Chapter 150
Nille quickly climbed onto one of the higher rock formations overlooking the valley and immediately understood the severity of their situation.
The problem was not simply the approaching troll horde.
The problem was the terrain itself.
The Middle Belt of the Draconian Mountain Range was vastly different from the forests and hills below.
The lower regions contained open woodland, navigable paths, and enough space for travelers to alter their route when danger appeared.
The Middle Belt offered no such luxury.
It was a land shaped by ancient geological violence.
Massive cliffs rose hundreds of meters into the air, their jagged faces scarred by countless landslides and centuries of erosion. Towering stone pillars, some as wide as houses, erupted from the mountainside like the broken bones of sleeping titans. Giant boulders the size of cottages littered the landscape, many balanced precariously atop narrow ledges.
The valley they currently occupied was particularly dangerous.
It resembled a giant funnel.
To the north stood a sheer cliff wall that stretched beyond sight.
To the east was a dense pine forest growing between steep rocky slopes.
To the south, where they had come from, lay a narrow passage between two enormous stone ridges.
And to the west, The trolls.
Dozens upon dozens of them.
Advancing through the only wide approach into the valley.
The vegetation itself added another layer of danger.
The trees growing here were not ordinary mountain pines.
Many reached heights exceeding thirty meters, their thick roots wrapping around rocks and cliffs like giant serpents. Thorn-covered vines hung between branches, while patches of waist-high ferns covered the forest floor, concealing uneven terrain and deep cracks in the earth.
Several trees bore claw marks larger than a man's torso.
Others had been snapped cleanly in half.
Evidence of the powerful creatures inhabiting the region.
Scattered among the vegetation were pockets of strange luminous fungi that glowed faintly even during daylight.
Professor Caelum had explained earlier that these mushrooms fed on ambient spiritual energy leaking from the mountain itself.
Where such fungi grew, powerful malignants often followed.
And there were many of them here.
Far too many.
The air itself felt heavier.
More oppressive.
The concentration of spiritual energy was significantly denser than in the lower belt.
For awakened individuals, this increased spell potency.
For malignants, it accelerated growth and evolution.
This was why even ordinary creatures became terrifying predators after residing here long enough.
It was also why the trolls had reached Level 450.
The mountain fed them.
Nille continued studying the battlefield.
The narrow southern route they had used to enter the valley was already impossible.
Several trolls had appeared on elevated ridges overlooking the passage.
Whether by instinct or intelligence, the creatures had unknowingly blocked the most obvious retreat path.
The eastern forest was equally problematic.
The trees were dense enough to slow movement, but not dense enough to stop trolls from crashing through them.
A pursuing horde would simply tear a path through the woodland.
The northern cliff face offered no escape either.
It rose almost vertically.
Even experienced climbers would require hours to ascend safely.
Hours they did not possess.
The trolls would reach them within minutes.
To make matters worse, the valley floor itself was uneven and broken.
Large stone formations created natural chokepoints and blind corners.
While this could be useful defensively, it also meant that any attempt to flee risked becoming trapped.
Nhulla quickly reached the same conclusion.
"They're herding us."
Professor Caelum shook his head.
"Not intentionally."
He pointed toward the landscape.
"The terrain is doing it for them."
That was the truly dangerous part.
The mountain itself had become their enemy.
The trolls did not need sophisticated tactics.
The geography was already fighting on their behalf.
Rume Ironbark scanned the surrounding cliffs and cursed under his breath.
"This place is a death trap."
Unfortunately, he was correct.
The valley naturally concentrated movement toward a central area.
Any creature entering was forced into predictable routes.
Predators likely used the location as a hunting ground for generations.
Now the expedition had wandered directly into it.
A distant roar echoed across the cliffs.
The sound bounced between the mountainsides.
Then another answered.
And another.
The trolls had noticed them.
Birds exploded from treetops as enormous shapes emerged from the western forest.
The ground trembled.
Loose stones rolled down nearby slopes.
A small landslide broke free from one of the ridges, sending dust into the air.
The sheer weight and size of the approaching creatures were enough to disturb the mountain itself.
Nille counted what he could see.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty.
More silhouettes continued appearing behind them.
And those were only the trolls visible from his current position.
The horde stretched far deeper into the forest.
Level 450 trolls.
Creatures powerful enough to smash through stone walls.
Durable enough to shrug off conventional weapons.
Strong enough to uproot trees with a single arm.
In the lower belt, a single troll could dominate an entire region.
Here, dozens moved together.
The reality settled over the expedition.
This was no longer a matter of avoiding confrontation.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
No safe route through the cliffs.
No hidden path through the forest.
No time to escape.
The Middle Belt had revealed one of its greatest dangers:
It was not merely home to powerful creatures.
It was a landscape specifically designed to ensure that, eventually, something stronger than you would find you.
And when that happened, survival depended not on running,
But on standing your ground.
Nille's first instinct was not to fight.
It was to leave.
That had always been one of the greatest advantages of his spatial abilities. Whenever a situation became overwhelming, he could create a gateway to a previously marked location and relocate the group entirely. It was not cowardice. It was practicality.
Survival always came first.
Unfortunately, the moment he attempted to reach for that option, something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
The spiritual energy around him resisted.
The familiar sensation he experienced whenever opening a gate simply wasn't there.
Instead, it felt as though invisible walls had formed throughout the surrounding space.
Nille's eyes narrowed.
"Something is interfering with the area."
Professor Caelum immediately turned toward him.
"You noticed it too?"
Nille nodded.
Professor Caelum's expression became grim.
"Then we have a problem."
Far beyond the advancing trolls, standing atop a massive stone outcropping, a larger figure emerged from the horde.
Unlike the others, it wasn't carrying a club or a tree trunk.
It held a staff.
A staff carved from blackened stone and bound together with enormous bones.
Spiritual energy pulsed around it.
The troll's eyes glowed with an unnatural violet light.
A spellcaster.
A malignant that had survived long enough to evolve beyond simple brute force.
Professor Caelum immediately recognized what had happened.
"It adapted."
Rume Ironbark cursed.
"A troll shaman?"
"Worse."
Professor Caelum continued observing the creature.
"An evolved one."
The troll raised its staff.
Runes carved into nearby boulders suddenly ignited.
The entire valley shuddered.
Nille felt the answer immediately.
Spatial Lock.
Not a perfect one.
Not strong enough to permanently prevent his abilities.
But powerful enough to disrupt emergency retreats.
The troll had learned.
Somehow, during previous encounters, it had recognized that prey had escaped through spatial manipulation.
And now it had prepared a countermeasure.
Nille slowly exhaled.
"So that's why it followed us."
The troll wasn't merely hunting.
It had been tracking.
Learning.
Adapting.
Exactly the kind of behavior that made high-level malignants terrifying.
A normal beast became stronger.
An intelligent malignant became dangerous.
A powerful malignant capable of learning became a disaster.
The ground trembled.
Thirteen trolls emerged fully into the valley.
Each stood nearly fifteen feet tall.
Their skin resembled cracked granite layered over thick muscle.
Scars covered their bodies.
Old wounds.
Battle marks.
Proof that they had survived countless fights.
Several carried enormous weapons.
Tree-trunk clubs.
Stone axes.
Bone spears.
The largest among them gripped a massive war hammer forged from dark metal and monster bone.
Every step caused the ground beneath it to crack.
Its yellow eyes studied the expedition carefully.
Not mindlessly.
Not like an animal.
Like a commander evaluating opponents.
That realization disturbed everyone more than the trolls' size.
They weren't facing a horde.
They were facing an organized hunting party.
Nhulla quietly activated several protective charms.
Rume loaded a fresh magazine into his rapid-fire crossbow.
The metallic click echoed through the valley.
Lin Yue activated her wind perception.
Professor Caelum's fingers glowed faintly as he prepared multiple defensive spells.
Nille pressed the activation rune on his own weapon.
The compact carrying form expanded.
Mechanical components shifted.
Enchanted strings tightened.
The malignant core embedded within the weapon began humming softly.
Around him, the others did the same.
Five crossbows.
Five magazines loaded.
Five people standing against thirteen Level 450 trolls.
The numbers were not encouraging.
Rume spoke first.
"Anyone actually think these things will kill a troll?"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody did.
The crossbows had been designed to counter fast-moving aerial targets.
Not heavily armored mountain giants.
The explosive and armor-piercing enchantments might wound them.
Perhaps even cripple one.
But killing them outright?
Unlikely.
Very unlikely.
Yet nobody lowered their weapon.
Because effectiveness was no longer the point.
Having a weapon was better than having none.
Nille studied the battlefield.
His mind moved rapidly through possibilities.
Retreat.
Blocked.
Direct assault.
Risky.
Prolonged engagement.
Unacceptable.
Every scenario carried severe drawbacks.
For the first time since entering the mountain range, he could not identify a clean solution.
That bothered him.
Not because he feared losing.
But because he preferred understanding his options.
And right now, the mountain had reduced those options significantly.
Beside him, Lin Yue remained surprisingly calm.
"You're thinking too much."
Nille glanced at her.
She offered a small smile.
"Again."
He couldn't even deny it.
She was right.
Professor Caelum noticed the exchange.
"You two still have your new casting method."
Nille nodded.
They did.
The compressed casting technique.
The method they had practiced only hours earlier.
It significantly increased efficiency.
Reduced spiritual energy consumption.
Improved spell density.
But there was a catch.
A major one.
The technique still required openings.
Time.
Positioning.
Opportunities.
Things difficult to obtain when thirteen trolls were charging toward you.
Lin Yue understood the same limitation.
"We use it only if we see a real chance."
Nille agreed.
Either for victory.
Or escape.
Not before.
The troll leader suddenly slammed its war hammer into the ground.
BOOM.
The entire valley shook.
The remaining trolls roared in unison.
The sound echoed across the cliffs like thunder.
Birds exploded from distant trees.
Dust rained from nearby rock formations.
The charge began.
Thirteen giants surged forward.
The earth trembled beneath their feet.
Stone cracked.
Roots snapped.
Trees bent aside as the trolls accelerated.
For creatures their size, they moved far too fast.
Far faster than any fifteen-foot monster had a right to move.
Nille tightened his grip on the crossbow.
His mind became calm.
Focused.
The fear vanished.
The uncertainty vanished.
Only the problem remained.
A problem standing hundreds of feet away and rapidly closing the distance.
The battle he had spent the entire expedition avoiding had finally arrived.
And for the first time since entering the Middle Belt of the Draconian Mountains, there was nowhere left to run.
The moment the trolls broke into a full charge, the valley ceased to feel like terrain and became something far more hostile.
It became a battlefield that actively punished hesitation.
Nille reacted first.
The crossbow gun in his hands unfolded with a sharp mechanical click, its rune-chamber igniting as the malignant core inside pulsed with compressed energy. He didn't aim for the body—too large, too armored, too unpredictable in movement.
He aimed for joints.
Weak points.
Neural clusters.
"Fire," he said calmly.
The first volley released with a sharp, thunder-like crack.
Five enchanted bolts tore through the air in synchronized bursts, each one laced with paralyzing runes and micro-combustion seals designed to detonate on impact.
Three struck the lead troll's shoulder.
Two embedded into its knee.
For a fraction of a second, the runes activated perfectly.
Light flared.
The paralysis sigils spread.
The combustion seals ignited.
Then—
Nothing.
The troll staggered, grunted, and tore the bolts out with raw force.
Its skin, layered like mineralized armor over living muscle, absorbed most of the spell output. What should have immobilized a lesser malignant only left shallow burns and broken enchantment residue.
And then regeneration began.
The wounds closed.
Not slowly.
Not gradually.
But visibly.
Flesh reknit over bone as if time itself was reversing the damage.
Rume Ironbark's expression darkened immediately.
"Useless… it's adapting mid-fight."
Nhulla Loresong didn't hesitate. She slammed her palm into the ground.
"Wind lattice—brace!"
A circular barrier of compressed air formed around their position just as a thrown tree trunk shattered into it. The impact detonated the wind shield outward in a violent shockwave, pushing dust and debris across the battlefield.
Professor Caelum was already moving.
His hands traced arcs in the air, forming layered sigil arrays.
"Arcane pressure shift—don't let them cluster!"
A wave of force erupted forward, destabilizing the ground beneath the trolls' advance. The earth cracked and buckled, forcing two of the trolls to stumble.
But the others adjusted instantly.
They weren't mindless.
They were reacting.
Coordinating.
The battlefield was no longer a charge—it was a coordinated push.
Lin Yue stepped forward beside Nille.
Her eyes sharpened.
"I'll open lanes. You hit openings."
Wind spiraled around her arms.
Not a single burst spell this time.
Controlled flow.
Precision shaping.
She released a compressed wind blade—not wide, but thin enough to cut through gaps in armor. It struck a troll's forearm, slicing deep enough to slow its swing, but not enough to sever.
The troll roared and redirected its attack toward her.
Nille moved instantly.
"Don't overextend."
He fired again.
This time faster.
Shorter bursts.
Controlled stacking.
Three bolts.
Then two more.
Each impact targeted already-damaged points.
But the result remained the same.
Regeneration outpaced destruction.
Rume fired his own weapon next, a heavier prototype crossbow embedded with metallic rune cores. The bolt struck a troll's chest and exploded outward in a concussive blast.
For the first time—
The troll actually stopped.
A half-step.
A stagger.
Then it exhaled.
And kept walking.
Rume clicked his tongue.
"Even armor-piercing explosives aren't enough…"
Nhulla's voice tightened.
"They're not just regenerating. They're learning the damage patterns."
As if to confirm her words, one of the trolls raised its arm, deliberately shielding its weak points after the second volley.
Professor Caelum's expression hardened further.
"Spatial suppression is still active."
Nille didn't respond immediately.
He already knew.
The air itself felt wrong.
Every attempt to bend space collapsed into resistance. The troll caster stood at the back of the formation, staff raised, maintaining a violet rune field that rippled across the valley like invisible chains.
A living countermeasure.
A battlefield controller.
Nille clicked his tongue.
"So they assigned roles…"
That changed everything.
This wasn't a random horde.
It was structured.
Frontline brutes.
Adaptive tanks.
A battlefield mage.
A commander.
And thirteen Level 450 bodies advancing under coordinated logic.
Nhulla suddenly shouted.
"They're flanking left!"
Two trolls broke formation, circling through the broken rock formations.
Professor Caelum responded immediately.
"Rume, intercept!"
Rume didn't hesitate. He rushed forward, activating a rune-boosted sprint, his heavy frame moving faster than expected. He slammed a reinforced gauntlet into the ground.
"IRON BREAK—!"
A shockwave of metallic force erupted, sending fragments of stone upward like shrapnel. One of the flanking trolls was forced back, but the second smashed through the debris and continued advancing.
Lin Yue reacted instantly.
Her wind perception expanded.
"I see gaps—three seconds!"
She raised both hands.
"Now!"
A compressed wind burst detonated in front of the trolls, momentarily distorting their movement paths. Nille immediately followed up.
He didn't aim to kill.
He aimed to interrupt.
Five rapid shots.
All striking joints.
All timed with Lin Yue's displacement.
For the first time, one troll dropped to a knee.
Not defeated.
But delayed.
Professor Caelum seized the moment.
"Focus fire that one!"
Arcane sigils flared in midair.
A concentrated beam of compressed mana struck the kneeling troll's chest, forcing it backward several meters.
It didn't die.
But it was temporarily removed from the fight.
One down.
Twelve remained.
The caster troll at the back suddenly raised its staff higher.
The violet field intensified.
And the regeneration rate of the remaining trolls increased noticeably.
Nhulla's voice turned serious.
"It just buffed them."
Rume exhaled slowly.
"Great. So the longer this goes…"
"They get harder," Caelum finished.
Nille tightened his grip on the crossbow.
He finally understood the structure.
This wasn't a battle meant to be won through raw output.
It was a battle of efficiency.
And right now, They were losing that efficiency margin.
Lin Yue glanced at him.
Her voice was steady, but quieter.
"Nille… your plan?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Because for the first time in this expedition, there was no simple plan.
Only adaptation.
And survival through coordination, timing, and precision against something that refused to stay wounded long enough to matter.
The formation broke.
Not because they planned it—but because the battlefield forced it.
The trolls were no longer advancing as a loose horde. The caster at the back maintained a violet suppression field that warped spatial flow, while the remaining twelve spread out into hunting arcs. The terrain of broken stone, shattered trees, and uneven cliffs turned every movement into a risk.
Staying together was no longer an advantage.
It became confinement.
And so, each of the five broke into their own rhythm.
Nille dropped the crossbow.
It was no longer useful at this stage.
Instead, he tightened the straps on his Tactical Hard Knuckle Fingerless Gloves, each knuckle reinforced with rune-embedded metal plates designed for impact transfer and shock absorption.
A troll charged him head-on.
Fifteen feet of brute mass and stone-like flesh.
Nille didn't retreat.
He stepped forward.
At the last moment, he slid under the troll's swinging arm, the wind pressure from the movement scraping against his shoulders. The troll's fist smashed into the ground where he had been, cracking stone like dry wood.
Nille reacted instantly.
One strike.
Then another.
He aimed for pressure points, inner knee joint, tendon line, rib seam.
Not strength-based hits.
Structural disruption.
His first punch landed under the troll's ribs.
The glove rune flared.
A compressed shockwave traveled inward.
The troll staggered half a step.
That was all he needed.
Nille followed with a second strike, this time upward into the elbow joint.
CRACK.
Bone shifted slightly.
Not broken, but destabilized.
The troll roared and tried to grab him.
Nille pivoted, stepped onto its forearm, and drove a final knuckle strike into the side of its neck.
The impact didn't kill it.
But it disrupted its balance long enough for him to disengage cleanly.
Nille exhaled once.
"Regeneration is too fast…"
He already adapted his pattern.
Damage wasn't the goal.
Interruption was.
Lin Yue moved like flowing air between rocks.
No wasted motion.
A troll swung a tree trunk toward her.
She didn't block.
She redirected.
A compressed wind arc twisted the trajectory just enough that the strike missed by inches, shattering stone behind her.
She immediately countered.
"Wind Thread: Sever."
Thin blades of compressed air extended from her fingertips.
Not wide attacks.
Not bursts.
Controlled cutting lines.
They sliced into the troll's forearm tendons.
The troll roared and tried to recover, but Lin Yue was already moving.
She stepped onto a rock pillar, spun mid-air, and released a second sequence.
Three wind threads.
Each aimed at a different joint.
Shoulder.
Knee.
Neck anchor.
One connected cleanly.
The troll staggered, forced to adjust posture.
Lin Yue narrowed her eyes.
"My output is enough… but they recover too fast."
She shifted strategy instantly.
She stopped attacking for damage.
Started attacking for movement denial.
Professor Caelum , Arcane Field Control Professor Caelum stood at the center of fractured terrain, no longer focusing on a single target.
His hands moved in layered sequences, drawing overlapping sigils in the air.
"Arcane Grid: Anchor Field."
Blue light erupted across the ground.
Invisible pressure points activated beneath the trolls' feet.
Every step now carried resistance.
Every movement required effort.
The trolls' coordination slowed.
Not stopped, but disrupted.
A troll charged him directly.
Caelum didn't move.
Instead, he raised one hand.
"Compression Wall."
A barrier of condensed mana formed instantly.
The troll collided with it.
The impact cracked the barrier, but did not break it.
Caelum's eyes narrowed.
"Strength output: Level 450 confirmed… durability still exceeds standard arcane output."
He shifted tactics.
"Then we don't block strength."
His fingers flicked downward.
The ground beneath the troll softened for half a second—
Then hardened instantly.
A controlled instability trap.
The troll lost footing.
Caelum followed with a precise beam strike into its knee joint.
Not destructive.
Disruptive.
The troll dropped slightly.
Caelum exhaled.
"Control the battlefield… not the enemy."
Nhulla moved differently from the others.
Her magic wasn't force-based, it was response-based.
She closed her eyes briefly, sensing the flow of the battlefield.
Then opened them.
"Wind Domain: Reversal Pattern."
A spiraling field expanded outward.
Incoming attacks, rocks, debris, shockwaves, began to curve away from her position.
A troll swung downward.
Nhulla stepped forward into the motion instead of away.
Her hand touched the air.
The wind changed direction.
The troll's momentum was redirected sideways.
It stumbled.
Nhulla immediately followed with a short burst spell—not to wound, but to destabilize balance centers.
The troll roared and tried to correct itself.
She didn't let it.
Every movement she made was synchronized with airflow prediction.
She wasn't fighting strength.
She was fighting motion itself.
Rume Ironbark — Heavy Weapon Disruption Combat
Rume Ironbark roared as he slammed his massive rune-forged hammer into the ground.
"Get off my mountain!"
A shockwave erupted outward, sending two trolls stumbling back.
He didn't wait.
He charged.
Rume fought like a siege engine.
Every strike of his hammer wasn't aimed at killing, it was aimed at breaking structure.
A troll blocked his strike with its forearm.
Rume grinned.
"Good."
He twisted mid-swing and drove the hammer upward into the troll's elbow joint.
The impact cracked stone-like skin.
The troll roared and tried to retaliate, but Rume was already rotating his stance.
Second strike.
Knee.
Third strike.
Hip pivot joint.
Each blow didn't destroy, it deformed structure stability.
The troll fell to one knee.
Rume planted his hammer into its chest.
"Stay down."
He pushed.
The ground cracked beneath the pressure.
But the troll was still alive.
Still regenerating.
Rume exhaled heavily.
"Tch… stubborn bastards."
The five were no longer fighting as a unit.
They were five independent combat zones:
Nille: close-range interruption specialist Lin Yue: precision wind cutter Caelum: battlefield controller Nhulla: motion disruptor Rume: structural breaker
But the problem remained unchanged.
The trolls regenerated faster than they could be permanently suppressed.
And behind them, The caster troll continued maintaining the spatial suppression field.
Watching.
Adapting.
Learning.
The battle was not becoming easier.
It was becoming more efficient against them.
And slowly, the valley began to show the truth:
This fight was not about strength.
It was about whether the five of them could out-adapt something that was actively evolving with every exchange.
Nille's breathing steadied even as the battlefield continued to fracture around them. Rume's hammer clashed against another advancing troll, Lin Yue twisted through a near-hit with a controlled wind step, Nhulla redirected pressure waves to break incoming charges, and Professor Caelum maintained arcane control over the shifting terrain. Yet Nille paused for a brief moment—not out of hesitation, but recognition. Something Caelum had taught them in the Rune Forge basement surfaced in his mind: compression, timing, and layered casting. Not just stronger spells, but synchronized execution between two casters.
Nille suddenly turned toward Lin Yue. "Lin Yue." His voice cut through the chaos. Lin didn't hesitate; she deflected a troll's strike and responded immediately, "What do you need?" Nille slid under a heavy swing and repositioned himself across broken ground. "Do you remember Caelum's layered casting method?" Lin's eyes narrowed as she stepped aside from another attack. "Yes," she answered. "I can still do it, but timing has to be exact." Nille nodded once. "That's what we need."
Both of them began to shift their positions deliberately, no longer reacting defensively but searching for rhythm within the chaos. The trolls moved in coordinated cycles under the caster's spatial suppression field, but even within that control, brief gaps appeared when their formation reset. Nille saw it clearly now. Lin saw it too. Their eyes met across the battlefield, and no further words were needed.
Nille disengaged from his opponent by striking its knee joint and forcing it to stagger back, creating just enough distance. He raised his hand and began compressing his fire spell internally instead of releasing it immediately, shaping it into a dense, unstable core of power. Across the battlefield, Lin Yue mirrored him, stepping onto a broken rock pillar and folding her wind spell inward rather than firing it outward. Her wind arrow became silent and tightly compressed, its energy stabilizing into a razor-thin force ready for release.
Professor Caelum immediately noticed the synchronization forming between them, but he did not interfere. He simply observed, understanding that this was not improvisation but application of what had been learned. Nhulla expanded a protective wind veil over their flank while Rume held back a charging troll with a heavy strike, ensuring space for the two to continue.
At the exact moment a formation gap opened between two advancing trolls, Lin's voice rang out clearly: "Now." Nille released his Fire Bullet Burst, compressed to its limit, and Lin released her Wind Arrow simultaneously. The two attacks met along the same trajectory, not colliding but merging, wind wrapping around fire, stabilizing its structure and increasing its speed while maintaining compression.
The combined projectile struck the leading troll directly in the chest. At first, it seemed like a standard hit, but then the layered energy collapsed inward instead of outward. The wind sliced through regenerating tissue as it formed, and the fire detonated inside the wound channel rather than against external armor. The troll staggered violently, its regeneration failing to stabilize the damage, and dropped to one knee under the internal disruption.
Nhulla's eyes widened slightly as she observed the result. "It bypassed regeneration…" she muttered. Rume let out a low grin. Professor Caelum exhaled slowly, recognizing the shift. "That," he said quietly, "is the method."
The battlefield did not become safe, but it changed. For the first time, the trolls were no longer untouchable. The synchronized strike had revealed a system that worked, and Nille and Lin Yue immediately understood what it meant: this was no longer a fight of raw strength, but of precision, timing, and combined execution.