The shield slammed into Raze Dawg’s face with a flat, brutal impact.

No flame burst from it, and no thunder cracked through the cavern. The damage number that flashed above Raze Dawg looked almost insulting compared to his level and gear, yet the sound spread farther than it should have.

It cut through the hiss of poisoned water, the scrape of the legendary greatsword, and the broken breathing of the vanguard.

Everyone heard steel crash into the face of the man who had made them feel helpless.

Raze Dawg’s head snapped back by a fraction. His HP barely moved, and Martin’s arm almost went numb from the rebound as pain climbed from his wrist to his shoulder.

Martin held the shield anyway, close enough to see Raze Dawg’s eyes widen behind the fading grin.

The strike had never been about damage. The shield only needed to touch him.

Landing it was enough to make Night Espresso’s vanguard move again.

"Checkmate," Martin said.

He spun on his heel and ran straight for the tunnel that led underwater.

He didn’t slip on the wet floor or skid across the poisoned water. He ran as if his boots were glued to the ground.

"Checkmate, you say?" Raze Dawg whispered.

Martin did not look back.

He heard the poisoned water splash behind him. He heard Raze Dawg’s voice flatten into something colder. He heard the vanguard inhale at once, as if everyone had realized the same thing.

Still, he ran.

The tunnel mouth waited ahead, half-submerged and dark beneath the Ant Queen’s broken body. If he reached it first, the next part of the plan could begin. If Raze Dawg reached him first, there would be no next part.

Behind him, Raze Dawg looked at his game system.

[An unknown debuff effect has been applied to you.]

Unknown meant the system had no proper name for it. It did not recognize the effect, so all he saw were question marks.

A bad feeling crawled up his spine.

The unknown debuff dragged Raze Dawg’s balance down, making his legs buckle.

Then his knees bent deeper, turning the stumble into preparation.

"He’s preparing for that leap!" Potato Block shouted from inside the Ant Queen’s corpse.

The warning came before the rest of him did.

A battered shield shot out of the corpse’s opened vent first. Then Potato Block followed, tumbling through cracked shell, broken legs, and leaking poison sacs in the ugliest roll imaginable.

His shoulder hit the wet stone. His helmet bounced once. Poison splashed across his armor, and the last scraps of the Ant Queen’s shell clung to him like trash.

He did not waste time standing properly. He clawed forward.

"NOT TODAY, YOU OVERGEARED DOG!"

Potato Block scrambled across the poisoned floor on hands and knees, then threw himself at Raze Dawg’s legs with everything he had left. His shield was almost ruined. His armor was dented. His HP bar shook near the danger line.

None of that stopped him from wrapping both arms around Raze Dawg’s ankle.

The difference in strength was ridiculous.

Raze Dawg looked down at him as if a wet sack of potatoes had attached itself to his boot.

Then he jumped anyway.

"No way?!" Potato Block screamed.

The leap ripped him off the ground with Raze Dawg. His body snapped upward, legs flailing beneath him as the enemy shot toward the ceiling.

Poisoned water streamed from his armor. His gauntlets scraped against Raze Dawg’s greaves, sparks spitting from metal as he tightened his grip with pure panic.

"I AM NOT BUILT FOR FLIGHT!" Potato Block shrieked.

Raze Dawg ignored him. His eyes were already on Martin.

The ceiling rushed close above him, but Raze Dawg did not strike it.

He stopped beneath it and floated there, suspended in midair with his greatsword angled behind him and his grin already returning. The golden-black aura around his body pulsed slowly, holding him in place while his eyes searched the battlefield below.

From that height, the funnel, the corpse, and the vanguard’s formation no longer mattered.

Raze Dawg had found the shortest line to Martin.

Straight down.

He took those few seconds to choose his landing spot, then angled his body toward the tunnel. If he dropped there, he would reach Martin before the underwater trap could start.

On the ground, Chaosgraphy’s eyes sharpened.

"Buff me! Everything you have!"

Buffs stacked over her until she shone. Her pup cast them first, doubling all their effects and pushing her owner into peak form.

Light crawled across her coat, gathered around her legs, and made the edge of her smile look even more dangerous.

Chaosgraphy did not ask where Raze Dawg was. She asked Kill Clause for the distance between herself and Potato Block.

"On his current path, fifteen meters in another second," Kill Clause replied.

"That’s what I need," Chaosgraphy said.

Potato Block’s bleeding HP marker gave her the anchor she needed.

[Chaosgraphy has used Bloodstep.]

The red light beneath her heel flashed once, and she vanished.

Chaosgraphy reappeared above the battlefield, right beside Potato Block’s flailing body and Raze Dawg’s armored leg. Her fingers caught the dents in Raze Dawg’s armor before gravity could steal her position.

She hung there with one hand hooked into torn metal, her dark coat snapping around her waist and her body arched in a line too graceful for such an ugly fight.

Even then, she looked like she had chosen the pose herself.

Raze Dawg’s eyes flicked toward her.

Too late.

Chaosgraphy twisted her hips and drove her leg upward in a vicious, beautiful arc. Her boot slammed clean under Raze Dawg’s chin, forcing his head back just as he was about to kick off the ceiling.

The impact was nowhere near enough to crush him, but it stole his aim.

His gaze broke from Martin. His body tilted half a degree away from the tunnel.

The golden-black aura around his greatsword flared unevenly as his planned descent lost its clean line.

"That was fucking cool!" Potato Block exclaimed, still clinging to Raze Dawg’s leg like the world’s most terrified anchor.

"Fuck you, bitch!" Raze Dawg shouted.

"So salty. I could use your salt as seasoning for my dinner tonight," Chaosgraphy sneered.

That’s all I can do to stop him from reaching you, Martin. Now it’s your turn.

On the first day she entered this game world, Chaosgraphy had made one decision.

She would live as the villainess she loved and become even better at playing her.

Never did she expect she would sacrifice herself for another player, let alone a man.

You turned me into your heroine, Martin. Heroines usually get discarded after their role is fulfilled... but I know you won’t let me go. You’re my handsome Warden.

Shoosh!

As those words crossed her mind, Raze Dawg came down with enough force to slam poisoned water outward in a violent ring. Dust and black shell fragments billowed up around him, swallowing Potato Block’s flailing shape and Chaosgraphy’s elegant silhouette as his weight crushed them into the stone.

Armor caved beneath the impact, and the wet, ugly crunch of breaking bones cut through the poisoned spray.

The notifications appeared before Martin reached the tunnel.

[Potato Block has died.]

[Chaosgraphy has died.]

Those were the deaths that hurt Martin the most.