Chapter 20
The first checkpoint fell before sunrise.
Foglings poured from the treeline like ants from a shattered hive—hundreds of them, twitching and hunched, their joints bent the wrong way, eyes glossy with void-light. Scouts at Checkpoint A barely had time to light the signal glyphs before the perimeter broke. What remained were mangled bodies, broken towers, and a field scorched with unstable fog residue.
By the time Leo arrived with Tarra and Granek in tow, the wardlights were flickering. Charred roots and the scent of burnt aether lingered in the misty air. The lines were collapsing, and the fog was still advancing.
Captain Drelas stood on a crumbling watchtower, blood streaked down one side of his face. "Phase Three is compromised!" he shouted over the wind. "Fall back to Checkpoint C—form the last line before the Rootwake barrier!"
Leo clutched his aetherpulse rifle tighter, jaw clenched. "They're pushing faster than expected."
Tarra, now with her hood thrown back, activated her Enhanced Combat Matrix. Blue geometries lit up beneath her skin, syncing with her inner core. "Target density: high. Prioritizing kinetic dispersion."
They moved.
The second checkpoint didn't last an hour.
Towering foglings—Boulder-Class—emerged from the corrupted glade. Twelve feet tall, pale and muscular, with skin like boiled stone. One hurled a barricade beam through the air, flattening a Thornshaper and his summoned tangle-vines in a single strike.
Leo ducked behind a cracked sigil wall and raised a hand. "Granek—now!"
> [Summon Golem: Granek – Vanguard Mode]
A deep glyph circle lit the soil beneath Leo's feet. With a grinding of stone and molten energy, Granek erupted upward—ten feet of stone, iron core glowing faintly beneath his armored chest. He flexed his arms once, then moved.
> [Skill Activated: Ground Slam]
Granek smashed both arms into the ground. The shockwave surged in a 12-meter radius. Foglings flew back, limbs cracking like branches. A secondary quake caused the western tower to collapse inward, crushing two more.
> [Skill Activated: Earthen Guard]
Granek planted both legs. Stone wrapped around his frame in overlapping layers, forming a mobile fortress that shielded retreating adventurers. Arrows and fog-tendrils glanced off his surface harmlessly.
Tarra streaked past him, agile and silent. Her fists shimmered with power—Quartz Infused Strike igniting pale-blue energy at her knuckles. She punched through a fogling's chest. Mist burst like steam.
Another lunged at her side. Her Energy Shield flared in a hex pattern. The blow glanced off.
Tarra pivoted low, triggered Mana Conduit, and her fists surged with charge. The next strike discharged it into the fogling's spine, launching it backward into a collapsing tree.
A third attacker tried to flank her.
Tarra's eyes lit. "Trajectory locked. Redirecting."
> [Skill Activated: Analytical Scan]
She ducked beneath the fogling's swing, caught its wrist, twisted it into a spiral hold, and drove her elbow into its neck. It dropped in a heap.
Leo took position on a ridge overlooking the checkpoint. His rifle was steady. Cool. Calculated. Each trigger pull released precise blue bolts that burned clean through corrupted skulls.
He switched angles. A fogling flanked the Bloomharrow unit on the east line.
"Nyra! Duck!"
She dropped as Leo fired—bolt straight through the attacker's spine. She didn't look back. Just raised a thumb.
Below, a group of Branchguards formed a wall of moss-etched tower shields. They locked together as Thornshapers raised a twisting wall of vines behind them. The enemy pressed harder.
Drelas barked again from above. "Hold that line! If they breach the gate, Rootwake falls with it!"
Then the fog changed.
It thickened into a dark spiral.
And out from it emerged a new nightmare.
Tall. Slender. Moving like smoke unspooling from a shattered lantern. It wore chain-like bindings fused to its arms, trailing mist that hissed against the ground.
> [New Threat Detected: Wraith-Hollow – Tier III Fogspawn]
Its eyes burned like coals trapped in ice. It drifted past dead foglings, ignored corpses, and moved directly toward the barricade's heart.
Leo stared. "That's not just a brute... That thing thinks."
The Wraith-Hollow blurred—flickered—and reappeared behind Tarra. It lashed with a mist chain—
> [Skill Activated: Rapid Regeneration]
Tarra's core lit as she twisted away. The chain grazed her shoulder. Ceramite plating hissed and cracked, but she turned with explosive force and struck the Wraith with both fists.
The Wraith reeled back. Mist rippled in its wake.
Granek turned and charged.
"Intercepting target," he said flatly.
He slammed into the Wraith, fist-first. But the creature phased partially, dodging the brunt. It countered with a chain swipe that dug into Granek's torso plating.
> [HP: 540 / 900]
Leo dropped to one knee, flipped the rifle's switch—
> [Skill Activated: Aetherpulse Rifle – Precision Mode]
The barrel shimmered with a silvery-blue glow. Leo exhaled. A single bolt shot through the haze—
The Wraith screeched, its shoulder vaporizing into black fog.
But it wasn't done.
It leapt—vanished—reappeared behind the Canopy Seer line.
A Vinebinder threw a living net. The Wraith shredded it in one spin, killing two archers in the process.
Nyra shouted across the field. "Focus fire! We don't get another shot!"
Leo pivoted fast, chambered another charge. "Granek, flank left!"
Tarra zipped into motion. Her fist struck the Wraith's ribs, and she let the kinetic force carry her into a spinning elbow.
Leo's shot lanced into its chest.
Granek body-slammed it into a stone slab.
The Wraith screamed—and disintegrated into smoke.
> [Enemy Defeated: Wraith-Hollow] XP Gained: 950
The fog recoiled slightly.
Not in fear.
In patience.
A fresh wave was forming beyond the trees. Towering silhouettes. Shapes like twisted deer, crawling brutes, hunched horrors.
But for now—
Checkpoint C held.
Not because of the wall.
But because of them.
Leo lowered his rifle, sweat streaking his temple. "This isn't a war we win with walls," he muttered. "We win it by surviving the next charge."
From the edge of the trees, one shape paused.
A long figure. Hooded. Watching.
Then it turned—and walked back into the mist.