[POV: Ren Takashi] [Location: The Boss Room - Right Tunnel]
The eye wasn't just big. It was ancient.
It glowed with a sickly, crimson light, illuminating scales that looked less like skin and more like jagged plates of obsidian. The creature uncoiled from the darkness of the massive cavern, the sound of its movement like grinding stones.
It was a serpent. A Basilisk.
But it wasn't the kind Ren had read about in fantasy books. It had legs—eight of them, thick and muscular, ending in claws that gouged the stone floor. A mane of toxic green spines ran down its back, and its mouth dripped with a fluid that hissed when it hit the ground.
[BOSS DETECTED] [SPECIES: ANCIENT BASILISK] [RANK: A-] [STATUS: HUNGRY]
"A-Rank?" Daigo's voice cracked. He raised his shiny heater shield, but against this monstrosity, it looked like a bottle cap. "We're fighting an A-Rank?!"
"Don't look at the eyes!" Itsuki screamed, covering his own eyes with his arm. "Basilisk gaze causes paralysis and eventual petrification! Look at the feet! Look at the shadows! Just don't make eye contact!"
"Great advice!" Rika yelled, ducking behind a pillar. "How do we kill it if we can't look at it?!"
HISSSSSSSSSS!
The Basilisk roared. It wasn't a vocal sound; it was the sound of a high-pressure gas leak. A cloud of green mist erupted from its mouth.
"Poison breath!" Ren shouted. "Scatter!"
They dove.
Ren rolled left, feeling the mist singe the hairs on his arm. Where the gas touched the stone floor, the rock turned grey and brittle, crumbling into dust.
"It eats stone," Ren realized, scrambling to his feet. "Ayaka! Reiji! Get to the back wall! Toby, guard them!"
"On it!" Toby shrieked, dragging a stumbling Reiji away from the poison cloud.
"Daigo! Yui! Front line!" Ren commanded.
"I hate this!" Daigo roared, charging forward.
The Basilisk whipped its tail—a massive, whip-like appendage of bone and muscle. It swung for the group like a wrecking ball.
"Shield!" Daigo planted his feet. [Skill: Kinetic Payback].
BOOM.
The impact was terrifying. Daigo didn't slide; he was launched. He flew backward, smashing into Yui, and they both tumbled across the room.
"Daigo!" Ren yelled.
"I'm good!" Daigo groaned, standing up shakily. His shield was dented, the shiny polish gone. "But that thing hits like a truck! I can't parry that!"
"We need to slow it down!" Ren looked at Noa. "Noa! Glue!"
Noa was already moving. She dipped her massive brush into a pot of thick, white paint.
"Gouache," Noa commanded. "Web."
The blue paint dog dissolved, turning into a sticky puddle that Noa splashed across the floor in front of the Basilisk.
The monster charged. Its front claws hit the paint.
SQUELCH.
It slipped. The massive body lurched forward, its chin slamming into the ground.
"Now!" Ren screamed. "Hit the joints!"
Rika materialized from stealth. She jumped onto the monster's back, avoiding the spines, and drove her daggers into the soft tissue between the obsidian scales.
CLINK.
"What?!" Rika gasped. "My daggers... they bounced off!"
The skin wasn't just tough. It was stone-hard.
"It's too high level!" Itsuki yelled from the back, analyzing the mana flow. "Physical resistance is over 80%! Tier 1 weapons won't penetrate!"
The Basilisk shook itself like a wet dog. Rika was thrown off, tumbling through the air.
"Gotcha!" Yui caught her, landing gracefully.
"Thanks," Rika panted. "This thing is invincible!"
"Nothing is invincible," Ren growled.
[DIVINE GUIDANCE: ACTIVE.]
The world turned grey. The golden lines appeared.
They were faint. Erratic. The Basilisk's high level was interfering with the System's prediction. But Ren saw one line. One golden thread leading directly to the face.
The Eye.
"I need a distract!" Ren yelled. "Make it look left!"
"Sayaka!" Noa called out. "Flash!"
Sayaka Minori stepped forward. She didn't use lightning this time. She opened her notebook to a page filled with reflective runes.
[SPELL: PRISMATIC FLARE]
A ball of blinding white light exploded in front of the Basilisk's left eye.
SCREEEE!
The monster flinched, turning its head away from the brightness—exposing its right eye.
Ren moved.
He didn't run. He sprinted up the monster's own leg, using the obsidian scales as stairs. He launched himself into the air, sword held in a reverse grip.
"Got you!"
Ren plunged the blade downward.
SHUNK.
The steel sank deep into the massive red eyeball.
ROOOOOOOAAAAAAR!
The sound was deafening. Black blood—acidic and boiling—sprayed from the wound, coating Ren's armor.
"Gah!" Ren hissed as the acid burned his cheek. He ripped the sword free and backflipped off the monster, landing in a crouch.
"It's blind on the right!" Ren shouted, wiping the blood from his visor. "Focus fire on the right side!"
But the Basilisk wasn't just hurt. It was enraged.
The monster stopped thrashing. It raised its head high, the one good eye glowing with a terrifying intensity. The spines on its back began to pulse with neon green light.
The air in the room grew heavy. Gravity seemed to double.
"Mana spike!" Itsuki screamed, his face draining of color. "It's charging a wipe mechanic! Get out of the blast zone!"
"There is no blast zone!" Rika yelled, looking around. "It's the whole room!"
The Basilisk opened its mouth. A ball of concentrated, petrifying energy began to form.
Ren gripped his sword. He looked at his friends. Daigo was raising his shield, knowing it wouldn't be enough. Ayaka was hugging Reiji. Noa was recalling her paint.
They were going to die.
No.
Ren closed his eyes. He reached deep inside himself, searching for that feeling he had at the Appraisal Ceremony. The golden light. The [Divine Protection].
Please, Ren begged. Give me the power to save them.
[SYSTEM WARNING: DIVINE INTERVENTION REQUESTED.] [CALCULATING...]
The golden light flickered in Ren's chest.
"Ren!" Rika screamed.
The Basilisk unleashed the beam.
CRASH!
Suddenly, the entire left wall of the boss room exploded.
It wasn't the Basilisk. It was... something else.
Debris flew everywhere. Dust choked the air.
And through the hole, a figure tumbled out, sliding across the floor on his face.
"COMING THROUGH!"
Sora Amano scrambled to his feet, covered in black goblin blood, dust, and sweat. He looked at Ren. He looked at the charging Basilisk.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Sora deadpanned.
"Sora?!" Ren blinked, his brain short-circuiting. "What are you doing here?!"
"Running!" Sora screamed.
Behind him, Toru, Mei, Riku, and Hinata burst through the hole, looking like they had seen hell.
"GOBLINS!" Toru shrieked. "SO MANY GOBLINS!"
And then, the horde arrived.
Like a green tsunami, hundreds of goblins poured through the breach Sora had led them to. They were chasing the students. They were frenzied. They were bloodthirsty.
And they ran straight into the Basilisk.
The Basilisk, interrupted mid-cast, looked down with its one good eye.
The Goblin Horde looked up at the massive Apex Predator.
For a second, there was silence.
Then, pure chaos.
"SCREEEEEE!" The Basilisk roared, forgetting about Ren, furious that insects were invading its nest. It unleashed its breath weapon—not at the students, but at the horde swarming its feet.
Fifty goblins turned to stone instantly.
But there were hundreds more. The goblins, realizing they were trapped, went into a frenzy. They swarmed the Basilisk, climbing its legs, stabbing at its scales with rusty knives, biting, scratching.
It was a war of monsters.
"What is happening?!" Daigo yelled, lowering his shield as a goblin flew past him, thrown by the Basilisk's tail.
"I brought friends!" Sora yelled, sprinting toward them. "You're welcome!"
"You led an army here?!" Rika shouted, kicking a stray goblin away.
"It was either here or die in a dead end!" Sora grabbed Ren's arm. "Ren! Exit! Now!"
Ren looked at the chaotic brawl. The Basilisk was distracted, rolling around to crush the goblins on its back. The goblins were fighting for their lives.
"The door behind the throne!" Ren pointed. "Go! Go!"
They ran.
Class 3-G—united, battered, and absolutely terrified—sprinted across the Boss Room while the ecosystem tore itself apart behind them.
Toru was limping, supported by Hinata. Mei was running behind Noa. Reiji was being carried by Daigo.
They reached the massive stone doors behind the Basilisk's nest.
"Push!" Ren roared.
Daigo and Ren slammed their shoulders into the stone. With a grinding groan, the doors cracked open just enough for them to squeeze through.
They spilled out into a corridor. Cool, fresh air hit their faces.
"Close it!" Sora yelled.
They pushed the door shut just as a petrified goblin smashed against it.
BOOM.
The heavy stone sealed. The sounds of the battle became muffled thuds.
They were safe.
"Holy shit," Toru slid down the wall, gasping for air. "We made it. We actually made it."
"Everyone accounted for?" Ren panted, scanning the group.
Ren. Daigo. Rika. Itsuki. Noa. Yui. Ayaka. Reiji. Toby. Sora. Riku. Toru. Mei. Hinata. Hanae.
"All present," Itsuki confirmed, adjusting his glasses which were now cracked.
Ren looked at Sora. The "Defect" was a mess. His grey armor was scratched, his face was bruised, and he was dripping with goblin blood.
"You..." Ren breathed, a smile breaking through his exhaustion. "You crazy bastard. You saved them."
Sora leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath. "I just ran away in the right direction, Ren. Don't read into it."
"You led a Goblin Horde into a Boss Room," Rika laughed, a hysterical sound. "That's... that's genius."
"It's suicide," Mei whispered, looking at Sora with eyes that were no longer hostile, but haunted. "But it worked."
Ayaka moved immediately to Reiji and Toru. "Let me see the wounds. Toru, your leg is infected. Reiji, sit down."
Ren slid down the wall to sit next to Sora. He looked at his friend—really looked at him—for the first time in weeks.
"Sora," Ren said softly. "Where have you been? It's been a month. You vanished from the castle. Valdorn said you were 'transferred,' but..."
Ren stopped. He looked at the jagged, scavenged armor Sora was wearing. He looked at the way Sora held that rusty machete—loose, comfortable, deadly. He looked at the thin white scar running down Sora's jawline that hadn't been there before.
The lazy, sleepy boy from Class 3-G was gone.
"You look..." Daigo squinted, reaching out to poke Sora's shoulder. "Different, man. Harder. Like you've been eating rocks."
"I have been," Sora muttered, swatting Daigo's hand away. "The food in the Outer Barracks isn't great."
"That's not just barracks training," Rika said, her eyes narrowing. She touched the frayed edge of Sora's cloak. "You have dirt under your fingernails that smells like grave soil. And you move quieter than me. Sora... what did they do to you?"
Sora looked away. He didn't want to talk about the Deadlands. He didn't want to talk about the nights spent shivering in the mud, fighting things that had no names, with zero mana and a broken knife.
"I survived," Sora said simply. "Same as you guys."
"We missed you," Yui whispered from her spot on the floor. "The common room was quiet without you."
Sora paused. For a second, the hard mask cracked. He looked at them—his friends—bloody and beaten, but looking at him like he mattered.
"Yeah," Sora said, his voice quiet. "I..."
CRASH.
The stone door behind them shook. Dust fell from the ceiling.
Ren's eyes snapped open. The warm moment shattered instantly.
CRASH.
"Uh..." Toby whimpered. "What was that?"
"It's knocking," Yui whispered, standing up slowly.
BOOM!
A massive crack appeared in the center of the stone door.
"No way," Riku stared at the door. "That door is solid granite. It would take tons of force to—"
SMASH.
The door exploded outward.
Rubble rained down on them. Through the dust, a massive, serpentine head emerged.
The Basilisk.
It was covered in goblin corpses. Its scales were chipped. It was bleeding from a hundred small cuts.
But its one good eye—the left one—locked onto Ren.
It ignored Sora. It ignored the juicy Healer. It ignored the noisy Vanguard.
It looked at the boy who had stabbed its eye.
It hissed. A sound of pure, unadulterated hate.
"It's not fighting for territory anymore," Sora realized, gripping his rusty machete. "It's holding a grudge."
The Basilisk slithered over the rubble, faster than before. It wasn't guarding a room. It was hunting.
"RUN!" Ren screamed.
"Oh, come on!" Toru wailed. "Can't we catch a break?!"
"Apparently not!" Rika yelled, sprinting down the corridor.
They scrambled to their feet, forcing their exhausted bodies to move. The reunion was over. The relief was gone.
There was only the chase.
And the King of Snakes was right behind them.