A sickening squelch rang out as the Monster's eyes exploded, blood erupting out of its eye holes and nostrils, its arms slumping to its sides as it went limp and fell over, hitting the ground with a thud.
"Th-Thanks, I owe you one," Remarked the Lancer gratefully, before wincing as blood streamed down his right arm.
"Sure, no problem," I replied, before turning my attention across as a Lycanthrope drove its arm towards Ariella, its claws whizzing through the spot between the top of her right shoulder and the side of her neck.
She swiftly stepped forward, drawing back her left arm and puffing out her chest, the air around her fist shimmering intensely...
"[Flame Strike], [Double Impact]!" She exclaimed as she drove her arm forward, a sharp crunch ringing out as she slammed her fist square onto the middle of the Monster's chest.
Its chest sunk in as she caved in its ribcage, blood streaming out of its mouth as it let out an agonized gasp upon impact, stumbling back and collapsing onto the ground, wheezing as it tried to breathe while blood filled its lungs and throat.
Looks like that was the last one, and the second one that Ariella killed. I took care of two of the other three, and it looks like the remaining one was dealt with by the Attack Mages.
It slipped past us and targeted them, but it seems they managed to overwhelm it with a barrage of Spells before it could reach them.
That was definitely a hell of a lot tougher than even the biggest packs of Hellhounds were. The first one that attacked left itself wide open, but I only narrowly evaded its initial attack, it was close.
Had I reacted even a split second later, it would've at least carved out a chunk of my face.
And the second one I killed was largely down to its focus being split between me and the Lancer, that gave me an opening.
Still, it was a lot easier than my fight against the Hypersonic Bat was, no doubt about that. Not only have I gotten stronger, but I've got a pretty damn effective new weapon with Mana Pulse.
Using it on the head is even more effective than the solar plexus, I killed the second one instantly because of that.
"Ow...thanks," Smiled the Lancer with a slight grimace, as the Healer rushed over towards him and began healing his injury.
"Hm...maybe we should turn back now, after all," Remarked Ariella, a conflicted look on her face.
"N-No, I...I can handle it. If we'll be dealing with similar numbers on the next two floors, I'll be alright. I just froze a bit, the thought that I was facing a High Level Monster made me think of my first raid, with that Hypersonic Bat.
But if I'd stayed calm, I'm sure I could have held my own. I was able to follow its movements, I would've been able to react if I hadn't panicked," Responded the Lancer, a determined look on his face.
He isn't setting off my passive lie detection, so that's his honest assessment.
Yeah, I know. My reaction time was lagging, I wasn't moving as sharply as I'm capable of.
The Hypersonic Bat was my toughest fight so far, so even though I know I've gotten a lot stronger than I was back then, seeing multiple Monsters on the same level as that thing did put a tiny bit of hesitation in my movements.
But now that I've gotten through it with only a single small scratch, I should be fine. I'm strong enough to fight High Level Monsters on even footing now, no, maybe even a slight step above.
Hm...alright, after I use Drain and Devour on these Lycanthropes, I'll distribute the points I've gained in this Dungeon into my stats.
Except for during my first raid, I waited till the end of the raids to distribute the points in earned into my stats with the second and third raids.
"What about you, Kai? Think you can keep going?" Ariella asked me.
"Mhm, I should be fine. I think I can handle about two of these things by myself, though anything more than that would be a tough ask," I replied after taking a moment to mull it over.
"Yeah, based on the two I fought, I think I could take on three, maybe four at most, myself. They're pretty agile and light on their feet though, so I'd probably take at least a couple of scratches if I was up against more than three of them simultaneously," She nodded thoughtfully, before turning to the Attack Mages as the Healer came over and healed the scratch on my cheek, "What about you guys? You managed to take down one, think you can pull it off again?"
"Hmph...yeah, of course," Muttered Trey, kicking at the sand as he stared at his feet.
"It was pretty scary when it came charging at us, but between the three of us, I think we've got enough firepower to overwhelm at least one Lycanthrope at a time, especially when they're too close to dodge all three of our attacks at the same time," Replied the Ice Mage.
"Yeah, we can handle it," Added the Wind Mage.
"Okay, then. Let's collect the Cores, rest up and then carry on. As planned, we'll take it one floor at a time across the next two floors, our limit will be seven...anything more than seven Lycanthropes and we retreat," Declared Ariella.
Sounds reasonable, it won't be easy, but it's definitely doable.
As the others began extracting the Cores, I consumed the Mana of the one I'd paralyzed, before killing it and taking out its Core, and then finishing up with Devour.
Once I got done consuming all five corpses, I distrubuted all the points I'd earned across this Dungeon so far, which should be a pretty hefty amount:
HP: 135 -> 219
MP: 133 -> 214
Strength: 136 -> 220
Agility: 168 -> 271
Vitality: 134 -> 218
Perception: 156 -> 260
Power Level: 143,700 -> 233,700
Potential: 143,700 -> 233,700
Huh. Holy fucking shit, I was not expecting such a drastic increase...