As the second sandworm— which was approximately the size and length of a bullet train— came shooting out of the sand in Gean's direction. The mages and archers in the group immediately sprung to action before Ryan had even finished giving out his orders.
"Fire Ball!"
"Water Bullets!"
"Stone Bullets."
...
A barrage of spells came flying towards the airborne worm whose maw was as wide as its body. Inside his opened mouth were rows and rows of spiraling teeth coated with venomous liquid.
The worm could not avoid the onslaught of attacks and was pushed back but even a barrage from so many spells could not break through the monster's defenses. Such a scene would normally deal a devastating blow to the confidence of most Rifters.
However, no one in Ryan's guild was complacent enough to overestimate their capabilities. They were all aware that their weak abilities could not one-shot Grade 6 Rift's monsters. So that was never their aim to begin with.
*Boom, Boom, Boom...
With the sounds of a series of explosions, the sandworm was shot out of its original trajectory and crashed a distance away from Gean, who was still holding down the first sandworm with his ability.
"Fire!"
Val yelled as she dashed forth while pulling back on her Magic longbow and let loose a shot. In an instant, several arrows were shot from her bow in all directions. It was almost as though she hadn't even bothered aiming.
However, all her arrows suddenly switched directions and accelerated rapidly, almost breaking the sound barrier as they pierced through the tough skin of the sandworm Gean had been holding back for almost 3 seconds now.
Still, even as the only D-ranked Rifter around, her attack had failed to deal a fatal blow to the sandworm but in the end, she had done her job, stunning the sand worm momentarily.
"Charge!"
The moment those arrows wounded the worm, Ryan lunged himself forward past Gean as he and the other warriors and rogues immediately began their assault on the sandworm, giving Gean some leeway to rest and prepare his ability as the others pinned down the monster.
While their attacks were weak and almost ineffective, their teamwork and coordination from hundreds of battles together shone brightly as they moved almost instinctively, completely in sync with one another.
Before the monster could recover and move to attack, Gean would immediately activate his ability, slamming the beast back down to the ground as Ryan moved his team in and out of the impact zone of the worm while they continuously continued their attacks.
Keeping a close eye on the battlefield, Ryan seamlessly led the charge as his group launched a barrage of attacks on the completely helpless worm.
Their movements and attack strategy was not something that could be easily replicated even by higher ranked Rifters. This was something that came to them as a result of their hardwork and determination and the reason they could exist in this world without the protection of the elites.
Still—
The fact that they were finding it difficult to inflict any significant damage to these monsters as compared to the ones they had been facing in the past proved the massive difference between a Grade 6 Rift and a Grade 7 Rift.
Any mistakes at this level could easily lead to the loss of life and they were all keenly aware of that. However, none of them allowed themselves to be distracted by their fears as they all remained focused on their duties. Trusting their teammate with their lives.
In such a battle where one side was severely overmatched, they had no way to bridge the gap and with their current team construction, they couldn't afford to make even a single mistake.
Naturally, they could only rely on their teamwork and each other to overcome this situation. Such a feat was not easy for a bunch of low-level Rifters to accomplish and the only reason their guild has had the success they've had was because of one person.
"Barry, Carl. Third formation! Val, focuse on the second worm, keep it away at all cost. Sarah, keep Gean alive and everyone else, attack!"
That person was none other than Ryan.
Even as he charged towards the frontline where one would normally be forced to focus solely on the enemy in front of them, he was still able to maintain total awareness of the entire battlefield and direct the movements of his team as though they were only an extension of his body.
As he commanded, Barry and Carl charged forward using their abilities as per their team's third formation. Barry was a rogue-type Rifter with stealth ability so he secretly encircled the suppressed sand worm.
Whereas Carl possesses super speed. While he was not ridiculously fast, he was still faster than the suppressed sandworm that was currently under a ton of gravitational pressure from Gean's ability.
As Carl drew the worm's attention while Barry waited for an opportunity to strike. Ryan and the other warriors appeared before the belly of the worm, the only seemingly soft part of its skin, and unleashed their most potent attacks.
Ryan's hands moved rapidly as his rune spear tore through the belly of the beast easily. His new weapon had cost him a fortune but was now showing it's worth as the other were still finding it difficult to cut through the worms stomach.
His was only a low grade rune weapon with no special effects but still possessed a frightening sharpness that utterly minced the worm in front of him.
After Gean's 5 seconds were up, the worm would immediately use all its pent up energy to lunge at Gean, wounding him several times as he could only defend himself with his shield until he could use his ability again, but Sarah was able to heal him every time.
As she was only focused on a single person, even her weak healing abilities were proving to be vital in this situation.
The battle proceeded as he had predicted as Ryan plunged his spear deep inside the jaws of the sandworm after Barry had located the core of the monster and stealthily destroyed it by jumping into its mouth.
That was not a job even Ryan wanted but it was the quickest way to kill a stronger monster. However, locating where the core was located was the hardest part and some monsters had decoy cores and could even hide or move their cores around their bodies.
Luckily for them, these monsters weren't that intelligent and they had gained a bit of confidence from killing it so quickly and without any casualties.
As for the second sandworm, it was still being destroyed by Val and the mages. They had managed to do quite a bit of damage to it on their own but without Gean to slow it down for them, they had almost died.
Their saving Grace was that Val was a D ranker and her attacks were strong enough to push the worm back slightly. She has had to play the role of Gean in their battle as she would only attack when the worm charged at someone so her attacks could push it away from its target and the mages would continue their assault.
"Alright then, let's end this quickly."
Ryan gave his order to his group and they immediately charged at the second sandworm without hesitation. Gean immediately used his ability on the monster, forcing it to crash back down to the sand and before it even had the time to adjust, a barrage of attacks came flooding down on it.
The monster tried to resist during the time when Gean's ability was inactive and would try to get rid of the Nuisance. However, Gean wasn't a pushover as he would play his role as a tank perfectly and parry the worm's attack with his shield before Ryan would attack again.
"Butterfly shot."
Val had steadily retreated behind her teammates and took aim to let loose a barrage of arrows. Despite their scattered trajectory, her arrows had all hit home with easy. Each blow shredding the worm piece by piece.
This battle had been surprisingly longer than expected as this worm was a bit stronger than the first. However, it soon fell to Val's relentless attacks as she no longer had to play the role of a tank. Running around while trying to maintain aggro made it impossible to aim at anything vital.
"Phew… that was scarier than I thought. Is this how difficult a Grade 6 Rift is? This is going to take forever to clear."
Looking at his teammates who collapsed on the ground after such a grueling battle. Ryan was relieved to see that no one wanted to go back and were all still forced on the mission.
They had all just simply acknowledged how difficult this would be for them but weren't backing down from the challenge. It was true that they probably couldn't have accomplished this if they didn't have at least a D Rank Rifter in their group but this was still their achievement.
"Alright, let's rest up and move out. Hopefully, the monsters in this rift don't just randomly roam about and these were the exception."