Chaos Year 3, Day 109, 10:59 pm.

[You have suffered drastic damage. You have less than 10% hp left.]

[Your life is in severe danger!]

So, this is the end of our survival.

A chill waved down my spine, and my heart sank.

No matter how I tried, I saw no way out. We fought well but within seconds everything turned for the worst.

We never guessed these zodiac monsters would cover more than 50 meters in a matter of seconds. That insane movement speed seemed too unrealistic for Chaos.

Aren't the freaking undead supposed to be slow? These ones are way faster than the Thriller Bark zombies.

However, it didn't matter anymore. We would die soon anyway.

But at least I'm not alone now.

Hikari-san lay beside me with wounds worse than mine. It gave me a little peace of mind, thinking I'll have a comrade dying together with me.

Senpai…

My eyes blurred up, tearing up again. I could no longer discern Annette-san, as she ran toward us, calling out our names.

"Soul Refresh!"

The moment Annette-san called out the words, my body seemed to be bursting with energy. It no longer hurt, the stiffness was also gone.

[The skill "Soul Refresh" has fully healed you.]

[Your life is no longer in danger.]

Insta full heal…?!

"God, that hurt so much." Hikari-san slowly got up to her feet. "Thank you, Ann-san."

Annette-san healed us?

I recalled Hikari-san's words, That's just a fragment of what she can do. You'll see soon.

I also stood up, still processing what just happened. "A-arigatou, Annette-san!"

"Don't think much of it. I am only doing my job." Annette-san's worried face lit up. "It was lucky that they didn't get to me first."

"It wasn't just luck. Because you never did anything since the battle started, they probably thought you weren't much of a threat."

"Ehh! That's not a nice thing to say though, Hikari" Annette-san pouted, as her cheeks reddened either from embarrassment or anger, I could not tell which.

"Pfft!" I couldn't stifle down my giggle anymore. "Ahahaha!"

Annette-san suddenly breaking her character made my day. They joked around even in this situation, in the middle of a battlefield.

The other two also cracked up watching me laugh. We all waited for some relief the whole time and that little moment, no matter how silly it sounded, seemed perfect.

Clomp! Clomp!

As zodiac monsters slowly approached us, our momentary liveliness came to a stop. We tensed up again, preparing for what to come next.

"Tch, I forgot about these things for a moment there." Hikari-san glowered, clenching her bow tightly.

"What do we do now?" I asked, bracing myself. "We will be crushed sooner or later if we do not escape."

"If only others were here now, defeating them would have been a child's play." Annette-san said, putting on her worried face again.

The zodiac monsters and the army of undead mobs surrounded us from all sides. But they suddenly stopped walking and stood still a bit further away.

What are they doing? It's like they are wary of something.

Finally one of the zodiacs moved forward, breaking the line, still looking out for something. Then following him, two others also closed in.

"Damnit!" Gritting her teeth, Hikari-san took her stance to shoot. "Where the hell is our tank dawdling around?"

I took out my wand and started chanting. Hikari-san shot her light arrows at the monsters, which burst into one's face, and spread toward the other two behind it.

"Gale Blade"

Three wind blades were summoned. They swept at the monsters, cutting through the fog created by the arrow explosion.

That should do it.

We stared at the fog, waiting for it to dissipate away. But instead, to our surprise, the monsters walked out of the fog, completely unscratched.

"Oh, c'mon!" Hikari-san again aimed her bow. "Infuse Light element! Infuse Light element!..."

Her arrow glowed brighter than ever, but the next moment, the light dimmed out.

"Grghh! Out of mana!" She yelled out.

"Also the cooldown on my Soul Copy isn't over yet!" Annetter-san said, scrolling through the system window with her trembling hand.

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I tried to focus on my chanting, but my voice quivered. The monsters were only three feet away now.

We fell back to dodge them, but they kept closing on us, until there was no place for us to move anymore. Behind us, the row of undead mobs screeched, with eyes full of bloodlust. We felt helpless as the zodiacs loomed over us, swinging their swords at us.

Annette-san beside me seemed to lose it, as she screamed, "Kyaaa!!"

"Shield Smaaash!"

A man jumped down in front of us out of nowhere and crashed over monsters slamming his big-ass golden shield on their ugly faces.

What the…? We are saved!? I was stunned. The whole thing seemed too comical to believe. And Shield Smash, is that even a real skill?

Anyway, that was a real blood-curdling experience. Whew~

"You took your sweet time to get here, Boss." Annette-san scowled, brushing away the tears from the corner of her eyes. "We almost died here."

"Twice!" Hikari-san added.

"Heroes always show up late." Boss grinned, fending off the monsters.

"Whatever!" Hikari-san scoffed. "Anyway, you didn't meet anyone else? I mean, were you all alone?"

Yeah, where's senpai? He is supposed to be the freaking main protagonist, right?

"No, I am here too."

Suddenly a male voice from behind startled me. "Eiik!"

I turned back towards the voice. A man, covered completely in black, waved his hand. He then put his hood and mask off to reveal himself.

Not senpai…

"Damnit, don't sneak up on us too, Lynx." Annette-san let out a sigh, placing her hand over her chest.

"Bad habit, sorry." Lynx-san said, before disappearing into the thin air again.

"Okay, time to get to work." Boss said, clenching his right fist while smiling. "Let's show them who's the boss here."

Being a Guardian Knight, Boss had a high Charm stat. It attracted all the monsters around him. But he didn't stop there.

"Knight's Pride!" Boss yelled out, diving into the horde of monsters, and rammed his shield on the ground.

His large golden shield glowed, as radiant ray waves spread all around him.

"Aurrghhh!!"

The moment the waves reached the monsters, they all screeched, going into a frenzy, even the larger ones. Their bloodlust skyrocketed as they lunged at him, ignoring the rest of us.

"Pinkpika, can you teleport me back to that boulder?" Hikari-san asked, taking out another mana bottle from her inventory.

"Eh? We are not gonna help him?"

"He will be fine for now. Just get me there first, I'll help him later."

"...Okay," I responded. "What about you, Annette-san?"

"I'll stay here with Boss."

"Alright."

With my teleportation skill, I replaced Hikari-san and myself on the rock boulder we stayed on before. It was by far the best place in this arena for long-distance players like the two of us.

Annette-san stayed behind on the ground, which crawled with the undead. She had absolutely no concerns about getting assaulted by the enemies.

And Hikari-san also looked so energetic suddenly. Her eyes burned with enthusiasm, as she beamed while shooting her light arrows one after another. "You are all dead now, ugly zombies!"

Everyone's heart overflowed with confidence. It showed how they trusted each other's capabilities. Especially how their expression changed from dread to feisty with the appearance of Boss and Lynx-san.

Boss held on against hundreds of monsters continuously attacking him from all sides. His pretentious silver armor, imbricated with golden motifs, and his bright golden shield, emblemed with a red dragon, protected him from their endless assaults. But that armor could not totally block the damage from the larger monsters, as their strikes slowly chipped away Boss's health bit by bit.

"Soul Refresh!" Annette-san healed Boss once his hp dropped below 20%.

So, that's why she stayed there.

"Oi! Hikari! Pika!" Regaining full energy, Boss shouted out to us. "Let's try that combo attack we discussed before."

Ah, we are doing that? He told us to trust him but…

"Pinkpika?" As I hesitated, Hikari San called out to me. "C'mon, he will be fine. Just do it."

"A-alright." Nodding, I began chanting.

On the ground, Boss used Knight's Pride again to lure them all toward himself.

"Moonlit Dance." And Hikari-san beside me started dancing surprisingly, with marvelous footwork and vigor.

With her silver hair swaying around atop her whirling photogenic figure, she certainly seemed like something carved out of a picture. As she danced her body shimmered and mana surrounded her with every move, giving her an angelic look.

I glanced at her while chanting the magic spell, as I fought to keep my focus unscathed during chanting.

"It's a self-buffing skill." She said, catching my eye, as she moved around radiantly, figuratively, and literally.

"...Aero Voidity!"

"Infuse Light element. Moonlit Fireworks."

Hikari's shot arrow soared high while the ground beneath broke into chaos thanks to my casted skill.

I cast my skill upon a huge circle area, where Boss stood in the middle of the circle.

For a few seconds, suddenly all the sound and temperature inside the skill's area of effect vanished completely. It confused all the monsters, as they squirmed around.

"What's happening there?" Hikari-san frowned.

"All the air inside the skill AoE disappeared," I replied.

In the confusion, Boss leaped towards Annette-san, who still stood there on the ground a bit further away from Boss.

While he dashed at her, a great wind storm began, sucking everything around in the middle of the AoE.

"Now inside the airless area, all the air around that place would surge in at a crazy speed turning it into an inward-sucking tornado," I explained while trying my best to keep my hair and furry ear down, standing atop the rock boulder far from the skill's AoE.

Uwawawa~ It tickles. That's why I don't like using this skill.

The tornado vacuumed almost all the undead close to the skill's AoE, gathering them all in place. Meanwhile, high above that place, Hikari's light arrow exploded and light particles rained down upon them.

Because of Boss's heavy armor, the wind could not blow him away. Reaching Annette-san, he sprang onto her, pushing her down on the ground.

"Wha-what?!" Annette blushed hard, dazed by the situation.

"Shield of Dawn. Awaken. Golden ray of hope!" Ignoring her, Boss shouted out.

"Where's Lynx-san? He isn't caught up inside there, is he?" I asked, worried that I might actually kill him.

"No, I'm behind you."

"Uwaaa!" We both screamed at Lynx-san's sudden appearance again.

"Stop it for God's sake!" Hikari-san yelled out, clenching the Lynx's cloak near the collar area.

"Anyway, that's quite the scene, eh?" Lynx stared at the ground where the skills took effect.

Hikari-san's buffing skill widened her Fireworks skill's AoE and strengthened the damage per particle, almost doubling the damage per second. It crushed all the undead mobs gathered inside my skill's AoE.

"Aurrghh!"

The surroundings filled up with the undead's shrieks of death, as the stench of their blood saturated the already heavy air.