"...Ready?"
Della asked.
She had her tir ready.
"Yes!"
Machary shouted, and he was already in a sprinting stance, ready to go, and the rest of the Fourth-Liners were also ready to go.
"Go."
Della said.
Without further ado, Machary took off running, and the rest of the Fourth-Liners followed closely behind him.
They disappeared into the depths of the cave.
"..."
Fang Raon sat down on the sa rock that Machary used and noticed that Miranda didn’t go with them.
"I have a question."
Miranda said.
"Yes?"
Fang Raon asked.
"Why did you decide to go first? Going second has the advantage of the Fourth-Liners already knowing what to expect in the raid."
Miranda asked.
"...To put pressure on Machary."
Fang Raon replied with a smile.
"Pressure...?"
"Machary doesn’t want to lose to . He has a very fragile ego. If he just takes it safe, and clear the raid successfully—even if his ti is slow—he will most likely be chosen as team leader.
"However, since I did my ti first, he wants to defeat and do a faster ti than .
"I am sure he will be counting the ti, and the longer he takes in the cave, the more anxious he becos that he might not beat my ti.
"It’ll force him to make mistakes... And mistakes he will make."
Fang Raon said.
’This is all psychological warfare? I know about Machary’s ego problems, but I never thought Fang Raon would use it as a weapon.’
Miranda thought to herself.
She didn’t think badly of Fang Raon for him doing sothing like that, as this was, after all, competition between him and Machary.
’I already witnessed it back in the Battle Island, but he is really good at reading people... I wonder if Machary will make mistakes just like he said he would do.
’If Machary gets others hurt because he wants to beat Fang Raon’s ti, Della will be really angry at him.’
Miranda thought.
Curiosity grew, and she quickly bid farewell to Fang Raon and headed inside the cave to catch up with others.
...
"Huff! Huff!"
Machary sprinted ahead, running as quickly as he could, and the Fourth-Liners were desperate to keep up with him.
Before they even ca across a single opponent, they were already getting quite winded, and so were starting to fall behind.
In that mont, they ca across the hallway with frozen walls, and the temperature started dropping drastically.
’It is suddenly cold?’
Machary thought in surprise, but he ignored it and kept running through the icy corridors with everyone following behind him.
’He isn’t planning to do anything to the cold?’
The others thought in surprise.
At that mont, the icy walls cracked, and from there, icen erged with ice swords in hand.
"Ignore them and keep running!"
Machary shouted.
He thought that dealing with these icen would just be a waste of ti and didn’t want to waste even a single second.
Everyone nodded and kept running.
However, Rae, one of the Helpers, couldn’t keep up with the rest of the group and had strayed behind.
The icen blocked her path.
"Ah..."
Rae stopped and saw everyone just running further away.
"Everyone, help !"
She shouted, but they were already too far away to hear them, so she was left to fend for herself against the icen.
The icen raised their ice swords and slashed at her, and she defended herself with the Shield skill.
Her shield barely survived, but it showed signs of cracking, and the icen kept pushing her back further.
"Blade of Light!"
In that mont, a couple of shining yellow light swords flew past her and pierced through the icen with deadly accuracy.
All the icen died.
"Ah..."
Rae turned around, and her eyes brightened as she saw Della walk over to her with a yellow grimoire floating beside her.
However.
Della’s expression didn’t look happy, and she didn’t have the usual smile on her face that she often had.
"Guild master!"
Rae greeted her with reverence.
"Co with ."
Della said with a serious tone and followed the direction where Machary and the rest ran off to.
...
"Huff! Huff!"
Machary stood over the dead Ice Queen, his sword stuck in her skull, and he then pulled it out.
All the Fourth-Liners were panting heavily. They were riddled with wounds.
’...There wasn’t any plan... Machary just wanted us to kill the icen as quickly as possible just so he could have a good ti...
’How fucking stupid is that...’
Niall thought to himself with an angry gaze.
So of them could’ve died, but Machary didn’t care, because all he was caring about was doing good ti!
"Let’s keep going!"
Machary shouted and kept running to the exit, and the rest grudgingly followed behind him.
In that mont, they stepped out of the cave and saw Fang Raon waiting for them outside.
"...That was pretty fast."
Fang Raon said.
He was also counting ti and knew that Machary had just beaten his ti.
"Hah... Yeah, it was."
Machary said with a scoff.
He was just quite satisfied with the performance and believed that they had just beaten his ti, so he was very happy.
The Fourth-Liners were recovering their health by drinking their valuable health potions.
They weren’t as happy as Machary with that performance, as that completely sucked.
In that mont, three figures left the cave—they were Della, Miranda, and Rae.
"Rae, where the hell were you? We had a need for another Helper, but you were nowhere to be seen."
Machary said with a frown.
The Fourth-Liners looked over to Rae, and they noticed her disappearance and wanted to go back to look for her.
However, Machary only said, "She is fine, let’s keep going," as he didn’t want to waste ti searching for her.
"You left her behind."
Della said with a smile.
It wasn’t her usual smile. It was a really cold smile. She was obviously really angry.
"...Huh, what do you an?"
Machary asked with a frown.
"You were so obsessed with having a good ti that you didn’t even notice that one of you got left behind!
"That was the worst performance I’ve ever witnessed. It was completely reckless and showed your clear lack of interest in your team mbers’ health!"
Della scread.
It surprised the Fourth-Liners, as they had never seen her scream that loudly before, and even Machary was stunned.
"...What about my ti?"
Machary asked.
"WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR TI?"
Della scread.
It completely silenced Machary, and he didn’t dare to speak another word.
"...We will make the final decision regarding the team leader’s position tonight. Please be prepared to present your case for why you deserve the role."
Della said coldly and walked off with Miranda.
"..."
Miranda threw a glance at Fang Raon, thinking, ’He knew that this would happen,’ and then turned away.
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