The flames devoured the forest with a savage hunger, trees collapsing in waves beneath the inferno. Smoke swallowed the stars above, bleeding the night sky into a violent red.

And in the heart of that burning world, he stood.

A titan draped in firelight and scarred muscle. Nearly four meters tall, his skin etched with symbols that looked less like warpaint and more like ancient curses. His voice ripped through the chaos like a war drum cracking in half.

"YOU WILL DIE HERE!"

[Morvat, Orc General – Lvl ??]

From the treeline, the forest ruptured. Feral orcs poured in, wild-eyed and shrieking like demons torn straight from the fire behind them.

Luke, Charlie, Allison. Weapons drawn. Stances firm. No words.

The General grinned, slow and predatory. He reached into his inventory, and two enormous swords dropped into his hands, the metal groaning as if resisting its own weight.

Luke felt it then. Something shifted inside him. A pulse of darkness rose from his core, curling from his skin like sentient smoke.

[Demonic Blade Dance] activated.

The kukris in his grip vibrated, eager, almost alive.

Morvat moved. Each step landed with seismic force, the earth shuddering beneath his weight. The horde surged behind him like a second wave of flame.

Luke moved first. Not out of strategy, but out of instinct.

Charlie and Allison followed, but he was already ahead. Faster. Sharper. His body wasn't reacting — it was leading.

[Assassin's Mark]

The world fell away, colors desaturated into shadows. Only one thing pulsed in full detail: the outline of Morvat, glowing with weakness. Every breath, every shift of muscle — exposed. Predictable.

Luke dove deeper.

[Demonic Perception]

The night accepted him. And in the same instant, he disappeared, replaced by a smear of black mist and drifting afterimages that trailed behind him like spectral ribbons.

Then came the scream. Not his. Theirs.

He spun through the battlefield, kukris carving elegant arcs through flesh and armor. Each strike precise. Intentional. Beautiful in its brutality. Orcs fell before they even registered movement.

And then steel met steel.

The General intercepted. Blades collided. The air ruptured under the force.

Luke didn't slow. He spun away, weaving through the crowd like smoke chasing wind. He was everywhere. Charlie held the right flank, Allison the left. And Luke danced in death's shadow.

[Afterimage Activated]

A second Luke flickered into existence, a ghost-twin mimicking his every motion in staggered delay. Two predators now cut through the horde. Every orc they passed fell in silence, their deaths drowned in the song of steel.

Morvat roared. He stepped forward — one strike.

Luke's body flew backward, crashing through tree trunks before slamming into the forest floor.

Before the General could press forward, Allison appeared. Her sword pierced his shoulder, and ice erupted from the wound, locking onto muscle and bone. Morvat's face twisted in pain.

Then Charlie struck.

[Iron Fist]

Her gauntlet crashed into his jaw, staggering him with the raw force of the blow. She spun, following through with twin strikes that slashed deep across his torso. Morvat howled and vanished—a blur, a shockwave.

But Luke was already there.

Their blades met again, a flash of light and fury as steel clashed in a storm of movement. Morvat twisted, kicked. Luke flew but caught himself midair, planting his foot against a tree and launching back with perfect precision. His kukri slashed across the General's chest, cutting deep.

The impact slammed Morvat into a tree with a thundering crack. He slid to the ground.

And for the first time, he bled. Real blood. Thick. Hot. Steaming in the firelight.

Morvat roared, then vanished again. The air split where he passed.

Luke turned without thinking. They spun, kicks colliding midair with a crash like colliding worlds. Luke hit the ground and rolled through the dirt as Morvat slammed down from above.

The ground erupted.

Fire surged outward in every direction. A crater opened beneath them, the shockwave swallowing soil and stone. Trees snapped like twigs. The forest trembled. The world itself seemed to fracture around them.

From within the smoke, Luke emerged.

Kukris gleamed in each hand, carving the air with ruthless precision. He moved like a dancer set loose in a battlefield, each slash deliberate, each strike executed with supernatural timing. The General turned wildly, his massive frame struggling to keep pace. But now Luke danced alone.

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Allison hadn't moved. Her katana remained sheathed. She inhaled slowly, calm in the chaos. Frost coiled from her lips, swirling in the firelight.

Then light flashed.

A single motion, clean, radiant. She drew her blade in one fluid arc, releasing a crescent of silver light that tore through the battlefield like a holy judgment. It struck the General head-on, flinging him backward into a thick tree. The trunk snapped in half beneath his weight.

Before he could rise, Charlie descended—death in motion.

[Spectral Charge] activated.

No sword, just two fists. She struck. The impact cracked like a thunderclap, shaking the burning forest to its roots.

Luke followed a heartbeat later, falling from the canopy. He landed blade-first, kukri slicing deep into the General's shoulder. The roar of pain that followed shook the flames themselves.

Charlie spun behind him, [Whirlwind Strike] erupting into motion. A cyclone of force swept the nearest orcs into the air, tossing them like leaves in a wildfire.

The General jammed both swords into the earth. Two lines of fire burst forward, carving molten paths toward Luke, but he was already airborne.

[Arachnid Leap]

His body launched upward with impossible force, flipping through the smoke like a blade of shadow. He twisted midair, then came down with both kukris extended. The strike split across the General's chest, ripping armor and skin alike.

[Bleed – Continuous] applied.

Charlie rejoined the fight, this time wielding her Orc-Slaying Sword. Her charge was blinding, blade piercing between the General's ribs with violent precision.

Allison descended from above, her body wrapped in frost, her blade gleaming with wintry light. She landed, rolled, and unleashed a barrage of freezing energy. Waves of ice crawled across the General's wounds, locking them in place, slowing every movement.

He roared—an eruption of rage—and fire exploded from his skin in a blazing nova.

The horde surged behind him. Dozens of orcs poured through the forest, maddened and relentless.

Luke met them like a wraith.

Strike after strike, his blades moved with terrifying grace. The air thickened with blood. The rhythm of death resumed.

The General rammed his swords into the ground again and charged. A red aura blazed around him, hotter, wilder. The forest seemed to shrink beneath his fury. He tore two tree trunks from the ground and hurled them like javelins. Luke dodged narrowly, bark slicing past his cheek.

The General stopped moving.

His aura flared, heavier, thicker, blazing red. His eyes ignited—two crimson infernos. Fangs elongated. Veins pulsed beneath his skin like molten threads. Muscle swelled beneath scarred flesh, so violently it seemed ready to tear itself apart.

Luke hesitated. His breath caught.

"…Berserker state."

The General tilted his head back and roared. It wasn't a sound. It was a rupture. A blast that cracked through the burning forest and shook the trees to their roots. Then he charged. A mountain of muscle and hatred, moving with inhuman speed for something that size.

The three scattered in different directions just as a wave of trees collapsed behind them, crashing in succession like a dying forest gasping for air. Fire chased the fall, spreading through branches and trunks like shrapnel made of flame.

And then the ground broke.

Morvat leapt. When he landed, the impact split the earth. A crater yawned beneath him, wide and violent. The shockwave hurled them like dolls.

Charlie slammed through the trees, branches exploding around her. Allison hit a jagged slope, armor scraping across stone. Luke crashed knees-first, every breath ripped from his lungs, muscles screaming.

He reached for more power, tried to summon his shadow twin.

But the system blinked back at him:

[Mana Points (MP): 68 / 480]

Empty.

Of course. That form, the mimic, the dance, it wasn't free. It never had been. It was a berserker mode of his own.

But Luke didn't stop. He ran toward the beast anyway.

Morvat turned, still burning, still furious, and charged again. Luke's instincts screamed as a sword swept toward him, its arc so massive it cleaved a tree behind him in half with the wind alone. He barely dodged. His shoulder clipped the ground, dirt filling his mouth as he rolled away.

Alone. Bleeding. Low on mana. Still breathing.

Behind him, Charlie lifted a fallen tree like a club. Allison closed in, striking not to kill but to weaken. Each slash she delivered left behind streaks of frost that crawled over the General's body, slowing his movements with every inch.

The beast roared in rage.

And then he hurled his blades.

Both of them.

The swords buried themselves in the ground, still vibrating from the force. Then Morvat dropped to all fours. He charged like an animal, claws ripping through dirt and stone.

Luke slid in from the side.

[Basic Dark Dash]

He flickered past the charge and sliced across the ribs. A clean hit. Morvat stumbled, then lunged again. And again. And again.

Luke ducked each time, countered each time. The General moved like a wild animal, biting, thrashing, grabbing. Luke slid low, barely avoiding a swipe, and that's when Allison came down. Her blade slammed into the General's shoulder with full force, and the crack echoed through the trees. The giant reeled, knocked back by the weight of the hit.

Then they heard it. Metal. Deliberate. Heavy.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Footsteps.

The sound they'd been waiting for.

The Midnight Warden had arrived.

"Go!" Allison shouted.

Luke staggered toward her, ribs bleeding, breath uneven. She turned to meet the orcs flooding behind them. With one motion, she unleashed a storm of snow that froze the charge mid-stride.

Charlie was already at the riverbank, dragging the tree they'd prepared. It smashed into the current, and the water seized it instantly. The three of them leapt, battered, scorched, exhausted, and held fast as the river swept them away.

Behind them, Morvat stood on the shore. His body shrank. The red glow faded. The berserker state dissolved into ash and embers. Across the battlefield, Luke's own aura vanished too, burned down to nothing.

They had survived, but they hadn't won.

Not really.

Behind Morvat, the Midnight Warden moved like a reaper through the horde, his blade cutting through orcs without pause. Two. Five. Ten. More.

Morvat didn't join the fight. He watched. Eyes glowing faintly. Pacing the shoreline like a predator nursing fresh wounds.

Not defeated.

Just waiting.

Then, without warning, he grabbed a tree and hurled it toward the river like a spear. Charlie shattered it midair with a single swing. Another came. Another. Each intercepted, each broken before it could hit.

Finally, Morvat stopped. He raised his arms and roared, voice cutting through flame and smoke.

"YOU CAN COME FOR THAT MECHANISM AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT!"

His words echoed through the blackened trees.

"BUT KNOW THIS—"

"WE ARE LEGION."

From the treeline, more orcs emerged. Not wild. Not mindless. Armored. Disciplined. Eyes sharp. Posture controlled. Predators thinking, watching, ready.

And they answered him in unison:

"WE ARE LEGION!"

"WE ARE LEGION!"

"WE ARE LEGION!"

The system stuttered, then erupted.

Luke's vision blurred with notifications:

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

[Orc Captain]

Luke clung to the log, battered, broken—but breathing. The river carried them forward. The moonlit current lit their way.

He looked up.

Dozens of faces.

Dozens of threats.

A true army.

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