The trees kept their secrets for about a minute. Then the secrets started to die.
A man in a pine fork saw the first Boneclaw too late.
"It did not see me," he whispered, as if the saying could make it true.
The creature crouched, sprang, and raked both hooked forelimbs through bark and meat. He screamed and tried to pull himself higher. The branch tore. He fell into his own shout. More knives found him, and the sound cut off.
Farther out, three hiders clung to a knot of birch trunks where the dome light pooled grey.
"Stay quiet," one hissed. "I think it is going past us."
It was not.
A Reaper padded in with its head on a lean angle and walked past them like a cat past chairs. It turned at the last step and went for the slowest throat.
The woman had time to say "No, please, wait," and then there was only breath trying to be a word.
Another man had climbed twenty paces up a cedar. He watched the field and told himself he was clever. When the Boneclaws came for him in a pair, he panicked and dropped to the next branch. He missed, hit the trunk, and tried to hug it like a pole to the ground. They hit him in the ribs and then the hips. He called for help until calling was no longer the best use of his mouth.
Panels blinked in the air above the crystal. They kept a tally no one wanted.
[Death detected — Respawn in 10 s]
[TLE: -60%]
[NTLE: -60%]
Bodies re-knit at the crystal in brief light. People sat up in shock and grabbed for a chest that did not hurt anymore.
Up front, the line under Mira held clean. Warriors met the first numbers and did not give. Shields took goblin knives on the bevel so they slid instead of sticking.
Assassins struck where the illusions and poison traps bought them seconds. The mages threw controlled fire on the enemies.
Park Ji-yeon's chain heals ran like a soft hinge between bruises, catching three bodies at once and returning breath to them.
People got used to Mira's commanding. She lifted a hand, and the ring adjusted an inch left without being told. Her planted doubles stood in front of the casters like problem answers waiting to be chosen.
When a monster hit one, it burst and blinded in a soft white that made teeth show in rictus. The next goblin plowed into the same space and snagged on Loki, who had taken the habit of being wherever the line went thin.
She came near him in the churn. Her eyes were bright, mouth held steady.
"Thanks to the monsters splitting," she said, voice low and even in the noise. "It has gotten easier for us to handle them. It really takes pressure off us."
Loki broke a goblin's wrist, turned the arm, and let the body carry itself into a kick that folded a knee. "That is good then," he said, and meant the shape of it, not the cost.
A Reaper came long at his side. He stepped in on its reach, took both forearms at the hinge and cracked them opposite, then threw the whole thing to Mira without ceremony. She cut the throat while it tried to remember the use of its hands.
She seeded another Illusion, eyes flicking. "...Was the monsters going after the hidden people also part of your plan?" she asked, not accusing, not soft either.
He let two seconds go by. Then he said, mild, almost bored, "Please Miss Kwaon, you're overthinking things," and moved past her to take the next angle.
In his head, he had another answer.
'These are not game monsters that obey scripts. They can smell fear and see weakness. If there is prey that has already given up, of course the monsters would go to kill it.'
He looked toward the trees and saw a person getting ripped apart.
'Well, if they are not going to fight, they can be useful this way. '
The dome hummed. The first wave thinned. The second shape declared itself.
Heavy footfalls came out of the trees like someone trying to pound a thought into the ground. The trunks shook. Something big and slow shouldered through a screen of brush and looked around as if offended to be here.
[Stoneback Brute — Uncommon — Lv. 4]
It wore a ridge of rocks fused to its spine like a child's drawing of a mountain. Each step dragged the weight forward and then caught up.
In the space opposite it another form arrived, lower to the earth, all plates and thick hide with a head that did most of its thinking by pushing.
[Ironroot Goliath — Uncommon — Lv. 4]
Ryu Hye-jin saw them and smiled with her eyes.
"Finally the big boys are here," she said. Her hands lit at the knuckles, color like banked embers, and she started for the Brute with her shoulders loose as if she were going for a jog.
Baek Garin called Do-ha. "Poop guy, Hayrin is going for the big one," she said. "We going or what?"
Do-ha checked the front in one fast sweep. The press had eased. More monsters had taken the trees to hunt the hiders. The path to the bosses was not clean but it was open.
"We can go too," he said. "Sera, do you wanna come with us?"
Sera fell in at his shoulder. "I...I'll go too," she said, though a little scared. She looked at Loki once, jumped in place to shake her legs loose, and ran.
Loki marked the move and turned to Mira.
"The monsters have thinned a lot," he said. "You and the other lower levels go with them and help kill the bosses. I will do fine on my own."
She did not argue. "Okay," she said, mouth tipping, and raised her hand to throw the order. She glanced back at Loki once more and then went to Do-ha's group.
The crystal had gathered a small, stunned group. Ten seconds after their deaths, the hiders had respawned on the bare earth around it. A few still had the look of people trying to restart a body that had been underwater. Others had moved straight from shock to rationalization. They sat or stood with their backs to the crystal as if proximity could be a plan.
Loki walked to them. "All of you," he said, not loud. "Get up and go back into the forest."
Faces moved, confused. A man with a clean vest and a raw mouth blinked. "Why," he said. "What is the point. They are attacking the trees too."
Another set his jaw like he had found a principle. "Your side is winning anyway," he said. "It is better if we do nothing and stay out of the way."
Loki looked at him. He did not raise his voice. He put his hand on the man's throat and lifted until the heels left the dirt. The man grabbed at the wrist and kicked once. Loki held him up with the same attention he would give a stubborn door.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" someone shouted. "Put him down. Have you gone crazy?"
"Let him go."
Loki did not look away from the man in his hand. "You want to sit here while the others are putting their lives on the line?" he said, the words stripped of heat so they landed without smoke. "Who do you think you are?"
The man's eyes bulged. His hands slipped on the leather and gave up. Loki eased his grip before anything inside broke.
He flipped his dagger into view with his other hand. The steel did not need light to read as a fact.
"If you will not fight, you will at least distract the monsters," he said. "You all can still die a few more times, so it should be no big deal. So you'd better draw them off. Make them chase you for as long as you can." He threw the man towards the group, " Because if you don't, then you won't like what I do next."
A ripple of fear went through the little group. A woman flinched at the crimson dagger. A man took a step back and then caught himself because retreat looked bad in front of the others. Two of them did not even try to hide what they were. They ran for the trees again without speaking, as if speed could make them invisible.
Loki watched them go. 'Useless cowards,' he thought, without anger.
He turned to the ones who had not moved. "What about you guys?" he said. "Do you guys think I am joking?"
A young man swallowed. "N-no, we will fight too," he said, voice unsteady but present. "We will fight with your group."
"Oh, that's good too I guess," Loki said. "Go and cover the people fighting the boss. Stop other monsters from approaching them. If you're too scared to fight, throw stones. Shout. When they commit to you, run and bring them here."
They listened because someone had told them how to live a minute longer.
The field called him back. He left them and returned to the circle where the casters breathed and counted.
Goblins still came on a line that assumed the shortest distance was the best idea. He corrected them by breaking knees so they learned about angles. He did not take kills. He stripped teeth and sent bodies low to trip the next set.
'Now they just have to kill the boss. Then we can take care of what's left after, and the first wave will be done.'