Volume 1, Chapter 49: Put Your Back Into It, All of You!

Splat!
Amidst the battlefield, an assassin failed to dodge in time, his throat instantly pierced by razor-sharp claws.
The very next moment, another assassin lunged forward, a ferocious expression on his face, burying the short blade in his hand straight into the socket of the monster's eye.
"Go to hell! You ugly freak!"
Another assassin fell among the horde of monsters, but by now all the players were driven by a berserk fury. They no longer thought of fleeing, wishing only to send this horde of monsters bent on their destruction straight to the abyss!
Swish! Splat!
Li Chuan and the young girl severed the heads of the two Plague Broodmothers from left to right.
Lin Yaoyao darted agilely toward the next Crazy Baby, moving like a nimble black butterfly. Having fought for nearly two hours, she remained completely immaculate, not even a single thread of her clothes torn.
Though Li Chuan also possessed high agility stats, his combat experience fell somewhat short. Bloodstains marked his arms and neck, and the overall durability of his high-grade combat suit had plummeted by more than half.
"Tai Shang! How—how many monsters do you have left on your side?"
Standing in place, Li Chuan shouted breathlessly.
"Eleven!"
Tai Shang Fungus’s steady voice came through.
"Finish them off quickly! The situation in the rear isn't looking good."
"Understood."
Li Chuan cast his gaze across the entire arena.
Because the breach near East River Flow had been compromised, at least a hundred biochemical broodmothers had poured successively into the arena. Currently, most of these monsters were swarming and slaughtering the players of the East River Flow squad, who had scattered into numerous small groups, not yet heavily impacting the other two breaches.
However, the time those scattered players could hold out was limited. If another breach were to be broken in the short term, every player here would fall into a nearly fatal predicament.
At the edge of the arena, a temporary squad of five players had their defenses breached by a swarm of Plague Broodmothers, perishing one after another at the hands of those hideous zombies.
Having torn apart the living beings before them, the horde of Plague Broodmothers roared and whirled around to search for their next target to rip apart.
Li Chuan successfully locked eyes with those Plague Broodmothers.
"Damn it! Yaoyao, it looks like the two of us won't be able to handle this many monsters!"
Lin Yaoyao scratched her head.
"That's what I'm saying. So what do we do?"
Li Chuan gritted his teeth.
"The two of us will split into two groups and lure them away. In short, we mustn't disrupt the rhythm of these two battlefields, or we're all goners!"
"But doing that is too dangerous, you—"
Dagger in hand, Lin Yaoyao charged straight toward the horde of Plague Broodmothers.
"Brother Chuan, don't underestimate me, okay?"
Gritting his teeth, Li Chuan simultaneously gulped down a bottle of HP recovery potion and a bottle of MP recovery potion.
"What I meant to say, dammit, is that if you have any spare energy, come help me out!"
"Tai Shang! I'm leaving this to you. I'll draw away the monsters in the rear first—you guys better finish quickly! Otherwise, we'll all die in this ghost of a place!"

Tai Shang Fungus swung the heavy frost shield in his hand.
"Rest assured! Leave it to me!"
"This old shield warrior is truly damn reliable!"
Muttering to himself, Li Chuan likewise charged toward the pack of Plague Broodmothers.
There were nine of these Plague Broodmothers. They were fast, possessed extraordinary jumping abilities, and even faintly exhibited a tendency to coordinate with one another, making them perilous in the extreme.
Yet under the present circumstances, taking this risk was the only way to avoid a total wipeout.
Although the Illuminati faction was still holding on by a thread, Li Chuan could tell that those players were expending every ounce of strength they had. On multiple occasions, accidents had been narrowly averted only when Gao Han forcefully turned the tide using crowd-control magic skills.
Therefore, among all the players currently in the arena, Li Chuan and Lin Yaoyao were the only ones with the bandwidth to deal with the chaos in the rear.
Leap! Fire Elemental Enchantment! Burst Arrow!
A flaming arrow struck true against the shoulder of a Plague Broodmother with a swift whistle, then detonated with a boom, stripping away one-fifth of its health bar.
Ah—
Ah, ah—
The aggro generation was a resounding success.
Five monsters from the horde of Plague Broodmothers instantly shrieked and charged at Li Chuan, while the remaining four were entirely lured away by Lin Yaoyao.
Elemental Giant! Sidestep Roll!
Two more Plague Broodmothers joined the ranks of those hunting Li Chuan.
Li Chuan could only execute three consecutive sidestep rolls to evade them, leaving behind a lump of iron as a stationary target.
[Skill 'Elemental Giant' proficiency is full, realm upgraded. Current proficiency: Initial Mastery 0/100.]
Following the increase in proficiency, the iron lump grew half a meter taller, but it still could not escape the fate of having its health bar ground down and being shattered into iron scrap.
Pat, pat, pat...
Enemies in front, enemies to the left, and footsteps echoing from behind—Li Chuan's sidestep roll was currently on cooldown, leaving him no choice but to leap high into the air utilizing the jump-amplifying effect of Leap, narrowly clearing the heads of two Plague Broodmothers by a hair's breadth.
He twisted his head.
Stun Arrow!
The pursuing monster pack suffered a tiny, momentary pause.
Taking advantage of this opening, Li Chuan bolted once again!
What Li Chuan was most grateful for right now was that he had primarily invested in agility when allocating his stats; otherwise, he would have died several times over by now.
However, the number of players here was plummeting rapidly, and an increasing number of monsters were seeking out new targets. Under the deliberate guidance of Li Chuan and Lin Yaoyao, the vast majority of Crazy Babies were drawn by the pair. The monster groups pursuing them grew larger by the minute, accumulating thirty to forty in each of their wakes within a few short minutes.
"Yaoyao! Hurry up and lead the monsters toward Tai Shang Fungus! I can't hold on much longer!"
Lin Yaoyao darted through the horde of monsters as if executing the divine movement technique ripples on water.
"You go ahead, I'm going to deliver a big present to Sister Holy Mother!"
Li Chuan gritted his teeth.
"Fine then! These two waves of Plague Broodmothers cannot be brought to the same place, or wherever they are led, that place will suffer a wipeout."
Splitting half of them to the Illuminati was the optimal choice. As for whether they could withstand it or not, there simply wasn't time to consider that now.
"Captain, come over here!"
Tai Shang Fungus's voice was as steady as ever.
He had just readjusted the formation and orientation of his squad.
Leaping high like a giant bird, Li Chuan executed two sidestep rolls to dive behind the squad.
Mass Ice Element Summon!
Elemental Giant!
Expending his final scraps of mana, Li Chuan gritted his teeth as he stood at the rear of the formation, raised his Fray Repeating Crossbow, and began unleashing firepower upon the monster horde.
[Ding, killed Lv20 Plague Broodmother (Commander) *1, EXP +100]
[Ding, killed Lv20 Plague Broodmother (Commander) *1, EXP +100]
[Ding, killed Lv20 Plague Broodmother (Commander) *1, EXP +100]
...
[Ding, player 'Li Chuan' EXP bar is full, Level +1, obtained free attribute points *5.]
[Ding, Phantom Spirit Master EXP bar is full, Level +1, current subclass level: Lv16.]
Level nineteen!
Li Chuan swiftly distributed all his attribute points.
A powerful sensation, akin to an invigorating enlightenment, swept through his entire body once more.
"There are only a dozen or so beasts left! Put your backs into it, all of you!"
...
At the edge of the arena, inside a space protected by two stone barriers.
"Old Chen! That looks like the last one! We owe this all to the item you picked up!"
East River Flow thrust his blade straight into the throat of the monster before him.
A fissure about thirty centimeters wide had been left between the two barriers, just wide enough to strike down monsters from within.
"Haha, heaven won't starve a blind sparrow; it wasn't meant for the two of us brothers to die here! Though the durability on this thing's armor is nearly depleted too."
"Take a breather, we'll need to head out and lend a hand as well."
"Right, we can't let the player count drop too much, or we won't stand a chance against the next wave at all."
A few minutes later, the barriers vanished, and two players wielding large broadswords roared as they charged into the battlefield managed by the Illuminati.
...
Swish! Bang!
Within the chaotic, debris-strewn metallic space, a flaming arrow accurately pierced through the crowd, embedding itself squarely in the slender waist of the final Plague Broodmother before detonating with a sharp snap!