Shouting to keep her voice from being drowned out by the constant incoherent screaming and gunfire from all around her, Lux once more released an empty magazine from her rifle, dropping the spent one to the ground without worrying about collecting it as she slammed a new magazine into the rifle, chambering a fresh round while she aimed at the closest monster and squeezed the trigger. For the last 30 minutes, scaled creatures had been pouring out of every single tunnel into the room Lux and her group now found themselves trapped inside, standing on top of a pile of rotting fish and spent casings the smell of decay and synthetic, high energy gunpowder started blending together as flashes from gunfire lit up the room in flashes of white that drowned out the original deep red illumination. With Lux, Mare and Alice burning trough their ammunition at a terrifying rate Lilly and Eos had been forced to also partic.i.p.ate in the battle, the two of them creating blades of wind which sliced apart the endless stream of scale covered monsters by the tunnel, moving down crowds instead of a single target at a time. To help the two magic users collect ambient mana at a fast enough rate their dull black amour now glowed purple in hexagonal patterns which covered their arms and shoulders, the light signified that their armour's mana collecting function was working at capacity.

"Alice! Mare! Status and ammunition!?"

Not having the spare time to confirm what her subordinates were doing Lux shouted over her own automatic gunfire as she mowed down the first monster which had made it all the way out of one of the tunnels and into the room.

"50%! We're starting to lose ground!"

While Alice answered she took the time to reload, an action which allowed the fish scaled monsters to enter the room at her sector.

"Agreed! Mare!?"

Having also been forced to draw her pistol to add some more much needed firepower Lux fully agreed with Alice��s a.s.sessment that they were going to get overrun.

And soon.

"40%! This is bad!"

"I'm still at 70! Lilly, can you try and block some of the tunnels with magic!?"

"I can try but I'll need Eos to cover for me while I examine the surrounding bedrock!"

"No problem! I'm the leader of the 22nd for a reason!"

Flaring with mana Eos demonstrated that there was a reason she had become a 10 winged angel, using the most destructive spell she could while also skillfully avoiding any chance of a cave in. With Eos covering for her Lilly worked fast, descending from the pile of decaying fish they had made their castle the elver slammed both her hands into the ground, sending a pulse of mana through it to find out where she could take and stack bedrock to block the tunnels.

"No good! There's not enough support, trying to block off the area would lead to a cave in!" 

"We need you to do it Lilly, if you don't we're all going to die!"

While snapping at Lilly like that might not be okay as a commander, Lux did so anyway, she knew what needed to be done.

"f.u.c.k, okay! Eos hold on for a bit longer, I'll need to summon a spirit!"

Although such a thing would normally be impossible to do in the middle of an active combat situation, not to mention a feat impossible for a single person to do in any reasonable amount of time Lilly had a strong connection to the spirits. Although not much was known about the so called spirits Dax and Lux had both recognized their tactical potential. Offering a 'prayer' to one of the spirits she had met with before Lilly sought a.s.sistance in fine control of her spell as she needed finesse which was magnitudes better than what an archangel possessed in order to close up the tunnels around them.

(You really called us for such a menial task? And without that outsider around that we wanted to talk to?... Fine, seeing as you dying here would mean losing the connection to that outsider we will a.s.sist you, dear child.)

Hearing a cold voice inside her head Lilly felt the strength leave her body, at the same time a sudden surge of mana rushed towards her as if it had a will of its own.

"Ah~ The city of Aeth, how nostalgic."

Rising to her feet, 'Lilly looked around as she was able to look straight through the bedrock around her, instantly realizing where she was. With a nostalgic look on her face, 'Lilly' continued looking around the place without a care in the world, completely oblivious to the mayhem around her.

"Spirit do something now!"

Not the most relaxed person by nature Lux instantly snapped at the nonchalant spirit which appeared to have started its own little sightseeing in the middle of their fight for survival.

"Yeah, yeah~ Relax a bit, will you? I'm taking a bit of time to get used to this child's mana circuits so they don't snap when I use her as an anchor."

Shooing Lux with her hands while she complained, 'Lilly' gently tapped her foot against the ground as ancient runes which had long since been lost to history suddenly spread out around her in circles which started layering themselves on top of each other.

"So? Should I just block off all the tunnels leading to this filthy junkyard?"

Glancing towards Lux which the spirit had judged as the leader of the group, 'Lilly' had a bored expression on her face as she asked.

"No, keep this one in front of me open!"

"... Got it, but you don't have to shout like that child~ I might be old but I'm not deaf."

"Call me child one more time and I'll find come and find you, then choke you to death with your own intestines!"

"Gezz, you remind me of that outsider, has this really become an age where n.o.body has any sense of humour?"

Keeping up her relaxed att.i.tude amidst the battle and Lux's extremely serious death threats, 'Lilly' once more tapped her foot gently against the ground, expanding the ma.s.sive pattern of magic runes to cover the entirety of the room, then she simply moved her and as if swatting away a fly. 

In response to that simple gesture, the mana around 'Lilly' condensed to such a level that it was visible to the naked eye, then with one more tap on the ground all expect a single tunnel out from the room Lux and her group found themselves inside.

"Then we will excuse ourselves here, next time you call us we want to talk with that outsider from before, he was fascinating~"

Showing an alluring smile before it dissipated, the excess mana in the air dispersed as the presence which had possessed Lilly left along with it.

"Mare take care of Lilly! The rest of you up here with me!"

Fearing that the monsters would now all rush them from the same direction Lux immediately reorganized the defences as she sent the person with the least ammunition to check up on Lilly who had collapsed after the spirit had left her. Standing ready to trap the monsters in an improvised kill zone she had set up for about 5 minutes, Lux finally lowered her weapon as not a single monster had tried to rush them in that time, even the constant incoherent and omnipresent screaming that had been drowning out everything else for the last 40 minutes eventually started quieting down, eventually leading to the same oppressive silence there had been before.

"... Mare get up here now, Alice replace her and take care of Lilly in the meanwhile."

Taking a swig of water while she still kept a vigilant eye at the dark tunnel ahead, Lux handed the water canteen over to Mare as she joined her.

"What do you hear?"

"... They've pulled back for the moment, don't know why."

Having confirmed her own intuition with the help of Mare's sharp senses Lux finally breathed a deep sigh.

"I'll stay as a lookout. Mare, Eos take a break and try to get some food in you, if there's no follow up attack from those scaled f.u.c.ks then we're advancing after Lilly is able to move again."

Hearing those words from Lux, Eos felt the strength quickly leave her body along with a deep sigh. Dragging her feet until she found a somewhat clean patch of ground then she collapsed onto her knees before sitting down on the ground.

It was only then that her senses which had been suppressed up until that moment seemed to return at once as Eos' sense of smell was overwhelmed with a potent mix of blood and guts blended with decaying rot and gunpowder while she noticed the large pools of blood which had flowed from the numerous dead monsters they had killed, pooling inside the room before Lilly had closed the surrounding tunnels.

"Urg…"

Feeling a buildup of gastric acid Eos leaned to the side as she expelled her last meal on the ground beside her, feeling a sense of powerlessness after she had done the deed.

(How the h.e.l.l am I supposed to be able to hold my head high after this?)

Eos felt like she had only been slowing the rest of the team down, that reality clashed with the pride she had held herself to thus far and made the angel feel even more pathetic.

"Drink."

But before she could turn even more self deprecating Eos was snapped out of her troughs when Mare suddenly appeared before her, holding out a canteen.

"Ah, thanks…"

Timidly accepting the canteen, Eos washed the bitter taste out of her mouth before drinking some water, finding that she had been severely dehydrated up until that point.

"And eat this too."

After Eos had rehydrated Mare then presented her with a cereal bar which the angel quickly devoured before realizing what was going on and blus.h.i.+ng deeply.

"I really am useless if a child like you need to take care of me like this…"

"Not at all. Everyone is like that at the start…. I was the same first time I killed another slave."

Patting the fl.u.s.tered angel on the head Mare went back to check up on Lilly, leaving Eos with a tiny bit more self a.s.surance.

"Eos I know this is hard that you can't use most of your spells out of fear that they'll cause a cave in, just relay on us for now and we'll be relying on you when the time comes."

"R-right!"

Surprised by Lux's rea.s.suring words Eos turned her head to find that the person in question was still vigilantly keeping an eye on the last remaining tunnel.

(I need to pull myself together…)

Feeling her motivation return due to the kind words from around her Eos slapped her cheeks a few time as she once more regained her dignified and superior looking expression.