Rohan was lost on what to do, so he continued battling nevertheless. He and the rest fought on, only to be thrown into trees or narrowly avoid deadly attacks by a whisker.

The mud in the swamp seemed to boil as the remaining heads of the serpent thrashed in pure chaos. Rohan scampered backward, his boots skidding through the thick slime as the left head, still blind in one eye and roaring from Barry’s spear strike, swung its heavy snout blindly.

The massive neck whipped through the air like a loose log, crashing into the very root Rohan had been standing on just a moment earlier. The wood exploded into splinters, sending chunks of wet moss and sharp bark flying everywhere.

Rohan was thrown off balance by the shockwave, his back hitting a nearby tree trunk with a dull thud. He winced, his teeth grinding together in sheer frustration. The pressure of the beast’s rage made the air feel thin and hot, completely erasing the natural chill of the swamp.

"Barry! Get up!" Eric yelled, his voice cracking with panic as he tried to drag himself through the knee-deep muck. His red speed rune flickered weakly on his arm, sputtering like a dying flame. He was pushing his physical limits just to move against the heavy, toxic sludge, but the swamp water seemed to cling to his legs like iron weights.

Barry groaned, trying to push himself up against his crumbling rock pillar. Without his iron spear, his hands were bare and coated in black grime.

"I can’t... my stance is broken!" he called back, coughing as a wave of foul steam rolled off the serpent’s scales.

The serpent’s middle head let out a piercing hiss, its yellow teeth dripping more green venom into the water. It no longer focused on a single target. Instead, it began striking in rapid succession, trying to flatten everything in its path.

The giant jaws snapped down right where Eric was struggling to move. Eric threw himself sideways at the last possible second, the massive teeth missing his shoulder by a hair’s breadth. The sheer force of the miss sent a wave of black mud over his head, burying him momentarily.

Rohan watched the chaos unfold, his mind racing through his available classes. He was incredibly annoyed by the limitations of his current situation.

The left head, still agitated by the spear lodged in its eye, began to sway violently. It slammed its own neck against the swamp floor in an attempt to dislodge the weapon, creating miniature waves of mud that knocked Dominion back down just as she tried to stand. Her fingers dug into the wet roots, her face pale from complete magical exhaustion.

"Rohan, watch out!" Barry shouted as the middle head suddenly pivoted toward the rear platform.

The giant neck extended like a snapping whip. Rohan didn’t have time to think. He threw his weight backward, rolling over a thick, mossy root just as the serpent’s snout plowed through the space he had occupied.

The rough scales of the beast scraped against the edge of his Ironhide Vest, the friction leaving a long, pale mark on the leather. If he had been a second slower, the sheer weight of the strike would have crushed his ribs completely.

He scrambled to his feet, mud dripping from his hair and eyes. The battle was turning into a desperate mess. Priscilla remained unmoving near the base of the distant tree, her green armor smeared with dark muck. Eric was shivering in the water, his strength failing, and Barry was completely defenseless.

The serpent pulled its middle head back into the air, its remaining clear eyes scanning the ruined terrain. The crimson light beneath its scales pulsed faster, a clear sign that its rage was reaching its peak.

The creature was growing tired, but its strikes were becoming completely unpredictable, driven entirely by feral instinct rather than survival logic. It lunged again, the left head swinging low to sweep the roots while the middle head hovered above, waiting to crush whoever tried to jump.

Rohan ducked beneath the sweeping neck, the wind from the movement nearly knocking him over. He stabilized his stance, his grip tightening on his Steelwind Sword as he watched the creature’s massive shadow shift across the dark swamp water.

The middle head, the only one still functioning perfectly, lowered its neck. It was done playing. Its remaining three eyes locked onto the weakest member... Dominion.

It lunged much faster than before, its jaws wide open to swallow her whole.

Rohan saw the trajectory. He looked over at Dominion, then at Priscilla’s motionless body.

He knew what he had to do. He immediately ran. He didn’t activate any ability yet. He ran straight into the path of the middle head.

...He ran parallel to it.

"ROHAN! ARE YOU CRAZY?" Eric screamed.

Rohan wasn’t aiming for the head but for the shadow. He threw his body sideways, sliding across the slippery, mud-coated surface and deliberately placing himself within the shadow cast by the beast’s giant neck as it plunged toward Dominion.

He tripped on purpose, letting his body spin wildly through the mud and kick up a wall of slime. As he slid, during that brief instant when he was completely hidden from the others by the massive neck, his expression shifted from fake panic to absolute, freezing coldness.

Hidden within the mud and concealed for less than a second, he utilized the low-level properties of his other hidden abilities. Combining the force of Kinetic Thrower with his physical momentum while drawing on the minor enhancement provided by Swift Runner, his body blurred as he used the darkness of the swamp to maximize his positioning.

In the blink of an eye, he was no longer in the mud.

He drove his Steelwind Sword, reinforced by the absolute maximum force his current physical frame could produce, not into the scales, but into the gap between them...the flaw his frustrated eyes had been tracking throughout the entire fight.

He struck the neck joint of the middle head. Right where the plates failed to meet perfectly. Then he twisted the blade with a force that should have been impossible for a normal Common Class.

The internal structure of the monster’s spine collapsed.

He pulled the sword free as a massive geyser of green blood erupted from the wound. Immediately afterward, he activated Shadow Linger once more, allowing his body to slip back into the mud.

When he resurfaced, he made sure to look messy, muddy, and confused, gasping for air as though he had barely survived.

The middle head’s attack abruptly stopped.

It was only ten feet away from Dominion.Its jaws slammed shut, but the neck...the neck was dead.

Its internal support was gone. The entire massive head slumped forward and crashed into the mud, its final green eyes flickering before turning dark.

[You’ve killed a Standard Elite Beast — Three-Headed Mire Serpent]

[Frontier Experience Gained — +2.0%]

The text panel glowed, becoming the only light in the dim swamp.

What followed was silence.

Eric stood frozen. Barry lay against his rock pillar, his breath rattling in his chest.

Dominion remained on her hands and knees, staring at the dead serpent head that had nearly crushed her moments earlier.

They had won.

But nobody knew how.

In their eyes, Rohan had merely been a decoy who had tripped and somehow been saved by a lucky monster collapse.

Rohan, coated in black mud from head to toe, pulled his sword free from the sludge. He looked exhausted, frustrated, and filthy.

His face concealed the truth.

The absolute relief that his hidden plan had somehow worked without being seen.

Yet his inner voice was already focused on the next problem.

’Too risky. Way too risky. We have to move. Now.’

Dominion was the first to speak, her voice a fragile whisper that broke the heavy silence.

"Priscilla... did you see... how?"

Rohan’s inner smile was brief.

He had their attention, but not in the way they thought, and that was just fine.

Priscilla frowned slightly as she gazed at Rohan.

’What just happened?’

She felt as though she had missed something important.

Rohan stood there covered in mud, looking just as exhausted as everyone else.

Yet for some reason, the scene refused to make sense.