The party members watched the spectacle before their eyes. Brutal thunder shrough the path, turning everyoupid enough to ehe trap into ashes.

  “Hm. I could do better.”, ented Cye while swinging her wand.

  “Sure, sure. Keep pretending.”, joked Balm, earning her an angry gre.

  The party chuckled while the thunder slowly subsided.

  “Ok guys, we tinue. Remember to keep your eyes open!”

  Silent Acaodded his head, taking the lead. The hunter shrough the byrinth, stantly sing his surroundings.

  Liam’s dires came from behind:

  “Left, right, here right, turn around…”

  “And here I was thinking you had a map for this pce, but turns out even you make mistakes.”, joked Quickstep with a fake sigh of relief.

  “I didn’t make a mistake. The byrinth ges.”

  Mirage spoke in a tone suggesting this was the most natural thing in the world, leaving his friends stunned. Silver Bde opened her mouth but didn’t even know what question to ask. She just smiled wryly and accepted it.

  “What are you dawdling about? e on, Acacia.”

  “Sure…”

  Shaking his head Silent Acacia tinued doing his job. Obvious tripwires and hidden trapdoors were discovered by him one by one.

  Soon, they reached a room noticeably decorated in yellow. A yellow stone protruded from the wall at the back, circled by a yell.

  Liam nodded inwardly. The presence of this room proofed that the yout was the same as hard difficulty in his past life.

  “Ok guys. Get into formation. As soon as we press this button, a monster will arrive.”

  The others nodded, f half a circle around the door, with the tanks at the ter. Balm stood close to the wall, pressing the yellow button upon receiving a signal.

  A spicuous click rang through the room. Cye looked towards the entrance, a thoughtful expression on her face:

  “If we came here through the byrinth and saw no one on the way, how could a motack us now? Maybe it got lost…”

  Before the mage finished her sentence, her eyes widened, staring at the wall outside the room. There, a leg, faintly transparent slowly stepped out of the wall.

  Soon the body followed, revealing a blue-skinned demon with sharp spikes on its back.

  “Hey, you’re a demon! Since when you pass through walls?!”

  Cye’s befuddled question was answered with an angry roar as the demon luself at the party. Sharp cws caused hissing noises as they approached.

  Radiant Shield took half a step forward, tensing his body and weling the attack.

  Meanwhile Silver Bde ied the enemy.

  [Minor Wild Demon of Ik: Elite

  Level: 22

  HP: 5100/5100

  Status: possessed]

  Silver Bde was taken aback by the monster’s status, gng at their encyclopedia:

  “Mirage, what does a possessed status signify?”

  “The monster will take on some of the characteristics of the entity which possessed it. For example, ghosts, most of the time.”

  Suddenly Mirage’s eyes opened in shock.

  “Careful, bae!”

  While he and Silver Bde were talking, the oppo was eager to prove its abilities. Instantly after g with Radiant Shield, it waved its hand throwing five ice spikes in an arc before it.

  The party members were fused by Liam’s shout. The melee fighters surrouhe elite, so why would the bae be in danger?

  However, they quickly received their answer when those ice spikes suddenly turned illusionary, effortlessly passing through the bodies bg their way.

  The ranged fighters, just about to attack were caught off guard. In the narrow room every dey might end deadly. Fortunately, Silver Bde reacted at this moment.

  [Aura ed prote] activated, shielding her allies.

  “Damn, that hurt!”

  Two crisp shouts could be heard as Cye and Fortune were hit by freezing ice spikes.

  [-780!]

  [-842!]

  While the two mages lost siderable amounts of HP, Silent Acacia moved swiftly, dodging like an elusive shadow.

  Balm stood at the very back of the group. Her chest tightened, seeing the damage numbers above her friends’ heads. She quickly closed her eyes, gathering all her tration.

  A few sparks were left behind as the healer suddenly vanished from her position, reappearing in the hallway.

  Liam’s eyes lit up, praising Balm with a smile:

  “Well done!”

  The others echoed his words, causing Balm to smile shyly but a certain pride was in her eyes.

  Behind the group Cye and Fortu embarrassed, swearing to do better ime. Their feelings didn’t diminish when a warm magigulfed Fortune and Cye, allowing them to recover their HP.

  Eager to get over the situatiowo mages quickly threw out attacks before beginning to cast their powerful spells.

  [-243!]

  [-197!]

  The others didn’t remain idle either. A rain of skills shaved away the elite’s HP.

  Liam didn’t waste his ultimate against the minor character, but his luck was good, allowing him to stack four holy marks before detonating them.

  [-379!]

  The elite lost more than a thousand HP in a short time. It growled angrily, an ominous sheen ing from its cws as it brought them down on Radiant Shield.

  At this moment an arrow suddenly pierced its skin. A strange force spread through its body, holding it in pce as the stun brought by [Ensnaring Arrow] triggered.

  Silent Acacia’s eyes lit up. He looked at his white alligator pet, which still hadn’t caught up in level and therefore couldn’t py much of a role in big fights.

  However, the elite was just right to give Zorn some EXP.

  The alligator followed Silent Acacia’s and, dashing towards the demon. Her maw opened wide, showing sharp teeth coated in magical water.

  [-67!]

  Silent Acacia wasn’t quite happy with the damage his pet did. He resolved himself to find equipment for her soon. Eves couldn’t fight barehanded apparently.

  A sed ter the party released another rotation of attacks before the elite mao free itself from the stun. It let out an angry roar. Ice magic wafted around its skin, causing the temperature to drop.

  It swung its cw again.

  “You only know this orick.”, mocked Radiant Shield as he readied himself to block.

  But at this moment Watchful Eye felt a shiver run down his spine. He turned around, finding a ghostly grey cw aiming for his back. He moved awkwardly, evading the cw but losing a rge amount of stance.

  [Stance -23]

  At the same time Radiant Shield waited for the impa his shield but it never came. Looking down he was met with an eerie sight. Only half the demon’s arm remained while the cw had mysteriously disappeared.

  “Watch out, guys! The skill’s not do.”

  While Liam spoke, his sense suddenly sounded arm. Without lookiook a smooth step to the side. A cw passed directly by his waist.

  Despite the ghostly threat the party members didn’t stop their attacks. The demon’s HP got tinuously reduced while it kept the pyers ooes.

  A sed ter, Cye suddenly felt her hair stand on end. But with a gn her progress bar, she gritted her teeth. Her spell was ready any sed now.

  With a ferocious ly a hair’s breadth away from her neck, Cye finally succeeded. She pointed her staff, and a cage of lightning formed around the demon. A crag sound echoed in the room as purple lightning snakes danced around the oppo.

  But its skill arrived, heless. Cye flinched as she imagined five knives cutting into her neck.

  Luckily though the mage had reliable teammates. Radiant Shield raised his hammer, juring a magical barrier to protect Cye.

  The ghostly cw barely made a dent against the powerful skill.

  Seeing it’s attack blocked, the ice demon seemingly got angry. It turs vengeful eyes back to Radiant Shield. Its cw reattached to its arm. Letting out a rumbling roar it swung at Radiant Shield.

  A hissing noise could be heard as the elite collided with the thunder cage surrounding it, causing it to reel ba pain.

  [-213!]

  The demon’s muscles twitched, smoke rising from its skin. A fused look could be seen in its eyes.

  However, the demon wasn’t blessed with mutelligence, directly attag again. If its right cw didn’t work the demon would just use its left.

  [-213!]

  To no one’s surprise lightning shot into the demon’s body once again. But this time it didn’t disappear directly. [Lightning Cage’s] effect triggered, paralyzing the enemy.

  Once again, the demon was forced to remain in pce, powerlessly watg as the party attacked him freely.

  When Fortune was doh casting her [Are Bolt] she could only get in a siack before the ice demon lost its life.

  “Finally. This fight was quite difficult.”, said Silver Bde with a look at the dead oppo.

  “Yes.”, agreed Cye. “Could it be that our enemies are getting stronger?”

  Liam felt a few eyes turning towards him. He nodded, stating matter-of-factly:

  “Of course. That’s why it is important to increase the ranks of our skills.”

  Cye appeared thoughtful as she came to her own clusion.

  “I hope stronger enemies means more plentiful loot as well.”

  Silver Bde rolled her eyes watg her best friend approach the dead demon.