“I’d suggest you have the others move for this next wave.” Surprisingly, it did not take long for Valyr to come up with an answer, lightly scratching the back of his head as he let out an awkward chuckle. “I feel like I’ve already done more than enough for the defense anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Damian raised his eyebrow in curiosity. “Using the move you unleashed earlier on this next wave would definitely help speed up the clearing of the monster tide. On top of that, you’d reduce the casualties from this defense if you make a move.”

“That may be true.” Valyr bitterly smiled, only to shift his gaze towards the other people that accompanied them in the defense. “However, I feel like I would be making a mockery of the sacrifice of the people who volunteered to participate in the defense if I were to move once more.”

“I don’t think so.” Pondering over Valyr’s words in silence, Damian eventually shook his head in response. “Although these people did volunteer to participate in the defense against the monster tide, almost all of these people had joined the defense, confident that they’d be able to survive through the waves the tide would throw at us thanks to their heightened stats.”

“Only a few of them would be truly willing to lay their lives for the village,” said Damian with a faint sigh. “Almost all of them would definitely turn tail and run.”

“I don’t know why you’re going about this in a roundabout way, Valyr.” Taking a look at the monster tide far into the horizon, Tristan noticed that the number of monsters making up the second wave continued to gradually increase by the second, as if to compensate for how the first wave was decimated by just one person. “You just have to pick one of the two. There’s nothing difficult about that, no?”

“Unless… that skill you unleashed earlier has a long cooldown?” As this question came out of Tristan’s mouth, Damian looked at Tristan for a bit in realization before turning to look back at Valyr, inwardly admonishing himself for forgetting about that fact. However, just as he expected Valyr to tell the two of them that his skill indeed had a long cooldown, what he heard instead was something he was sure to remember.

“Not really.” Valyr shook his head, commanding the system to bring up the description of Shadow Serpent Combat Style in his mind, only to find out that Tide of the Dark Night only had a cooldown of about a minute or so. “It only has a cooldown of about a minute. If anything, it’s the mana cost that’s the problem.”

“But you can still use the skill, right?” Damian asked in response to Valyr’s answer, to which the latter responded with a faint nod.

“If that’s the case, why do you still want the others to make a move if your skill could make sure there are no casualties?” Tristan asked with a slight frown.

“Because we have someone else who’s also raring to show everyone how much she’s improved.” As these words came out of Valyr’s mouth, Valyr looked in the direction of a certain person as a smile gradually crept up onto his lips. “Isn’t that right, Myst?”

“I wouldn’t mind if you were to clear the monster tide on your own. It would be for the greater good of the village, after all.” With Tristan and Damian looking in the same direction Valyr was looking in, Myst responded to Valyr’s words with a shrug of her shoulders. Though, not long after, a faint grin appeared on her face.

“Though, I do have to admit that I want to see how much stronger I’ve become.”

“As you should.” Nodding in agreement with Myst’s words, Valyr let out a chuckle. After that, he pondered over a few things for a bit, gazing at the monster tide every once in a while before eventually looking at Damian. “Hmm… how about this?”

“For this wave, how about we let Myst move on her own, then have the other people back her up if she’s finding difficulty in clearing the wave?”𝑜𝚟𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

“Of course, with the disparity between their levels, the others would group up before fighting against the monsters,” said Valyr as he briefly scratched his head. “Then, if there’s still a problem in clearing the second wave, I make a move.”

“What do you think, Myst?” After Valyr was finished explaining his idea, Damian looked at Myst in front of him, to which the latter briefly frowned before letting out a faint sigh not long after.

“Though it feels like you’re saying that my combat power wouldn’t be enough to clear the second wave, it does kind of put me at ease to know that we won’t lose any people from this.” As these words came out of Myst’s mouth, Valyr wryly smiled in response. “Let’s go with that, then.”

“Alright.” Nodding, Damian infused mana into his voice before allowing it to resound throughout the area once more. “Men! Heed my command!”

“For this upcoming wave, make sure to be prepared to fight at any moment!”

“Group yourselves into teams of four and wait for my signal!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” With most of the people responding to Damian’s words in unison, the people surrounding Valyr and the others started to get into formation, following the orders Damian had given, with the people making up the other wings of the defense following suit not long after.

Rumble…

“Here they come!” Coincidentally, the monster tide far into the horizon decided to finally send out their second wave, being made up of monsters at Level 15, with their numbers at least thrice as much as the wave that came before. Seeing this, Damian looked at Myst, who had stepped forward, before giving her a nod.

“You’ve got this.” Seeing as Myst was in the process of preparing herself, Valyr decided to give her a few words of encouragement before she moved into the battlefield. In response, Myst looked back and nodded before getting into a battle stance, darting towards the horde of monsters not even an instant later.

“Of course, I do.”

Whoosh!

Though she moved at a speed that was considerably slower than what Valyr was able to muster, Myst was still able to cross the gap between the frontlines and the rampaging monsters of the second wave within a few seconds, with the monsters that were near her slightly wary as they recalled the attack that had appeared before.

Taking note of this, Myst stopped earlier than she initially planned to, unsheathing the blade on the side of her waist before raising up above her head. Then, not even a second after, a piercing white light covered the entirety of Myst’s blade as she imbued more and more mana into it, causing the piercing feeling to grow even more intense.

“Nascent Perennial Blade Intent.”

At that moment, all of the monsters that were heading in her direction stopped in their tracks, taking a look to see if they would need to turn tail and run back to the main tide. However, before they could even do so, Myst swiftly slashed out in a wide horizontal arc, causing a wave of piercing white light to cascade over the monsters as they fell to their deaths one by one.

“Perennial Blade Arts.”

“Perpetual Crescent.”