Dungeon King: The Hidden Ruler-Chapter 85: [Three Faces of the Blade 3] BURN!

Raven crouched high above the arena, pulling himself into a narrow cavity of the ceiling scaffold. Metal creaked beneath him, but no one below heard. From here, he had a full view of the combat floor—an expanse of scorched plating, ruptured pipeworks, and the dull orange glow of embedded mana conduits.

At the center stood Sentinel AX-Draxos.

A rune-woven brass golem, wide as a boulder and twice as heavy. Its chest core pulsed with a slow, growing light—Raven recognized the tell. When the glow reached its peak, the Safe Zone Burn would trigger, flooding the arena with a mana-draining surge that spared only three circular safe zones.

He also remembered the other cue. When the golem’s voice, distorted by time and war code, groaned out the word—

"BURN."

That meant the Directional Blast. Four cardinal beams. No safe edges, no delay.

And then there were the blasters. Draxos had no hands, only cannonlike arms that charged with coiled light before discharging high-pressure bolts that could flatten even tanks.

Raven watched the battle unfold below. Their nameplates confirmed what he suspected. This was Team A of Flaying Tiger—a mid-tier guild currently making a push for relevance. This group had been assigned to handle Draxos, while other members cleared the rest of the dungeon.

Rei, the tank, stood like an anchor at the front line. But even his form faltered for a second when Draxos’s core began to pulse.. "Rotate!" he barked, shield raised.

Behind him, Korrax strafed wide, loosing an explosive arrow that detonated on Draxos’s left thigh joint. "Boom’s on cooldown! Give me a window!"

Beside Korrax, Iza, the fire mage, snapped her staff downward. Flames erupted around her feet as she cast a clean Fire Spray, then chained into a precise fireball. "Rei, you’re pulling him half a meter too far!" she snapped.

In the rear, Spindle, the healer, kept her distance, weaving soft green links of light to keep the frontline topped off. Her eyes were locked on the cooldown display as she moved. "Rei, you’ve got regen. Korrax, shift left—I’ll bounce it over."

They moved well. Trained. Their rhythm was tight. But Raven wasn’t watching their teamwork. He was watching for timing.

And for openings.

Draxos’s core began to glow hotter. The low pulse built like a heartbeat beneath steel, then intensified. Raven’s eyes narrowed.

Below, Rei shouted, "Safe zones incoming—lock formation!"

The golem’s body locked in place as steam vented from its back. Then came the charge, not just magical, but physical—like the air was compressing around them.

Three runic circles blinked into existence across the battlefield floor—close enough that the team could share vision and support, overlapping just slightly. Flaying Tiger’s core tactic was visible now: always stay within one major radius, so every member could watch the others’ backs.

The rest of the floor lit with a faint ripple. The burn was seconds away.

Raven stayed high above. He wouldn’t join. Couldn’t. Not yet.

He shifted his weight, creeping further along a ceiling beam. From here, he could see every position, every shuffle. He wasn’t interested in fighting the boss—not yet. Draxos was part of the arena. The environment. He only needed it to keep burning.

From below, Spindle nearly lost her footing but caught it in time. Korrax let out a low whistle. "This thing is a mana vacuum."

"Hold steady," Rei barked. "Burn ends in three."

A pulse of energy burst outward from Draxos’s chest. The blue ripple swept across the floor like glass shattering in reverse.

Safe Zone Burn Complete. No one was caught.

Raven moved silently, repositioning. He now understood their spacing. He now knew where to apply pressure.

Team A reset fast. Rei charged again, pulling Draxos into the next rotation. Korrax looped right, baiting another slam from Draxos’s cannon. Iza landed another fireball as the golem turned.

Spindle took two quick steps left, casting another regen chain. The rhythm was clean.

For now.

Draxos’s core lit up again, the steady hum growing louder with each surge of internal heat.

"Safe zones again! Lock!" Rei called out.

Three circles appeared across the floor, pulsing faintly. The group tried to reach center circle again.

Raven moved. He grasped a loose metal shard from the beam beside him and flung it down.

The debris struck Spindle’s ankle mid-run. She faltered. Half a second’s hesitation.

It was enough.

The Safe Zone Burn triggered. Blue energy swept outward. Spindle’s circle blinked—but she was still outside the boundary.

"Spindle! What are you doing?" Rei barked.

"Sorry, I—"

Before she could finish, a sharp pulse slammed through her chest. Her vision blinked, and a cold ripple moved across her limbs.

[System Alert: Mana depleted to 0%. You are Silenced for 10 seconds.]

She gasped. The regen channel snapped. Her fingers twitched but refused to respond. The spell collapsed mid-cast.

She stumbled the last meter toward the circle, a breath too late.

"Shit! We got no healer for next cycle!" Korrax shouted.

"Spindle, behind us!" Rei ordered. "Stay covered!"

She limped into the circle, gasping.

Her mana hit zero. Silenced. No spells.

Safe Zone Burn Complete.

Then Raven struck.

A shadow dropped behind Spindle. The flash of tattered black and silver. A dagger drove into her back. Not enough to kill, but it sent her to red.

Her scream cut short—she tried to cast, but the silence remained.

Raven was already gone.

He vanished into the edge of the arena, sprinting the shadows as Draxos’s blaster fired again.

Raven weaved between the open floor and scattered debris, zigzagging through the burn-scarred arena with quiet precision. Blaster fire ripped past his shoulder, but he didn’t flinch—Draxos hadn’t aggroed him, and the shots were meant for the others.

He moved like smoke, never staying on one vector. Draxos’s cannon tracked him but never locked. Korrax saw him dart between crates and snarled.

"Got him!"

A fireball tore through the space Raven had just left, exploding harmlessly against a crumbling wall. Iza cursed.

Raven felt the shift.

An idea formed.

He veered again, this time more deliberately—cutting across the fight and positioning himself directly between Draxos and Team A. A risky move. He could get clipped, aggroed, killed from two directions.

But if it worked—

It would cost them far more.

The archer turned. "There!"

Raven gambling’s paid off.

An arrow loosed. Raven dodged, the shot slammed into Draxos.

The golem’s head twisted. Aggro Shift: Korrax

"Fuck—pull it back!"

Draxos’s cannon arm charged and fired.

The team staggered. Rei tried to recenter aggro.

But Raven kept moving—low, fast, always just out of sync. And this time he back into the shadow, let Draxor took the stage as punisher.

Now the team’s lines blurred. They didn’t know who to target. The machine? The ghost?

Iza flared a fireball at where Raven had been—missed.

"Is someone else in here?"

Korrax snarled, "It’s a player. It’s gotta be. Fuckin ganker!"

They were still fighting. But now, they were fighting on two fronts. And they were starting to lose their shape.

Draxos’s core swelled again, a throbbing pulse radiating from the forge-heart in its chest. Steam hissed from its shoulders as the field began to hum.

"Safe zone!" Rei shouted.

Three circles shimmered into view.

Raven was already gone from ground level, climbing quickly. He perched above the center lane, watching the group shift back into formation.

Spindle, still shaky from before, fumbled her potion with both hands. Her fingers slipped once. Then again.

Below, the blue ripple ignited.

Safe Zone Burn initiated.

The team locked in—Rei at center, Korrax and Iza sharing the right flank.

Spindle tilted her head back, downed the potion, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Raven dropped.

He landed square on top of her, dagger first.

Critical Hit.

The stab landed in the soft point between shoulder and spine. She crumpled. [Force Logout]

Raven didn’t waste a second. He shoved hard off her falling body, spinning between Iza and Korrax, knocking both wide—

Out of the circle.

The ripple swept again. Mana Depleted. Silence Applied.

Both DPS stumbled, clutching their skulls.

Rei spun. "Iza! Kor—"

Raven landed, already flipping backward, using Rei’s shield swing as a stepping platform. He launched into the air, curling his chain up to vanish again.

Above, only the shadows.

Rei looked up but couldn’t see—forge-light drowned the ceiling in glare.

Safe Zone Burn Complete.

The system still registered Korrax as last aggro.

Draxos turned. Blaster charged.

Not enough to kill—but it dropped the archer into red, and still silenced.

The moment the archer fell down to his knees, Raven cast phantom bind to behind Iza, still trying to move, still silenced.

[Phantom Bind → Backstab]

She flickered. [Force Logout]

Draxos’s core began pulsing again, slow and heavy, like the build-up of a dying heartbeat. The arena lights flickered as another Safe Zone Burn initialized.

Three zones emerged on the ground.

Rei and Korrax scrambled into position, panting. They both turned—just in time to see Iza, across the arena, already crumpled and flickering in the early stages of forced logout.

She hadn’t even made a sound.

Silenced to the end.

Rei lifted his shield overhead, eyes scanning upward. "Watch the ceiling!"

Nothing moved.

The shadows held.

They waited, braced for another drop.

But it didn’t come.

The blue pulse burst outward. Safe Zone Burn Complete.

No attack. No shadowfall. Just silence.

Rei and Korrax, both already deep in the red, stood shoulder to shoulder. The tension warped their formation—Rei scanned ground and ceiling both. Korrax twitched every time Draxos shifted.

"Where is he?" Korrax hissed.

"Focus. Hold the pattern. We just hold—"

But they didn’t hold.

Draxos’s cannon roared. The blaster hit Korrax square in the side.

Player Down.

Only Rei remained.

The core on Draxos’s chest lit once more, swelling with heat and warning.

Another Safe Zone Burn.

Rei stood alone now. The others were gone. He exhaled hard and stepped into the nearest circle, positioning his shield forward. No voice comms. No chatter. Just the hum of the forge and the stomp of Draxos’s limbs.

He didn’t check the ceiling.

Raven was already above.

From the diagonal rafters, he swung forward. Chain curled and snapped—wrapped around Rei’s leg.

Raven dropped low, yanked hard.

The tank stumbled out of the circle.

No damage—but the system responded.

[System Alert: Mana depleted to 0%. You are Silenced for 10 seconds.]

Rei grunted. His skills fizzled. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t cast.

Safe Zone Burn Complete.

Draxos registered the movement.

The cannon charged.

Blaster fire slammed into Rei’s side. His shield absorbed nothing.

He staggered, turned, tried to retreat. But the arena stretched long and empty.

Then came the call.

"BURN."

The Directional Blast fired.

Rei didn’t dodge in time.

The red light engulfed him.

[Force Logout]

Silence fell.

Then Raven descended, boots touching the floor with a soft sound.

Now it was one on one.

Raven vs. Draxos.

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