"Snow elves on the top right."
I moved quickly, blocking an arrow that was aimed straight at Erick.
CLANG!
And without another second, the area where the arrow came from immediately exploded into flames and ash, the cause? No other than Jules.
"Quick thinking."
"We've got more problems."
Rein shouted, his shield ready as a few dozen ice elves were immediately converging on our location, the loud commotion attracting the scouting party that was sent to gauge our strength.
"Haste! Strength!"
Bern yelled out, enveloping all three of us in a vast green light, and as for the mage? All he had to do was destroy, and he was definitely good at it.
All the elves were mounted, using wolves as cavalry, as they charged straight at us.
Rein took the charge head-on, shield prepped as they tried to pounce, and instead of meeting flesh, met a slab of metal instead.
"By your left!"
I shouted to the mage, and he quickly reacted, shooting a whip of fire that incinerated the ice elf that tried a sneak attack.
The rest were now easy pickings; the three who were stunned by the tank were killed by me, only taking one swing for each to go down.
[Critical Strike]
[Critical Strike]
[Critical Strike]
Erick also dealt with his own threats easily, the mage supporting him all the way, as the first encounter with the monsters in the dungeon went off without a hitch.
Bern didn't even bother with healing or fatigue-reducing skills; none of us even had a sliver of tiredness.
Other than probably Jules, but he was more reacting to the cold than the actual fight itself.
"Can we get going...? I'd rather not stay in a place like this for long."
"As you wish, crybaby."
Erick laughed, leading us as Rein marched beside him. It was starting to look like a raid that would get completed without a sliver of difficulty, but would likely change once we met the boss.
***
An hour had already passed, as evidenced by my system timer
[Time Limit: 22:58:32]
And by this point, we were all already getting heavily tired, but the good thing was that we weren't completely isolated; the dungeon itself was now filled with miners after all the elves in the dungeon had already been killed.
"How many was that?" Erick grunted, rolling his arms as he felt the fatigue settle in.
"I've counted at least a hundred..." Bern yawned, sitting on a snow-covered rock.
Jules, however, looked completely unbothered, and we preferred to have it that way. He was our hardest hitter; we needed him to conserve as much mana as he could for the boss.
And the boss's room?
Quite literally just beside the place we were resting at.
"You all ready?" Jules had his legs crossed, waiting for us to recuperate.
"I'm up..."
I raised a hand, sitting on the snow and leaning on the rock that Bern was resting on. It was clear we wanted to finish this job as soon as possible.
"Are the miners done?" Rein asked, looking worse for wear; his armor was now clearly dented, his form covered in the blood of elves.
But he barely even cared; it was clear he was used to it.
"Yeah, quite for some time now actually..."
I stood up when I heard his words, feeling the ache in my arms and legs as I did; it was definitely harsher work than the ones I did in C-Rank dungeons.
[Fortitude]
I could feel the ache within my muscles lessen as I used my skill, but it still wasn't enough, even for Bern himself. We wanted him to conserve as much mana as possible for the boss room.
"Let's go then." Erick sighed, once again leading the charge as he opened the boss room with a simple push of his hand.
"What is it?" I asked.
"An elven patriarch, high B-Rank at best... could even be lower A-Rank." Erick narrowed his eyes. The boss was more dangerous than previously expected.
"Want me to do the honors?" Jules grinned, stepping past all of us, his hands now coated with fire. It was clear he was going to bombard it with everything he's got.
"Go for it." Erick gave him a mock salute, a gesture that elicited Jules to lightly kick him in the shin.
"Cover me..."
He uttered, it was clear he was now taking things seriously.