The forest loomed closer with every step.
Moonlight filtered through tangled branches like spilled milk, thin and cold, painting the path in broken strips of pale silver. Hundreds of feet crunched across leaves, too many bodies for stealth, too much breath for silence.
William walked at the front line anyway, quiet as a blade.
His eyes kept moving. Left, right, up, the treetops, the underbrush. He looked everywhere for any hint of abnormality.
"Do you think they're there?" Lars asked, voice low.
William didn't slow. "Not sure," he said. "But stay ready."
The forest ahead was dark and quiet, the kind of quiet that felt eerie, like when you walk home alone at night.
Aelius's hand rose.
"Hold."
Hundreds of players froze at once, as if the command had been wired into their spines. Moonlight hung above them, the wind barely stirred.
"Too quiet," Mira whispered.
Roxana tilted her head, serene smile untouched by fear. "Fufufu~ what a night."
A gust swept through, sharp, cold.
Leaves rustled, the forest shivered, like the land itself had just swallowed them.
Aelius adjusted his grip on the wooden stick in his hand, knuckles white. His feet crunched softly over leaves.
"Did anyone else feel that?" he asked.
A faint tremor ran through the ground.
No one answered.
Moonlight dimmed subtly, impossibly, like even the sky was holding its breath.
And then.
"PAPAAAK!"
The sound tore through the forest like thunder ripping bark from trees.
Aelius's heart dropped so hard it felt like it left his chest.
"Shit!"
The undergrowth exploded.
A massive black figure burst from the treeline, earth tearing beneath its claws. It was too fast for something that size, a blur of polished obsidian under moonlight. Its scales gleamed like wet stone, and its eyes were narrow slits of intent, not hunger, just raw unfiltered murderous intent.
Behind it came the rest.
Creatures poured out in a wave. Chickens, rabbits, snakes and lizards.
Small bodies scrambled forward, lifting rocks with claws and teeth, throwing them with horrifying coordination like they'd drilled it until it became instinct.
"INCOMING!" someone screamed.
The first volley hit.
Aelius barely had time to raise his stick before a rock slammed into a shimmering barrier conjured by a defensive talent beside him. The impact rattled the air itself, and for a second the shield bowed like glass being pressed by a giant thumb.
His eyes snapped to the charging beast.
"…It's huge," he breathed. "Did it evolve or something?!"
It wasn't the same thing that had crushed him before.
That lizard had been a threat before, yes.
But this one was a wall they couldn't possibly overcome.
Muscles bulged like they'd been carved, not grown. Every step cracked the ground. It moved sharp and predatory, not like an animal, but like a moving war machine.
"FORM UP!" William's voice cut through the panic like a clean punch. "Defensive talents forward! Supports behind them! Attack-types, with me! Don't get greedy, rotate strikes!"
Players scrambled, his tone stitched them back together.
William's gaze swept through the chaos.
'Where are you…'
He wanted to see the rooster.
He wanted to confirm if it was here, he wanted to have a rematch even if he knew he would lose.
But before he could even spot a silhouette of it.
The ground exploded beside him.
William threw himself sideways. A set of claws slammed down where he'd been a heartbeat earlier, sinking into dirt deep enough to leave a crater.
The black-scaled lizard roared.
William rolled, came up on one knee, and snapped his head toward the tanks. "Hold it! Don't let it reach the backline!"
Defensive players braced. Barriers flared. Metallic-looking domes. Transparent walls. A few desperate bone-shields that looked like they were made out of pure stress.
Rocks continued to rain.
A player lunged forward and slammed into a rabbit. He was about to finish it off when another creature intercepted him, throwing itself in the path like a trained bodyguard.
"Fuck!" the player shouted as a rock slammed into his side. He almost folded, but the faint pink warmth in the air caught him and forced his body to keep moving. "Why are they so coordinated?! Every time I hit one, another jumps in the way! How am I supposed to finish them to get exp like this?!"
The lizard's head turned slightly, like it understood the meaning.
Then it snarled.
Its roar shook the grass.
Black mist erupted from its body like smoke from a furnace, and the creature's movements blurred.
It leapt faster than ever before.
"What is this? Did it enter phase two or something??!" Aelius barked. "But we barely managed to injure it? Can Bosses in this game enter phase two at full health?!!!"
"That's its talent!" Mira's voice broke through the air, her eyes flashing blue.
"What?? You didn't say anything about it having a talent before!" Aelius cursed under his breath as he barely dodged again with the help of supports.
But before they could talk any longer.
Golden light erupted.
A warm, radiant aura wrapped around the lizard, weaving through the black mist instead of dispelling it. The glow didn't fight the darkness. It fed it, layered it, sharpened it into something more.
The lizard's pressure doubled.
Players felt it in their knees first. That instinctive lowering of the body when something bigger enters the room.
"Fuck," Aelius breathed. "You've got to be kidding me."
The lizard struck, its speed faster than before.
A defensive player who had barely managed to deflect previous hits was sent flying like a thrown doll. He crashed, skidded, coughed blood.
"Damage spike!" someone screamed. "We can't hold!"
Even the rocks hit harder now. Shields cracked, barriers flickered and bodies wavered. One bad volley and a whole line would fold.
Aelius lunged forward.
His stick glowed faintly white. He slashed across the lizard's flank.
The blow connected.
But instead of a clear line of injury he managed to do before, it barely drew blood.
Aelius stared at the tiny red line like it had personally insulted him.
"Are you serious?!" he shouted. "Fuck this game has serious balancing issues!"
William's jaw clenched.
He watched the line bend.
'We can't win this.' He'd expected defeat, logically. But witnessing the reality up close still felt disheartening in a way numbers couldn't predict.
"START THE PLAN!" he shouted.
The words hit the field like a bell.
"Listen up!" William continued, voice hard enough to grind. "One team pushes through to Novice Village and finishes the quest! Everyone else buys time, use yourselves as shields if you have to!"
Silence.
Then panic.
Pain was real here, too real. It clung to the body even after death, haunted the nerves like memory. Not everyone moved. Not everyone could decide to be a sacrifice on command.
William didn't wait for consensus.
His eyes snapped to a tiny tear in the rock-throwers' line, an imperfect rhythm, a gap where some rabbits had misthrown and had to scramble for new stones.
"There!" he barked, pointing. "That opening! Go NOW!"
A cluster of squads broke formation and sprinted.
"Everyone! Protect us!" Roxana's voice rang out, soft but strangely absolute, like a lullaby that could order armies.
Players who hesitated a heartbeat before threw themselves between her and the rocks without thinking.
Bodies slammed into stones. Talent shields flared and shattered. Someone screamed as a rabbit's thrown rock caved a cheekbone in.
But the sprinting group kept moving, swallowing the gap and vanishing into darker trees.
William was about to turn back toward the lizard.
When his eyes locked onto something at the rear.
A familiar shape..
It was the rooster.
It stood there like a statue carved from blood-red feathers, talons dug into soil, body perfectly still in a way no animal ever was. Moonlight caught the curve of its comb, the edge of its beak.
"…Why isn't it attacking?" William muttered.
His eyes narrowed.
Something rose in his chest.
Not fear.
Excitement.
A rematch.
Like an old addict's craving for a challenge, his fighting spirit ignited.
And something darker, something his instinct didn't disapprove of…killing intent.
At the back of the battlefield, Richard stood rigid.
Every instinct screamed at him to move. To help his flock, to tear into the humans, to crush them, to avenge his fallen subordinate.
But he couldn't.
Because he couldn't directly intervene in battles, if he wanted to manifest resurrection abilities.
With a heavy heart Richard tore his gaze away from the battle and looked at his status panel that had been flashing relentlessly since the battle began.
[You are leading all creatures under your protection into a battle of life and death.]
[You have given the starting signal.]
[Passive Ability: Commander's Presence - Awakened]
Richard barely registered it back then.
He just felt a sudden strange warmth pulsing around him, like a crown made of invisible gold settling onto his head. It threaded outward, lacing through the battlefield, touching every creature under his protection.
The golden aura that had wrapped the lizard didn't come from nowhere.
It came from him, from his Path.
But before he could look at it more closely.
He felt it.
A gaze.
Not awe, not confusion, not even fear.
Hostility.
A human staring at him with the kind of murderous will that only comes from a mind that has decided this thing in front of it must die.
Richard's pupils shrank.
'Does this count?' he thought.
He couldn't directly intervene in battles.
That was the rule he'd read many times over. He was the ruler, the last line of defense. He set the board, while his subjects fought.
Unless…
Unless he was provoked first.
He checked with his talent just to be safe.
The Path answered instantly, a crimson thread in his mind flaring with certainty.
This is an offense against a ruler.
Richard lifted his beak slightly.
Then acted without hesitation.
[Ability: The Ruler's Condemnation - Activated]
William's world collapsed.
Darkness crushed his vision, not like night, it was like being buried. The silhouette of the rooster swelled, growing, towering, blotting out the sky until it loomed like a mountain. Feathers became walls. The comb became a horizon. The beak became a guillotine.
His strength vanished.
William hit his knees as if gravity had tripled just for him.
[Talent: Willpower - Activated]
[Resisting…]
[The difference in Soul tier is too large.]
[Talent: Willpower - Nullified]
[Resistance failed.]
"Sir William!" someone roared. "Snap out of it!"
William, as if snapping out of his daze, forced himself to tear his gaze away.
The illusion shattered like glass.
But his body still refused to respond.
His limbs weren't paralyzed, no, but it felt like they were shackled by invisible weights.
Then something slammed in front of him.
Blood sprayed onto his face.
William looked up.
Lars stood there, well to be exact, what was left of him stood there.
A claw had cleaved through his shoulder down to his waist. It should've split him into two.
But It didn't.
Because his feet were planted like stone, legs shaking, eyes wide, mouth pulled into a grin that didn't belong to a man being carved.
"Lars!" Mira screamed, voice cracking clean through her composure.
"Fuck!" Aelius shouted. "William, what are you doing?!"
William's teeth ground together.
He forced his fingers to twitch, but it was like trying to move in a nightmare where your body had decided you were no longer worthy of motion.
Lars turned his head slightly, slowly, because even turning hurt.
He grinned through the pain and raised a trembling thumb.
"Sir William," he said, voice wet, "with your skills… I believe you can buy more time than I can."
He coughed, and blood bubbled at his lips like a cruel joke.
"Let me spawn at the village next time I log in, deal?" he added, like he was asking to meet for coffee later.
Then his body dissolved into particles of light.
The lizard's claws tore free.
It roared again, shaking the air.
William finally forced himself upright.
"Roxana!" gritting his teeth he shouted. "Can you buff us one more time before you go!"
Roxana was already running through the trees, protected by a wedge of bodies. Sweat streaked her face. Her expression was still soft, still beautiful and teasing, but the strain under her eyes was showed.
Hearing William's shout from behind she glanced back.
Swallowed hard.
"Fufufu~ aren't you asking too much from me?"
Despite her playful complaints she activated her talent again.
Her eyes gleamed light pink in the darkness.
Immediately, energy flooded the field.
Players jerked upright as if injected with adrenaline. Broken stances became steady. Bleeding hands tightened. Fear blurred at the edges, replaced by bright, reckless courage.
"This feeling!" someone screamed. "It's a buff from Lady Roxana!"
"Everyone buy time for Lady Roxana with your last breath!"
Players roared.
And William…
William stared in confusion.
Because the warmth didn't touch him.
His status panel flashed.
[Talent: Willpower - Activated]
[Resisting…]
[Successful]
[Mind Control Neutralized]
"…What?" he whispered before Instinct screamed.
He forced himself to roll through sheer will but it was too slow.
Pain detonated.
The lizard's claws tore through him like he was paper.
One of his arms flew.
For a heartbeat, his brain refused to accept it. Then heat and agony poured in all at once, drowning thought.
He grunted, collapsing, vision strobing.
Around him, the battlefield unraveled into sacrifice.
Defensive lines broke and reformed in messy patches. Supports screamed as the defense line broke. Attackers threw themselves into the gap just to slow the lizard's feet for one second.
Rocks continued to fall.
A player's barrier shattered and a stone caved their skull.
A healer tried to run and was trampled by thirty rabbits who didn't even look down.
Aelius staggered, half-crazed, stick glowing again, screaming curses at a black blur that refused to slow down its massacre.
Mira's eyes flashed as she analyzed, recalculated, screamed commands no one could hear over the chaos. Her hands shook, either from fear or fury or perhaps both.
Roxana's group vanished into the trees.
Behind the chaos, Richard watched them go but he didn't move.
His flock twitched, they wanted to chase, kill and finish off the otherworlders.
But memory held them back.
The boss had warned them not to pursue recklessly.
So they turned instead, rallying around the black-scaled lizard, joining the main force. They tightened the net and ended the stragglers.
One by one, the remaining players fell.
A woman wielding a faintly glowing wooden stick cursed out loud with her final breath.
"Fuck. Your. Broken. Game!!"
Claws crushed her.
Light scattered.
Silence began to creep back in, not peace, but the exhausted pause after slaughter.
Richard stepped forward.
His talons sank into the soil.
The golden network in his mind, his Path's heartbeat web, still trembled. Many of his subordinates were injured. Some were limping. Some were bleeding. The smell of pain soaked the night.
Then his gaze locked with the black-scaled lizard.
The lizard met his eyes.
It understood.
No words were needed.
It barked orders, sharp and urgent, and the uninjured creatures responded. Rabbits that could still sprint. Lizards that could still leap. Chickens that could still throw stones without shaking.
They turned.
And thundered after the running players.
Richard looked at the injured ones left behind.
His chest tightened again, the familiar ache of responsibility that was starting to feel heavier than his feathers.
He clucked a command to the creepy snake who was also injured due to its recklessness.
"Take them home," his intent said, clear as speech. "Lead the wounded back to the flower field"
Then Richard sprinted after the lizard, body low, eyes sharp, chasing his own doubt through the trees.
He had to see how, according to his talent, they could not finish off every player with such advantage.