"Oh my god... It's... the Dungeon Boss..."
A wave of unease washed over the students when they saw Agawa, the reliable leader who'd always been their reassuring pillar of support, break out in a cold sweat. Kenji realized they were up against a truly fearsome opponent and turned to ask Agawa about its abilities.
"Tell us about it" Kenji roared.
Kenji's roar broke Agawa from his stupor and he replied "I don't know we were not meant to fight it now; Sir William was supposed to tell us toda…"
However, the Beast refused to grant Agawa the luxury of time. It sucked in a huge breath, then let out a guttural roar, signaling the start of the battle.
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
"Huh!?" The roar brought everyone back to their senses, and Ayato after losing his leisure manner seriously asked Agawa.
"Isn't about time you take out your Dragon Pet."
"No, can't do Dalia is still a child she can't control her powers right now if she comes out, she'll do more harm than good but…" after considering something for a moment Agawa quickly began barking orders.
"Ayato, Ayase take everyone and break through the line of Traum Soldiers! Make a pathway to the stairs. Kenji, Hiroya, and I will stop that thing, Kei provide us with Support." Agawa then looked towards Kelly asked seriously "Can you ask your to summon to give us support, its skill will help us a lot."
Without thinking much Kelly nodded and ordered.
"Crow use your ability and stop that think and when you get a chance attack it from air" although Kelly said that seeing the shell of the beast he didn't think the attack would work much.
"Cawww" The Crow cawed as in reply, it then flew in the air and camouflaged in its surroundings.
"Good! Remember it's a level 50 beast and Sir William said level 50 is a first threshold meaning it's far stronger than us so, don't need to fight it looking at its size it would be slow we only need to distract until our classmates clear the passageway behind and then we are out of here now Go!" as soon as Agawa said this Ayato and rest of the classmates with Kelly moved towards the back to confront the undead whereas Ayase looked at Agawa worriedly and said.
"Can you handle? Are you going to be, okay?"
"Don't worry as I said we are not going to directly confront it so, we'll be fine. And even if the plan goes sideways remember we all have powerful skills using it we can directly kill it the only reason I am not using it because I can't control the power output well if I used it here there is no way this bridge will hold" Agawa replied reassuringly, then he hurried her up "Now, GO" to this Ayase nodded and left leaving behind Agawa, Kenji, Hiroya and Kei to face the beast wait one more decided to stay behind.
"What are you doing here? Go and help them" Kenji said irritatingly.
"Wait, if you all fight who is going to protect her in the back, she is a mage. I'll help too." replied Daichi.
"This is no time for your flirting idiot that is a level 50 beast, and you are only level 15 how will you protect her when she is stronger than you! Now get out of here!" Kenji shouted.
Daichi flattered momentarily at the intensity of Kenji's gaze and even Kei was looking at him annoyedly as he was obstructing her view but, he refused to leave. Kenji opened his mouth to yell at Daichi, but before he could say anything, the Dungeon Boss got tired of waiting and roared again and charged... straight toward the retreating students.
Without wasting any time Agawa, Kenji and Hiroya moved forward to intercept, but they grossly underestimated its speed in just a few seconds it cover the distance between them and attacked Hiroya, sensing the danger Hiroya took out the shield attached to his back and put it between them and with the loud clashing sound they both clashed and Hiroya was flung back without resistance.
"Hiroya!" Agawa shouted and attacked the beast in a frenzy but his attacked got bounced back by the hard shell covering it and due to untimely attack Agawa lost his balance taking advantage of the opportunity the beast attacked the unguarded Agawa but as its claw was few centimeters away the beast stopped its moment not understanding what's happening to it the beast tried to use more force but the result was the same however that time was enough for Agawa to move back and for Kenji to attack it with his flame colored fist right on the face as the beast stumbled back from behind Kei used the fireball spell to knock it backward.
Agawa looked towards the ceiling and nodded. He looked behind to see Hiroya getting up fine with just some minor bruises filled with relief he looked towards the beast to see it looked just fine and was only knocked backwards. Getting himself ready he again charged towards the beast, but this time fire covered his sword and his other hand keep attacking with wind blade while he also uses earth magic to disrupt his movement like this, they kept attacking it in synchronized manner because of its defense they all couldn't inflict major injury, but the beast also was as helpless as them.
If in the front Agawa and others were fighting quite splendidly then the situation at the back could only be described with chaos. Generally, Traum Soldiers were powerful monsters that appeared after the 10 floor of the dungeon. They were far stronger than anything the students had faced so far but their individual strength was still far below the students, it was the students who weren't able to utilize their increase stats and skills efficiently. With their path forward blocked by a horde of ghastly skeletons, and a lumbering beast at their backs, the students fell into a panic. All the confidence they gained in the last hour evaporated like vapor and gave way to terror and vulnerability they had showcased yesterday.
All semblance of formation crumbled as everyone scrambled for the stairs, trying their best to escape. Ayase that stayed with the group, tried to calm everyone down, but they were all far too terrified to listen.
Amidst the panic, someone shoved one of the slightly Chubby male student from behind, and he fell forward. He groaned in pain and looked up, only to see a Traum Soldier brandishing its sword right in front of him. "Ah!" At the same time, he let out that gasp, the soldier swung its sword down at her head. I'm going to die, he thought, when the soldier stopped his swing midway before he can think further, someone came and tackled the soldier out of the way saving his ass.
The soldier flew forward and hit the ground at the edge of the bridge with a clang. Not wasting any time Kelly ran forward and with all his momentum kicked the soldier dropping him down into the abyss.
About two meters from the edge of the bridge squatted Kelly, panting heavily. He'd just used his only skill but as he never tested it, he didn't know it would cost him his whole mana just to stop that undead for 2 seconds. His skill allows him to paralyze someone, it's like a stun gun but without the added disadvantage of close proximity which could be pretty helpful the only reason he hasn't tested it was because no one around him was at his level after all in Royal Palace even Maids are higher level than him. For the higher mana consumption, the only reason he can think of was because of the level disparity between him and the undead.
Thinking like this and catching his breath in the meantime kelly looked towards the person he saved. Who was still sitting on the ground and looking at him with a terrified look and a wet patch on his pants.
"Tch" making a disgusted expression and clicking his tongue at the memory of him wetting his bed he swore to delete from his mind resurfacing while looking at his classmate's condition.
His classmate misunderstanding that disgusted expression for himself became too ashamed to meet his eyes and looked downward. Realizing this Kelly schooled his expression to neutral and didn't try to clarify the situation. What else can he say anyway? You are not the only one? That's the epitome way of hitting yourself with an axe. And now wasn't the time to discuss it anyway.
Kelly popped a mana pill into his mouth to recover his now depleted mana pool and ran over to the collapsed student, grabbing him with his gloved hands and pulling him up to his feet. He silently let himself be pulled up, still in shock and embarrassed, and Kelly silently patted his shoulder that's the only thing he could do.
"Come on, we've gotta hurry. Don't worry, as long as we stay calm, these piles of bones are nothing. After all, if even I can deal with them, you are OP as hell!" Kelly confidently slapped him on the back, and he stared at him for a minute before saying "Yeah! Thanks! Aniki" with stars in his eyes and running off.
"Aniki huh…" Kelly murmured to himself and continued defeating the Traum soldiers while keeping an eye on Sumire seeing that her healing magic is rather destructive against the undead and she is surrounded by the other students who needs to recover their stamina or healing he sighed in relief and looked at his surroundings. Feeling a sense of Déjà vu Everyone was still panicking, swinging their weapons wildly and firing their spells off at random. If that kept up, it was possible someone might die. Ayase was trying her best to reorganize the students, but it wasn't going well. And all the while, undead soldiers continued pouring out of the magic circles.
"I've gotta do something... What everyone needs right now is a leader... someone with enough strength to blow open a path for us..." Kelly started looking around and his sight fell on a lone student who dispatched load of undead soldiers in a carefree manner, looking at his figure something clicked inside his head "Ayato!"