Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 212: Ch210. [Dark Forest] (14) - Light in the darkness

Chapter 212: Ch210. [Dark Forest] (14) - Light in the darkness

The first wave came like a crashing tide.

Monsters surged from the tree line, their forms twisted and glistening, mouths full of too many teeth, limbs formed of bone and steel. Shinji’s command had been simple, yet final.

Kill them.

And the things had obeyed.

Sarissa didn’t wait. Fire ignited under her soles as [Cheshire’s Gleam] flashed in her hand, meeting the first creature head-on, and slicing through a blade-legged thing that shrieked with a sound like tearing metal.

Behind her, the members of the Shooting Star Guild spread into a loose battle line. Jake trembled, but he fought, his sword already soaked in black blood. Alric and Elise moved in tandem, his shield protecting her as she shot lightning arrows, and the battlefield erupted in bursts of fire, ice, and light magic. Riven blurred through the ranks, gathering more experience, little by little, as she and the others leveled up and grew more accustomed to the chaotic rhythm of the battle, striking down anything that came close.

But it still wasn’t enough.

The monsters weren’t like before.

They did not feel like they just gotten stronger. They were tuned, perfectly coordinated, as if their movements were being dictated by some higher consciousness.

They moved with intelligence that hadn’t been there before Shinji’s return, attacking weak points, targeting spellcasters, circling around barriers.

Cass was pinned against a rock, a jagged centipede-thing crawling toward her, and Jake slammed into it from the side, slicing through its chitinous armor in a whirlwind of blades and frightened anger.

"You good?" He shouted.

"For now." Cass wiped blood from her face, nodding.

Alric slashed through a cluster of [Card Soldiers], scattering torn metal and ichor with his sword, its metal humming with something he had not heard before.

"Whatever it is, thanks for the upgrade, Mara..." He muttered, while Elise followed with a rain of flaming arrows that turned the ground molten, burning through insectoid legs and shriveled torsos.

But for every monster they cut down, two more came from the forest.

"They’re infinite!" Elise shouted, her hands glowing bright.

"No!" Sarissa said through gritted teeth as she cleaved through another, crimson fire from her [Wonderland Inferno] scorching it down. "Not infinite. Just enough to break us."

Jake stood back-to-back with Riven now, bloodied but holding.

"Where is Miles?" He asked, his voice less shaky now, coated with furious determination.

Riven just shook his head.

One of the mages screamed, Sarissa turned just in time to see a mantis-limbed beast impale him and throw his body into the air.

"Fall back!" Jake screamed. "Form up by the center of the camp!"

With Victor gone to Shinji’s side, there was no commanding voice anymore, and so, Jake shouted at the top of his lungs, waiting that the more reasonable players, even if only the veteran ones, would listen to him.

And they did, pulling back, every step a battle, but after the first few steps, the younger players followed. And the monsters pressed closer.

Sarissa’s body moved on instinct. Parry, riposte, blink behind, strike, dodge, repeat.

Her blade danced, and her fire swirled, but even she was getting tired.

She didn’t even know how long she had been fighting.

And then, the sky dimmed.

It wasn’t nightfall, it was something else.

The air grew colder, and the forest moaned.

Sarissa glanced upward. Above the battlefield, something shimmered, like a distortion, as if the reality was wincing.

"Elise, status!" Jake called.

"Half our casters down! Shields are breaking!"

Cass stood over two fallen teammates, her glaive coated in black blood, her hair torn, her eyes wild.

"We’re not going to last!" She said, panting. "We can’t hold this line."

Jake nodded grimly.

"We don’t need to. We just have to buy enough time."

"For what?" Cass asked, but he didn’t answer.

Because none of them knew, and all Jake had now was hope.

Sarissa looked past the battle, toward the trees. Something was moving deeper in the [Dark Forest]. It was not a monster, she could feel it. Like a pulse.

"We hold!" She said, feeling her Story surge within her. "No matter what."

Another wave surged, and this one was worse.

A creature the size of a wagon tore through their center line. It had a face, but no eyes, just a gaping mouth lined with teeth like broken glass. It screamed, and three players collapsed, clutching their heads.

Cass leapt on it, blades flashing, carving up its neck.

"Jake!" She shouted.

He was there in an instant, panting heavily, but driving his daggers into the beast’s exposed flank. It howled, and Sarissa finished it with a burst of fire through its skull.

But the cost of the battle was mounting.

One of the shields snapped, then another. The magic barriers failed, the mages too drained to restore them, the glyph traps already exhausted.

Cass was limping now, her side slashed open.

"We’re breaking!" Riven called.

"No. Not yet. Hold-" Sarissa rallied the line when a roar split the air.

From the tree line emerged a creature different from the rest. Taller than the others. Humanoid, but wrapped in barbed chains. Its face was blank, carved smooth like marble. It carried massive chains around its knuckles, and the moment it appeared, the other monsters fell back.

"What the hell is that?" Elise whispered. "Shit!"

It didn’t speak. It just pointed at Sarissa, and the monsters surged forward again, with her as their sole target.

She raised her blade.

"I don’t think we get to fall back now, can we, my dear?" Cheshire purred in her mind. Sarissa simply shook her head, bursting forward.

Cass darted past her, thought, screaming a war cry, her glaive out.

"Cass, wait-!"

But it was too late.

The thing that looked like a commander moved faster than anything that size should move. One sweep of its fist, and Cass went down in a spray of red.

"CASS!" Sarissa screamed.

Jake was already running to her, but he was too slow. The commander raised its fist again.

Alric intercepted the blow with his shield, the impact throwing him back, but keeping Jake from receiving the full brunt of the blow.

He crawled to Cass, tears already streaming down his face.

"I had it..." She whispered.

"You did..." Jake said, cradling her.

Sarissa couldn’t breathe.

The commander turned its head toward her, and she raised her sword again, her hands trembling for the first time in a long while.

She was about to charge when it happened.

From deep within the [Dark Forest], something flared. Bright, pure, like a sun had been born beneath the canopy.

Every single one of the monsters froze.

Sarissa turned, and the light rose higher.

And for the first time that day, the monsters stepped back.

The light kept growing, searing through the trees like a beacon.

Jake looked up from Cass’s lifeless body, wiping the tears from his face.

"What the hell is that?"

Sarissa didn’t answer because she already knew.