Screech.
The queen roared as she unleashed her sonic wave, the vibration tearing through the cavern like a physical force. Air distorted. Stone trembled. Conner was hurled backward, his body slamming into the rocky floor before skidding several meters.
He rose almost immediately.
Dust rolled off his shoulders as he straightened. He flexed his fingers once, then stretched out his hand. A second blade answered his call, materializing into his grasp with a faint metallic hum.
From what he had observed so far, the queen possessed several power-ups.
The first was the webbing. She used it to trap enemies, forming thick cocoons around them. She had already used it multiple times against both him and Reever. It was the least powerful in terms of direct damage, yet somehow the most terrifying. Through it, the queen seemed capable of controlling and mutating players. Neither Conner nor Reever fully understood how it worked, and that uncertainty made it dangerous.
Her second ability was the screech. A sonic blast so powerful it could block attacks and send opponents flying. But it wasn't limitless. Conner had noticed the delay between uses. It had a cooldown. He just hadn't calculated the exact timing yet.
The third ability was her body mutation.
She could reshape herself into weapons or armor. When Conner had unleashed Limitless Assault earlier, the queen had shifted into absolute defense, tanking everything he threw at her. The armor had been formidable, nearly impenetrable.
Nearly.
It wasn't flawless.
When she shifted into attack mode, her defense weakened. That was how he had drawn blood.
And logic suggested the reverse was also true.
If she defended, she couldn't attack.
Sweet.
"Limitless Assault."
He activated it again, but this time the blades were directed toward the kings and rooks standing in disciplined formation behind her. They had remained on standby, waiting for the queen to command them.
As expected, the queen intercepted the skill without hesitation. She appeared in front of the attack path and absorbed the barrage without visible strain.
Her defense was solid. Conner couldn't deny it.
But his skill wasn't truly limitless either. It consumed energy. The difference was that he had reserves others didn't.
Being a legacy kid had its privileges. While most players relied solely on internal reserves to activate their abilities, Conner could draw from external sources. His energy replenishment wasn't bound to normal constraints. That was why he could continue deploying high-output skills without showing exhaustion.
The queen shifted into attack mode again.
This time, she altered herself further.
One limb reshaped into a gun.
An actual gun.
Both Conner and Reever froze for a split second at the sight.
Another limb elongated and hardened into a massive sword, larger than Conner himself. A third transformed into a spear, sleek and lethal. The last retained its scythe form.
"Damn it," Reever muttered.
And he meant it.
The more he watched, the clearer it became. He was weak. Not slightly behind. Not underprepared.
Weak.
Most players had trained for this world. They were raised with it in mind. He had arrived by accident. Worse, he wasn't even from this era. His combat skills were nearly nonexistent. His battle experience was embarrassingly shallow.
He had been a gamer.
Now he stood in a war.
Conner, barely eighteen in appearance, fought like something forged in violence. He moved with instinct and precision, like a creature born for this battlefield.
Reever, over five hundred years old, could not do the same.
He let out a silent laugh at himself.
Bang.
The queen fired.
A bullet formed entirely from condensed web shot toward Conner at terrifying speed. He slashed at it midair, expecting it to split.
It didn't.
It splattered.
The webbing exploded across his blade, instantly clinging to the metal. Thick strands wrapped around the sword, tightening, contracting, binding it in a living cocoon. The web pulsed faintly as if breathing.
Conner didn't try to pull free.
Behind the queen, wings erupted from her back. Thin membranes stretched between jagged frames of bone and chitin. She launched forward with explosive speed. Her massive sword dragged through the air behind her like a descending executioner's blade, while the spear aligned beneath her for a piercing thrust.
The cave howled as the air split around her.
Conner moved his free hand.
A small metallic shard flicked from his fingers, arcing toward the far side of the cavern — near the kings, rooks, and bishops still standing in rigid formation.
The shard hit stone with a quiet clink.
Conner vanished.
The queen's vision adjusted a fraction too late. Her momentum carried her through empty space. She twisted mid-flight, scythe carving the air, gun limb firing another web round into nothing.
Then she saw him.
He stood beside the shard.
Beside her royal guard.
Her wings snapped outward in an attempt to brake.
Too late.
She slammed into the cavern wall with catastrophic force. Stone fractured outward in violent cracks. Dust erupted. The entire cave shook as though struck by an underground quake.
For half a breath, there was silence.
Conner raised his sword.
"Limitless Assault."
His voice was steady.
Behind him, blades manifested in numbers that defied sense. Not illusions. Not reflections. Steel. Solid. Countless. Millions of silver swords bloomed into existence like a storm forming out of nothing.
Then they surged forward.
The swarm crossed the cavern in a single devastating wave aimed at the kings, rooks, and bishops. The air screamed under the pressure. Stone walls split. The ground fractured beneath the force of their passage.
There was no defense.
No time to reposition.
No command.
In less than a breath, the royal guard was erased.
Bodies were pierced through. Thrones shattered. Chitin split open under merciless precision. The assault ended as quickly as it began.
Silence reclaimed the cavern floor.
The queen rose slowly from the shattered wall. Rock fragments slid off her armored body and struck the ground with dull thuds.
Her many eyes scanned the battlefield.
She felt it.
The absence.
Every connection to her kin severed at once.
A sound tore from her throat.
Not merely a screech.
Not only rage.
It was loss compressed into vibration.
The cave ceiling trembled beneath the frequency.
Her body began to shake.