The roar of the horde was deafening, a wall of pure, ugly noise that crashed over us the moment the first Obsidian Golem shattered into a million pieces of black glass.
I didn't have time to celebrate. Four more of those walking natural disasters were already closing the distance, their purple mana cores pulsing with angry, toxic light. And beneath their massive, tree-trunk legs, the remaining armored Hobgoblins swarmed like angry green ants.
"Hold the choke point!"
Trent bellowed from the shattered gate. He dug his boots into the dirt, slamming his tower shield down just as three Hobgoblins smashed into him. The metal groaned, but a quick flash of golden light from Lira kept his stance rock solid.
I didn't retreat behind the wall. I stayed out in the absolute thick of it.
'If I go back inside, those golems will just smash the gate to pieces,' I reasoned, dodging a rusty cleaver aimed at my neck.
'I have to keep them focused on me.'
I ducked under another clumsy swing, pivoting on my heel, and drove my rusty blade through the gap in the Hobgoblin's iron armor.
Shhhk.
The creature choked on its own dark blood and collapsed. The moment it died, a thick, oily stream of dark spiritual energy burst from its chest and funneled straight into the blade in my hand.
[Oh, that one tasted like rotten meat and spite!]
Nyxaris cheered in my head, her spiritual voice echoing with a disturbing amount of glee.
[Keep them coming, boy! I can feel the rust flaking off my soul!]
I ripped the sword free and sliced another goblin's knees out from under it. More dark smoke swirled through the chaotic air, twisting like a miniature tornado before vanishing into the pitted steel of my weapon.
I jumped backward to avoid a massive spiked club, panting slightly. I glanced up at the wall. Aria was staring directly down at my section of the battlefield, her eyes narrowed in absolute concentration as she wove shadow curses to bind the approaching horde.
She was looking right at me.
'Wait,' I thought, parrying a desperate thrust from a dying goblin.
'Why isn't anyone freaking out?'
I kicked the goblin away and quickly asked the screaming weapon in my hand.
"Nyxaris. You are literally acting like a demonic vacuum cleaner right now. There are thick streams of dark energy flying across the battlefield directly into my sword. Why is nobody mentioning this? If Aria sees me using some evil soul-sucking magic, she's going to dissect me."
[Hah! Dissect you? That little shadow-weaver couldn't even scratch my scabbard!]
Nyxaris laughed, a rich, arrogant sound.
"Answer the question, Nyx."
[Relax, you paranoid child,]
she replied, sounding immensely pleased with herself.
[What you are seeing is the Spiritual Plane. You can only see the souls feeding me because you are my bonded master, and because your intent is currently conducting through my core. To everyone else—your little witch friends included—I just look like an incredibly ugly, rusty stick.]
I ducked a swinging iron club, the wind ruffling my hair.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
[Positive. Unless someone possesses a monumentally strong spiritual foundation—and I mean 'Grand-Master' or 'Arch-Bishop' level of spiritual sight—this energy is completely invisible to the physical world. They just see monsters dying and turning to ash. You're fine. Now stop whining and FEED ME THAT FAT ONE OVER THERE!]
'Invisible,' I thought, a wave of profound relief washing over me. 'Okay. Good. I don't need a side-plot where my team thinks I'm a cultist.'
"Rias! Move!"
Serene's voice cracked like a whip from the courtyard.
I didn't look. I just threw myself to the side, rolling across the rough dirt.
A split second later, a massive, car-sized boulder of dark ice—courtesy of one of our Artificial Mages on the wall—slammed into the spot where I had just been standing, crushing five Hobgoblins into green paste.
"Watch your spacing, Leonhart!" Serene yelled, her hands glowing with intense, concentrated heat.
"The big ones are adapting!"
I scrambled to my feet and looked up. She was right.
The four remaining Obsidian Golems had seen what I did to the first one. They weren't raising their arms high anymore. They were keeping their massive stone fists low, protecting their knee joints, and marching in a tight, overlapping phalanx.
'They have a shared tactical network,' I realized, my chest tightening.
'They learn from each other's deaths.'
"Aria!" I yelled, pointing my rusty sword at the nearest golem.
"I can't reach the joints if they guard them! Pull them apart!"
Aria didn't ask questions. The Silver Rose just smiled, her eyes turning pitch black.
"With pleasure."
She slammed both her palms onto the top of the stone parapet.
A massive, sprawling web of inky black shadows erupted from the base of the wall. It didn't aim for the small goblins. The shadows shot forward like harpoons, wrapping around the thick, obsidian arms of the two leading golems.
The monsters roared, trying to pull away, but Aria gritted her teeth, her silver hair whipping around her face as she strained against their immense physical strength.
"I can only hold them... for three seconds!" she grunted, her knuckles turning white.
"Three is all I need!"
I funneled a massive surge of compressed mana into my legs. The dirt exploded beneath my boots as I launched myself forward.
I didn't aim for the knees this time. I used the bent back of a bewildered Hobgoblin as a stepping stone, vaulting myself fifteen feet into the air.
I brought the rusty sword back. Nyxaris hummed, a high-pitched, deadly song.
Judgement of Heaven. First Form.
I aimed for the exposed elbow joint, glowing with that toxic purple light, perfectly stretched out by Aria's shadow bind.
Severing the Gale.
The pale aura extended, slicing through the mana joint with zero resistance. The golem's massive lower arm sheared completely off, crashing into the dirt with the weight of a falling building.
The creature staggered, its defense completely shattered. Its chest opened up as it roared in confusion.
"Got you," Serene whispered.
FWOOSH.
Another blinding lance of concentrated crimson fire threaded the needle right past me, striking dead center into the golem's exposed core.
KRA-KOOM!
The explosion sent me tumbling through the air. I hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb the momentum, my uniform tearing at the shoulder.
"Two down!"
Trent roared, bashing a goblin's skull in with the edge of his shield.
"Keep it up!"
The next twenty minutes were a blur of absolute, exhausting violence.
We fell into a brutal, punishing rhythm. Aria would use her shadows to create micro-openings in the golems' defenses. I would dive in, using Judgement of Heaven to sever a limb or cripple a joint, risking my neck every single time I got within range of their crushing fists. And the moment the core was exposed, Serene would execute it with a terrifyingly precise blast of thermal energy.
Lira was the only reason Trent and I were still breathing. Her golden healing magic constantly washed over us, repairing fractured ribs, sealing deep cuts, and flushing the lactic acid from our burning muscles.
By the time the third golem fell, I was gasping for air. The compressed mana in my core was running dangerously low. My lungs felt like they were filled with hot sand.
"Last one!"
Serene shouted, though her voice sounded a little ragged. Even her monstrous mana pool was feeling the strain of repeatedly nuking siege-class enemies.
But the final Obsidian Golem didn't act like the others.
Realizing it was the last of its kind, the purple mana in its joints suddenly flared an angry, blinding crimson. The black glass of its body began to crack and shift.
"It's going berserk!"
Aria yelled, dropping her shadow bind as the creature simply tore through the magical restraints through sheer brute force.
It didn't care about its defense anymore. It charged straight at the gate, ignoring the rain of arrows and magic from our artificial units.
"Trent, move!"
I screamed, pushing my aching legs to sprint toward the gate.
"I hold the line!"
Trent roared back, planting his feet, his face red with exertion and stubborn pride. He raised his massive shield.
The berserk golem didn't punch. It threw its entire, massive body forward like a battering ram.
CRASH!
The sound was sickening. The iron gate buckled completely inward. Trent was thrown backward like a ragdoll, skipping across the dirt courtyard before slamming into the base of the Fort Core.
"Trent!" Lira shrieked, rushing toward him, her hands glowing with frantic healing light.
The golem stood in the ruined gateway, its purple core completely exposed in its rage. It raised both fists, ready to smash the glowing blue crystal of our fort into dust.
If it hit the core, we were eliminated.
'Not today,' I thought.
I didn't have enough mana for a clean Sky Severance. My arms were too heavy. So I didn't try to cut it.
I slid right between its massive, stomping feet, flipped onto my back, and thrust Nyxaris straight up into the bottom of its glowing purple chest cavity.
I didn't use an aura slice. I just poured every single drop of my remaining mana directly into the sword.
[OH, YOU WANT ME TO BITE IT?!] Nyxaris shrieked with absolute glee. [GLADLY!]
The spirit sword acted like a parasite. The moment the rusty tip pierced the purple mana core, Nyxaris began to violently siphon the golem's energy, disrupting its internal pressure.
The golem froze mid-strike, letting out a horrific, glitching screech.
"SERENE!"
I screamed, rolling out from under the beast as fast as my exhausted body would let me.
"BURN!" she roared back.
A torrent of fire, so hot it was almost white, slammed into the golem's chest. The disrupted, unstable core couldn't handle the thermal shock.
The final Obsidian Golem shattered into thousands of harmless, smoking shards of black glass.
I lay on my back in the dirt, staring up at the synthetic gray sky, my chest heaving. The artificial mages on the wall rained down a final barrage of ice and lightning, wiping out the last few straggling Hobgoblins who were trying to flee into the fog.
Then, silence fell over the wasteland.
We had done it.
"Is everyone alive?"
Serene asked, her voice tight. She was leaning heavily against the wall, soot smudged across her cheek, but her eyes were still blazing.
"Trent has three broken ribs, but I'm setting the bone now," Lira said, her voice shaking but professional. Trent gave a weak, pained thumbs-up from the floor.
Aria elegantly descended the stone stairs, not a single hair out of place, though her breathing was slightly elevated. She looked at me lying in the dirt and smiled.
"You look terrible, Rias."
"I feel terrible," I groaned, letting my head thump back against the ground.
Nyxaris, however, was practically purring, completely bloated on high-tier corrupted mana.
[That was a five-star meal, boy. We should do tournaments more often!]
⟨Wave Two Complete. Area Secured.⟩
The system's voice echoed like a bell. We all looked up.
⟨Calculating Clear Times and Assigning Ranks...⟩
The giant holographic leaderboard materialized above the core. I held my breath, waiting to see if our sheer, desperate aggression had paid off.
⟨Rank 1: Independent Faction (Representative: Serene Ivy Sinclair) - Clear Time: 01:14:22⟩
⟨Rank 2: Second Prince Faction (Representative: Arey De Solaria) - Clear Time: 01:21:40⟩
⟨Rank 3: Third Prince Faction (Representative: Aurelius De Solaria) - Clear Time: 01:25:15⟩
...
"We did it," Lira gasped, tears of relief pricking her eyes.
"Look at the shift," Aria noted, her eyes gleaming with political calculation.
"Arey overtook Aurelius. The Second Prince must have sacrificed his artificial units completely to brute-force a faster clear time. Aurelius likely tried to save his troops, and it slowed his faction down."
I smiled tiredly. Arey's ruthless efficiency was showing, and Aurelius's 'save everyone' protagonist complex was finally dragging on his numbers. The cracks were getting wider.
Ding!
Another golden chest materialized, landing softly in the center of the courtyard.
⟨Congratulations to the Conqueror Team. Awarding Base Clear Coins: 1,500. Awarding Rank 1 Bonus: 2,500 Coins.⟩
⟨Total Faction Balance: 4,000 Coins.⟩
Serene walked over to the chest, stepping carefully over a piece of shattered obsidian. The fatigue on her face vanished, replaced by that fierce, undeniable anticipation. She pushed the lid open.
A soft, emerald green light spilled out into the courtyard.
She reached inside and pulled out a thick, glowing parchment sealed with a heavy wax stamp.
"What is it this time?"
Trent grunted, sitting up as Lira finished wrapping his ribs with a mana-bandage.
"Another ghost sword for the crazy guy?"
I rolled my eyes but sat up to look.
Serene tapped the item, reading the system prompt. Her eyes widened, and a slow, incredibly dangerous smile spread across her face.
"It's a [Core Overclock Module]," she read aloud, her voice trembling slightly with excitement.
"It allows us to permanently merge our remaining defensive budget into the Fort Core for the final round. It sacrifices our artificial troops..."
She looked up, her emerald eyes meeting mine.
"...and transfers their combined mana capacity directly into the Representative."
A chill ran down my spine.
She was already a walking nuke. If we funneled four thousand coins worth of raw mana directly into Serene Sinclair for Round Three...
'Oh,' I thought, my tired smile mirroring hers.
'We aren't just going to win the next round. We're going to completely break the system.'