Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game

The first wave came like a crashing tide.

Monsters surged from the tree line, their forms twisted and glistening, mouths full of too many teeth, limbs formed of bone and steel. Shinji’s command had been simple, yet final.

Kill them.

And the things had obeyed.

Sarissa didn’t wait. Fire ignited under her soles as [Cheshire’s Gleam] flashed in her hand, meeting the first creature head-on, and slicing through a blade-legged thing that shrieked with a sound like tearing metal.

Behind her, the members of the Shooting Star Guild spread into a loose battle line. Jake trembled, but he fought, his sword already soaked in black blood. Alric and Elise moved in tandem, his shield protecting her as she shot lightning arrows, and the battlefield erupted in bursts of fire, ice, and light magic. Riven blurred through the ranks, gathering more experience, little by little, as she and the others leveled up and grew more accustomed to the chaotic rhythm of the battle, striking down anything that came close.

But it still wasn’t enough.

The monsters weren’t like before.

They did not feel like they just gotten stronger. They were tuned, perfectly coordinated, as if their movements were being dictated by some higher consciousness.

They moved with intelligence that hadn’t been there before Shinji’s return, attacking weak points, targeting spellcasters, circling around barriers.

Cass was pinned against a rock, a jagged centipede-thing crawling toward her, and Jake slammed into it from the side, slicing through its chitinous armor in a whirlwind of blades and frightened anger.