The evening air in the ruined courtyard was a dead, heavy thing, the silence punctuated only by the rhythmic, ground-shaking thud of something massive moving in the tower. Each impact was a slow, deliberate beat on a war drum, a psychological assault designed to fray nerves and force mistakes. Ethan Carver stood his ground, a cold, analytical engine in the encroaching chaos. Kael paced at his side, a low growl a constant vibration in his chest. Across the rubble, Lila was a statue of deadly focus, an arrow already nocked on her bowstring.
The Tier 2 summon slot pulsed in Ethan's mind, a menu of tactical options. The Golem was a walking fortress, a perfect tank. The Wraith was a ghost, a silent killer. But to summon blind was to gamble with his life, and Ethan was not a gambler. He was a strategist. He needed data. He needed to see the enemy.
"Lila, on my mark, suppressive fire on the left flank. Kael, with me. Draw it into the open," Ethan's voice was a low, steady command that cut through the tension.
The creature emerged, and it was worse than he'd simulated. A hulking brute of muscle and horned bone, its eyes glowing with the heat of a forge. It was a perfect killing machine, built for one purpose: to smash, to destroy. The Ruin Behemoth.
It roared, a sound that split the air, and charged.
"Now!" Ethan yelled.
He didn't meet the charge; he angled away, using his own body as bait to draw the behemoth toward the courtyard's center, away from the vulnerable structures. Kael was a silver blur, darting in to snap at the creature's heels, a high-speed distraction that forced the monster to divide its attention. Lila's arrow hissed through the air, embedding itself deep in the behemoth's shoulder. It roared in pain, but the wound only served to enrage it. It was shrugging off their initial attacks. They needed a wall. They needed overwhelming force.
This was the moment.
"Stone Golem!" Ethan commanded, slamming his hand on the ground and pushing a surge of energy into the earth.
The ground before the behemoth erupted. Jagged rock and ancient flagstones tore themselves from the soil, coalescing with a grinding roar into a towering, seven-foot-tall golem. The golem didn't wait for an order. It was a pure manifestation of Ethan's will to defend, and it met the behemoth's charge with the unyielding force of a mountain.
The impact was catastrophic. The behemoth, a creature of flesh and rage, slammed into a being of pure, magical stone. The golem cracked, fissures spreading across its rocky form, but it held the line. It was the anchor Ethan needed.
"Kael, hamstring it! Lila, aim for the eyes!" he directed, his mind a battlefield map.
With the behemoth locked in a brutal shoving match with the golem, its flanks were exposed. Kael was a whirlwind of claws and fangs, tearing at the thick tendons behind the creature's knees. Lila's arrows became merciless, pinpoint strikes, one after another, finding their mark in the monster's glowing eyes.
Blinded and crippled, the behemoth thrashed wildly. It landed one final, desperate blow, shattering the golem's torso, but the damage was done. The golem had bought them the time they needed. As the summon dissolved into dust, Ethan charged forward, his fire-hardened spear held like a lance. He drove it deep into the creature's throat, a final, brutal punctuation to a perfectly executed plan.
The behemoth collapsed, its fall shaking the very foundations of the outpost. The silence that rushed back in was heavy, profound.
Ethan stood over the corpse, breathing heavily, his mind already processing the aftermath. He turned to Lila, who was lowering her bow, her own expression a mixture of shock and something else. Respect.
"You're not just a survivor," she said, her voice steady. "You're a commander."
He didn't acknowledge the compliment. His focus was already on the next step. "The hide is a valuable resource. The claws can be fashioned into weapons. We process the kill before scavengers arrive."
Lila watched him for a beat, then gave a sharp, decisive nod. "Your call."
They worked under the light of the rising moons, their movements efficient and practiced. A new dynamic had been forged in the heat of battle.
"Stay," Ethan said, the word not a request, but a logical statement. "Help me turn this ruin into a fortress. Your skills are a valuable asset."
A faint, wry smile touched her lips. "Deal," she said. "But I'm not doing the cooking."
As they stacked stones to form a new, defensible wall, a rare, unfamiliar feeling settled over Ethan. The golem had been a tool, a resource expended for a victory. Kael was a trusted partner. And Lila… she was a complication, an unknown variable that was rapidly proving to be an indispensable part of his system. The slow burn of a true alliance had begun.