The alchemist spoke next, his voice carrying the careful tone of someone who'd spent years explaining complex concepts to impatient students.
"My name is Hans. I'm an Alchemist specialized in chimera summoning and poison brewing."
His weathered face creased into a genuine smile as he gave everyone a cheerful thumbs up. "You can call me Old Hans for short."
The gesture was so unexpectedly normal that it broke some of the tension hanging over their group. Here was a man who could apparently create living creatures from raw materials and deadly toxins from household ingredients, acting like he'd just introduced himself at a neighborhood barbecue.
The brown haired knight straightened her shoulders and spoke.
"My name is Irene Voltasier. I'm a Knight specialized in close combat and tanking damage." Her voice carried the confidence of someone who'd stood against charging monsters and lived to tell about it.
"I can take hits that would kill most people and keep fighting."
Nox listened to the introductions while his tactical mind automatically sorted through their capabilities.
Henry's werewolf abilities made him their primary close-combat fighter and scout. Hans could provide support through summoned creatures and chemical warfare useful for cannon fodder and area denial. But Irene... he studied her stance, her equipment, the way she held herself. An A rank tank was only useful when you had a formation to protect.
In a place like this, with Destruction class monster threats coming from every direction, she'd be overwhelmed. She was going to die first, and probably messily.
The thought was cold and practical, the kind of battlefield calculation that kept squads alive. It was also probably accurate, which bothered him more than he wanted to admit.
"Now that everyone's introduced themselves, it's time to move to planning,"
Nox said, pushing the dark thoughts aside.
Henry suddenly straightened, his expression shifting to something more focused.
"Hey Nox, but how do you see the gate as black? Is it an ability of your class?"
The question caught Nox off guard. He'd been hoping no one would dig too deeply into that particular mystery.
"Well, my class is closer to horror elements, I guess. Black gates are anomalies that lean toward horror, so I can sense them."
It wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't entirely false either. His abilities were definitely connected to things that normal people couldn't perceive.
"Huh, maybe you'd make a better scout than me," Henry said with a grin.
"In your dreams, Henry. I'm a healer."
"Hahaha, right. A healer with tentacles and a gatling gun."
Henry's expression turned serious again as he considered their tactical situation.
"I'll lead at the front, then Hans will be behind me providing chimera for support."
He gestured to include the others.
"Nox will be at the back with Irene. With Nox's tendency to see strange things, it'll be more reassuring to watch our back—"
Henry suddenly went quiet mid sentence. His head snapped down, and he pressed his ear against the glass floor, his enhanced hearing picking up something the rest of them had missed.
"What?" Nox asked, though the sinking feeling in his stomach told him whatever it was wouldn't be good news.
Henry's face went pale as he listened to sounds only he could hear. Then he shot upright, dark energy swirling around his body as he summoned his black armor. The plates materialized from shadow, covering him in protective plating.
"We're surrounded!" he yelled.
"About five hundred enemies are coming!"
The number hit them like a physical blow. Five hundred. Not the dozens of small spawn, but a proper army converging on their position.
Everyone moved at once. Nox pulled out his gatling gun, his tentacles erupting from his back to wrap around the weapon's support structure. The familiar weight of heavy firepower was comforting, even in the face of impossible odds.
Irene drew her sword in one fluid motion, the blade singing as it cleared its sheath. Her stance shifted to something more defensive, prepared to intercept attacks meant for her more vulnerable companions.
Old Hans raised both hands, and two creatures began materializing beside him. They were chimeras in the truest sense parts of different animals fused together into something that shouldn't exist but somehow worked.
One looked like a bear crossed with a giant spider, while the other resembled a wolf with way too many heads.
Henry drew a golden bow that gleamed with its own inner light, an arrow already nocked and ready to fly. His enhanced senses were focused outward, tracking movement through the glass and stone around them.
And then it happened.
The monsters arrived not with roars or shrieks, but with laughter. Human laughter.
It started as a ripple one voice, then two, then dozens. The sound rolled over the plain like a wave, warm and familiar at first. It reminded Nox of late nights in taverns, of children playing in summer fields, of all the good things that made laughter precious.
But when hundreds of throats joined the chorus, it twisted into something else entirely.
What had once been comfort became disease. Every chuckle bled into the next until the plain shook with a mad symphony, a mockery of humanity echoing from mouths that were wrong in fundamental ways.
The laughter multiplied and warped, growing louder and more distorted with each passing second.
The hunters faltered. These were people who had faced monsters that could tear through steel, undead legions that felt no pain, even the wrath of dungeon bosses with powers beyond mortal understanding. But nothing in their training or experience had prepared them to stand against their own laughter thrown back at them, multiplied and corrupted into something that hurt to hear.
From the darkness beyond the red moon's light, shapes began to emerge. They stepped forward in perfect rhythm, their movements synchronized like a military parade performed by the damned.
Their eyes were wrapped in dirty bandages that should have blinded them, yet every head turned toward the hunters. Grins split their faces wide enough to tear skin at the corners, revealing teeth that had been filed to points. Their tongues dragged across the glass plain as they marched, leaving steaming trails of saliva that hissed and ate through the obsidian surface like acid.
The creatures' bodies bulged with unnatural muscle, veins crawling like serpents beneath skin that looked like it had been borrowed from someone else. Some of the flesh hung loose, as if it didn't quite fit the frame underneath. Others were stretched tight, threatening to split at any moment.
The laughter never stopped. It rose and fell in waves, sometimes dropping to whispers that were somehow more terrifying than the loudest shrieks, sometimes crescendoing to levels that made the hunters' ears ring with pain.
"What the fuck is that, Henry?" Nox called out, raising his voice to be heard over the maddening chorus.
Henry fumbled for something that looked like a smartphone, though it was clearly more advanced than any civilian device. He aimed its camera at the approaching horde, and the screen lit up with scanning data. Lines of text scrolled past in multiple languages as the device analyzed the threat.
His expression turned grave as he read the results.
"It's a Skin Walker. Fuck, it's a Destruction rank monster."
His voice was tight with controlled fear.
"Whatever happens, don't let them catch you. They can use your skin to transform into you."
"Destruction rank equals A-rank, right?" Irene asked, adjusting her grip on her sword.
"Then we can fight it."
"That's when the problem arises," Henry said, his eyes never leaving the approaching horde. "When Skin Walkers gather in groups, there's a pack leader. The larger the group, the stronger the pack leader becomes."
Nox counted the approaching figures, his enhanced vision picking out details in the red moonlight. Fifty, seventy, over five hundred creatures marching in perfect formation. Their synchronized laughter was like a drumbeat, keeping time with their steps.
"Huh, so we're fucked, right?" he asked with the kind of calm that comes from accepting the inevitable.
"Pretty much," Henry confirmed.