NukEncore’s words stayed with Martin longer than he expected. Warmth settled in his chest, not because the situation had become any less desperate, but because they had chosen to stand with him. They had even put into words feelings he still couldn’t fully understand himself.

If we could just respawn and keep fighting, I wouldn’t mind them dying and coming back. Holding the line is what matters most, but... I always thought I’d be the one to die first. I thought my job was to make sure everyone else could keep playing their game. But yeah. As long as I’m alive, everyone can come back. I need to remember that from now on.

His hands still wanted to turn him around, and every old instinct screamed at him to swim back, plant himself in front of the others, and die the way a tank was supposed to die. That had always been the easiest answer for him. Stand first. Fall first. Make sure everyone behind him had one more chance to play.

But that answer would waste everything they had just bought for him.

If he died here with the Crystal Spear, their deaths would become nothing more than noise swallowed by the lake.

Martin forced himself forward.

He swam through the dark water, now thick with blue blood rising from the corpses of the Dark Aquatic Ants. The lake had become a second battlefield beneath the first one, full of drifting bodies, falling sparks from skills breaking against the surface, and shadows too large to belong to ordinary monsters. Sound reached him in dull pulses. Explosions became pressure against his armor. Thunder rolled through the water without shape.

Anyone else would have lost direction in seconds, but Martin could still see through the murk despite his helmet leaving half of his face exposed.

As long as the helmet itself wasn’t destroyed, its skill remained active.

Deeper in the main lake, Ao Tenshin burned through the murk in sapphire light, barreling through monsters that could do nothing against her shell. Jets of water burst from within that shell like focused beams, tearing through ants in a way that was still brutal, but at least cleaner than watching them splatter into pulp against a Dragon Turtle’s body.

Ao Tenshin had reached level twenty.

Her bloodline burned, engraving a new skill into her.

[Ao Tenshin has reached level twenty.]

[Ao Tenshin has learned a new skill: Whirlpool.]

The moment the skill settled into her bloodline, the lake changed.

The current stopped fighting Ao Tenshin and began listening to her.

She held still with absurd calm, as if she were basking on a quiet pond instead of standing in the middle of a blood-choked battlefield. The glow beneath her shell brightened, spreading across the ridges of sapphire armor like veins of living light. Around her, the water twisted as though someone had seized it by the edges and wrung it tight.

When one Dark Aquatic Ant lunged at her from below, Ao Tenshin turned only slightly, almost lazily, and the newborn current caught the monster before it reached her. The ant spun once, twice, then vanished into the growing whirlpool with its legs thrashing uselessly.

Another ant slammed into her shell from the side, but Ao Tenshin did not move.

The monster bounced off, tumbled backward, and was dragged into the same spinning current as if the lake itself had decided where it belonged.

The whirlpool widened. It gained speed, depth, and weight until the water around Ao Tenshin became a violent, steady spin. From within her shell, she fired another piercing jet, but now the beam moved like a death whip, slicing through every ant dragged into the current as Ao Tenshin began spinning with it.

Even in the middle of the slaughter, she glanced back at Martin through the bloody water.

Her round sapphire face looked far too proud.

You’ve grown so much already... Angel. You really are the Queen of the Lake.

Martin tightened his grip on the Crystal Spear.

The chaos almost made him feel unnecessary. Ahead of him, Angel was proving exactly what a Dragon Turtle could do in her own waters. Behind him, the war between Night Espresso and Just Die had climbed to another level.

Then he understood that Ao Tenshin was not taking his place in the battle. She was making one for him.

Her whirlpool gave the lake a center, and his Warden skill could turn that center into territory. If he could not stand in front of the others on the surface, then he would stand here, where every monster in Cascade Valley could be forced to look at him instead.

The Crystal Spear pulsed against his chest.

It did not feel like a weapon waiting to be swung, but like a flag waiting to be planted.

His teammates were dying.

The first message hit like a stone dropped into his chest.

[NukEncore has been killed.]

Martin’s grip tightened until his gauntlet creaked.

The second message followed before he could breathe.

[Kill Clause has been killed.]

The water in front of him blurred, and it had nothing to do with the blood.

Then the third message came.

[Crimson Halo has been killed.]

The last of his hesitation died with it.

They had held long enough.

Now he had to make that time matter.

Martin tore through the bloody lake and claimed his place on Ao Tenshin’s shell. He planted his feet on top of her, the Crystal Spear in hand, while the water churned beneath him.

Ao Tenshin answered his arrival with a deep, bubbling cry that shook the current around them.

Martin did not understand the sound, but he understood the meaning.

I’m here too.

He lowered the Crystal Spear until its glow touched Ao Tenshin’s shell, and gold bled into sapphire.

"HOLD THE LINE!" Martin screamed.

His Warden skill erupted from him in a burst of golden light, and the light did not simply spread; it claimed.

Gold rushed through Ao Tenshin’s whirlpool, wrapping around the violent current and turning it into a tornado of light. The water trembled. Blue blood, broken shells, and dying skill sparks were pulled into the spin, swallowed by the glow, and hurled upward as the golden vortex tore through the lake’s surface.

Above them, the lake split open.

A towering column of gold and sapphire rose from the depths, twisting so violently that the surface battle shuddered around it. Waves slammed into the banks. Players on both sides staggered. Ants crawling across the shore froze, their bodies turning toward the light before the pull reached them.

The golden curtain spread in both directions, cutting across the vast lake and claiming it as Martin’s territory.

Every ant was drawn to it, even the mini-bosses.

Martin shouted again. "TAUNT!"

His taunt reverberated through the golden curtain, dragging every monster toward the meat grinder. Eggs cracked open across the nest, and Ant Darlings crawled out to join the charge. The lakebed shifted under the force of thousands of legs. Dark shapes poured in from tunnels, banks, and broken nests, all of them turning toward the same impossible target.

Martin and Ao Tenshin stood at the center of it while the Dragon Turtle spun beneath him, her Whirlpool devouring everything that entered its reach. Martin’s Hold the Line gave that storm purpose, and his Taunt gave it prey.

All of Cascade Valley marched toward them.

I’ll finish my job here.

Martin’s eyes flashed gold, and nothing in Cascade Valley could make him step back.