Midnight Problem

(Denzel's POV):

In all of the time we had to do this normally, we called for some bold action under the midnight sky.

"Chronorift Bomb!" - Malech

We went straight to the center of the fray filled with enemies all around us and found the desert well Malech was talking about earlier.

We're currently fending off assault from one side continuously.

Looking at both Malech and William, they're pretty great defending even though they're assassins.

A medium scale explosion occurred within the area that sucked enemies into a chronorift zone. They will be significantly slowed down to a certain extent. Malech extended multiple chronorift bombs all around the area to make all enemies appear from the front of us only.

"William!"

"Got it! Moonrock Wall!" - William

A large wall made out of moon rock was formed in front of me and started pushing forward to step the enemies on their tracks.

"Nigerundayo!!!"

"Denzel stop with that reference!" - Malech

Everyone starts running towards the cave within our sights. We moved around ten meters before we slowed ourselves down. Malech makes a large sweep using the Death Trap to eliminate as many players as it could. It was countered by a mystic type magic judging by the flying purple ball that flew out.

"Crystal Skewers!"

Multiple ice spikes were generated and were immediately thrown towards the enemy. All spikes dissipated on vain. You're kidding? Magic barriers?

I checked their front lines along with the sturdy looking shields they hold while pushing forward faster and faster. Isaac shoots a bullet above my shoulder and blasted a person's head. William flung his whip sword towards Malech's side to strike the sneaking enemy.

"Transweapon tech! Flesh Blaster!"

I converted my left sword into an easy blasting weapon that can just simply shatter the front lines. I then charged up towards the enemies that are advancing in front of us.

"Malech! William! Quick charge!"

I yelled out the instructions for a countermeasure with this long charging with the flesh blaster. Quick charging it alone will simply drain my entire mana after multiple uses. This issue made me rely on Malech and William to quick charge this gruesome anti-vanguard weapon.

"Now, say goodbye to this server bastards!"

Directly aiming the Flesh Blaster toward the enemy knights. I launched a powerful bullet that reached the speed of sound. Heh, don't think that I didn't upgrade the firepower after barely surviving against Chrominus. It's because of the chromium ore, I managed to attain the ability to increase the impact by tenfold by compressing the time of the bullet!

A flock of various elemental magic was launched in a parabola form towards us. Malech noticed it immediately and activated some kind of spell after flinging the chain to make a fan.

"Time Cloud!" - Malech

An expanding cone of brown fog immediately covered all the magic spells and redirected them through indiscriminate areas. Most shots were returned to the various enemies within the area.

Another flock of elemental magic entered into my sights. William intercepted them this time by taking out his staff that seems to create shockwaves.

"Mana pulsation!" - William

A shockwave was formed which dispersed all the mana. William turned his head while still pointing his staff towards me.

"Denz, use the mana I have dispersed with the staff on your sniper cannon!" - William

William moves his arm to point the staff towards my Flesh Blaster, which I raised up to make it easier to absorb atmospheric mana.

"Alright! Quick Charge!"

The purple knights suffered medium damage from the first shot I made. Seeing that I'm charging my Flesh Blaster for the second time made some knights panic. They rushed to create multiple rows of shielding before firing my second round.

"Decimate!"

Another chromium round was b towards them. They lost two another two players instantly while making six heavily injured and the others blown away.

"Hit confirmed!"

Another barrage of attacks flew out towards us. Both Malech and William clicked their tongues as their abilities are in cooldown but, each magic dispersed one by one. I turned my head around and saw Isaac aiming towards the magic particles.

"Magic dispersion bullets?"

I threw out a question out of instinct which was right on the mark anyway.

"Yep, seeing that both of Malech and William's abilities are in cooldown... I had to." - Isaac

I turned back to the group of knights that started to advance.

"Distance is twenty meters Denz!" - William

"Alright! Malech, prep the new card!"

"Way ahead of ya!" - Malech

While slowly retreating and continuously receiving buffs from the others. We were preparing ourselves with a medium scale set up that will possible allow us to retreat an additional fifty meters.

"Fifteen Meters!" - William

"Gayle!"

After turning my head around, Gayle raised her Mysteria up and activated a highly important ability.

"Mystic Ward!" - Gayle

All of us were boosted up by Gayle's mystic ward. With all of us having boosted all of our stats, Malech immediately activated his new ability in Death Trap.

"Time Illusion!" - Malech

Fifteen copies of the chain and the scythe were formed and flung around at a high speed that it's comparable to a stand fan. Hold up, how did he make fifteen?!

While pondering about Malech skills, I prepared my own pinnacle skill that will be sure to put them to a halt for some time.

"Alright, pinnacle skill! Hailstorm!"

I turned the focus and direction of the hailstorm to only go in a single direction. The powerful gust pushing them back made them slow down in their tracks while having Malech deal painful blows with his chain scythe that has at least fifteen follow-ups using the Time Illusion.

"Retreat!"

William and the others started falling back and continued to advance. After advancing around twenty meters, they stopped after my pinnacle skill has used up the duration. The enemies advanced another five meters which made me and Malech quickly regroup and create the formation once again.

"Only a hundred meters left!" - Gayle

Gayle yelled out the distance remaining to be covered before arriving to the cave which is somewhat invisible from us. We actually went to the desert well to know which direction to go using a landmark they made on the well. Right now, we're heading a southwards from the well. More and more magic seems to have blasted out from the enemy's side. It's a barrage that will definitely get through Isaac's anti-magic sniping.

"I can't clear all of that." - Isaac

"Definitely, Malech? William?"

"In cooldown here." - Malech

"Same issue." - William

The distance between the knights and us are around ten meters. Which made protecting ourselves from their magic completely impossible. We had no choice but to rely on the others.

"What do?"

I don't know what to do now! Do we retreat? It covers a large area! Our choice is to only block it! But how?! There won't be enough time to have everyone get covered by Vajra!

Slowly but surely, I enter a panicked state. I started overthinking and calculating at speeds beyond a normal human being. I didn't plan ahead for mass defense and have invited myself along with everyone into a heavy predicament.

As the magic attacks slowly diverge to create a larger area of effect. I almost made a horrible judgement which could cause other people's demise. Must protect the weaker ones.

"Va-"

"Thrish!" - Lilith

"Wh! Mystic Web!" - Thrish

Multiple shields in the form of webs covered our bodies like an umbrella. Making me stop on instinct and let myself be protected in panic. Crap, Lilith's wits saved us. I have to recover now!

After receiving the magic barrage and recovered our mana, we immediately set up a powerful attack. Lilith moved to the front lines and hugged me.

"Calm down Denz, your tactics are the real deal here." - Lilith

"Lilith..."

"Besides, we all trust you, so it's alright. If you screw over, I can take control so you can recover." - Lilith

"Ahh, thanks."

I can somewhat feel something smooth behind me that's slowly disappearing. Lilith returned to the back line which allowed me to prepare the flesh blaster once again.

"Four meters! We'll be included in the shockwave!" - William

"Full force retreat guys! I got this! Thrish, keep an eye for stray magic shots!"

"What about you?" - Malech

"Let me handle these guys."

The entire female camp started dashing through the desert towards the cave, turning around to cast support magic every now and then. There were mystic assassins showing here and there but Gayle has them covered. I stepped back a few times and noticed that the male camp is still here.

"What are you guys doing?"

"We want to join the fun too." - Malech

I turned to William and Isaac who were nodding while smiling. I see now...

"Aight! Quick Charge!"

I drained some mana from the three of them this time and filled up the mana requirement easily. I then shot the chromium round towards their knights and annihilated four knights and made the other three fly back.

"Alright! We knocked them back! Nigerundayo!"

"Denzel! The reference!"

We immediately started running back for a solid twenty meters before I noticed a barrage of elemental magic showered down before us.

"Time Cloud!" - Malech

Malech's time cloud has cooled down and immediately used the ability again. A brown cloud covered up the barrage and bent the time multiple times to redirect the magic towards their sides indiscriminately.

"Alright, my turn!" - William

I prepared a powerful ability that I have not used for quite a while.

"Astroburst!" - William

William summons a huge dark blue sphere that defines the color of a starless space. Multiple stems emerged from the spatial sphere and covered the entire group of enemies in front of us. That included the backline magicians hiding themselves behind the knights for complete protection. After changing Omnitelum into gauntlets, I instantly began to channel a huge amount of mana for this ability. After accumulating enough, I had let loose the forbidden art once again.

"Right, now time to lock them down! Cryomancer! Forbidden Art! Frozen Wasteland!"

I changed the entire landscape by adding a layer of magic ice and froze all hostile players within a kilometer in diameter. It was all done in half a second.

Everything is getting trickier and trickier...