Though the five of them had applied all of the buffing skills in their respective arsenals, it still took a while for all of them to arrive at the north quadrant.
After all, the center of the city ruins housed beings that were at or above the level of strength the four quadrant leaders held, taking the primitive humanoids' place.
Aside from that, the strongest being that roamed the city ruins' center had transcended the ranks of mortality altogether, classifying itself as a Myth level being.
With that, it went without saying that the five had taken a detour around the center, heading to the north quadrant through the periphery of the east quadrant.
Arriving around an hour after their departure, Vera stood in front of them all of a sudden and looked back at the four with a smile. "Welcome to my playground."
Being allocated the north quadrant after the five of them had discussed who took which quadrant a few days ago, the young woman had spent most of her time in the north quadrant.
Slaying the primitive humanoids within her vicinity to complete the same objectives others got, she gradually found ways unique to the north quadrant that allowed her to increase her killing efficiency.
In other words, out of everyone in the group, Vera knew the north quadrant as if it were the back of her hand.
"Follow me." Understanding why she had taken the lead, the four began to follow after her as the group made their way to the quadrant's center.
Naturally, with how they needed to make sure they could give it their all when fighting against the north quadrant leader, the group opted to avoid as many of the primitive humanoids as they could.
Then again, try as they might, they still could not avoid bumping into some of them by accident, prompting them to consume some of their mana in order to proceed with their journey.
Fortunately, by the time they were near the place where the north quadrant leader resided, the five of them were more or less still at peak condition.
Deciding to stop at the top of a tall building a hundred meters away from the north quadrant leader, the five of them looked at the north quadrant leader for a bit before looking back at one another.
Initiating the conversation, Hal opened his mouth. "Now that we're here, let's talk some more strategy."
"First and foremost, it would make sense if we clear out the vicinity first since it would definitely be detrimental if a primitive humanoid were to interrupt us during our fight."
At those words, Valyr and the others nodded in agreement as all of them gradually formulated a plan that would allow them to lure the primitive humanoids away from the north quadrant leader.
Going over the plan they came up with in his mind, Valyr looked at the others and faintly nodded. "To make sure we're on the same page, we'll all be using long-range skills on the primitive humanoids, right?"
Loreina nodded. "Yeah."
Hearing that, Faulus asked for clarification. "Will we be just luring the primitive humanoids away from where the quadrant leader is or are we going to kill them after we lure them to make we won't be disturbed?"
"Though the former is fine, it would be better if we go with the latter to save our future selves from headache," said Valyr in response, to which Hal nodded in agreement.
After that, the five of them began to talk about who would be responsible for what part of the vicinity around the north quadrant leader.
With how all of them had relatively equal range when it came to their long-range skills, it did not take long for the five of them to come to a consensus as they moved onto the next topic.
Taking a deep breath, Valyr went ahead and asked, "Since that's out of the way, let's talk about our game plan in fighting the quadrant leader."
"Are we going to have someone fight the north quadrant leader alone first or are we going to have a pair or a trio start the fight?"
At those words, the other four went silent for a bit as they mulled over the thought.
Then, after a bit more silence, the four of them spoke their minds as to which was the best approach.
Some of them agreed with having one person fight the quadrant leader for the meantime since the quest might not accept multiple people working together on one kill.
Aside from that, it would allow others to gain more information on what was the best way to fight a being of that caliber.
Naturally, the remaining ones agreed that it would be better to fight against the quadrant leader as a group, utilizing the fact that the quest did not state that one needed to kill the quadrant leader alone for it to count.
Though, by the end of this discussion, Valyr decided to take both suggestions and combine it into one.
"How about this?" suggested the young man. "At the start of the fight, one person would fight against the north quadrant leader."
"However, if that person shows or says that they're having difficulty fighting against the quadrant leader, only then would the others assist them in killing the quadrant leader."
In response, the other four decided to agree with the setup, but only after tweaking a few things about it that would ensure that all of them would be able to leave the vicinity unscathed.
Other than that, the suggestion Valyr brought up remained more or less the same as they moved onto what seemed to be the final topic before facing the quadrant leader.
Surprisingly, Hal was the one who shifted the conversation to this final topic."We've already talked about what we'll do with the primitive humanoids. We've also already talked about how the fight against the quadrant leader would go."
"Now, that begs the question."
"Who would be the first one among us to fight against the north quadrant leader?"
At those words, the surroundings of the group had fallen silent.
Though all of them were confident in their abilities to defend against the quadrant leader's attacks and even retaliate after finding out the quadrant leader's stats, none of them wanted to be the first one to fight.
After all, that meant that they would serve as a punching bag for others to gain information from.
Being reminded of two incidents that had occurred in the past, Hal and the two girls stared at Faulus and Valyr for a bit, wondering if the former of the two would go into an outburst just like last time.
Though, since he could feel the three intently staring at him, it went without saying that Faulus already knew what they were thinking, causing him to inwardly have a bitter smile.
"What are you looking at?" asked the man as the three swiftly shifted their gaze elsewhere. "If you're thinking that I'll suggest someone else among us to be the first to fight against the quadrant leader, then I'm afraid I'll disappoint you."
"That definitely wasn't on our minds at all," said Hal in response, feeling a bit embarrassed at the fact that he had been exposed. "I was just wondering if you'd like to take the lead on fighting the quadrant leader."
Hearing Hal's suggestion, a slight frown appeared on Faulus' face as he felt like there was more to the scholar's words for some reason.
However, just as he was about to act upon this notion, the alchemist was interrupted by a calm voice coming from a person he least expected to speak up at this moment.
"No need," Valyr said, leaving the others at a loss for words. "I'll volunteer to fight against the quadrant leader."
For a while after that, the surroundings had taken on a different kind of silence from before. In fact, Hal and the others had thoughts of whether or not to ask Valyr if he was certain that he wanted to be the first to volunteer.
Naturally, Faulus thought about the current situation from the perspective of what he and Valyr knew, wondering if their leader deciding to be the first to clash blades with the quadrant leader had something to do with it.
Though, with the determination written all over Valyr's face, such thoughts eventually disappeared as the five of them swiftly headed towards the periphery of where the quadrant leader was.
Then, without hesitation, the five of them unleashed their long-range skills to lure the primitive humanoids near the quadrant leader towards them, making sure to not alert the quadrant leader of their presence.
One by one, the primitive humanoids around the north quadrant leader's vicinity moved on to the afterlife as the area gradually turned more and more barren.
By the time the quadrant leader finally took notice that something weird was going on, Valyr had appeared in front of it, causing it to think that the current situation was undoubtedly cause by the small being in front of it.
Incensed at the thought of the feeling of having no control in front of the human that stood before it, the north quadrant leader let out a scream of rage as it seemed to tap into the Intent it had comprehended.
Yet, before it could even unleash the fury bubbling within its body…
"[Intent of Shadow Energy]."
"[Limit Break]."
"[Rage of the True Wyvern]."
"[Refined Offense Aura]."
Valyr…
"[Shadow Serpent Magic Style]…"
"[Memento Mori]."
…had already unleashed his.
"[Arcane Shadow Serpent Combat Style]."
"[Cataclysm of the Dark Arcanum]!"
…
…
…
Bang!
