The ten minutes of granted rest felt like a cruel joke. Time doesn't crawl when you're waiting for a horde of monsters to try and tear your throat out; it sprints.
I hauled myself back up the stone steps of the wall, my boots heavy but my chest buzzing with the leftover high of pure, unadulterated combat. The artificial archers stood like statues along the parapet, completely unbothered by the fact that they were about to be swarmed again.
Down in the courtyard, the team had clustered around the glowing blue Fort Core.
"Shop time," Serene announced, her voice tight with focus. The holographic interface hovered in front of her, casting a cool azure glow over her sharp features.
"We have two thousand, two hundred coins. If Round Two scales the way the system implied, leather armor and wooden arrows aren't going to cut it."
"Shields," Trent gasped, still leaning heavily on his sword.
"Whatever is coming out of that fog next, it's going to hit harder. I need better fortification at the gate, or they're walking right over me."
"He's right," Aria agreed, tracing a finger thoughtfully along her chin. "The hounds were fragile. The next wave will likely introduce heavy infantry or siege types. We need stopping power."
Serene's fingers danced across the glowing panels.
Bzzzzrt!
"Purchasing Tier 2 Wall Upgrade," she declared. Five hundred coins vanished from our balance.
Instantly, the ground beneath our feet violently lurched. I grabbed the edge of the parapet to steady myself as the stone walls literally grew. They groaned and cracked, extending another ten feet into the synthetic gray sky. Thick plates of dark iron bloomed over the fragile stonework, and vicious, foot-long steel spikes erupted from the outer facing of the wall.
"Now that," I grinned, looking over the fortified edge, "is some prime real estate."
"Next," Serene muttered, her eyes darting across the [Units] tab.
"We need elemental area-of-effect. The archers are good for single targets, but we need crowd control."
Bzzzzrt! Bzzzzrt!
Seven hundred and fifty coins disappeared. Five columns of white light struck the corners of our newly elevated walls. When the light faded, five Artificial Mages stood there. They wore deep blue robes, their faces hidden in shadow, holding staves tipped with violently sparking mana crystals.
"Seven hundred and fifty coins left," Lira pointed out nervously, wringing her hands.
"What about us? We need supplies. My mana is already down by a third."
"Potions," Serene nodded, tapping the [Consumables] tab.
"High-grade mana elixirs. Fifty coins a pop. I'm buying four."
Four small, crystal vials filled with swirling, luminescent blue liquid materialized on the stone rim of the core pedestal.
Trent grabbed one and practically inhaled it. Lira took hers with shaking hands, popping the cork and taking small, desperate sips. I walked down the steps, grabbed the third vial, and tossed it back. It tasted like peppermint and battery acid, but the moment it hit my stomach, a rush of cold, refreshing energy washed over my slightly fatigued circuits.
I looked at the fourth vial sitting on the stone. Then I looked at Serene.
"You're not drinking?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Serene glanced at the potion, then looked at me, a haughty, almost offended smirk touching her lips.
"I don't need it," she said flatly.
"Serene, don't let your ego write checks your mana core can't cash," I warned, leaning against the pedestal. "You just dropped a miniature sun on a hundred dogs. You have to be feeling the drain."
"Leonhart," she said, her voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly confident register. She raised her right hand. The air around her fingers didn't just warm up; it warped. A deep, concentrated crimson aura flared to life, so dense and oppressive that Lira had to take a physical step backward.
"I am Serene. My bloodline was forged in the caldera of active volcanoes. I don't run out of mana on the second lap. Save the potion for the healer."
I stared at her glowing hand, feeling the sheer, monstrous density of her reserves.
'Right,' I thought, letting out a dry chuckle.
'I forgot. I wrote her to be a walking nuclear reactor.'
"Suit yourself, your majesty," I said, offering a mock salute before turning back toward the stairs.
"Just don't pass out on me. I'm not carrying you."
"I'd burn you to ash before I let you try," she shot back, though there was a distinct lack of real venom in her tone.
⟨ATTENTION.⟩
The system's voice dropped like a physical weight from the sky.
⟨Ten-minute resting period has concluded.⟩
⟨Round Two will commence in 10 seconds.⟩
I jogged back up to my position on the right flank. The air felt completely different now. The ambient temperature had dropped, and the synthetic fog in the distance was no longer just drifting. It was churning.
[Oh, stretch your hamstrings, boy,] Nyxaris purred in my mind, her spiritual presence practically shivering with anticipation.
[I smell heavy iron. I smell thick, meaty souls. I want to cut something big.]
'Just focus on the edge, Nyx,' I breathed, my hand falling to the hilt of the rusty sword.
'Don't get greedy. We don't know what's coming.'
⟨5... 4... 3...⟩
Trent slammed his tower shield into the dirt, bracing his shoulder against the steel. Lira raised her staff, pre-casting a golden aura of fortification over him. Aria stood on the left wall, her eyes completely black as she gathered shadow mana in both palms.
⟨2... 1...⟩
⟨Wave Two: Engaged.⟩
BOOM!
The sound wasn't a howl. It was a footstep.
The ground beneath our fortress vibrated so violently my teeth rattled in my skull.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
From the churning gray fog, the new horde emerged.
"Hobgoblins," Aria announced, her voice clinical and detached, despite the terrifying sight.
"Armored variant. Hundreds of them."
She wasn't exaggerating. A massive army of hulking, green-skinned monstrosities was marching toward us. They were twice the size of a grown man, wearing crude but thick plates of rusted iron, carrying massive spiked clubs and jagged cleavers.
But they weren't what caused the tremors.
Behind the front line of Hobgoblins, towering over them like walking buildings, were five massive constructs.
"Obsidian Golems," Serene hissed from the courtyard, her crimson flames flaring in response to the threat.
They were easily twenty feet tall, forged from jagged, pitch-black volcanic glass. Their joints glowed with a toxic, purple mana, and every time they took a step, the earth cracked under their absurd weight.
"Mages! Archers! Fire!" Serene roared.
The walls erupted into a cacophony of destruction. The archers let loose a blinding volley of mana arrows. The Artificial Mages swung their staves, hurling massive spheres of crackling lightning and jagged ice lances into the approaching army.
CRASH! KABOOM!
The front line of Hobgoblins was immediately decimated. Lightning chained between their iron armor, frying them alive. Ice lances pinned massive bodies to the dirt.
But the Obsidian Golems didn't even flinch.
An ice lance struck the chest of the leading golem and shattered into harmless mist. A lightning bolt hit its shoulder and simply grounded out, the obsidian absorbing the magic like a sponge.
"They have high magic resistance!" Lira cried out, her voice pitching up in panic.
"Serene!" Aria called from the left wall, weaving a massive net of shadows that only managed to slow the golems' legs by a fraction.
"My curses take too long to corrode obsidian! We need raw thermal shock!"
"On it!"
Serene stepped forward, her eyes blazing. She didn't bother with a single fireball this time. She drew both hands back, inhaling sharply, before thrusting her palms forward.
A literal river of crimson fire roared out of her, expanding into a wave of pure, unadulterated incineration. The heat was so intense the air itself warped and screamed. The fire washed over the leading Hobgoblins, instantly turning their armor into molten slag and reducing their bodies to ash.
The wave slammed into the first Obsidian Golem.
The beast roared, a terrible, grinding sound of stone rubbing against stone. Its black surface began to glow a dull, cherry red under the sheer intensity of Serene's flames.
But it didn't melt.
It raised its massive, tree-trunk-sized arms, shielding its purple mana core, and simply walked through the fire.
"Tch," Serene clicked her tongue, cutting off the flame.
"Their density is too high. I can't melt them fast enough before they reach the wall!"
SMASH!
The leading golem reached the iron gate. It didn't bother trying to open it. It just swung its massive, glowing fist down like a meteor.
Trent raised his tower shield, screaming as he channeled every ounce of his mana into a defensive block.
The impact sounded like a bomb going off.
Trent's boots dug twin trenches in the dirt as he was violently shoved backward by the sheer kinetic force. The iron gate groaned, buckling slightly inward.
"G-Gah!" Trent spat blood, his knees buckling.
"I can't take another hit like that!"
Golden light immediately enveloped him as Lira poured healing magic into his bruised muscles, but she was crying.
"He's going to break! The gate is going to break!"
'Brute magic isn't going to work on those things,' I realized, my mind accelerating.
'Obsidian is too hard, too resistant. It requires structural dismantling. It needs to be cut.'
[LET ME EAT THE ROCK!] Nyxaris screamed, totally unhinged.
[ROCKS DON'T TASTE AS GOOD AS SOULS, BUT I WANT TO SHATTER IT! DROP ME IN!]
"Trent! Fall back!" I roared, already vaulting over the parapet.
"Rias, no!" Serene yelled, but I was already falling.
I hit the ground outside the gate just as the Obsidian Golem raised its fist for a second, structure-shattering blow.
I didn't stop to gauge its size. I didn't let the shadow of the massive monster intimidate me.
I inhaled, drawing the compressed mana from my core, funneling it directly into the rusty hilt in my hand. Nyxaris drank the energy greedily, singing a high, terrifying note of anticipation.
Judgement of Heaven—First Form.
I looked up. The golem wasn't a solid block of stone; it was held together by joints of purple mana.
I saw the lines.
I didn't swing at its fist. As the massive stone arm came crashing down toward me, I blurred forward, stepping entirely inside its guard. The wind pressure from its descending strike tore a gash in the sleeve of my uniform, but I ignored it.
I brought the blade around in a tight, upward arc, aiming directly at the purple glow of its knee joint.
Severing the Gale.
The pale white Sword Aura didn't clash with the obsidian. It slid through the mana joint with the terrifying smoothness of a hot knife through butter.
SHHHHK!
The connection was severed.
The golem tried to put weight on the leg, but there was nothing holding the stone together anymore. With a deafening, grinding crunch, the massive construct's lower leg sheared off.
The twenty-foot monster lost its balance, toppling forward and crashing into the dirt face-first, sending up a massive cloud of dust and debris.
[HAHAHAHA! KNEEL BEFORE THE SOVEREIGN'S BLADE!] Nyxaris cackled wildly.
I didn't stick around to gloat. The monster was down, but its core was still active. I jumped backward, clearing the immediate radius.
"SERENE! THE NECK!" I roared at the top of my lungs.
From the courtyard, Serene didn't hesitate. She saw the opening. The golem was face-down, struggling to push itself up, the thick armor plating on the back of its neck shifting to reveal the glowing purple core inside its torso.
Serene didn't throw a fireball. She compressed her flames into a single, blindingly bright, white-hot lance of concentrated thermal energy.
"Die," she whispered.
The lance of fire shot across the courtyard, threading the needle through the bent iron gate, and punched directly into the exposed gap in the golem's neck.
It hit the core.
KRA-KOOOOOOM!
The resulting explosion was catastrophic. The Obsidian Golem detonated from the inside out, raining jagged shards of black glass across the battlefield. I threw my arms up, engaging a quick mana shield to deflect the shrapnel.
"One down!" Trent cheered from behind the gate, his morale instantly returning.
"Four to go!" Aria called out, her hands weaving a new, massive shadow curse to entangle the remaining constructs.
"Keep the rhythm!"
I lowered my arms, letting my rusty sword rest at my side. The pale aura was still humming along the edge, completely stable.
Four towering golems were still marching toward us, surrounded by a swarm of screaming Hobgoblins. The ground shook. The air tasted like ash and ozone. The battle was only just beginning, and my muscles were already screaming.
But as I looked at the massive horde, I couldn't stop the wide, reckless grin from spreading across my face.
'This,' I thought, spinning my sword once, 'is exactly why I didn't want to be a side character.'
"Come on then!" I shouted to the horde.
"Who's next?!"