The multiple monsters per round were becoming more frequent as well. The party failed to rest up during the regular monster fights as much as they had previously. Someone had to go fight another monster.
Round 25 brought two monsters simultaneously. Round 26 and Round 27 went back to one. It was probably their fatigue, but it made the monsters feel stronger than before.
"We're not getting much rest anymore," Roman said, wiping sweat from his brow.
"Stay focused," Lucille replied. "It's only going to get worse."
On Round 28, instead of the expected one or two monsters, three emerged from different gates. The party had to split their attention, with some members providing support to others as needed.
"This is getting hectic," Ning called out as he fought a crystal-scaled lizard.
Jax held off a four-armed monkey on his own, fighting it with absolute focus. He trusted his party to take care of the other monsters on their own, so he fought his own monster.
