Chapter 205: How can they survive this?

The air reeked with the stench of blood and the loud, dying screeches of monsters. The ground around them was littered with the mangled corpses of moles, faint golden light leaving their bodies and drilling into the fighting men.

"Don’t steal my kill!" Daniel yelled out in frustration at Marvin’s sneaky, provoking actions. This was the sixth prey he had set his eyes on, only for Marvin to land the killing blow.

"Stop shouting my ears off! Did you mark the prey as yours, or does the prey you chose look different from the rest? How the bloody hell should I know?!" Marvin roared back, but his gaze gleamed with a mischievous glint, showing he was clearly doing it on purpose.

Zoey looked over from the place where she was hiding to rest. Her face was pale with exhaustion from fighting without rest for two hours—not that she was counting.

She noticed Marvin and Daniel were arguing again and screamed with anger and envy in her heart. She patted her mini self in her heart, trying to console it as she watched them cut through the monsters creeping up behind them.

’How are they so strong? Their strength is monstrous, fighting for hours without rest and even having the time to joke around. Cole’s face was almost dripping with boredom, and he was yawning like a sleep-deprived person. Arghh!’ Zoey screamed in frustration as she thought about herself, who had only lasted an hour.

Zoey could no longer handle the stimulation and averted her gaze from the monstrous five, feeling she might suffer a stroke if she kept comparing herself to them. They outranked her in power and strength.

Fortunately, she wasn’t their enemy, or she wouldn’t know how quickly she would die.

Time passed gruesomely, and piles of monster corpses littered the ground. Zoey’s cheetah handled the ones that occasionally slipped past the five to attack her.

The moles seemed to understand that there was no winning against these five, and they began retreating to the side, screeching loudly as if calling out to someone.

Seeing the monsters’ strange actions, Zoey felt fear grip her heart, and it sank even further when she noticed the five of them grow serious. Cole healed them while downing a potion to prepare for the final battle ahead.

Zoey straightened up, gripping her weapon as she watched the uncanny scene unfold.

Three huge moles with grey fur shot out from the ground, their eyes red instead of the beady black eyes of the normal moles.

They threw back their heads and let out a deafening roar that shook the ground beneath them.

"SS+ ranked monsters. Sh*t, there are three of them." Alex swore, something he rarely did, indicating the seriousness of the situation.

His words made Zoey turn pale. Her hand gripping her weapon shook, and her heart thundered with fear and the urge to give up.

’How can they survive this?’

The thought flickered in her mind, fear almost consuming her, but she froze when her gaze fell on Adrian and the others.

Though they were serious, their expressions were those of people dealing with troublesome monsters rather than people overcome by fear.

"Two to one. Leave the other one to me. I’ll stall it until you have dealt with your opponents," Alex instructed, and everyone hummed in agreement.

"Hold on a bit longer. We’ll take care of this and back you up." Adrian said and patted Alex on the shoulder before walking forward.

He was confident that Alex could stall the monster without sustaining life-threatening injuries.

The three grey moles charged forward after letting out that intimidating roar.

The other black moles remained where they stood, not joining the battle, leaving the three to handle the humans.

"Umm. They forgot about me." Zoey muttered to herself with a dazed expression.

It felt like all her emotional turmoil was wasted in the air, and she was merely an insignificant figure forgotten in a dark corner.

They couldn’t be blamed. Alex and the rest were used to fighting alongside one another, and Zoey’s strength and power were too weak to grab their attention.

But Zoey didn’t feel slighted by their disregard. Instead, she felt relieved and glad to have such powerful allies.

She sat back down in her little corner and watched the battle with relish while pondering how to increase her power rank to dungeon conqueror. She had been stuck at Dungeon Explorer Level Ten for years now.

Once they were done taking down this SS+ ranked monster, she would join the battle and reduce the number of these ordinary moles.

Maybe she would have the chance to break through with all the golden energy she absorbed from them.

At this thought, her gaze on the black moles became feverish and dripping with greed.

Her cheetah felt her emotions and turned to her with a confused tilt of its head.

Zoey was too lost in her thoughts to pay attention to her beast.

Marvin and Adrian joined forces to fight a mole, while Cole and Daniel took on the other.

Their powers lit up the surroundings like fireworks, but their ferocity wasn’t diminished no matter how pretty it looked.

The monster suffered the brunt of their joint attack. Daniel’s flames scorched off the mole’s fur, burning into its flesh as it screeched in pain.

The smell of burnt meat spread through the air as Adrian dashed toward the mole’s limbs. With every slash of his sword, a space tear appeared, cutting off the limbs without leaving any bloodstains.

It was as if parts of the monster were being teleported somewhere while its body remained in their presence.

The monster cried out in pain but reacted quickly, creating rocky spikes that shot toward both of them.

They dodged the spikes while attacking the monster relentlessly. They had to finish quickly and help Alex.

On the left side of the room, Cole and Marvin were in a tough fight with the monster.

Marvin used his wind powers to tear through the monster. A huge cyclone enveloped it as blood splattered from its torn flesh.

Cole wasn’t to be left behind. His water ability, which should have been the weakest, became bullets in his hands.

Countless water bubbles formed in the air before shooting toward the monster at a speed unseen by the eye. They pierced through the monster’s body like a hedgehog.

"Growl!"

The moles cried out in fury and pain. The rest of the black moles watched without helping, but their agitated screeches showed that they were affected by the one-sided beating of their bosses.

Only the one facing Alex had an easy time. There wasn’t a wound on its body, but it was equally frustrated by Alex’s speed.

It couldn’t land a hit on this human no matter how hard it attacked, making it frustrated and helpless.

Zoey watched with her eyes gleaming with awe. She hadn’t expected them to be this strong. Throughout their journey together, they hadn’t fought with their full force before.

’I wish I were this powerful. I could walk sideways on this earth.’

Zoey’s heart was filled with longing for such power, but when she recalled that behemoth of a monster, her heart chilled as if she had been thrown into an icy cellar.

"With that kind of monster roaming this earth, I wouldn’t survive a minute even if I were as strong as them." Zoey muttered to herself, facing the grim reality.

Half an hour passed, and the fight reached its climax. The monsters’ energy was depleted under their attacks, giving them the chance to deliver the finishing blow.

Seeing their two leaders die, the black moles could no longer care about being disrespectful by barging into a ranked monster fight and charged at Alex and the rest.

Daniel chugged down a vial of potion and quickly created a wall of fire to block the moles in place.

"Quickly, deal with the other monster!" Daniel yelled, his breath coming out in loud pants.

Sweat slid down his pale face as he held the flames in place.

The rest rushed forward, four against one monster, and within three minutes, they dealt with the monster just in time for the firewall to crumble and disappear.

Zoey saw that it was her chance to help out, so she rushed forward with her beast in tow.

"Block your ears!" Zoey yelled, warning them. They quickly reacted, blocking their ears as much as they could, but they were still affected by Zoey’s sonic attack.

Waves of screams pushed the moles back. Some bled through their ears, while others dug holes underground to escape.

"Damn... I can never get used to her screams. What kind of strange power is that?" Adrian murmured with a grimace, blood streaming down his ears.

"Tell me next time to make an earplug. Ah... my eardrums." Daniel cried out, his pale face becoming even paler as blood streamed from his ears.

Finally, Zoey’s sonic attack was over. Her beast transformed into its huge form and rushed toward the disoriented moles.

Tearing out their throats and raking its claws across their necks, it killed them instantly.

It let out a roar. Its mini sonic attack was even stronger, shattering the brains of the moles closest to its roar.

Zoey swung her hammer onto a monster’s head, shattering its skull. Wisps of golden light left the dead monster and drilled into her, causing her eyes to light up in exhilaration.

They left the fight to her, with Cole using the chance to heal their wounds.