Drake called for everyone to form another shield wall while he figured this out, he could hear the sound of people wading through water after everyone was supposed to be inside the barrier, those people simply pretended to not hear the order and slipped away into the dark.

Soon the fish swarms surrounded the soldiers, attracted by the light floating over the commanders head. This time Drake had the soldiers put down a secondary shield in front of the main one, then they killed all the fish inside the new area and removed the dividing wall, they only made a few feet of progress but it progressed nonetheless.

They continued like this for nearly an hour, soldiers began to tire and with nowhere to set or rest it only became worse, Drake ordered the men to rest in shifts to keep their stamina up which helped, but slowed progress from turtles to a snail's pace.

[Slosh thump slosh thump] Drake turned his head at the same time a soldier exclaimed "FUCK THE WALL FUCKER IS BACK", from the dim light they could make out the silhouette of Snappy in the distance.

Drake ground his teeth and wished his mage core was still alive so he could roast this "wall fucker" inside its shell, the soldiers stopped working and Drake could see Dispair on the men's faces, dispair always stems from hopeless situations and they couldn't do anything against the approaching titan, nor the fish that would eventually devour them.

Abruptly, the light above Drakes' head vanished and the fish soon lost interest then left, the soldiers stood there stunned for a second before someone picked up their shield and ran, as if that was an agreed-upon signal everyone else followed suit leaving Drake behind.

Once Drake came to he started following the soldiers, however, once he was separated slightly the light reappeared amongst the now horrifying giggling.

He froze for a moment and shouted "SHEILD WALL NOW", Drake saw several silhouettes falter for a moment, but they ignored his order and kept going, no-one wanted to stick around Mr bright on this floor.

With no other options, Drake overexerted himself again, mana coursed through his veins and he leaped into a nearby tree, when he looked down he could see several fish circling already and the swarm wouldn't be too far behind, the trees were spaced sparsely here with only one or two trees every ten meters, this meant he had to use his full strength to jump to the next tree most of the time.

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Drake took frequent breaks between bursts and could now faintly smell fresh water, he didn't have far to go so he prepared himself for a longer exertion this time, he wanted to get to the next floor as soon as possible and meet up with the rest of the army.

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He could vaguely see the next tree and leaped towards it, suddenly a shadow moved, he tried to block but his blade was sheathed so he could jump easier.

The shadow hit him squarely in the chest and sent him sprawling into the water below, his chest heaved from the impact and he swallowed a mouthful of water, once Drake realized he was in the water he jumped directly up to get his bearings, he burst from the water and couldn't see anything, the light was gone.

Again he was struck, this time in the face sending him flipping back into the water, the only reason his neck didn't snap was that he was in the habit of always enhancing his body in case of assassination.

Now that the light was gone he didn't have to worry about being swarmed by thousands of fish, so this time he only raised his torso above water and drew his sword, he realized that the sting on his face was from the back of a single-edged blade and that meant the enemy wanted him alive, for what reason he didn't know, but he could use this to his advantage.

Drake yelled "if you have something to say then come speak, however, if you want to fight stop hiding in the dark like a coward and FACE ME LIKE A MAN"

A beautiful voice casually replied "no, I will fight like a woman and win"

Drake was only momentarily surprised his enemy was a woman before he tried to locate her from her voice, the moment she said "no" he had already thrown his pommel dagger, the splash of water and the searing pain from another attack told him he missed.

After stumbling he regained his footing and was determined to hear the attacker so he could retaliate, however, after several moments nothing happened, as he was about to provoke his attacker again the water around his waist moved, he moved the moment he felt something off but he was caught, the water slowly snaked itself up his body constricting it like a snake.

He tried to struggle or reach for any of his hidden weapons, however, the water still held him and when he used his last remaining vestiges of mana to break the bond, it simply reknit itself and continued.

Every time he breathed out the water constricted a little tighter, until he was desperately trying breath in but his chest had no room to expand, the last thing he saw was a lithe armored warrior with a long sword and an old man.

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Lucifer observed his little play and was quite satisfied with the results, he sent a message to bring the commander to him and refocused on the army, they were grouping on the small landmass between the fifth and sixth floor, in the center a small group of squad and company leaders were arguing, one person said they were the highest ranked and therefore should be in command now that Drake was missing, another man said they were the same rank and said they shoud have command, because of some "feat" he accomplished that Lucifer was sure his subordanates did and he took credit for, the conversation seemed to go in circles untill one man slit the throat of another and proclaimed himself "boss", Lucifer was more surprised that it worked rather than the fact he suddenly killed someone, after that the army started to smoothly opperate again.

The new commander sent small groups to cut down the mangrove trees to make rafts, Lucifer thought that he would have the army retreat, but apparently, the higher-ups still thought Drake was alive and until they were sure he wasn't they would continue pretending he was, so they began building rafts to escape the fifth floor unless Drake showed up again, then they would be perfect sixth floor rafts.

Suddenly he felt a massive angry mana enter his dungeon, he found this curious because he had no idea mana could be angry.