead of saying anything, I nodded to Mirai and she understood me immediately.
[Player '16' has activated the Skill, 'Mother Nature's Blessing' Lv. ???.]
"Now, run!"
After saying that, I ran while checking if everyone had started to sprint with me, watching them have green light outlining their bodies because of Mirai's support skill.
Upon rushing toward the tree, we had countless attacks pouring down on us, causing the shield to decrease its defenses as the moment went on.
Since the player's skills and hidden skills had leveled up throughout the stages, it was not unthinkable that Frostina's shield was losing its defenses.
I thought. 'If it weren't for the limitations, her shield wouldn't have suffered such damages. Tsk.'
"Frostina, how long will your barrier hold up?" I asked her while running.
"Enough to reach the tree, my Liege." During when Frostina was talking, I caught a glimpse of Louis slowing down because of Mya on his back.
"Good." I responded back to Frostina before getting a move on toward Louis and Mya.
When Louis saw me coming his way, I found out that he was hiding the fact that he was having trouble running while giving Mya a piggyback ride.
I narrowed my eyes when I watched him do this without asking for help. Then, I got by his side and took Mya away from him casually.
Dumbfounded by me, Louis stared and asked me staggeredly, sounding somewhat angry at me. "What are you doing? I don't need your help."
"Do you have a problem? Or do you wish to get Mya in harm's way because of how slow your pace is?" I gazed at him with a vexed expression.
Almost to the point of ruffling up my feathers because of how Louis got upset over something so irrelevant, I got Mya on my back without asking her if she was comfortable with me carrying her.
As if my words hit the spot, Louis dazed at me, looking like he was terrified by what he did or horrified by almost putting Mya in danger.
"...!"
[Imitation of 'Multi-Blasters' Lv. 3 has activated.]
[Imitation of 'Divine Flame' Lv. 3 has activated.]
[Combinations of 'Divine Flame' Lv. 3 and 'Multi-Blasters' Lv. 3 had turned into 'Divine Bursters' Lv. 3!]
While in the moment of glancing at Louis, I turned back lightning-fast, countering a soulful attack from targeting Mya.
As a result of the attack being scattering souls, I used 'Divine Bursters' to shoot away the souls that wandered around a lot.
[Imitation of 'Divine Flame' Lv. 3 has activated.]
When a few souls slipped away from a great number of bursters shooting, I unsheathed my sword and sliced them out of existence, coating my sword with 'Divine Flame' since only Divine elements can erase tainted souls easily without much trouble.
In that moment, Frostina came in front of me, instantly fixing the hole that opened up by the limitless attacks showering on us.
After enforcing the barricade as best as she could, she shifted her eyes toward me, appearing all regretful with her expression. "I'm sorr—"
When Frostina was going to apologise for saying that her shield could hold on, I quickly interrupted her. "This is not the time for an apology."
[You have activated the Skill, 'Discharge' Lv. 2.]
Without a second to waste, I dashed, moving as fast as possible to get Mya safely to the tree.
Passing by Louis and Alaine who couldn't keep up with my speed, I tried to help them by giving them a boost.
A boost which was 'Wave Vortex' circling behind them, pushed them nearer toward the tree in mere seconds.
In spite of those two being alarmed by what was happening behind them, I couldn't help it but let out a chuckle when I saw Alaine's overestimated expression.
"Ahhhh!! Helpppp!" Alaine cried out.
It was the same reason why Mya was casually giggling on my back.
———
Over the past few minutes of rushing, 'The Rebels' guild had finally got to the tree, however, the players that were unleashing their attacks on them, were also moving closer to them.
"Urgh… it was much more horrible of a ride than last time.." Alaine spoke, panting and gasping for air after being released from the unexpected 'Wave Vortex'.
"Anyways, we can't just let them get by easily after what they did to us? Right?" Louis also stood by the tree, wiping away the sweat on his cheeks and sounding okay when he wasn't at all.
When he heard what Louis had said, HwanGi tried to prevent everyone from harming the players. "They're only doing this just to survive and earn coins."
Walking toward the tree was JoonChul with Mya on his back, he then dropped off Mya while he handed HwanGi a cold hard fact.
"HwanGi-ssi. Survival is great and all. But do you really wish to be a corpse for the sole purpose of the players to trample on for survival?"
"No, but..!"
"Then shut up." Having enough of HwanGi's kind-heartedness, JoonChul glared at him before entering the portal behind the tree.
Alaine uttered. "Wait! I wanted to be first!"
"Then too bad." Raiden passed by Alaine, setting foot inside the portal quickly to tease Alaine.
As unexpected as it was, Mirai immediately dashed in front of Raiden, being the second to go in the portal which led to Raiden being very surprised.
Yet, he still entered though. Fourth was Behemoth and fifth was Mya. Entering at the same time was Alaine and Louis being the sixth.
With the last being HwanGi and Frostina, they remained in this world for a bit.
"Why are you not going in?" Frostina asked HwanGi who was just standing at the exact same spot without moving an inch after what JoonChul said.
HwanGi lowered his head before making his hands turn into fists. "After you.."
"Then that will take a while."
"..why?" He had his glance on Frostina.
"Did you not hear what JoonChul said?"
Bewildered by what she had spoken, HwanGi's eyes were big as ever, staring at her in speechlessness.
Frostina cared not about what HwanGi thought nor the flabbergasted expression on his face, thus she went ahead and proceeded to do what her Liege wanted.
As her foot stepped on the ground, the atmosphere around her bursted out into a chilly and windy ambience in a matter of seconds.
HwanGi, who could not endure the cold air around him, backed away a couple steps. While shading his eyes with his hand to be able to gaze at the sight in front of him, HwanGi witnessed Frostina's hands ascend up.
Once her hands reached its highest point, a whip materialized in her grasp. As her left hand glided onto the rope on the whip, her right hand pulled the handle, making a whip sound after swaying it twice.
'What is she going to do..?' HwanGi thought to himself.
In the same moment when he was pondering, a gust of wind was released from each of the whip she had swung.
Afterwards, HwanGi witnessed plenty of attacks being countered by Frostina, stopping most of them as time passed.
Be that as it may, HwanGi also spotted a ton of players getting nearer to them while time was ticking.
"Frostina! We need to go!" HwanGi reminded Frostina just in case she forgot.
Naturally, Frostina heard HwanGi but she didn't budge an inch and carried on doing what she was doing. Since time was decreasing, Frostina finally swayed her whip one last time, creating a large cloud right in her sight.
The cloud was ascending up to the sky when Frostina was turning around to walk toward the portal. Not once looking behind her, she slipped by HwanGi as she stood by the portal, waiting for HwanGi to go in.
Instead of going in, HwanGi's eyes were gazing at the scene unfolding in front of him, dazing by the unbelievable storm that was arising from just one giant cloud.
"Blizzard.." One word came out of his mouth when he was describing this sight.
Without seeing the face of the players, he could undoubtedly tell that they would be having a tough time trying to overcome this horrendous obstacle.
During this, Frostina figured it would take long for HwanGi to get a move on, so she did a trick by summoning a big snowflake to act as a platform.
Controlling it to knock HwanGi off his balance by bumping into his legs, HwanGi fell onto the snowflake swiftly as he was expressing this suddenness with his stupefied face.
Not concerned for HwanGi, Frostina moved the snowflake at an insane speed and in an instance, HwanGi was tossed into the portal without knowing what happened.
"Really. What's so surprising from this?" Frostina had a final glimpse of the area.
As she laid her eyes on this scene, it was a chaotic blizzard blowing and knocking players away from the tree because of its ghastly stormy wind.
Snows raining down along with the wind, hurt and blinded the eyes of the players who were making their ways here.
And yet, it was a normal sight to Frostina.
As she left behind a blizzard, Frostina went into the portal while slightly frowning from discovering that she was setting her foot back to the place where everything went downhill.
"My home.." The mumbling words of her when she was entering the portal, quietly leaving her beautiful lips in that short moment.