Instead of suddenly becoming alarmed, or perhaps even enthused like the two soldiers had been expecting, Nero just frowned. Gabriel and the rest of his team didn't react too well either, though Leonard became even more conflicted.
As warriors, should they not support one another? He was all for going and helping the other three teams out. But he did not appreciate being treated as disposable while someone else was being given preference just on the basis of their identity. There was no honour in that.
Nero looked at both the soldiers, then slowly withdrew the spear.
"Your mission has nothing to do with our mission, nor are you in a position to order us around. If you cannot wait for us, go back on your own. Do not presume to command us."
Nero stepped back and let the soldier get up.
He rushed to his feet and retreated a few steps before turning and giving Nero an angry glare. But regardless of how angry he was, the soldier did not speak. The two of them retreated on their own, leaving them behind.
Truthfully, the two soldiers were not weak. The way they did a controlled retreat while facing the berserkers was indicative of not only their strength, but their confidence and their training. Just their age, not to mention their attitude, revealed that they were regular soldiers rather than drafted, which made them one of the army's few normal Neophyte soldiers.
They must be considered elites in their field and power level.
That is why, compared to the berserkers who were much stronger than ordinary, but not quite as strong as Initiates, they were able to hold their own.
"Everyone, check your condition and see if you need treatment. If everything is in order, we'll head forward. Defeating the berserkers is naturally our top priority, but be mindful of the other teams. More people always make the situation more complicated."
As everyone recovered from the immensely exhaustive battle, and checked their bodies, as sometimes the adrenaline of the situation keeps a person from feeling the depths of their wounds, Nero walked up to Wendy.
"What was the venom you coated on my spear?" he asked in a whisper. It was an oversight on his part, but since none of the berserkers nor any of the previous curses they fought showed any signs of being affected by the venom, he forgot it even existed.
Wendy rolled her eyes.
"I knew we might be facing other teams, so all the venoms on everyone's weapons are numbing or paralysing venoms. Only my own needles have something more lethal."
Nero breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately Wendy showed foresight in this matter. That was the benefit of working with competent people.
Everyone took some time to recover, for even though the fight had been relatively short, it had been intense, and they were all out of breath. Leonards teammates helped treat him, unwilling to risk any bone fractures.
Amidst all this, Remil silently approached Nero and poked him in the back.
"That guy placed a tracker on you," she whispered. "I can feel it's aether signature. It's on your spear."
Nero was not exactly surprised. Since he had attacked, then it was obvious that the other would want to retaliate in some way.
"Is it actively emitting a signal?" Nero asked.
"Yes. It's near the tip of the spear."
Nero nodded, and lit his spear on fire. Eating through curses was not the only thing his cryoflames could do, they could also easily disrupt aether. This was different from Wendy's venom, which had nothing to do with aether after she was done producing it.
Eventually, everyone was ready to proceed.
"Let's go. Stick close together if you can. We'll stick to our existing strategy if possible."
With Nero in the lead, his spear in hand ready to use, the two teams moved forward. Pipo continued following them. Only once all the berserkers were dead would he return to his team to help them retreat from the cathedral.
The thing Nero found most concerning was that, though he could hear fighting, it was not nearly as loud or as chaotic as he would have expected. Then they stumbled onto the first corpse.
It was a headless berserker, a clean slash having decapitated it. Nero's eyes narrowed, for even with his increased strength he could not fully cut through a berserker's body, let alone cut through bone. Yet someone had clearly done so.
Nero couldn't help but notice that there was very little blood in a berserker's body, as was evident from the small amount of greyish liquid that was dripped out of the neck.
He did not stay to observe the body for long, and proceeded forwards, encountering multiple more corpses, all without heads and no other injuries to speak of.
When he returned to the first hall, at the entrance of the third level, he noticed that the sounds of fighting were coming from different corridors.
Without wasting too much time on consideration, he quickly stepped into the corridor where the sound of fighting was most fierce, and quickly found themselves in what looked like a destroyed library. Over a dozen berserker's were fighting ten other soldiers, and with their arrival their numbers immediately doubled.
Taking advantage of the fact that their arrival had gone unnoticed, Nero lunged forward and pulled back a berserker. With greatly improved teamwork and coordination, Verdant-2 and Azure-1 attacked.
Pipo this time decided to help Leonard, since the open room made it much harder to hold back berserkers, and his strings could become obstructions, even if only minor ones.
But the tide of battle changed immediately, even though they had yet to kill a single berserker. With the attention of the monsters divided, a young soldier wielding nothing but an oddly thin, long blade gained a lot more freedom to attack.
A faint blue light coated the edge of his sword, and in one swift motion, he cut off the head of a berserker, and suddenly retreated.
His team swarmed around him to protect him while he readied his next attack, managing to hold off the berserkers, albeit with great difficulty.
Shortly after, the berserker Nero was attacking died as well.
One by one, despite the great strength of the berserkers, not to mention their absurd recovery, their numbers fell. Just as it seemed like the situation was about to be resolved, the berserkers changed their behaviour.
Without warning, they suddenly targeted the soldier with the long sword. From being mindless beasts, fighting solely on instinct, waving their hands and legs hoping to use their brute strength to gain an advantage, they transitioned into deadly monsters with a very specific goal.
Compared to their state of attacking randomly, their lethality exploded exponentially.
The soldier with the longsword was surprised, but he displayed the air of a trained soldier. Instead of panicking, he retreated calmly while baiting them to come towards him, slashing at the perfect moment. Each of his attacks, carrying a blue edge, would gravely injure the berserkers.
It was, instead, his teammates who began to struggle, as they had to take greater risks to block the berserkers from surrounding the target. Considering that all the berserkers stopped targeting Nero and his group, Leonard began helping distract the berserkers as well.
Ironically, of everyone, Nero and his team who were also busy killing berserkers started to have an easier time. Instead of fighting back, even the berserker they were targeting tried to attack the target they had all selected.
Their killing speed shot up. But despite all the many advantages they gained, the number of injuries started to increase drastically. Since all the soldiers had to take the initiative to block the rampaging berserkers, they were not in the best position to block or dodge.
When the numbers finally dwindled, and only a couple of berserkers were left, the fight was basically resolved. Azure-1 handled one, while the soldier with the longsword handled the other.
The fighting came to an abrupt end, but none of them were in the best condition. Azure-1 and Verdant-2 were exhausted from the frequent high intensity fights, while the other team were literally bloody and battered.
Nero, too, was covered in frozen sweat, a strange phenomenon that had never happened before. But although this fight was over, there were still a few berserkers left in the other corridors.
If Nero retreated to rest, the chances were high that the other teams would suffer casualties. If he stayed and helped, even if they suffered no injuries, they would be completely drained afterwards, and would be at a disadvantage towards finding the artefacts.
He had not decided what to do when the soldier with the longsword looked towards them and spoke.
"Gabriel, I almost didn't recognise you. It has been a long time."
The red head looked towards the soldier with the longsword, his expression impassive towards the teenager with blue hair - though the shade of blue was not nearly as deep as Nero's. Was there something about the colour blue that represented monsters?
"Arter, I see you're doing well. Quite the protective detail you've got. I see your mothers influence hasn't reduced one bit."