"Mages, get us up, now!" – Lathz turned around and shouted as soon as she noticed the cracks forming on the roof.
Evelyn got up and the chair she was sitting on crumbled into dust. Then, she jumped into the air, and a floating piece of rock manifested beneath her feet, serving as a platform.
Leonard, Anna, and Kali also jumped on it before the platform took some distance from the roof, serving as some sort of spectator seat.
Beatrix, Eric, and Melissa hastily channeled their mana and formed a platform each.
The group didn't hesitate and everyone jumped on the closest platform to them.
*Crumble*
As if on cue, the building succumbed and crumbled down, turning into a giant pile of debris and making the team lose their previously safe spot.
"Lathz, what do we do?" – Diana's yell was almost drowned by the cacophony of noises below as she aimed her arrow toward the monsters but didn't shoot. There were too many of them and she didn't know which to shoot.
"..." – Lathz, however, didn't respond.
For the first time, she was lost.
A feeling of anxiety started to blossom inside her.
Until now, she always commanded the group in a safe environment, free from any real worry and this made her complacent. Complacent that they had time, that they would get used to things quickly, that they could be different from others.
However, the moment Evelyn told them to fight even though they couldn't win, reality hit her.
Evelyn and the seniors would rescue them when they arrived at death's door, however, being rescued doesn't mean they will get out whole.
They might lose limbs or a whole part of their body.
The fact that she didn't know when they would be rescued caused her to feel anxious about what-ifs.
"LATHZ!" – She was harshly awakened from her trance when Darlan shouted at her.
Blinking, she looked around again and saw the others using long-range attacks on the monster tide on the ground.
Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and looked around.
Seeing that there was nothing they could properly use, she hastily formed a plan – "Mages, how long can you maintain the platforms floating?"
"10 minutes." – Eric swiftly answered.
"Same here." – Melissa added.
"15 minutes but I can't do anything else!" – Beatrix shouted as beads of sweat started to appear on her face. Nervousness was almost written on her face.
"Take us toward that building, the high one." – Lathz signaled toward a rather distant tall building.
"Roger." – Eric started to maneuver his platform while Melissa and Beatrix followed right after.
"Roxanne, Diana, focus on the flying ones." – Both nodded – "Darlan, Olivia, be prepared!" – Lathz's amethyst eyes then turned to Akihiko and Nyza – "Akihiko, Nyza, if any unexpected situation comes up, you both have permission to act on your own discretion." – They both nodded.
Roxanne's rifle gathered mana on its cane and shot a single bullet that split into three, which then pierced a monster each.
Diana shot arrows that made curves midair and hit the enemies' heads.
Akihiko meanwhile was throwing shurikens at some flying insects but his attention was elsewhere.
The previously messy march of the bugs on the ground was still going on, and after the brood mother appeared, it became worse to the point that now, insects were crawling on each other and were forming sort of a wave that was starting to rise toward the platforms. Eventually, they would be able to jump directly at the group.
'5 more.' – Akihiko still had 5 other bottles he could use to augment his flames talismans but they would hardly make a difference at this point.
'The surroundings aren't usable, we lack skills and equipment to take them out in area, and we're dependent on our mages…' – And to add more problems, they had little more than 10 minutes before being forced to move on the ground again, which would put them in an even worse position than they already are.
The more Akihiko analyzed the situation, the more it looked like there weren't solutions.
'I guess we can't win.' – No matter how much he thought, they didn't have a real or even a virtual chance of killing all the monsters, the brood mother, and getting out alive. Hence, he changed his line of thought – 'How badly injured can I get?'
Their instructor said she would rescue them when they arrived at death's door, so Akihiko was thinking what was "death's door", and how badly injured he could get while still being able to participate in battle.
Making a decision, Akihiko took out a bladeless kunai.
Focusing his senses, he located the place where the concentration of monsters was greater and channeled mana to the kunai.
The bladeless kunai trembled and a black purplish energy was emitted from the hilt before forming a wobbly-looking blade. The most noticeable thing about the blade was the fact that it seemed to suck the light around it but also emitted a faint light on its own.
Akihiko threw the kunai without hesitation at the rising wave of monsters.
The kunai flew undisturbed by the chaos on the battlefield and arrived at its destination.
When the kunai touched a monster, it imploded and turned into a small black hole that sucked the insects nearby, killing them and creating a disturbance in gravity, breaking the wave and making the monsters fall to the ground.
However, even though he temporarily destroyed the rising wave, it did little to help their situation since it was a matter of time before the black hole faded away and it started again.
"Thank you, Akihiko." – Roxanne spoke in a tired but calm tone while aiming at another monster.
"…" – He shortly nodded but his attention remained on the monsters before shifting to the brood mother.
He could feel a tremendous amount of malice from it, something that all monsters seemed to emit by default, however, the brood mother was on a completely different level from everything Akihiko had dealt with until now.
'The chances of dealing an effective blow on it are too low. Our ranged attacks probably will be exhausted before we deal with the smaller monsters and the mages will have their magic completely depleted or too low after maintaining the platforms…' – He didn't have any good option.
*SHRIEK*
The brood mother's sudden shriek stopped the insects for a second before they started to move even more aggressively.
As the black hole faded away, the monsters rapidly gathered back and created the wave even faster.
It was then that the group arrived at their destination. The platforms landed on the building's roof.
"Darlan, Olivia, with me. Mages, Roxanne, and Diana remain on the platform." – Lathz commanded while she jumped on the building's roof.
Darlan and Olivia followed her and they then positioned themselves on the edge of the roof.
"We'll kill as many as we can before the building collapses. When I said to retreat, you do so without looking back, understood?" – Lathz shouted, and seeing that the others nodded, she turned her attention to the incoming wave – "Don't get too close to the borders."
The wave then crashed on the building and the already weakened structure shook as cracks appeared on it.
Lathz quickly noticed she overestimated the building's resilience. Those ruins had been far too damaged by time and weather – "BACK ON THE PLATFORMS!" – She slashed a bug in half and turned around.
Darlan jumped backward and ran toward the platform as bugs started to flood the roof.
However, when Olivia tried to retreat, a spider on the back of a beetle shot a web that stuck to her tail.
The spider pulled the string and Olivia's balance broke, making her fall. And before she could even hit the ground, insects quickly swarmed toward her.
However, just as quickly, bullets and arrows arrived, killing the insects that came too close.
Still stunned and confused by the sudden succession of events, Olivia felt someone lifting her and turned just to see Akihiko holding her before jumping back on the platform. As soon as he boarded it, the building started to crumble down, and the platforms trembled, losing balance.
"MAG-!" – Lathz's shout was interrupted by three different webs sticking in her body before she was practically hurled out of the platform.
"LATHZ!" – Darlan shouted when he saw it and jumped to try to help her.
"Darlan, stop!" – Roxanne yelled while aiming her gun in his direction.
She pulled the trigger and the bullet flew toward a praying mantis, flying toward Darlan.
The bullet hit its head and blew it off, however, the mantis' body continued to move and raised its arm before slashing down.
Darlan belatedly noticed something beside him and glanced at the side just to see a shadow cutting his arm off.
As the mantis' body with now-embedded shurikens in it, fell, reality hit Darlan and pain assaulted his body.
As he opened his mouth to scream, he once again belatedly noticed his surroundings and saw a beetle flying at him.
This time, Diana nocked an arrow on her bow and it shone in a pale golden light.
Taking aim, she shot the arrow at Darlan.
The arrow flew through the air and hit Darlan, bursting into a small show of light before morphing into a golden chain wrapped around him and extending back to Diana's bow.
Amidst the chaos, Akihiko jumped off the platform at high speed and dove straight toward Darlan.
When he arrived closer, Akihiko spun his body and with an absurd level of dexterity and bodily control, changed his posture midair, and kicked the beetle in the head, sending it crashing on the ground.
Without stopping and making use of his momentum, he again completely changed his position by grabbing Darlan by the shoulders, spinning, putting both feet on Darlan's chest, and using him as a stepping stone to propel himself down, sending Darlan back toward the platform as Diana pulled him, while Akihiko dove toward Lathz.
Taking out shurikens, he threw them in a sideway manner before making three purple talismans between his fingers and throwing two of them upward.
As Lathz was less than 15 meters from the ground infested with monsters, insects started to crazily jump at her.
Belatedly realizing she was caught by the enemy, she turned to look back and saw monsters flying less than 1 meter away from her.
Before her mind could fully process the danger she was in, shurikens hit the closer monsters in the head, and a purple flash passed by her.
Right after, her fall's momentum slowed down before completely stopping.
Sheathing his tanto, Akihiko held Lathz and stepped on the purple talisman floating in the air, using it as a stepping stone, he jumped toward another talisman.
In less than a second, he managed to make it back to Beatrix's platform.
Letting Lathz down, he stood still for a moment before going back to help Roxanne, Diana, and Nyza with the flying bugs.
"…" – Dumbly looking around, it wasn't until her gaze landed on Darlan's missing arm that Lathz snapped out of her daze – "Darlan!" – She got up and quickly checked on his condition.
Meanwhile, Evelyn and the others observed all of this from afar.
"This is really bad." – Anna spoke as her gaze was focused on Darlan – "That was an extremely stupid decision on his part." – She narrowed her eyes.
"There was also their leader being oblivious to her surroundings." – Kali chimed in – "Those spiders don't shoot webs that fast." – She also found this to be a dumb mistake.
Meanwhile, Leonard was looking elsewhere.
"I think it would be best if we get ready to jump in." – His words brought the other two's attention to him before he pointed at the brood mother with his chin – "Looks like it finally ran out of patience."
*SHRIEK*
Right on cue, the brood mother shrieked loudly and started to crazily tremble.
The countless blade-looking things on her carapace gained a sickly and dangerous-looking green hue and rose to point upward.
*Boom*
With an explosion, the blades exploded skyward, almost forming a small cloud in the night sky.
However, no one could admire it.
"MAGES, SHIELDS!" – Lathz widened her eyes and shouted.
And then, a rain of death befell upon them.
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