RETREAT

"A beast tide! There's a beast tide!"

"Grim" came running down the corridor, clearly having lost his partner. His words caused the eyes of the others to widen, and the commotion filled the mines.

"Shit! This hasn't happened in years, what the hell!"

"There's a new alpha, I'm not sure what's going on, but we need to clear everybody out, they're going crazy!"

The pair of soldiers across from Leonel were guarding one of the entrances to the third layer. They went by Slim and Spam, a pair of twin brothers who usually took on these sort of missions together. It was hard to tell if this was their real pair of names, or if it was because Slim was indeed quite skinny and Spam looked like he had a can at the ready to eat every hour, on the hour.

"Wait!" Grim said when the two looked like they were ready to run. "We need to report this to the research scout team and lead the evacuation, what do you think you're doing?!"

Slim and Spam knew Grim's personality and understood that he was a stickler for rules, so they weren't surprised by this in the slightest. They had indeed almost made a mistake, if they didn't alert the research teams, they'd probably die.

"Dammit!" Spam spat, his large belly rolling. He really didn't want to do this.

Leonel smiled on the inside. This was why Sergeant Amon's incompetence was important. Grim was a stickler for rules, but there were too many unprofessional parts of his legion.

Actus was just one. Grim's partner had been willing to sweep it under the rug; the soldier that let Actus into the mine in the first place was also willing to do so, and now these pair of twins were cursing about having to do their duty.

Actual discipline was few and far between in this troop, and it only made Leonel's job easier.

"Come, come! We need to report."

Grim led the two brothers into the third layer and quickly met the research teams. As Leonel had seen through Anastasia, the third layer was a vast and open chasm for the most part. If not for the first and second layer, it could have very easily been an enormous open-air mine.

The moment they crossed that threshold, though, they saw that the research teams were already being attacked. Each one was in a different corner of the enormous underground catacombs and barely being protected by the soldiers that had followed them down.

Leonel, leading Slim and Spam, immediately hopped into the fray.

Though the twins were lazy, they were still powerful Seventh Dimensional existences, so with their help, one of the research teams was freed immediately.

"Go! Go!" Leonel roared. "Retreat!"

The trio left the research team to retreat and zoomed toward the second group. This one was an even more troublesome situation as there was a particularly powerful alpha fighting amongst them.

It took quite some effort to extricate them, and one of the researchers even died in the attempt. However, they managed to save most of them at the cost of heavy injuries to both Slim and Spam.

"Retreat! You two as well, protect them. I'll go help out the last group!" Leonel barked.

Slim and Spam were convinced by Leonel's valiance. They didn't even realize that in all the commotion, Leonel hadn't really fought even once. He was just able to use his calculative abilities to make it look like he was trying his best. In reality, Slim and Spam had done all the work and their senses weren't strong enough to notice that they had been duped.

Leonel rushed away as Slim and Spam led the second research team in an escape. The third layer was quickly being flooded by more and more wolves. It was the layer that had had the largest number of beasts to begin with and they were almost impossible to flush out.

Beasts at this level didn't need food or water to survive. Because they were Earth Force affinity beasts, they had everything they needed around them in a ridiculously high concentration. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Due to that, the research teams could only be cautious.

If Sergeant Amon was competent, he would have personally led an excursion to wipe them out long ago. But luckily, he wasn't.

The last research team was the most troublesome to deal with, and it was the reason Leonel had left it until last. It was led by a woman who, though didn't have a Dream Force affinity, had a particularly strong Soul Force affinity.

It was impossible for Soul Force to outmatch Dream Force. However, it was still harder for Leonel to use the previous tricks he had.

Research Popsy was her name. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and she wore what looked like a jet black lab coat. Among those fighting against this last batch of wolves, she was actually the strongest, stronger than even the soldiers that were supposedly meant to protect her. She should be a Quasi Eighth Star.

On the way there, Leonel's eyes flickered with a glint and from Grim, he immediately became an alpha wolf again.

Howls filled the underground expanse as he moved, but this was just for show. In reality, he began to move and coordinate the wolves, changing their attack pattern from wild and unrestrained to calculated and logical.

The change was instant. It took no more than a few seconds for the first researcher to die.

Researcher Popsy's expression changed. "Run!"

She realized she had made a mistake. This should have been her first intention, but she had thought that they could fight off this wave and wait for the sergeant. It seemed that they didn't have this sort of luck.

She stumbled backward before she suddenly sensed the looming presence of a wolf to her back. Her heart skipped a beat, but she looked, she found Grim standing behind her.

"Retreat! I will hold them off!"

Leonel began to valiantly "fight" the wolves, not turning back.

Research Popsy hesitated, but in the end she nodded firmly and rushed to retreat with the others.