’With Della and Miranda following us, I don’t have to worry about these Fourth-Liners not listening to my orders.
’It would just make them look bad.
’But I know that they would prefer Machary to be their team leader, so they most likely won’t try their hardest.’
Fang Raon thought when he looked at the Fourth-Liners.
Then, he pulled out his Refined Sword and Steel Shield from his inventory and saw the Fourth-Liners also arm themselves.
"We will use O-formation for attacking. Ocon, you will be at the front, and I will be at the left side, while Niall will be on the right side.
"Helpers Rae and Sam will be at the middle, and at the back, Rangers and Mages."
Fang Raon said.
They nodded and formed the formation. With this formation, Helpers were protected from all sides.
Ocon would defend the front while Fang Raon and Niall would handle any threats that approached from the sides.
Rangers and Mages would hurl long-range attacks and protect their backs from any enemies trying to flank them.
’I still need to do a fast time to put some pressure on Machary. I believe this strategy works the best.’
Fang Raon thought, and then he waved his sword and shouted, "Onwards," and with that, they marched inside the cave.
Della started the timer.
"Run!"
Fang Raon shouted.
They moved from walking to a slow jog, and shortly afterward, they were running at a decent speed.
Della and Miranda followed them closely behind, but just far enough so they wouldn’t interrupt any of the fighting.
If they came too close, they might accidentally attract the aggro of some of the monsters, which they didn’t want to do.
But they knew what they were doing and just stayed barely far enough so that wouldn’t become a problem.
"..."
Fang Raon then noticed something odd.
After running a little while, the cave rock walls turned icy, and the temperature dropped significantly.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
At that moment, the icy walls shattered, and from there, came icemen. They looked like human males, but they were encased in ice, and looked to be suffering from extreme cold.
The blood running in their veins was frozen solid, and their eyes were a piercing blue.
"Don’t stop running!"
Fang Raon shouted.
In that moment, several of the icemen attacked Ocon, but he smashed right through them with his shield.
The icemen got slung to the side, and Niall and Fang Raon cut through them with their swords, killing them swiftly.
"Team leader, it is getting very cold!"
Ira, the Ranger, shouted.
They had all noticed it as their breath turned to mist in front of their faces, and fingers started hurting.
It wasn’t a normal cold, and if they didn’t do something about this soon, they would all die from freezing temperatures.
’It looks like it isn’t only the monsters that we need to worry about. It is also this immense cold!’
Fang Raon thought with a serious look.
It was a problem they had to deal with as soon as possible.
"Alright!"
He turned his head around, looked for the two Mages, and then landed his gaze on the oblivious-looking Nico.
"Nico, cast a fireball!"
"...Why?"
Nico asked curiously.
He thought that Fang Raon most likely wanted to use the fireball as a source of heat, but he wasn’t able to control it.
The fireball would just fly away.
"Do it!"
Fang Raon shouted.
With a frown, Nico waved his wand and shouted, "Fireball," and the scorching hot flame burst out from the tip of the wand.
It started flying through the air.
"Rae, surround the Fireball with your Shield skill!"
Fang Raon shouted.
She was taken aback for a moment and saw the flaming fireball fly over her head. It was flying further away.
In that moment, she grabbed her healing staff and lifted it high above her head. The glowing orb inside the staff started glowing.
"Shield!"
The shield wrapped around the fireball, and it stopped in its tracks. It was still emitting immense heat.
"Make the fireball hover above us while we keep running. That should keep away the heat for a while!"
Fang Raon shouted.
Rae nodded, controlled the shield-covered fireball perfectly, and it soon hovered above them, like a miniature sun.
It was emitting nice heat that was able to scare away some of the coldness, and the members of the party let out sighs of relief.
They then looked at Fang Raon with looks of surprise, as they had no idea that those skills could be used that way.
"...Wow."
Della said while following behind the party and looked at her friend, Miranda, who was equally stunned.
"Did Rock teach him that?"
Miranda asked.
"I don’t think so... I’ve never seen someone combine skills like that."
Della whispered with a look of amazement.
When she arrived at the 15th floor, she only had one fire-based spell—Fireball—and thus, she often suffered from the cold.
She had to learn the Fireball skill to level three until she could properly control it and could make it hover in front of her to keep her warm.
None of the Fourth-Liner’s Mages had learned Fireball to such an extent, so she was curious about how Fang Raon planned to combat the cold.
She wouldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams that combining Fireball and Shield skills would work like this.
The party kept running across the cave, cutting through every iceman that appeared, and soon enough, they arrived at the icy chamber.
"...Who dares?"
Sitting on an icy throne, the Queen of the Icemen rose to her feet with an icy staff in hand, and she was wearing an ornate crown made of ice and snowflakes.
Her dress was a shimmering white gown. It had intricate patterns of snowflakes sewn into the fabric, and the hemline was lined with delicate icicles.
"Ice Man!"
She pointed the staff at Ocon, and a blast of freezing air shot out towards him.
It struck his tall shield, encasing it in ice, and he kept his ground—grinding his teeth—and once the attack was over, the shield was just a block of ice at this point.
"Rae, melt it."
Fang Raon ordered.
She nodded, moved the shield-covered fireball towards Ocon’s tall shield, and melted the ice off.
"...Thanks, team leader."
Ocon said.
"COME TO ME!"
At that moment, the Ice Queen screamed, and from every hole and crevice of the chamber, a small army of icemen gathered before her.
There were about fifty of them.
"Destroy the ceiling."
Fang Raon ordered.
"...Huh?"
Everyone looked at him in surprise, and he didn’t repeat his order and instead just waited for them to obey.
After a moment of contemplation, the Rangers and Mages turned their attacks towards the icy ceiling of the chamber.
"Fireball!"
"Crash Arrow!"
"Magic Missile!"
"Magic Metal Arrow!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The attacks crashed against the ceiling, and it started crumbling apart. The debris started falling towards the ground with a thunderous roar.
The debris crushed the icemen underneath with a deafening crunch, and soon enough, it was only the Ice Queen standing.
"..."
Ice Queen was stunned.
"...Whoah... Holy shit..."
The members of the Fourth Line looked at Fang Raon in a new light. He was absolutely crazy, but damn, he got the job done.