"Waves? Lady Zee, don't tell me, the beasts we see right now won't be…"
Jules asked with a dark expression on her face. Lady Zee smiled mirthlessly before confirming what she had come to assume:
"That's right. They won't be the last. A next wave of the beasts would be created as soon as we finish dealing with this one.
The number of waves would depend upon the average rating of the squad. With our luck as of now, we can expect at least five such beast hordes to attack us before this round is over with.
Don't lose your morals now. This is a purgatory after all. Not a utopia where the participants would be given room to breathe. Hehe.
You'll see the fruits of our efforts soon enough when this round is over. You will find that all was worth it when that happens."
Lady Zee tried to cheer her squad members with her words. Belar and Viper couldn't find any consolation in them because they were the ones who were most at risk in this battle.
The group soon engaged in a party-style battle with the beast horde. Lady Zee served as a stable foundation around which the party could build its defence.
Jules stayed with her and concentrated on creating more mirages of all of her squad members. It was going to be especially effective against the beast who couldn't differentiate between the real rankers and their mirages at all.
Renar supported his juniors by staying with them. Although the D-Ranker created a barrier between the squad and the horde with her black flames, they fought the beasts they encountered.
But the most menacing presence for the beast was Ronny who had entered the horde seemingly carelessly. He weirdly hacked through the beast horde. He would destroy the beasts' groins before killing them all.
At first, Ronny's squad members thought the guy was just being tactful by targeting the beasts' weak spots. But after a while, they came to realize that Ronny didn't care about his and the beasts' battle stances.
Julie had awkward expressions on her face as she battled with her portion of the horde while observing Ronny's brutal assault on the beast. She didn't know the guy she was intimately involved with had this kind of weird fetish.
Soon the first beast wave was over with. The squad members had minor to moderate injuries. But there was nothing serious that was done to any of them. Thanks to Lady Zee's adoptive squad-based battle strategy, even the novice rankers found it not too difficult to face their first beast wave.
The members who had not explored the purgatory came to understand why Lady Zee had said the exploration was going to be a marathon rather than a sprint. The subsequent sets of beast waves were going to test everyone's endurance.
**********
"Ronny, enough with that weird-ass way of dealing with the beasts. Even I feel sorry for the beasts now. Come and give me a hand here."
Jules flared her nose and demanded her guy help her. She also wanted him to stop abusing and molesting animals.
Ronny looked at Jules and found out that she was about to be in a pinch soon. He sighed and decided to listen to the woman.
'Breath of fire.
Fire snake.
Fireball.
Blitz Storm.'
Ronny used the spell combo to create a domain of lightning and fire around himself before plunging into the middle of the horde near Jules. That took some pressure off of the illusionist and she returned the favour by creating more mirages of her guy.
Ronny couldn't let the opportunity pass in vain. He attacked the beasts while they were busy concentrating on his mirages. His time-element spells paired up with his E-Rank movement spell gave him the speed he needed to pull this off.
"Aaaaaaaaa!"
Ronny used the right dagger and pierced the eye of a beast. He used the now-no-more beast's head as a springboard to jump on another beast's head before piercing the beast's head in the same manner.
Then he looked around and found out that others were almost done with their beasts too. This was the last wave of beasts they had fought with, as per Lady Zee's calculation.
Purgatory never ceased to surprise them by throwing another beast wave at them. Belar and Viper had to drink a bunch of potions mid-battle to maintain their performance levels at that point.
This time, nobody wanted to jinx their situation by proclaiming that the beast wave they faced just now was the last. They waited for a while patiently.
Lady Zee finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the ground getting lit up with runes again. This was an indication of them clearing the first floor finally.
"At ease, guys. It's time for first-floor rewards."
A relatively small array was now visible in the middle of the first-floor space the squad was into. Lady Zee told the novice rankers to enter the array individually.
Belar entered the array first and walked toward its centre. The array lit up with brighter lights when it sensed that the novice ranker stood in the array eye.
Ronny was confused. He didn't see any reward being given to Belar even after the array was lit up. Lady Zee cleared his confusion soon after:
"Personal rewards will appear in the ranker's ID storage. There's no need for them to appear in front of other participants as well."
Ronny nodded at Lady Zee after he heard that. Only now could he understand why Belar was smiling meaninglessly while standing inside the array with his eyes closed.
Viper and Renar soon followed Belar's actions one by one. Ronny let Jules go next. All of them couldn't help but show the same types of smiles when they received their rewards and found them inside their storage.
It was Ronny's turn to receive his reward.
He stepped inside the array and waited patiently. Soon he realized that there was an artificial mana signature trying to override his signature over his ID stone. Soon, ether magic was used to bring a few things into his dimension.
Ronny sent his mana sense inside his storage to see what rewards he had received for all the efforts he had taken so far. He zeroed in on an ancient-looking book first because it exuded a soft light.
Then he wrapped his mana around the book and opened its first few pages. He caressed his chin metaphorically when he realized what he had received as one of his rewards:
'Hmm! An unknown ranking technique that I can't fully understand yet.'
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AN: The last tier for February has been built with the release of this chapter. Sorry for the delay. I have a huge headache as I write this chapter. I wrote the last few on my smartphone.
The toughest part of what I believe is Omicron's suffering is over. (Didn't bother testing. Just took over-the-counter meds to avoid complications that would contribute to my headache more). Thanks for your patience. Like last month, I'll make it up to you guys by releasing bonus chapters throughout this month.. (Apart from the ones that are due a week from now.) Cheers!