After their initial reluctance and breakdown, Juan and Beatrice decided to make the best out of their situation. They cleaned themselves and began helping the rest with fighting against the monsters.
The gargoyles seed to co in different kinds. The twin-headed demons were mainly lee fighters and focused on bursts of speed and sneak attacks. The one-headed serpent-man could throw venom and wind attacks at them. As for the three-headed chiefs, they were walking calamities.
Arthur felt an itch to fight against the chiefs who seed to be giants with three heads. One of the heads fired ntal attacks, which left the group in agony. The other head created shields that could withstand most of their strikes. As for the third, it remained closed until the other two were killed.
In order to defeat the chiefs, they had to kill the monster three tis before it went down. Fay and the rest beca a blur as they attacked and fled the chief's six arms that swung every imaginable weapon at them. It stood at five ters tall, and a single swing could wipe out the party.
After killing the monster twice, a barrier pushed them back as the last head opened its eyes. The four eyes of the chief each contained a different color, and Arthur could sense a rune within each of them.
Four beams blasted from its eyes, tearing through the landscape. The party fled that first encounter, and they almost lost two fangs due to the initial attacks. It was thanks to Arthur's tily warning to hide behind the trees that they survived.
Each of the four beams seed to have a different effect. So of the trees were frozen, while others were cut in half. A few were on fire, and the ones touched by the purple beam ca to life and fought alongside the chief.
It was mayhem within the forest. Arthur retreated to the back, but a beam managed to swing in his direction. He felt the sizzling energy of the beam about to cleave him in half. His spiritual energy would do nothing in this scenario.
The person who stepped forward to save him was Alan. He raised his shield and created doubles of himself that fended off the attack. Arthur was surprised that soone else helped them, but he knew Alan wouldn't do it out of goodwill.
Arthur turned toward Yuran, who gave him a small nod. He didn't know what the gunman had in mind in helping him, but it might be him repaying Arthur for his earlier warning.
Fay shouted her orders, and the fangs took a different formation. The warrior advanced forward while the others retreated. Fay remained in the center, and Arthur saw the blooming flower take a different form.
All abilities and stats rushed into the warrior, who let out a grunt as his face turned red. He let out an inhuman roar as he rushed toward the chief.
The giant aid its six weapons at the warrior, whose speed broke through his rank's limits and deflected all attacks. Five more of the warriors appeared as Alan's ability ca into play. Each of the warriors was covered with a different spell from the mages' arsenal.
Arthur was surprised to sense an astral being appearing. Its presence was undeniable as he turned toward Fay, whose neck was now adorned with a necklace of a flower that resembled her ability. It shone with great light before it died down.
"Attack the chief while it's distracted!" Fay shouted.
Everyone rushed forward as the chief was engaged with the enhanced warrior in a bitter battle. However, he didn't seem to let his guard down even with a powerful enemy holding him back. The beams blasted from its eyes again. This ti, all of them were purple and aid at the fangs.
Beatrice, Juan, a fang, and Alan were struck in sequence. Arthur rembered what the purple beam did earlier to the trees, and his worries proved themselves.
Beatrice rushed toward Fay while brandishing her greatsword. Juan rushed toward Yuran, while the others rushed toward the rest of the mbers.
"What's happening?!" Beatrice cried as she aid to kill Fay.
"My body is moving on its own!" Juan scread.
The four turned against the others, and infighting began. Arthur watched from behind as the eleven-against-one turned to five-against-seven. The odds had turned against them.
Furthermore, once Alan was controlled by the monster, his ability was released from the astral pool and the warrior lost his clones. He was sent flying shortly after suffering the wrathful attack of the chief.
Arthur thought about helping out using a spiritual attack that would jolt the controlled mbers out of their curse, but he rembered that the White Fangs had sohow defeated this monster in the previous tiline with six mbers. They had so aces hidden.
Fay dodged the attacks as she tried to refocus and use her abilities. Alan and the controlled White Fangs were keeping the other three fangs occupied while Fay suffered the relentless attacks of Beatrice, who grew wings to fly after her.
Yuran dodged the attacks of Juan but didn't dare escape lest the controlled man run toward Fay if he lost his target. At the sa ti, he fired bullets at Beatrice's wings and managed to bring her down.
Arthur looked at the battlefield with confusion. If he left things as they were, the party was going to be wiped out. As he tried to understand how the party defeated the chief in the real world, the monster released more purple beams.
The four beams struck the three remaining fangs and Arthur. There was no pain when it struck him, but Arthur felt a strange connection to the monster. He was confused as he looked down to see a purple string connecting his soul to the chief.
The White Fangs kept fighting as usual as the purple beams failed to control them, just like how they failed to control Arthur. It was then that he realized that the control beam couldn't control people with high amounts of spiritual energy.
Realization dawned on Arthur that the White Fangs defeated the chief in the real world because only one of them could be controlled by the monster, but now there were Beatrice, Alan, and Juan.
"Can you do sothing?" a voice asked next to him. It was Rosie, who hid next to Arthur using a spell of hers and attacked from a distance. "Everyone is going to die at this rate. The monster is recovering its energy."
"Why are you asking ?" Arthur asked with interest.
"Because I know you're not afraid."
Arthur stared at the petite woman with intrigue. It was a sha that he never got to et her in the past because she was clearly a professional.
Instead of answering her question, Arthur turned toward the purple string that was still attempting to control his soul. He didn't cut it earlier because he had an idea, and now was the ti to test it out.
Arthur did the sa thing he did to Rae a few hours ago. He allowed his spiritual energy to flow through the string, which began turning from purple to golden. The spiritual energy rushed toward the unaware monster and infiltrated it.
The monster was mid-swing when it suddenly froze in place. Arthur found it interesting as he could now control the monster after crushing the little resistance its core tried to summon.
Once it was frozen, the controlled mbers were released. The monster remained frozen under the confused eyes of the crowd. Fay was panting, with Beatrice on the ground in front of her. She looked at the monster, then at Arthur, who gave her a nod.
"Attack!"
The monster struggled to break free from his hold, but it could not. Arthur couldn't have controlled the monster by using spiritual energy because it was hard to infiltrate an unwilling soul. But the monster had opened a channel between them that caused its downfall.
The chief fell as its body crumbled. The skin was covered in its blue blood as it collapsed face-first after suffering the bombardnt. The party remained standing over the corpse, panting, as an item began erging from the corpse of the monster.
No one dared to rush forward to fetch it. Everyone was too alard that the creature might rise again, given that it had done that two tis before. The item was a floating crystal that emitted a blue light.
"An A-rank skill!" Juan cried out, and the words seed to snap everyone out of their exhausted, wary states. Greed erged on their faces as they eyed each other, not wanting to make the first move.
The tension was broken when Arthur suddenly appeared next to the floating orb, grabbed it, and threw it into a bag that he tucked into the giant backpack. His actions were so fast that no one had ti to react.
"We'll split the loot once we get out of here alive," Arthur said with a smile as he threw the backpack on his shoulder. "Rember, everyone. There's a reason this dungeon is called Avarice."
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