Neo did not waste the breath he had just won.

"It attacks in sequences of six!" he shouted to Byron while Gravebite crashed against another sword. "No matter how fast it looks, it stops for a second after the sixth. That’s when we hit it. Attacking in the middle is useless, it always keeps two blades free to knock everything away!"

Byron’s face changed at once. He had heard enough battles to know when someone had actually seen the shape inside the chaos.

"YOU HEARD HIM!" he roared across the boss room. "COUNT THE SIX! DON’T THROW YOURSELVES AWAY BEFORE THE PAUSE!"

The room tightened around those words.

Nobody wasted time on disbelief. They just listened and fought, carrying the count in their heads while the boss came at them again like a storm made of iron and rage.

The first strike hammered into Byron’s weapon hard enough to force him back. The second flashed toward Alice’s shoulder. She twisted off line and the axe kissed one of the lower arms in passing. The third chased Snot across blood-slick stone. He ducked so low his knee struck the floor and one dagger scraped sparks along the side of a blade that should have opened him. The fourth came for Marika, quick and precise, aimed at the side where a caster would be weakest while shifting mana. Neo stepped in, Beast Strength flooding his legs and arms together, and shoved Gravebite into that line before it reached her.

"Four!" Byron barked.

The fifth cut low, trying to tear Neo’s footing out from under him. His poisoned leg protested, heavy and ugly, but Vein Core gave him enough to drag it clear. The sixth crossed high in a vicious final arc that forced all of them apart for a heartbeat.

And the boss stopped just for a second.

"NOW!" Byron thundered.

The whole room moved on that single word.

Marika’s fire struck first, a compressed burst that crashed into the boss’s chest and spread across black flesh in a savage flare. Alice followed from the left, her axe biting deep into one forearm and wrenching the whole arm off line. Snot slipped under that opening and buried both daggers into the thigh before tearing one free and rolling away from the counter. Neo came through the middle with Beast Strength burning through him, Gravebite driving into the ribs hard enough to open them wider and throw another sheet of dark blood across the throne steps.

The others did not stay frozen behind them. One archer from Byron’s side sent two arrows in quick succession, one sinking into the shoulder, the other striking high and shattering near the neck. A woman with a lightning class emptied a jagged bolt into the upper torso, making one of the boss’s arms jerk wide. Another awakened rushed in with a spear and drove it toward the abdomen before stumbling back with blood on his mouth when a returning blade nearly split him open.

The pause ended.

The boss came at them again in another sequence, six linked strikes flowing with that same murderous order Neo had forced them all to see. Steel screamed over the room. Blood and fire marked the floor. Nobody rushed stupidly now. They endured the storm, counted through it, and waited for the gap at the end.

"One!" Byron shouted.

The first strike hammered into Byron’s weapon and forced him back.

"Two!"

Alice met the second on the haft of the axe and turned her shoulders with the impact instead of trying to overpower it.

"Three!"

Snot folded under the next cut so low his knee hit the stone.

"Four!"

Neo knocked that one off line before it reached Marika.

"Five!"

The boss cut low and opened the floor where one of Byron’s people had been standing a heartbeat earlier.

"Six!"

The final blade carved across the space before the throne and forced everybody apart.

The boss stopped.

That tiny dead breath at the end of the sequence had become visible now that they knew where to look.

Byron did not waste it.

"Again! Tear it down!"

This time the room answered with more than Neo’s group alone. Marika sent a second wave of flame into the chest wound. Alice hacked into the same shoulder already lagging behind the others. Snot cut the back of the knee and left black blood running in thick lines down the leg. Neo stepped in with Gravebite and split another opening across the ribs. The lightning caster hit from the far side. The archer loosed again. A wind user forced a compressed blade of air through the wounds they had already opened.

That was the first real proof the thing could be dragged away from the throne instead of ruling the center by sheer force. Around fifteen had entered this stretch of the fight. Fewer stood now, but the ones still alive had finally stopped wasting themselves and started fighting like a single animal with too many weapons and not enough time.

The next sequence came uglier than the last.

The boss was bleeding heavily now, one lower arm hanging wrong, one upper shoulder slower to recover after each exchange, but rage had only made it crueler. The first strike nearly opened Snot from chest to stomach and forced him into a desperate twist that sent one dagger skidding from his grip. The second battered Byron down to one knee. The third chased Marika and carved through the air just behind her as she dragged herself clear. The fourth slammed into Alice’s axe hard enough to drive the handle into her shoulder. The fifth cut for Neo’s side and only missed because Beast Strength gave him the speed to wrench himself out of the line. The sixth rose in a savage arc meant to clear the whole space before the throne. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The pause came.

Neo moved first.

Beast Strength tore through another chunk of Soul Essence as he launched himself in, Gravebite crashing into the opening with enough force to sever one of the lower hands at the wrist. The severed hand hit the floor with the sword still locked in its grip. Alice stepped in from the other side and hacked into the neck, the axe biting deep enough to force the boss to twist. Marika’s fire drove straight into the chest wound they had been widening for the last few cycles. Snot, back on his feet already, cut low with the remaining dagger and opened the back of the knee with one vicious slash.

The rest saw it.

Byron saw it too.

"All of you!" he roared. "There! Open it wider!"

And they obeyed.

The lightning caster emptied everything he had left into the wounded shoulder. The wind user drove another cutting burst through the ribs. The last archer loosed at the face from nearly point-blank range. Even one of the wounded melee fighters forced himself into the opening and buried his blade in the creature’s side before getting kicked away hard enough to crumple at the foot of the throne.

That was enough.

The next sequence began crooked.

Neo felt it immediately. One arm lagged. Another overcommitted. The rhythm that had ruled the room until now had finally cracked under the damage they had piled into it.

The first strike came too high.

Alice knocked the second off line before it found flesh.

The third chased Snot and only caught cloth.

The fourth reached for Marika and failed because Byron stepped into it with a roar and gave up blood instead of her.

The fifth nearly tore through Neo’s ribs, but Beast Strength let him wrench his body clear.

The sixth never finished cleanly because Marika’s fire hit the boss in the face while Snot drove his dagger into the ruined leg in the same breath.

The pause opened.

Neo stepped into it with murder in both hands.

He drove off the blood-slick stone, Beast Strength ripping through nearly everything he had left, and Gravebite rose in a brutal diagonal line toward the neck. Alice’s axe came from the other side. Both blows reached together.

For one impossible instant, the head stayed where it was, fury frozen over black blood and ruined flesh.

Neo ripped the blade through.

’Fuck off, dickhead.’

The head came off.

It spun through the air, struck the throne steps, and rolled across the stone with black blood pouring behind it. The six-armed body remained upright long enough to feel obscene, swaying over the dead with an empty neck and too much hate left in it.

Then it collapsed.

The instant it hit the floor, the whole tower trembled.