Chapter 169: First Floor Strategy

As the realization hit him, the vibration beneath his feet became more eminent, and the surrounding candidates paused to look downwards.

He didn’t waste a single second and quickly let Lysandra down, grabbed her hand, and bolted from the area of effect as fast as his legs could carry him.

He was surprisingly fast and nimble even without any of his movement skills, and Lysandra was fast enough to outpace him if she wanted, but the underground beast was faster in its own terrain.

Before the candidates who’d been standing around wondering what was coming from below could fully react, the earth beneath their feet suddenly sank as a spiralling row of razor-sharp fangs lunged upwards.

Kaelen and Lysandra jumped simultaneously, narrowly escaping getting sucked down the throat of the behemoth sandworm. The other candidates were unlucky, and their screams were the last thing heard of them before the sandworm dived back into the ground, disappearing from sight.

At the same time, the first wave hit the front, back, and sidelines at once without giving the candidates time to recover from the predator moving beneath their feet.

The result was a disaster.

In their desperate attempts to escape and retreat to the center of the formation, the beast clawed and gnawed at their backs. While some who stood their ground were quickly overwhelmed from all sides and disappeared from sight under a mountain of beasts climbing over each other to have the first bite.

Another tremor resounded across the earth, and the sandworm lunged forward once more in another direction. At the same time, another lunged forward in another area as well.

Kaelen was wrong. There was no safe place to stay inside the formation, but as he ran through the chaos, his mind was working on overdrive.

From his observations of the last simultaneous attacks from the sandworms, it was safe to say the sandworms were attracted to areas clustered with people.

Moving in groups and pairs might be the safest option when encountering land beasts, but it was a red flag on their backs for the sandworms.

The safest option at that moment was for everyone to scatter in different directions while moving in irregular patterns to avoid the sandworms predicting their movements through vibrations.

That would limit the sandworm casualties.

"Everyone, spread out." He immediately yelled out for all candidates to hear. "The sandworms are attracted to large groups. Start moving in pairs and run in irregular patterns so it doesn’t predict your movements." He said loud and clear, surprising Lysandra.

He didn’t have time to explain to her that at the rate of casualties, it was only a matter of time before their numbers dwindled, making it even harder for them to survive the onslaught.

The plan was to have as many people alive as possible to act as moving walls of meat shields that might increase their survival rate.

He didn’t know if they’d listen or had even heard him through the chaos, and for a moment, his plan seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, when he began noticing it taking shape.

The candidates scattered in different directions, stuck to one or two persons, and oftentimes split in two ways before reuniting at various points, all while swift on their feet like the warriors they were.

Three chains of attacks streaked across the field once more with the sandworms, except this time, the candidates they caught in their maws were significantly smaller than the number they swallowed.

He wasn’t the only one observing this, and on seeing how well the plan worked, they became even more serious with the strategy, and it was now only left to individual speed and luck who the unlucky few would be next on the menu. They weren’t naive enough to believe the plan would save everyone.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, except Kaelen had overlooked one part. They were currently under the onslaught of a beast siege, and now no one was standing their ground, sprinting across the field instead. The beasts easily broke through the defense and began snatching candidates who were a moment too slow.

Once that happened, the candidates panicked and stopped running to defend themselves, when the sandworms lunged forward once more, swallowing both them and the beasts they were fighting against.

Kaelen saw all this and realized the plan had only affected the sandworms, and in order for that plan to hold, he had to figure something out quickly to eliminate the threat of the beast siege.

Earlier, when Lysandra had dropped her piece about the nature of the challenge that gave Kaelen the idea it was a beast siege, he wasn’t expecting it to be this brutal, and looking around him now, he realized there were just too many beasts to defeat even if they stopped pouring out now.

If this was supposed to be a population control floor where they completed the challenge after the required number of candidates was left standing, then this many beasts shouldn’t be used.

Even if that were to be the case, when the number of required candidates was met, would the beasts turn around and return where they came from?

It was highly unlikely.

If things kept going at that rate, everyone would die when their stamina ran out. Except... the challenge was never intended for them to slay all the beasts.

If Kaelen’s speculation was correct, then there should be an exit.

Either there was an exit hiding around at that moment, or there would be an exit after a duration had passed.

The challenge wasn’t to stand your ground. It was to survive long enough to make it to the exit.

There was no way to tell for sure he was on the right track, but it was worth risking. Because if that was the real challenge, then he had a plan.

"Everyone, listen carefully. I have reasons to believe the challenge isn’t to kill all the beasts, but to survive and escape here. Look for a hidden exit around you, and while you’re at it, don’t engage the beasts for more than a few seconds. Your aim should be to injure it and keep moving, and the next pair to find that beast should repeat the same until it’s dead. Don’t try to be a hero, don’t try to kill steal.

"If everyone moves according to the plan, we can take care of the beast without endangering ourselves while avoiding the sandworms’ surprise attacks.

"There’s no glory in death. Let’s work together to clear this floor as a team."

As usual, no one replied or indicated they understood or agreed with his plan. And for a moment, it was almost like no one followed, when a scream suddenly drew everyone’s attention.

"I think I found one! An exit."