Chapter 80: Operation (3)

After a couple of minutes, the group returned a bit bigger than before. Nine people joined them on the task of destroying the crystal… It seemed that someone chickened out, but Luke couldn't blame them. He wouldn't trust the strength of a stranger either, in a difficult situation.

While looking at their weapons, Luke realized that things would be hard… their weapons weren't that strong, and the survivors themselves had many scars on their bodies. Luke wanted to congratulate them for their courage, but it still was worrisome. People that get hurt too much aren't quick on their feet and tend to get hurt even more.

"So, what is the plan?" Luke asked. "No matter what, I think we should destroy the crystal first and foremost. Otherwise, the monsters will keep coming."

"I thought you would give the calls," Chloe frowned.

"Usually, that would be the case, but this is your hometown," Luke said. "And these guys are your friends; it will be better if you come up with a plan that will give them high chances of surviving the battle."

"... You destroyed a crystal already, didn't you?" Chloe asked after thinking for a few seconds. "What should we be cautious of?"

"First of all, the owner of the crystal knows what is happening on this site so that he might send Reinforcements like hundreds of monsters or one incredibly more powerful than dozens of the ordinary ones," Luke replied. "The monsters will also become more vicious once the crystal is destroyed, for revenge and because the link between worlds can be restored, so they will want to secure the area."

Chloe began to ponder about what she heard, it was hard to believe that such things could happen, but soon they would confirm that. It was also hard to believe that Luke would lie now since they were about to confirm all that. Her friends had some experience dealing with the Red Fangs, but fighting hundreds of them was an unknown and dangerous territory.

"I can't think of any plan that might help us… aside from leveling up for a while," Chloe said.

"... We are out of time. I want to be back to Miami tomorrow morning," Luke said. "Besides, even if you guys level up, the mental exhaustion will keep increasing. Unless something miraculous happens and no one gets hurt before the mission, mistakes are bound to happen."

"Why don't you let them level up for one hour and then let them equip the items that might show up?" Rina asked. "If you lent them your crossbow and a few others appear, you can fight on the frontline alone and draw the attention to yourself. You are fast and have Stinger, so I am sure you will be fine."

"I am worried about fighting in front of a squad of archers and end up getting hit by one…" Luke said. "Still, I suppose this is fine…"

Chloe wondered why the little elf would be concerned about their well-being. She certainly wouldn't gain anything by doing so. She also was quite surprised that Luke accepted so readily being the only member of the frontline. Naturally, she wouldn't use a bow and fight the monsters up-close, and that idea alone made her sweat cold. She had to fight against dozens, if not hundreds of Red Fangs, after all.

The newcomers who heard all that also had a hard time believing that Luke could pull that off. Even if he had some powerful swords, he couldn't have leveled up dozens of times more than them. Perhaps Rina and Shalia were the secrets of his strength…

"Rina, can you heal others aside from me?" Luke asked while they were heading to the crystal.

"I can… though the effectiveness of the spell will be halved," Rina replied.

"All right… Shalia, focus on covering for the others," Luke said. "We can't protect everyone, but we should try to prevent the worst-case scenario since it might cause issues with fear and morale. We need to make everyone fight for as long as possible, as much as possible without any distractions."

"Okay…" Shalia said and then sighed.

When the newcomers saw the trail of corpses that Luke and the others left behind, they began to feel confident. It seemed that Chloe wasn't pranking them when she said with the help of that kid, they might be able to deal with the monsters. Nevertheless, the group approached the location of the crystal to the point where they could fight two or three of the Red Fangs every minute. When Luke approached a bit more, he saw hundreds of those beasts ahead closing the street, so he realized that they were pretty close, not to mention…

You received a quest!

Quest: Destroy the crystal!

Reward: 5000 gold coins.

"Five thousand… this will be harder than I thought," Luke rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

It was logical. The bigger the reward, the more difficult the quest would be. That made Luke wonder how the system calculated that… nevertheless, destroying that crystal would be harder than defeating that giant wasp and destroying the previous crystal at the same time…

Nevertheless, Luke focused on offering support with Spark Ball. There were three survivors in the group that had spears, so Luke gave them the order to impale the enemies with all their might when he paralyzed the beasts. However, their attacks didn't pierce the monsters that much… Luke decided to give them the order to impale their paws in order to decrease their mobility, but then the Red Fangs opened their mouths to use the Flamethrower. Before he could use Spark Ball to stop them. Royce and Abby made the creatures eat their projectiles… their aim was quite something… Thanks to those two, Luke didn't have to intervene all that much, but since the level of everyone was a bit low, they had to fight for a while before they could defeat the beasts. Thus, they didn't have much time to rest between the fights.