Chapter 874: Chapter 874 - Taming the Fifth Year - Attrition - 3 Getting Julius and some more high-rank tamers would mean additional mana in the total pool. More importantly: Julius was another heavy hitter who could engage command structure while others handled the masses. "They shouldn’t be late," Arturo agreed while consulting the sun’s position to estimate how much time had passed since the assault began. Should have completed initial exploration by now. Should be redirected immediately upon arriving at the castle. Travel time to Goldcrest maybe 4-5 hours at his earth team march pace. "Julius didn’t know we were coming here. But he’d figure out very quickly what’s happening with the messages I left him." But even while saying those words, Arturo felt growing unease he couldn’t completely articulate. Julius wasn’t a person who wasted time. Wouldn’t ignore the urgency of situations involving his own brother. If he hadn’t appeared yet when the sun was already beginning to descend toward afternoon... That suggested something that they hadn’t anticipated was delaying him. Which left increasingly concerning possibilities. Unable to respond because he was dealing with his own crisis. Arturo didn’t voice these thoughts aloud. No point in adding speculation to their concerns when they had concrete problems requiring immediate attention. But the absence was noted. Worry grew with each passing hour that didn’t bring reinforcements. ♢♢♢♢ Julius and Zhao stood against the ruin’s narrow passage that barely permitted two people to stand side by side comfortably, in defensive positions they’d adopted approximately 2 hours ago when the situation had escalated from exploration to desperate survival. The passage was maybe 2.5 meters wide. 3 meters high. Stone walls on both sides. Single entrance ahead where mutants were coming from. No exit behind where the rest of their team was positioned. The small search group they’d brought was distributed through the tunnel in formation maximizing defensive coverage while minimizing friendly fire risk in such limited space. They should have been sufficient for anything they’d reasonably expect to encounter in the already explored ruins. Should have been. But they were being attacked by a mutant flow that seemed literally endless. Wave after wave of corrupted creatures entering the ruin with a frequency defying rational explanation of how so many could be attacking such a specific small area. Not normal mutant behavior at all... They’d attempted leaving the ruin several hours ago, right after completing the Brain analysis and recognizing that the missing cores meant they couldn’t do anything useful with the immediate discovery. Simple enough plan. Return to the surface. Report the findings to Arturo at the castle and send a message to Selphira. Inform them of the knowledge that Orion probably had access to technology they hadn’t completely anticipated. Standard post-exploration protocol. Nothing complicated. But they were locked in by this strange event none of them had predicted. Just when they reached the tunnel section from the last chamber connecting to the exit, mutants began appearing. Not a small number explainable as a random encounter. But hundreds simultaneously, a huge concentration blocking the escape route completely. And when they’d attempted pushing through, they discovered the mutants were filling the passage with suicidal commitment. Not avoiding obviously fatal attacks at all... Just throwing themselves with single-minded determination that ignored self-preservation entirely. It was weird. Was someone controlling mutant flow deliberately, directing them toward the entrance and converting the ruin from archaeological resource into effective prison? The timing had been precise. The group eventually settled by retreating somewhat to a narrow tunnel section that was straighter and without curves providing greater defensive advantage a passage permitting visibility but still only allowing a single mutant to attack simultaneously instead of being overwhelmed by numbers that could concentrate in the chambers’ more open space. The tunnel was maybe 2.5 meters wide here. 3 meters high. Straight line of sight for 40-50 meters before it curved... A perfect chokepoint. It was a classic bottleneck strategy used during hundreds of years of human military history. And they held strong because the small tunnel’s disadvantage was also a considerable advantage when defending. Mutants could only approach in essentially a single file, a concentration allowing Julius’s strikes to eliminate the relative to Silver-rank power threats easily before they could achieve any effective attack form. His two Gold-rank beasts gave him range and power exceeding what individual mutants could withstand. And next to him, Zhao provided a secondary layer. They were holding. But holding wasn’t winning here. This was a bad situation becoming worse with each passing hour. They couldn’t be locked here too long without creating massive problems for the future considering the current political situation. Needed to return to the surface to see Yano’s situation. To coordinate with Selphira and Arturo about Victor’s rescue. To report what they’d learned about the Brain and missing cores and implications for Orion’s hidden capabilities. Every hour underground was an hour where the surface situation developed without their input. Where decisions were made without critical information they possessed. And more fundamentally, the small food and water supplies they’d brought for exploration expedition weren’t sufficient for an excessively prolonged siege in tunnels where there was no access to additional resources. No immediate crisis there, the mutants would likely stop or lose too many numbers to keep pushing sooner than that... Hopefully. But the clock was ticking nonetheless. Could high-rank tamers survive longer? Yes. They had some secondary water elemental beasts and salts to keep hydrated and Gold ranks like Julius could probably last 2-3 times more than normal without food, using mana to sustain body functions. But "survive" wasn’t the same as "remain combat effective"... After 3-5 days without proper nutrition, reaction times would slow. Decision-making would degrade. Mana recovery would become less efficient. After 10 days, they’d be operating at maybe 40-60% capacity. And if they lasted that long before breaking out, what situation would they find on surface? Victor already dead? Selphira and Arturo defeated? Yano fallen to a coup while leadership was trapped underground? Unacceptable outcomes... All of them. This smelled bad, very bad. It was the kind of situation indicating specific planning rather than unfortunate coincidence. And that meant whoever was controlling mutants knew Julius and his group were here, had anticipated they’d discover the Brain, and had prepared a trap activating at an optimal moment to neutralize the threat they represented.