A new wave is then announced, [Wave 9 has started!]

Luc grumbled in frustration, "These monsters have become way too strong."

Deepak, however, offered words of encouragement. "Don't give up! Keep pushing through!"

The group quickly took formation in their fortress and began fighting the oncoming horde. Luc took charge of shooting down the small and agile monsters at the front with Stella by his side, who used her powers to hurl icicles and freeze large areas to impede the enemies' advances. They had already used up a significant amount of potions to recover their mana, which Stella had conveniently stored in her ring provided by her family. Dylan and Adrian also helped keep the group going by casting spells when needed.

Adrian was unfazed by this battle of attrition, because his [Novice's Creation]'s effects are activated thanks to the skill he had discovered while driving towards the location of the Dungeon, and it was proving to be quite useful in the current situation.

[I Don't Need An Armor!] — The Effects of any armor that was used by the user in the last 6 hours will be activated on his body except the defense it would provide.

Duration: 3:00:00

In order to avoid arousing suspicion, he decided to sacrifice one of his skill slots and not wear an obviously powerful armor set.

Gerald was doing a great job of aggroing the monsters and blocking their attacks while simultaneously dealing significant damage to them. However, the team was having trouble with the small and agile monsters, as Gerald couldn't aggro them with his taunt skill. This was possibly due to the Skeleton mages positioned behind the stronger monsters, who were constantly buffing them.

Deepak jumped in to assist, and together they managed to hold off the monsters from advancing. Adrian provided support to both the front and back lines, skillfully sniping smaller monsters such as goblins and kobolds, while also occasionally leaving to cast buffs and recovery skills.

He was carrying a significant amount of the workload for the team, but this wasn't to say that the others weren't pulling their weight.

Adrian's sword was infused with sword aura, and each time he swept it, the small monsters were cut in half in an instant. The medium-sized monsters took a few more hits to defeat, but Adrian was making quick work of them. Despite their best efforts, however, the group seemed to be facing an endless wave of enemies.

Undeterred, they continued battling. Suddenly, Dylan shouted a warning to Luc, "On your left!" With quick reflexes, Luc drew a dagger from his waist and mercilessly stabbed the rushing goblin multiple times until it lay lifeless on the ground.

However, their victory was short-lived as five small monsters began to gang up on them, all while being buffed by the Skeleton mages. Just in time, Stella conjured up an ice wall that instantly sprouted from the ground and halted the attacks. The group took the opportunity to catch their breaths for a few seconds before the wall was eventually cracked and destroyed.

As soon as the ice wall was destroyed, Dylan quickly cast a wind spell that flung the five monsters back into the wave, "Wind Barrier!" he shouted.

"T-thank you," Stella said gratefully as she wiped the sweat on her forehead

Dylan's response was stern. "There's no time to waste. Let's get back to killing those monsters."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The trio then turned their attention back to the monsters in the distance and resumed their attack.

Deepak and Gerald worked together seamlessly, as if they had known each other for years. While Gerald blocked the attacks, Deepak swiftly executed the enemy. The fight had now moved inside the fortress, and they had limited space to maneuver. However, the number of enemies was limited as they entered the fortress, and the group took care of them one by one.

Meanwhile, Adrian was running around the battlefield with unparalleled speed, executing high-value targets in one fell swoop. He was also trying to wear down the huge, heavy hitters outside the fortress that were getting closer. At the moment, only small to medium-sized monsters had arrived, thanks to their speed. However, if the humongous heavy hitters arrived before the smaller ones were taken care of, they would have no chance of winning. Clearing the dungeon was their ultimate goal, and they couldn't afford to fail.

Adrian attempted to take down the enemy backlines this time, with the gigantic monsters, standing at least 10 meters tall, surrounding the Skeleton mages making an effort to stop him with all their might. Nevertheless, his blade fell upon them, and in an instant, he wreaked havoc upon the Skeletons, causing them to fall one by one.

This relieved the group of some of the burdens due to the troublesome buffs and offensive spells. He executed the mages while the giant humanoids tried to catch him, but to no avail.

As he was cutting down the enemy, he felt a gaze upon him. And sure enough, in the distance stood a shadowy figure. Although it was merely a shadow, he could sense that the stare was emotionless yet at the same time, as if it wanted to devour him whole. It was as if it was envious of his capabilities.

He lost his focus for only a fraction of a second, and yet was hit by a gigantic hand, sending him flying back towards the fortress.

Adrian landed quite a distance away from the fortress and, as he slowly looked back in pain, he saw that their situation had taken a turn for the worse. They were being overwhelmed by the monsters, and Gerald seemed to have been poisoned even though none of the enemies were using any poison.

Getting up, Adrian hurried over to them, luckily, the effects of his armor are just too strong, especially its recovery effects, but there were still a lot of medium-sized monsters on the way. He quickly slaughtered them, and fortunately, there were not many more of them left. All that remained were the huge monsters they had encountered earlier.

Once all the monsters had been cleared, everyone rushed to Gerald, who had collapsed while grasping his shoulder in pain.

Adrian arrived and shouted, "What the hell happened?!"

Luc responded frantically, "I-I was trying to shoot the giant monsters with poison so that when they arrive here they will be weakened. But a small monster suddenly got a jump on me and I accidentally fired on him! I'm sorry!"

Adrian shook his head, "That doesn't matter. Dylan, let's use a few skills on him first, then we'll escape."

Stella quickly interrupted and hurried over to Gerald's side. "There's no need. I'll freeze him a little bit, and when we manage to escape, we'll find some healers," she said with a distressed expression. Without wasting any time, she froze his body and then shouted out, "[Escape]!"

A sudden message popped up on everyone's screen, and their faces immediately paled. [The escape function has been temporarily disabled due to a Space Lock] it read.

"Where the hell did this Space Lock come from?!" Stella exclaimed in frustration.

Despite their attempts, none of them could use the [Escape] function.

Even the usually calm and outgoing Deepak became aggressive and started shouting. "Let's stay a little longer and finish this! Are you guys seriously considering giving up now when we're so close to completing this?!"

"Gerald will die, my guard will die! We can always try again when he's been treated. We'll get much better results next time, and besides, we've already leveled up quite a lot," she exclaimed hysterically.

Deepak raised an important question, "But how will we fix the [Space Lock]?"

He then broke into a small smile, which the hysterical girl failed to notice, but Adrian did.

Did he…? His mind raced, many scenarios popped up at his head, but what he's sure about is that these people are not letting them out of here alive

Upon witnessing this, Adrian slowly drew his weapon, StarSlasher, but before he could even swing it at Deepak, Luc quickly fired an arrow at Stella's back, coated in the same poison. As she began to collapse, Adrian was taken aback.

"What the hell? Why would you do that?!" he exclaimed in shock and anger.

"I've been thinking about how to dispose of you, Mr. Marcus. It seems like you won't fall for the same trick, so we'll just have to use force to bring you down too. No hard feelings, you're just in the wrong place a very wrong time," Luc said with a wicked smile that slowly bloomed on his face.