The Verdant Labyrinth was burning.
General Kastor of the First Legion did not believe in subtlety. He was a Level 42 Vanguard Knight, a man who had spent his life crushing rebellions and expanding Aethelgard's borders under the banner of King Valerius. He rode at the head of a five-hundred-man column atop a heavily armored war-charger, his golden cape billowing in the ash-choked wind.
Ahead of him, a dozen Pyromancers from the Mages' Guild walked in a tight formation, unleashing continuous streams of fire into the ancient, towering oaks and dense fern thickets.
"Burn it all," Kastor commanded, his voice magically amplified to carry over the roar of the flames. "The King wants this Cataclysm Core shattered by nightfall. Let the ash choke whatever beasts hide in the dark."
The First Legion was a terrifying display of human military might. Three hundred heavy infantry marched behind the General, their enchanted dawn-steel plate armor gleaming in the firelight. Flanking them were a hundred crossbowmen, and bringing up the rear were the supply wagons and the siege-mages.
They carved a path of blackened destruction straight toward Sector 4G.
By mid-day, the Vanguard reached the coordinates provided by the captured Ranger Captain. The fires sputtered and died at the edge of a massive, muddy ravine.
Kastor held up a gauntleted hand, bringing the massive column to a halt. He narrowed his eyes beneath his visor. Spanning the entire width of the ravine was a towering wall of woven, thorny briars, cleverly blended with deadwood and moss.
"Is this the grand fortress that terrified Thorne?" Kastor sneered, spitting onto the scorched earth. "It's a goblin palisade. A stiff wind could knock it down."
"General," his lieutenant, a Level 30 Shield-Bearer, rode up beside him. "The Rangers reported bipedal constructs and a highly intelligent Dungeon Master. We should proceed with caution."
"Caution is for scouts," Kastor barked. "We are the First Legion. Mages! Breach that wall!"
The Pyromancers stepped forward, chanting in unison. A massive sphere of condensed, white-hot flame materialized above them and launched into the briar wall. The explosion was deafening. The thorny palisade shattered into a million burning splinters, leaving a gaping, fifty-foot hole in the defenses.
"Infantry, advance!" Kastor roared, drawing his massive greatsword. "Shield wall formation! Leave nothing alive!"
Three hundred heavily armored men marched in perfect unison through the burning breach. They stepped into the muddy courtyard of the Outer Ward, their boots sinking slightly into the soft earth. They kept their shields raised, expecting a hail of arrows or a magical ambush.
Nothing happened.
The courtyard was dead quiet. There were a few crude, tripped wires visible in the mud, obviously meant to trigger crude rock-falls from the trees, but the Mages' fire had already burned the ropes away.
"Pathetic," Kastor laughed, riding his charger through the breach. He looked toward the massive, dark archway of the Sunken Vaults at the far end of the camp. "The beast is hiding in its hole. Secure the courtyard! Bring up the siege-mages to crack the dungeon doors!"
The heavy infantry broke their tight shield wall, spreading out to secure the perimeter. It was the exact moment Kaelen, watching through the dungeon's sensory network deep below, had been waiting for.
Arrogance is a heavier burden than steel, Kaelen thought. He mentally triggered the core. Now, Gromm.
Deep in the upper tunnels, the Hobgoblin Chief pulled a massive, hidden iron lever.
In the courtyard above, the "mud" beneath the feet of the heavy infantry suddenly lost all surface tension. It wasn't solid ground. Gromm's goblins had spent weeks digging ten-foot-deep trenches across the entire clearing, covering them with a thin, magically treated weave of reeds and a layer of wet dirt.
With a sickening crunch, the false floor gave way.
Over a hundred heavily armored knights plummeted into the hidden trenches. The screams started instantly. The trenches weren't just deep; they were filled to the brim with Labyrinth rot-water—a highly acidic, stagnant sludge—and lined with fire-hardened punji sticks.
Heavy plate armor, designed to deflect swords and arrows, became an anchor. The men who weren't impaled immediately began to drown in the thick, caustic mud, unable to lift their fifty pounds of steel out of the muck.
"Ambush!" the lieutenant screamed, his horse rearing back wildly. "Fall back! Form the line!"
But there was nowhere to fall back to. The surviving infantry were scattered, terrified, and staring in horror at their drowning comrades.
Then, the shadows at the edge of the treeline moved.
Prime and the nine Aurelian Scale-Guards didn't charge with a battle cry. They burst from the camouflaged underbrush in total, terrifying silence. They moved with a speed that defied their size, closing the gap before the human crossbowmen could even raise their weapons.
Prime targeted the lieutenant. The Scale-Guard lunged, thrusting his newly forged Aurelian Venom-Spear.
The lieutenant raised his dawn-steel shield, confident the iron weapon would bounce off. But Kaelen's magic was not of this world. The spearhead, glowing with sickly-amber light, pierced the enchanted steel as if it were wet parchment. It drove straight through the shield and bit deeply into the lieutenant's shoulder.
The [Level 1 Paralysis] took effect in a fraction of a second. The lieutenant dropped his sword, his eyes rolling back in his head, and tumbled off his horse into the mud.
All across the fractured frontline, the Scale-Guards went to work. They fought like a perfectly synchronized machine. A thrust of the glowing spear, a paralyzing hit, a pivot to the next target. They didn't bother killing the paralyzed knights; they simply incapacitated them and moved on, letting the panic of the human army do the rest of the work.
General Kastor watched his elite vanguard dissolve into utter chaos in less than two minutes. The Pyromancers tried to cast, but the Scale-Guards were already too close, mingling with the human soldiers. Any area-of-effect spell would kill their own men.
"Hold the line!" Kastor roared, his golden aura flaring as he desperately tried to project a Paladin's protective ward over his men.
Deep below, Kaelen watched the blue and gold System notifications rapidly fill his vision.
[Enemy Incapacitated: Human Heavy Infantry (Level 18)] [Enemy Incapacitated: Human Heavy Infantry (Level 15)] [Enemy Incapacitated: Human Shield-Bearer (Level 30)] [Passive EXP accumulating...]
Kaelen uncoiled from his throne, his golden eyes glowing with predatory satisfaction. The vanguard was broken. It was time for the Lord of the Depths to personally address the General.