Act First

Fran glanced back as she dealt with the seven skeletons.

She saw Anna covering half of her eye as she walked towards them, saying as she went:

"Hey, wait for me..."

Fran turned her head away and waited for a moment. Anna touched her head and walked up, looking a little embarrassed.

"I didn't expect you to be so amazing. Sorry, I didn't do anything..."

Anna paused for a moment, then continued:

"The same squad that was fighting those Undead earlier is still inside. We need to be careful; any squad that dares to come in might attack us directly."

Generally speaking, when exploring a ruin or knowing that a place is full of things, unfamiliar teams meeting each other are practically enemies.

One team was exploring the area peacefully when another team suddenly appeared behind them. Anyone would be extremely annoyed by that.

Furthermore, resources within a region are limited; if you take them, I can't take them anymore.

Therefore, most of the time, when two teams are exploring in remote areas, there is a very high probability that they will fight if they meet.

Of course, this also depends on the situation. If they are exploring some relatively safe ruins, then the two teams will almost certainly fight.

But with a 'powerful' undead creature in the mine like this, the two teams fighting each other would be a recipe for disaster.

When faced with an enemy that neither squad can easily defeat, the two squads will temporarily join forces to deal with the enemy in front of them.

However, things are not absolute; sometimes, not everyone is extremely rational.

Anna once witnessed a small team attacking a First Order Magic Creature upon seeing her team.

The reason was that this First Order Magic Creature was their prey, and Anna had personally witnessed the squad on the verge of collapse.

In the end, her squad could only move further away and wait until the entire squad was wiped out before they happily took over the already heavily weakened First Order Magic Creature.

Moreover, the squad ahead of them is very likely Anna's former comrades, and they will definitely attack them at this critical juncture.

However, it's also possible that Grant and his group won't act immediately, but will feign cooperation and launch their attack at the crucial moment when attacking the Undead.

For them, killing a sudden intruder was essential, and what they were about to do was extremely dangerous.

When they stole that item, the team members were all carefully selected, and none of them had any powerful background or had offended many forces.

A chill ran through Anna's eyes. Now that things had come to this, she could no longer hand the item over to the original buyer. Therefore, giving it to the Alliance was better for her and for the two team members who had died earlier.

As for Grant and his group, let them cling to their unrealistic ideas until they die!

Anna deliberately slowed her pace, then took her shortbow off her back, nocked an arrow, and loosened the dagger sheath at her waist.

Fran walked directly out of the passage and came to a somewhat open space.

This is clearly a space that has been extensively mined for Ore; the walls and ceiling are pitted and full of marks from tools hammering and digging, and even the floor has several large, sunken pits.

In another corner of this space, a figure entirely white stood tall, its body bent over in a large pit, about three meters long.

Such a body was still somewhat uncomfortable in this mine, but it could still move by bending its body.

That was Fran's target this time, the Undead entrenched in the mine, but its current appearance seemed quite different from the Necro-Skeleton Mage Fran had learned about from the book.

Its body was too big; Fran had learned about Necro-Skeleton Mage from books, and they were nothing like this.

According to the book, Necro-Skeleton Mage are usually between 1.5 and 2 meters tall, not as tall as the Fran saw.

Furthermore, the book explains in detail that the Necro-Skeleton Mage's soulfire has two locations: one is inside the skull, which is commonly found on skeletons, and the other is above the chest.

Once these two soul flames are extinguished, the opponent can be defeated directly.

However, Fran was quite suspicious that the Necro-Skeleton Mage in front of her was about to advance to the second tier.

She looked at the skeleton and saw that besides the two soul flames on its body, two limbs were extending from its body, with two balls of soul flame at the tips of the limbs.

Through the gaps in the skeleton's body, she could even see a thick bony tail extending from its coccyx, with a ball of soul fire on it as well.

Fran looked at it and saw that it seemed to have transformed the Necro-Skeleton Mage into a bizarre creature, making it hard not to wonder what had happened.

The Necro-Skeleton Mage also sensed Fran's arrival. It opened its mouth wide, and through the gap, one could see the soul fire and white bone layer inside its skull.

A shrill shriek immediately reached Fran's ears, causing Grant and Gavin, who were fighting off the skeleton minions inside the space, to cover their ears in pain.

That was the shriek of the undead. Although it had no harmful effect, it was like a wild beast roaring before a battle; it served purely as a deterrent and to create an atmosphere.

However, generally speaking, Necro-Skeleton Mage don't use such a Undead Shriek; that's usually only used by large Undead.

However, given its current size, it could be considered a large Undead.

Grant frowned as he watched his newly cast Mage Shield flutter slightly under the necromancer's scream.

Grant gave Gavin a look, Gavin understood, then said to Fran:

"Hey buddy! How about we attack that big guy together?"

Grant stood beside Gavin, looking at Fran with a cold gaze.

Although Fran's arrival was somewhat unexpected, it was still a good thing for them at the moment.

He already knew from the previous battle that it would be quite difficult for the two of them to deal with this Undead.

With Fran's help, perhaps they will have a chance to defeat that Undead.

Of course, Fran will have to be dealt with before that Undead can be defeated.

Just as Fran was about to feign cooperation, a skeleton wielding a greatsword struck Grant's shield, causing it to shake violently as if it were about to shatter at any moment.

Just as Grant was about to repair the shield, the sound of a bowstring being fired came from Fran's rear.

A black afterimage streaked through the air, seemingly with some special feature designed to counter Shield Spell. The arrow pierced through the shield and nestled into Grant's neck.