"Knights! Formation!"
The General's command shattered the frozen silence.Steel rang out as shields locked into place. Magic circles flared into existence. Boots scraped against crystal stone as the team moved in drilled precision.The Goblin General did not rush. It watched, Yellow eyes burning. Then it stepped forward the floor cracked.
The sheer weight of its movement sent a shockwave through the corridor. Two knights were thrown off balance instantly.
"Left flank!" Max shouted, charging first.
His gauntlets ignited with mana as he slammed forward. Snow moved with him, blade flashing toward the creature's exposed side. Rey slipped low, aiming for its legs.Perfect coordination.
The Goblin General moved once
CLANG!
Its colossal blade intercepted Max mid strike, the impact exploded like thunder. Max's arms trembled violently as he was pushed back several steps.
Snow's blade connected but sparks flew.
The creature's skin was hardened like layered armor ,Rey lunged the Goblin General twisted unnaturally fast. Its elbow smashed into Rey's chest.
CRACK....
Rey flew backward, crashing into the crystal wall. The impact spider webbed the surface behind him. He dropped to one knee, coughing blood.
"Rey!" Snow shouted.
Too late...the massive blade swung horizontally. Snow barely raised his sword in time.
BOOM!
The force shattered his stance. The blade tore across his shoulder, slicing deep through armor. Blood splattered across glowing crystals, Snow collapsed, gripping his shoulder, teeth clenched to suppress a scream.
Two down, within seconds. Max's jaw tightened.
"This isn't normal…!"
The General's eyes sharpened. He understood it too.
"This dungeon…" he muttered lowly. "…should not contain something like this."
The Goblin General's gaze shifted again. Back to Eragon.
"…Vessel…"
The word rumbled like distant thunder.
Eragon's heart pounded violently.
"Why does it keep saying that?" Max growled.
The Mage was already chanting but his hands trembled.
"This mana signature…" he whispered under his breath. "It's displaced… forced…"
He stopped himself.Not now, the Goblin General suddenly vanished.
Not speed, weight , Presence....
It reappeared directly before Eragon.The blade rose again.Eragon's body locked.
Move.
Move! He couldn't,the air around him felt heavy.
"…You do not even know…" the creature growled. "…what sleeps inside you…"
The blade dropped. A gust exploded sideways.
WHOOM!
The strike missed by inches as a violent current of wind twisted the weapon's path.
Everyone froze. The air was moving.
No roaring, crystal dust lifted from the ground, swirling violently around Eragon.
His eyes widened.He hadn't moved.But something had.A pressure burst outward from his body,
Not wild..... Not chaotic...Controlled...
The Goblin General stepped back for the first time.
The General stared at Eragon.
"…Again," he murmured.
Eragon lifted his trembling hand.The wind responded.
Not loud ,not flashy, but sharp....
"General!" Eragon shouted instinctively.
The General understood immediately.
He lunged.
The Goblin raised its blade but the wind compressed around its arm.Its movement slowed, Just a fraction enough.
The General's sword pierced into its side.
Black blood sprayed.The Goblin roared and swung wildly.Eragon's wind curved around the blade, shifting its trajectory just enough to avoid a killing blow.They moved together.
Sword and storm,Max forced himself up and rejoined the assault, striking at the wounded side. Even injured, Snow used his remaining strength to launch a mana slash from the ground.The Goblin staggered.But it did not fall.
Instead,it laughed, a deep, distorted sound.
"…So it begins…"
High above, within the shadows of the crystal ceiling a pair of crimson eyes opened.A tall silhouette stood silently, cloaked in darkness.One of the Demon King's Elite Generals. He watched the battlefield calmly.
"So the vessel truly exists…" he murmured.
He did not move.He only observed.
Elsewhere deeper within the dungeon walls something else stirred.
Not demonic, Not dungeon-born, Ancient, Aware, Watching Eragon.
The Goblin General roared and drove its blade into the ground.Shockwave, Crystals shattered.Max was thrown aside again.
Two knights were crushed beneath falling debris.Silence followed, The creature turned one final time toward Eragon.
"…Before it opens…"Eragon stepped forward.Fear still present, But steadier now.The wind gathered behind him, spiraling like invisible wings.
"General," he said quietly.
The General nodded once they moved at the same time. Eragon compressed the air beneath his feet propelling himself forward faster than before.The Goblin swung, The wind bent the strike sideways. The General slid under the redirected blade and drove his sword straight through the creature's chest.
Eragon clenched his fist.
The air tightened around the wound CRACK.
Internal rupture,The Goblin General froze.
Yellow eyes flickered.It looked directly at Eragon one last time.
"…They will come…"
"…when the vessel opens…"
Its body began dissolving into dark particles.
"…Too late…"
And then it vanished.
Silence consumed the corridor. Where the massive body had stood a large crimson blue crystal dropped onto the stone floor with a heavy thud.
Pure, Dense, C-Rank core.....
The surviving knights stared at it in awe.
Dungeon law. When a monster dies within its domain, it leaves behind a mana crystal. Stronger the creature greater the crystal. The General walked forward slowly, breathing heavily. He picked it up.
Studied it.Then turned, He extended it toward Eragon.
"Keep it."
Eragon blinked. "What?"
"You'll need it more than I will."
No explanation just certainty Eragon took it.The crystal pulsed faintly in his hand.
Around them reality returned, Snow lay unconscious but breathing, Rey was barely standing, two knights were dead.
Max leaned against the broken crystal, frustration burning in his eyes. The Mage stood silent, too silent. He was not looking at the battlefield. He was looking at Eragon.
"Vessel…" he whispered to himself.
High above the crimson eyed elite general turned away.
"Interesting," he murmured.
His figure dissolved into shadow. But deep within the dungeon that other presence did not leave.
It remained, watching, waiting.
As if this battle had only confirmed something. Eragon stared at the crystal in his hand. The wind had gone silent. But the echo of the Goblin's final words remained. When the vessel opens…
The dungeon felt colder now. And for the first time Victory did not feel like safety.
It felt like the beginning....