"I spotted another team of seven members," I called out as we were almost done clearing a chamber.
We were making our way through the passage to the surface. I noted the seven beastkin enter.
I finished up my last monster and retreated with the rest of the team to where the war mech was. The war mech hadn't been fighting and was standing on watch while we had been clearing chambers without its help.
I could see the beastkin spreading out slightly, but they hadn't taken up hostile positions just yet. They were eyeing the war mech warily.
"Greetings. Peace for peace, fist for fist," I called out the standard adventurer greeting in the dungeon.
"Humans, an elf, and a metal monstrosity, probably some dwarven contraption. This area of the dungeon belongs to the Wolf Clan. Hand over your cores and we will let you go," their leader called out.
I felt the use of several analysis skills. My Hidden Status would not hold up. They skipped the standard greeting, focused on racial lines, and used their skills on us. This was a hostile team. They hadn't even chosen fists but went straight for spell. There could be no quarter or mercy given.
"Hostiles! Everyone fight!" I roared and rushed forward.
I needed to kill one of these adventurers as quickly as possible. There could be no hesitation. These were thinking opponents, a thinking team of seven versus the five of us.
"Lightning Beam! Ward! Vibration Blade!" I used three spell skills in quick succession.
"Chain Lightning!" Stormy went with one of her more powerful skills right away.
Lightning against thinking opponents was the best choice to stun them and lock up their bodies.
"Darkness Orb!" Sam focused on blocking the vision of the biggest threat. He had gone for the beastkin who had spoken up, who was probably their leader.
Light bursts or other illusions could have interfered with us.
"Whirlwind Slash!" Harren roared as he rushed forward with me.
"RLC firing!" The Indomitable began unleashing a barrage of Lightning Beams at the enemy team. Ozy flew up into the air as sentry as I told him to look for any members they might have in stealth.
They were a physical team with no heavy casters like we had. The beastkin did a lot better with physical, stealth, and perception skills. They all had swords, spears, and other melee weapons, but that didn't mean they were weak.
The moment we attacked, they immediately split up in different directions, moving incredibly quickly. They had to be around level 60 to level 80 with those stats. They were professionals, which meant we would be in for a hard time.
Focusing on the target I was rushing towards, they had intercepted my Lightning Beam with the tip of their spear and then grounded my spell skill. I closed the distance, my blade shaking in my hand.
They stabbed quickly.
I knew enough about spear fighting to know that was their most likely counter to my attack. My off-hand weapon was ready and twisted.
The Ward spell skill that was anchored to my hand deflected the blow away from my face.
My blade struck the beastkin, carving through their light armor and dealing a gash as they leaped back.
Their side was bleeding heavily, and I didn't let up. I let Ward drop and used another spell skill.
"Fireball!"
It was best used at close range, making it impossible to dodge. Regrettably, another beastkin with a sword charged, and I blocked several blows. Even with Vibration Blade, I only chipped their sword slightly and didn't cut through it.
They were using a tier 3 skill, or the weapon was of top quality.
The war mech was constantly firing, and I saw it had gotten out its Fire Aura Blaster, shooting a torrent of white flames to keep the beastkin away from our casters.
I didn't have time to see anymore as the first beastkin burst out through the Fireball smoking and slightly singed, rushing at me.
I was quickly losing ground, fighting two on one against superior opponents.
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"Fireball."
I had to use the spell skill again to create some distance, so I didn't get overwhelmed. I only hoped that my teammates could win their fights, since I was handling two at once, but a glance at Harren showed he was fighting two of the beastkin, while three of them surrounded the war mech and the two casters.
I felt an immense sense of danger from behind, but Ozy let me know he had it taken care of. I knew they would have had a member in stealth.
A scream came from behind me. Ozy had landed on the back of the eighth beastkin's head, biting his neck and breathing toxic fumes directly into his bloodstream.
Ozy had waited until he was about to strike at me before attacking. I smirked as the beastkin looked at their dying member in shock.
Ozy hit them with a Petrifying Gaze, causing them to freeze up for a moment.
"Lightning Beam." I hit the sword-using beastkin in the face, since he was closer, locking up his body from the electricity.
He might have some resistance or counter, but at this close range while under the effect of another skill, he was vulnerable.
I moved in and swung my Reforged Beginner's Blade. The beastkin tried to bring up his sword, but he was too slow. I decapitated him. And he was no Xanatos or some other ancient monster, so that should kill him.
The spear beastkin went full feral and leaped at me. I parried their spear to the side, but they let it go and reached out for me with their hands.
I used my left hand to block their lunge, while bringing my sword around and driving it through the slash I had made before and into their gut and out the other side.
The beastkin bit down on my neck armor, but the bite was weak, and my armor held.
I twisted my blade and shoved hard.
The beastkin went tumbling back, bleeding out.
I lunged forward and stabbed them in their head to ensure their death. With healing points, even a wounded enemy could come back into a fight.
Ozy had flown off to assist Harren.
I rushed for one of the beastkin that were circling the ring of flames unleashed by the war mech. The beastkin sustained heavy damage, but they weren't defeated.
Stormy hadn't been able to land any finishing blows, and Sam could only disrupt them. The Indomitable was also having a hard time hitting them with how quickly they moved.
I rushed up behind one and traded blows. My danger sense was growing.
Dammit, the war mech had triggered a horde.
I was worried about this. It wasn't this stupid team of beastkin that was the problem; it was what they had caused.
Unfortunately, without the warmech firing its RLC everywhere, the beastkin would have quickly killed the casters. The only reason I had won was because of Ozy's help and close-range spells.
"Axefall!" Harren roared as Ozy interfered with his fight, and he seized an opening.
The beastkin split completely in half vertically. It was his family's signature tier 4 axe skill.
"Chain Lightning!" Stormy acted as I ran up behind a beastkin, hitting them and then sending the lightning away from me.
"Darkness Orb!" Sam blocked out the beastkin's vision as I swung.
I wasn't using Vibration Blade now, which meant I had to put a lot more force into my swing. Even though the beastkin tried to duck, I decapitated him. The lightning-based spell skill locked up his body, and a Darkness Orb blinded him as it surrounded his head.
"Stormy, block the tunnels!" I yelled out as I rushed at the next beastkin.
She acted quickly, creating a stone ramp to run over the flames surrounding her position, rushing for one tunnel to this cavern before the monster horde arrived.
I rushed at the two remaining beastkin facing off against Sam and The Indomitable.
Harren was finishing off his last opponent, and I quickly finished these two with Ozy slowing them down. The war mech was could hold against large targets and slow targets, but it struggled against fast-moving targets.
"The monsters are coming," I called out and waved towards the tunnel entrances.
The rest of the team quickly understood as Stormy began quickly reducing the size of their openings.
We all chugged down more potions. There was no time to check the gear or equipment the beastkin had with them right now. We had to win this next fight.
I was already drawing runes in the air with my Mana. I would unleash a firestorm down a tunnel. We might not get their cores, since it wasn't safe to collect corpses beyond the cavern alone, but we needed to buy as much time as possible.
The Indomitable was already rushing towards one of the tunnel entrances, swapping out for its HIC.
Stormy could partially seal two tunnels and was working on a third when the monsters arrived.
I unleashed the firestorm towards the armored slimes down my tunnel and raced to one tunnel Stormy had partially sealed.
"HIC, firing!"
The war mech completely obliterated all monsters down one tunnel, slightly shaking the dungeon. Kobolds, humanoid lizards with weapons, came out of the tunnel I was at one by one, and I cut them down easily. Ozy had flown over towards another partially sealed tunnel and was handling the monsters coming through. Some kind of centaur monster.
Harren covered a third tunnel, and the war mech was covering a fourth. The last tunnel had no monsters coming out of it since the other team had killed the monsters. At least they had done something useful. But the chambers connecting to the one they had cleared with had monsters except for the chamber they had come through.
There was slightly less pressure at the start. Stormy and Sam were helping Ozy at close range. While my pet was good, he wasn't good enough to handle a horde. The war mech had switched to its face. With monsters only coming from one direction, it could handle melee without getting overwhelmed. I knew Stormy was monitoring things with The Indomitable.
We handled the first wave as a team, and we all took potions in the brief break as the next horde from the tertiary chambers rushed towards us.
"Bunch of lucky bastards," Harren said in between potions.
I disagreed with him. Those beastkin had been bastards that deserved the deaths they got. Attacking other adventurers in the dungeon was just asking for trouble. They probably saw our levels but not our skills.
Our team was under-leveled but heavily over-skilled after our time at the College.
"Degenerate scum," Stormy muttered with a glare on her face. Attacking other adventurers was considered a complete trash move. There were more than enough monsters for everyone to fight without having to fight with each other. The only reason someone would want to fight another team was if they purposefully wanted to fight.
"Good call, Justin," Sam said with a nod in my direction.
"Thanks, but it isn't over. Time for the next wave of monsters."