"Why the hell is he just standing there?!"

Even for the players with high perception, finding a specific person in the mess of a battle below was difficult, so Soze hadn't noticed when Alexx first moved out of position. However, it barely took a minute for the effects of his repositioning to appear.

A small gap in their [FEAR] formation had opened up along the southern wall of the canyon. It wasn't wide, but now that they had been given an opening, there were dozens of Drones passing through it every second.

'We have time, but Alexx needs to get back into position now.'

A few dozen Drones wouldn't be anything critical, but as more of them flooded into the backlines the more the possibility for something unexpected to happen increased.

"I'LL GO TELL HIM!"

Loran shouted over the noise of the battle as he dropped from the ledge.

"LORAN WAIT A- DAMN IT!"

Currently, the casters were alternating between attacking the Drones below and using earth magic to give the builders more ammunition, and that meant Loran was more effective while on the wall.

'Although, I guess it's not a huge difference at this point,' Soze decided. 'The Guardians haven't shown up yet, and the builders aren't using as much ammo as they were before.' With most of the Drone wall being corpses by this point, they didn't need to focus so heavily on it, and the builders couldn't just throw boulders into the crowded battle below them. They still attacked the wall every now and then, but there was no rush anymore.

The biggest problem was that Loran had had some trouble climbing the wall before the fighting started earlier, so now that he dropped down again he would essentially be stuck down there. A high Strength player like Alexx could probably make the jump while carrying him, but if the two of them got separated then Loran could be trapped in the battle until everything was over.

'I guess he could run towards the back, or maybe he can make it up the wall without falling five times first.' Soze chuckled as he remembered how frustrated his young friend had been.

Regardless, there was no great need to stop Loran from joining the battle, and it was too late to do so anyway. He tried to force down the unpleasant feeling in his stomach and returned his attention to shooting down Warriors.

Then he looked out over the horde of Drones and his eyes widened.

"Shit."

~~~~~

Loran kicked off the wall to slow his fall. When he hit the ground he could feel his knees complaining, but he managed to keep running. As much as he wanted to just start fighting and gather more EXP, his first priority was to get Alexx back into position.

'Besides, fighting will be easier if I can join up with him.'

Loran activated [SPRINT] and started weaving his way through the battlefield. He leapt over a dead Warrior, ducked under a blade swinging for his neck, and slid under a Mountain Goat as it reared back to use [SKULL BASH]. It was hard to see past the bodies and clouds of dirt, but Loran steadily made his way through the battlefield, getting closer and closer to the distracted Alexx.

Eventually, Loran found his friend within the chaos, ripping a Warrior's torso away from its lower body with a single kick.

"HEY DUMBASS!" Loran shouted, just barely managing to be heard over the fighting around them.

Alexx glanced at him for a moment but kept fighting. "WHICH WAY?"

'So he knew he was in the wrong spot, but didn't know where he was supposed to be?' Loran shook his head in disbelief. 'Whatever, this is no place to argue.'

"FOLLOW ME!" he shouted. Now that they would be fighting their way back, Loran pulled out his new Iron Sickle and quickly swung at a nearby Warrior.

Alexx was confused as he watched Loran aim his attack at the flat side of the Warrior's torso. Even though the iron weapon would be able to pierce it, it would only be able to penetrate a few inches before being stopped. Normally, Loran would be aiming at joints to let the bladed edge of his new sickle cut them off, so why was he aiming to pierce it with the tip? Then his eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he watched the Iron Sickle tear through the Warrior's carapace like it was made of paper.

Loran grinned at the damage. 'Looks like the enchantment is doing well.'

He was certain that knowing about the new enchantment spell would cause the players to become too excited to rest and focus on the raid; so he decided to stay quiet for the time being. Of course, Loran himself was also excited, and so once the casters had finished building the ledges, the others went to sleep while he started experimenting.

The first thing he noticed was that different materials, like iron, were harder to enchant than others. Fortunately, he still had his old Bone Picks and was able to use those as testing material. For one, he applied what seemed to be a basic enchantment like he did with the stone. The result enhanced all of the weapon's traits and even restored some of its lost durability.

For his second pick, Loran wanted to try enchanting it with elemental mana. It was much more difficult and took nearly an hour of attempts, but eventually, he managed to infuse the weapon with earth magic.

He then used the same enchantment on his new Iron Sickle and was very pleased with the results.

[NAME]: Earth-Infused Iron Pick

[QUALITY]: Common

[TYPE]: Tool/Weapon

[DURABILITY]: 698/700

[STATS]: 50 Pierce Damage OR 60 Slashing Damage

[EFFECTS]: All damage dealt is also Bludgeoning Damage. If the Damage Type is already Bludgeoning, weapon damage is increased by 25%.

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: C/15

DEX: B/10

[DESCRIPTION]

A weapon made forged from the blade of an Iron Ant Soldier and infused with earth magic. Striking with the hammer carries the force of a small boulder.

Whenever a game had the ability to enchant weapons with different elements there were two possible outcomes. The first and most common was that the item would gain the properties of the chosen element, such as a fire sword burning whatever it cut or a lightning shield being more resistant to lightning damage. The other option was that each element had unique effects associated with them, which would then be applied to the item.

'I can't really say which style NEO is using just yet,' Loran thought. 'This could be an elemental effect, but it could just be a representation of earth-type damage.'

Loran had to put his thoughts about the magic system on hold as the heavily wounded Warrior lunged at him. With a huge chunk of its torso missing it put all of its remaining strength into as suicidal attack.

Loran rushed forward, diving between the Warrior's blades and bringing his sickle down with a wide, overhead slash. Putting all of his Strength behind the attack, the blade pierced the ant's head before carving a huge chunk out of the monster's body.

Bludgeoning Damage had the ability to ignore a portion of the target's armor and damage its structural integrity. By applying this effect to a slashing weapon with high base damage, the weakened armor was now significantly easier to cut. Even if it couldn't be cut, the weakened structure and hooked shape of his weapon made it easy to tear pieces out of the insect's shell.

Satisfied that his new weapon would be enough to carry him through this battle, Loran made sure Alexx was following him and started heading back toward the center of the canyon.

It had been a few weeks since Alexx and Loran had fought together, but they quickly fell back into a comfortable rhythm. They watched each other's movements and those of the ants around them. They were both agile fighters and they started dancing around each other, ducking under and around their own attacks as they moved forward.

The Warriors' blades cut nothing but air as Loran used magic and his sickle to knock their strikes aside at the last second. If the Warriors ever lunged at Loran to stop his interference, he would simply step aside and Alexx's fist would come from behind him, demolishing the ants before they had a chance to react. Furthermore, Loran wasn't limited to support anymore, and if the ants ever gave him an opening they would find their abdomens gouged out by his Iron Sickle or their heads pierced by a Mana Spike.

Within just a few minutes, Alexx was back in position.

With the hole in their defenses filled in, Loran decided to make his way toward the front of the battle, right up against the wall of Drones. Because this area was so close to the wall, it was possible for Drones at the top of the pile to roll down and land behind them, thus allowing them to turn around and attack without being stopped by [FEAR]. It was also dangerous because of the Mountain Goats constantly using [SKULL BASH] at the base of the wall, crushing dozens of Drones with every strike and creating tremors that made fighting more difficult.

'If I'm going to figure out what my best fighting style is, I can't just be taking it easy,' he thought as he made his way past another Warrior and to the front of the battle. He pretty much knew that it would be a kind of mix of melee combat and magic, but now it was time to hammer out the details.

What spells worked best?

What should be the focus?

Should he use magic to support his melee or should he do the opposite?

There were plenty of questions, and as he looked at the rampaging Mountain Goats, the vicious Iron Ant Warriors, and the wall of Iron Ant Drones, he knew that this battlefield held the answers the needed.

"Bring it on," he said with a grin.

Suddenly the wall of Drones exploded toward him.

His smile evaporated.

'Nevermindpleasetakeitbackdamnthesegoddamneddeathflags.' (1)(2)

1) TLDR: Never mind please take it back damn these goddamned death flags.

2) a death flag is a trope in media where certain actions, phrases, or situations are recognized as increasing a character's chances of dying, such as being the mentor of the main character, talking about your upcoming retirement, or taunting fate in general.