'How did things get to this level?' Major Erik's feelings were complicated.
The aim of separating from Blake's team was to have the highest contribution by being the first to explore the ruin and discover the reason for the disappearance. Now he was no different from a headless chicken running without direction.
While he was contemplating his next move, Erik felt a force trying to stealthily penetrate his mental walls, but he immediately shut it out.
'Illusions!' Major Erick was shocked. 'That explains why they were falling for the traps even though they were in the open!'
With the strong mental fortitude of demigods, it was nearly impossible for the weakened cursed entity controlling the ruin to put him under an illusion, especially since it was spending most of its energy on the ruins and beasts. However the same couldn't be said for the members of his units who were still in the Hero realm.
'If we don't get out of here, it is only a matter of time before we all end up dying.' Major Erik thought.
With the increased speed granted by the wind trail spell, it didn't take time for them to approach another junction. The passage to the right led to the hall, that to the left led to the library, while the one in front led deeper into the ruin.
Just when they were a few meters away from the junction, walls began rising to block the right and straight path causing Erik to frown.
It was more than clear that the entity controlling the ruin did not want them going in those directions, but Erik was planning on doing exactly that.
'I still don't have a clear idea of what is going on so going deeper could mean more danger for us. So, the right it is.' The Major finally made a decision.
Instantly the air in the passage began swirling, and hundreds of lightning arcs lit up the entire area as he began charging up his spells.
Seeing this, the cursed entity began sending in more mana into the stone doors to reinforce it, while also controlling the beasts chasing them to increase their speeds.
"You think that will be enough? Think again!" Major Erik sneered at the entity's futile effort and released hundreds of wind blades at the stone door before throwing the 2-meter-thick lightning bolt.
BOOM!
The stone doors were shattered into bits, and immediately Major Erik moved to the back to hold off the beasts while his team entered the hall.
On entering the hall, lo and behold, Blake and his team were currently in combat with 13 king-rank beasts. They were all in formation while making use of battle arrays to both defend and attack the rampaging beasts.
"Reinforcement has arrived!"
The sound of explosions on the stone door had made Blake's team fear, but to their surprise, it was Major Erik's team.
'What are they doing here?' Once all members of his unit had made their way into the hall, Major Erik quickly followed after but he was surprised to see Blake.
Although they were both enemies, Major Erik was more than glad to see him, but the same couldn't be said for Blake.
'The heavens are surely after me!' Blake cursed his bad luck when he saw Erik bring another set of beasts into the hall.
[Not to be the bringer of bad news, but those beasts are being controlled so they should be stronger than the ones we have faced so far.] The system reported.
'I just hope this f*cktard doesn't ruin my entire plan!' Blake cursed Major Erik's entire generation for being stupid and not sticking together.
...
After leaving the library and entering another passage, instead of going deeper into the ruin, Blake decided to go through another route and return to the previous entrance leading to the center.
Obviously, the cursed entity of course tried to stop him by blocking their path with walls, but since they didn't have mana flowing through them, Ebony and Ivory easily destroyed them.
On blasting open the door of the hall, Blake and his unit were met with a large empty space with a lot of dust, making it the perfect space to start his counterattack.
From all the info Blake had gotten, he and the system deduced that the best course of action was to deal with the beasts before going deeper into the ruin.
The weakness of the King rank beasts gave him enough confidence to attempt this plan so he decided that the hall was the perfect place.
What he hadn't expected was that the fool responsible for making the mission so difficult would come back to cause trouble for him.
"Take formation and attack!" Major Erik commanded as he engaged the beasts while receiving support from his team's battle arrays.
The weakness of the King rank beasts didn't come from being locked up for so long, but because the cursed entity drained constantly drained portions of their energy. That way it could still live while keeping the King rank beasts locked up and using them to capture even more beasts.
That was why throughout the chase, the King rank beasts hadn't been raining spells on them throughout the chase.
However, the physical capabilities of a weakened King rank beast were still above that of Heroes. That was why even though they were employing the destructive powers of battle arrays, they were barely hanging on.
[We don't know what surprises the ruin might still have in stock for us. We better end this quick.] The system said.
'Roger that!' Blake replied before giving Ebony and Ivory the signal to go haywire.
Awooo!
Ebony howled in joy as it released a massive explosion that pushed the beasts back, before transforming into spinning flames and crashing into a tiger salamander.
At the same time, a giant hairy scorpion appeared beside Ebony and struck its stinger at him, but Ebony easily grabbed onto it with its mouth and slammed it into the ground before burning it to crisps.