The next wave consisted of smaller enemies and smaller Tsuchigumo as well but they were pushover and didn't give me much challenge compared to the first and second wave so that was that.
Still, even after the third wave, it seems Queen Tanya has yet to finish up the whole thing. The ritual is still on and it seems she is not gonna be done anytime soon.
"Wow, I think this is testing my patience a lot. Although it hasn't been that long since the enemies started appearing, it's indeed getting troublesome on my part," Queen Tori frowned.
"Really? It hasn't been that long since we started and yet you seemed to be already getting annoyed about how long the progress of the Mind Extraction has been. It might be even longer than this," I shrugged as I finish off one of the monsters that tried to attack me.
"I know that but this is getting annoying real fast. Not only do we stay on our ground like this but we are also stuck at waiting a few times if the waves of monsters don't come much earlier than they should be."
"Eh, it's not that bad. Maybe because you usually have to fight and strategize on the flow of the battle against giant enemies and barely on small fry like these guys you slowly find it boring. Perhaps if there are big monsters, it might alleviate your boredom?" I tried guessing.
"No. Not really and I don't think making the enemy bigger will be better."
As we are talking, Queen Tanya started to groan, and her expression while her eyes are closed is in pain. Not only that but the ice on the Jorogumo is starting to melt as the head of the Jorogumo is already moving out from the ice. I enforced the ice once more but the melting process seems to be accelerating as time passes by.
"Bladeheart, the next wave is coming!" Queen Tori shouted while I am still fixing the ice and preventing it from melting.
"Please hold out on it with the others for a bit, I needed to fix the ice from melting!"
"Alright. Just don't take too long as I think the next wave seems composed of bigger monsters..."
I focused again on the ice. Compared to before, the ice continues to melt and I have to keep casting [Ice Prison] to renew the durability of the ice. Just so everyone knows that my [Ice Prison] does not melt from the temperature but melts over time or it breaks to pieces. The Jorogumo is weak enough that it can't break away from the ice, but this is something I have not seen before. The melting time of the [Ice Prison] shouldn't be this fast. It took a few hours before the first Ice Prison starts to melt so it's close to impossible to have the ice melt like ice cream for a few minutes exposed to the elements and as I said before, the ice doesn't melt from the heat so what is happening and why is it melting faster than I expected it should be?
Queen Tanya is still there and still channeling her powers and here I am getting troubled with the ice that slowly melts. The monsters are already here and I can see that Queen Tori and the others are also fighting back. It might take a bit of time but Queen Tori does have a fantastic job at doing the defenses. Well, my skeletons are also helping, and Lina, Tina, Gobu, Mizuchi, Leona, and the desert wolves are doing mighty fine as well, but it's clear enough that our numbers are not enough to deal with different sides while fighting and I really have to deal with the melting ice problem as soon as possible before this ends. We might have the numbers and the ability to kill monsters stronger than us but that doesn't mean we can keep on going for that long either.
The wave ended and Queen Tori managed to keep the fight without much of my help. However, the ice is still melting so badly that Queen Tori had to use some of her talismans to prolong the freeze time and yet, it does not help as the melting process is still progressing normally.
"What is happening? Why is the ice still melting? It shouldn't be happening if you refreshed the [Ice Prison] multiple times," Queen Tori is perplexed about what is happening either.
"No idea what is going on either but I have to keep on doing this or else the Jorogumo will be free immediately which might ruin the ritual and we have to start over."
Tina and Lina approached us, seeing how we are struggling with the melting ice.
"Master, I think using a spell that can slow down time might help out on this if the melting process continues despite your efforts of stopping it," Tina suggested.
"Yes, Master. Shouldn't that be possible? You used some of those spells in combination before in some tasks and it works properly to slow down the process of time there while we perform the task. I think it is a brilliant strategy, no?" Lina agreed to Tina's suggestion.
"I think it was a fantastic suggestion, both of you. But I don't think it will be a good thing to use that here."
"Huh? Why not?" Lina frowned.
"If we used that, not only the time will be slowed but perhaps the process that Queen Tanya is doing will be annoying. If we also put them in a [Time Bubble] and manipulate the time for them to increase their time while we have our time remain the same as that will only attract massive hordes of enemies every single second or minute on us without breaks as Queen Tanya finishes the ritual so the only thing we can do is keep ourselves the same thing and just remain like this as we continue to fight. Who knows, we might be ending this much faster than it should be."
Yes. It works well on slowing time and increasing our movement time but that does not always work in our favor if we used it on ourselves, making the slow time progress better be used on enemies alone. Other than that, it's not really a good idea.
"Which means we are stuck here doing this wave after wave then?" Queen Tori scratches her head.
As a result, I was stuck at keeping the [Ice Prison] intact while Queen Tanya is already reaching the final phases of the [Mind Extraction].
The waves of monsters continue to appear but we soon found ourselves getting overwhelmed by monsters as well. Mizuchi seems to be almost full now as he now disregards the monster stockpile and lets them pile up now compared to before.
"Bladeheart, this is getting out of hand! The monsters are getting more and more aggressive alongside their numbers increasing as well! Is the ice still melting fast?!" Queen Tori asked as she blast off a few more monsters.
"It is still melting!"
"Damn it! Sis, this is getting long!" Queen Tori is now frustrated and a bit angry.
Even I felt like this is getting out of hand as well. In fact, my experience bar of mine is already full, ready to break through the next limit once the Level cap update in the system is given out and the number is still increasing.
The ice on the Jorogumo is also getting much faster than before so I have to cast the [Ice Prison] on her head first to avoid her head from fully melting off as she will start spitting poison and she might target Queen Tanya who is still busy.
The skeletons are also having a hard time as well. I have to give them some heals so that their bones are regenerating fast enough if they get destroyed but it isn't working well.
Queen Tanya still shows no sign that the progress of the [Mind Extraction] is going to halt soon and everyone is at their limit. I even have to assist by releasing multiple AOE magic scrolls to elevate the suffering everyone suffers but it takes a bit more than that as the enemies are now swarming all over us and we can't even see our surroundings anymore due to the number of enemies swarming left and right.
Soon enough, I felt that I can't even my attempt to keep it frozen is not working anymore and the enemies are just swarming all over. Seeing how everyone is now getting overwhelmed, I think it's time to abandon the attempt and instead, help out everyone before they get killed as a result.
"Ugh, this is annoying Sis! Why is your ability so damn troublesome? DAMN IT, SIS!" Queen Tori is now too pissed to be reasoned with.
Perhaps a stroke of luck just descended on us, just as we are about to get overrun, Queen Tanya kept her eyes close for quite some time suddenly opened her eyes.
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