[Chapter 296. The Center of the Pit]

With Iris gone, the vast emptiness of the desert seemed to press down on them more heavily. They looked out over the pit, a hollow basin of sand where the undead drifted like smoke across the landscape. Sarah's hand landed on Lana's armored shoulder with a soft clank that seemed unnaturally loud in the sudden stillness. She stepped right next to her before she spoke.

"You can do it. You are strong, Lana. Keep your pearly shield up. Just do it the same way you always do—provoke them and leave the rest to Vanessa and me." Sarah's voice was low but confident, each word carefully chosen to bolster Lana's wavering resolve. The desert wind whipped strands of Sarah's platinum blonde hair across her face, but she didn't brush them away this time, her focus entirely on Lana's downturned expression.

Lana clutched her shield before taking a hesitant step forward, down the dune. The polished, pearlescent surface of the shield seemed to absorb and reflect the harsh sunlight simultaneously, creating shifting patterns of color that contrasted with the monotonous gold of the sand. "Thanks, Sarah." The words came out barely above a whisper, but they carried the weight of her gratitude in this moment of vulnerability.

Sarah leaned in closer, their shoulders nearly touching as she lowered her voice even further. "Let's put Vanessa right in the middle of them all and let her stand still. The less she moves, the more motes she can fire." Her eyes darted toward Vanessa, who remained facing away from them, her posture rigid and resentful.

Lana turned her head toward Sarah, her dark eyes wide with disbelief. "Do you know how difficult it will be to defend them from all directions?" Her voice strained with the effort of containing her frustration. The metal plates of her gauntlets creaked as her fingers tightened around the edge of her shield.

"You don't have to do it alone, Lana. I'll be there to help you." Sarah's gaze softened slightly, though her tactical assessment remained sharp. "And think about it—give Vanessa an hour, and she will shoot tens of motes at the same time." The cold calculation in her voice was chilling, yet somehow reassuring in its certainty. Then she turned to Vanessa, raising her voice just enough to carry across the short distance. "Hey Vanessa, is there a limit to how many motes you can shoot at once?"

Vanessa, who had been staring off into the distance where Iris had vanished behind a dune, turned with an expression of surprise that seemed genuine. "Not to my knowledge. I never did more than twelve in our training sessions. Why do you ask?" Her fingers unconsciously traced the intricate patterns on her tome's leather binding, a nervous habit she had developed since awakening.

"Would you like to find out if there is?" Sarah's lips curved into a predatory smile that didn't reach her eyes, her question hanging in the sweltering air between them like a challenge.

Carmen, who had just finished storing the blanket, said in a soft tone, her voice barely audible above the whispering desert wind, "I don't like where this is going." The concern in her eyes was reflected in the polished surface of Wavebreaker as she adjusted her grip on the staff.

"With the new equipment, my mana regeneration is higher than it ever was, and I have a lot more mana..." Vanessa said, looking at the rings on her hand, the silver bands glinting in the harsh sunlight.

Sarah beamed as she turned back to Lana, her smile a stark contrast to the desolate landscape around them. "See? If we place her in the middle, she can shoot everything within range, while you and I keep them from coming closer." Her eyes darted between Lana and Vanessa.

"That's too dangerous," Carmen interjected, stepping closer to the group as if to physically place herself between them and this reckless plan. "There are too many down there. What if you can't keep them all back?" Her gaze swept across the pit below, where the shambling figures moved with eerie purposelessness, their numbers impossible to count from this distance.

Lana slid her hand over the edge of Wavebreaker before she looked up from the sand below, the polished pearlescent surface of her shield reflecting her determined expression. "What if we can? If we kill them all... they will only spawn anew after a certain time. Then we would only have to worry about the ones that are reappearing." Her voice gained strength with each word, the initial hesitation replaced by a growing conviction. The thought of finally proving herself to Iris—and by extension, to Searanox—ignited something fierce within her chest. She adjusted her stance, feet planted firmly in the shifting sand as she imagined the battle strategy taking shape.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about. If they all come back like the Striders, then we could just kill the ones that re-form, instead of running around," Sarah said, nodding in approval. Her platinum hair caught the sunlight as she turned to face the others fully. She could already see it in her mind—a contained battlefield where they controlled the terms of engagement, where Vanessa's power could grow unchecked while she and Lana created an impenetrable front line.

"Where did you even get that idea from? That sounds like suicide to me," Vanessa blurted out, her face flushing with a mixture of fear and indignation. The idea of standing still while surrounded by undead was enough to make her knees tremble, despite her earlier confidence in her enhanced mana reserves.

"Do you remember the fungal dungeon? The one where Searanox killed waves of beasts for ten minutes?" Sarah said while caressing her Mycelial Fang. "It was the first dungeon we saw him fight in... We had nothing to do in there, and neither did he. We simply sat there and ate, while his drones cleared hundreds of beasts." Her voice took on a dreamlike quality as she recalled the scene—Searanox's effortless control, the systematic destruction of enemies, the way he had seemed almost bored by the carnage his mechanical minions wrought. It was that same clinical efficiency she now proposed to emulate, albeit on a much smaller scale.

"We are not him. We don't have an army of drones," Vanessa answered in a fury, her voice sharp enough to cut through the heavy desert air.

"But we have you, and you get stronger the longer the fight goes on... If we replicate the situation in the dungeon, we—you—could fire hundreds of motes by the end," Sarah countered, her eyes gleaming with the feverish excitement of a gambler who sees a winning strategy.

"Or we end up overrun because your plan doesn't work!" Vanessa snapped back, her voice trembling with barely contained fear.

"Vanessa, I would like to try her idea," Lana said, taking a deep breath and straightening her back. Her dark eyes burned with a determination that seemed to burn away her previous hesitation. "She is right, we are not weak. It is time that we show Searanox and Iris that we are not helpless. We can't hide behind them forever. The world will only become more dangerous in the future."

"Ahhh~ I know that we are not weak. I saw the other teams struggle with the Striders!" Vanessa screamed, her frustration boiling over into raw sound that echoed across the dunes. "Carmen, say something! Tell them how ridiculous this is." Her head whipped around, searching for an ally.

Carmen was watching the amount of experience that flooded her sight, a clear sign that Iris had begun her killing spree. The numbers flashed before her eyes in a dizzying cascade. She took a steadying breath before speaking, her fingers tightening around her staff until her knuckles matched Vanessa's. "She makes a good point. I know that my vote should count the least, since I can't really assist you three down there... But I will do everything in my power to keep Lana on her feet." She spoke with a steady voice, despite the tremor in her hands.

"It's decided then. If we struggle reaching the middle, we won't proceed. If we get the feeling that we cannot do it, we run," Lana said in a decisive tone that brooked no argument. She looked each of them in the eye, her gaze lingering on Carmen's worried expression before moving to Vanessa's defiant scowl. "I promise you, Vanessa. The moment either of you says we can't do this, we retreat. No hesitation."

"I can't believe it. I expected something like this from the airhead, but not from you two," Vanessa said reluctantly, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

Their armored boots sank deep into the golden sand as they slowly began their way down the steep dune, the grains shifting beneath their weight and threatening to send them sliding. With each step, the pit below grew larger in their vision, the shambling figures becoming more distinct. When they finally reached the bottom of the basin, Lana moved to take the front line, her pearlescent shield held at the ready, its polished surface gleaming with an almost otherworldly light against the desolate backdrop.

"Vanessa, shoot one of them with your spell and let's see how fast you can kill them," Lana commanded, her voice steady despite the slight tremor in her hands. Her dark eyes scanned the approaching figures, her mind racing with tactical assessments that had become second nature after days of combat training.

Behind her, Vanessa brought out her Starfall Matrix, the intricate spell weave materializing above her head in a dazzling display of shimmering arcane energy. In a heartbeat, a bolt of arcane energy shot forth with the speed of a falling star, striking one of the shambling humanoids squarely in the chest. The impact sent it reeling two steps backward as most of its torso dissolved under the raw magical force, leaving behind a cloud of dust, before the second bolt slammed into what remained of its upper body. The creature's bones cracked and splintered under the assault, brittle from centuries of sun exposure. Before it could take another staggering step toward them, it got pushed back a second time by the force of another impact, crumpling to the sand below in a heap of desiccated remains and tattered leather.

The mote that accompanied the second shot flew wide initially, a small sphere of residual magical energy. Vanessa's eyes narrowed in concentration as she willed it further to the right, her hands tracing invisible patterns in the air as if conducting an orchestra. Just barely making contact with one of the other creatures, the point of impact was not as strong as the main bolt, but it left behind a sizable hole through the undead's ribcage, revealing the sun-bleached spine within. The husk stumbled but continued its relentless advance, its movements now even more disjointed than before.

"I would say that looks promising," Carmen said, standing beside Vanessa, her golden staff held loosely in one hand. The healer's eyes darted between Vanessa's face and the battlefield ahead, her expression a mixture of professional assessment and barely concealed worry.

"Yeah, she can kill them faster than I would have guessed," Lana said as she got ready to block any of them that came their way.