The boss’s level indicator floated five tiers above Diana’s own, placing it just within the range where she could read its attributes. Her eyes moved quickly across the data, and her expression tightened.

"Kira," she said, her voice clipped and deliberate, "what is your physical defense when Divine Armor is active?"

"Sixteen hundred." Kira’s answer came without hesitation. "I’d go down fast."

Diana didn’t blink. "Swap with me. Put on my gear."

Kira opened her mouth to refuse, but the dungeon floor shook before the word left her lips. General Malan, the White Bone General, had already spurred his skeletal tiger into a charge, his halberd raised high as his roar crashed over them like a wave.

"Intruders, die!"

Instinct moved Kira before thought could. She lunged forward, planting herself between the boss and the rest of the group, shield rising to catch the halberd with a bone-rattling clang. The block was clean, but the force drove her back three full steps, and the damage that bled through the perfect guard drew a sharp breath from everyone watching.

1859.

From the rear, Lily’s Wind Arrow sang through the air and found its mark. The boss’s movement stuttered, its speed locked down by the debuff, buying them a precious breath of time.

"Kira!" Diana’s voice cut through the chaos. "Stop hesitating. There’s no one else who can hold him, it has to be you!"

Kira bit her lip hard enough to hurt, then stripped off her gear with practiced efficiency, tossing it to Diana and pulling on Diana’s equipment in its place. She had to admit, her own set wasn’t embarrassing, four pieces of silver-grade "Solitary Autumn Rain" armor plus bronze-grade gauntlets she’d intentionally stashed in her inventory before the dungeon. But the moment she fastened the last buckle of Diana’s gear, she felt the difference immediately.

She rolled her shoulder, adjusted her grip on her longsword, and charged back toward the Bone General with sweat cooling on her brow.

"Sister Diana, I’m at two thousand physical defense now! Watch yourself out there!"

Diana’s eyes filled with quiet relief. "Everyone stay sharp," she called out. "This boss hits hard."

The battle settled into a grueling rhythm. The White Bone General stood a full seven levels above Kira, and that gap showed in every exchange, his Heaven and Earth Strike tore through more than four thousand points of her health in a single blow, leaving the whole group pale. Bernita poured healing into Kira without pause, her hands never still, but even so Kira burned through low-level alchemical potions at an alarming rate.

Still, Kira gave as good as she took. Her Holy Strike proved devastatingly efficient, a deflecting slash to strip the boss’s defense, followed by a clean hit that pulled two thousand points off the White Bone General’s health. It was a one-trick play, but it was a good trick.

Don worked the flanks, slipping around to the boss’s back and threading in backstabs and combo chains with quiet precision. His killing intent stacked cleanly, each burst of damage sharper than the last. His one frustration was the sealed gate, with no way in or out, he couldn’t retrieve the scorpion tail venom he’d have used to properly control the fight. He filed the thought away and kept working.

Diana, stripped of her best gear, could no longer stay close enough to fight. She circled the edges of the battle, weaving in and out, swapping to her bow when an opening presented itself. Yates had it worse, the boss’s sweeping attack clipped him on the second hit with a critical strike that shaved off over three thousand health in a single moment, nearly dropping him instantly. After that, he kept his distance with more caution than he’d have liked to admit.

An hour in, Don stole a glance at the boss’s health bar and allowed himself a small, private smile. Thirty percent gone. At this rate, four hours would be enough.

The second hour brought a new problem. The durability of Kira’s borrowed equipment, Diana’s equipment, was bleeding away. The chest and legs, the two pieces that bore the brunt of every exchange, had already dropped to half. If the trend held, the gear wouldn’t last long enough.

Diana must have read the concern on someone’s face, because she reached into her pack without being asked and produced a breastplate and a pair of leg guards. She tossed them to Kira with the easy practicality of someone who had planned for exactly this.

Kira caught them, glanced at the item tags, and her voice dropped to something barely above a whisper.

"Good heavens. They’re both silver-grade."

Don watched the exchange in silence. Diana’s stockpile was on par with Elias Finch’s. The question that had been sitting quietly in the back of his mind resurfaced with renewed weight, what exactly was Diana’s role in Sword Song? She moved like a leader. Sword Song Cloud Wind and Sword Song Ice Peace both deferred to her with a respect that wasn’t merely polite. And yet she remained an open question, a face without a full story behind it.

She was a mystery. She had always been a mystery.

Kira equipped the new chest and legs during the third and a half hour mark, just as the boss’s health sank to twenty percent. Victory felt close enough to taste.

Then the crimson glow bloomed across General Malan’s frame, and the system chime rang through the dungeon.

"General Malan’s total health is below 20%, triggering Berserk. Attack power and attack speed increased by 30%. Effect duration: 20 minutes. Upon expiration, all attributes reduced by 50%."

Kira didn’t flinch. "Everyone push your damage. Bernita, keep me alive, no matter what."

A golden halo flared around her. She raised her shield, and the familiar geometry of Firm Defense locked into place, a pure blocking stance that halved all incoming damage and drew every ounce of the boss’s aggression toward her like iron to a magnet. The skill had no upgrade path. Every knight in the game carried it as a last resort, and Kira used it now without hesitation.

The boss obliged her, hammering at her with single-minded focus. It was the mistake they needed. With half the incoming damage absorbed, not even the boss’s berserk-enhanced blows could cut her below the danger threshold, and the rest of the group unleashed everything they had.

Then Lily’s crossbow clicked dry.

"Damn it, out of arrows!" She stamped her foot and spun toward Don. "Don, lend me some!"

Don exhaled through his teeth. "Lily, bows and crossbows use different arrows."

Diana’s hand was already moving. "Lily, here."

Yates stared at her. "Sister, you are literally an armory. How do you even carry all of this?"

Diana allowed herself a brief, tired smile. "Someone has to plan ahead for all of you."

Lily grabbed the arrows with a sheepish expression and got back to work.

Don made one opportunistic attempt on the tiger mount, hunting for an exploitable opening on its legs, Diana and Yates saw the plan immediately and moved to support it without needing to be asked. The effort returned nothing. The tiger’s legs were encased in solid plating that his dagger couldn’t find a seam in. He let it go and returned to the flanks.

The clock ran out on Firm Defense before the boss dropped far enough.

Kira was already moving when she saw the cooldown expire, sprinting clear before the White Bone General’s halberd came down. The weapon crashed into the dungeon floor and scattered black dust in every direction. She almost made it clean.

Almost.

The halberd came back around in a wide arc and scraped across her armor as she ran, and two numbers tore across her health bar in rapid succession.

2058.

Critical hit, 5582.

A sound that wasn’t quite breathing came from several members of the group at once. Kira’s health had been near-full, and Diana’s gear had absorbed the worst of it, if she’d still been wearing her own set, she would have been dead before the second number finished rendering. She activated Divine Absorption without pausing, converting the next incoming strike into recovery instead of damage.

But the White Bone General was already pivoting.

The halberd swung wide and found Diana, who had no time to react. The tip drove clean through her before anyone could move.

4985. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Diana crumpled without a sound, blood bright against her lips, and hit the ground.

Before the grief had time to land, before anyone had even processed what they’d seen, the boss raised one arm with a sound like cracking ice, and a beam of silver-white light poured down over her body. Her wounds knit shut. Her back arched. Her eyes opened.

"Player Diana has been affected by General Malan’s Forced Awakening skill and has been reborn on the spot. 60% health and mana restored. Penalty: level reduced by 1."

She hadn’t finished drawing breath before the halberd came down again.

4038.

She fell back into the blood she had just left.

The group stood frozen for half a second. The boss raised his hand again.

Don was already moving.