The Gnashers came like a flood of broken laughter. Too many, too fast. Their claws scrambled over the rocks with terrifying ease, sending loose stones skittering down the slope.

  “Shields up!” Fty snapped, staff raised. A lattice of pale wards shimmered into being around the party, but even as he spoke, he knew… this wasn’t going to be enough.

  Yuki darted forward, her blade flaring with crackling light. “I’ll blind one!” she called. She spun a mirror into the air with a snap of her wrist, refracting sunlight into a concentrated beam. It hit the nearest Gnasher full in the eyes; the beast yelped and stumbled.

  But for every enemy slowed, three more came.

  They poured around its flailing body like water around a rock. Yuki barely had time to raise her sword before a trio was on her, snapping and clawing. Sparks screamed off her blade as she deflected the first strike, a mirror shield blooming just in time to catch the second. The third Gnasher crashed into her side, teeth finding her shoulder.

  “Yuki!” Fty shouted, but he couldn’t reach her. His hands were already occupied forcing healing threads into Katherine’s frame, knitting bone where a basilisk’s tail had cracked against her ribs.

  Yuki went down in a spray of dust.

  Lunaris was there in a heartbeat, swords flashing. Her rapier darted, piercing the beast’s flank, while her longsword swept wide, carving a shallow line across another’s chest.

  Her movements were a desperate dance, not the joyful rhythm she’d carried earlier. For a moment, she bought Yuki space… only to be slammed sideways by the third attacker. She crashed onto the ground with a grunt, rolling, blades up, but trapped in the press of snarling bodies.

  “Fall back!” Fty barked, but his voice was nearly drowned by the Gnashers’ cackling chorus. He forced his staff into the ground, runes sparking to life beneath his boots, but every ounce of mana went into healing. Yuki’s flickered with injury. Lunaris bled from her temple. Katherine—

  Katherine was alone against the basilisks, a juggernaut fighting a wall of scales and claws.

  She planted herself on the slope like a mountain come alive, greatsword swinging in arcs so heavy each impact rattled the ground. A basilisk snapped at her torso; she shoved its head aside with her shoulder and drove her blade down its spine. Another slammed its tail against her back, sending a shock through her frame that would have folded lesser warriors in two.

  Katherine didn’t flinch. She roared, lifting her sword and cleaving down again, trading wound for wound without hesitation.

  She was holding. But she couldn’t be everywhere.

  Fty’s teeth ground together as he shoved another healing surge toward her, then another toward Lunaris. His mana thinned under the strain. He was supposed to lead… direct, command, orchestrate. Instead, he was drowning in wounds, his staff trembling as every decision became one of who gets to live another ten seconds.

  NightSwallow flitted in and out of the chaos, a phantom blade. One Gnasher fell with a whisper, throat opened before it knew she was there. Another collapsed with a tendon cut, its momentum carrying it past Yuki. But for every enemy she ended, two more darted past. Even her precision couldn’t keep pace with the tide.

  And then Lisa moved.

  She had been holding her spark back, a caged flame dancing between her fingers. Now it roared in her palms, furious and wild, so bright it turned the dust red. She rose from her crouch, hair whipping in the heat that bled from her body.

  “This,” she yelled, voice cracking with something between fury and exultation, “is once a day!”

  The world held its breath.

  The flame in her hands swelled, hungry and impatient. It wasn’t the controlled fire of a mage’s careful spell. Fty felt it was alive… snarling, howling, desperate to be free.

  Lisa let it go.

  The blast didn’t just erupt… it surged. Fire poured from her like an unchained beast, racing across the battlefield in a rolling wave. It blanketed rock and scrub, curling around her allies with an impossible awareness. The flames chose not to burn them, sliding past Lunaris’s prone form, leaping over Yuki’s body, splitting around Katherine like water breaking on stone.

  Everywhere else, it consumed.

  The Rebel Fire screamed, a soundless howl that roared in their bones rather than ears. Dust flashed into glass under its heat. Basilisks shrieked as scales blackened and split, their ridged backs glowing like molten rock. Gnashers writhed mid-lunge, laughter twisting into agony as fire found them, clinging to their scales like oil.

  It should have ended everything.

  But when the fire thinned, when the smoke cleared and the battlefield glowed with patches of ember and ash… some still lived.

  The basilisks, half-grown but stubborn, staggered upright again, scales cracked but bodies not broken. The Gnashers, scorched and bleeding, limped in snarling circles, not dead, not yet.

  Lisa’s eyes widened. Sweat ran down her temples, her chest heaving with the effort of channeling so much raw mana and fury. “Not… enough?”

  It didn’t matter. The fire had done its work. The battlefield was silent for a moment, enemies staggering instead of charging, momentum shattered.

  The tide had broken.

  “Now!” Fty barked, his voice iron despite the fatigue dragging at his limbs. He forced mana into his staff, flooding his team with what little he had left. Katherine’s shoulders squared as wounds vanished; Yuki pushed herself upright behind a flickering shield; Lunaris rolled to her knees, blades singing again.

  NightSwallow ghosted past, her dagger finding the weakest throat among the Gnashers. One fell. Then another.

  Lisa staggered, but her fire still clung to the battlefield in scattered tongues, a reminder of what she had unleashed. She gritted her teeth, forcing the flames to coil tighter around the enemy, leaving only pockets of safe ground for her allies.

  Together, they surged.

  Katherine’s blade came down like an avalanche, crushing a basilisk skull into the dirt. Yuki blurred into three again, her mirrored selves slicing open scorched tendons. Lunaris danced between enemies, rapier finding chinks in their cracked scales while her longsword batted aside weakened tails. NightSwallow erased stragglers, cold and quiet, every kill unseen until the moment it was done.

  And Fty… Well, Fty held them together. Healed what he could, slowed what he couldn’t. Every buff was a plea for them to endure. Every ward, another few seconds bought.

  At last, the laughter died. The shrieks ended. The last Gnasher fell with a hiss, fire crawling up its body until it collapsed into silence.

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  The slope was a ruin of ash and cracked stone. The air stank of ozone and burnt scale. Lisa sagged onto her knees, hands trembling. “Once a day,” she muttered, half-laughing, half-weary. “Better have been worth it.”

  Fty looked at her, then at the others… scorched, battered, bleeding, but alive. Barely. He exhaled.

  “Enough,” he said. His voice was ragged, but steady. “We survived.” The last of the smoke curled away, leaving the hillside stinking of scorched stone and ash. For a long heartbeat, no one spoke. Then—

  “Yes!” Lunaris nearly bounced, blades still in hand, eyes bright as a child at a festival. “I leveled! Three levels!”

  Her joy pushed through the heavy air.

  Lisa’s head snapped up, exhaustion forgotten. “Three?!” She practically exploded off the ground, hair wild, fire still smoldering faintly at her knuckles. “My Lunyyyyy!” And before Lunaris could backstep, Lisa crashed into her with a hug hot enough that the younger girl squeaked.

  Fty found himself… smiling. In spite of everything, the corners of his mouth tugged upward. He let them have their moment before gesturing toward the far edge of the slope, where the grass was still green and untouched.

  “Over there,” he said, firm but softer than usual. “We’ll rest where it isn’t fried. Let our cooldowns… cool down from the fire.”

  Dead silence.

  Not a smirk, not a snort. Lisa and Lunaris glanced at each other, lips twitching. Yuki looked away, shoulders shaking. Even Katherine, flat on her back with her sword still across her chest, pressed her lips into a thin line of mock discipline.

  The silence stretched until Fty realized. His ears burned crimson. “Okay. Fine. We rest. Wait for mana, then continue.”

  That was when all of them laughed. Katherine rumbled a hoarse chuckle. “Unbelievable,” Fty muttered, but it was ruined by the way his face flamed.

  A light tug at his sleeve drew his attention. NightSwallow stood beside him, as if she’d been there the whole time. Her lips curved into that unnerving half-smile that never quite reached her eyes. “I’ll scout ahead,” she said, voice low and sure. And then she was gone, shadows swallowing her up.

  Fty let out a long breath. “Rest,” he ordered, and for once, nobody argued.

  Lisa finally released Lunaris and flopped backward onto the grass, arms spread wide. “Ughhh. Cool grass.” Steam practically hissed off her skin where fire-heat met greenery.

  Lunaris stayed upright, brushing her hair from her eyes, then turned eagerly toward Yuki. “Your magic! It was so bright, so quick… you bent light itself! Where did you learn that?” Her eyes shone like stars.

  Yuki beamed, practically bouncing in place despite the claw marks on her armor. “Lunaris! So, when I was walking through the Temple of Radiant Windows, there was this scholar, no, two scholars, and they showed me how mirrors bend spells if you polish them with crushed starlight! But before that, I actually saw a knight duel a glass drake—”

  The words poured out like an endless river.

  Fty sat down with a sigh, letting the chatter wash past him. He didn’t need the details; he’d learned long ago that Yuki’s “explanations” were more folklore than fact.

  He glanced aside. Lisa and Katherine had both collapsed onto the grass now, sprawled out like spent titans. Katherine had her arms folded under her head, eyes half-closed, greatsword resting across her chest. Lisa hummed, kicking her feet idly, content in the cool earth.

  “This team…” Fty murmured under his breath. A mix of irritation and, he had to admit it, pride.

  “Rimebreak Elites,” Katherine interrupted suddenly, eyes still shut. Fty blinked. Then, slowly, the corners of his mouth tugged up again.

  “Perhaps we are,” he said.

  They rested.

  For a while, the only sound was the cicadas humming their electric chorus, the soft sigh of wind running its fingers through the grass, and Yuki’s bright voice pouring endless “important lore” into Lunaris’s eager ears.

  Fty leaned his staff against his shoulder and rubbed at his eyes. Exhaustion pressed down like a wet blanket, but his team was alive. Somehow.

  No early respawn… yet.

  Lisa sprawled flat on the grass like she wanted to melt into it. Katherine dozed with her arms folded under her head, greatsword lying across her chest like a blanket only she would consider comfortable.

  He let his eyes close.

  A rustle. Then footsteps.

  NightSwallow slipped back into camp, shadows clinging to her frame like cobwebs. But this time her gait was stiff, her expression taut. Her usual mask of quiet poise was cracked with irritation.

  Fty’s throat dried. He gulped and sat up straighter. “What is it?”

  “I can’t go forward.” Her voice was clipped. “There are cats on the cliffs. Cliff Stalkers.”

  The others stirred at that.

  NightSwallow’s jaw tightened. “I can’t fight them alone. And I can’t get past. They’re… more stealthy than me.”

  She twirled her dagger, the metal whispering against her calloused fingers. “I tried to sneak. Three times. Every time, they mirrored me. When I climbed, they climbed. When I slunk low, they shadowed me on the rocks. I couldn’t even see them until their claws scraped. They know the cliffs better than I know my own shadow.” Her teeth clicked together, with a flash of fury. “But when they come down, they’ll learn who the superior rogue is.”

  Her dagger hissed in the air as she flipped it once and caught it again.

  Fty rose, brushing grass from his robe. “Then we go together.”

  Katherine sat up instantly, grinning. “Finally.” She hauled her blade upright, resting it on one shoulder like a farmer with a hoe.

  Lisa rolled onto her feet in a flash, her exhaustion burned away by the promise of another fight. Fire flickered between her fingers again. “Cliff cats? Sounds fun.”

  “Not fun,” Fty corrected grimly. “Dangerous. Stay alert.”

  They moved out as a unit, following NightSwallow’s lead through the winding gullies and weathered stones.

  The cliff rose before them… a serrated wall of rock, its surface cracked into jagged seams and shelves. Heat radiated off the stone, shimmering faintly in the midday light. Sparse patches of scrub and thorn clung to the cliff face, somehow alive where nothing else should be.

  The cliff almost looked alive itself, ridges shifting under the changing sun, shadows creeping like ink. It was a place made for predators. “There,” NightSwallow whispered, pointing with her blade.

  [Cliff Stalker Lv.27]

  Type: 3-rare | HP: 890/890

  On a flat ledge halfway up the cliff, a single Cliff Stalker lounged in the sun. Its scaled body sprawled like a reptilian lion, sleek muscles shifting beneath patterned hide that blended almost perfectly with the stone. Its tail swished lazily, claws clicking faintly against rock. Its eyes, slitted and gold, slid over the group once, then away again, as though they weren’t worth noticing.

  Indifference was worse than hostility.

  The others glanced at one another. Lisa’s spark hissed in her palms. Yuki adjusted her grip on her sword. Lunaris tilted her head, studying the creature as if she already imagined the rhythm of the fight.

  But NightSwallow stood taut as a drawn bow, eyes flicking along the cliffs, searching the shadows. “It’s not alone,” she murmured. “They’re here. Watching. Waiting.”

  Fty swallowed. “Ideas?”

  For once, she gritted her teeth and said nothing. No plan.

  Katherine barked a laugh. “Ya no worry!” She planted one foot forward, lifting her sword high. “Go!”

  “Katherine, wait—” Fty began.

  Too late.

  She charged, wild momentum in every stride. Dust and pebbles jumped under her boots. Her blade carved a brutal arc, the kind that could split stone in two.

  The lounging Cliff Stalker purred. Its tail flicked once. At the last possible instant, it twisted aside with feline grace, Katherine’s sword smashing into rock where it had been a heartbeat before. Chips of stone exploded outward, dust clouding the ledge.

  And then another cliff groaned.

  A deep rumble shook the ground beneath their feet, sending gravel slithering down the slope. Cracks spiderwebbed outward from a cliff on the other side. From within the cliffside, stones shifted, grinding together in an unnatural rhythm.

  The rumble grew into a roar.

  A jagged hand tore free of the rock. Then another. A crude body heaved itself out of the stone, slabs grinding into the crude shape of arms and legs. A hollow head formed, with a jagged crack where a mouth might be.

  Bandit laughter rang out from the cliffs above. “We’ll get your money!”

  The [Bandit’s Pet Golem] rose fully, barely taller than Lunaris but radiating brute weight, every motion accompanied by the grinding shriek of stone against stone.

  Katherine didn’t even glance at it. She ripped her sword free and turned, eyes locked on the Cliff Stalker that had slipped away from her strike. “Yar mine.”

  The stalker’s chest rumbled with a purr, low and mocking.

  That was when the real attack came.

  From the left, two Cliff Stalkers leapt from the rocks, claws outstretched, bodies twisting in midair like shadows given flesh. From the right, two more pounced, tails whipping for balance as they descended in perfect, silent harmony.

  They weren’t hunting Katherine alone.

  They were hunting all of them.

  Fty’s heart lurched into his throat. His wards surged to life on instinct, light shimmering over his allies just as the predators fell toward them.