Let''s jump backward in the timeline—the moment when ss-58 were brought on a juncture to split their force after breaching the southern defence line with their full force of 25 members.


    Their opponents were mere four—?Lolita Hero? Lulu, and the three girls, each possessing a job from the ?Magic Equipment? series. Yet, they''re tricked like a cat being led around by catnip.


    The couldn''t overpower *behemot*, Lulu, in their path.


    She was formidable, and it stands to reason given it was 4th strongest job in the top dungeon oriented jobs ranking, as Zephyr had extolled. Ranging from high defensive power allowing her to act as sub-tank to the stagger resistance, group debuff, almost limitless MP and the mighty power—her arsenal was stacked.


    The cherry on top was, her stature. This allowed her high evasion chances. And that''s how, ss-58 was driven to the corner.


    Many tried to skip past her, but were crushed by the coordinated attack of Sachi, Emi, and Yuuka one by one.


    Nevertheless, the four person defense line couldn''t epass the whole range. There were some hups and confusion, but ss-58 somehow trudged deep into the defense perimeter. But—just as they had seen the light at the tunnel of darkness, they''re passed through it and stumbled into another roadblock; second defense lineprised of ?Orb Mage?, ?Wizard?, ?Lancer?, ?Millet Crusher? and ?Shadow? from ss-1.


    Then they had long-range healing of Lana, allowing 9 member defense lines in the south to face off the impact of the enemy with minimum loss.


    Meanwhile in the east, the second defense line of ss-1, Shizu and Myu had it as their fortress. They effectively befuddled their enemies with cover fire from vantage point, along with the clever use of taps likendmines.


    Disoriented by enemies, trimmed by the tricks of their opponent, and going through explosions, ss-58 lost much of their force, but the sacrifice allowed them topletely breach the defense line with 12 members remaining. Though there were a total of 19 members, 7 were left behind to stop Lulu''s pursuit.


    Meanwhile, ss-1''s overall losses were three; ?Lancer?, ?Miller Crusher? and ?Shadow?.


    "The sacrifice was steep, but we have finally broken through their blockade! We''re definitely going to snag this match!!"


    Atrutuo encouraged everyone, believing with the absence of ss-1''s main force, and 9 of their members locked at souther line, they had the game in their bag.


    Leading the 12 members, Atrutuo turned toward the ss-1''s base, preparing tounch an offense.


    But before they could do anything—that appeared.


    "I must say, you''re impressive to arrive here. However this is where your journey ends. ?Ancient Summoning Art?! —?Advent of Great Spirit?! Manifest—?Tenberion?!"


    They first found themselves facing the Great Darkness Spirit Tenberion. Sporting jet ck hairs, green eyes and an elusive appearance exhibiting features of a young girl and a woman, her forte lies in casting debuff and spells to stall the opponent.


    "Pray stop their advancement, Tenberion-sama."


    "————"


    "M-My body?! Her debuffs are too potent!"


    "Crap! We don''t have any healer!"


    They''d one, but that healer was left behind with members tackling Lulu. A pang of regret throbbed into the heart of ss-58''s members.


    Yet, adding to their misery—


    "Leave this ce to me! It''s finally my time to shine! ?Sacred Shining Sabre?! ?Rise of the Sacred Tree?!"


    —Lana made her debut.


    She had been supporting Lulu and team in the southern defense line, but as the ss-58 made it to their base, she shifted her attention to them.


    Lana intoned her offensive spells from atop of the ?White Throne?.


    "Tank, take your position!"


    "Haaaaaa!! —Gah?!"


    "Tank was blown away?!"


    The gulf between them and Celia and Lana was too vast. The impact behind their attacks were enough to blow away even the tanks, weakening the momentum of ss-58.


    Nevertheless having made their way with painstaking efforts, two of the buys were more than ready to fight still. If frontal battle was impossible, then they would take a detour. Their opponent might be strong, but in numbers, ss-58 was boss—or so they thought naively.


    "Alright, I shall be the first to charge!!"


    "Just drop dead for good!!"


    The two immediately took a stance to evade iing attacks, but what descent next wasn''t spells—but a giant. This time, their morale hadpletely plummeted.


    *BOOM!*


    A thunderous roar resonated through the whole area as it descended—the demon king of fortitude, as called by Zephyr.


    It was ?General Bull Orc?.


    "Mooooooo!!"


    " "Huuuuuuuuhhh?!" "


    The two boys let out a befuddled voice as they stuck frozen on their spot at the sudden appearance of *boss* monster. The tension ran thick between them as they gazed at it; stature as tall as up to 2.5m, a broadsword like hatchet on right hand while d on full bodied armor, exuding the presence ofmander.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    ?General? acted immediately while the two boys were immobilised.


    "Moooooooo!!"


    "No, wai—gyyaahhhh!"


    "Holy mother of godd—aaaaaahh!"


    *Thump* The General took a step forward, raising a thumping sound, and swung its sword, intoning the skill ?Mighty General''s Sweep?, blowing away the two bouts like canonball.


    General continued its pursuit, and eventually plummeted the two valiant boy''s HP, deporting them.


    "N-No way! What the hell is going on—?!"


    A loud shout escaped from Atrutuo''s mouth as he watched all of it happening.


    Just as Zephyr had wanted, his ''surprised gift'' had truly caused the opponent to lose their wit.


    "Oi, I-Isn''t that ?General Bull Orc??! It''s the freaking boss of the Intermediate-high dungeon''s field boss! I read about it in the library!"


    "Int-high''s boss!? What kind of demon have they pulled in, goddamn! Are we still ying the same game?!"


    Getting the words about their new opponent from his ssmate, Atrutuo couldn''t help but shout out sharply.


    A boss was a boss, no matter how watered down version it was. Plus, it was from an Int-high dungeon.


    It hadn''t cost 70 just for being a paper tiger. A monster like General would require a team of multiple people to be beaten up, not withholding the price they would have to put—or well, the sacrifice had already started it seems, starting with the two boys from earlier.


    They''re now in a tight spot. Lana''s earlier attack had already reaped one life, amounting to a total of 3, leaving them with only 9 members. Their morale had plummeted, a keen sense of defeat wrapped around them all. It was clear even breakthrough inside the base would only push them to annihtion.


    "Mooooo!!"


    "Eeeek!! ?General? ising here!"


    "Save meee!"


    "Shit! Open up some distance for now! Guardian monsters can''t operate outside of base!!"


    While there was Lulu and team at their back, wasting their time wasn''t a choice here. So their leader, Atrutuo, made the only decision he could. In the end, they could still survive if they get out of here.


    "Leader! I am sensing arge group in the east!"


    "!! It must be ss-15! They''re finally here!"


    The report immediately pulled a color of joy on Atrutuo''s face.


    "Great! It''s not the end, we''re saved, everyone!! We''re leaving for ss-15''s direction! Be quick, and join them!"


    "But leader, wouldn''t it be better to hold them from both ends?! If we join them, both of us may face wipeout! Our meagre chance will fall even further!"


    It was sane advice.


    They might have faced an impassable blockade, but the points remain; ss-1 wascking in numbers. If they held back the guardian monsters here while ss-15 mounted an attack from another direction, they might have a chance to take down ss-1''s base.


    But Atrutuo turned down that notion.


    "What do you know?! We will be making a wedding dress for ss-58 at oururels! There''s no meaning of alliance if all of us are wiped out here!"


    Atrutuo hadpletely lost his calm at the face of General. Only destruction awaits those who try to tackle it. Most of all, the foremost reason ss-58 had agreed to the alliance was to ''stay alive.'' It would be best if ss-15 took out this monster, but what was the meaning of all of this when they''d no ce left.


    Being told so, even the messenger couldn''t mutter back.


    "We''re joining them then! We will take down the monster together!"


    "I...I got it!"


    "Follow me, everyone!"


    " " "Roger!!" " "


    And this was the backstory that led to ss-58 joining ss-15.


    ss-58 would lose two more of their member along the route, but otherwise it would be a sessful merger, and from there, they would march toward base.


    ◇　◇　◇


    Fast-forwarding to the current situation—


    "?Four Sacred Shining Sabres?! Our power is unstoppable!"


    Lana, perched atop the ?White Throne? , remarked her dialogue with a pose, one of her finger pointing at the ss-58 who escaped—more like, went to merge with their alliance squad.


    "They''d numbers, but not the strength to make use of them. Lulu has done quite a bit of work to hold them back, I presume."


    The sentiment filled statement came from Celia, themander-in-chief over the defence matter.


    Possessing INT stats higher than anyone among her peers, Celia''s long distance spirit art was quite special in a way. They would work even from a distance, allowing her to manipte them from her position. Her spirit''s movement range could cover even the outside space of square.


    Movement outside of the square means her spirit art attack wouldn''t be subjected to damage reduction that would have been otherwise whenunching an offensive from one square to another.


    The mainstay reason was the shooting apparatus, Great Spirit here, itself had crossed the boundary of squares. They were alsomonly known as Mobile Fortress.


    In general, summoned monsters were often outside of the damage reduction effect. After all, what was the point of being ?Summoner? if their summons disappeared on them when moving across the floor. Either way, cut to chase, it allowed Celia to maintain her focus on controlling the Great Spirit.


    Lana found cornering ss-58 along with ?General? funny. She let forth another volley of ?Four Sacred Shining Sabre?, shing down two of opponent''s members, deporting them.


    Their defence was quite solid.


    "Oh, the two sses have joined finally huh."


    "Opponents consist of a total of 17 members, and that seems to be final. And seeing as how they''re organised into one spot—it certainly made things easier for us."


    "Still, I am amazed they think they can be our opponent with those meagre numbers."


    "......I presume their headcount must have been 40 initially. Audience sure is going to feel gobsmacked seeing nothing can shake us."


    Lana expressed her excitement at the opponents toe. Celia, meanwhile, gave a fleeting nce toward the northwest, where the audience stand was. Her gaze was tinted with an indescribable meaning.


    On the other hand, the two sses met together, and marched in ss-1''s base direction.


    But the Great Spirit of Darkness, a boss monster, and nine wolves had clogged the route. And at the forefront was—Sierra, equipped with all five shields.T\N : Heya, everyone. How do you do? I hope you’re all doing fine. So, recently we’ve decided to throw a small challenge in the wake of holidays—rating milestone challenge.


    As of now, there’re 170 ratings in the Novelupdate, and the goal is to hit 200 marks (You can give any rating, it’s not a bribe xD). The duration is 14 days.


    At thepletion of the challenge, 4 additional chapters will be released for the week. So give it a try~.


    And on a not so rted note, It has been some time since I was thinking, ~~though my procrastination often kicks in~~, it’s about the short stories author released in light novels. Below are the list of side stories, titles are tentative for now, so choose any of two and I will release them during the holiday season.


    Or, would you like to see Hannah’s side story? That would be four chapters from her side. (It just happened that I was waiting for the summer timeline to end in the main vol, since stuff in her vol had spoilers, not that it matters much here?)


    You can upvote either of thements which one you want to see.


    The duration for this is one week (can’t stretch or chapters wouldn’t be ready by then).


    V1 -


    V2 -


    V3 -


    v4 -


    I was thinking of havingment with side story upvote, and count from there which one to do. But that''s gonna fill thement section and too much hassle. I will create a poll or something. So until then, do upvote if you want side story or Hannah''s story inment section. (Either of them are excluding our rating milestone challenge.)