Free Web NovelChapter 52: A Bonus Chapter for Egypt’s World Cup Historical Performance - First Team Battle (1)
The world outside was vastly different from what Silas had imagined.
The moment he stepped beyond the shield, a deafening chorus of sounds crashed into him. The most prominent was the relentless barrage of Mana Arrows launched from the outpost.
After hearing Cher describe them, Silas had assumed they were little more than a minor nuisance. Reality proved otherwise. Each arrow streaked through the air before detonating among the monsters, engulfing several of them in explosions.
Even if the arrow launchers took a few precious seconds to recharge, their deadly attacks made up for that delay.
Beyond the outpost, his teammates maintained the formation they had practised countless times during training.
At the front, Alfred held the line. He occasionally stepped outside the shield to intercept approaching monsters, creating openings for Darius to unleash devastating barrages of attacks. Once their assault ended, the pair would retreat, allowing Cher to take over.
Cher alternated between single and triple fireballs, constantly shifting her approach. At times, she exercised complete control over her deadly beams. At others, she released them freely and darted outside the shield to maximise their destructive potential.
Seeing this forced Silas to draw a comparison. Back at the admission test, killing a single frog or hound required a combined effort of everyone, plus it took more than several hits from all of the team to kill a single monster. But now, Darius could kill a single monster in less than five attacks, and Cher could do it in three successive beam strikes.
At the rear stood Lara. And yet she wasn’t helping.
Unlike the others, she never left the protection of the barrier. Even so, Silas could sense her tension. She looked far less composed than usual. More surprisingly, despite all this time, she had yet to tame a single monster.
Still, that was hardly the biggest problem. The real issue was the sheer scale of the monster wave. Silas had expected something similar to the hounds and frogs they had fought before. Instead, what stretched before him was an entirely different nightmare.
At a glance, he counted more than twenty species of monsters. Wolves, hyenas, boars, foxes, and even golems surged across the battlefield. The diversity alone was staggering, a direct consequence of the enormous size of the current wave.
In fact, he doubted he could see its end even if he climbed to the top of the outpost. Luckily, those monsters were running without any order. They didn’t cooperate together. So fighting them, even if they looked this numerous, was like fighting sporadic monsters.
And there was another crucial difference.
The hounds and frogs they had fought previously had been irresistibly drawn to the Rune Heart. Silas still vividly remembered how they had ignored everything else and hurled themselves against the protective shield without hesitation.
That behaviour had formed the foundation of their current tactic, as the team built their entire strategy on using the shield as their coherent base. Yet these monsters acted differently.
They paid little attention to the outpost itself. Instead, they rushed forward with singular purpose, attempting to bypass the defensive structures and reach the mine located far behind them, where the concentration of mana was far greater.
The subtle change made Silas frown. The monsters would clump at any of his teammates once they sensed danger from them. That ended up adding more pressure on the shield, as more monsters attacked it in an attempt to kill the annoying humans hidden inside.
A quick glance toward the Rune Heart deepened that frown. The crystals fueling the shield were depleting at an alarming rate.
Silas carried a large supply of replacement crystals in his backpack, and he knew Cher possessed plenty as well. Nevertheless, the current consumption was frightening. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Before the battle started, he took a glimpse at his backpack, roughly estimated the amount of crystals needed to cover the entire Rune Heart, and compared it with what he had. Weirdly enough, the amount of crystals he got would suffice for ten days’ consumption.
According to his estimates, the academy had provided enough crystals to replenish the exhausted crystal carpet once per day. At this rate, however, their entire supply might not last even four days.
Silas clenched his fists. He felt terrible, but this was not the time to retreat while his friends needed him. Despite their impressive efficiency and teamwork, they were facing a problem they had not anticipated.
"We need to change our plan!"
His shout echoed across the battlefield.
Until then, everyone had been too focused on fighting to notice his arrival. The moment he spoke, they retreated behind the shield and looked toward him with confusion.
"What’s wrong?" Cher shouted from the front. "We’re doing great."
She was not entirely wrong.
Still, Silas had no intention of wasting time explaining from afar. He sprinted forward, drew his daggers, and joined the frontline while quickly summarising what he had observed.
As he spoke, five daggers shot from his hands.
Their speed was noticeably faster than before. The blades struck the same target repeatedly, tearing through its defences. Continuous training, combined with his recent enhancement, had significantly improved his control over Raven.
Ordinarily, most monsters required several coordinated attacks to bring down. Cher was the sole exception, capable of killing one with only three beam strikes.
Silas surpassed even that. A single volley of daggers was enough to kill every monster he targeted. His teammates stared in surprise. Their delight quickly faded as they processed his explanation.
The situation was far worse than they had realised. Until now, they had focused primarily on gathering cores. That objective suddenly seemed far less important compared to what Silas revealed.
"From what you’re saying, we need to consider the nature of the wave itself," Cher said thoughtfully.
She no longer remained inside the shield.
"These monsters are attracted to the mine. They’re simply passing through the outposts on their way there. That means our mission isn’t to exterminate every monster. We only need to reduce their numbers as much as possible."
Silas nodded as her conclusion matched his own. From the map he received from the academy, he and others realised that the circular layered structure of the outposts surrounding the mine wasn’t just for show.
The entire defensive plan built around the mine revolved around this very simple concept. Each layer, each outpost, each defending team would do their best to lower the number of monsters in each wave, till there were none to threaten the mine. freewēbnoveℓ.com
Without hesitation, Cher threw herself back into battle. Alfred and Darius followed. This time, she unleashed her ability at maximum output, firing four beams simultaneously without attempting precise control.
The tactic was dangerous, consumed the crystal she held in her hand way faster, but it dramatically increased her killing speed.
Whenever a mana crystal ran dry, she would briefly retreat, replace it, and charge back into the fray.
Meanwhile, Alfred, Darius, and Silas transformed into a deadly machine.
Alfred held the front line and redirected monsters into favourable positions. Darius destroyed them with overwhelming force. Behind them, Silas controlled the battlefield with his daggers, eliminating anything that slipped through their defences while Alfred constantly covered his blind spots.
Everything started to look better until something suddenly appeared behind them.
Out of the blue, the protective shield trembled faintly before the ground itself split open. Lots of holes appeared, as a large group of big squirrels appeared from beneath the ground.
"Watch out! These are the Mana Squirrel Eaters!"
Lara was the first to shout, alarming everyone about the sudden appearance of this new breed of monsters. Each squirrel was three metres in length, with a slender body that was covered by a sticky brown layer. They had sharp claws, a thick tail that unfolded and showed an elliptical layer of claws.
"They move underground, dig tunnels and head towards any Mana Crystals in the region," Lara shouted, "they may look weak, but they are very agile, very tricky to kill as they can dig underground quite fast and come out to attack without warning. On top of that, once they sense crystals and get stopped, they turn berserk and quite hostile..."
ROAR!
Before she could continue her words, the few dozens squirrels raised their heads and roared. At this brief moment, both Silas and Darius shared the same unforgettable tragic moment, the one in which the hounds turned berserk and killed Lyra.
Lara’s warning proved to be quite valuable. The instant these squirrels turned berserk, they dove into the ground. On any other occasion, everyone would first assume they were running away from here. But now they realised they weren’t retreating; they were coming to attack them.
"Gather up!"
