”That was way too strong and fast to be on the same level of monsters we were fighting until now,” Derel said with a thoughtful expression.

”Multiple groups must have increased the difficulty regardless of the others,” Ning said with a thoughtful expression.

”Why would they do that? All at once too,” Issi asked. He was angry that because of him, they nearly lost a lot of points. Had it not been the other two swiftly arriving to help, they would have been around the bottom of the groups.

”Drake is causing problems in group 5,” Ning said. “So, they aren’t able to fight against the monsters. They were even having problems with the hornets before this.”

”Oh, and everyone saw it then,” Derel said. “No wonder the monster’s level increased.”

”How’s their situation now?” Issi asked.

Ning opened up the screen and checked.

”They’re struggling. Quite a lot,” Ning said. “They are using the turret to support themselves.”

”Good. Serves them right for trying to make us lose,” Derel said with a snort.

”Do they look like they’ll lose?” Issi asked.

”Uh… no, the turret is very strong it seems. They must have put all their points on it,” Ning said.

”Tsk. I wish they would just die. Maybe I should go and kill them myself,” Derel said with a snarl.

”Let’s focus on our own battles for now,” Ning said and everyone went back to take their place.

Over the next couple of monsters, the situation over at the 5th group got so bad that the members were forced to take cover in the tower and wait for the tower to destroy the monster that spawned.

Seeing this, the other groups started investing their points in the monsters and made them even stronger.

Now, it was a fully armored Death knight in a skeletal horse that spawned.

It was so strong that it could survive Ning’s normal attacks without a sweat. Ning had to use his Aether to strengthen himself to kill this monster.

The monster had gotten so strong that none of the others dared make it even stronger for fear of creating problems for themselves.

Still, the Death knight was enough to cause trouble for Group 5. Every time it spawned, it would gallop until it was close to 10 meters away from the tower.

If any of the other groups were to improve the monsters, group 5 would not be able to handle it at all.

* * * * *

Ever since walking into the tower’s range, the members of group 5 had finally started getting better.

The leader of the group, the girl with braided, pink hair sighed in relief when the Death Knight appeared in the distance.

As it walked towards them, the guy with a stone in his arm, and stone covering his entire body slowly morphed the stone in his hand into an arrow and propped his metal bow.

He nocked the stone arrow onto his bow and pulled it as hard as he could before letting it loose.

The arrow made a whistling sound through the air as it landed directly onto the Death knight’s skull with a resounding boom.

It staggered a bit before continuing its gallop towards them. 𝑜𝓋𝗅𝐞xt.𝗇𝓔t

He looked at the others 3 who were too weak to fight back properly and nocked another arrow before attacking the Death Knight.

Once the monster got too close to the tower, the tower started shooting its own attack, which the monster survived for a while.

Only after it was nearly 30 meters away from the tower did it finally die.

All 5 of them sighed in relief when they saw that. However, they started fearing what the monster to spawn next would be.

”Goddammit!” the pink-haired leader cried out. “It’s all because of that group we attacked. One of their members must have used some sort of technique on us to make us so fatigued.”

”What do we do?” the archer asked.

”I want to kill them,” she shouted.

”Should I go and attack them?” the archer asked.

”Will you make it back in time?” she asked before immediately shaking her head. “Doesn’t matter, even if you don’t make it back in time, I can handle the next one at least.”

”Good,” the archer said and stood up. “I will go kill their leader right now.”

Without saying much, the archer left.

Drake, who was looking at them from the shadows of the forest, saw the archer leave and his eyes shined.

His eyes no longer held the looks of a dying man, but rather a revived predator, looking at its prey.

So, he slowly drifted onto the shadow, following the archer.

The archer ran through the forest and decided to take a long way around so that they could attack from a different direction now.

As he walked, he felt something sticky and let go of the stone armor he had put on before touching his chest.

Something wet was on his clothes. “What is it?” he wondered, but he couldn’t see in the darkness.

As he felt through his chest and up to his shoulders, he found a wound that he had gotten at some point throughout the fight.

”Goddammit! It must have been that hooded figure from their group,” he said to himself softly, but Drake who was about 100 meters away heard him clearly.

He wanted to get close and kill the man, but not right away. If he caught his scent and ran away, he would never get to kill him.

So, he diligently waited.

As they got closer, the archer started to shout even louder.

”Goddammit! I will kill that hooded bastard,” he shouted in the jungle even as he got close to Ning’s area.

”I will kill that blue-haired swordsman.”

”Then I will kill that red-haired chick.”

”And then I will kill their leader.”

”And then I will kill their final member who is hiding,” he shouted.

Then, the archer stopped and the stone in his hand turned into an arrow that he nocked onto his bow.

”You know what? Why don’t I just kill myself?”

The man turned the bow towards his head and let go.

Drake watched in shock and horror as the first death of the competition happened… just like that.