"Everyone! To your positions!" Lizandrea's command echoed once more, alerting all parties.
As the main tank, she ran ahead of her teammates. Then, as soon as she passed by the tired Party 4, she stood her ground and used her skill once more.
"Knight's Challenge!"
Of course, her skills had a limited range. As such, other than the spiders within ten meters around her, the rest were still going forward without any target in mind.
"Tina!"
Seeing this, Aster knew it was their time to do their job. Tina, who was also a tank, rushed toward the other side, making sure not to overlap with Lizandrea's skill, and activated her two skills.
"TAUNT! METAL BODY!"
Unlike Lizandrea's skill, which gathers enemies within ten meters around her, Celestinya's taunt was more focused on enemies within audible range. Although the range was limited to a conical area ahead of her, it could go for a hundred meters, at least!
*SCREEECH!*
Spiders that slipped past Lizandrea's taunt started to swarm over to Celestinya's side, keeping an impenetrable wall upfront. With the two tanks holding back the enemies, Parties 5 to 7 started to launch an all-out attack.
Skills and arrows, with a few magic attacks, flew forward and eliminated the spiders from one small group after another.
"Shit! There's too many!"
But of course, with hundreds—nearly thousands—of Small Cave Spiders swarming toward them, it seemed as if the enemy was endlessly rushing forward!
"Star!"
Cassy shouted as she kicked away two spiders that had slipped past.
The person in question, as if waiting for her voice, opened his eyes at that moment before shouting out loud. "Everyone, stand behind me!"
"...!"
Spider corpses scattered around the place, making it a gruesome sight.
"I leveled up!"
"Damn it! Me too! This is nice!"
"Shit, I need a few more to level up... Right, those frozen ones!"
After they cleared the spiders, they turned back to the regions where Aster froze, but of the three regions, only the first frozen region had a few live ones remaining. Aster had already cleared almost all of the spiders!
"Hmm?"
Seeing that the other adventurers tried to enter the icy field as if to copy him, he quickly stopped the continuous freezing effect he was maintaining. It was a bit too late, however, as some adventurers got their boots frozen in place.
Well, they were still lucky, as only their boots got covered in ice. If it reached their legs, then they'd have been in bigger trouble.
Only the first ones were unlucky, as those who entered after Aster disabled his control only felt extreme cold and didn't get their boots frozen. They braved the cold air and waved their weapons, killing off the remaining spiders with smiles on their faces.
Aster didn't plan to hog all the experience, of course. He was just doing his job earlier, killing enemies. As such, as the other adventurers came, he returned to the center where the other parties were present, drinking potions, water, or just taking a rest.
"Great work, Sir Aster." Lizandrea, who saw him approach, gave a genuine smile as she praised him. "We might have perished if you hadn't restricted their path to a single direction."
"That's an exaggeration." Aster smiled, dismissing her overpraising. "At most, a few would be injured, but I doubt just a thousand spiders are enough to wipe us out."
"Haha, that's true too." She chuckled. "But please don't force yourself too much. You've used such a large-scale spell three times; you must be out of mana already."
Aster paused for a brief moment before nodding his head. "... Yeah. I can use it one more time if I'm forced to."
Of course, this was a lie! Using his Carved Seal doesn't take up his mana, so he could technically use it endlessly if he wanted to! However, if he told her the truth, he feared that she would end up relying on him for everything, up to the boss fight.
'I'd better keep my cards hidden for now.' He mused as he turned to the girls who were listening in nearby and winked.
Other than Celestinya, who seemed to have misunderstood his signal's meaning, the other two got his intentions and kept their mouths shut.