Han Ga-yoon had gone so deep into the trees the crystal might as well not have existed. The dome-light turned the bark to a dull sheen and made the needles look wet. She perched where two branches crossed, a narrow saddle under her boots, and told herself the fight would be over quickly.
The numbers were too ugly. There were too many monsters and not enough people. The line would break, the crystal would crack, everyone would get thrown back out with empty hands and a lesson learned. She would have proof that staying out of it had been the sensible move.
Nothing broke.
The noise from the clearing came in thin threads: iron on bone, a shout, the steady breath of many feet.
Time stretched, and her calves began to ache. She pressed her palms to the trunk to keep balance and muttered, low enough for the bark to swallow, "Why is it taking so long. Shouldn't it be over by now?"
A different sound rose closer than it should have. Not the rhythm of the front. This was the high, frayed edge of people who were running and losing at the same time. The hiders. Their panic came through the undergrowth like wind that had learned to scream.
"What is going on," she whispered, and the answer arrived.
The Boneclaw hit the tree like thrown furniture. The trunk shuddered under her hands. Yellow eyes cut up through the grey, fast and flat, and then it sprang. Hooks swept for her head. The first pass shaved air along her cheek.
She screamed, panic tearing her voice thin, and then her body moved.
[Vanish]
The world dimmed around her and let go. Smoke where she had been.
She threw herself to the next tree and landed wrong, knee scraping, fingers burning. Another rake of claws tore splinters out of the trunk she had left.
"What the fack is that thing!", she said in panic.
She jumped again, and again, less like an assassin and more like a woman in the wrong boots scrambling from one bad idea to the next.
"Why are the monsters this deep?" she hissed between branches. "Shouldn't they go for the crystal?"
...
[First Wave — Cleared]
[Awarding the Loot, TLE, and NTLE]
[Next Wave — Begins in 10:00]
"Eh?"
She stared at the panel as if it were a bad joke.
"Wave… cleared?"
She listened. No screams. No claws on bark. The forest had gone still.
"Did they actually clear it?"
She wanted to sprint back and see for herself, but fear is bad at math. She waited longer than sense required, counting her breaths, then climbed down in small, careful motions.
The trees had already shown her what hiding costs. She stopped running. Jaw set, she turned toward the circle and walked for the defensive ring around the crystal.
By the time she reached the edge, the field wasn't the same place she'd left.
No walls, no carpentry, just the bones of the forest pushed into the right places. Fallen trunks dragged into low angles to force lanes. Tight stands of saplings left in place to make clean charges bend. Enough cover to hide a caster from a stray shot. Not a barricade anyone would brag about. Enough to make monsters come in crooked.
Kwon Mira stood in sight of everyone with the crystal's hum behind her. People gathered by habit now, not confusion. She spoke like she was reading a ledger and everyone else was there to sign.
"In the next wave the monsters will probably be stronger," she said. "They will not die as easily as the crude ones. Be prepared to get hit a few times and, in the worst case, die."
A murmur moved through the group. It sounded like swallowed air and leather creaking.
She went on without drama. "We will keep almost the same arrangement. Warriors take the first hit and stop as many as they can with the support of healers and the fire of the mages. Assassins stay close behind and finish the monsters that the spells have already softened."
She turned to the cluster of people who would not look each other in the eye.
"As for you," she said, even, "since you are not willing to fight, you will drag as many of the monsters as you can into the trees. Keep them turning. Keep them away from the circle."
"Yes, we will do that," someone said, too fast, too loud. "Just clear the wave quickly."
"One or two is fine," another said, nerves cracking his words. "I cannot deal with so many monsters at once."
"I just have to run, right," a woman asked herself and anyone who would hear her. "Running is easier than fighting. I can do that."
Mira held her face still. Inside, a thought slid through like a knife through cloth.
'I do not understand these people. They are so stupid it makes my teeth hurt.'
A voice cut across the circle, cheerful like a slap.
"Well, look who decided to come back."
Heads turned. Han Tae-yang was grinning in a way that wanted to pick a fight.
Ga-yoon ignored him and walked toward Mira. There were small leaves caught in her hair. Her mouth still had the shine of adrenaline.
"Unnie," she said, and heard the catch she hated in her own voice. "You actually cleared the first wave. Even with that many monsters on the field."
"You saw the message too," Mira said. There was no triumph in it, only confirmation.
Ga-yoon had seen it. She had not believed it. She had come to make the numbers into something she could touch.
Sera slipped in from the side, unable not to speak. "Do you know what is funny," she said, soft with pride. "No one on the front died. Not a single one. It was all the people who hid and ran who kept dying."
The hiders looked at the ground. Shame moved over them like a grey wash.
Min-seo tugged on a strap, then let it go and spoke without malice. "You should not have left," she said. "You missed so much. We leveled a lot, and some people got decent loot too."
The fact landed and sat. Ga-yoon did the math too late.
'How was I supposed to know they could win,' she argued with herself. 'It did not look logical with these numbers.'
The argument lasted three seconds. It did not matter anymore. What mattered was not standing like a fool in front of people she had called fools. What mattered was asking to be used without having to beg.
She looked toward the back of the ring where the hood and the gold eyes watched and did not speak.
'Will he even let me back after how I acted,' she thought, and hated that the thought made her heart beat a little harder.
"Would you like to help us in the next wave," Mira asked, as if it had been Ga-yoon's idea.
"Me," Ga-yoon said. The relief arrived before the words. "Are you sure."
"We need all the hands we can get." Mira's gaze went once to the quiet figure at the back. No objection. That, here, was permission.
"Yes," Ga-yoon said. She did not let her shoulders drop until the word was out. "I would like to help."
Sera's mouth wanted to tease. She shut it and chose the better shape for the moment.
People began to settle into their places. Warriors set their boots like they were setting stones. Assassins rolled wrists and picked lanes with their eyes. Mages grounded breath against wood and leather. Healers flexed fingers until they felt like part of their hands again. The small noises of readiness made a kind of music.
Panels opened clean in front of every face.
[Wave 2: Portal Opening]
[Spawns: 30 Common, 30 Uncommon, 2 Rare Bosses]
The numbers were not kind. They never were.
"O-oye, that is a lot," someone said, laughter riding too high in his throat to be anything but fear.
"We barely caught our breath," another whispered. "Can we really hold against all of that."
Ga-yoon felt the worry spread like cold water down a back. There was no other option but to go forward now.