Moving faster than any minecart could travel, Brance stood on the back of the wedge-shaped sled, with the gem dead center and the pair of Selene and Benny flanking it while holding on for dear life as the sled traveled faster than they could run.
[[SLOW DOWN BRANCIE AHHHH!]] Selene screamed at the top of her lungs into the mind link as Brance drifted around the turns in the narrow cave.
[[HAHAHA! Where's your spirit of adventure, Selene? I thought you were an adrenaline junkie like Cyn?]] Kicking the ground behind the sled as if he were riding a skateboard, Brance sped up, causing the rocky walls of the cave to blur as their speed increased.
[[FUCK ADVENTURE, YOU ARE GOING TO GET US KILLED!]] rebutting as she curled up around the handle Brance had made for her on the Sled; Selene had her eyes tightly shut as she was beginning to deal with motion sickness.
[[See, look at Benny; he is enjoying the ride.]] Patting Selene on the calf, he pointed at the young man sitting to his right, causing Selene to open her eyelids just a crack, which was enough to see the Green-faced Benny as he fought back the urge to puke.
[[BULL SHIT! MY ASS HE'S ENJOYING THE RIDE!]] Snapping her eyes shut again, Selene hugged the handle for dear life as Brance cackled like a pirate.
---
While Brance navigated the tunnels at speeds fast enough to spell demise if they hit a wall, Cynrik and the rest of C-Squad were pushing forward as they unleashed wave after wave of ranged attacks on the Yetis.
From the 100+ creatures, only around 60 remained, and all of them were already on their last leg.
'Not fast enough; we need to pick up the pace. Based on what I saw in previous years and the calculations I made, Romeoville should be nearing the cave system soon. At that point, no matter how quickly I kill everything off or how fast Brance moves, we not only lose, but they can still potentially break their record.' Cynrik thought as he shoulder rammed a Yeti, throwing the creature off balance where it was soon head-shotted by Melody's [Air Missle], exploding its skull like a watermelon.
'That guy has shown yearly progress on his Tele skill, so odds are he can reach over 1km per jump. Providing he hasn't gone too crazy and killed off his teammates, he should arrive in another 15-20 minutes.'
"HUPP!" With a grunt, Cynrik jumped up, stabbed both flaming Kodachi into the chest of a Yeti, and rode it to the ground, where he rolled off and charged at another enemy.
'Brance took out the boss, and over here we have 58…make that 56 enemies remaining.' Pivoting on his left foot, Cynrik spun and sidestepped a bone club twice his size slamming down where he previously stood.
With a smirk, Cynrik slashed the air with his right Kodachi, creating an arc of flaming sword light, which slammed into the enemy wielding the bone club, knocking the Yeti off its feet.
Then, turning and looking at the mouth of the cave with [Mana Sight] active, Cynrik caught sight of Brance and the others racing up the maze of tunnels.
---
Knowing that he was getting close to the exit, Brance looked above with his ocular skill and noticed Cynrik and the rest of C-Squad still fighting, and he shook his head upon seeing his brother monitoring their approach.
[Worry about your fight, we will make it there in 3 minutes Cyn,] Brance snorted as he looked away and focused on driving the sled through the tunnel without hitting anything.
---
[Tsk, I wouldn't have to worry about your dumb ass all the time if you kept in touch instead of going radio silent after killing that boss and saying you were en route. The only reason I knew you even took down the boss was the Kill Notification.]]
Rolling his eyes and unleashing a basketball-sized purple fireball into the face of a Yeti, causing it to scream in pain, Cynrik scoffed before kicking it in the balls, bringing it down to his level.
Faced with a pest destroying its clan, the Yeti roared and tried desperately to bite Cynrik. Unfortunately, instead of chomping down on flesh, it tasted metal as the much smaller young man thrust both Kodachi forward and stabbed it through the mouth and out the back of its head, killing the creature instantly.
Withdrawing both blades from the dead creature's head, Cynrik flourished the bloodied Kodachis, examined the battlefield, and took a slow, deep breath.
'Let's kick it up a notch, guys, don't go too hard, but I wanna clear out all the stragglers before Brance arrives in 2.5 minutes.' Cynrik stated in the psychic link as he slowly opened his eyes with renewed vigor and activated Susanoo before going on a killing spree.
Before this moment, he had been slowly picking off the creatures with the most HP, but now, it was like someone lit a fire under his and the rest of the C-squad's asses.
Gabby pulled out her second crossbow and was like a goddess of the battlefield. Sitting atop the armored Milo, her hair whipped back and forth as she unleashed volley after volley of Bolts, and each shot connected with a vital point on one or more of her targets.
But her reign of terror didn't end there; when Gabby stopped to reload, Milo tackled the injured Yeti before ripping out their throats with his teeth in a gory and primal display. Once finished, he would roar to the sky and move on to the next enemy.
Melody was a bit slower than the other two when killing the Yetis, mainly because she wasn't allowed to use her summons as per Cynrik's request. Although she understood his reasoning behind the team hiding their true power, it made things difficult for her and, as such, limited her to act as a pure ranged fighter by casting one skill after another.
Of everyone on C-Squad, Kurza was the least refined fighter. Still, due to his immense toolbox of skills, he could unleash various ranged Affinity attacks before casting one debuff after another on the enemies to aid his team.
With everyone doing their part, by the time B-squad emerged from the Cave system like a bat out of hell, only three Yetis were remaining. The remaining enemies was a welcomed sight for Selene, who immediately launched herself off the wedge-shaped sled and took her anger out on one of the three by tackling it to the ground from behind and stabbing it repeatedly in the back of the head with her spear.
When Brance finally slowed the sled to a stop, he noticed that C-Squad had yielded to the furious Selene as she turned into a demon, quickly slaughtering the other two creatures before anyone could say a word.
Sheathing his weapons and crossing his arms, Cynrik shook his head while watching Selene torment the creatures and looked over toward his younger brother, who shrugged his shoulders as if saying, "Wasn't my fault."
When the final Yeti succumbed to Selene's torture, a completion notification flashed in their eyes, but instead of joy, Cynrik uncrossed his arms and clicked his tongue loud enough that everyone tore their eyes away from the notification and looked at him.
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