One minute on the clock.
People had formed their lines as instructed.
Warriors took the front, boots planted, shields and greatswords angled to catch the first hit from the wave.
A few steps back, the assassins stood loose on the balls of their feet, eyes reading lanes between bodies instead of staring straight ahead.
Behind them, mages set staves and opened grimoires, whispering through hand cues they had practiced only twice.
The far rear went quiet except for the soft, private sound of people swallowing their nerves. Healers checked fingers and breath, felt for steadiness in their own pulse before they lent it to anyone else.
Out of thirty-two, only seventeen had chosen to stand here.
The handful Loki had marked as capable were already folded into the plan. Mira and the others had gone to them, spoken in low, practical voices, and brought them into the shape of a unit.
The rest climbed into trees or slipped into the deeper ring of trunks, trusting height and distance to save them until the crystal was destroyed.
"Should we have built a barricade?" Mira asked, chin slightly up, eyes measuring fallen logs as if she could will them into a wall.
"That would have been ideal," Loki said, voice even. "But people were too confused to do that, and now it's too late."
Her gaze flicked toward Sera, who had been assigned to Do-ha's squad. "Will everything hold if we do it exactly as planned?" The question was simple, but the tendons were tight at her throat.
"If you follow what we discussed, things will go as planned," he said. "Trust your calls and keep your people inside your voice. Focus on your role."
Command sat on her shoulders like something tailored.
She nodded once and moved along the line, fixing spacing, lending out a calm she had decided to wear.
Loki had given her the lead for two clean reasons.
First, Mira was a well-known and proven person outside. Everyone already knew her as a strong and capable woman. As she had carried her family on her own back and made it stay at the top, even after the death of her husband.
A room like this would follow her more easily than it would follow him.
Second, he could not be bothered with leading these people. He would rather focus on killing and providing support where needed than leading.
Thirty seconds.
The dome hummed. Armor settled. People adjusted grips they had already adjusted twice. Some breathed like they remembered how. Some stared too long at the crystal and had to pull their eyes away.
Fear lived in throats. Nerves lived in fingers. Sweat crawled even in the cool air. A few shoulders shook and then steadied, as if the body had decided not to betray the person who owned it.
Ten seconds.
Mira lifted her arm, and the line adjusted by inches. Sera's mouth pressed tight, then eased. Do-ha set his shield angle and checked it once more, not because it was wrong but because it mattered.
"Bring it on, fuckers," said Hye-jin with a sharp grin.
Three. Two. One.
Panels bloomed across every eye.
[Wave 1: Portal Opening]
[Spawns: 30 Crude, 30 Common, 2 Uncommon Bosses]
A second beat later, the crowd noise spiked and then slipped. Relief bled into it.
"Just like Miss Kwon said. The monsters are low tiers."
"We might really be able to do this."
"It is like you predicted, Mr. Loki," said Mira, feeling a bit more relaxed, " The first wave is indeed made up of weaker ones."
"Mhm," he said.
The forest answered before anyone else could. A single giant portal tore open deep among the trees—one wound in the world— and every monster rushed out of it at once, flooding the clearing like a broken dam.
[Goblin — Crude — Lv. 3]
They came yipping in a pitch that set teeth on edge, knives bright and wrong.
[Reaper Whelp — Crude — Lv. 2]
Little black things with too many joints and a scythe-curve where a hand should be, chittering like cut glass.
[Hyenawolf — Common — Lv. 3]
Low to the ground and fast, with shoulders that rolled like bad weather and breath you could smell before you could see it.
[Boneclaw Runner — Common — Lv. 4]
Thin as a rumor, knees high, hands like knives, feet beating the earth in a drum that climbed speed.
Although still far, something bigger and heavier was also making its way toward the crystal.
"Warriors," Mira called, voice carrying clean. "Prepare to intercept them. Mages, launch your spells."
Light moved. Staff heads flared.
The first spells went out like thrown nets. Fire washed a front rank of goblins and turned half of them to noise and light.
A bolt the color of old ice cracked a Boneclaw's knees and put it face-first in the dirt for a warrior to finish. Reapers skittered sideways to avoid the worst of it and met shields instead.
Do-ha took the center approach and let the first Hyenawolf hit his shield wrong, then stepped and gave it back. The rebound sent it staggering, and Yong-hun speared the space the body had opened and dragged the point free before he could think about it. Hye-jin dove straight in and started her rampage. Garin sighed and readied her staff after seeing that.
Han Tae-yang met the next two head-on and decided not to give ground today.
"I go to the gym regularly, you bastards!" he shouted.
His blade was not pretty. It was heavy, and his arms knew how to make heavy things move fast. Sparks sang along a goblin knife when he cut it in half.
Not every monster wanted the front. Boneclaws raced the edges, feet light, looking for the space where eyes were not. A pair slid past the first line and went for the mages.
"I am activating the illusions," Mira called. Three of her shadows stepped out a few paces ahead of the casters and stood there, inviting trouble.
[Mira — Class: Strix Illusionist] (Legendary-tier)
— Class Passives —
[Retaliatory Glamour] When an enemy destroys your Illusion, they are Stunned for 5.0 s (3.0 s vs. bosses), and all your active skill cooldowns are reduced by 3.0 s.
[Mirage Poise] While any Illusion is active, gain +40% Evasion and +20% Movement Speed.
— Skills —
[Planted Illusion — Uncommon, Active]
Cooldown: 120 s., Illusion Duration: 5 min
Effect: Seed an Illusion of yourself at a chosen point. You may activate it from up to 50 m away to manifest instantly. When an enemy touches the Illusion, or when its duration is over, it bursts, Blinding enemies in a 5 m radius for 3.0 s. Up to 3 illusions can be planted at a time.
The monsters met something that looked like Mira and were too eager to notice the tell. The illusions burst like dropped glass on contact with the monsters.
White went across their eyes, and a stun ceased them clean.
Mira and the other assassins were already moving. Steel went in soft under a jaw and came out with a twist, and the second one never found its feet again.
"Ewe Ewe Ewe, I can't I can't," said Sera as her dagger also penetrated a monster. She was crying and hesitating, but still did her job.
On the left, Min-seo's traps did their quiet work. A Hyenawolf's sprint put a forepaw over nothing that was not nothing. The ground answered with a tight, dull thud.
[Princess Seo — Class: Venom Master] (Epic)
— Class Passives —
[Venomcraft] Poison damage you inflict is increased by 35%. Poison durations you apply last 30% longer.
— Skills —
[Poison Trap — Uncommon, Active]
Trap Charges: 3, Cooldown: 180s. Trap Duration: 10 min
Effect: Place a concealed trap. When an enemy enters a 3 m radius, it detonates, dealing 80 damage to the target and applying Poison.
Poison: Deals 100% of damage done by the trap as Poison damage per second for 3 s.
Stacking: Does not stack.
Poison kissed the fur and ran under it like ink in water. The beast yowled and lost speed. Another Runner clipped the edge of a second trap and the whole lane got uglier for anything with claws on it.
"Haha, it's working," Min-seo said under her breath as one more detonated where it should.
A Reaper slipped through a seam in the press and made for the healers.
But before it could reach them, it met Loki. He was barehanded.
The scythe-arm came from too far out. He stepped in. The elbow broke with a sound that moved more through bone than air. He turned the same motion into a foot behind an ankle and put it down without drama.
Another Goblin arrived with idiot courage and learned what happened when a throat met knuckles with no hesitation. The body folded around the impact and forgot how to stand.
But Loki did not finish them. He let the others do it because right now, his job was to keep teeth and claws off healers and mages.
Experience from these would not move his bar at all, but it would move theirs.
Behind him, Park Ji-yeon's voice was steady. "Thank you, Mister Loki."
A soft warmth ran out from her like water found gravity. The warriors' wounds closed to sensible lines. Breath returned to ribs that had tried to forget.
[Quiet Lantern — Graceful Priestess] (Rare)
— Class Passive —
[Grace-Touched Hands — Passive]
All healing you cast is increased by 25%.
— Skill —
[Chain Heal — Rare, Active]
Cooldown: 30 s Range: 20 m to first target
Effect: Heals up to 3 allies. Prioritizes the lowest-HP ally in range, then jumps to allies within
12 m of the previous target.
• 1st target: 30% Max HP, 2nd target: 20% Max HP, 3rd target: 10% Max HP.
Notes: Cannot jump to the same target twice. Unused jumps are lost if no valid ally is in range.
Yoo Mi-kyung set her summon, Seo, low to the ground like a hunting cat.
"Now be careful out there, ok." It made a noise and transformed from its cute, fluffy form into a cat-like beast with claws and fangs.
Instead of the weird noise, this time it roared and went to work on the monsters.
The noise built but changed flavor. It went from panic to work. Warriors grunted and swore and chose their moments. Mages counted their own breathing and the beats between spells. Assassins stopped waiting for easy backs and started manufacturing them.
People were still afraid. People were still sweating. People were still very human. But their feet moved where they should.
'Hmm. Everything is going as planned,' Loki thought as he dragged a still-breathing, broken goblin by the ankle and flicked it toward Sera's feet, which made her go, "Kyaaa".
As the fight was going on, a string of Boneclaws on the far right did not even look at the crystal. They took the outside curve, ears flat, eyes on the trees.
"Why are they running at us?" a voice called from a branch, high and thin.
A second later, a Boneclaw hit the trunk below like a thrown hammer. Bark exploded, and the tree quivered.
The branch gave with a dry crack. He grabbed for anything and found air. His shoulder hit a lower limb, then his hip, then he spilled into a cradle of branches that bent and bounced him once. The sound that left him was half grunt, half plea.
The Boneclaw did not climb like a cat. It gathered itself and leaped, knives first, using its hooked forelimbs to catch and haul.
Wood split.
The man kicked and scrabbled. "Help, help, someone pull me up," he shouted, voice breaking. "Please, I am stuck, I am stuck."
The creature yanked him down out of the cradle and into reach.
"No, no, wait, I will come down," he babbled, and then his words turned to wet breaths as the Boneclaw dragged him across the trunk and tore him apart in fast, efficient motions.
"Mom, I do not want to die," he cried, small and young for a heartbeat, and then there was only the rhythm of the monster working.
Panic ran along the trees. "Why are they coming for us up here?" someone yelled from a higher fork. "We are not near the crystal." Another voice shook. "I thought hiding was safer. Why are they ignoring the front line?" A third tried to make sense of it and failed.
Loki watched the line hold, watched the side lane break, watched fear choose a new shape in the crowd. He let his eyes pass once over the hiders and then returned to the field.
'Yes,' he thought, calm as a measured breath. 'All according to plan.'