The mark appeared at the edge of the pale blue glow, not directly in front of the enemy party, but slightly to the right of their ranger. The angle mattered. From there, the tank would not need to win a duel or hold the whole lane. He only needed to make one player take one bad step.

The tank from Party Seventeen understood the moment he saw the ping. He lowered his shield, slipped into the mist, and let the egg light catch only the edge of his armor.

Swift Arrow noticed the movement too late.

At first, he thought it was another ant leg cutting through the haze, so he drew his bow and shifted his aim by instinct. The shape in the mist straightened instead, and a shield came into view with a player crouched behind it.

"Enemy player?" Swift Arrow muttered.

"Taunt," the tank whispered.

The skill hit before Swift Arrow could finish raising his bow.

His body moved against his will. One step forward became two, and the soaked stone under his boots offered no grip. The sudden pull ruined his balance before he could fight the command. His foot slid sideways, his knee struck the floor, and the rest of him followed with a wet, heavy slap.

Cold water splashed against his jaw.

Fuck! That was just a level twenty taunt! This dogshit game design! I’m fucking level forty!

He tried to push himself up, but his left hand sank into a shallow crack under the water. His bow knocked against the stone, the string scraped mud, and his first attempt to stand only made his boots skid farther apart.

Click! Click!

The sound came from behind him.

Swift Arrow’s breath caught. He twisted his head just enough to see a Dark Aquatic Ant crawling over the stone with its curved shell shining blue in the egg light. Its mandibles opened wide, and the wet plates around its head flexed as if the monster could already taste him.

"Tank!" he shouted through voice chat. "Pull it off me!"

No answer came fast enough.

The ant lunged.

Its mandibles clamped onto his leather armor near the shoulder and tore downward, ripping through the material and biting into flesh. Pain exploded through his arm. His HP bar dropped in a clean, ugly chunk, and the poison icon blinked beside it before he could even roll away.

[Swift Arrow has been afflicted with Dark Aquatic Venom.]

"I need help!"

He asked for help, but none came.

The healer and the other two damage dealers had also been dragged off balance by separate taunts, and the ants were already turning the fallen players into prey. MintBandage crawled through the water with one hand stretched toward her tome, while BackCrit cursed so loudly that his voice cracked through the channel.

Worse, projectiles from farther back struck their arms and legs, keeping them pinned while the ants tore into every exposed wound.

[MintBandage: I’m sorry! Someone taunted me and I slipped. I dropped my tome! Ah, attack! It’s an attack!]

[BackCrit: Of course it’s a fucking attack! Some fuckers want us dead and want to steal our spot!]

Swift Arrow forced his right hand under his chest and tried to lift himself again.

That was when he heard wet footsteps beside him.

The sound had none of the frantic splashing that came from a player rushing for a kill. It was steady, controlled, and far too calm for someone walking through a nest full of screaming players and feeding ants.

Swift Arrow raised his head, and for one heartbeat, his heart nearly jumped into his throat.

The figure beside him looked like something the nest had made.

A dark visor curved over his face in a sleek, predatory line, hiding most of his expression while making the gaze beneath it feel sharper.

Layered plates wrapped his chest like a hardened shell, broad across the shoulders and tight at the waist, giving him the heavy silhouette of a creature built to hold the front line and never be moved.

His legguards and greaves carried the same deep water design as the cave around them, thick where they anchored him to the slick stone, yet smooth enough that each step wasted almost no sound.

Then Swift Arrow saw the shield.

A dark blue seal pulsed across its surface in a slow, steady rhythm, almost like the living creature beneath it had a second heartbeat.

The weapon in the man’s hand looked even worse under the egg light. It was only a compact trident, but its three dark prongs shifted between dull black and abyssal blue, giving off a wet orange sheen that looked too alive beside the ant’s mandibles.

[Emperoar Lv. 11]

Level... Eleven freaked me out? Where did I hear that nickname?

"There’s nothing worse in an immersive MMO than losing your footing," Emperoar said.

Swift Arrow wanted to snap back, but his jaw tightened when the ant dragged him half an inch across the stone. His boots scraped uselessly against the wet floor, and the bow trapped beneath his chest might as well have been decoration.

He was trapped, and it had all started with a single damn taunt. Worse, the Dark Aquatic Ant on top of him did not even bother with Emperoar. Between the armor, the shield, and the trident glinting beside its mandibles, Swift Arrow had the absurd thought that the monster had accepted the level eleven tank as part of the cave.

Maybe it was because of Emperoar’s low level. Maybe the ant was simply too busy feasting on his blood.

Either way, Swift Arrow was already dead.

Swoosh!

Martin’s trident drove into the open wound on his arm, exactly where the ant had torn through the armor. There was nothing dramatic about the strike, only clean timing. Swift Arrow’s HP had already been shredded by the fall, the poison, the ant, and the projectiles holding him in place.

The trident only finished the math.

[Swift Arrow Lv. 39 has been killed.]

[Emperoar Lv. 12]

[Emperoar Lv. 13]

[Emperoar Lv. 14]

[Emperoar Lv. 15]

[Emperoar Lv. 16]

The last thing Swift Arrow saw was Emperoar’s levels skyrocketing.