Chapter 307: This Is Complete Bullying

Chapter 307: Chapter 307: This Is Complete Bullying

Since ordering the tactical shift to an "overlapping advance" at the strategy meeting, Lance’s days had fallen into a regular and fulfilling rhythm.

Aside from his unfailing daily routine of making Nieve a late-night snack, he spent his time leveling up with her.

He could clearly feel the steady rise of Professional Experience on his panel.

But beyond the rising experience points, Lance had also noticed a strange sensation over the past few days.

It felt as if, from some unseen realm, two formless forces were continuously converging on his body.

The experience was somewhat similar to what he felt when he gained General Concept Reputation Value during his Heroic Spirit Baptism.

Yet, there was a difference.

These two streams of Power were more condensed, purer, as if a core was holding them together.

They revolved around Lance, but lacking some kind of "medium," they could never truly settle upon him.

It only took Lance a moment of thought to understand.

’These two masses must be the nascent forms of the ’Legends’ I single-handedly created and spread during this time!’

It was just that the conquest of the Summer Crown hadn’t officially ended yet.

He currently lacked a title to act as a vessel, so the two Legends could only drift around him like water without a source.

’I’m really looking forward to the moment the Underground City’s results are tallied.’

Lance mused to himself. The only thing he didn’t quite understand was why there were two Legends.

...

Meanwhile,

For the Crimson Bell Squad lurking in the shadows, the past few days had been pure torment.

Ever since Lance had forced a change in the overall strategy of the three Grand Guilds,

Although their absolute speed in clearing zones had slowed somewhat, the most immediate result was a precipitous drop in the casualty rate.

This wasn’t just evident in their improved defense against the Crimson Bell Squad’s assassinations.

More importantly, when clearing out the massive numbers of Demons in a given zone, if a front-line team encountered a powerful foe and the battle became a stalemate, other teams in adjacent grid squares would rapidly move to reinforce them.

This dense, overlapping formation turned nearly every zone-clearing battle into a lopsided affair of the many ganging up on the few.

As for the Crimson Bell Squad,

They had been hitting a wall ever since the second day of the tactical shift.

At first, Cassis maintained his usual arrogance.

He silently cast the Second Ring Spells Deceitful Mist and Barrier of Silence, successfully trapping an isolated ten-person team.

When he saw that they didn’t counter-attack blindly, but instead formed a defensive perimeter to hold their ground at all costs,

Cassis was even inwardly amused, thinking his prey was merely putting up a futile struggle.

However,

Things quickly took a wrong turn.

The Dark Elf Assassin on lookout duty discovered, to his horror, that a steady stream of other teams was converging on their position!

Within minutes,

Dozens of fully armed Professionals were beginning to encircle them, trapping them in the center.

The Dark Elf broke out in a cold sweat.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he sent the emergency retreat signal to the entire squad.

By the time Cassis fought his way out, burning through several of his trump cards in the process, the squad was in a sorry state.

What was most infuriating was that this time,

They hadn’t managed to kill a single one of their targets!

All of their burst damage had been stonewalled by the enemy’s "turtle" formation—they’d given up on counter-attacking, purely stacking shields and Defense Divine Techniques. At best, they had only managed to inflict serious injuries on a few of them.

At first, they dismissed it as a fluke.

But reality dealt them a heavy blow.

In the days that followed, every team they encountered acted the same way.

The moment they launched an attack, even if they were only tied down for a brief moment,

It was like they had kicked a hornet’s nest; reinforcements would swarm in from all directions.

Every single one of their sorties ended in a panicked retreat.

"This... This is just bullying!"

In a temporary camp, the Dark Elf angrily slammed his fist into a nearby rock wall.

He’d never been so humiliated in an Underground City.

The enemy wasn’t even bothering with Professional coordination; they just crushed them with sheer numbers.

This isn’t dungeoneering!

Cassis sat nearby, his eyes filled with vexation as he stared into the dancing flames of the campfire.

’If this keeps up,’

’Forget about becoming the team with the highest Crown Value across the four surrounding Underground Cities.’

’They’ll probably clear the entire Summer Crown in a few more days.’

’If the other three ritual teams complete their tasks, only to discover at the final joint tally that the number one spot—the highest Crown Value—doesn’t belong to the Crimson Bell Squad...’

’Then the entire plan, which the organization had invested so much manpower and resources into, would collapse completely because of their failure.’

Cassis didn’t even dare to imagine the consequences.

’We’ll die... None of us can withstand the Hermitage Order’s wrath.’

Cassis closed his eyes.

’Has a brilliant general, one who understands large-scale warfare, appeared in this Underground City?’

The appearance of the Heroic Spirit Species, the sealing of the Underground City, an external crisis fostering unity among the guilds—a string of coincidences had led to the Crimson Bell Squad’s current predicament.

Cyrus, the Priest in the crimson robe, let out a bitter laugh as he leaned against a rock.

The atmosphere in the temporary safe zone was suffocating.

Baal, the team’s only frontline breacher and an Abyssal Blood Slaughterer, sat in a corner, silently chewing a piece of Crimson Gel.

His body, well over two meters tall, now looked somewhat hunched.

The core of his Profession’s abilities required constant killing—drawing on his enemies’ blood to replenish his stamina and rage.

But in their recent attacks, he had failed to kill almost anyone, while expending massive amounts of stamina just trying to break through the Professionals’ combined defensive lines.

As a result, after several consecutive days of failure, the burly man was now noticeably weakened.

"If we fail the mission this time... we’ll all be executed when we get back, won’t we?"

Baal’s voice was heavy.

They might act like they owned these low-level Underground Cities,

But if the higher-ups in the Faceless Hermitage Association wished it, they could send a single veteran Apostle of the Excellence Tier to crush all five of them like ants in a matter of seconds.

That was the power of Tier suppression.

Silence fell over the cave.

Grom, the Blast Master, hadn’t said a word. He kept his head down, his remaining right hand fiddling irritably with the simple mechanical prosthesis that had recently been fitted to his left arm.

Cassis raised his head slightly and gave a meaningful look to Cyrus, the Priest standing beside him.

Cyrus froze for a moment. He seemed to understand the meaning behind the glance.

He swallowed hard, his gaze seeking final confirmation from his captain.

Cassis gave an expressionless nod.

Cyrus paused for a moment in silence.

He slowly got to his feet and quietly walked up behind Grom, who was still focused on his prosthesis.

Both Baal and the Dark Elf noticed Cyrus’s strange movement.

Cyrus slowly extended his right hand. An eerie light ignited in his palm.

When his palm was less than ten centimeters from the back of Grom’s head, a purple, six-pointed star Array formed in an instant.

Grom’s Intuition screamed at him, and he suddenly realized something was wrong.

He whipped his head around.

But the Array had already activated.

The purple light shot directly into the center of Grom’s forehead.

His pupils instantly lost focus.

He went limp, like a puppet whose soul had been ripped away.

Immediately after,

A metal ring engraved with complex runes, which Cyrus wore close to his skin around his neck, suddenly let out a sharp crack. It shattered into several pieces and fell to the ground.

CRACK!

Seeing this, Baal snatched up the battle-axe beside him, his muscles tensing as he stared nervously at Cyrus.

"Don’t be alarmed, Baal."

Cassis spoke up.

"That was a control measure left behind by the Flaying Priest himself before we departed. It was specifically for controlling Grom."

The Flaying Priest.

That was a high-ranking position within the Faceless Hermitage Association, one that specialized in deep Spirit infiltration, memory alteration, and the physical modification of its followers.

Grom himself probably never knew that from the moment he became a Chaos Blaster, he was treated as an expendable.

’How could any Profession have so many side effects?’

’It was a wicked Profession, born from the influence of an Evil God.’

’His entire being was riddled with backdoors planted by the Hermitage Order.’

Half of Cassis’s face was cloaked in the shadows cast by the fire, the flickering light making his expression look sinister.

"Now, we have to take a gamble."

"Only by his death do we have a chance to live."

’After all, who would willingly go to their death if they weren’t being controlled?’

Hearing this explanation,

Baal seemed to understand.

He slowly relaxed his grip on the axe handle, lowered his head once more, and resumed chewing the Gel in large bites.