[Emperoar: Claim high ground fast!]

Martin’s command rang only in Kuro A’s ear, and Kuro A did not waste a second questioning it.

If Brother EMP was telling him to claim high ground while the cave was flooding, then the water itself was about to become part of the fight.

"Claim high ground!" Kuro A shouted, his voice cutting through the roar of the flood. "Move now!"

Night Espresso reacted immediately, even though not everyone understood why. Some players were still staring at the water around their boots, while others were already fighting to keep their balance as the cave floor turned slippery, uneven, and unpredictable beneath them. Water rushed between broken stones, pulled at ankles, and punished every careless step.

Kuro A’s eyes swept across the cave. He took in the broken stone, the rising water, the scattered players, and the unstable ground in one sharp glance. He saw which ledges were still dry, which ridges would soon be swallowed, and which paths could carry his guild away from the worst of the current before Just Die understood what had changed.

"Left group, take the stone ridge!" he ordered. "Healers, stay above the waterline! Tanks, keep your shields angled and do not turn your backs to the current!"

Night Espresso moved under his command. Boots scraped over wet stone, shields slammed down for balance, and mages gathered their robes as they climbed instead of trying to cast from unstable ground. Their climb was rough, rushed, and loud, but it carried Night Espresso to the one thing Just Die had not wanted them to reach: height.

Then one of the geysers erupted.

The burst shot upward with a violent roar, and the cave spat someone back into the war. Spray exploded across the flooded cave. Water glittered through the air, and every nearby player turned toward the sound by instinct.

A figure rose through the mist, twisted once above the geyser, and dropped through the falling spray. He landed hard at the center of the chaos, sending water bursting outward from his boots. His broken mask caught the cave light, his armor dripped with lake water, and his steady posture dragged every eye toward him.

Every player in Cascade Valley knew that silhouette. The most wanted player in the valley was back on the battlefield.

"Emperoar! What are you doing?!" someone from Night Espresso shouted.

The same confusion spread through their side without anyone needing to say it. Martin was standing in the lowest part of the cave after ordering everyone else upward, and he was doing it alone.

Across the flooded ground, Just Die’s players stared at him until disbelief sharpened into greed. Their prize had come straight to them.

"He’s alone!"

"Get that idiot and claim this land for ourselves!"

"Move fast before this entire cave floods!"

"Wait! The geysers stopped!" another player shouted. "Secure the exit route first and keep Emperoar locked in!"

Several Just Die members moved at once. Their front line shifted toward Martin, their ranged players lifted bows and staffs, and their tanks raised shields before shifting into a loose cage around Emperoar to cut off every route he could use to escape.

To them, the situation looked obvious. Martin had survived whatever had happened below the bank, but he had come out in the wrong place. He had landed alone, surrounded by enemies, while the water rose around his own feet.

It looked as if he had made the worst possible mistake, yet Martin remained still.

A smile spread beneath his broken mask, and the cracks only made his expression look worse. Nothing about him looked cornered. His calm made everyone else’s confidence seem premature.

Around him, Just Die treated the flood as a hazard. Martin treated it as a weapon. Every unstable patch of ground, every rising current, and every broken channel in the stone had already become part of the territory he planned to use. The enemy thought they were looking at one player standing alone, and that was exactly why they were wrong.

No one here had the same advantage he did. Raze Dawg had been the only player with a beast worth fearing, but he had been forced out of this battlefield and could no longer see the flood, call targets, or send Ashy into the water to answer Angel.

Even if that beast still existed somewhere, it could not rule water the way Angel could.

In that moment, Martin fully believed he was the trump card Cassandra had chosen for this quest, and he intended to play that card properly.

Let’s have fun, Angel.

[You have summoned Ao Tenshin out of her pocket dimension.]

The air above Just Die distorted, and a shadow fell over several players before any of them understood what had appeared. One moment, they were staring at Emperoar. The next, the blue crystal underside of a massive shell filled their vision.

Then Ao Tenshin dropped.

A thunderous splash crashed over the flooded ground as her full weight slammed down and flattened everyone beneath her. Damage dealers, tanks, mages, and healers all disappeared beneath the same crushing impact, their screens going black before defensive skills could finish activating.

Water surged outward in a heavy ring. The impact knocked nearby players off their feet and shoved others backward into the rising current. A staff spun away through the foam, and an upside-down shield floated for a moment before sinking beneath the surface.

Neither guild moved right away. Night Espresso stared from the high stone, and Just Die stared from the water as the battle seemed to pause around Ao Tenshin’s arrival.

She had grown massive.

Her shell was no longer the plain shell of a cute turtle. Layered blue crystal covered it now, thick and luminous, with deep sapphire veins glowing beneath the surface. The same light crossed her skin and head in soft patterns that pulsed with the water around her.

Even her tiny horns had changed. They were still adorable little nubs, but they no longer looked harmless. A faint blue light gathered at their tips, giving them the presence of something ancient beginning to wake inside her bloodline.

Everyone could recognize her as Emperoar’s pet, and that only made the sight more absurd. Her crystal shell belonged to a turtle, her glowing horns hinted at a dragon, and no one on either side could understand where he had found something like her.