The rain of arrows was relentless, but it wasn't enough.
From my vantage point on the right flank of the crumbling stone wall, I watched the sea of Corrupted Beast Hounds slam against our defenses. The artificial archers Serene had purchased were putting in the work, their bowstrings snapping in a rhythmic, mechanical twang-twang-twang. Every few seconds, a hound would yelp and tumble into the dirt, pinned by a glowing white shaft of mana.
But there were just too many of them. The hounds scrambled over the bodies of their fallen packmates, their sickly yellow eyes fixed entirely on the heavy iron gate where Trent was making his stand.
CLANG!
Trent's massive tower shield caught a leaping hound right in the jaw. The impact echoed across the courtyard as he shoved the beast back and drove a short sword into its ribs.
"Is that all you got, you ugly mutts?!" Trent roared, his voice thick with adrenaline.
Behind him, standing safely near the glowing blue Fort Core, Lira had her hands raised. Faint, golden rings of support magic pulsed outward from her staff, wrapping around Trent's armor. It boosted his stamina and hardened his skin. Without her, he would have been overrun in three minutes. With her, he was an immovable boulder in the doorway.
'She's doing perfectly,' I thought, slicing the air lazily with my rusty sword to test its weight.
'Trent takes the aggro, Lira keeps him alive. The textbook tank-and-healer combo.'
But the real show was happening on the walls.
Over on the left flank, Aria Ashborne looked like she was conducting a symphony rather than fighting for her life. She didn't shout. She didn't break a sweat. She merely traced complex geometric patterns in the air with her fingertips.
Dark, slithering tendrils of shadow magic seeped out from the base of the wall, slithering across the rocky wasteland like oil on glass. Whenever a cluster of hounds stepped on it, the shadows snapped upward, wrapping tightly around their hind legs. The beasts whined, their flesh sizzling and decaying wherever the curses touched them. Their charge was completely broken.
And then came the hammer.
"Burn."
Serene's voice rang out from the center of the courtyard. She raised both hands toward the sky, her crimson-embroidered coat billowing around her ankles. A massive sphere of deep, blood-red fire condensed above her head. The heat was so intense I could feel it baking the side of my face from thirty feet away.
She swung her arms down. The fireball arched over the wall and detonated right in the middle of the snarled pack Aria had trapped.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion shook the very foundation of the fortress. A shockwave of pure heat washed over the wasteland, vaporizing a dozen hounds instantly and sending several more flying through the air like burnt ragdolls.
'That's my future president,' I smirked, genuinely impressed by the sheer, devastating synergy between the Silver Rose and the Flame Empress.
I, on the other hand, was currently on babysitting duty.
My job was to guard the right flank and kill any hounds that managed to bypass the kill-zone and scale the wall. So far, exactly three had made it up. I had neatly decapitated them with minimal effort, barely even dipping into my compressed mana.
I was comfortable. I was pacing myself.
My sword, however, was having a complete mental breakdown.
[ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!]
Nyxaris shrieked in my mind, her spiritual voice vibrating with so much outrage it gave me a mild toothache. [LOOK AT THAT FEAST! LOOK AT ALL THOSE DELICIOUS, CORRUPTED SOULS JUST WAITING TO BE HARVESTED! AND YOU ARE STANDING HERE LIKE A BORED TOURIST!]
'I'm holding the flank, Nyx,' I replied calmly, kicking the decapitated body of a hound off the edge of the wall. 'It's called strategy. We don't need to waste energy when Serene and Aria are doing fine.'
[STRATEGY IS FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T CUT A MOUNTAIN IN HALF!] she bellowed.
[I am a Sovereign's blade! I was forged to drink the marrow of gods, and you are feeding me table scraps! That girl with the red hair is stealing all our kills! If I had a mouth, I would be frothing! Get down there!]
'No. The goal is to survive three hours.'
[The goal is to be the CONQUEROR!]
she argued, the hilt literally growing warm in my hand from her agitation. [The system said the fastest clear time gets a massive bonus! Those two are wiping out the bulk, but it's taking too long! The hounds are spreading out! Drop me in the middle of them and let me EAT!]
I paused.
I looked down at the remaining horde. There were probably fifty hounds left. Because of the barrage of fire and arrows, their pack mentality had broken. They were scattering, making them harder for Serene to hit with large area-of-effect spells. If we let them linger, we'd be stuck here playing whack-a-mole for another half hour.
A fast clear time meant more coins. More coins meant better defenses for Round Two.
'You're lucky you make a valid economic point,' I sighed internally.
[I knew you loved me! Now jump!]
I stepped up onto the stone crenellations of the wall.
"Trent!"
I yelled down to the main gate.
The big guy glanced up, bashing a hound in the face with the rim of his shield.
"What?!"
"I'm clearing the stragglers! Don't step out of the gate!"
"Are you crazy?!" Lira screamed from the core.
"You're a noble! You don't have heavy armor! Get back on the wall!"
I didn't bother arguing. I just tipped my weight forward and dropped off the fifteen-foot drop.
The wind rushed past my ears. I channeled a tiny thread of compressed mana to my legs, absorbing the kinetic shock the moment my boots hit the rocky dirt. I landed in a perfect crouch, right in the middle of a pack of six hounds that had been trying to flank Trent's position.
The beasts paused, their sickly yellow eyes locking onto me. A fragile, lightly armored human had just dropped directly into their jaws. They bared their rotting, oily fangs and lunged as one.
I didn't panic. I just smiled.
"Dinner time, Nyx."
[FINALLY!]
I engaged the Rune of Mana Compression, pushing the dense energy straight down my arm and into the hilt of the rusty sword.
Judgement of Heaven: Second Form.
I didn't swing wildly. I became a pivot point. I spun on my heel, letting the sword drag in a perfect, flawless circle around my body.
Sky Severance.
A ring of pale-white Sword Aura erupted from the blade. It didn't just cut the air; it expanded outward like a razor-sharp halo. It sliced through the six leaping hounds effortlessly, severing them in half before their paws even touched the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Black blood and oily mana splattered against the dirt.
But the mana didn't dissipate into the atmosphere. The moment the hounds died, the dark, corrupted spiritual residue lingering in their bodies was violently yanked through the air.
It swirled like black smoke, funneling directly into the rusty blade of my sword.
The metal drank it in instantly. I could physically feel the sword vibrating with absolute euphoria.
[YES! OH, YES! THAT'S THE GOOD STUFF!]
Nyxaris moaned in my head, sounding entirely too ecstatic.
[It's dirty, it's corrupted, but it's pure spiritual fuel! Keep going, Rias! Don't let the fire witch take my food!]
I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I kicked off the ground, blurring forward into the next cluster of beasts.
I stopped acting like a traditional swordsman and started acting like an executioner. I ducked under a snapping jaw, driving the hilt into a beast's ribs before bringing the edge down through its spine. I vaulted over a lunging hound, slicing its neck open mid-air.
Every single time a monster dropped, Nyxaris vacuumed up the dark mana, her rusty surface faintly glowing with a greedy, pulsating light. With every soul she ate, the sword felt infinitesimally lighter in my hands, sharper, more aligned with my will.
From the wall, Serene stopped casting for a moment. I could feel her emerald eyes tracking my movements through the dust and blood.
"What in the world is he doing?"
Trent yelled, watching me tear through the horde with casual, horrifying precision.
"He's moving like a ghost!"
"He's disrupting their formation," Aria noted smoothly, her shadow curses wrapping around the beasts fleeing from my blade.
"He's herding them back into the center. Serene! He's giving you a cluster!"
Serene didn't need to be told twice. She saw the opening I was carving.
I dashed in a wide arc, forcing the remaining twenty hounds to huddle together to avoid my blade and Aria's creeping shadows. Once they were packed tight, I slammed my boots into the dirt and jumped backward, clearing the blast radius.
"NOW!" I shouted.
Serene's hands flared like twin suns. A torrent of crimson flames spiraled out, twisting into a massive, concentrated pillar of fire that slammed directly into the center of the panicked hounds.
The heat washed over my face, drying the sweat on my forehead instantly.
The shrieks of the beasts lasted only a few seconds before they were completely turned to ash.
I stood there, breathing heavily, resting the tip of my sword on the ground. Nyxaris was practically purring in my mind, completely stuffed with spiritual energy.
Silence descended over the wasteland. The thick gray fog in the distance remained perfectly still.
No more howls. No more shadows.
"Clear," I called out, wiping a stray drop of black blood off my cheek.
The tension in the courtyard broke. Trent dropped his massive shield onto the dirt, leaning against the gate and gasping for air. Lira slumped onto the base of the Fort Core, looking like she was about to cry from sheer relief.
Aria simply dusted off her skirt, walking gracefully toward the edge of the wall. Serene stood beside her, her chest rising and falling steadily, a fierce, undeniable pride radiating from her posture.
Then, the sky above us hummed.
⟨Wave One Complete. Area Secured.⟩
The genderless voice of the system echoed across the artificial dimension.
⟨Calculating Clear Times and Assigning Ranks...⟩
A massive holographic leaderboard projected itself over the center of our courtyard. My heart hammered with anticipation. We had moved fast. Between Aria's crowd control, Serene's raw artillery, and my manic, sword-feeding rampage, we had completely bypassed a war of attrition.
The names began to populate on the glowing blue screen after nearly fifteen minutes passed.
⟨Rank 1: Independent Faction (Representative: Serene Ivy Sinclair) - Clear Time: 00:41:15⟩
⟨Rank 2: Third Prince Faction (Representative: Aurelius De Solaria) - Clear Time: 00:52:30⟩
⟨Rank 3: Second Prince Faction (Representative: Arey De Solaria) - Clear Time: 00:55:10⟩
⟨Rank 4: Lady Aurora's Faction - Clear Time: 01:02:45⟩
...
"Forty-one minutes," Trent gasped, his eyes wide as saucers.
"We beat the golden boy by eleven whole minutes."
"We didn't just beat them," Aria smiled, her eyes glittering.
"We humiliated their efficiency."
Serene didn't cheer, but the corner of her lips lifted into a sharp, undeniable smirk. She looked down at me from the wall.
"Not bad, Leonhart," she called down.
"For a guy who just wanted library access."
"I aim to please," I grinned, sheathing the happily humming Nyxaris.
Ding!
A golden treasure chest materialized out of thin air, floating gently down to rest at Serene's feet on the wall. At the same time, the system interface popped up again.
⟨Congratulations to the Conqueror Team. Awarding Base Clear Coins: 500. Awarding Rank 1 Bonus: 1,500 Coins.⟩
⟨Total Faction Balance: 2,200 Coins.⟩
Lira squeaked. "Two thousand?! We're rich! We can buy anything!"
"Calm down," Serene said, though her hands were hovering eagerly over the golden chest.
"The next wave will be exponentially harder. We need to upgrade the walls to Tier 2 and buy a heavy artillery construct."
"Open the box," Aria urged, leaning in.
"Let's see what the system deems a worthy reward for upsetting the royal hierarchy."
Serene placed her hand on the lid of the chest and pushed it open. A burst of soft purple light spilled out, illuminating her face.
She reached inside and pulled out a small, intricately carved wooden totem.
"What is it?" Trent asked from the ground, squinting.
Serene tapped the item, pulling up its system description. Her emerald eyes widened slightly, and she looked over the wall directly at me.
"It's a one-time use Relic," she said, her voice laced with sheer disbelief. "It's called [The Sovereign's Echo]. It summons a five-second phantom projection of a random historical Sword Master to execute a single strike against any target."
I blinked.
Down at my hip, Nyxaris practically choked on her own spiritual energy.
[A PHANTOM PROJECTION?!] she screamed in my head.
[IF THAT THING SUMMONS MY OLD MASTER, I WILL LITERALLY CRY TEARS OF JOY! KEEP IT! DO NOT LET THEM SELL IT!]
'Oh, the plot is definitely breaking,' I thought, a manic, excited laugh escaping my chest.
We were rich. We were ranked first. And we had just acquired a tactical nuke in the form of a wooden totem.
"Alright team," Serene announced, putting the relic safely into her spatial ring. Her eyes were burning with a fierce, unstoppable ambition. The broken girl crying on the bench was completely gone. The Commander had arrived.
"Take ten minutes to rest and drink mana potions," she ordered.
"Round Two is going to be a bloodbath. And I fully intend to win it again."