The battle at the front lines continued.
The Evilus suicide soldiers truly feared nothing. Gripping their detonator cords, they hurled themselves straight into the assault team. Fire burst out with a thunderous roar.
"Boom!"
The vanguards at the front all took varying degrees of blast damage.
Blown back by the shockwave, Bete's face twisted with fury. With a single glance he saw several of the weaker members behind them already badly injured.
"Those bastards!"
He'd always known Evilus were lunatics with no sense of honor, but he never imagined they could be this far gone.
Fifteen minutes had passed since they were discovered, yet the number of suicide bombers hadn't decreased at all. To block their advance, the bombers were detonating faster, and more and more of them kept rushing in.
Finn, in the center, frowned deeply.
'I didn't expect them to pin us down like this with such tactics.'
They had advanced only a few dozen meters since the start, and now pushing any further had become impossible. Footsteps echoed from the darkness ahead, charging toward them in a disturbingly organized rhythm.
'I can't believe we're being held back by a bunch of people who don't even care if they die.'
Finn felt the strain.
To advance meant forcing their way through thousands of suicide soldiers. These attackers didn't hesitate at all—they simply pulled the fuse and ran into their formation, relying entirely on that single "Boom."
At first, the fire stones were strapped to their waists, and knocking them away helped. But after Bete tried that a few times, the next waves began clutching the stones to their chests, giving them no chance to disarm them.
With enemies this reckless, the vanguard was taking severe damage. The blast shockwaves themselves were deadly. Tiona, Tione, and Bete had no defensive magic; after enough explosions went off near them, even Lv.6 adventurers started taking injuries and feeling exhaustion.
And Evilus kept pushing, sacrificing bodies without pause.
The floor, walls, and ceiling of the passage were already coated with a thick layer of flesh and blood, half-congealed into a sticky paste—proof of how little Evilus valued their own lives. The cramped passage also meant terrible airflow. Each blast not only flung chunks of flesh everywhere but vaporized blood into a thin mist, filling the air with a choking metallic stench.
The passage had become a literal hellscape of gore.
"Ugh!"
Haruhime, who had never seen anything like this, threw up immediately.
She wasn't the only one; even several Lv.4 and Lv.5 adventurers were shaken by the sight.
"This… this…"
The scene was so horrific that Haruhime's face turned completely pale. Aisha, her expression grim, raised her blade to block Haruhime's view.
"This kind of scene is too much for you right now. Stop watching."
"Sister Aisha..."
"Be obedient. Even adventurers can't handle this kind of situation."
"Haruhime, you should listen to Miss Aisha."
Raul, still staring tensely at the chaos ahead, added his voice. His throat bobbed as he swallowed unconsciously, the muscles around his neck straining with tension.
"The situation now is far more brutal than the massacre on the 27th floor."
"But the biggest problem is those lunatics blowing themselves up nonstop. Even Bete and Ais are starting to breathe hard."
"If this keeps up, even they won't be able to hold on."
Raul knew exactly how dangerous the front line had become. Many Dwarf shield-bearers were already reaching their limit—either their shields had shattered, or their shield arms were scorched red, their skin fused to the metal.
Hearing this, Haruhime no longer dared to look ahead. The sight of the suicidal charge was simply too overwhelming for her.
Lefiya kept her eyes open, staring at the brutal scene while continuing her chant.
"Ignite the flames, forest's beacon."
"Command your arrows, Elf fire arrows."
"Pour down like rain, burn the savages!"
In a single breath, all the magic in her body gathered into the gem at the tip of her wand. The specialized magic gem flared, amplifying her power and further strengthening the spell.
"Fusillade Fallarica!"
The Magic Stone at the wand's core burst with blinding light. Countless fire arrows shot out from the magic circle formed by the stone, streaking forward like a barrage of flaming spears.
The four vanguard members had already prepared. The moment Lefiya's Magic reached completion, they immediately retreated, moving clear of her attack range.
"Fusillade Fallarica" was Lefiya's wide-area flame attack Magic. Unlike Riveria's spells, which could scorch the terrain itself, Lefiya's focused entirely on offensive power rather than altering the battlefield.
Like a true flaming volley, her attack carried immense deterrent force and covered a much broader area.
"Aaaah!"
After a wave of agonized screams, the space ahead of the passage was cleared.
And following this sweep, the reinforcement of suicide soldiers suddenly slowed.
Finn caught it immediately.
"Finally decreasing?"
If that assault pattern had continued, even Bert and the others wouldn't have lasted much longer.
Daphne approached Finn at that moment, guarding Cassandra.
"Captain, Cassandra has something to say."
Finn's brows tightened. He turned quickly toward Cassandra, whose breathing was still unsteady.
"Cassandra, did something happen in the rear?"
"Yes... Captain, the beasts have been unleashed. The drop in numbers up front is because something went wrong behind them. The beasts were released."
"The Spirit Elite Soldiers...?"
Finn stared grimly ahead. He'd thought they could finally catch a short break, only to realize the front had eased because something even more unstable had appeared behind enemy lines.
"Looks like we'll need to split up."
They absolutely could not allow all the enemies to gather together.
If that happened, their entire team would be forced to face fifty-four Lv.5 monsters. That would be real trouble.