The clangor of weapons mixed with the gibberish war cries of the goblins, creating the sound of a small battle.

The scale of the battle shifted within seconds after Nightwalker’s initial attack. Most of the students were now forced to battle the smaller goblins, defending the weaker students.

So in a sense, the weaker students were only fighting the goblins that got past the stronger students, while the stronger ones themselves served as both the shield and spear of the group.

The frontline team comprised Leo, Lucien, and two other Oracles.

One was a young girl whose ability allowed her to create translucent barriers that could temporarily redirect incoming attacks, making her invaluable whenever the formation began to crack under pressure.

Her name was Mira, and despite looking no older than fifteen, she remained surprisingly calm throughout the battle. Every few seconds, another barrier would appear somewhere along the frontline, intercepting a weapon, redirecting a charge, or buying enough time for someone else to finish an enemy.

The second Oracle was a tall boy named Gareth. Unlike Mira, his ability focused entirely on support. Thin blue threads of Aura extended from his fingertips and connected themselves to nearby allies. Anyone affected by the threads found their movements becoming lighter and faster while fatigue accumulated more slowly.

Neither Oracle possessed the direct combat ability of Leo or Lucien, but together they significantly reduced the pressure on the frontline.

Even then, the battle was becoming increasingly difficult.

More goblins continued emerging from deeper within the forest. Every time a group was eliminated, another seemed to replace it shortly afterward. The numbers themselves were not overwhelming individually, but the constant pressure prevented the students from resting even for a moment.

Leo ducked beneath a crude spear before driving [Yielding Spine] into a goblin’s chest. The creature collapsed immediately.

Before he could recover, another rushed him from the side.

Widening his mouth to reveal the triangular teeth of [Shell Of Dread], Leo suddenly extended outward.

The goblin slammed directly into them.

A scream escaped its mouth as flesh tore apart before Leo finished it with a quick strike across the throat.

[You’ve slain a Capricorn, Memory Of Crude Goblin From Eldrath]

Leo ignored the message completely.

He no longer had the luxury of paying attention to system notifications.

A loud crash erupted nearby.

One of the larger goblins had broken through a section of the frontline and slammed into a cluster of Chorus students. Several were thrown backward immediately.

Before the creature could attack again, Lucien appeared.

His golden Aura flowed calmly around his body. As the goblin raised its club, Lucien shifted slightly and the attack missed.

Then Lucien’s palm struck the creature’s chest.

The goblin froze.

A second later, cracks spread across its armor before the entire creature collapsed onto the ground.

Leo frowned briefly after witnessing it. Lucien just never runs out of surprises.

Unfortunately, he had bigger problems at the moment. A sharp pain suddenly pierced his brain, almost causing him to lose balance. Leo stumbled backward while instinctively raising the [Yielding Spine] to block a spear aimed at his neck. The attack glanced off the side of the blade before he retaliated with a quick thrust through the goblin’s chest.

Even after killing it, the pain remained. It was not the exhaustion from battle nor the strain of Aura circulation. The sensation felt foreign, like something was attempting to force its way into his thoughts. For a brief moment, disturbing images flashed through his mind.

He saw students lying dead beneath the trees, the formation completely broken apart, and Nightwalker buried beneath a mountain of corpses. The images came and went so quickly that Leo almost failed to process them. Before the sensation could deepen further, however, the white scales covering his body vibrated slightly. A cold feeling spread through the [Shell Of Dread], and the foreign thoughts vanished immediately, leaving his mind clear once more.

Leo frowned while cutting down another goblin that attempted to take advantage of his distraction. The reaction of the armor immediately caught his attention. The [Impervious Solitude] characteristic had activated on its own. There was no other explanation. Something had attempted to affect his mind directly, and the armor had rejected it before it could take root.

Under normal circumstances Leo would have spent more time thinking about the implications, but the battlefield gave him no such luxury. Another goblin rushed him. He sidestepped the attack and slashed across its throat before driving his shoulder into a second one. Yet even while fighting, his thoughts continued turning over the same realization. If something was influencing minds, then perhaps the strange behavior of the goblins was not natural at all.

The more Leo paid attention, the more obvious the problem became. The goblins were not fighting like goblins. Even after losing dozens of their numbers, their attacks remained organized. Whenever one section of their assault weakened, another group appeared to reinforce it. Whenever Nightwalker carved a path through them, they shifted direction and adapted instead of breaking apart in panic. Even the larger goblins seemed strangely coordinated despite possessing little intelligence from what Leo remembered.

The entire battlefield felt wrong. It reminded him less of fighting monsters and more of fighting an army being directed by an unseen commander. The realization caused Leo’s gaze to sweep repeatedly across the forest while he continued battling. If there truly was something controlling them, then finding it would be more important than killing another hundred goblins.

A loud crash erupted nearby as Nightwalker sent another large goblin crashing through several trees. The silver-haired man remained the strongest combatant on the battlefield by an absurd margin. Despite his injuries, every swing of his sword killed multiple enemies. The larger goblins that threatened the formation barely lasted a few exchanges against him. However, even Nightwalker could not be everywhere at once. While he dominated one section of the battlefield, more enemies continued arriving from elsewhere.

The pressure on the students never truly disappeared. Mira’s barriers flashed constantly as she redirected attacks away from weaker students, while Gareth’s support threads remained stretched across almost every frontline fighter. Without the two Oracles, the formation would have collapsed long ago.

Leo stabbed another goblin through the eye and immediately ducked beneath a second attack. As he moved, the strange pressure brushed against his thoughts again. This time he noticed it immediately. The sensation felt cold and unpleasant. It was not exactly fear, nor was it pain. The closest thing he could compare it to was dread.

The feeling only lasted a second before the [Shell Of Dread] suppressed it again. Yet during that brief moment, Leo noticed something strange. The goblin in front of him seemed distorted. Its body looked stretched for an instant, almost like he was viewing it through moving water. The effect disappeared immediately afterward. Leo almost thought he had imagined it. Then it happened again a few moments later while fighting another goblin. The same distortion appeared before vanishing.

His eyes narrowed.

The [Shell Of Dread] did not merely protect him from the influence. Somehow it was helping him notice it.

That realization immediately made Leo pay closer attention. He stopped focusing entirely on killing enemies and instead began observing the battlefield itself. Every time the strange pressure touched his mind, the armor would reject it. During that brief interaction, the distortions appeared again. They were faint and difficult to notice, but they existed. Certain goblins seemed connected by them. Certain areas of the battlefield looked slightly warped. At first Leo thought he was seeing things, but after noticing the pattern several times, he became certain. Something was hidden among the goblins. Something was spreading whatever influence kept trying to enter his mind.

Another whisper entered his thoughts.

"Took you long enough."

Leo nearly rolled his eyes despite the situation.

The [Yielding Spine] was talking again.

"You’re useless," Leo muttered under his breath while parrying a spear.

"Yet I’m still smarter than you."

The sword sounded far too pleased with itself.

"If you already know what’s happening, why don’t you tell me?"

"Because watching you struggle is entertaining."

Leo stabbed another goblin and resisted the urge to throw it away. It was still his strongest weapon, after all.

Unfortunately, the annoying weapon had indirectly confirmed his suspicions. There really was something unusual happening. Leo took a deep breath and allowed the next wave of dread to touch his thoughts. The [Shell Of Dread] immediately rejected it, but this time Leo focused entirely on the brief sensation. The result was immediate. The distortions became clearer. Not by much, but enough for him to follow them. They seemed to extend deeper into the forest beyond the goblin lines. The realization caused his heart rate to increase slightly. If the source truly existed, then perhaps the battle could be ended without slaughtering every single goblin present.

Another ten minutes passed as the battle continued. The students fought desperately while Nightwalker and the stronger combatants prevented the formation from being overrun. During that time Leo continued following the distortions little by little. Every wave of dread revealed more than the last. Eventually he began noticing that the goblins nearest certain areas behaved differently. They reacted faster. They coordinated more effectively. They seemed more aware of what was happening around them. It was subtle, but once noticed it became impossible to ignore. Those goblins were not acting independently. They were responding to something. More specifically, they were responding to... someone.

A plan slowly formed in Leo’s mind.

He could not see the source clearly yet, but he no longer needed to. If the distortions only became visible when the [Shell Of Dread] interacted with the foreign influence, then perhaps he could force a stronger reaction. The armor possessed more than defensive characteristics. It also possessed [Minor Remnant Of Dread]. Leo still did not fully understand what dread actually was or how to use it properly, but he understood enough to make a simple guess. If something was using dread to influence the goblins, then perhaps introducing more dread into the battlefield would expose it.

The idea was reckless.

Naturally, Leo liked it.

He immediately began directing more Aura toward the armor. The white scales covering his body seemed to respond. A cold sensation spread across his limbs. Nothing dramatic happened. No explosions of power appeared. Yet the goblins nearest him visibly hesitated. Even Leo himself felt slightly uncomfortable despite wearing the armor. The effect was barely noticeable but it was present. More importantly, the distortions reacted immediately. For the first time since the battle began, they became visible enough for Leo to follow properly.

His eyes widened slightly.

All he saw was two large bloodied eyes covering the whole battlefield in a dark expanse.