"Wolf Unit, Listen up. I think we may also see a different type of monster soon. Looks like an animal type, so be careful. Chiyul be on the look out on the flanks" Jinchul ordered to which the unit & Chiyul nodded.
The transformation of the dungeon was complete. What had begun as a hallway skirmish had devolved into a full-scale tactical battlefield. As the Wolf Unit locked their shields, the true nature of the ambush revealed itself.
Out of the darkness, dozens—then hundreds—of four-legged monsters began to pour. They were mana-wolves, their fur as black as coal and their teeth coated in a shimmering, paralytic toxin.
"Chief! There are too many!" one of the younger hunters yelled, his shield vibrating under the weight of a wolf's pounce.
Woo Jinchul stepped to the very front of the diamond formation. He stood before the tankers, his presence alone acting as a secondary wall. "Stand your ground! Remember your training. This is a mirrored engagement."
He surveyed the battlefield with a cold, calculating eye. The monsters weren't attacking randomly. The Armor Sentinels (Knights) were holding the front, the Wolves & Assassins were flanking, and the Archer types were suppressed in the back.
"Orders!" Jinchul's voice cut through the cacophony of snarls and clashing steel. "We fight their kind! Knight vs Knight! Tankers, engage the Armor Sentinels—do not let them break the line. Assassins, find the wolves in the shadows! Mages, focus your fire on their ranged units! Counter every role they play with your own!"
He turned his gaze toward a specific sub-unit. In the center of the diamond stood a group of agile hunters, led by a quiet, hooded figure. "Jinwoo!"
Sung Jinwoo, currently acting as the deputy of the auxiliary scouting squad, looked up. His eyes met Jinchul's. There was a strange spark of recognition there, a shared understanding of the battlefield that shouldn't have existed in an E-Rank.
"Take your squad," Jinchul ordered. "The source of the Sentinels' regeneration is behind the third row of pillars. There are Healer types—priest statues—chanting in the back. If they aren't neutralized, the Knights will never fall. Go inside the formation's blind spot and kill the healers. We will hold the center."
Jinwoo nodded once, his face set in a grim mask. "Understood. Squad, on me!"
As Jinwoo's team slipped through a gap in the shields to perform their flanking maneuver, the main force of the monsters surged forward. The wolves were leaping over the tankers, trying to reach the healers in the center.
"I said," Jinchul began, his mana beginning to flare around him like a physical aura, "do not break the line."
He stepped into the fray. A wolf lunged at his face, its jaws wide. Jinchul didn't even use a weapon. He swept his arm in a wide, horizontal arc. "Mana Slash!"
A blade of pure, compressed blue energy erupted from his arm. It wasn't a physical sword, but the sheer density of the mana made it sharper than any S-Rank blade.
The wave of energy traveled twenty meters, slicing through the air with a high-pitched scream. The first row of wolves was bisected instantly. The second row fared no better, their mana-dense bodies offering no resistance to Jinchul's raw power.
The walls of the corridor were gouged with a deep, glowing line where the slash had passed.
But the Armor Sentinels were still pushing, their heavy shields creating a slow, crushing pressure against the Wolf Unit's front. The hunters were sweating, their mana reserves dipping as they struggled to hold back the giants.
Jinchul saw the morale flickering. They needed to see that the "invincible" was, in fact, fragile.
He walked calmly toward the largest of the Armor Sentinels, a beast of metal standing nearly nine feet tall. The sentinel raised a massive greataxe, the weapon glowing with a cursed blue flame.
As the axe descended, Jinchul didn't dodge. He pulled his right fist back, his entire body tensing like a coiled spring.
The air around his fist began to hum, then roar. The atmospheric pressure shifted, creating a vacuum that pulled dust and debris toward his hand.
"Mana Punch!"
He struck. He didn't hit the axe; he hit the center of the sentinel's chest plate.
BOOM!
The sound wasn't that of metal hitting metal. It was the sound of an explosion. A massive shockwave of golden-blue light erupted from the point of contact.
The Armor Sentinel didn't just break—it disintegrated. The metal was crushed into thousands of tiny shards that acted like shrapnel, flying backward into the other armor types.
The force of the punch traveled in a straight line, a cylinder of pure kinetic destruction that cleared the entire center of the hallway. Ten, fifteen, twenty Sentinels were simply erased, leaving behind nothing but scorched stone and twisted scrap.
The Wolf Unit stood in stunned silence for a second. The pressure on their shields was gone. The terrifying "invincible" army had been turned into a graveyard of broken parts by a single man's fist.
"Did you see that?" a hunter whispered, his awe replacing his fear.
"The Chief... he's a monster," another added, but this time, the voice was filled with pride.
Jinchul adjusted his glasses, which hadn't even slipped during the punch. "Don't stop now! The path is open! Advance and support the deputy's squad! Finish them!"
With a roar that shook the very foundation of the dungeon, the Wolf Unit charged forward, their morale higher than it had ever been. They weren't just fighting for survival anymore; they were following a god of the battlefield into the heart of the enemy.