281 Ambushed
Fighting against the mad bloodthirsty monster was no indication of how the combat against the the ordinary monsters can go, especially when it comes to groups. Thankfully, Debauchery had been in the 80s long enough to get a chance to try many different possible outcomes, making their fight against the mad monster end fast with minimal damages. Leader was especially proud of Yunan for noticing that the monster was having problems with its immune system and attacking using the toxins to drive it faster into death embrace.
In reality the choice to go with the multitude of toxins was a response from automated battle mode to the ineffectiveness of the usual venom, Yunan could only feel happy about his luck and praise his automated battle mode for keeping in tandem with Debauchery even if Yunan was not conscious about keeping up with them. Another thing that made Yunan happy was the fact that he was able to affect the monster with his spells, debuffs and status effects, it was a very pleasant surprise to know he had so many things going just right for him.
While leaving the location of the fight and watching the pillars of smoke left behind by hell flames, Yunan was caught off guard when his group was ambushed by a pride of lions. The lions were not as massive as the mad monster but they were as strong as it if not stronger the lions were of normal size, 2 meter height at the shoulders and 4 meter from head to hiney, the tail was a meter and a half long. Two maned males and 5 females. The first attack came from a female that aimed for Balin who bashed it in the head with his shield halting its momentum.
The two lions went against Dustan since he looked like he was the strongest simply due to body size and was the primary target in order for the rest of the group to submit. One can not fault the lions if they thought this way, usually in a group of the same species the biggest was the strongest, and strength wise, Dustan was the strongest if we go by only numbers.
The other targets were Lucian, Bai and Fae, Lucian and Bai got to contend with one lioness each, while Fae had to deal with two, it seemed this group could see beyond the harmless front Fae put up and marked her as even more dangerous than Balin. Dustan did not waste time pummeling the two lions with Balin, who seemed to think giving his back to a lioness was not a very bad idea, luckily for him, Leader, had taken the liberty to stun the lioness that went for him, Yunan was still taking in the action when Lucian was by his side telling him to start fighting or start running.
Bai had already finished his lioness as well and was helping Fae abuse her two charges, Leader was casting her buffs and heals in tandem with Anne, meanwhile Dustan and Balin were going toe to toe, in a contest of strength, with monsters that has achieved an explosive number of 33000 strength or the equivalent strength of 3300 normal humans, Yunan was jerked into action and saw the position he needed to fill, ranged support.
Not knowing how the lions would react to being shot from range, Yunan started with a full set of debuffs, then started pelting the lioness that was stunned by Leader with his ice spears until it almost froze solid, Lucian took the chance to slice its throat while Yunan turned his attention back to the male lions who were now making preparations for escape, he trapped them in vines and shifting earth to slow them down, he them looked back to see Fae dropping a mangled corpse and walking like blood thirsty beast toward the trapped lions and started to pummel them into oblivion, fists were thrown so viciously that the male lions started to cry out in pain and begging for release, a few minutes later Fae returned with an ugly claw mark on her face, she slumped on the ground beside Leader and started crying like a little girl being bullied by her playmates.
Leader and Anne did a good job patching up the claw mark, but Fae still sulked for the rest of the day. Vulnerable Fae was a heartbreaker, if Yunan did not know her real temperament he would have been shedding tears along with her.
With this battle Yunan understood what the combat in this floor would be, one could face giant monsters so big they cover the sun, or small compact groups of monsters, ambush as well as chase and hunting were just part 8f the natural order, and thus h should expect the same hunting styles in the outside world to be prominent in this floor as well. The natural way of things tends to repeat itself, successful adaptations can be acquired independent of species and habitat, just like how all carnivores have sharp teeth and how all herbivores have flat jagged teeth, the same thing is applicable for the ways of hunt and hiding.
With this notion in mind Yunan stored the bodies of the dead lions while being thankful that his teachers were strong enough to end fights fast enough, he stayed as alert as he could while resuming the exploration of the floor, he got to fight twice and survived both, he froze in the ambush but that was to be expected, he have been able to notice anything coming at him from such a big range, being attacked from a blind spot due to his own inadequacy would stun any one, he might freeze again but next time he would regain his senses much faster.