The Only Son Amongst The Daughters Of Eros

The Mock Dungeon training lasted for almost two hours. The structure covered around Aeric and his team, with its labyrinthine passages shrouded in shadow and trials to overcome.

After the second Quest Lobby, they moved on and had survived four Lobbies already, with each one being more challenging than the last as they increased in difficulty.

The group now stood at the threshold of their fifth, taking a moment to gather their strength. Aeric leaned against the cool crystal wall, his hand resting on his sword hilt, eyes scanning his female teammates as they shared a quick meal.

They looked battered, but there was a growing camaraderie among them — a shared confidence in his leadership and their ability to work as a unit.

This confidence had been built after the Lobbies they had just successfully defeated together, led by Aeric's tactics and leadership.

In the Third Lobby, they had faced a pack of hulking beasts called Crimson Ravagers. They had blackened fur and of course, glowing crimson eyes, lighting the place up as they charged into the room.

Their claws were like serrated daggers, raking through the air with feral precision. Once he sighted them, Aeric quickly adjusted their positions, barking orders as they formed into the diamond formation.

Expectedly, seeing that Crimson Ravagers were Master Ranked beasts, the battle was fierce, and Phoebe found herself cornered at one point. "Master Aeric! It's got me!" she squealed, barely dodging a claw swipe as she continued to keep Celestia's shield strong.

Nyx was the one who got into action, slamming a shadow burst of energy into the Ravager's side. Aeric took the opportunity to flank it, driving his infused blade into its chest.

"You are fine, right?" he asked her after.

"Yeah," Phoebe stood, panting but grinning as the last beast was killed at that time as well. "It almost had me there, didn't it? Nyx struck it with her shadow powers and you stabbed it. That was pretty cool."

Celestia narrowed her eyes at her, amused just as Aeric and Nyx were. "You were screaming a moment ago."

"Yeah, but cool screaming, right?" Phoebe grinned wider, unfazed.

Everyone shared speechless glances. "Let's move forward," Aeric said.

When they made it to the fourth Quest Lobby, Aeric was very much expecting it to be a difficult one, and he was not surprised when the beast to kill was a Harbinger HawkNôv(el)B\\jnn

Harbinger Hawks were Grandmaster Ranked. They were massive, shadowy birds with a large wingspan. In that room, the wingspan alone blackened it entirely, with its shriek that was deafening, disorienting the team as it swooped low.

Aeric quickly adapted, seeing that this one was one singular large beast and their approach would have to be a bit more tactical.

He assigned roles, though they remained the same to their usual roles, he had made them attack in more direct ways: "Celestia, use your light powers and disorient it with a good blast of light! Nyx, I hope you have a really powerful shadow beast in your arsenal. We're gonna need one to help take that thing down."

The hawk lunged for them, but Celestia pushed her hands forward and shot out an extremely bright burst of light energy. She might have miscalculated a bit, as the light was brighter than she expected.

Phoebe exclaimed, "Ahh! I'm blind! Wait, no—I'm okay!"

Nyx sighed. "Please stop shouting unless you're dying."

"Ha! Ha!"

Thankfully, the light had successfully blinded the Harbinger Hawk as Aeric had hoped, and so they managed to regroup according to Aeric's orders, ready for their attacks.

"I'm going to need a significant buff, Phoebe!" Nyx had said. Phoebe outstretched her hand and activated [Soul Buff].

The rush of Divinity sucked into Nyx and she instantly summoned a MegaSquid Shadow beast. That was surprising to Aeric as MegaSquid's were high level Grandmaster Ranked Beasts. Had she killed one herself? Or did she just claim the shadow of one killed by someone else?

Anyways, with the help of the MegaSquid and its ensnaring tentacles, the team's coordinated strikes eventually overwhelmed the bird beast.

It crashed to the ground and the notification sang in their ears that the Lobby had been cleared. Nyx's MegaSquid Shadow beast retracted back into her shadow arsenal, and she walked to the Harbinger Hawk's dead body while Aeric watched.

Then, she used her [Rise] Skill and awakened its shadow, adding it into her arsenal of dark beasts.

Phoebe slumped on the floor. "That was close, huh?" she said, breathless. "What's next? A dragon?"

Nyx looked down at her with a nonchalant expression. "Let's hope not," she murmured.

In the fifth Lobby, they had faced Crystal Hounds.

This final Quest Lobby was in an icy like cave with crystals of different colors glowing and shining in its depths.

After the notification of the kind of beast they were about to face and the objective, they were met with the hungry crystalline beasts with razor-sharp bodies that refracted light into deadly beams.

These beasts were erratic, so Aeric came up with Arrow Wall formation. It was an attacking formation where they built a wall of themselves around the three beasts, and fired attacks in unisons like archers defending a castle.

Aeric's sword strikes initially bounced off their hard exteriors. That's when he noticed their joints were weaker. Reminded him of stonewolves in Hero Leveling, and so he knew what to do.

"Aim for the joints!" he yelled.

Nyx wielded her halberd with precision, smashing through a hound's leg as Celestia covered her with energy blasts. Enjoy new stories from empire

Meanwhile, behind them all, Phoebe was doing the job assigned to her and that was to weaken the beasts' core. She tried to grab one's core but nearly got impaled with a crystal that shot out of its body.

"Why does it always come after me?" she yelled, ducking under a shard of light.

"Because you're loud," Nyx retorted, slicing the beast that had tried to kill her. Surprisingly, it was Misty who had the last kill. Her hand had somehow gotten inside the mouth of one the beasts and she just let it burn, exploding the hound into shards of meaningless crystals.

When the dust settled, the team regrouped, exhausted but triumphant. Phoebe harvested all three of their cores as she had been doing. She then wiped sweat from her brow, beaming. "Those crystal beasts sure weren't messing about were they?"

Celestia gave her a curious look. "You really seem to be enjoying this, Phoebe."

The Elysium Princess beamed. "I am," she said with a shrug. Then she frowned, looking at all of them. "Aren't you guys?"

Nyx gave her a flat look. "Oh yes, I'm ecstatic."

Phoebe slumped her shoulders, not fully certain if that was sarcasm.

"Alright now, since the Mock Dungeon is apparently shorter than a real one, the next Quest Lobby is the final one." Aeric spoke up. "Let's rest for a bit before we move."