Albert led the charge then. They began heading toward the nest with full spirits, over two hundred now with more appearing at intervals.
Icard glanced behind him.
'I hope they come' he said in his thoughts.
Steadily, they closed in on the rocky hive. They could already hear the screeches and chaos inside.
"Prepare yourselves. These ones are stronger!" Albert yelled.
"It's like he knows so much. How?" someone muttered around Icard.
He'd soon find out.
Then suddenly, just before they could fully close in on the eerie hive, a large number of garlyks reached them first.
These ones had wings were also capable of aerial attacks.
"They're flying!" someone yelled and they immediately focused upward.
These variations were E rank, with stronger exoskeletons and deadlier claws.
But just before they could fully descend, Albert blasted at them again. His attacks were not as effective as it was on the garlyks earlier but it shredded their wings, dropping a lot of them to the ground.
Others capable of ranged attacks followed.
However, Icard wasn't going to use his mana so carelessly. He immediately went for the ones who had fallen.
Activating Snow Vine again, he came at them as they came at him. Faster and deadlier, Icard knew this would be more difficult to handle.
The garlyk he fought furiously swung its claws at him preventing Icard from fully closing in. It then lunged at him.
Icard thought fast. He quickly dived aside, evading just the garlyk's earth-crushing claws.
But maintaining a close distance with it, he went at it next before it could recover. With one hand, he went for one of its arms and its neck.
Using much more mana than he used for the F ranks, he crushed that arm to pieces causing the garlyk to screech in pain and attack with its pincers, movements that Icard could easily predict.
He dodged it before it could chop his hand off. Since its head was bowed then, he grabbed it tightly and crushed it, leaving it to fall limply to the ground.
There was no time to rest however. Another one darted at him from above barely giving him any time to react. He quickly dodged.
[First Floor Access Confirmed]
[Skill Activation: Ice Shard]
Next, he hurled shards of ice at it but they could barely stick into its tough exoskeleton.
Then, he closed in again.
The garlyk flew at him too but just as it swung its claws, Icard took that opening, formed a stronger shard of ice and stuck it into the joint under its shoulders.
It screeched in reaction to the pain as it anchored itself, almost rolling on the ground.
But before it could recover and come at him again, Icard had already reached it, grabbing its head and shattering it to the ground.
After that, he panted heavily.
'All I've been doing all this time was train my body as much as I could but still...' he thought. 'I ended up using this much mana before the actual fight'.
Just then, another F rank came at him. Much easier to handle. He managed to shatter its arm and head.
[You Have Killed Two E Rank Garlyks!]
[You Have Gained 8 Advance Points]
[You Have Killed An F Rank Garlyk]
[You Have Gained 2 Advance Points]
"Tch" Icard clicked his tongue. He still needed to do more.
The battlefield was still chaotic but now, only a few flying garlyks remained and soon, they too were brought down.
Albert had killed much more.
Icard took some time to breathe before going on to others. By now, E Rank soldiers began pouring out.
Just as tough as the winged ones but larger and wingless.
Icard clenched his fists and laughed a bit.
In his first turn, he barely managed to kill any of them. He had little experience and couldn't use his skills so well, and ended up getting saved a lot.
But things were different now. He had built up a high combat ability in his past life. Having recovered a bit, he continued.
The fierce fight continued for some time and in the end, the humans managed to prevail again.
However, they didn't come out unscratched. A lot of them had been injured, some critically while a number of them had even died.
Although the soldiers stopped pouring out, they remained where they were, trying to recover as much as they could.
There, people began to understand. Some had lost a limb or sustained a deep scratch. While other unfortunate ones had their heads bitten off or their bodies shredded.
In his first turn, he puked at the sight of it. While it was a discouraging sight for most people, Icard barely wavered. It was a sight he was used to in his first turn.
The truth was, at this time, strength, skill usage and some other factors played a great role in people's survival here.
In his first turn, the difference between the F ranks and the E ranks was definitely clear. It was now, as well, but to Icard who was used to dire situations like this, all he could do was put his best.
[You Have Killed A Number Of E And F Rank Garlyks]
[You Have Gained 20 Advance Points]
Icard stared at his hands while recovering.
"Depending on what I see in there, I'll know what attributes to level up" Icard muttered to himself.
Surely, they had just gone halfway. Inside the nest before them were even stronger D Rank Garlyks. More people were definitely going to die - a vivid lesson they were already learning.
"Take your time to recover, Albert" the porcupine said, appearing from nowhere. "It will only get more difficult from here"
Albert stepped forward however. He barely heaved.
"I have recovered, Gremit" Albert said. Luna followed behind him, although she panted a bit more.
Barely three minutes had passed and Icard still needed more time to recover. He wasn't like Albert who had good reason to be confident in his ability.
"The rest may take their time to rest while I go on" he said and then went on.
A few of his men had been injured as well. They stayed back while the rest managed to follow.
"How is he that strong?" someone asked in a low voice.
Just then, other people began advancing as well. Even though they were tired, they still moved on, following Albert, despite the state of some of their comrades.
Icard joined them then. With this much, Icard could only hope they were enough for the D ranks and then, the Chieftain.