Hailey bravely forged a path for us within the swarm of insects. Her lance, the Rhinoceros Lance of Death, contained enough attack power to literally kill them in one hit, after all.
"Die, die, die, die, die!"
To hide her fear, she was screaming at the top of her lungs while taking one leap forward after another. Of course, all of us were following right behind her, protecting her from those who were aiming to attack from a blind spot.
However, not everything was going as planned.
About half a kilometer in, the monsters started to keep clear of Hailey's spear. They seemed to have understood that being hit by it was equivalent to instant death.
Instead of attacking her, at the lead of the charge, they started attacking Kaede, who was guarding the rear. Of course, Kaede wouldn't let such attacks even touch her, and we too were within her range, so the monsters weren't able to touch us at all.
Still, our pace dropped, as instead of matching Hailey's pace, we needed to match Kaede's instead.
"Kyaaaa~!"
"H-Help us!!!"
"I don't wanna die!"
Furthermore, the sporadic cries for help here and there were sapping not only our concentration but even breaking our hearts slowly. After all, in the current situation, we couldn't even ensure our own safety, much less save others. With a heavy heart, we continued along our path.
It was a cruel choice, but not a single one of the girls mentioned it at all. Well, the pain was reflected in their expressions, though.
"Hailey, hurry up!" Toki, starting to lose her cool, urged our spearhead to increase speed.
However, if they do that, Kaede, who's protecting the rear, would get left behind. Still, the logic behind her trying to rush was obvious. After all, if the system's words were to be believed, then closing the portal would be tantamount to saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.
The arrow guide from the quest was only pointing in one direction, regardless of the path we were taking. So every now and then, I would need to point Hailey in the right direction. This situation, where we were barely able to protect everyone in the group, lasted for a good 10 minutes.
Three kilometers into the field, the monsters started changing patterns. If before, they were like suicidal squads coordinating with each other to ensure the next one's win, this time they were moving like trained soldiers and attacking from afar.
Honestly, this was much harder to handle than before. Although their projectiles weren't as strong as their normal attacks, the number alone was a threat. They were covering the entire field, 720 degrees, after all.
"At this rate, we'd end up exhausted before reaching the portal!"
However, we can't do anything, as whenever we come close to the enemies, they move back the same distance. They were like jackals, waiting for their prey to lose strength completely before going for the kill.
Hailey's armor was already battered from constant attacks, while Lily was panting hard and sweating profusely as her mana was nearing its limit. With the pace they're going, the two of them would be the first to fall if the current situation persists!
Just as I was wondering what I could do, Kaede suddenly jumped toward us with a panicked face. "Everyone, duck!"
Nobody was willing to doubt her words, so despite being under constant attack, all of us kneeled down on the ground, keeping our heads low. As soon as we did, something miraculous happened.
*SHING!*
A black thorn-like thunderbolt fell, piercing one of the insects. As soon as it was hit, the monster's body started disintegrating into black dust, blown by the wind, and vanishing into nothingness.
The scene shocked not only us but even the monsters themselves. Their movement quickly showed hesitation and panic as they tried to search for the source of the attack, but not even a second later, the same attack fell once more.
*SHING!* *SHING!* *SHING!*
Dozens... No, hundreds of those black thunderbolts fell, each one hitting a single monster accurately and reducing it to dust. All of us were scared of getting hit by a stray thunderbolt, so we kept our heads low, simply watching as the number of monsters around us dwindled visibly.
Fifteen seconds. That's the entire length of the barrage. Within that time, the almost countless number of monsters around vanished completely.
"What the hell..."
The monsters we were struggling to defeat were deleted in moments! Before us, the wide, open space was free of monsters. Not even a single shadow of them was left—only a pile of black sand-like something.
Toki, standing up, opened her mouth in surprise. "This attack... it must be the Witch of Ruin!"
"Correct." Kaede, dusting her knees, responded to Toki's murmur with a firm nod. "This is the attack of the Witch of Ruin, assisted by the effect of the Staff of Destruction."
I think Kaede mentioned her fighting with the Witch of Ruin during the first wave. I guess she knew of her attack back then. "I see. But still, as expected of an advanced class, her damage output and control are no joke!"
During the short breather we had, everyone quickly assigned their newly gained stats. We were literally mowing down the high-level monsters after all, so it was reasonable that we level up. Yes. All other than me, that is.
"What's wrong with my experience accumulation? Did it get bugged or something?"
The experience bar was literally that—a bar in yellow hues. There's no number to indicate the maximum amount, nor was it displayed as a percentage before leveling up. A very user-unfriendly feature.
My experience was literally already at the end of the bar, though, so this situation where I wasn't leveling up was weird. "This must be a bug of some sort," I thought while checking my status display.
As I was doing so, my eyes turned to the 50 bonus stat points that I still haven't distributed till now.
"With our current situation, I guess I can't keep them for safety anymore."
Right now, we need as much strength as we can muster. Not using these 50 bonus stats would definitely be considered a sin. I'm not sure if it's under the sin of pride or sloth, but either way, I need to use all these stats first.
After a short deliberation, I decided to just dump them all on my strength and agility equally. With this, both my power and speed should've increased by at least 10%.
After we were done with our minute-long break, everyone turned to me with serious gazes. Of course, I knew what they wanted to ask, so I quickly pointed straight ahead of us, right below the deep chasm leading to a previous underground mall that was now nothing but a deep and dark hole.
"The target is right below us," I explained after seeing that the arrow, which for some reason only I could see, was pointing straight down.
The problem, however, was that my instincts as a gamer were telling me that this event was far from over. I could feel the air of death hanging in the air, as if telling us that going down there would be tantamount to suicide.
"But we have no choice but to proceed!" I raised my voice, trying to shoo away the gnawing fear in my heart.
After finding the broken stairs leading down the mall, all of us carefully descended. However, before we could even reach that deep, we found two things.
One was a large oval crack in space, releasing an unstable purple glow. The other was something we wished to never have met in our lifetime.