The blue griffin carried the weakened black wolf away - hopefully, to get him away from the worst danger - because no one actually knew whether there was any place that could be called safe, not when the titan-class monsters were running wild through the second line of defense while there was no artillery to stop them.

Mary, Shanks, and Mika stayed behind - Mika was constantly trying to struggle but her body wasn't listening to her at all - the skill that the rat-faced man used on her was clearly too strong for her to break even with all the system-given bonus status points.

Even though the timer for the -Final frontier- quest has been forcibly stopped by the emergency quest, not a single one of them could do something so silly as to go for a rest, the gigantic titan-class monster that was felled by the ashen-haired girl wasn't going to stay down for their convenience.

"...huuu..."

Shanks breathed out loudly and closed his eyes as if he just decided on something.

"Hold her for me for a second."

He asked Mary while already pushing the absurdly high-tech-looking rifle right into her hands.

"...!"

The brown-haired girl flinched and raised her brows but didn't talked back and just took it.

"YOU CAN'T BE DOING THIS TO ME! RELEASE ME THIS INSTANT! I AM A JUSTICE'S WRA...!"

"Shut up."

"MPFGH!"

Mika was shouting angrily while sending Shanks murderous glares but the rat-faced man just had to scoff lightly with disgust and the young girl had no other choice but to shut her mouth so fast that she almost bit off her tongue.

"As someone from the Sloth family, I actually have a lot of skills that allow me to use others for doing my work."

"...!"

Shanks looked at surprised Mary and explained.

"I'm about to use an enhanced version of detection skill to find the exact location of each titan class and will share the results with you two."

He said pointing at Mika and Mary.

"We have time to get them, even if the big one will get up, the emergency quest you received mentioned killing it, right? In that case, Sophia is suggesting to me that we still have around an hour between that thing will be in any condition to continue fighting."

"Alright, hope that utter idiot of a young miss heard you and won't try to finish that thing, or we will FAIL THE SPECIAL QUEST."

Mary nodded and spoke very loudly and clearly so that her words would reach silently struggling Mika.

"..."

The ashen-haired girl frowned furiously but was unable to make any sound due to Shanks's previous command.

"Miss Mika, you are not allowed to kill the enormous titan-class monster as long as the smaller ones from the 9th wave aren't taken care of."

The rat-faced man glared right back at her and commanded as his eyes glowed with a pale blue light.

Immediately after, his whole body started glowing too when he began using another skill.

"...!"

"Oooohh...! That is something else...!"

Mika flinched and Mary gasped in awe as the detailed map of their location undisturbed by any fog whatsoever, simply appeared in their brain - and their location was marked with a little green arrow and the glowing red dots - some of them standing still, some constantly moving into all direction - just had to be the runway titan-class monsters since the biggest problem red dot couldn't be anything else than the immobilized one right next to them.

Still, there was a significant problem...

"There are too many...! That's at least seventy we need to defeat!"

Mary bit her lips and her shoulders trembled as she clenched her fists so hard that her fingernails dug into her palms.

"Wait, I'm not done yet."

Shanks raised his hand without opening his eyes, trying to stop Mary from making assumptions, as the skill he shared wasn't yet finished with adding more information.

Suddenly, the maps in their heads filled with another color, thousands of small yellow dots were surrounding the majority of the red dots, blocking or redirecting their path.

"I know that your role is a heroine or something, but don't underestimate the Sloth soldiers."

Shanks opened his eyes and smirked.

Just as he said that three red dots disappeared from the map.

...as well as tens of yellow dots in many different locations...

"We don't have to get them all. We just have to make sure that none will pass the third defense line... or what's left of it."

Shanks's face scrunched bitterly, but he hurriedly shook his head and made a determined expression.

"Thanks, I'll have her back now."

He nodded his head as he took the rifle back from Mary and immediately aimed it towards the defense lines and his body begun glowing pale blue.

"I'll take care of the fastest one of the four that slipped by the Sloth soldiers, try to take care of the other three."

He said with his cheek pressed against the rifle, making use of the information provided by his skill.

"Miss Mika, you can move now, go with miss Mary and listen to her."

He added as if that was an afterthought, not even looking in the ashen-haired girl's direction.

"Bastard...!"

Mika growled through her teeth.

Her body began giving off strong red light as she was stubborn staring at the gigantic monster flailing on the ground in front of her.

"URGH...!"

She grunted as despite her best effort, her body didn't listen to her and instead of charging at the cyclops, she instead turned around, towards the mostly breached defense lines.

*¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤*

Though, before she made a single step, Shanks's rifle's low hum filled the air and the ray of light erupted from the end of the barrel and pierced straight through the fog.

Without another sound, the most forward, fastest-moving red dot, flashed and disappeared without a trace from their maps.

"...good..."

Shanks fell to his knees and groaned, supporting himself on the long rifle.

The rat-faced man was horribly pale and was trembling like the last autumn leave on the wind.

"What are you two waiting for...? You have the maps, you don't need the mist itself to clear out, right...?! GO!"

He scoffed barely able to hold on to his consciousness - which was already a great feat considering how much energy did he just use to snipe a devilishly fast monster from tens of miles away.

"On it!"

Mika and Mary had no choice but to follow the command.

With an earthshattering explosion, the two of them charged forward, Mika with a furious expression and Mary gritting her teeth from the pain of her calves exploding from the pressure.

What they haven't realized, was that the confusing fog actually WAS thinning out.

Rapidly...

"Damn it... there goes preserving my life... I suck as the leader of the Dandelions... Can't even follow our first rule..."

Shanks sighed and shook since he was too weak to stand up, he laid down on the ground and took aim at the titan-class monster that was causing the most casualties amongst the Sloth soldiers.

"...Uresha is never going to forgive me if I'll die..."

The rat-faced man laughed to himself and focused on forcefully activating the charge cannon without taking a required rest.

"...but I can't let all those Sloth soldier kids die like that..."

A drop of blood emerged from the corner of his eye and slid down his face like a ruby tear.

*¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤*