Unaware of what's going on above, the group began their assault as Himeko rushed out to the open. Stabbing her great sword into the ground she twisted it, causing the surrounding area to crack. With her sword alone she made the ground rupture and rise with force, knocking back the monsters.
The agitated monsters began their charge focusing on Himeko. The eagle screeched with its non-existent vocal cords as it prepared to launch magma from its mouth. From behind the corner Elysia quickly aimed her bow, firing the enchanted arrow.
With great accuracy, she hit the core chilling it with a splash of water. The eagle instantly cooled down, preventing it from producing any magma.
With the eagle temporarily out of commission, the rest of the group ran out and stood behind Himeko.
Luna stayed by Elysia so she could direct her if need be as well as the group.
A few of the molten monsters charged at Himeko, but with one swing of her great sword they were knocked back. She made sure to not hit them too hard as she didn't need the kills.
Shaman, Clara, Silver and Elanor split into groups of 2, taking advantage of their shadow skills. Shaman and Clara got closer to some of the stunned molten monsters with [Shadow Cloak] while Silver and Elanor did the same.
This way they could move around without pulling any attention from Himeko who was keeping the other monsters busy.
The beasts Shaman and Clara came across were canines and large cats which have their core on their chest, making it hard to hit when facing them head-on.
Taking the initiative Clara leapt from the shadows and into the air. Performing a somersault, she spun her whips and then struck the ground near the monsters with all her accumulated momentum. The whips exploded with lightning, creating a shockwave that launched the monsters into the air, giving Shaman a clear shot at their cores.
Sliding underneath them in the brief moment she had, Shaman conjured ice spikes aimed at each of their cores. Thanks to the buff Luna gave them as well as it's effectiveness against magma, her ice was strong enough to break the monster's cores.
*
Silver and Elanor approached their monsters a little differently as instead of dogs and cats, they were up against humanoids. However, they looked different from the first one they encountered. Instead of normal looking humanoid bodies, they had oversized arms which looked like clubs.
Silver had an idea and that was to use the monster's limbs against them. He didn't think they had perfect control over them so he thought it might be possible to redirect their hits. He whispered his plans to Elanor who was sceptical of the plan, but she still agreed to do it.
The major concern was that Silver was going to use himself as bait to make the monsters swing. During that swing, Elanor would use her wind to redirect the hit into its chest, destroying the core or at least giving Silver the opportunity to smash it himself.
Not really having time to even argue about it, they both exited [Shadow Cloak], grabbing the attention of the 3 humanoids.
Not sparing a moment, they charged at Silver while swinging downwards. This was not ideal as redirecting it would cost too much energy, so he improvised.
Entering [Shadow Walk] just before they made contact, he appeared behind one of the monsters while lodging his scythe into its core. Losing one of their members did not phase the monsters as the other two recovered and swung towards Silver horizontally.
This was the opportunity they were looking for so Silver quickly dodged, allowing Elanor to use her magic.
Swinging both her fans, she conjured wind that had the same force as a full-speed train. The wind hit the humanoids, diverting their attacks, albeit not the way the duo expected. Instead, one of the humanoids hit directly into the chest of the other one, killing it in an instant with a bright explosion of magma.
In addition, due to the sheer force of the hit, the surviving monster lost its entire right oversized arm in the explosion.
It worked out either way and provided a chance for Silver to kill the remaining humanoid. As Silver swung for the core, what he didn't see was that the humanoid was able to keep swinging its broken arm all while regenerating it.
Before he had a chance to react, a rock arm hit him directly on the side, sending him flying into the wall. Imprinting his own body in the rocky surface, Silver's entire body ached. Yet before the pain could register, a green glow enveloped his body.
Just as Silver was hit a defensive spell was casted by Luna, protecting him from fatal damage. Once he was embedded in the wall, Luna then casted a greater heal, removing any pain he would have felt.
Silver got out of the wall like nothing ever happened, but he was still dazed from the attack.
"Silver!" Luna called out to warn him as the humanoid lunged at him for another attack.
However, Elanor quickly summoned a wooden spike and shot it towards the monster. The wooden spike sizzled as its holy nature fought to keep it from burning up, all the while Elanor's wind propelled it to greater speeds.
Before the monster could take another step towards Silver, the wooden spike made impact, destroying its core.
Luna let out a sigh of relief as she wasn't sure if her protection spells would be enough. She may be a great healer, but there isn't much she can do to protect against extremely powerful attacks that can instantly kill someone.
With the 2 groups having dealt with their monsters, Himeko swung her sword as if in a baseball game, sending more monsters for them to kill. These were the last enemies of the wave, so it allowed Himeko to now focus on the bird that Elysia had been distracting.
The 2 groups joined together to take advantage of the monsters still being mid-air. Thankfully Himeko hit like she was going for a home run, so it gave ample time for them to prepare.
Elanor threw wooden spears while Silver created shadow spikes that emerged from the ground. Shaman shot ice spikes in combination with her stardust portals to send them towards the cores that couldn't be easily reached. Clara combined her whips to create her sword and extended it with lighting to give her the reach she needed.
Before the monsters hit the ground, they were already dead.
*
Elysia kept peppering the bird with arrows, not giving it a chance to charge any attacks. This forced it to swoop instead of staying in the air.
Elysia was able to easily dodge the bird and even hit it with a sneaky arrow as it flew by. Himeko figured out the bird's attack pattern from that last attack, so as it flew down for another swoop, she jumped into the air.
Landing on its back, Himeko slammed it into the nearby ground, allowing Elysia to get the finishing blow. As she stabbed her spear directly through its back, the bird's core was destroyed marking the end of their first wave of enemies.
"Glad to see everyone did so well. Even though we had one small scare, you are all trained so well that there was no need to worry." Luna was thoroughly impressed with the group's synergy which reminded her of her own party.
"Did we ever train Elanor?" Shaman whispered to both Elysia and Clara as she had no recollection of Elanor getting any training at all.
"I don't think we ever did." Elysia tried to think, but they hadn't even had a long enough break to even bother.
"Didn't the system say something?" Clara wasn't too sure, but she swore Rea said something about the system having a hand in keeping Elanor up to speed.
[Yes I did, because of the skill "Call of Lin", Elanor has been given a boost to her combat senses. I shouldn't be doing this, but as per request by... unnamed forces, I have been influencing Elanor's moves to ensure she makes the right judgement. Do not worry it is helping her greatly and slowly I will be helping her less and less.] Rea gave the explanation they were after, but if anything they wish they didn't know.
It felt like they were being cheated since they never got that kind of assistance.
[Oi, without me she would be screwed and I don't want to see poor baby Silver getting heart broken.] Rea unconsciously spoke out, betraying the real reason why she had helped.
"The system has a thing for Silver?" Clara was surprised to hear this as she thought the system didn't have feelings. Just some entity programmed to act like a person.
'Stay away from my boy!" Shaman screamed in her mind as she didn't want to draw attention to herself.
"Girls?" Himeko saw them whispering to themselves and it really wasn't the time for it.
"Sorry!" The three of them instantly stopped talking with Rea and listened up.
"Anyway, we will continue this process until you are strong enough or the door opens up, so if you need anything do so now before we continue." Luna didn't want to stop their momentum as the more they got done, the more they could help.
Exhaustion also wouldn't be a problem as Luna would be able to refresh them in an instant.
No one had anything to say, so they proceeded to go deeper into the dungeon repeating the process.
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