Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 201: Ch199. [Dark Forest] (3)

Chapter 201: Ch199. [Dark Forest] (3)

The battlefield screamed.

Steel clashed, arcane sigils burned across the earth, and the unnatural wail of twisted creatures echoed through the trees. The camp was a warzone lit in pulses of red and blue light, streaked with silver fire and the black smoke of exploded traps.

Sarissa ducked beneath the swipe of a metal-stitched limb, countering with a strike to its exposed core. Her gauntlet cracked the plating, then detonated a burst of kinetic force that sent the creature crumpling into a pile of slag. Behind her, a group of Shooting Star mages poured sustained fire into a knot of advancing monsters.

Miles moved like a shadow through the chaos, cutting through with brutal precision. Each swing of his katana severed limbs or heads, and his coat swirled behind him, tattered at the hem but untouched by blood. He was looking, always looking, for the thread in the madness. The hand pulling the strings.

"Push right!" Victor’s voice rang out, commanding and clear above the chaos. He stood at the center of a triangle of glowing sigils, cutting down any creature that breached their formation. "They’re trying to collapse the perimeter!"

Sarissa and Miles moved as one, weaving through the firelines and broken wards to reinforce the faltering right flank. Elise’s arrows sailed overhead, each one glowing with a whisper of magic, finding targets with impossible precision.

Alric and Riven were locked in close-quarters brawls, holding a crumbling line of rune-etched barricades. Cass barked orders from behind them, tossing a glowing seal onto the ground that erupted into a snare of spectral chains.

"We need to clear them now!" Cass shouted. "Before the second wave hits!"

"What second wave?" Jake muttered, stabbing a beast through the eye.

Then the ground trembled, and all at once, everything stopped.

The forest went silent. Even the beasts paused, cocking their misshapen heads in unison like broken marionettes.

The ground cracked, and from the treeline, something emerged, but it wasn’t a creature.

It was a procession.

A ring of robed figures emerged first, their hoods drawn low, eyes glowing with black light. Each held a staff etched with inverted runes, pulsing to an inaudible rhythm.

Behind them, the trees groaned as something massive forced its way forward.

It stepped into view like a thought escaping a nightmare.

A massive construct, at least five meters tall, plated in blackened bark and bone-forged steel. Its face was a hollow cavity ringed with teeth, and a single eye rotated mechanically in the center of its chest. Roots coiled around its limbs like muscle, and green fire glowed from its joints.

"A Dungeon Boss?" Miles narrowed his eyes.

"What the hell..." Sarissa muttered.

"And it brought an entourage." Cheshire added, perched on her shoulder, his tail puffed out.

"Or the entourage brought it." Victor cursed softly. "Formations! Tiers Two and Three, fall back to defensive range. Tier Fours, prepare to rotate, Tier Fives... It’s time! This one’s not a solo target."

The enormous [Card Soldier] roared. Not with sound, but with magic.

The sigils under their feet shivered, and three defensive wards detonated in a line, throwing mages backward. The robed cultists raised their staffs, channeling pale lightning into the monster’s frame. Its chest-eye dilated and released a pulse of force that cracked the air like thunder.

Sarissa charged forward. And this time, Cheshire joined the fray, jumping towards her hands and distorting, immediately assuming the shape of a long, light sword.

"Time to go all-out, my dear." He purred.

"We’re going in?!" Jake shouted.

"We don’t have time to think twice!" Sarissa shouted back.

Miles was already ahead of her, blade drawn, eyes glowing with red-obsidian fury. He moved to flank while Sarissa drew the boss’s attention, [Cheshire’s Gleam] glowing bright-blue in her hands, as if Cheshire himself was ready to taste abomination blood.

She fired a burst of silver flame into its face, and the construct reacted immediately. Its limbs jerked into motion with uncanny speed, lashing out. She dodged left, using a glyph to launch herself skyward, twisting midair to fire another blast downward mid-free-fall.

Miles blurred forward from the right, striking at the monster’s knee joint. The katana bit deep, but only sparks flew, the root-muscle absorbing the worst of it.

Still, the construct stumbled, just enough for Riven to smash into its other side.

Alric followed, shield glowing as he tanked the resulting shockwave.

Elise fired three arrows into the exposed gaps near its spine. Each one exploded in a burst of light. Smoke poured from its joints.

The monster roared again, this time audible. It opened its chest-eye and launched a beam of corroding energy across the battlefield. One of the defensive towers melted instantly.

Victor raised a barrier and took the brunt of it with a grunt.

"I need ten seconds! Cover me!"

Sarissa dropped to the ground, rolled, then sprinted forward. She touched the earth with one gauntlet, triggering a chain reaction glyph, a circle of fire bursting beneath the monster’s feet, making it stagger.

Miles climbed up its back like a shadow, dragging his katana through the bark-steel armor. Each strike glowed red with overcharged mana. When he reached the top, he leapt into the air and drove the blade into the socket of the monster’s eye.

The creature shrieked, but not in pain.

Sarissa cursed and called Miles back. The monster’s eye exploded outward, and its form began to shift.

Limbs cracked open, blooming into petals of blade-bark. The cultists at its feet were absorbed, screaming, their bodies fusing into its form.

"You pissed it off!" Jake shouted.

"I think I upgraded it." Miles coughed.

Victor slammed a blade into the earth, releasing a shockwave that bought them distance.

"We need to pull it toward the western glyph field. If we can get it inside the containment lines-"

"Then we might have a shot." Sarissa nodded.

The team rallied. Alric charged first, shield raised high. Riven followed, blades flashing. Jake blinked behind the monster and threw two detonators. Elise fired support arrows, striking its joints. Miles and Sarissa flanked.

Together, they drove it backward, inch by inch, toward the edge of the camp.

The [Card Soldier] bled sap and fire, each movement slower than the last, and then it finally reached the glyph line.

Victor activated the containment.

The forest itself trembled.

A dome of pale green light snapped down over the creature, trapping it. The sigils lit up in succession, binding magic pulling tight.

The monster howled, thrashing, trying to reform, but unable to escape.

It exploded in countless Story fragments.

Immediately after the monster began to dissolve, the dome vanished, ash raining down.

Silence fell over the battlefield as the lesser [Card Soldiers] ran into the [Dark Forest].

Miles looked at the others, breathing hard. Sarissa wiped blood from her chin and said.

"It was a message."

Victor agreed grimly.

"And the sender is getting bolder." Cheshire meowed, assuming back its natural form, and jumping to Sarissa’s shoulder.

"Shinji’s definitely back." Miles said, his lips widening into a grin.