Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

As expected, many soldiers and summoned heroes frowned when they saw Isaac with three strangers. Still, the group paid no mind to them. Ethan also made sure before they reached their destination to equip a cheap magic wand. After all, he didn't want to look like a summoned hero but like a mercenary who had a magic item.

While the soldiers, mercenaries, and summoned heroes were assuming their positions, the tanks were slowly retreating. Strangely enough, Ethan even saw some civilians around. Those people were most ordinary people who worked for the government or some groups of mercenaries. They had to do miscellaneous tasks like cleaning equipment and helping with the use of potions since, in a situation like that, those who could use magic should use it as much as possible.

"Most of us will stay here," Isaac declared once they assumed their position on the formation. "Most of the time, the monsters focus on reaching our capital, but we have some teams on standby around the dungeon and in other directions as well."

That was something that Ethan expected to hear. Regardless, he was feeling pretty uncomfortable in such a position. He couldn't remember a single time where he stayed in the backline, not even when he was weak that he couldn't even fight a single cursed wolf alone. Seeing the back of soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and heroes and their full plate armor only made Ethan feel like joining them.

"Quite the sight, huh," A random woman who was on Ethan's left side said. "You don't look like a newbie, but you seem a bit on edge."

"Uhm," Ethan said.

Ethan didn't want to talk since the magic item couldn't fake his voice. Besides, he had seen that woman when he assumed his position, and she was quite the sight for his sore eyes. Tanned skin, which seemed like it was glowing, a lot of curves, and a pair of killer breasts, capable of making even someone as calm as Ethan open his eyes in admiration.

Weirdly enough, Ethan felt a piercing gaze from his right side, it was Emily, and apparently, she could easily imagine what Ethan was thinking. She was probably jealous because the older girl had the body many women would kill for. Regardless, Ethan just shrugged, but then he sighed when he saw the annoying smirk on Ian's face.

"It looks like Ian has been influencing you quite a bit," Emily said. "This isn't the place or the time to make friends."

"Before saying that, you might think twice before acting so recklessly," Ethan said. "I assumed you had things under control here, but that idiot is quite resourceful, and he more or less created a situation where I didn't have any other choice but to come."

"So, you didn't come off your own volition?" Emily asked. "Sorry for forcing you to help a friend."

"You can't really complain, can you," Ethan said. "After all, your actions caused this. If you had consulted or at least asked your friends for help, things could have happened much more smoothly."

"I didn't want to cause problems for you two…" Emily looked away.

"No… you were just too prideful for that, even though you thought this place could be dangerous to your father," Ethan corrected Emily. "This is an advice from a friend: be careful with your pride because if one day something happens because of it and you could have avoided it, you will blame yourself forever."

Ethan didn't look like someone who blamed himself for anything or the type who made mistakes because of his pride. Still, his words were strangely heavy, so Emily decided to accept them. He was right. She had been prideful and came while underestimating how bad things could have been, and when she finally arrived in the area on the previous day, Emily realized that she had made a mistake. She was a powerful hero who saved the world once, but she didn't do every single thing alone. The kingdom gave her all the support that he needed, even so, she spent several years fighting. With a history like that, Emily didn't feel any pride, only regrets…

"It is about time," Isaac declared. "Focus, guys."

Isaac equipped his bow, and immediately, an ice arrow appeared in his hands. As expected, his weapon had such effects. Although Ethan didn't know if that was his best weapon, it certainly was one of the best he saw that could slow down those who got hit by it.

When the tanks finally left their positions, and the front line could see the monsters without any obstructions, they began to march toward the monsters. However, before they could even collide against the Ghost Armors, the captains of each group on the backline raised their right hand. That was the right sign for the mages and archers to attack.

Like a machine gun, Emily fired some gigantic Ice Arrows. At the same time, Ian felt happy in firing three ordinary ice arrows per second. As for Ethan, he was just a bit better than him since he could fire five of them per second.

The wave of attacks hit the horde of monsters, and some of them fell while others turned into statues of ice. Although that surprised the frontline, they didn't stop, and that only raised their morale.

You received 355 experience points.

You received 71 coins.

You received 355 experience points.

You received 71 coins.

You received 355 experience points.

You received 71 coins.

"That is enough," Isaac said. "Use this free time to recover your mana, and we will attack again in sixty seconds."

Although they only attacked for half a minute, it seemed like the best option to attack at that pace since the number of archers and mages was just one-fourth of the entire human army. As expected, even without their support, the front line managed to advance quite a bit since the power of the magic projectiles had been more intense than in comparison to the previous day.

However, when the ghost armors began their counterattack, they stopped their offensive and focused on defense while slowly moving backward. It was time for the backline to rejoin the fight.

"Now!" Isaac said.

After moving a few dozen meters forward, all the captains gave the same order, and then the backline resumed their attack. As expected, Ethan was obtaining a lot of experience and coins. However, he was more interested in something else… he finally began to wonder why only ghost armors were leaving the dungeon.