"Damn it—!"
Within the ancient ruins of Jacob, the chaos of battle had reached its peak. Alan, Fort, and their ever-reliable yet frequently reluctant comrade Francis were locked in a brutal melee with the surrounding attackers.
Numerically, they were outmatched—severely so. Their enemies outnumbered them several times over. Even if the attackers were to fight in rotating shifts, they could easily grind down Alan's group through sheer attrition.
In terms of mana, the disparity was even worse. The attackers were all tier-gold mages operating at peak condition. None of them had expended any mana prior to this confrontation, their energy reserves still brimming. In contrast, Alan and Francis had been through multiple skirmishes already. Their mana was severely depleted—less than half remaining. And that was being generous.
Even defending against this onslaught was beginning to wear them down, let alone launching counterattacks.
