Apocalypse with my SSS Harem Beauties-Chapter 166: Exhaustion

The leader’s jaw tightened as he stared at the advancing line of armored warriors.

He was still young. Younger than most of the people standing behind him. Yet he had managed to climb into this position inside Red’s group.

Not because he was honorable or because he was strong. But because he had done something terrible when the opportunity appeared.

Back when the world had just collapsed into chaos, Red had shown up in their territory like a storm. Entire groups were crushed overnight. Leaders were killed. Anyone who resisted simply died right there and then.

In front of that kind of power, people only had two choices. Submit, or die.

The young man had chosen to survive. So had most of the people standing here with him now.

Some of them had been forced into it after watching their former companions get slaughtered. Some had willingly joined Red for the protection and power he offered.

Whatever the reason, they had all ended up under the same banner. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

And over time, they had grown stronger.

These twenty men and women were not weak. In fact, they were the second strongest team under Red’s command. That was the reason they had been sent here into this strange trial dungeon.

This place was like something out of a game with monsters, floors, and its rewards. Killing enemies granted EXP and sometimes equipment dropped as well.

Red and his main group had already cleared Floors 1 through 10 when they first discovered this place. After that, Red had ordered this team to continue forward and conquer Floors 10 through 20.

The leader had known it would be difficult.

But he had never imagined it would be this brutal.

His eyes drifted across the battlefield again.

Grass bent under the wind that swept across the hill.

Bodies of armored warriors lay scattered across the ground. They had managed to destroy nearly half of them already.

But fifty enemies still remained. And his people were exhausted. Completely exhausted.

Their bodies trembled from fatigue even as they stood there holding their weapons.

They had already repeated this battle over and over again.

Every time the result was the same.

They fought. They pushed forward, killed dozens. Then they were overwhelmed. Again and again.

The reset mechanic allowed them to try once more each time. But that didn’t make it easier. If anything, it made the despair worse.

"Reset it," someone muttered weakly.

Another person dropped to one knee and dragged a hand across their face. "I can’t keep doing this while knowing that we can’t win."

The leader clenched his fists.

The armored warriors continued marching toward them.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Their formation remained perfectly disciplined. Their weapons gleamed under the gray sky as they closed the distance.

The young man sighed helplessly. Then he shouted.

"RESET!"

The moment the command left his mouth, the battlefield erupted in light.

A bright glow swallowed the entire hill. For a moment everything disappeared. When the light faded, the battlefield had returned to its original state.

The grassy hill looked untouched. The hundred armored warriors once again stood at the far side of the field in perfect formation.

And the twenty fighters stood together at the starting point.

Their bodies were completely restored.

Their wounds gone and their fatigue erased. But the same could not be said for their minds.

Several people lowered their weapons the moment the reset finished.

One man let out a hollow laugh. Another of them simply sat down on the grass without saying anything.

They had failed too many times. Even if their bodies recovered, the weight of those repeated defeats still crushed their spirits.

And now they had to face the exact same impossible battle once again.

For a while no one moved.

Some of the fighters decided to sit on the ground. Others stood with their heads lowered, staring at their weapons as if they had suddenly become too heavy to lift.

The young leader looked at them one by one. Exhaustion was written clearly across their faces. The kind of fatigue that came after failing again and again while knowing the result might never change.

He clenched his jaw.

"Don’t give up!" he said suddenly.

Several heads lifted. His voice was louder and firm now.

"You’ve already come this far. You’ve already endured this much." His eyes burned with stubborn determination. "So don’t give up now."

Silence followed his words for a moment.

Then someone spoke.

"You really think we can do it this time?" one of the fighters asked.

Another person let out a dry laugh. "We’ve said that before."

The leader stepped forward and pointed toward the distant formation of armored warriors.

"We know their pattern now."

A few people frowned slightly.

"We know the way they move, the order they attack, and the gaps in their formation. We’ve seen it all already," he continued. "Every time we fight them we last longer. We kill more of them."

He lowered his arm.

"So yes. I think we can win."

Some of the fighters still looked unconvinced. But others slowly began to stand up again.

Red wasn’t here to force them forward. All they had was their own stubborn will to survive right now.

One woman tightened the strap on her gauntlet and picked up her weapon again.

"Fine," she muttered.

Another fighter pushed himself off the grass with a tired sigh. More of them began to move. One by one the twenty fighters returned to their positions.

The leader sighed quietly as he watched them.

Then he raised his weapon.

"Get to formation again!" he ordered.

The group slowly spread out across the hill, taking the same positions they had practiced through countless resets.

In the distance, the armored warriors began to march and the battle began again.

They clashed again, the two sides collided.

The twenty fighters moved more carefully this time. They avoided mistakes that had cost them in previous attempts. Their movements were sharper and more controlled.

They already knew what was coming. They had learned through failure.

Minutes passed. The battle spread across the grassy slope as weapons rang and bodies collided.

Gradually the number of armored warriors began to shrink.

By the time the dust settled again, half of the enemy force had been destroyed. Fifty armored warriors lay broken across the battlefield and once again, the remaining fifty stood waiting in perfect formation.

The same point as before.

The twenty fighters stood there breathing heavily as they stared at the enemies still left in front of them.

They had reached the exact same place again but with better conditions.

"Attack!" the leader said immediately. He didn’t want to waste this momentum.

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