Several hundred bizarre creatures stared at Annie, Nancy, and Gelo with extremely dangerous glints in their eyes, as though they were looking at three pieces of meat.
Annie's expression was grave, and Nancy did not look much better. Gelo was the most nervous; his teeth had already begun chattering uncontrollably with a "clack, clack, clack," severely hurting morale.
Slap!
Nancy suddenly swung out a hand and smacked Gelo across the face. The effect was obvious—his teeth immediately stopped chattering.
Gelo froze, blinked, swallowed, and said to Nancy, "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Nancy answered stiffly, her eyes fixed firmly on the several hundred bizarre creatures surrounding them.
"What do we do now?" Gelo asked after steadying himself.
"Very simple," Nancy said.
"Hm?" Gelo was confused. He did not see what was simple about it.
"We wait. When they charge, we kill as many as we can, and then we get killed," Nancy said.
Gelo: "..."
"You should be happy now. Didn't you think you never had a chance to show off your strength before? Now you do." Nancy shot Gelo a glance, as sharp-tongued as ever.
Gelo felt like crying. Happy? Which eye had seen him being happy? Was this something he could be happy about?
He was just about to speak up and retort. After all, they were going to die anyway, so surely he would not get beaten again.
But the bizarre creatures gave him no such chance. With low growls, they closed in, preparing to launch a coordinated group attack and eliminate the three of them in a single exchange.
Seeing this, Annie took a deep breath. Mana stirred within her as she silently began chanting the spell for Exploding Fireball.
Nancy gripped her longsword with both hands, lowered her center of gravity, and gradually gathered strength.
Gelo gritted