Rana jumped off the pillar walls and landed on one of the platforms below in a bend. Her knees met the floor just as her palms weakened the impact of her fall. Her body was resistant to damage resulted from falling, and she walked away from a dozens meter drop with barely a scratch.

The abominations of flesh and protruding limbs swelling with bones sensed a newcomer to the arena. They turned their heads, a small blob of beating lumps, towards her and hesitated. It was rather easy to understand their confusion. She too was in essence a bag of meat, and the monsters would need some time to identify her as either friend or foe.

Rana sighed. She would be very grateful if these monsters did not cast doubt on her identity. She would have to make their decision for them. She did not want to raise the suspicion of other humans, after all.

She pulled back her staff and slashed its crescent blade across, the mana within burned and cut the hesitating bloody flesh with searing fire. The beasts screeched and leaped towards her. She could’ve used Support Attack to change her position or Support Defend to increase her guard power, and she could also cast Spells to quickly disposed of her foes, but she chose not to waste her Focus or Mana. She would need it for later.

She slammed her staff to the ground and blocked one of the monsters from coming onto her. She then took out her dagger and stepped to the side.

The monsters had long limbs but their joints were in a complete mess. It allowed them to sometimes reach with incredible range and area, but oftentimes it lead to them having many blind spots. The trick was to observe how their limbs were formed and deduce where she could escape to.

She had observed them long enough to know.

The first monster fell as her dagger plunged into its beating head. The second one, who was still staggering back from leaping right into her staff quickly found the crescent blade dissecting it in half. The last one, who she carefully positioned to be blocked by one of its monster companions could now be dealt with alone.

Rana made quick work of the monster as Taye showed up.

“I thought you were going to die when you fell off of the wall and landed among three of them,” Taye said.

“I jumped and it was all calculated,” Rana replied.

“Of course,” Taye said, clearly disinterested with correcting Rana’s nonanswer. “What is the plan? I’m surprised you picked me and not one of the better fighters, and I doubt you need my ability to lead, so I hope you didn’t call me over just to chat.”

“The time is brief, but I have fought with you and have a better understanding of how you fight when compared to others,” Rana said. She then pointed at the monster shell in the sky, unmoved and disinterested as it continued to rain monsters. “This phase of the raid is most likely the final one. The flesh below the shell indicates it is guarding its real body. The attack from the arena is too slow to expose it, so we are going up there to expedite the process.”

“How do you know? Seems kind of like wishful thinking, no?”

“You know of Talents? I have a rare one,” Rana said. She would not tell Taye the truth, but it was close enough to the reason why she was so sure of it. “I have one that allows me to sense the barest of the thoughts of monsters. I can tell that its main body is within, laughing as we fall to the abyss below.”

“Alright, then how do we get there?”

“We use our Support Talents to get as close to the shell as possible to allow me to use my wards to bring us onto it. How is your Focus?”

“Enough.”

Rana and Taye rushed towards the Chrysalis Abominations in the sky. They leaped from platform to platform, prioritizing those with little resistance from the other monsters or could be in the range of support from other marked ones.

“Now!”

Rana shouted and Taye was already ready for her. The warrior-class marked one knelt down and raised her shield for her to jump on. When her legs planted onto the metal and bent in ready, her ally pushed and so did she, propelling herself towards a falling monster.

She used her staff to hit it away. The Support Attack Talent gave her some distance and Taye's Support Defend brought her companion closer. She shot her ward towards Taye as she continued to rise, the chains raced forward and the warrior-class grabbed on to it. She then shot another ward towards the monster, connecting a path for the two marked ones to climb towards it.

Rana and Taye began to climb. It would be difficult for an ordinary human, but to a marked one, their own weight was meaningless and they were able to bring their own bodies upward easily.

“Hey! Watch where you guys are aiming at,” yelled Taye as a Spell of fire whizzed past her and struck the monster, causing fragments of the shell to splinter off and become smaller monsters.

Rana swiped the falling monster aside before it was able to latch onto them. She could tell it was Denver who made the supposed mistake. He knew Taye and Rana were skilled enough to not fall to such a trick, but it would inconvenience them. To think he was this petty even in such a life or death situation.

“Isn’t it better if the ones below focused on the battle on the platforms rather than the guardian itself?” asked Taye. “I mean, I would hate to fall to my death because some idiot decided to act like an idiot.”

“If we presuppose he is an idiot, why do you think he will act differently?”

“You know what I mean,” snapped Taye. “Just answer the damn question”

“We still need to eventually break the shell, there is no reason to stop our offense,” Rana replied. Both of them did not stop climbing. “You must’ve really done something to piss of Denver.”

“Actually, no,” Taye said with a frown. “He tolerates me because we are part of the same guild and I am actually quite capable without the desire to stand out. The incident here and your little stunt of disappearing along with the duke’s marked ones tipped him over the edge.”

“I guess we better quicken our pace then, before he decides to launch another Spell at you.”

“You act like it's not your problem and I’m not climbing as fast as I am able to,” Taye replied before turning to the marked ones below. “Make sure you watch where you’re aiming at!”

Rana and Taye eventually made it to the monster’s shell. They stood on one of its giant protruding plate of bone, but there was no time to rest when the surface of the shell wall cracked.

The shell crunched and bent into itself, squeezing out flesh and blood. The monster sprouted from it stood sideways, their legs anchored to the shell without falling. It tilted back before letting out a screech.

Rana and Taye were intruders and the guards awakened.