Chapter 185 35.1 Raid Leading?

I was never a leader. Granted, I could act as one if need be, but I absolutely hate being in charge, especially if I knew that I had no idea what I was doing.

But shot calling? That was something I was at least familiar with so long as I had enough information to work with.

"We're here..." I whispered out.

Looking up at the room we found ourselves in, it was pretty much a textbook example of being in a deep dark dungeon with nothing but our own lights to illuminate it. An iron chandelier hung right overhead, visages of old paintings and dilapidated furniture barely being revealed by Maruki's shield as we walked forward. And right in front of us, the true enemy finally showed itself.

"Princess!"

"My Princess!"

Almost simultaneously, Shade and Maruki shouted out their concerns as Shizu's form finally floated right in front of us. It was... grotesque, to say the least. Her kimono had been torn to shreds, replaced with a multitude of tentacles wrapping all and around her bare skin. Her head, in particular, was being held captive by the very tentacles themselves, almost seemingly going right into her ears as the things held her suspended up in the air.

"Calm down," I called out, replacing Guidance as the dev took her break. "We don't want to engage until we're ready."

I said that, but we were never going to be ready to fight this thing, much less Shizu, should the current arrangement continue with how much the very tension of the room called for us to fight.

[Caris Zenoia: Level 80]

[Taenia: Level ???]

Well, that was a gonna be a problem, wasn't it... Good thing this world still somehow operated on aggro rules.

"Shen, how's Guidance?"

Looking beside me, the dev was currently under the care of our diminutive mechanic. The thing's earlier attempts at trying to subvert Guidance had practically made the dev collapse under her feet, forcing Shen to learn [Moves] on the fly as she substituted as our primary healer.

Unfortunately, she still hadn't learned an equivalent to Guidance's [Dispell].

"S-She's still responsive," Shen firmly declared, all her earlier fear forced to take a backseat as pensive determination took its place. "I... I still don't know how ta do the dispel on the thingies, or even see what's wrong with her in da first place..."

[STATUS: CALLED(6): 99 SECONDS]

I frowned as I replied, "She still has six stacks of the debuff this thing is giving us."

It all happened almost instantly. We were making our way down when the monster roared again. This time, however, it was focused mostly on Guidance as she fell to the ground, barely managing to cast one [Dispell] on herself before completely going limp. Even now, she was barely holding on to consciousness, her one [Dispell] somehow preventing her from completely turning against us.

Still, the fact that the [Half Party] prompt flashed in front of me almost made me think that we lost her.

"I... Give.... Give me time...." Guidance weakly whispered, her [Manifest] sputtering in an effort to keep us warm. "N-Need.... more [Dispell]s."

Shen frowned at that. I was sure that the girl was feeling pretty useless at not having the answer to our current problems.

"I... I can fix this," Shen seriously nodded, her wrench glowing green as her grip tightened. "I know I can..."

[*bhuoibsfFINALLYjasbhdubh*]

My eyes quickly turned to the monster as it spoke through Shizu's mouth. Her expression was one of mocking curiosity, her one black and green eye twitching to and fro as it addressed us. Although, her right eye was shining her original golden hue... It looked at me, giving me a look of grim determination despite her words.

Shizu was inside there yet then...

"Let her go!" Maruki called out, pointing his sword at the massive wall of flesh peeking out from behind the princess. "In the name of the Empire, we shall strike you down!"

"Yeah, what he said," Shade ground out, lashing out his whip to the side as his rose glowed red. "You will unhand the Princess right here and now."

Shizu chuckled. Or at least, her body did. The fleshy wall behind it seemed to shift and prod, its tentacles digging into her head as her expression briefly flashed to one of disgust before shifting back into something more serene and mocking.

[*Yashbdo;hYOU ARE INSIGNIFICANTihasiopdhTHE ANOMALYoluighsdioughMORE IMPORTANTAsugd*]

As if pointing out what she was talking about, she then gestured towards Guidance, a tentacle almost seemingly going out of her hands to reach out to the dev before retreating back.

[*asudguiTHE NUMBERSIOhao;suhdoWE WANT ANSWERSsjughdaoiu*]

"Well, we too bad," I shrugged. "If you want answers, we want Shizu back first."

Twirling my pistols, I prepared myself for a fight of a lifetime. I knew that we were going to respawn even if we lost, seeing as we were already in an instance, but with Shizu practically attached to it, I had no idea what would happen.

"G-Go... help..." I heard Guidance weakly whisper. "Shen..."

I kept a straight face as I heard Shen take her place beside me. Her wrench at the ready, she gave me a nod before taking on a stance that I could only assume was her way of telling me that she was going to fight.

"I can do this..." I heard her mumble to herself. "This is da only way ta fix things..."

[CHIME!]

[Raid Unlocked!: [The Lurking Library] is now available!]

My eyes widened. Another instance? Inside of an instance?

I found myself looking at Guidance, who was still busy weakly casting [Dispell] on herself every once in a while. With her debuffs continually refreshing every once in a while, she was pretty much out of commission until we either got rid of the problem, or if she somehow manages to out-dispel her debuffs.

She didn't even notice me looking at her.

"So when are we going to kill this thing, Moriya?" Shade impatiently asked.

I blinked at the glowing portal in front of me. It was almost the same as the one back in the [Rig], only this time, it was swirling red with... with black and green numbers glitching around it.

Somehow, I just knew that we were going to have a bad time no matter how prepared we might be.

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