A Turtle Nartheis resisted Valença's Incandescent Ray, and the moment the attack struck its shell, the magic was deflected. The creature retreated inside its own shell and began spinning through the air, firing water bullets toward the three of them.
"Ice Bear!"
An enormous ice bear appeared in front of them and resisted the attacks. They were fighting the boss because that was the best decision they could make, and they were certain that the others had reached the same conclusion.
The plan was simple: defeat the boss so that the dungeon would begin to fall apart and, as time passed, everyone would be forced to leave. This way, they could capture the thieves and rescue those who had fallen into the trap.
"Glacial Blades!"
Several blades created by Arvanys began moving around the turtle, known as the Colossal Shellback.
Still inside its shell, several spikes emerged from its back and were launched toward the three of them.
They ran in different directions, but the spikes continued pursuing each of them, changing trajectory whenever they tried to escape.
"Ice Claw!"
Elaris faced the spikes head-on, transforming both hands into enormous ice claws and breaking apart the spikes advancing toward her.
When she raised her head, she realized that the turtle had come out of its shell and was pointing its mouth directly at her. Elaris quickly created an ice shield, and before she could move away, an explosion of water came out of the creature's mouth and struck her defense.
Arvanys jumped onto the turtle while the spikes were still chasing her. She waited until the last moment before getting out of the way, causing the spikes themselves to strike the creature. The attack was more powerful than she expected, deeply piercing the shell.
'That was a good attack.'
Valença ran and suddenly stopped, allowing the spikes to pass beside her. Some of them still managed to cause small cuts on her body, but before they could change direction and pursue her again, Valença surrounded them all with fire magic. The heat quickly increased until the spikes began to melt, transforming into lava.
Using her magic to control the melted spikes, Valença launched them forcefully at the turtle. The attack struck the creature directly and caused the greatest damage they had inflicted up to that point, making the Colossal Shellback cry out in pain.
Elaris placed both hands on the ground and transferred her magic into the platform.
"Total Freezing!"
The ground quickly froze, advancing toward the turtle until it completely surrounded its body.
The Colossal Shellback was frozen, unable to move or use any magic.
Then a pulse of mana came out of Elaris's hands and traveled through the frozen ground, breaking the layer of ice and shattering the turtle along with it. The creature's body fell apart, leaving behind only an armor helmet.
"Now we just have to wait for them to fini—"
Before Elaris could finish the sentence, the dungeon began to disappear.
This meant that the other group had defeated the boss first, even so, it must have been only a short time ago since the dungeon was Completed.
Elaris and Valença were impressed by how quickly they had finished the battle. Arvanys, however, simply observed the situation calmly.
"Looks like you'll have problems in the battle between the academies."
Arvanys was right. At least in that situation, the students from the other academy had demonstrated that they were more objective than them. Even so, the two remained calm, since there were still months until the end of the year and that competition would not be decided by a single battle.
"Let's go back to where the trap was."
"Right."
"I hope they're okay."
The three ran back to the cave entrance and arrived in time to find Maevon, the two mercenaries, and the four Shengtian students. Only Liang was not there. When they asked where he was, they received an unexpected explanation.
"He summoned a jade dragon and ordered it to take those who fell with him back up. Then he went down alone."
Meilin looked clearly upset.
"Our leader is an idiot. I'm sure he did that because he prefers fighting alone."
"He just didn't want to save you?"
"Impossible."
The answer came immediately, as if it were something obvious. Everyone knew Liang very well and knew that, despite being a good leader, he had never found anyone capable of meeting his expectations. Because of that, he always preferred to deal with the biggest problems alone.
"The only ones who can meet those expectations of his are Rank 2 and Rank 1 of our academy."
"Is he really that demanding? I feel sorry for you."
Footsteps began echoing through the cave. Valença and the others looked toward the sound and saw Kael carrying Alex on his back. His disguise was still perfectly in place, after all, he respected his disguise partner. Right behind him were Kai and Elowyn, both with some injuries scattered across their bodies.
Meilin smiled and approached, lightly bumping her elbow against Kael's arm.
"You're alive? Impressive. You really can back up your words."
"Of course. I'm not a fraud."
"Master!"
Lyssandra immediately pushed Kael away and held Alex in her arms, as if she were carrying something extremely precious. Kael ended up hitting the wall, while Meilin seemed to be holding herself back from laughing.
Arvanys approached and helped him stand.
'Is this how the others see Yumeha?'
They decided to wait for some time exactly where the trap that had separated Liang was. The minutes passed and, little by little, they began to worry. Perhaps Liang was facing not only the thief, but also some Nartheis. After all, they did not believe that a thief would be stupid enough to face several Second Circle students alone.
Elowyn noticed that the dungeon was disappearing more and more and prepared to face the thief as soon as everyone was expelled from that place.
"Since we fought two, maybe the one he's fighting is the strongest."
"Seriously? Damn, I should have gone their way then."
Seeing Kael looking frustrated at having missed the opportunity to face the strongest opponent, Meilin gave him a few pats on the shoulder, trying to comfort him.
"Looks like you were waiting for me. Sorry for the delay. I wanted to capture him alive in case Sir Deymir wanted to obtain information."
Liang finally appeared. Several injuries covered his body, making many of them relieved to see that he was okay.
He was carrying the tied-up thief, with a jade dragon wrapped around his legs and arms. From the number of injuries on his body, it seemed that it had been a difficult fight.
'Well, that makes sense. At this time, this guy was the strongest of the three.'
Kael stood up and realized that the dungeon had completely disappeared. Around them, several guards were already waiting. The main guard approached the group and bowed, something that made Alex nervous because he had just woken up.
"Thank you for helping our lord."
"No need to thank us. You're paying us."
Upon realizing that Alex seemed uncomfortable with the bow, Kael sighed, not understanding why he was so nervous about something so simple. Then he remembered that, in the original story, Alex had always been shy around the guards. He had great admiration for those who wielded weapons and were capable of using Ego Weapons.
'Looks like the boy doesn't want to see his heroes bowing.'
"Thank you very much. I really appreciate it."
His employer's voice was heard shortly afterward. Cristian Deymir approached the group with a relieved expression upon realizing that they had managed to recover the stolen core.