"Woah!" Exclaimed Brid, as he narrowly evaded a Giant Flying Ant charging towards him as he leapt across to his right, before turning across and swinging his hammer up as another one swooped down towards him, smashing its head.

I swiftly took aim and fired out a piercing beam of Negative Energy as the one he barely dodged shot towards him from behind, shooting through the side of its head, my beam drilling through and bursting out the other side before it could react.

"[Ice Spear]!"

"[Giant Stone Bullet]!"

A couple of thuds echoed out behind us as the Attack Mages shot down a pair of Monsters that had targeted the mid line, a loud crash ringing out from up ahead as Brid crushed a Giant Flying Ant's head against the ground as he slammed his hammer onto the top of his head.

He then swiftly took his left hand off the handle and whipped his arm out, slamming the back of his fist square onto the middle of a Flying Giant Ant's head as the Monster zipped in towards his left.

It screeched in pain and began to fly away, before he twisted his body across and unfurled a rapid, fierce swing of his hammer, striking the middle of its body with a sharp crunch, sending it hurtling across the space before crashing onto the wall to the left of the floor, slumping to the ground as it collapsed.

There were a couple of scratches on Brid's fist, the Monster's fangs must have nicked his skin when he struck it.

He promptly healed himself, before relaxing and letting out a slow exhale as Aria brought down the last of the Giant Flying Ants on this floor with a rapid Negative Energy arrow, piercing the middle of its head.

"Looks like these numbers posed a bit of a challenge to you," I said to Brid, as he returned with a slight grimace.

"Yeah, had a couple of close calls there, there were just too many of them, I couldn't keep track of all of them," He sighed in response.

"True, but you still managed to evade their attacks, though your last attack was a bit sloppy. Based on what I saw, you were getting winded and out of breath, that must have made you panic a tiny bit," Surmised Aria thoughtfully.

"I suppose I can't deny that, yeah. I usually try to make it a point to take a moment to catch my breath in between attacks, but I didn't have that option."

"There's still some wasted effort in your movements, you tend to overexert a bit at times, and those brief boosts in strength you unleash, they eat up a bit of stamina, don't they?" I remarked.

"Yeah, a little. It's usually pretty inconsequential, so long as I have a bit of breathing room. But I didn't have much respite up here, and ended up struggling...alright, now I know what I need to work on next," He replied, as he clenched his fist with a determined look on his face.

"Need another break?" I asked him.

"Hm...no, I think I should be good for a few more floors," He shook his head after a brief pause.

"Well, in all likelihood, we'll be switching to our original formation in the next floor, with Aria and I taking a more active role. So, unless the pattern deviates further, you'll be taking it a bit easier from this point onwards.

At least, in terms of the amount of effort you exert. Mentally, you're going to need to be extra alert and switched on," I advised him, as we began continuing ahead.

We just cleared the sixtieth level, so if the current pattern persists, we should run into High Level Monsters soon.

"Gotta say, these clear patterns are so weird...it's like a video game or something," He responded with a fascinated look on his face.

"Yeah, true. We don't know exactly how it works, just that it's an ability of the Demon Lord, the leader of the Monsters," Chimed in Aria.

"Y-Yeah, that w-was added to the c-curriculum at the Academy, a-about halfway through the y-year," Spoke up Iqra, as we headed up the tunnel leading to the next floor of the Dungeon.

Right, everything we learned about the world the Monsters come from, thanks to Luxuria, was publicized shortly afterwards, makes sense that they'd teach it at the Academies too.

Though, the source of the info was kept confidential, my involvement was also left out.

But a lot of people figured it out after my Subjugate Skill was revealed to the public, when I used it on Invidia.

Of course, I did question Acedia too, I figured he'd know more than Luxuria did, considering that he was one of the Demon Lord's Generals.

But I was wrong, he didn't really know anything particularly useful besides everything Luxuria had already told us.

He didn't know the abilities of most of the other Generals or the Demon Lord, he didn't know any more about how the Demon Lord's ability to create Dungeons works than Luxuria did.

From the sound of it, the Demon Lord is pretty secretive with his abilities.

"Hm? I sense three Monsters up ahead, High Levels!" The Detector called out, as we made our way through the sixty-first floor.

The party came to a step as I held up my hand...I paused for a moment to consider the options, before making my decision.

"Then, it's settled. We're shifting back to our starting formation. Aria and I will be taking the lead from this point onwards," I instructed the others, Brid reluctantly moving back to the mid line as Iqra rejoined the back line.

They should still be able to handle this, but I think we've exposed them to enough risk already today. This is their first official raid, after all, just because they've done well so far doesn't mean it's a good idea to push them even further.

"Looks like it's finally our turn to really get in on the action," Smiled Aria, cracking her knuckles with a gleam in her eyes.

"Yeah, it would appear so. Let's do this."

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