"This is bad."
Pain invaded Ellen’s consciousness as it spread from her leg upward to her head. Only then did she notice the sharp limb that had emerged from beneath the ground and pierced into her flesh.
In the next moment, one of her blades returned and severed the limb while she took a staggering step backward, her expression filled with pain.
Cracks spread where she stood while the worm whose limb had just been cut emerged from beneath the ground, only for the blade to pierce it and end its life.
She glanced at her leg while gritting her teeth to push the pain away, keeping her focus on the battle ahead.
She didn’t try to pull out the remains of the limb still lodged in her leg because that would leave the wound open, so she endured its presence there.
Instead, she focused on retreating behind Elliot while maintaining her side.
Ahead of her, Leona stepped backward after cutting down a monster. At the same time, she thrust toward her right side, her sword piercing through the worm’s head and killing it.
In the next moment, she tried to pull back her sword and pivot on her heel to face the approaching danger, but she was too slow and allowed another insect to reach her lower leg.
Its limbs wrapped around her leg while its massive mouth opened beneath her, but before it could bite her, Ellen’s blade descended from above and passed through its body. Only then did its limbs loosen, allowing Leona to retreat while releasing a breath full of relief.
"Hooof..."
Chaos rose before her while sharp screeches filled her ears.
There were no words of thanks or anything else... because there was no time for anything except fighting.
She felt her muscles burning while dust stuck to her beautiful face, making her vision less clear.
She barely managed to raise her hand and wipe her eyes before gritting her teeth and moving once more amidst the dust and blood.
On the other side, things weren’t any better either.
Kyle and Izel retreated, leaving behind many torn and charred corpses, only for more to come and devour them eagerly.
At one moment, Izel failed to notice the worm that had already reached her side until its slender limbs contracted as it leaped toward her, exposing its belly and the long slit there filled with sharp teeth.
"Eh!?" Izel let out an involuntary scream as she retreated backward while launching a fireball that struck the worm directly in its mouth and exploded its body apart.
But that action caused Izel to lose her balance for a moment, disrupting the wall of flames she had created and allowing many monsters to break through toward Kyle.
The latter gritted his teeth as he noticed that while essence condensed more densely around his blades, and he swung both hands in a horizontal slash, leaving two corpses falling together.
Before he could continue, he felt his other hand become much heavier while unbearable pain stabbed through his arm.
An entire worm had wrapped its limbs around him and was tearing into his arm. Without hesitation, he stabbed it with his dagger, causing the corpse to fall to the ground while leaving terrible wounds across his arm.
It was painful, but there wasn’t even time to groan if he wanted to live, so without stopping, he moved and continued fighting.
Even as his blood splattered with every movement, he paid it no mind.
He had to live because death wasn’t an option.
At the rear, Caius’s clothes were torn apart, revealing the wounds spread across his body.
Yet as though he couldn’t feel them, he continued carving through the swarm of monsters with pure focus, taking the lives of many with every movement.
His expression showed neither pain nor anger nor anything else.
Only calmness... and even some enjoyment.
He killed and killed and killed without stopping.
The loud sounds of the swarm vanished from his hearing as though they didn’t exist, while dust and blood filled his vision and dirt covered his face.
But it didn’t matter.
His senses enveloped everything around him.
The number of monsters and their positions, the state of the others and how they looked, and most importantly, how much remained before they escaped this encirclement.
Not much, yet not little either.
Every second here was pure hell for everyone.
With every passing moment, the battle became harder and harder while exhaustion spread through their bodies and minds.
At the front, sweat dripped from Elliot’s face while the ground trembled beneath his feet and his rapid breaths escaped his body.
Essence surged through his body while stone walls rose at his sides, trapping the worms behind them for a few moments before cracking and shattering apart.
But those moments were enough for them to advance, so once those walls shattered, the monsters were no longer his responsibility, but the responsibility of the other four on both sides.
Yet one of them managed to leap over its siblings and reach him directly.
Elliot stepped to the side, but he was too slow, allowing its sharp limbs to graze him and leave a bleeding wound across his shoulder.
The moment it struck the ground, a stone spike rose upward and pierced through its body.
He gritted his teeth and endured the pain before charging his power once more into another attack.
For him, maintaining the formation wasn’t enough. He also had to carve a path out of this, so every attack needed to be powerful and leave an impact on the swarm.
His muscles burned and his head ached while he swung his sword with force, the world turning white for a moment, leaving behind a trench amidst the chaos.
He stepped forward while the others followed behind him, maintaining their formation.
’Are they okay?’ This thought crossed his mind many times.
But he couldn’t even turn around to look.
The chaos and noise continued, growing louder and louder.
Heat spread everywhere along with the disgusting smell of blood and burned flesh.
Leona lost her balance while a massive wound carved across her left arm, causing a painful groan to escape her lips. "Aaakh..."
She barely managed to regain her balance while enduring the pain from her arm.
It didn’t take long for her to make another mistake. This time, she was stabbed through the thigh, crippling her movement and slowing her down.
Even Ellen, who wasn’t directly engaging in close combat, wasn’t unharmed. Another wound had appeared across her left side, staining her clothes with blood while a painful grimace spread across her face.
Izel’s hair stuck to her face while her vision became blurry. She barely managed to notice the worm that had grabbed her leg, its limbs tearing through her clothes and reaching her skin and flesh.
She gritted her teeth while gathering essence into her body and kicked it with her leg, ending it in a single moment.
Every breath Kyle took was painful, not only because of exhaustion, but because there was a large horrifying wound across his chest.
Every swing of his long dagger became unbearable, yet he ignored it and continued.
At the rear, Caius was nothing but a mess of blood and dust clinging to him.
His sword carved through the air, leaving corpses behind without any slowing down, even with all those wounds covering his body.
None of them truly affected him because he healed the important ones while leaving the others.
True, his muscles had begun aching from the strain, but that wasn’t a bad thing... no, maybe it was good.
This exhaustion, this pressure, and all those souls fading around him.
This was what he needed.
So he continued and continued, every swing taking dozens of souls... until at some point, a smile began appearing on his face.
Even when one of them nearly split his face in half, he merely avoided it, allowing it to leave a wound along his cheek.
Time flowed slower than ever while their injuries increased and their bodies began failing to continue.
It was obvious that if this continued, one of them would soon die.
Because unfortunately, this world contained no miracles.
But what they needed for the situation to change wasn’t a miracle... but an exit.
And there before Elliot, the exit was finally carved open as the monsters vanished from ahead of him, revealing the field of ash.
Without hesitation, he escaped the monsters’ encirclement, with the others following behind him.
But that didn’t mean it was over.
Because when he turned toward his companions, he finally saw their condition. Whether Kyle, who looked like he was struggling just to remain standing, or Izel, utterly exhausted and covered in wounds.
Even Leona’s movements had lost all their grace, while Ellen could barely focus on her blades.
Only Caius remained almost the same...
Even after they escaped, even after the monsters no longer surrounded them from every direction, they continued fighting and fighting and fighting.
The swarm of worms didn’t leave them alone and continued chasing them while they retreated across the field of ash.
Whether out of hunger, madness, or even some meaningless instinct, the monsters refused to let them leave.
So they had no choice but to keep fighting if they didn’t want to die.