Subject 19 broke left before anyone could stop him.
"W-Wait", Ares tried to stop him and so did Henry as well. They took a brief look at each other.
Subject 19 dashed forward with incredible speed when he spotted a lone pale stalker clinging to the rough walls, not far from the group. The creature shrieked upon noticing him and scrambled toward the ceiling, but it was too late. With a swift slash of his mana blade, Subject 19 brought it down.
Ares was stunned, and so was the rest of the group, frozen in place long enough for the other pale stalkers to seize the chance to avenge their fallen.
"UWAAARGGHH!" "KYAAAAAHHH!" The victims' cries rang out, snapping everyone back to the chaos. "Shit," Ares cursed, caught off guard by how quickly the fight had erupted. "Run!" Marcus shouted, prompting many to flee—everyone except Subject 19, who charged at the pale stalkers, attacking them all at once.
Several more pale stalkers suddenly poured out from unknown locations. "What the heck? How are there this many of them?" Sylvie shouted as she ran, and Marcus replied, "Pale stalkers hunt in clusters; they rarely hunt alone unless we're facing the mother."
The group kept running, while those at the back started falling behind, either tripping or being shoved aside. "Keep running!"
They sprinted through the narrow tunnel, too cramped for the whole group to run side by side. "Damn it," Sylvie cursed, gripping her bow as an idea sparked. "Jones, carry me."
Jones's eyes widened in disbelief. "Sylvie, we're in the middle of running for our lives—" She cut him off. "And we'll die if we can't do something. I have an idea, and I need you to carry me."
Jones stared for a moment before giving in. "Nia, hold my shield." Nia nodded, taking it as Jones crouched, offering his back as a stepping platform. Sylvie climbed up and settled onto his shoulders. Jones let out a yelp when he felt Sylvie's legs on both sides of his head.
Ares glanced back and caught sight of her actions. "Sylvie, what the hell are you doing?"
"Trying to save our asses," she shot back, gripping her bow tightly as she spun a full 180 degrees to aim at the pale stalkers. Drawing the string, she conjured an arrow of pure manaforce. Despite her trembling hands, she held it steady for a few seconds before letting it fly.
SWISH.
The arrow zipped past the other participants and struck the ground dead-on, erupting in an explosion that took out three pale stalkers.
"Incredible, you're able to use manaforce with your bow", Marcus commented but sylvie ignored him as she conjured two more arrows and released her hold, sending them to the rear, causing two explosions and taking out five more.
"Damn it, there's no end to them," Sylvie said. "They travel in clusters. If not for Subject 19, we wouldn't be in this mess," he added, glancing at Subject 19, who was running alongside them.
"Damn it," Ares cursed. He didn't know what to do; he had wanted to scout the geography of the first floor before moving on. Then—
"UWWWAARRRGH!" The cries rang out, but these were different—like a battle cry. "Uh, guys... I think you can stop," Sylvie said, confused. Ares and the others looked back as Jones dropped her, landing heavily.
"The heck are they doing?"
"What's going on?"
Instead of fleeing from the pale stalkers, the participants at the rear turned to fight, drawing their weapons and charging straight through the horde. Those in the center and front could only watch as the rear battled, some too scared to join and others sprinting past Ares to venture deeper into the dungeon.
Ares was so far from the rear that he couldn't see much, but he caught sight of something—or someone—familiar. With shining silver hair and radiant golden eyes, Henry was leading the charge.
"Its henry, " Ares said. The others snapped at him. "Really?", "Yes".
"They're signing their own death warrant.
We can't take on that many," Jones said.
It made sense—most of the participants were C-rank or lower, and their fighting force was barely half the size of the enemy's. Sure, they had a few higher ranks, including Sylvie and Nia, whose rank was still unknown but suspected by Ares to be higher, yet even that wouldn't be enough.
Ares frowned, hesitating before speaking. "We can't keep running forever... We'll have to fight them too."
"What?" Sylvie said.
"You know we can't take these things—and I don't just mean them, I'm talking about the dungeon itself. We're just going to reveal all our abilities, get countered later, and end up dead. Those guys chose this because they wanted to. Henry probably told them to, I guess."
"But—"
"But what?
Risk our lives to save people and show off our abilities to an adaptive dungeon that can create countermeasures against us?
And we've never even met some of them before.
We're all going for the same position, and it's honestly pretty limited." It felt more like she was venting her frustration than issuing a warning. "Not to mention, look at the sheer size of them. It'll only be a matter of time before we're killed."
Sylvie's logic made sense, and even Marcus had to admit it. There was no chance they could win, and Ares had no way around it.
"But if we don't fight them, we'll have trouble with them later," another voice chimed in. The group turned to see it was Nia.
"What do you mean?" Ares asked. "If we don't kill those monsters, they'll come after us eventually."
"Huh." It was then that Marcus remembered something, clutching his head.
"Shit! Your friend is right."
"What do you mean?" Sylvie asked this time.
"What I mean is when pale stalkers find prey they view as far weaker than them, they go for the hunt regardless whethere they're here or not."
"Meaning?" Jones asked.
"Meaning, even if we leave, they'll track our scent and find others inside the dungeon too. And with their tunnels, things aren't going to go well for us. How could I have forgotten this?"
Marcus was furious with himself for missing such important information, displaying an emotion they hadn't seen since meeting him. Ares glanced toward Sylvie, who was already looking nervous after hearing Marcus.
He sighed, conflicted.
"I know you don't want to fight them, and I also want to avoid needless battles. But if those pointless fights get tied to the ones we can't avoid as we go deeper into this dungeon, there's no telling what might happen." Everyone felt the weight of his words.
"HAH! I'm with Ares," Jones said.
"I can probably handle these things with my defensive abilities." He gestured for Nia to return his shield. "Same here. I don't want to waste stamina dodging whatever's down below and dealing with these things," Marcus added with a nod.
That only left Sylvie.
"..."
Sylvie was stunned for a moment before sighing in surrender.
"So, what are we going to do against these monsters without showing our powers? I've already revealed mine," she gestured with her bow.
Ares nodded, glancing at Henry and the others engaged in battle—over twenty participants fighting, including Subject 19, while the rest were likely deeper inside the dungeon.
"We're going to fight, but with strategy and fun."
"I feel like I've already started regretting my decision."