Legacy of the Betelgeuse

We are sneaking around the building while Liu is at the front scouting for the monsters, we are following him from behind and waiting for his signal to move or to stay. He's at the corner and takes a peek, we are waiting for his hand signal and as soon as he waves his hand, we are all running quietly to the other building in front of us. The clanking sound of the armor of these people is really a problem, so they remove their armor for this one then we continue sneaking around the building to reach the open area that's still quite far away from us.

Everyone looks so nervous because we are currently surrounded by the cursed souls, and we look up that there's only one near us, thankfully it's quite far away from us. When we thought we are doing great, someone hits a jar of clay on accident. We all look back and see who did that, and it's Zachary and he's grimacing and looking at us with guilt. It's kind of cliche to think something like this actually happen because I thought it's dumb enough for someone to be so reckless in a movie or novel.

Liu looks at us raises his eyebrows.

"They heard us, there are at least 20 to 30 of them coming toward us, what should we do?"

Kingstar is so angry at Zachary but it's a waste of energy to scold him, Ivonna looks at Liu and Kingstar.

"We split up, it's too dangerous to stay together like this."

Queenstar is leaning her head while furrowing her forehead.

"Splitting up? Isn't that the last thing that we should do? If we are splitting up, there's a higher chance that one of the groups will fail, and we don't want that."

Ivonna nods with understanding.

"I know that, but if we keep sticking out together like this, we will attract more of those cursed souls. Would you prefer to let hundreds or thousands of them to running toward us? If it's just a dozen then it's fine, but if there are more than that, we all will fail."

Kingstar sighs.

"Then give us the details of your plan because we have no time."

Ivonna looks at them.

"Let's split into 3 groups, the first group will be going north, the second group will be going to the north-east, and the last group will be going to east. We all know where the open area is, so we will prioritize the second team since they're the closes to the open area while the rest try to lure the monster away."

Ken nods with understanding.

"Then I will be in the first group."

Ivonna nods with understanding.

"We are as well."

Ivonna looks at us and nods, we all understand and just follow her lead. Ivonna looks at the others.

"It's up to you guys and made up your mind which group you want in. Right now, we are going to move to the north and lure the cursed souls with us."

Ivonna wears her armor again, the others immediately do the same. Ivonna looks at Ken and he's ready, Ivonna then looks at Kingstar and Liu.

"We are going now."

Ivonna runs out from the building and we are following them from behind, there are only 12 of us and there's no one else following us. She looks at Leo and nods.

"Attract their attention, Leo."

Leo lifts his staff and targets one of the cursed souls up in the air, a fireball is released from his staff and hits the target, it immediately explodes so loud that all of the cursed souls that are flying above us are looking at the burning souls. Ken is so excited and he starts yelling and shouting to attract the monsters, then he's followed by his friends shouting at the monsters. 

Francesca is running next to Ivonna and raises her eyebrows.

"Plan?"

Ivonna is chuckling for no reason and she looks at Francesca while raising her eyebrows.

"I haven't thought about it yet, maybe keep running?"

Leo is shouting at us and pointing at something on the northwest.

"Watch out! One is coming towards us!"

Ken with his friends are running past us and he looks at us while smiling.

"Let us handle it for you guys!"

Ken sheathes his katana and leaps forward the cursed souls. He slashes the body and he blinks in and out over and over while keeps slashing the monster, Teke swings her scythe throws it to the monster's head, she jumps over the monster while grabbing her scythe from its head. The monster is about to touch her with his right hand, but then Saburo spins around and swings his naginata at the monster's hand and chops it off while Kami-sama unsheaths both his katanas and stabs them on the monster's torso then spreads them open making the monster falls on its knees.

We stop and wait for them to finish the monster off, but then there are a few of the cursed souls flying toward us. We can't leave Ken and his friends on their own, and so we decide to fight in this crossroads, Michael grabs his axe and swings it around then slam it to one of the monsters, Hans is covering him by shooting arrows at the monster's hands while Leo is buffing him and giving him extra attack speed. Emma and Francesca are running toward one of them as well, Francesca gets closer to the monster and stabs her rapier rapidly while Emma is shackling the monster's hands with her whip sword.

I look at Grisell is standing next to Ivonna because she can't defend herself, I summon Azrael and tell him to and protect her, Azrael nods and immediately runs toward Grisell. When Azrael's fur touches Grisell's bare hand, it startles her and screams while turning her head and holding Ivonna's arm. Ivonna chuckles when she sees Azrael is just tilting his head with an innocent expression, then Grisell is wrapping her hands on Azrael's neck while stroking his mane.

I look at them and nod up.

"Can you guys handle those guys up there?"

Dozens of cursed souls are flying toward us, Ivonna shakes her head.

"I don't think we can in this kind of restriction and situation."

I'm humming with understanding while grabbing my chained sickles and wrapping them around my arms, then I grab my spellbook and staff.

"Leave them to me while you think of a plan to escape."

Ivonna nods.

"Okay, be careful."

I nod and walk to the front while reading the spellbook.

The cursed souls are getting closer to me and I'm pointing my staff at them.

"Earth Spike."

The spikes are stabbing them from the ground they're stuck in while trying to free themselves from the spikes, then they use their skill to move through objects. I'm pointing my staff and smile.

"Flame Cutter."

A wave of flame projectile attack hit them and they're taking tick damages. Their health is already dropped to half just by my [Earth Spike], and now they're getting slashed by the wave of flame and they're now burning while screeching in pain. All of them are getting swallowed by the ground while they're still screeching in flame, everyone is looking at me and they just sigh and shake their head, then Leo scratches his head while raising his eyebrows.

"Of course your magic damage is broken as well, why am I so surprised by that."

We keep running while killing the monsters, Ivonna is the one who's leading the way and to find the route where there are fewer of them around so we can wipe them off and catch our breath for a moment. We have been doing this for 15 minutes now, and the moment we are in a trouble, the time seems to be moving so slow.

We are resting inside a building, and everyone is regaining their stamina. I look at the outside with Ivonna and she's pointing at the southeast.

"They should have arrived at the open area right now and it seems that they're doing fine over there since we don't hear anything from here."

I'm leaning on the wall while looking at her and raising my eyebrows.

"You should ask them it's safe over there since we are safe, we can go over there now."

Ivonna is nodding with understanding and immediately sends a message to them, but she immediately receive a reply from Queenstar and she says that it's safe over there and we can go while they will make a path for us. Ivonna informs the others and then we leave the building to follow Queenstar's instruction.

We manage to get there safely and we see everyone is there. Kingstar looks at the time, we still have 30 minutes until the first stage is completed, but then a notification appears in front of our screens.

[You have 30 minutes left, the Keeper of Time seems to be impatient and wants the intruders to leave this place]

[The Cursed Souls now know your location, you will now not be able to hide!]

[Good luck and May the Betelgeuse Bless you!]

Kingstar is sighing while shaking his head.

"I'm not surprised with that."

Kingstar then unsheaths his sword.

"It seems that we only have 2 options now. Run or fight, so which one will you guys choose?"

Everyone unsheaths their weapons and looks at Kingstar, he chuckles and nods.

"It's a mistake to only bring this many people here, at least we know we need a lot of players to be able to clear this dungeon, but f*ck it. Let's fight these bastards!"