The cavern shuddered. The Basilisk's hiss warped into a grating shriek that vibrated against Will's teeth. Pinning the Alpha hadn't broken it. It had just cornered it.
The beast thrashed, churning the shallows into a slurry of mud and black water, but the crystal spike held. Unable to advance, it reared back, its neck arching. Every jagged crystal along its spine ignited, shifting from flare-red to a blinding yellow-blue.
"Brace!" Will screamed, fighting to keep his vision from graying at the edges.
The air in front of the beast's maw tore open. It unleashed a continuous, overlapping wave of phantom jaws that swept the shoreline like a scythe.
Tyson threw his entire weight behind the P.A.C.I.F.I.C. riot shield, locking his boots into the grit with a roar. The spectral teeth chewed into the metal with the sound of grinding gears. The alloy buckled, spider-webbed, and disintegrated.
The impact launched Tyson backward. He hit the dirt hard, sliding ten feet through the freezing sludge before his body went limp. Don was clipped by the wake, whipped aside as his sword spun into the dark. Maddie tried to dive. The sheer, concussive force knocked her flat and stole the breath from her lungs.
The line broke.
The Basilisk loomed, its golden eyes locking onto Maddie. The crystals on its jaw flared to a steady heat. It was charging a point-blank execution.
Get up, Khan's voice was a whip-crack across the synaptic bridge. You do not let them die in the dirt.
Will was out of explosive arrows. Every breath was a careful negotiation with the damaged rib. He grabbed three steel-tipped shafts and nocked them all at once, his fingers slick with blood against the string. His pattern-recognition and the broken math of his [Luck] sought the only opening left.
He released.
The arrows flew in a ragged cluster. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. They struck the armored cheek ridges and shattered into splinters. The impacts disrupted the monster's focus. The yellow-blue glow stuttered and dimmed as the beast jerked its head.
Will had bought them three seconds. He caught Maddie's eye through the haze of dust and gave one sharp nod.
"Tyson! The step!" Will screamed.
Across the clearing, the big man stirred. Bleeding from a deep gash on his forehead, Tyson didn't hesitate. He scrambled forward with a growl, dropping to one knee and locking his hands together to form a stirrup.
Maddie snatched her blade from the mud. She kicked up grit as she went into a dead sprint and slammed her boot into Tyson's locked hands.
Tyson heaved upward with a shout, burning every remaining point of his [Strength].
Maddie launched.
She soared ten feet into the air. The ambient red light caught her blade as she raised it over her head. Her face lacked rage, holding only the flat, absolute focus of someone completing a task they had already decided was finished.
The Basilisk recovered. Its golden eyes snapped upward. It opened its jaws to snap her out of the air.
Will was already drawing his final arrow. He aimed past the armored hide, targeting the soft, wet tissue inside the monster's flaring nostril.
Thwip.
The arrow buried itself to the fletching.
The Basilisk let out a gargling shriek, its head jerking backward. The spasm pulled its jaws away from Maddie and exposed the pale scales of its underbelly.
Maddie hit the apex. She hung suspended in the smoke. Her [Strength] stat surged as she twisted her core and delivered a heavy, horizontal cleave.
The steel bit deep. It sheared through scales, tore through the thick muscle of the neck, and cracked straight through the spinal column. The massive head severed completely.
Maddie hit the ground in a heavy crouch, her blade dripping black ichor. A heartbeat later, the Basilisk's head slammed into the dirt. The headless body swayed, spraying the shallows in a dark pulse before collapsing backward into the pool.
Silence rushed back into the cave.
Don dropped his borrowed sword into the mud. His hands trembled so violently he had to press them against his thighs. He stared at the massive head bleeding out onto the shoreline.
"Did we just..." Don stammered, his chest heaving. "Did that actually just happen?"
Maddie leaned heavily on the hilt of her broadsword. She spat a mouthful of black grit and sulfurous water onto the stone. "If someone tells me that was just the Tutorial boss, I am filing a formal complaint with whatever alien HR department is running this apocalypse."
From the dark edge of the clearing, Tyson let out a low groan. He forced himself upright, clutching his side where the spectral jaw had bruised him down to the bone. He looked down at the shattered remains of the P.A.C.I.F.I.C. riot shield, his breathing ragged.
"Corporate garbage," the big man rumbled, kicking a jagged piece of the alloy into the black pool. "Probably cost twenty grand. Folds like tin foil."
"You stood in front of a magical freight train, Tyson," Allison called out. She slid down the remnants of the collapsed earthen ramp, slipping in the freezing mud as she crossed to the shoreline. "I think the warranty is officially void."
Maddie wiped a thick smear of black ichor from her forehead and glanced toward Will.
"Hey. Boss," she called out, her hands shaking on the hilt of her sword. "Next time your master tactical plan involves launching the Vanguard directly at a giant snake, a five-second warning would be appreciated. I didn't even stretch."
Don let out a sharp, choked laugh. It was a desperate sound from someone who understood exactly how close the margin had been. "I thought we were dead. I genuinely thought we were dead."
"We're not," Allison said. She reached Will's side and steadied him as his balance gave out, keeping one hand firm on his arm to make sure he didn't go down.
Will dropped to one knee anyway. His bow slipped from his numb fingers. He stared at the severed head, his chest burning with every intake of breath.
Then the System erupted.
Pale blue and brilliant gold light flooded the cavern, reflecting off the black water and washing over the group. The notifications arrived in a cascade. EXP, level calculations, skill upgrades. All of it arrived simultaneously in a way that felt less like reward and more like the System catching up to something that had already happened.
Will read. Khan interrupted.
I have watched men win their first real battle, the ancient voice said across the telepathic bridge. Most of them spend the next hour believing they understand war. You have perhaps three minutes before that feeling sets in. Use them to check your wounded.
Will looked at his team. Tyson bleeding from the forehead, still upright. Don's shaking hands, starting to steady. Maddie with ichor drying in her hair, already scanning the cavern walls. Allison, mana-depleted and pale, watching him with the careful attention of someone who had monitored his vitals since the arrow hit the stalactite.
He got up.