“Knife-O girly, ye be careful. This one got a wicked grip!” Gamby hollered as he sidestepped a rock thrown at him.

The thing responsible for this deadly throw was a lanky bi-pedal humanoid monster with a single horn on its head, facing upwards. It had arms longer than its legs, almost reaching the knees. Dense brown fur covered it everywhere from head to toe.

It was a [Maned Orc], one of the commonly found Rank-II monsters towards the deeper parts of the 5-star dungeon.

“I know,” Loui responded as she stepped on the still-airborne rock that Gamby narrowly evaded and zoomed towards the monster with her twin daggers ready for the kill.

However, before she could get close, another rock came flying at her at a breakneck speed. Loui narrowed her eyes and did a twirl in midair. Her daggers glowed a bright shade of red as she cleaved the rock in half. Unfortunately, her momentum was broken, and the beast was alert. She couldn’t continue with her charge.

Loui kicked the ground and jumped back, away from the beast’s striking range.

Perhaps she was too absorbed in the battle; Loui didn't see Gamby behind her as she backtracked. They both crashed against each other and nearly tumbled to the ground.

“Careful, girly!” The man supported himself with his double-handed war hammer as he pushed Loui off him. He fixed a glare on the beast as he growled at Loui, “Ye don’t have eyes, o-wat?”

“Huh!” Loui narrowed her eyes as she frowned. She glared at the short-haired man with the intensity of a scorching sun on a hot summer day. “I don’t have eyes behind my back,” with a frigid tone, she replied. “How about you become a little bit more mindful of your surroundings?”

“Alright, you two! Stop quibbling like kids.” Chen, who was unable to see this anymore, roared from his hiding spot behind a tree. “A simple low-grade Rank-II was already taking us more than forty minutes. If this continues, your mana and stamina would be gone.”

Roar!!

The hairy beast roared into the skies as it dug its thick fingers into the rocky ground. When it pulled its hands out, it was already holding two watermelon-sized rocks.

“The tenth volley is coming.” Chen roared. “Careful, you two.”

“Dammit, again! Does it not run out of stamina? O-mana?” Gamby showed his frustration as he held the handle of his war hammer firmly. The beast had been throwing rocks at them every few seconds without stopping. It was not allowing them to regroup.

“That’s the specialty of this dungeon,” Chen informed. “Monsters’ recovery rate goes up by a half while we hunters’ recovery rate slashed by 60%.”

“O-wat?” Gamby screamed as his accent thickened. “That’s cheating! It's naked discrimination!”

No one bothered to answer him.

“The GE accumulation is also 70% more than other dungeons of a similar level,” Loui quipped as she crouched on one knee on the grassy plains, waiting for another opportunity to leap towards the beast.

“Really?” The final member of this impromptu group, who was also hiding behind the tree with Chen, enquired as she poked her head out. Her green eyes twinkled with excitement.

“That’s true.” Chen nodded his head. “You’ll level up faster inside this place if you can hunt every day.”

“Great! Gamby, Miss Loui, leave the finishing blow to me.” After saying her piece, she retreated behind the tree, away from the beast’s sight.

Chen frowned when he saw her hiding with him. He was hiding because he was practically useless against this beast. The horn on its forehead gives it a complete immunity to control-effect Skills.

On the contrary, as a healer, her job should be to observe the battlefield and help her team whenever she can. Compared to support, a healer had much more role in a group. Yet, she was there, hiding away from the battle. It spoke volumes of her character.

Chen could only sigh in his heart. They had yet to join the guild, but he was already not liking the arrangements.

On the other hand, Loui and Gamby, the two front-row fighters, had gotten their acts together. Under a tacit understanding among each other, they flanked the beast from two directions.

The four-meter-tall monster turned toward Loui as it threw the rocks in its hand toward her. It could instinctively sense the more dangerous one among the two.

Loui moved with a grace of a leopard as she dodged the two rocks nimbly.

The orc screamed as it stepped towards her, swinging its arms wildly. However, it had forgotten the danger that lurked behind.

Gamby was waiting for an opportunity. When the beast turned its back towards him, he smirked while gripping the handle of the war hammer. With all the force of his arms, he swung it at the beast’s mid-back. He even used mana to empower his biceps.

“Bone crushing.” A silent roar came out of Gamby’s mouth as the tip of his hammer glowed orange.

Boom!

An explosive sound occurred when it touched the beast’s furry back.

Roar!!

The orc let out a blood-curdling scream as the impact of the hammer threw it to the ground. Gamby grunted as he followed up with another attack. Stepping on the beast’s waist, he brought his hammer down on the same spot where he struck not long ago.

“I’m out of mana!” He screamed before jumping off the beast and retreating.

Loui had already arrived next to the orc. Her daggers glowed orange as she slashed on the monster’s Achilles tendons to immobilize it for good. The beast was already suffering from bone-crushing pain inflicted by Gamby. It didn’t feel a thing as Loui shredded one of the most important muscles in its body.

“Chen, what’s the condition?” She asked loudly while leaning over to cut away the tendons on its arms as well. These disproportionate-sized arms were its main source of strength.

“It only had a few hundred health left,” Chen said as he walked out from his hiding place. “You can come back now. It’ll bleed to death once left alone.”

After that, he turned towards the girl hiding with him and said in a mild tone, “Miss Heart, please go ahead and finish it off.”

“Ah! Mhm! Alright!” Heart widened her eyes as she turned her head towards Chen. “Is it… you know!?” she asked, pointing her finger at the facedown beast.

Chen nodded his head silently.

“Okay!” Heart still couldn’t keep away the frown on her face. After a brief hesitation, she turned towards Gamby. “You- you, come with me!” She said rudely.

“I’m tired. Take someone else.” However, Gamby firmly denied it.

“Don’t worry, Miss Heart,” Chen assured as he smiled at the woman assuringly. “It can’t get up anymore. Loui has destroyed its tendons.”

“Err… no!” Heart shook her head negatively, not feeling assured of Chen’s guarantee. She only met him that day, after all. How could she easily believe in what he said?

Chen narrowed his eyes and wanted to say something but stopped as Loui appeared next to him and shook her head. “Don’t bother with her. Not worth it!” She whispered into his ear.

Chen let out a long breath before nodding his head in agreement. It was really not worth the effort to try and reason with her.

Suddenly, Loui’s eyes narrowed as she looked in the direction where the monster lay. Following that, her danger senses tingled as the hair at the back of her neck stood up. She grabbed Chen’s shoulders and pushed him to the ground before jumping atop him as they lay prone on the grassy plane.

Swoosh!

Something went past her head as it made a whistling sound while cutting through the air.