Kanade seemed to know where we were and was trying to regroup, but her voice was nearly drowned out by the sounds of players getting taken out.
We might be in trouble.
I found myself thinking back to the first wave battle—that one was a close fight. Of course they weren’t gonna let us clear a wave this easily.
“Hah! Circle Dance Zero Formation: Snow Moon Flower!”
“Crimson Heaven Wheel!”
“Bloody Bomb Splash!”
Shouko’s Snow Moon Flower sliced up the surrounding monsters with her petals, Tsumugi’s skill blasted them back, and finally, my Cooperation Skill with Yamikage turned them into debuff-spreading bombs.
“Now! Anyone near the Island Lord Party! Clear out the monsters and secure your safety!”
Blood splattered around the other players, spreading the powerful debuff. Thanks to that, their damage spiked and the number of monsters around us plummeted in seconds.
As for dismantling... Yeah, looks like I won’t have the time.
Aah, I can see Kanade!
“Guys! She’s got a massive pack on her tail!”
“Let’s go, pen!”
The original Brave Pekkle, sensing a party member in danger, took off toward my sister. I quickly glanced at his stress gauge... He’ll be fine for now, I concluded. That said, he was pretty borderline, and I didn’t know how long that would last.
Either way, we need to hurry and get those monsters away from sis!
“Bloody Bomb Splash! Stat!”
“I am not the island lord!”
“It’s Blood Flower and Bloody Rain, right?! Anyway, everyone use your AoEs to thin them out before you drop! Otherwise, we’ll never be able to clean house!”
“Pekkle is not a monster, pen!”
“Sorry, Pekkle! Be my shield! We need to hold out just a little longer!”
“Pennn!”
I could hear the sounds of Pekkles falling from all around. They were the Pekkles of other players, mind you. We were barely holding on ourselves, but...we hadn’t even reached the boss yet!
“No matter how many we take down...”
“There’s no end to them. There’s way too many enemies.”
Shouko and Tsumugi kept spamming AoEs. Yamikage and I let out our Bloody Bomb Splash whenever we could to chip away at the mobs swarming us, but the spawn rate was downright absurd.
What the heck is going on here?
“There’s no time to attack the boss!”
“Are our levels too low?!”
“Island lord, Kizzy’s big brother, please put an end to this! No need to hold back! We can’t handle this anymore!”
“No-lifers, carry us, please!”
We’re starting to get whiners! Hey, frontliners! How are you letting us steal your thunder?!
“L-L’Arc! I-I never said I needed your help, you got that?!”
“Ah, thought you were the island master, but it’s you, Rose! Thanks for that.”
By the sound of things, L’Arc and Tsumugi’s old party members were still pulling through. Although...why was L’Arc getting the tsundere treatment?
“Kizuna! Tsumugi! I finally caught up,” Kanade said. “With that said...the spawn rate is out of control. The player base as a whole is getting pushed into a corner.”
“It’s more fun when there’s a challenge!”
“Yeah, of course you’d say that, Tsumugi. Shouko, are you all right?”
“Somehow or other...”
Though she said that, we’d taken a fair few hits. I’d already lost all my Shield Energy, and I’d been on the receiving end of direct damage a bit more than I would have liked.
I could still fight, but at this rate I’d fall below the requirements for my armor—and then, I’d be auto-stripped and massively weakened. If we didn’t use sis’s proposed formation to get to the boss and hit it fast, the situation would only get worse and worse.
“Gwaaaaaah!”
“Another quake! So you take damage just by being near it? Only the super agile players can keep jumping while attacking, but what choice do we have?”
“It’s throwing boulders now!”
“Isn’t there some kind of gimmick to debuff this thing?!”
“This boss is just straight-up OP!”
The players engaging the boss were struggling, to say the least. We’re going to have...quite a few casualties from this.
“Now this is what I call a fight, am I right?”
And then, there was my little sister, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. Yeah, she was reliable, but...things weren’t looking good. They weren’t looking good at all. Whenever Tsumugi got that look, we’d find ourselves in a losing battle more often than not.
“We can fight, I daresay. But it’s looking quite grim.”
“Indeed. I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but we might be done for if we can’t take them down faster.”
“This is a rough one for the casual crowd...”
Frontliners, this is your time to shine. I’m seriously counting on you here.
“Uwaaaaaaahhh!”
“Aww snap! The party fighting the boss just wiped! And the field is locked down! They can’t respawn back in!”
Oh, right. Once the boss shows up, you can’t rejoin the battle if you get done in. Isn’t this pretty bad?
The boss party getting annihilated was already putting us on the ropes.
And that was when a party chat came my way.
“Uh-huh...”
That voice...! It’s Sheryl!
Come to think of it, she went off on her own!
“Sheryl! Are you okay?! I mean, I know it’s chaos with all the spawns.”
“Sheryl, are you safe?”
“Uh-huh.”
Judging by the tone, she seemed fine.
“Lady Sheryl, where are you, I daresay?”
“D...6.”
That’s...pretty far, and way too far from the boss!
What do we do?
Considering Sheryl’s safety, the best move would have been to regroup with her, but if we didn’t take down the boss, we’d be whittled down, and more and more players would be forced out of the field!
And, if everyone wiped...then what? The event would be considered a failure.
We need to make a decision fast.
“Kizuna, why don’t we split in two to rescue Sheryl?” asked Kanade.
“That sounds about right, sis. No...if L’Arc’s closer, we could ask him.”
Kanade and I discussed it back and forth, but then...
“No problem,” Sheryl calmly replied.
No, to be more precise...it was like she was brimming with confidence.
“Installation done. Go time.”
“Installation...? What do you—”
Before I could ask what she meant, Sheryl gave the order.
“Fire!”