The surface cracked near wherever they stood as more and more monsters emerged from the shell. The monsters had no real form or shape, just a collection of bone plates striking everything near as the ligaments they connected to thrashed about.

Rana and Taye decided to not engage the monsters in a fight. The abominations were not weak, but they were also not too powerful or difficult for the two to take on. The issue was gravity. If the monsters fell, it only meant a change in battlefield and targets, but if the two marked ones fell, it meant their death.

The two of them climbed up the steep outer shell of the guardian. The wall was smooth and without crevices to hold on, but with the help of their weapons and the chain from wards, the act of climbing was not difficult.

The issue was the monsters and their unrelenting pursuit.

The sentries smashed and sliced. They did everything they could to dislodge the pests that intruded upon their territory. The further the two of them climbed, the more sprouted from the guardian as the shell cracked open.

Rana and her companion increased their pace, using every trick they could think of to get to the top of the guardian. They knew the move upwards was the correct decision, but it might've been one that was made too hastily. She knew that the monsters would only appear near where they were, which meant that as long as they kept moving, they could be out of range of the monster attacks and only had to deal with the odd closer ones.

She did not expect what happened afterward. The monsters out of range screeched and slammed their limbs into the body of the guardian. They screamed in pain as they pushed and tore their flesh in an attempt to sever their connection with the main body. When they did, they dug into the shell and latched onto its surface, pulling themselves up and began to pursue the intruders.

Rana clicked her tongue as the monsters dragged themselves towards the two of them. They were not fast, but they were also not slow enough for her to relax.

“Let’s pick up our pace,” Rana said

“Why didn’t I think of that?" Taye replied as she swatted away a monster that was too close. "Just so you know, I think they are eventually going to catch up to us. I hope you have a plan.”

Rana agreed. She looked back up and determined that they indeed needed something to slow the monsters down if they were to make it to their destination without interruption. She had an idea. It would work, and she had one more potion to spare.

“When I give you the signal, use Support Defend to get to my side,” Rana said and Taye simply acknowledged with a nod. She continued to climb but inched herself closer to one of the monsters stuck to the shell. She baited it into attacking and she then gave the signal. “Now!”

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Taye followed. The monster lashed out but the attack did not land as Taye’s shield guarded Rana. The warrior-class then planted her sword into the shell and allowed Rana to grab on.

Rana took out her dagger and cut off her harm, but not before overcharging it with crimson mana. When the hand fell, she formed Fool’s Fire and ignited the mana within, causing an explosion that sent the pursuing group of monsters and some newly formed ones from the explosion down to the platforms.

“We’ll let Denver deal with them,” Rana said as she continued to hold onto Taye in a way that avoided the truth of her left hand coming out. “Now, pull us up.”

“Serves him right,” Taye muttered before turning to Rana. “You aren’t going to climb yourself?”

“It is quicker if I just hang on, it would take some time to get a good foothold.”

“Of course,” Taye replied, unconvinced.

Rana and Taye eventually reached the top, but their fight only truly began now. The monsters began to emerge from the shell, and those in pursuit slowly arrived at their location. From what she had seen, their physical stats were not that high, but they had twitchy and unpredictable movements that made their unrelenting aggression difficult to deal with.

However, the situation was just as she wanted. The longer she stayed on the guardian, the more monsters spawned, and the more monsters that spawned, the faster the shell is peeled and the heart of the monster revealed.

“The plan is simple,” Rana said as she readied her staff. “We need to peel off the shell by disposing of the monsters here. This means that we do not need to kill them, we just need to make sure we our pace is right and we survive. The ones rooted are the problem, so we aim to sever them from the body and blast them off of it. Objections?”

“What about the people below?”

“There is still enough time, and the rate in which we shed the monster is definitely faster than by waiting for the Spells and Skills that could barely reach,” Rana replied without hesitation. She withheld the information that she only needed to know where the heart is to defeat the monster. What prevented her from sensing it was the many monsters within. “Let us begin.”

Taye charged forward and Rana followed.

Taye ran along a path, covering more ground and the surface of the guardian’s shell. Whenever there was a monster before her, if it were not connected to the guardian’s body the woman simply ignored them or swat them away if it did not slow her down. If they were connected, the warrior-class would sever their connection.

Rana followed behind and picked off the stragglers that Taye missed or the monsters that the other woman cut. She only had one hand but it was enough to wield her crescent blade and slash away the straggling monsters.

The two of them continued their rhythm, pulling more and more monsters out from the body and causing the guardian’s shell to peel off. Rana guided her vanguard and made sure they held the aggro of the monsters and that the swarm kept coming. She was not worried as even if the amount of monsters spawning was too high, the two of them would not be overwhelmed as long as they charted their path correctly. Monsters were simple, after all.

That was when the floor below them shifted and swung to the side. The guardian was not its monster guards. It would not allow pests to run amok.

The guardian threw Rana and Taye off of its body.