"What do we do, going up is what they want, we'll definitely get attacked the moment we get there, but we also don't have another option," Mia said with concern as they all stood silently.
She was right, there was nothing that they could do except go up the stairs, even though they knew it was a trap.
There was no other way up and the enemy would probably not leave the area before they came up the stairs.
It was a perfect trap, one that made it impossible for them to go around it. They had to go up and face the enemy, even when knowing that the battle would be incredibly dangerous. It wasn't only because of the enemy and the monsters they controlled, but because the sounds of battle could also draw in more monsters, some of them might even be Tier II which would make sure that nobody left the area alive.
"We can win, but we would definitely need to go all out, otherwise some of us might die, that doesn't help us a lot since we don't know what we need to do at the top, if a powerful enemy waited for us there, we would probably be unable to defeat it without our trump cards, we could potentially wait until the cooldown was over, but there was no saying how the situation up was, we might not even have the chance to rest for even a moment," Wolf said as the others all nodded at him.
"What if we act as bait?" Liona suddenly said.
"What?"
"The three of us, plus Tank's generals and Beast's tamed beasts, what if we go up and face them, draw their attention before you guys get up the stairs and attack them."
"It could work, but it's still risky, I doubt the enemy would put their full focus on you guys, they might have also sensed us, we don't know if they have any skills that could help them as we do," Beast said as he put his hand below his chin.
"But it would help, that much is certain, but there has to be a better way, one that could maybe even let us incorporate your idea into it and reach a decisive victory," Beast said as he sat down and looked around them.
"Liona, you guys…" Mia was unable to continue speaking as Jane smiled at her warmly.
"We won't really die big sis, we'll just get sent back to the safe zone, all of you are stronger than us, it wouldn't make sense for any of you to be bait when we have more than enough people like this."
"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, all of them are stronger than any of us, including that bastard," Liona said as she glanced at Shadow who was talking with Reign.
"The success of the hidden task is our main priority boss, who knows, we might get some rewards even after dying, we were part of the same team after all," Marcus said with a wide smile as Mia stared at the three of them.
"Alright, your decision, I'll respect it," Mia said as she looked at the three with resolution in her eyes. All three of them nodded at her and smiled, they knew how stubborn the girl could be when it came to the safety of them or any of the members of their group.
For others, she was cold and looked like a person that didn't really care about the lives of her subordinates, but that couldn't be any further from the truth.
To outsiders, she was merciless and didn't care whether they died or not, but for her own people, she would never let them meet with danger.
"I got it!" Beast suddenly shouted.
"Damn it, you scared the hell out of me man, what the hell do you have?!" Shadow shouted as he looked at Beast who scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Well, I think I know how to reach the enemy without alerting them, we will still need to send Liona with the others to act as the bait just in case, but if we can pull this off, nobody needs to die," Beast said with certainty as he looked at everybody.
'Alright, so speak, what the hell do we do?" Shadow asked as Beast took a deep breath.
"Well, I figured, since there was no other way of getting up except the stairs, why not try and make out own path?"
"Huh?" Everybody looked at him in confusion.
"Up, up," Beast said as he pointed his finger at the ceiling.
"You mean?"
"Yup, through the ceiling."
"Can we even do something like that?" Tank asked as Beast shrugged his shoulders.
"No idea, but I think we can, we have pretty much just followed the set paths that the building made for us here on this floor, but when we had to improvise we faced no trouble, we were able to scale the wall, I was able to use my eagle, I see no reason why the platform would be indestructible," Beast said as the others all nodded.
"But, how tough is it, I mean, we did see parts of the platforms collapse sometimes, but those were thin parts at the edge of a platform, the platform is much thicker at every other part and even when we fought some powerful monsters, neither their nor out attacks were able to damage the platform a lot." Reign said as he used his sword to stab the ground. His powerful rank SS sword was only able to penetrate the ground after he put considerable strength behind it.
"I know, but I have a theory, if it's true, then this is possible," Beast said as the others all stared at him.
"Look at the ground, and then look at the ceiling, doesn't the soil and rocks just look a lot different compared to the ground, it's not only here, every single platform was like this, that's why I believe that the bottom part of each platform is much weaker compared to the top, if we simply start digging before reaching the hard part, then we could just destroy the tougher area in one fell swoop and attack those guys, we could take them by surprise even with their trap still being present."
Everybody looked at Beast before he summoned his eagle out.
"Shadow, Reign, and Wolf, you three should go and start working on the ceiling, test if my theory is true, if it is, then we have a way of defeating our enemy without risking anything, also, wear the equipment that Reign had brought back with him, it should at least confuse the enemy and make it harder for them to sense you if they can sense you at all." Everybody nodded and started working, nobody questioned Beast's intelligence and they knew that if his plan worked, they would truly be able to defeat their enemy without much difficulty.
…
"It's been a while and they're not coming up, did they somehow learn of our trap?" A man that had a hood on asked as a couple of others all shrugged their shoulders.
"No idea boss, they might have, but does it even matter, they have to climb the stairs to continue up anyways, whether or not they have found out about our trap doesn't really matter."
"True, but if we had the element of surprise, we would be able to inflict a lot more damage on them, don't forget, this battle is all about making them use as many of their trump cards as they can, the more we know about their powers, the higher our chances at defeating them will be in the future."
"Yes sir!"
"Furthermore, I highly doubt that we can win this fight, going all out is unnecessary, as long as we can take some of them down with us and force them to use their trump cards, we have completed our mission, they won't be able to get to the top." The man said as the others all nodded in agreement.
They knew that the power Reign and the others possessed right now was above theirs, defeating them would be almost impossible and instead of focusing on that and showing their enemy their full strength, it would be better to simply kill a couple of them and have them go all out.
Making Reign and the others fail the hidden task was enough of a reward as that would stop them from getting more rewards from this challenge.
"Snid, what's happening below?" The man asked as one of the hooded people from behind him started talking.
"I lost track of some of them, they probably know that we are here and are hiding, at least they're hiding their presence and mana."
"How many can you still sense?"
"8, well, 9, but one is different and suddenly showed up, probably a summon of sorts."
"Alright, keep track of them, we don't know what they're trying to do."
"Yes, wait, boss, they're moving, 3 of them, no 7, wait, there are more, over 10 of them are moving towards the staircase, but this, it's weird, the auras are different."
"Prepare yourselves, the enemy is arriving!" The boss said as everybody got a bit tense.
'It's weird, it's their original numbers, but why does it seem so weird, I have to focus, something is up.' Snid said to himself while the others prepared to fight.
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