One by one, the guild members who were fighting to the best of their abilities, giving their all, were beginning to slow down and become tired. After fighting for a few minutes against the overwhelming swarm of isons, their stamina was starting to drop hard and fast. And stamina recovery was not as easy as mana recovery. If they did not do anything at this point, then the same events of the previous fight were going to repeat all over again, and nothing would change. This was the tipping point. What was their plan? Did they even prepare for one? As Liam intently watched the guild, Alex suddenly yelled something out loudly. "Switch!" Immediately, a big portion of the guild group stopped attacking with ferocity. Even the top damage dealers, Shen Yue and Lan Deming, also slowed down considerably, barely killing only one or two isons that came for them. It was as if the whole guild went into hibernation mode. They were aware of their shortcoming, and before the stamina situation could get any worse, they took the necessary action and nipped the problem right in the bud. Before anyone could become irreversibly tired and drained out, the group quickly stopped attacking preemptively and started strictly defending at the pace of the isons. With their perfect coordination, clear-minded thinking, and controlled actions, this time around, no one allowed themselves to get overwhelmed. Liam smiled at this sight. This was a good response, indeed. Even if they could get a two to three-minute break, they can somewhat recover and regain their momentum. In fact, this is how they should have acted previously as well. Even back then, it would have been easy to rely on the two legendary weapons to turtle up in this fashion, but thanks to everything happening far too suddenly, the group was unable to respond in a logical manner. Clearly, they needed a lot more combat practice, especially since things were only going to get more and more chaotic. But real progress took religious training, patience, and lots of practice. This swarm was definitely a blessing in disguise that the guild desperately needed at the moment. Liam nodded in approval. However, he knew that they were not out of the woods just yet. This was simply the second hurdle. If one looked at the situation more carefully, it was easy to see that there were more hurdles yet to come. The Crimson Abyss group controlled the flow of the fight for the next couple of minutes and started regaining their stamina back bit by bit. Some people could even be seen munching vigorously on elite beast meat jerky that they had specifically saved from the portal bosses from the first wave. This further sped up the process as their energy resources were getting replenished quickly. Liam's special water could have done the deed a lot better, but that was far too valuable to be used in a simple training session that too against an enemy they knew beforehand they were going to be facing. Impressively, without the aid of the 'water' or anything else precious, the guild group was performing exceedingly well today, much better than their previous time against the same insect swarm. The other thing was that these bastards had several venomous attacks in their repertoire, and their very blood was corrosive and poisonous, capable of taking down an enemy even in their death. This was also dealt smoothly by the guild this time around. Everyone wore adequate gear, fully covering every inch of their body. Despite the fact that this was restrictive to their movements, they still took this handicap because, in the long run, it did more good. With the guild members donning the above-average unique grade and higher-rank equipment from top to bottom, the splashes of the dead insects were kept at bay for the most part. It made the whole guild look comical and stuffed to the brim, but it did the job. Liam knew that, personally, he would have taken a different route and summoned a mana barrier around him to prevent the poisonous body fluids from splashing on him, but that required a higher skill level. Observing everything that was going on, he made a mental note to search for some more skill books in the magic shop, preferably the ones related to mana regeneration, stamina regeneration, and mana barrier. These basic skills would definitely help the guild reach another level when it came to battles such as this. However, even otherwise, the guild group was performing exceedingly well, and their kill counts were slowly starting to stack up. At this moment, the size of the ison swarm was already down to half its original size when the fight first started. The only thing that could go wrong now was if the other part of the swarm that was not present here was suddenly called over. Liam already expected something like this to happen, so he narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the surroundings, waiting for this inevitable event to transpire. However, contrary to his expectation, something else suddenly happened. Just as the guild group was getting back on their feet and recovering their stamina, the next problem cropped up, and it was not the backup that Liam was looking out for. Instead, the hive hill started thrumming vigorously like a dormant volcano that had come alive all of a sudden. And before anyone could notice this change… BOOOM! An explosive sound echoed loudly from the hive hill, and more isons began to shoot out from within. Liam was shocked as he watched bigger and faster insects creeping out of the hive hill. Alex and the others had experienced this before, but for him, this was the first time seeing this effect. When they had previously clashed with the swarm, he simply assumed that isons of different sizes and levels attacked together haphazardly. In that cluster fuck, he wasn't able to analyze things any further. But now, he could see that this was an entirely different wave altogether. Liam's pitch-black eyes glinted with a strange light as he inspected these stronger isons. *** Mass Release chapter 3~ Please thank Steamed Arrow for sponsoring this mass release!