Keeping an eye on the entirety of Fish Stone City from the spiral staircase that was conveniently located at the center of the city, the older A Rank Adventurer could not help feeling increasingly troubled by the situation just outside the barrier that by now teetered on the brink of collapse.
The adventurers that went out and held the frontline were already close to collapsing and had collapsed completely in some locations already. The only reason why the line still held was because of the arrival of a B Rank Adventurer Team from a nearby town who had chased the large horde of monsters now besieging Fish Stone City.
Originally, he had wanted to join in the battle himself. However, the dire state of the barrier had forced him to remain behind and focus his full attention on maintaining the barrier, as the second it collapsed would be the second Fish Stone City fell to the monster horde. Holding on for a few minutes without the barrier was simply impossible, as those stronger monsters that remained hidden would undoubtedly spring forth the second the barrier vanished.
As for why these stronger monsters didn’t dare to rush forward and attack the barrier themselves? It wasn’t too difficult to guess, as they should have witnessed the terrifying might of the barrier guarding the only town present on the fourth floor of the dungeon, a barrier that was strong enough to fend off S Rank Monsters.
Of course, the barrier guarding the Fish Stone City was nowhere near that powerful and didn’t even have any way to attack in the first place, but the stronger monsters that had come from the fourth floor seemed to have been traumatized by the barrier of that town and didn’t dare to attack before the barrier was gone.
"But... The barrier will at most hold up for another minute..." Muttering this to himself as he gazed up at the increasingly large cracks forming on the dome shaped barrier that covered the entire Fish Stone City, the older adventurer could not help feeling a sense of impending doom. Having seen no sign of the S Rank Adventurer or others he had requested assistance from.
And as another thirty seconds flew by, the older adventurer realized that help might not be arriving, as he slowly narrowed his eyes while tightly gripping his weapon, an ornately designed wooden staff with a bright yellow magic crystal embedded at the top. Symbolizing his status as an earth mage to anyone with a little knowledge of magic.
"Hm? Someone’s here!?"
However, as he was ready to give up on waiting for reinforcements and join the battle himself, he suddenly noticed a large group descending the staircase from the second floor of the dungeon and after another few seconds, he recognized a few of the people rushing down towards the section of the staircase he was located on as A Rank Adventurers who had come from the headquarters together with him.
The sight of these familiar figures was more than enough for him to silently breathe a sigh of relief before focusing his attention back on the barrier, as his momentary lack of attention had caused it to weaken significantly. Reaching the point where several small holes had emerged that some of the monsters could squeeze their way through into the city. Forcing some of the adventurers outside the barrier to rush back inside to deal with the intruders.
Desperate as the situation with the barrier was, it didn’t last for long, as the group of powerful adventures soon enough reached him and without saying a word, three mages no less powerful than himself stepped forward to help stabilize the barrier before it completely collapsed. Barely saving it in time, while the rest of the adventurers continued moving downwards before rushing off towards the walls to help deal with the monster horde.
"Huh? Where is the leader?" However, being familiar with this group of adventurers, the older adventurer who had a chance to sit down and rest for the first time since the attack on Fish Stone City had begun, could not help exclaiming in a somewhat surprised tone after noticing a rather important figure missing from this group of adventurers who had come as reinforcements or rather, it was the most important person. The S Rank Adventurer!
Strong as the over fifty B Rank Adventurers and the several A Rank Adventurers who had shown up were, they wouldn’t be enough to handle the massive monster horde currently besieging the Fish Stone City on their own.
"The leader... He is occupied with something else at the moment."
"Occupied!? What do you mean occupied!? If this city is lost, there will be a clear passage to the second floor of the dungeon. After which, a monster stampede will be inevitable!"
"I know and so does the leader, but another S Rank Monster emerged on the way here and the leader was the closest one and left to handle it before it caused any serious damage. Until that S Rank Monster is dealt with, we are on our own."
"This... I understand, with our current forces, it should still be possible to dig ourselves in and stall for time." Hearing what the other said, the older adventurer could only nod his head before silently closing his eyes.
Although he said that they could stall for time, it was entirely dependent on those stronger monsters that still hid within the monster horde.
Without any stronger monsters leading the front, those A Rank and B Rank Adventurers were able to hold the line and deal with large numbers of monsters on their own, but if stronger monsters emerged to hold them down, the weaker monsters would be able to freely attack the barrier and although there was now four A Rank Adventurers along with new resources to supply the barrier, it wouldn’t be long before it broke if all those weaker monsters began attacking it together.
The resources only stretched so far, and the mana of A Rank Adventurers wasn’t endless.
Troublesome as this situation was, there was nothing to do about it and all they could do was hope the leader was able to deal with the S Rank Monster fast and come over to help them or another S Rank Adventurer came and helped them.
Unfortunately, the latter was unlikely, as the third floor of the dungeon was massive with several other cities with passages leading up to the second floor of the dungeon like Fish Stone City, some in worse situations than the current Fish Stone City that had just received reinforcements.
...
While reinforcements arrived, Scaly had to stop herself from descending towards the walls of the human city like she had originally intended when she saw holes starting to appear in the barrier protecting the city. Having intended to use a hole in the barrier to slip inside and kill of the exhausted humans recovering on top the walls, something that had become impossible with reinforcements showing up and almost immediately repairing the damaged barrier.
More humans? And... So many powerful humans!
Silently thinking this to herself as she watched this group of new powerful humans getting to work and easily repelling the monster horde, Scaly could not help grumbling slightly out of disappointment. Feeling a bit saddened that she had been unable to sneak inside the human city like she had originally intended.
But this disappointment didn’t last for long, as she realized that with the human side becoming stronger, those monsters that had been keeping an eye on her and preventing her from starting a monster massacre, would soon find themselves forced to the frontlines if they wanted to have any chance at breaking through the barrier and ascending up to the second floor of the dungeon.
Just thinking about how she could potentially kill off those annoying monsters that evaded her so far by remaining hidden inside the sea of monsters made her excited. Understanding that if she could kill those stronger monsters, her level would undoubtedly soon reach level 10!
But as she eagerly waited for her time to strike, Scaly soon noticed something odd... The stronger monsters weren’t charging forward to attack! Only those weaker monsters that would barely give her a little more than 10 or so experience at her current level were recklessly charging to their deaths. Doing close to no damage to the barrier guarding the city. Damage that the barrier recovered almost the second after it had been done.
No... I can’t allow this to continue! I must find a way to make them attack those humans seriously...
Narrowing her eyes as she thought this to herself, Scaly frowned visibly as she observed the current stalemate. Trying her best to think of a way to make the stronger monster come out of hiding to attack the humans with all of their strength instead of the useless attacks currently being implemented by the stronger monsters to slowly chip away at the strength of the barrier and people hidden inside said barrier.