Laswin strained to muster strength, unleashing a black wind skill that hurled the Healer and Elda into the sky.
She detonated a burst of black wind to propel herself sideways, narrowly escaping.
But as the Furious Red Shrimp charged past, it whipped its tail, sending Laswin crashing into a group of adventurers, injuring many.
Shaking her head to regain focus, Laswin conjured black wind to cushion the Healer' s fall, slowing their descent. But when it was Elda' s turn, no black wind came.
Her mana was depleted.
Despite her injuries, Laswin sprinted to where Elda was falling.
Mere seconds before Elda' s head hit the ground, Laswin dove, wrapping her tightly in her arms and twisting to take the impact on her own back.
"Urgh! Huff, huff... Just... in time..."
In pain and exhausted, Laswin wanted to collapse right there, but she forced herself up. The boss' s minion monsters, led by the Furious Red Shrimp, were swarming out of the dungeon.
*****
Unopposed, the Furious Red Shrimp zigzagged past dangerous foes capable of killing or stopping it, reaching the adventurers' rearmost lines.
Its path left a trail of corpses and blood, with nearly a thousand adventurers dead.
Before anyone could react, the Furious Red Shrimp opened its back armor, launching over fifty spiked shrimp into the sky before sealing itself shut.
The spiked shrimp, upon opening their eyes, fired paralyzing barbs across the battlefield. The rear lines—filled with workers, the injured, doctors, healers, and non-combat support—were struck, one after another, by paralysis.
As the spiked shrimp hit the ground, they scattered in all directions.
The number of paralyzed victims soon overwhelmed the healers and antidote supplies.
Support from the rear—supplies, medicine, weapons, information, manpower—halted instantly. Healers and support adventurers from the mid-ranks had to retreat urgently to assist.
*****
Lacking water, the Furious Red Shrimp could no longer charge. Instead of retreating to flooded terrain, it marched toward the outer city.
Along the way, its spear-like claws stabbed and destroyed everything in its path, periodically releasing more spiked shrimp.
Fortunately, the civilians had evacuated, leaving only buildings damaged.
The knights guarding the inner city walls ordered the gates opened, sending inner city troops to confront it.
*****
Some adventurers, ordered to fall back and deal with the Furious Red Shrimp, paused as the ground trembled relentlessly.
Looking ahead, they saw a massive horde of house-sized crabs charging in a frenzied stampede.
These were the Furious Red Shrimp' s minions from the 10th floor.
The path they trampled was flattened.
Adventurers looked to their guild leaders for guidance.
The rear needed help, but the front line had to fight.
"No one moves!!!"
A thunderous roar snapped everyone to attention.
"Raise the shield wall!!! Kill them all!!! I' ll handle the rear!!!"
The adventurers shouted in unison, obeying Jaigia' s command.
Carrying Rachel, Jaigia raced to the rear with the same speed as the Furious Red Shrimp.
Upon reaching the rear, Jaigia covered Rachel' s ears and unleashed a roar skill. Though toned down, the roar' s intensity caused spiked shrimp and adventurers alike to collapse in fear, some fainting, others wetting themselves.
Only Roja pretended to faint.
Jaigia lifted Rachel again and leaped to intercept the inner city troops sent to subdue the Furious Red Shrimp, pointing to the adventurers' rear.
"Go help the rear!!! I' ll handle this boss!!!"
After issuing the order, she had Rachel cling to her back. Jaigia transformed her arms and legs into those of a massive tiger and chased after the Furious Red Shrimp.
*****
Slum Front, Military Side
By the time the monsters were defeated and the situation stabilized, over half the soldiers—more than five thousand—had perished. No starfish remained on the walls.
Orders came to retreat from the flooded zone and clear debris to let water flow into the canal. But clogged canals slowed drainage, and the issue was shelved.
All available mages were ordered to the walls to bombard the crab monsters, with requests for reinforcements to bolster the front.
In the command tent, a knight, stressed by flawed orders, relinquished command to another, grabbed a sword, and joined the front line to die in battle, sparing his family from execution.
*****
City Walls, Both Sides
Arrows were useless against the crabs.
Their already thick shells, now covered in barnacles, deflected every shot.
Switching to oil and fire arrows failed as barnacles secreted water, extinguishing the flames.
Explosive arrows were en route but deemed too costly to destroy barnacles and penetrate shells, so their use was prohibited.
Mages were ordered to bombard the ground, targeting the crabs' underbellies with explosive force, which proved effective.
But the crabs' overwhelming numbers made it seem like their ranks never thinned.
Mages began running out of mana, one by one.
*****
The deputy leader of the [Resonant Magic] guild used all her mana to summon vine pillars stretching from one wall to the other, creating thirty staggered rows, each half the height of the city walls.
"I need... to rest..."
Exhausted and drowsy, she leaned back, supported by her subordinates.
*****
As the crabs entered attack range, the frontmost vine pillars slammed down, crushing crabs into paste with a single blow.
As the first row lifted, the second slammed down.
The rhythmic thuds of crushing crabs echoed, sparking cheers from soldiers and adventurers on the walls.
Despite the heavy, alternating attacks, the relentless crabs reached the first row of vines. They slashed and stabbed at the bases with their sharp claws, striking once or twice before charging forward.
Though later rows crushed them, preventing any from breaking through, the first row soon collapsed, its bases severed.
Still, the human side remained optimistic—over twenty rows of vines remained. The crabs wouldn' t break through.
As the last crab emerged from the dungeon, cheers were cut short. 11th-floor monsters—turtles far larger than the crabs and as fast as rhinos—followed.
Reaching peak speed, they leaped, retracting limbs and heads into their shells.
Before hitting the ground, they thrust their limbs out, launching themselves again.
The massive impacts propelled them over the vine pillars effortlessly, leaving everyone stunned, shouting in unison:
"This is insane!!!"
The remaining [Rank A] adventurers—excluding Lera (dead) , Jaigia (at the rear) , Laswin (out of mana) , and the [Resonant Magic] deputy (recovering) —rushed forward.
Volcan, Jujer, [Rank A] adventurer, mage class, nicknamed "Destroyer," leader of the [Star] guild, opened the attack with his Meteor Shower skill. Car-sized flaming rocks rained down, obliterating turtles.
In truth, he could have bombarded the entire battlefield or unleashed a massive attack to wipe out the slums.
But with more monsters still emerging, he preserved the vine pillars to slow future waves, buying time to recover mana.
Meteor Shower left countless craters, draining flooded water into them, reducing the monsters' terrain advantage.
The military, now aligned with the adventurers, marched alongside them.
Everyone was thrilled Volcan was an ally—his power as an enemy would be terrifying.
Soon, Meteor Shower, which had killed over half the turtles, stopped as Volcan neared mana depletion. His guild escorted him back to recover.
The remaining turtles leaped and rolled forward at high speed.
The two remaining [Rank A] adventurers split to cover each side.
Military Side: Tinoy, [Rank A] adventurer, nicknamed "No Range," leader of the [Plus] guild.
Tinoy drew handfuls of tiny knives, no larger than a fingernail, and threw them. His guild' s wind mages scattered them, embedding them in front of the turtles.
Activating his skill, the knives glowed with golden mana, expanding to turtle-sized blades.
Rolling turtles were sliced in half.
For those that dodged, Tinoy extended his sword' s blade kilometers long with mana.
A single swing cleaved everything in its path, even shells that mid-tier mages couldn' t dent, as easily as cutting butter.
Adventurer Side: Miumin, [Rank A] adventurer, nicknamed "Beast Bow," leader of the [Conqueror] guild.
Activating her skill, she raised a hand in a stopping gesture. Turtles rolling in with dust clouds slammed into an invisible wall, cracking their shells.
Before they could recover, trailing turtles crashed into them.
Piled collisions crushed the frontmost turtles.
Yawning, Miumin let them kill each other before stopping her skill, as piled corpses risked becoming a ramp.
She waited for turtles to clear the debris, then reactivated her skill.
Miumin claimed she couldn' t react fast enough to stop the Furious Red Shrimp.
In truth, her guild was allied with Jaigia' s. Jaigia had sent a message instructing her not to stop the boss.
Miumin let it pass in exchange for ten of Jaigia' s farming dungeons.
*****
Soon, Jaigia leaped onto the Furious Red Shrimp' s back.
It tried to shake her off, but Jaigia' s claws pierced its shell, prying it open effortlessly.
The Furious Red Shrimp screamed in pain, accelerating spiked shrimp production to fire at her.
Jaigia simply punched its back. One blow liquefied its organs, which oozed from its body.
The Furious Red Shrimp died in a single strike.
After Rachel cleaned the interior with magic, Jaigia hid her inside and resealed the shell before leaping back to the front.
En route, Jaigia told the soldiers she was gravely wounded and might not survive, asking to be left in the Furious Red Shrimp' s corpse to avoid being a burden.
This protected Rachel from martial law penalties.
Rachel knew Jaigia was shielding her.
Jaigia likely foresaw the battlefield' s dangers, especially with the boss emerging.
She let the boss pass, though she could have killed it before it reached the adventurers' front.
Other [Rank A] adventurers' wide-range attacks made stopping it impractical.
One [Rank A] could have stopped it—Miumin—but Jaigia sent a message with an offer Miumin couldn' t refuse.
Why hide Rachel in the monster' s corpse? Monsters ignore their own dead.
If the monsters couldn' t be stopped, Rachel, inside the boss' s corpse, would be safest.
Another issue infuriated Rachel.
Jaigia had long known, via a messenger, that Calika' s sister was captured and tortured by the [Mad Bear] guild.
Yet Jaigia did nothing, intentionally letting the child die.
Rachel knew this was a ploy to win Calika' s loyalty.
If killed by humans, Jaigia would "volunteer" to drag the culprits to Calika for judgment.
If killed by monsters, Jaigia would hunt them, piling their corpses before Calika or leading her to slay them herself.
Once Calika was satisfied and drowning in grief, Jaigia would console her, then recruit her to the guild.
Using her sister' s memory, Jaigia would claim she could find an elixir to revive her.
This would turn Calika into a broken pawn, never seeing her sister revived.
When Rachel pleaded for help, Jaigia' s threatening glare silenced her.
The implied threat: if Rachel persisted, Jaigia would brutally kill the child and frame someone else.
Rachel could only weep, despising her own weakness, lacking the courage to defy or escape Jaigia.