*THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!*
The ground shook like the world's worst earthquake as hundreds of monsters stampeded behind their truck.
Their roars mixed into one hellish symphony that made Nero's teeth rattle.
"Holy shit, they're gaining on us!"
Sarah's voice cracked as she stared at the monster tsunami through the truck's back window.
The horde looked like someone had opened the gates of monster hell and invited everyone to a death party.
*CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!*
Trees exploded like toothpicks as A-tier monsters bulldozed through the forest.
Their eyes glowed with unnatural fury, like they were all hopped up on supernatural steroids.
"Jin, what's the plan here? Because 'drive really fast and hope for the best' isn't working!"
Nero gripped the side of the truck as it bounced over another pothole.
His knuckles were white and his Greater Instinct was screaming danger signals like a broken fire alarm.
"Everyone who can attack at range, start firing! We need to slow them down!"
Jin's command cut through the chaos like a knife through butter.
"Sarah, light them up! Laura, pick your targets! Rebecca, give us some obstacles!"
*WHOOSH! BOOM!*
Sarah's hands erupted in flames as she leaned out the back of the truck.
Her fire magic painted the forest behind them in shades of orange and red.
"Eat this, you ugly bastards!"
*FWOOOM!*
A massive fireball the size of a basketball slammed into a pack of Razor Hounds.
They scattered like bowling pins, their metallic fur catching fire and turning them into running torches.
*TWANG! THUNK! TWANG! THUNK!*
Laura's arrows were shot faster with terrifying precision, each shot found their marks with pinpoint lethal accuracy.
The shots were aimed for eyes, joints, anything that would slow the monsters down even if they weren't killed.
"Targeting the big ones! If we can cripple their speed, the smaller ones will pile up behind them!"
*SLAM!*
Rebecca pressed her palms against the truck bed and channeled her power into the road behind them.
Stone spikes erupted from the ground like angry teeth, creating a deadly obstacle course.
*CRACK! CRASH! ROAR!*
Several monsters impaled themselves or tripped over the barriers, but there were way too many that just smashed through like the spikes were made of paper.
"It's not enough! There are too fucking many of them!"
Marcus was practically vibrating with his enhancement ability, but even he looked worried.
Which was saying something, since the guy usually had the survival instincts of a suicidal goldfish.
That's when Aurelia stepped forward with her usual calm expression.
"Lord Nero."
Her calm and clear voice cut through the noise amidst the chaos.
"I will hold them back."
"What? No way, that's way too dangerous!"
Nero's protective instincts kicked in harder than a mule with anger issues.
"There are hundreds of them, Aurelia! Even you can't handle that many!"
"Trust me, Lord Nero."
Her golden eyes met his with unwavering confidence.
"I have sufficient power for this task."
Nero stared at her for a long moment, his brain warring with his heart.
Every logical part of him was screaming that this was insane.
But he has learned to trust Aurelia's judgment, especially when it comes to combat.
The girl is an overpowered angel of blender after all.
"Haaaahhhh… Fuck it, fine. Do what you need to do… But promise me if it gets too dangerous you will retreat back, got it?"
"Yes."
Aurelia made a small smile, as she immediately turned towards Jin.
"Continue your suppression fire. I will eliminate the primary pursuers."
Aurelia then moved toward the back of the truck like she was going for a casual stroll.
"Wait, that's suicide! You can't possibly handle that many monsters alone!"
Jin tried to grab Aurelia's arm, but stopped dead when a pair of massive white wings erupted from the angel's back.
*WHOOSH!*
The divine wings spread wide, each feather gleaming like polished glory in the sunlight.
Aurelia's entire aura shifted from 'mysterious warrior' to 'literal angel of death.'
"I'll be back soon."
*WHOOOM!*
She launched herself into the air like a silver missile, her wings beating with enough force to rock the truck.
In seconds, she was hovering above the monster horde like some kind of divine executioner.
The creatures below looked up at her with confused growls, probably wondering why their lunch had suddenly grown wings.
*FLASH!*
Aurelia raised her sword, and power gathered around the blade like concentrated starlight.
Her voice carried across the battlefield with divine authority that made everyone's spine tingle.
With that, she casted her AoE skill,
"Divine Slash."
*SHIIIING!*
Silver energy exploded from her position in a perfect sphere.
The divinity condensed into hundreds of aerial blade strikes that hung in the air like frozen lightning.
For one perfect moment, everything went silent.
Then Aurelia brought her sword down.
*SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!*
The condensed strikes descended like rain made of razor blades.
Each one found its target with deadly precision, cutting through monster hide, bone, and armor like they were made of wet paper.
*ROAR! HOWL! SCREECH!*
The monster horde's coordinated charge turned into complete chaos as the monster regardless of tiers got bisected by divine wrath.
Bodies hit the ground in pieces, creating a gruesome obstacle course that tripped up the smaller monsters.
"... Holy shit."
Sarah's mouth hung open as she watched Aurelia single-handedly turn a monster army into a pile of twitching meat.
Even Nero, who saw it before, couldn't help question how much power it had increased since before.
'Is it because of the level up?'
Nero wanted to check but knew it's not the time for that.
"She just... she just murdered like 50 monsters in three seconds."
Even the usually silent Laura, commented with sheer awe on her face.
"More like 80."
Rebecca lowered her casting hand with the expression of someone who'd just witnessed a miracle.
"Although most of them are C to B-tiers, there were some of them that were A-tier too."
The remaining monsters raged around in confusion, their pack coordination shattered along with their leadership.
It's understandable that most A-tier weren't one-shotted considering their massive increase in stats compared to lower tiered monsters.
But the fact that she can injure them to a stop with a single AoE skill, shows how much power output that skill has… and how much energy it consumes just to successfully cast one.
Without the big guys driving them forward, the smaller creatures lost their collective madness and scattered back into the forest.
*WHOOSH!*
Aurelia landed on the truck with the grace of a falling feather.
Her wings folded back and disappeared like they'd never existed.
"Threat neutralized. We should continue before reinforcements arrive."
She said it like she'd just taken out the trash instead of committing monster genocide.
But before anyone could celebrate their narrow escape, the truck suddenly lurched to a violent stop.
*SCREECH! CRASH!*
"What the hell now?"
Sarah grabbed onto the side rail as everyone pitched forward.
Through the front windshield, they could see exactly what the problem was.
A giant praying mantis the size of a small building stood in the middle of the road.
Its metallic exterior gleamed like polished steel, and its blade-like arms were easily as long as telephone poles.
The thing looked like someone had crossed a normal mantis with a tank and given it a serious anger management problem.
"A-tier Mantis Reaper!"
Jin's voice went up three octaves.
"Everyone get down!"
*SLICE!*
The mantis's blade arms swept horizontally through the air with a sound like tearing metal.
The top half of the truck's cab disappeared in a shower of sparks and twisted steel.
*SPLORCH!*
The driver's body hit the road in pieces, his blood painting the asphalt in an abstract art pattern that would give Picasso nightmares.
*SWERVE!*
The truck veered wildly to the left as the dead man's foot slipped off the gas pedal.
They were heading straight for a cluster of trees that would turn them all into human pancakes.
"Shit!"
Nero vaulted over the seats and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands.
His Greater Instinct kicked into overdrive, slowing his perception of time to a crawl.
'Turn right, not too hard or we'll flip. Straighten out. Push the corpse away from the pedals…'
Nero calmed himself down to a terrifying level.
*THUD!*
He shoved the driver's remains out the door with one hand while steering with the other.
His foot found the gas pedal just as the truck started to slow down.
"Nero, look out!"
*ROAR! HOWL! SNARL!*
More monsters poured out of the forest ahead of them, drawn by the noise and the smell of blood.
Dozens of creatures blocked the road like a living wall of teeth and claws.
"Formation! Ranged fighters, clear the path!"
Jin's battle instincts kicked in even as the truck bounced over rough terrain.
"Jin, I got this! Keep everyone focused on the sides!"
Nero's passive skill painted the world in slow motion as he processed every obstacle, every monster, every possible path through the chaos.
'Left around the Stone Crusher.'
*SWERVE!*
'Right to avoid the Razor Hounds.'
*SWERVE!*
'Accelerate through the gap between those two Spike Boars.'
*VROOM!*
The truck weaved through the monster pack like a metal snake, Nero's enhanced reflexes keeping them inches away from death at every turn.
*SLASH! THUNK!*
A Razor Hound leaped at the passenger side, but Nero jerked the wheel just enough to make it slam into the door frame instead of the window.
*CRASH!*
The creature bounced off like a furry cannonball and rolled into the ditch.
But their luck couldn't last forever.
*THUD! THUD! THUD!*
Three monsters managed to latch onto the truck's sides and back.
Two Razor Hounds and a Stone Crusher that looked like a mobile boulder with anger issues.
"Goddamn hitchhikers! Get them off!"
"Working on it!"
*SLASH! SLICE!*
Jin's daggers found the first Razor Hound's throat, turning it into dog sashimi.
*FWOOOM!*
Sarah's fire magic cooked the second one medium-rare before it could bite through the truck's armor.
*CRACK! SMASH!*
Rebecca created stone spikes that impaled the Stone Crusher from multiple angles.
The rocky monster crumbled into gravel and rolled off the back.
But the chase was far from over.
*ROAR! HOWL! SCREECH!*
More creatures poured out of the forest on both sides, following the truck like it was an ice cream van playing a death metal song.
"Where the hell are they all coming from?"
Marcus punched a monster that got too close to his side of the truck, sending it flying like a furry missile.
"There must be something driving them forward! Monsters don't usually coordinate like this!"
Laura's analytical mind was working overtime even as she put arrows in monster eyes.
*WHOOSH!*
Aurelia landed on the truck bed again, her wings folding back as she assessed their situation.
"Lord Nero, where do you need me to guide us?"
"Anywhere that doesn't have a million monsters trying to eat us!"
Nero's knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he navigated around a fallen tree that definitely hadn't been there a minute ago.
Aurelia's golden eyes scanned the horizon like a divine GPS system.
After a moment, she pointed toward a narrow dirt path that branched off from the main road.
"That direction. The monster concentration appears lower."
"Good enough for me!"
*SCREECH!*
Nero yanked the wheel hard right, sending the truck sliding around the corner like something out of an action movie.
Half the pursuing monsters overshot the turn and crashed into the trees.
The other half kept following, but their numbers had thinned considerably.
*BANG! BOOM! SLASH!*
The team kept up their suppressing fire as Nero pushed the truck to its limits on the winding forest path.
Branches scraped against the sides like fingernails on a chalkboard, and the engine was making sounds that suggested it was not enjoying this experience.
But gradually, blessedly, the monster roars grew fainter behind them.
*VROOM... Vroom... Vroom...*
The truck's engine settled into a more normal rhythm as they put distance between themselves and their pursuers.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only minutes, the forest went quiet except for the rumble of their engine.
"... I think we lost them."
Sarah's voice was barely a whisper, like she was afraid speaking too loud would bring the monsters back.
"Thank fucking Christ."
Rebecca slumped against the side of the truck, her brown aura flickering out.
"Is everyone still breathing?"
Jin did a quick headcount while cleaning monster blood off her daggers.
"All present and accounted for. Well, except for our driver."
"Poor bastard."
Rebecca shook her head sadly.
"He didn't even see it coming."
"None of us saw it coming."
Laura was still scanning the forest for threats, her bow ready.
"That whole attack felt... coordinated. Like something was driving those monsters forward."
"Yeah, well, we can figure out why later."
Nero adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, his Greater Instinct finally returning to normal levels.
"Right now, let's focus on not dying before we reach our destination."
"Speaking of which, how far are we from the target zone?"
Jin unfolded the mission map and tried to figure out where the hell they were.
"If I'm reading this right... we're not even halfway there yet."
"Great. So we've already lost our driver and barely escaped death, and we haven't even reached the fun part yet."
Marcus's sarcasm was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"This mission is off to a fantastic start."
"At least we know the team works well together."
Sarah tried to inject some positivity into the situation.
"We handled that whole clusterfuck pretty smoothly, all things considered."
"Smoothly?"
Nero glanced back at her through the rearview mirror.
"We just got chased by a monster army and our truck looks like it went through a blender."
"But we're all still alive, aren't we?"
Aurelia's calm observation carried more weight than it should have.
"In situations like these, survival is the only victory that matters."
*Vroom! Vroom!*
The battered truck continued down the forest path, carrying its cargo of tired, bloodied, but living warriors toward whatever fresh hell awaited them at their destination.
Behind them, the forest had returned to its normal level of danger instead of apocalyptically lethal.
Which, in their current situation, counted as a massive improvement.
But as they drove deeper into unknown territory, each of them couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the warm-up act.
The real show was still waiting for them ahead.
And of course,
"..."
There are still those who are plotting something else as the chaos ensues.
***
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