The first wave came like a breaking dam.

Goblins flooded through the tunnel mouth in a screaming green tide. Their bodies crushed against one another as they forced through the narrow opening, claws scraping stone, and voices rising into a single ugly roar.

The bottleneck slowed them for a moment, just a moment, and that small delay was the only mercy the team would get.

Ayla moved first.

Her hand lifted slightly, almost lazily. Threads slipped into the air, thin and invisible. At the same time, the warmth in the cavern shifted under her control.

Twenty goblins in the front rank stumbled mid-stride. Their eyes rolled white. Thin trails of smoke curled out of their ears and the corners of their mouths.

They collapsed against each other, blocking the throat of the tunnel for the wave behind them.

Bloodnet pulled the blood. Pyromancy heated it. The brain cooked from the inside without the skull ever marking.

Jaxon blinked. "What the...?"

Ayla did not answer. She had already turned her attention forward.

More poured in.

Too many.

The ones behind pushed forward, stepping over the fallen without hesitation. They crossed the threshold of her range and then they kept coming.

The first wave reached the pool.

The goblins ran straight into it without pause, without thought, and without the basic animal sense to test the surface. Lesser bloodline. Their instinct was a single note pressed and held.

Kill.

The liquid splashed upward, thick and foul, coating their legs. The smell grew worse instantly, a rotten sweetness mixed with iron.

Hidden stones waited beneath the surface.

The first goblin screamed as its foot drove onto a jagged edge. Bone snapped. It pitched forward and another behind it crashed into its back.

Then another.

The line broke. Bodies began to fall. Some impaled themselves through the abdomen. Others lost their footing and sank face-first into the shallow fluid.

The weight of the swarm pressed them down, crushing them beneath their own kin.

Sora gagged. "That smell...!"

Elara covered her nose with her sleeve. "This is disgusting."

Ayla watched in silence. Humans had described this plan calmly. Efficient and strategic. Then why were they surprised by the brutality of it?

Interesting.

More goblins surged forward, ignoring the deaths. They clawed through the pool, stumbling, slipping, and climbing over each other to reach the platform.

Ayla shifted her focus.

The tunnel mouth.

Something stepped through the chaos. The Hobgoblin Warrior.

It stopped.

Unlike the others, it did not rush. Its heavy frame remained still as it took in the carnage. Its eyes moved across the chamber, tracking the dead, the traps, and the survivors.

Then it raised its sword and let out a deep, commanding roar.

The goblins behind it slowed.

The pressure at the tunnel entrance eased. The swarm began to spread instead of funneling straight ahead. They moved along the walls, circling instead of charging blindly.

Ayla’s eyes narrowed.

"A bit smarter. Its brain might taste good," she murmured.

"Ayla, you are so cool, joking even at this time." Jaxon gave her a thumbs up.

Kenji tried his best to hide the grin that graced his lips. Only he knew how seriously Ayla had said that. He turned around and focused on the incoming goblins. His grip tightened on his sword.

It was time.

The goblins that survived the pool reached the edge of the platform. They climbed over one another, bleeding, furious, and half-mad with instinct.

Kael stepped forward.

"Hold the line," he said.

The first goblin lunged. Its cleaver carved a line across his shield. He did not react. Iron Will held. Kael slammed his shield forward, crushing the goblin’s face, then brought his blade down in a clean arc.

One strike. Dead.

Kenji moved beside him, not wasting any time. His trait gave him no combat skills. What he had instead was practice.

Hundreds of fights had carved the instincts into his bone. His blade killed three goblins in four cuts. None of the cuts were dramatic. All of them were final.

He watched his own hands work and noticed, for one quiet half-second, that the loops had given him something the system never measured.

He was not a stronger Runner. He was a more efficient one. The body did not need stat bonuses if the mind already knew where the next blade would be.

Elara flashed across the right side. Wind Walker carried her forward in a blur. Her blade opened a throat, then she was gone before the body hit the ground.

Again. And again. Three times in rapid succession. She slowed slightly on the fourth. Her breathing grew heavier.

"Damn it... mana..." she muttered.

Jaxon stood at the rear. He raised his hand, focusing hard.

"Fireball!"

A burst of flame shot forward and struck a goblin in the chest. This time, it dropped. He grinned. "Got one!"

The next shot went wide and fizzled against the wall.

"...Still got one," he added under his breath.

Behind him, Sora kept her hand extended. White light stretched across the space, linking her to Kael. The glow remained steady, quiet, and almost invisible. But it held him together.

Ayla moved through it all. Her kills did not follow the same rhythm. She did not swing a blade. She redirected.

Threads slipped into bodies, guiding them off balance, into each other, and into the jagged stones beneath the pool.

She used their own speed against them, their own mass turning into weapons.

Efficient. Minimal effort.

The notifications stacked across her vision.

[You have slain a...]

[You have slain a...]

[Experience accumulated.]

She barely glanced at them.

A goblin broke through the line and lunged toward her. Only because she let it come. It reached within an arm’s length, eyes locking onto her.

For a brief second, its animal instincts screamed while watching the predatory gaze that decorated her face.

Then its heart stopped, its body collapsing at her feet.

"Ayla, are you fine?" Jaxon asked worriedly. He never expected a goblin to break through her attack. Ayla waved her hands dismissively.

While no one was looking, blue tendrils escaped from her fingers and devoured the brain of the fallen goblin.

[You have devoured a Goblin brain]

[Biomass consumed: Goblin]

[Racial form acquired: Goblin.]

No one noticed the corpse of the goblin disappearing from their sight.

Kenji cut down another goblin and glanced toward the tunnel mouth. The Hobgoblin Warrior still had not moved. It watched. Waiting.

Kenji’s breath slowed. That had never happened before. In every loop, the Warrior charged with the second wave. That was when Kael fell. That was when everything collapsed.

But now, it hesitated.

Because of her. It could feel her presence. Her control. Something about her made it hold back.

Kenji’s mind raced. Hundreds of goblins, they could handle. Three Hobgoblins together, they could not. Never.

But if the Warrior delayed... if the Mage and Assassin did not arrive together... if the formation broke...

"This might work," he whispered.

Hope crept in. For the first time in countless loops, it felt real. He cut down another goblin, his movements steady.

Then something shifted. Not in the battle, but in her. Ayla’s attention changed. Kenji noticed it immediately.

Although she was fighting against the goblins, her attention was always focused on the Hobgoblin warrior.

Now, it had changed.

Her gaze moved past the warrior in confusion. Her brows drew together slightly as she focused on something deeper within the swarm.

Kenji followed her line of sight. At first, he saw nothing unusual. Just goblins.

Then—

One stood out.

Smaller and thinner than the other goblins. It seemed to be a runt in the group. It didn’t have a weapon. Its movements were chaotic, not in a straight line as the others.

The goblins around it shifted slightly as it passed. They did not seem to notice it; they simply made space.

A path opened for it.

Kenji’s chest tightened. "That’s not normal..."

The goblin kept moving. Straight toward them.

Then—

It flickered.

For a fraction of a second, its body blurred. Then it vanished.

Kenji’s blood ran cold.

"...No."