The dungeon gate dissolved into drifting green ash.
Poison Forest.
Kael stepped forward first, Map View unfolding in his perception. The terrain revealed itself instantly—twisting bioluminescent trees, toxin-saturated air currents, subterranean root networks pulsing like veins. Every hostile marker blinked red. The dungeon was alive, and it knew intruders had arrived.
Identification activated.
The forest answered with resistance.
Queen Seraphel's presence stabilized the air around them, spirit mana countering the corrosive mist. Brown hovered behind, staff grounded, undead limit locked at one hundred. Even restrained, the pressure of control warped the poison fog.
They advanced.
No wasted movement. No words.
The altar chamber lay ahead—shattered stone swallowed by roots thicker than castle walls. At its center, something stood up.
The boss emerged.
Forest Warlord.
Obsidian armor was fused directly into its flesh, bark and stone layered together as if grown, not forged. Its massive blade-arm hummed with compressed toxin. But its most dangerous feature wasn't power.
Its eyes moved.
Not tracking mana.
Tracking motion.
Identification completed.
Intelligent. Adaptive. Core concealed. Regeneration active. Environmental assimilation confirmed.
Kael vanished.
Void Step erased him from space, not sight.
He reappeared behind the Warlord, twin poison-coded daggers flashing in a cross pattern. The strikes were shallow—testing cuts. Poison seeped in, not to kill, but to probe resistance.
The Warlord twisted mid-motion.
A shockwave blade detonated outward, shredding the ground Kael had already abandoned.
Adaptation confirmed.
Queen Seraphel moved instantly. Spirit sigils bloomed behind Kael, accelerating his speed beyond normal thresholds. Roots erupted from the forest floor, wrapping around the Warlord's legs in layered bindings.
The boss exhaled.
Poison Forest Breath.
Corrosive mist melted bark, stone, and spirit constructs alike. The roots burned away—but the delay existed.
That was enough.
Brown lifted his staff.
One hundred undead moved as one.
Skeleton warriors formed rotating shield walls, absorbing the shockwaves. Ghost units phased through the Warlord's body, distorting its perception and timing. Phantoms slammed its shadow into the ground, anchoring movement. Undead beasts lunged from multiple angles, forcing defensive rotations.
The Warlord adjusted again.
Its blade-arm shifted trajectory.
Target locked.
Brown.
Mana spiked.
Too late.
Seraphel slammed her staff into the ground.
Nature and spirit magic merged.
The corrupted mana of the Poison Forest drained outward, devoured by purifying sigils, while pure kinetic flow surged directly into Kael's body. His muscles screamed—not in pain, but overload.
Death Aura activated.
The forest recoiled.
Kael moved.
Infinite Duplication triggered mid-step, three afterimages striking from impossible angles. Mana Bullet detonated against the boss's armor seams, cracking obsidian plating. Hell Fire ignited inside the fractures, burning regeneration from within.
Judgment triggered silently.
Both daggers struck together.
Perfect alignment.
They pierced the core seam hidden beneath armor and bark, poison flooding in layered sequences—paralysis, mana corrosion, core destabilization. Gluttony activated automatically, devouring the Warlord's regeneration attempt.
The boss roared once.
Then froze.
Movement ceased. Mana flow collapsed.
Brown completed the seal.
Dark chains erupted from the ground, wrapping the Forest Warlord entirely, dragging its massive form into absolute stillness.
Silence followed.
The Poison Forest trembled.
Then yielded.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Dungeon Boss Defeated
Dungeon Cleared: Poison Forest
Threat Level: Extreme
Undead Loss: 2 Units
EXP Gained: Massive
Kael exhaled slowly, Identification still running, scanning the dungeon's final state.
Three fighters.
One high-level dungeon.
One intelligent boss.
Absolute coordination.
Kael cleaned his daggers, poison runes dimming as he returned them to sub-space. He did not look back.
This was only preparation.
The gods were watching.
And the war beyond this world was drawing closer.