Death Frost | Deathsworn #2

Chapter 85 ❆ Rank Up

Sorry for the late upload. The month's been hectic.

Meditation and communicating with the universe were talents of mine. I knew the monks were trying to hold off on praising me too much, but there were hints I was always toppling their expectations every time—even though I quite hated the thought since it was a little too arrogant.

I could tell they were trying to throw me off with the complicated formation that the monks were currently maintaining, but it was not enough to make me scratch my head at all. At most, I'd pause to think and then move on to the next part of the puzzle, steadily dismantling the formation that kept us from obtaining that red flag.

Of course, my paranoid side felt that this affair was a little too easy, so I dared not relax my guard just in case the monks had come up with something to try to trip me over. Considering Master Sen's loathing of me, he'd definitely come up with a petty trick somewhere down the road just to remind me not to get carried away.

The fact that it was a red flag raised my awareness too. Those things had a track record of being missed by me on many other occasions. Although I wasn't sure whether this meaning also carried over into this world, I dared not slack at all.

It didn't take more than ten minutes for me to dismantle the formation, but just as we thought we could finally take that flag, the four monks actually woke up and began attacking all of us. They stood with their backs on the red flag, maintaining a tight circle of defensive positions, never taking a step farther than necessary.

Since my paranoid ass was expecting a catch, of course, the turn of events did not surprise me. I hastily pulled the group together. Thankfully, I did not need to remind them what their roles would be. All I had to do was give them cues, and they followed what I had them do.

Having learned earlier with the obstacle courses about the importance of teamwork and listening to commands, our synergy moved much better this time around. Those small trials might not have been worth a lot of points on their own, but it prepared the team for the biggest work we had to face just yet.

With the situation, I reckoned we would mostly be on the offense rather than defense, so I temporarily set up Maun to become a secondary attack after Arondite.

I didn't want to overexert everyone trying to take on their more experienced predecessors, so I decided we would not directly confront the monks—but rather try to get around them instead. They wouldn't take the initiative to come at us anyway if we didn't try to enter the circle to get the flag. They were glorified walls, to be honest.

"What now, Evyionne?" Arondite asked.

It just so happened my blood was literally running cold, causing me to be a little numb with fear. I was less stimulated by this exercise than I thought I would be, and that helped me—pardon the pun—keep my cool.

I experimentally sent someone forward to test the monks. Their defense was impenetrable together, and as Maun and Arondite engaged them in a fight, I observed a couple of things.

If I focused enough, I could always sense and see the energy of the universe. The flow of their auras mingled together, forming an...abstract wall of some sort. This combined formation wasn't at all just physical, but connected their spiritual realms in such a way that enabled them to form a synergy.

This connection made them hyper aware of an area that made all attacks so visible that it would probably be like seeing everything in slow motion. If we wanted that red flag, we'd have to go through some hell for it.

One of them was the center of this formation, and his aura pulsated in such a way that made it obvious he was the core. He maintained this by repeatedly humming, something masked because they were all doing it. But, listening closely, he set the rhythm—he was the main melody.