The sub-objective was close now.

All five of them were together again, and that alone had changed the air around the group. Snot looked lighter than he had not long ago, when killing two people had left something ugly sitting under his usual noise.

Neo noticed it and kept the thought to himself.

’He hasn’t said it to anyone else. Only me. I’ll keep that secret the same way he’s keeping mine.’

That was the natural thing to do.

Snot was strange. Loud, irritating in bursts, impossible to ignore for long, yet Neo did not dislike him. Somehow, despite being opposites in almost everything that could be measured, they got along far too well.

’Opposites attract. Isn’t that the saying?’

The thought barely had time to settle before movement ahead dragged all of them back into the present.

A Stoneweb Spider crawled over broken stone first, long hairy legs clicking against rock, swollen abdomen dragging low. Beside it, a Soul Beast stepped into view with the kind of presence that made the air shift at once. Four powerful legs. A body long and low despite its size. Black fur pulled tight over muscle. Pale fangs beneath a mouth made for tearing.

Night Stalker.

More shapes followed behind them.

Weapons flashed into existence at once.

Neo’s sword formed in his hand, and the moment he invoked Beast Strength, power ran through his frame in a hot, violent pulse. His muscles tightened, his footing bit deeper into the ground, and the weight of the blade changed with him. With Beast Strength active, the force in his body rose to something close to Snot’s despite Snot standing a whole core above him.

The first Night Stalker moved before the others.

It came low and fast, black fur cutting through shadow like a blade through cloth. Max stepped forward at once, shield raised to take the impact, but Neo was already moving.

He crossed in from the side instead of the front.

The beast hit Max’s shield with enough force to ring through the stone beneath them, and Neo used that instant. He came in along its flank and drove his sword deep behind the foreleg. The Night Stalker twisted, a burst of savage movement and muscle, but Neo ripped the blade free and cut again across the neck before it could spring away.

[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]

The body crashed hard, skidding over broken stone.

Snot slipped past him with both daggers in hand, cutting into the first Stoneweb Spider as it spat webbing toward Marika. Alice entered the same opening with her axe and broke another spider’s leg with one brutal swing, forcing it low enough for Marika’s flames to catch its underside.

Neo saw the second Night Stalker before anyone called it.

It had circled wide through the rubble and was already rushing for Marika.

He burst forward, boots grinding over stone, and met it head-on.

The beast lunged for his throat. Neo stepped off line and slammed his shoulder into its side with enough force to turn the leap ugly. It crashed against a half-broken wall, claws scraping for purchase, and Neo’s sword came down a heartbeat later through the base of its neck.

[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]

He did not stop there.

A Stoneweb Spider dropped from a fractured ledge above, web already gathering in its mouth. Neo snapped his arm up and cut through the strand before it could spread, then closed the distance in two quick steps. The spider reared, legs lifting, abdomen twitching.

Neo’s blade punched straight through the front of its body.

Green blood burst across the stone.

[You have slain Stoneweb Spider - Ember]

He ripped the sword free, crouched at once, and consumed the Soul Core before the light had even finished surfacing.

[Soul-Window]

[660/1000]

A third Night Stalker came for him almost immediately, using the others’ fight as cover. It moved the way predators were meant to move, clean and cold, no wasted motion in it. Neo caught the shift in rubble to his right, turned with it, and the beast met steel instead of flesh.

The impact ran through his arms.

’Fast.’

It twisted away and came again.

Neo let it.

He gave ground once, drew it into the narrow cut between two broken slabs, and the moment it committed, he stepped in instead of back. His free hand caught its fur for the briefest instant. Beast Strength surged through him, and he drove the sword up under the jaw with enough force to carry the blade half through the skull.

[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]

The thing dropped almost on top of him.

Neo shoved it away, breathing harder now, and consumed the core at once.

[Soul-Window]

[662/1000]

Off to his left, Max was holding the front exactly where he needed to, shield planted like a wall no beast had the right to move. Alice fought beside him with her two-handed axe, every swing carrying enough force to split bodies apart instead of merely wounding them. Snot flashed in and out of bad angles, both daggers working with quick, dirty precision. Marika’s flames came in sharp bursts, controlled and vicious, burning open the gaps the others needed.

But the center of the fight had already shifted toward Neo.

The last Stoneweb Spider tried to retreat after seeing two Night Stalkers and one of its own kind already dead on the ground.

Neo did not let it.

He ran it down over broken stone, vaulted a collapsed stretch of wall, and landed almost on top of it. The spider spun, legs scraping, web building again.

He cut across the mouth first.

Then downward.

The abdomen split open with a wet crack.

[You have slain Stoneweb Spider - Ember]

The core surfaced. Neo consumed it without wasting a breath.

[Soul-Window]

[663/1000]

The last Night Stalker saw what the others had become and chose speed over caution. It came straight for Neo, a black blur tearing over the ruined ground.

Neo smiled without warmth.

’Good.’

He met it in the open.

The beast’s claws flashed. Neo turned aside by the smallest margin, felt air tear past his chest, and struck once across the ribs. Not enough to kill. Enough to stagger. The Night Stalker twisted back around at once, but Beast Strength was already flooding Neo’s body again through every line of muscle.

His second strike was heavier.

His third ended it.

The blade carved through the neck so cleanly the head rolled twice before stopping near Max’s boots.

[You have slain Night Stalker - Vein]

Neo consumed the final core while the body was still twitching.

[Soul-Window]

[665/1000]

By the time the last corpse hit the ground, the fight was already over.

Snot looked over the battlefield, then at Neo, and let out a short breath through his nose. "You really decided to show off there, huh?"

Neo flicked green blood and black fur from his blade. "They got in my way."

That earned a laugh from Snot, quick and alive.

They moved on soon after.

The ground began to rise, and before long the hill stood in front of them with the tower waiting at its summit, ancient and vast enough to make everything around it feel smaller.

Marika slowed slightly. "Stay alert. There might be monsters around it."

Max raised his shield at once, ready to throw himself into the front and take the aggro the moment something appeared.

Neo remained watchful, though not as tense as before. He saw no webs, no dragged silk, no signs that spiders had nested around the tower. Snot seemed much the same, and Neo guessed he had sensed something through his blood.

A moment later, Snot spoke.

"Desummon the weapons. There are people ahead. We’re close now, so it’d be better not to make a bad first impression."

All five dismissed their weapons and finished climbing the hill.

The full base of the tower opened before them.

It was enormous, wide enough that a thousand people could have sat in a great circle within it without crowding each other. Vines and wild growth clung to parts of the old stone, but the entrance stood open.

That was not the surprising part.

The surprising part was the number of people.

More than fifty had gathered at the tower’s base. Some sat alone. Others had formed groups. Campfires, supplies, makeshift shelters, bedrolls, and little territories marked out by whoever had claimed them first.

’So some of them really did appear near the tower.’

A voice rang out from ahead.

"Stop there! The newcomers don’t move!"

Snot blinked. "That’s for us?"

Neo answered dryly, "Yes. We’re the newcomers here. It’s us."

Snot scratched his cheek. "Ah. Right. When you put it like that, yeah."

Six people approached.

Two men were first, both close to two meters tall, broad and imposing in knight armor with their visors open. Behind them came two more men and a woman, all carrying themselves with enough confidence to make their classes hard to guess at a glance.

And at the center of them walked what was clearly their leader.

Compared to the two armored towers at his sides, he looked almost ridiculous.

A man.

One meter fifty tops.

Snot saw him and failed first. A laugh slipped out of him before he could stop it. Marika did the same.

Neo looked at the man, felt the laugh rise, and crushed it before it escaped.

If he laughed now, they would be starting on the worst possible foot with everyone in this place.