The sky-high resentment accumulated from insomnia instantly achieved a high resonance with the warriors' survival instinct—specifically, their desire not to be turned into "sand sculptures." Morale reached an eerie peak.
Lawson took a deep breath, his sleepy eyes bursting with cold brilliance. He stepped to the main screen, waving his hand to project a "metal roadmap" constructed by his [Steel Instinct of the Armor God], pinpointing the subterranean sectors of South Sector 2.
"Listen up. Since these arthropod brutes like playing 'underground renovation,' we're going to give them a complete 'violent demolition'."
Lawson's expression became solemn, the pressure of a Ten-Year Veteran enveloping the room as he began the deployment:
"Emma, your {Bastion} is responsible for breaking the front line! Smash directly into the deepest part of the quicksand. Be the hardest whetstone I have and draw the attention of those Sand Maulers!" Lawson pointed to the center of the red dots, then turned to Phyllis.
"Phyllis, you are the soul of the team. As the {Saint Silver} Knight, you provide external support and use your lightning shield to buff the team. I want to see Emma charging with your lightning aura—paralyze anyone who dares get close!"
"Katie, wait for Emma's signal, then activate [Absolute Zero Domain]! Freeze that sea of sand into a glacier in an instant. Once the sand stops moving, those underground bastards are trapped like rats. Turn this scorching desert into their frozen tomb!"
"George, once the ice is solid and the monsters are pinned by Phyllis's lightning, it's your show," Lawson said grimly. "{Mage Heart} is our only large-scale AOE mage. Don't save your mana; launch a maximum-scale bombardment. Wash the entire ice field clean and turn every Mauler that pokes its head out into ash!"
"Luther, as our only sniper, {Sniper Eye}, stay pinned to the high ground." Lawson's eyes were like torches. "After George clears the field, the Desert Tyrant will lose its nest and go berserk. No matter how big the sand waves it kicks up, I want you to fire that [Armor Piercing Cannon] through its core the second it opens its mouth to roar!"
"Victor, Valerie, Dodge—you three cover me as we strike the enemy camp." Lawson cracked his neck.
"I'll use my [Steel Instinct of the Armor God] to lead us into the gaps of the frozen earth. We're going straight for the Desert Tyrant's heart and blowing its nest to hell!"
"{Bastion} in front, {Mage Heart} clearing the field, {Sniper Eye} for the decapitation, and {Saint Silver} roaming for support! Gear up, warriors!"
"—ARMOR LINK!!!"
{Bastion} slammed into the sand sea like a stabilizing needle, kicking up a hundred-meter sandstorm. The lurking Sand Maulers tried to close in, only to be paralyzed by the lightning shield provided by {Saint Silver}.
"You want a bite of me? Ask my shield first!" Emma slammed her heavy shield into the sand, single-handedly pulling the aggro of the entire battlefield.
As the sand vortex tried to swallow her, {Moon Swift} stepped out of the portal. "[Absolute Zero Domain] ... cool down, you over-heated brutes."
CRACK—! A wave of extreme cold transformed the shifting sands into a crystal-clear, deep-blue glacier. Beneath the ice, the Desert Tyrant roared in fury, its massive body slamming against the frozen ceiling.
"Hey, big guy, looking for us?"
In the shadows beneath the ice, Lawson led the strike team—Dodge, Victor, and Valerie—directly into the Desert Tyrant's "Larder."
"Demolition team on-site! All unauthorized beasts will be blown sky-high!"
Lawson opened his hand, and a golden glow coalesced into the {Mercy Hammer}. "Dodge! Catch! You know what to do!"
"Heh, leave it to me. This is my specialty!" {Tiger Soul} caught the divine weapon and leaped.
BOOM—!!!
The hammer strike hit the subterranean foundations with the force of a magnitude-10 earthquake. Victor's {Furious Shark} and Valerie's {Blaze Punch} tore through the confused guards.
Victor sliced through limbs with blue flashes of light, while Valerie turned the larder into a glass furnace, baking the monsters into glowing shards.
With the basement destroyed, the ice above began to collapse.
"George, the surface stragglers! Don't let a single one go!" Lawson shouted into the comms.
"Copy that, Mr. Lawson." {Mage Heart} raised a thunderbolt javelin.
"[THUNDER NAIL: TEN THOUSAND BOLT CONDUCTION]!"
He drove the spear into the ice. The [Absolute Zero Domain] acted as a perfect conductor.
Massive geometric nets of electricity surged across the frozen field, incinerating every monster caught in the cracks.
ZAP—BOOM!
The swarm was wiped out. As the Desert Tyrant was blasted into the air by the underground explosions, its shattered armor revealed its pulsing life core.
"Luther, it's yours."
A thousand meters away, {Sniper Eye} pulled the trigger.
BANG—!
The [Armor Piercing Cannon] trailed a forest-green beam of destruction, piercing the core perfectly. The Desert Tyrant skidded across the ground and disintegrated into a shower of starlight and loot.
Lawson stood before the pile of treasure in a "commander-style" pose and shouted into his phone: "Ester! Open the portal! I'm going to sleep for three days and three nights!"
Suddenly, the cheerful atmosphere curdled.
Dodge was happily holding a purple-glowing carapace; Victor and Valerie were laughing—but the joy vanished in seconds, replaced by a deathly sense of wrongness.
There were no mission-complete fireworks. No system notification. Even the swirling yellow sand continued to howl wildly in the cold wind.
"...Hey, isn't it over yet?" Emma retracted her shield, looking around uneasily.
Lawson rubbed his bloodshot, bone-dry eyes with a violent intensity. A bone-chilling cold surged from the base of his spine to the crown of his head. It was that "sense of wrongness"—an instinct honed through countless game cycles, far more accurate than any programmed skill.
Those memory fragments of a Ten-Year Veteran began piecing themselves together in his mind, finally freezing on a single, blur image.
He fumbled to open the encrypted comms channel. His voice, strained by extreme tension, was a rasping shadow of itself:
"Drop everything... Get ready! All hands, Level 1 Combat Readiness! NOW!"
The warriors froze, stunned by the sudden roar. Before they could even ask why, Lawson's voice returned, carrying a note of near-desperation:
"I try to remember ... what is that thing?"
Lawson stood dazed, searching for the creature within his own psyche, but he was met with a void. It was as if that part of his memory had been cauterized.