The tremor began just after midnight.
Not violent.
Not loud.
Subtle enough that most of Valcrest Manor slept through it.
Leon did not.
His eyes opened before the second vibration passed through the stone beneath his bed.
He sat upright immediately.
The sensation was wrong.
Not a charge.
Not footsteps.
Movement beneath.
He dressed quickly and stepped into the corridor.
Guards were already emerging from posts, confusion written across their faces.
"My lord," one called, "the ground…"
Leon felt it again.
A deep, low vibration.
Then silence.
He moved toward the eastern wall without hesitation.
The armored warriors were already there, shields in hand.
"What is it?" a guard asked nervously.
Leon stared toward the farmland beyond the manor.
The soil looked undisturbed.
Too undisturbed.
"They said they would break the ground," Leon murmured.
A split second later, the earth ruptured.
A section of farmland collapsed inward as if swallowed by an unseen mouth. Soil crumbled violently, dragging fence posts and crops into a widening sinkhole.
Screams erupted from nearby farmhouses.
"Evacuate!" Leon shouted.
The tremor intensified.
More cracks formed, spidering outward across the earth like veins. The ground did not simply collapse randomly. It followed a line.
A pattern.
Toward the eastern gate.
Leon's pulse steadied.
"They want to destabilize the wall."
The armored warrior nodded.
The earth split open twenty meters from the manor's base. Something massive forced its way upward.
Stone and soil burst outward.
A colossal shape rose from beneath.
It was not lean like the crimson scouts.
It was thick, plated in jagged armor-like scales. Its body resembled a massive burrowing beast, but its head bore the same golden eyes Leon had seen before.
No.
Not the same.
This one's eyes burned darker.
Deeper.
Older.
The ground quaked as it fully emerged.
The eastern wall shuddered violently.
Guards staggered.
"Hold positions!" Leon shouted.
The creature let out a low, resonant roar that vibrated through bone.
From the forest's edge, the golden-eyed leader stepped forward again.
"This is our answer," it called.
Leon's jaw tightened.
The larger creature slammed its massive body against the outer farmland, destabilizing the soil further.
It was not attacking directly.
It was undermining.
Leon's mind moved quickly.
If the foundation collapsed, the wall would follow.
If the wall fell, panic would spread.
He turned to the armored warriors.
"We strike the head."
The first warrior stepped forward immediately.
The second moved to flank.
Leon sprinted ahead, leaping across cracked earth as smaller fissures split open around him.
The burrowing creature sensed him and swung its massive head downward.
Leon rolled, barely avoiding the crushing impact. The earth cratered where he had stood.
The armored warriors moved in from both sides, spears striking at exposed joints between scale plates.
The creature's hide was far thicker than the previous leaders.
Leon thrust toward its eye.
The beast jerked its head violently, the spear glancing off hardened scale.
It retaliated with a sweeping motion of its body, forcing Leon back several meters.
The golden-eyed leader watched from the forest, unmoving.
This was not its fight.
It was observing.
Again.
Leon wiped dirt from his eyes and recalculated.
The creature's strength was overwhelming.
Its hide impenetrable in most areas.
But its movement was slower when fully emerged.
And it had to surface to collapse ground.
"Force it up," Leon ordered.
The armored warriors shifted tactics instantly, striking repeatedly at the creature's flank, provoking rather than penetrating.
The beast roared and lunged forward.
Leon seized the moment.
He sprinted toward the nearest exposed segment of its underbelly as it shifted weight.
He thrust upward with everything he had.
The spear tip pierced between plates.
Not deep.
But enough to draw a roar of pain.
The creature twisted violently.
The first armored warrior locked shield against its head to prevent it from diving back underground.
The second drove his spear deeper into the initial wound.
Leon adjusted grip and thrust again at the same point.
He felt resistance give.
The spear sank further.
The creature's roar turned sharper.
Behind him, the manor wall groaned as soil shifted dangerously.
"Now!" Leon shouted.
Both warriors drove forward in perfect unison.
Three spears aligned.
One target.
They thrust together.
The tip of Leon's spear pierced through into softer tissue beneath armor.
The creature convulsed violently.
The ground trembled.
Then stilled.
The massive body slumped sideways, crushing part of the farmland but no longer destabilizing the wall.
Silence fell.
Leon staggered backward, chest heaving.
Dirt clung to his face and armor.
The golden-eyed leader stepped forward once more.
Its gaze moved from the fallen burrower to Leon.
"You adapt quickly," it said calmly.
Leon planted his spear firmly in the cracked earth.
"You escalate predictably."
The creature's lips curved faintly.
"This was not escalation."
Leon felt a cold chill move through him.
The leader continued.
"This was demonstration."
The words lingered.
Behind it, deeper in the forest, the earth trembled again.
Not once.
Not twice.
Multiple points.
Leon's eyes widened slightly.
The burrower had not been alone.
It had been the smallest.
The golden-eyed leader inclined its head slightly.
"Prepare," it said.
Then it vanished into the trees.
The forest grew silent once more.
But the tremors did not stop.
They spread outward.
Farther.
Wider.
Leon turned slowly toward Valcrest Manor.
His father stood atop the wall, face pale.
"How many?" his father asked quietly.
Leon did not answer immediately.
He looked toward the forest's dark interior.
The ground pulsed again.
Deep.
Massive.
Not scouts.
Not burrowers.
Something older.
Something vast.
The system stirred within him.
Major threat classification updated.
Battlefield authority insufficient.
Capacity expansion required.
Leon's jaw tightened.
Insufficient.
For the first time, the system did not simply acknowledge growth.
It warned.
He looked at the two armored warriors beside him.
They stood unshaken.
But two would not hold against what was coming.
Leon exhaled slowly.
"Begin evacuation of eastern farms," he ordered.
His father hesitated.
"If we pull back, morale—"
"If we lose the wall, we lose everything," Leon said firmly.
The authority in his voice surprised even himself.
His father nodded.
Orders spread quickly.
Villagers moved.
Guards repositioned.
Leon stood amid cracked earth and the body of a fallen burrower.
He could feel the forest watching again.
Waiting.
Not for a probe.
For a collapse.
Deep underground, something shifted again.
Something far larger than a burrower.
And this time, it was not answering a scream.
It was answering a call.
Leon tightened his grip on the spear.
"Then we escalate," he murmured.
The two warriors behind him stepped forward in silent agreement.
The ground trembled once more.
Stronger.
Closer.
This time, it was not the farmland that would be tested.
It was the wall itself.