“Get down, Erin!” Force shouted.
He then deflected a sniper shot headed straight for her. Meanwhile, the surrounding monsters leveled their guns at us.
“Impenetrable Fortress!”
Just as Roslia put up her barrier, the mechanical soldiers we were facing all attacked at once. The deafening roar of gunfire came at us from every direction, but the bullets failed to reach us thanks to Roslia’s defensive spell.
“I can’t keep this up for long! What should we do?” she asked.
The monsters on this floor were different from any other. They were mostly mechanical soldiers made of metal plates and springs, and they wielded firearms just like the boss in the tower. Some specialized in medium range combat with assault rifles and shotguns, while some hid in the shadows of the ruins with sniper rifles, and others yet attacked openly with machine guns and cannons. Though their strategies differed, they were all relatively easy to defeat at close range.
The hitch was that there were so many of them firing at once that getting close was nearly impossible. And when Erin tried to sling spells from a distance, a similar barrier like the one we saw around the tower appeared to protect the soldiers. You could say this floor bore the closest resemblance to 16 with its horseman army, but the mobs here were a lot stronger and a lot more annoying with their coordinated teamwork.
“Should I go on the offense instead now?” Force asked.
“No, you prepare for the next sniper shot,” Sofie replied. “I’ll move to the front line instead.”
“Can you make do on your own?”
“I cannot. May I bring Roslia?”
“Me? What about our defenses?”
“Get Erin to cast something. Her attacks are being blocked anyway.”
“Hey, that makes me sound useless!” Erin shouted. “It’s not my fault the enemies have protection against magic!”
“I wasn’t implying that. We’re going to aim for the enemies putting up the barriers first, so please switch to attacking once we take care of them.”
“Fine.”
“My Impenetrable Fortress is about to give! We move on the count of three!”
Roslia counted down and her dome of light shattered. When it did, Sofie manipulated the earth beneath us with spirit arts to form a simple wall. It served as a barrier against the barrage of incoming bullets, but it also gave Roslia and Sofie a push. The two of them burst forward together as Erin cast a defense spell to shield us from more fire.
“Roslia, the soldiers holding those long devices in the left and right corners are the ones controlling the magic barrier.”
“I’ll take the left. The right’s all yours, Sofie.”
“Understood.”
With High Appraisal, Sofie could identify the mechanical soldiers’ various roles. She split ways with Roslia, creating more earthen walls to defend her as she closed in on her target. Roslia did the same with the paladin spell Light Chariot.
“Erin, there are enemies approaching from the side,” I informed her. “Can you handle them?”
“No freaking way! I can’t cast two spells at once, and if I drop this one, we’ll all be in the line of fire!”
“I’ll go instead, then,” our party leader offered.
“Force!” Neme called after him.
“I know,” he replied. “How long until the boss fires again?”
“Three minutes and twenty seconds.”
“I’ll be back in two.”
For a priestess who relied on regenerative and buff spells, time management was a vital ability. It was hard to say Neme had full mastery of it before, but she’d grown during her days with the Ultimate Invincible Partyz. We could now rely on her to time both her buff spells and the sniper shots.
“Here I go!”
Force dashed out from the cover of Erin’s spell. He had no difficulty making his way through the rain of gunfire with Mind’s Eye. He deflected bullet after bullet with his near-supernatural swordsmanship, closing in on the soldiers hidden in the shadows.
The enemy’s front line was falling apart thanks to Sofie and Roslia’s advance. The mechanical soldiers began to retreat toward the back left, but they never stopped shooting.
“We can do this!” Erin shouted while adjusting her barrier to block this new volley of fire. It left our right flank—the side facing the boss tower—completely open.
I was suddenly struck with a terrible feeling.
“Get back here, Force!” I shouted.
“It’s only been a minute!” he shouted back.
In that moment, I felt a sharp surge of animosity from the boss. It only fired its magical sniper rounds every five minutes. That was the rule that applied until now. But who said that the sniper could only fire once every five minutes?
Force seemed to realize our mistake as well.
“Flash Step!”
He charged back toward us in a straight line, but the boss was faster.
The guardian of this floor was extremely cunning. By restricting its fire to five-minute intervals, it lured dungeoneers into a false sense of security. That left it free to fire a surprise round at the most opportune time. A single sniper shot was deadly enough, and the boss had set a trap to ensure this one would be unblockable.
The bullet flew toward Erin. She didn’t even see it coming.
“Please make it...!”
Force thrust his sword out at supersonic speed. A shrill clanging sound exploded right in front of Erin.
“What?!” She whipped around. The magic bullet whizzed past her. Force had somehow managed to spare her the shot—a different target had taken it instead. “Force!”
“Whoa, seriously?” he gasped...for Gleaming Beast was shattered.
In order to protect Erin, he’d extended his sword to deflect the bullet. It had struck his blade dead center. It was just bad luck. Nevertheless, Force deserved a pat on the back for making it in time. We were lucky just to have Erin in one piece still.
Thrown by the momentum of his leap, Force rolled across the ground. All the while, the animosity from the tower remained strong.
“You’ve got to be kidding me...” I muttered.
If there was a second shot, then there could just as easily be a third. Right now, when we’d completely broken formation, would be the perfect time to strike.