With the dead icemen scattered around the ground, the Ice Queen was the only one left alone, and she looked grave.
"...How much time has passed?"
Miranda asked.
If they defeated the Ice Queen quickly as well, he might be doing the new record time.
Della looked at the timer and, with a smile, said.
"Four minutes have passed."
"...The record is seven minutes and fifty-eight seconds. They have barely four minutes to defeat the Ice Queen and run out of the cave..."
Miranda said.
"Circle her."
Fang Raon said.
They didn’t hesitate to listen to his orders anymore, and the party members made a large circle around the Ice Queen.
Ice Queen looked around with a snarly gaze as she realized she was surrounded and had nowhere to escape.
She was still overwhelmed with rage and wanted to turn all of them into icy corpses.
"Mages. Wherever she attacks with her ice spells, cast Earth Wall to block it. Helpers, protect yourselves with the Shield. Rangers, aim for her legs to incapacitate her movement."
Fang Raon said.
They all nodded.
In that moment, the Ice Queen raised her staff, pointed it at Ira, and sent a blast of freezing air straight at her.
"Earth Wall!"
Luke shouted, and a wall of earth rose from the ground in front of Ira, and the blast of freezing air smashed harmlessly against it.
In that moment, Ira and Joanne pulled their bows, and they fired arrows at the Ice Queen. They were going at a low trajectory.
The arrows pierced through her legs.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Ice Queen shrieked in pain.
"Niall!"
Fang Raon shouted, and he already knew what he had to do, and they both attacked her at the same time.
Their swords sliced through the air with speed, and they slashed through the Ice Queen’s slender body.
The blue freezing blood spewed out from the Ice Queen’s wound.
"Orggggh!"
Ice Queen screamed.
In that moment, she twirled her icy staff around and swung it towards Niall. He was not prepared for the sudden attack.
"Watch out!"
With perfect timing, Ocon tackled with his shield against the icy staff and deflected the blow away from Niall.
The icy staff smashed against the ground, and it froze the ground around it.
If that had landed on Niall, he might’ve turned into an ice popsicle.
"Thanks!"
Niall shouted and resumed attacking the Ice Queen, who was now visibly weakening, and she tried blocking Niall’s powerful blows with her staff.
She managed to block a couple of his strikes.
But then, Fang Raon came forward with "Sword Stab" and thrust the blade of his sword through her back.
"Gasp~"
She let out a loud gasp, as if the air was knocked out of her lungs, and she turned around to look at Fang Raon with anger.
She reached out her freezing hand towards his face. He didn’t even blink. In that moment, her hand stopped moving.
An arrow pierced through the air and stabbed through the Ice Queen’s head. It went cleanly through.
"..."
Ice Queen stayed mute, but then, a soft "crack" sounded, and she shattered like ice would in a million pieces.
"...Whoo."
Fang Raon let out a sigh of relief, looked around at the party members, and then asked.
"Is everyone alright?"
They nodded.
None of them got even a scratch on them, and for many of them, this was easily the easiest raid that they had done.
They weren’t ever in any real danger of dying.
"...Good, let’s get going then."
Fang Raon headed straight to the exit, but he wasn’t running and was just walking casually like he was on a stroll.
Everyone followed behind him.
In that moment, they stepped out of the cave, and to their surprise, they were straight back where they came from.
They didn’t think they had run circles in the cave, but it was obviously not a normal cave, and instead it was quite magical.
"..."
Machary was sitting outside on a rock and saw them come out of the cave.
’Why are they looking at him like that?’
He wondered.
That thought came to his mind because he could see that the looks that the Fourth-Liners were giving to Fang Raon had changed.
They seemed respectful.
And there were also a lot of conflicted looks.
It was because they couldn’t believe that Machary could do better than Fang Raon, as his performance was close to perfect.
Some of them still preferred for Machary to be their team leader, as they had become friends, but they began to wonder whether Fang Raon was simply better for the job.
"Well done~"
At that moment, Della and Miranda stepped out of the cave.
She looked at the final time with a conflicted look.
[8 minutes and 21 seconds]
’...He didn’t do the record.’
Della thought.
"..."
Miranda checked the time as well and frowned deeply.
’Fang Raon didn’t try to do the cave as quick as possible. He wasted time asking whether everyone was alright and didn’t even try to run as fast as he could.’
She thought.
’There is a reason why this test is timed. If any of the team leaders care more about a good time than the well-being of their members, then they don’t deserve to be a team leader.
’Fang Raon never cared about a good time, even though he did have a really good time, and all his actions inside the cave ensured that his team members were safe enough.
’I think this performance was even better than the record time was.’
Della thought with a sweet smile on her face.
"Is it my turn?"
Machary asked as he stood up from the rock.
"Give a moment for everyone to catch their breath, and then you can begin."
Della said.
The cave had ever-regenerating monsters.
As soon as they left the cave, all the dead icemen and even the Ice Queen immediately regenerated.
’I counted time, and it took Fang Raon about eight minutes to clear the cave. That sounds extremely fast.
’I need to do it faster... Much faster... I must destroy him.’
Machary thought and clenched his fists.
He didn’t realize, but he had fallen into Fang Raon’s trap.