The panel hung in the air a second longer before it faded, and Logan felt his pulse pick up to match it.
He had one skill point still sitting unused, earned the moment his class crossed into its second level. No better time to spend it than right now, with the enemy already on the way.
’Upgrade Restore.’
```
[ Restore upgraded to Lv. 2 ]
Recovers a larger portion of HP and MP with each cast.
```
Good. That was one more thing between his people and dying tonight.
From his triangle of stacked walls, Logan could see all six corridors laid out beneath him, pale in the last of the evening light. Beyond the tree line, something was moving.
A lot of somethings.
They came out of the clearing first, shapes stumbling between the trees with a wrongness to their gait that had nothing to do with speed.
```
[ Rotfang Ghoul (Tier-1 / Normal) ]
```
Five of them, gray-skinned and hollow-eyed, jaws hanging loose with too many teeth. They shuffled toward the corridor facing the clearing, slow and stupid and drawn straight in like the Tower had built the trap just for them.
The lead crossbow caught the first one through the chest before it reached the corridor proper, and it dropped where it stood.
Billy didn’t wait for the rest to come to him. He rolled forward to meet them instead, sword in one hand, sling loaded in the other.
The second ghoul lost its head to a single clean swing. The third barely got a claw up before Billy’s blade-legs carried him past it, and it fell in two pieces behind him.
The Frostmaw Direwolf took the last two together, frost curling off its jaws as it tore through rotted flesh like it was nothing at all.
```
[ 5x Rotfang Ghoul (Tier-1/Normal) killed. +250 Tower Points ]
[ +80 Exp. Frostmaw Direwolf has reached level 2. ]
```
Not one of them had made it past the halfway point.
Billy glanced up toward the watchtower. "That’s it?"
"That’s the warm-up," Logan called down. "Stay sharp."
He hoped he was right.
It wasn’t long before the second wave answered him.
More shapes broke from the tree line, bigger this time, moving with something closer to purpose. Rusted blades hung from rotted fists, and armor scraps clung to bone where flesh had long since given up.
```
[ Level 10 Rotfang Ghoul (Tier-1 / Normal) ]
```
Five of them again, but stronger, and they didn’t come from just one direction. Two peeled off toward the eastern corridor, two more toward the west, and the last one shambled straight down the middle behind the others.
The crossbows fired first, same as before. But these ghouls shrugged the paralysis off quicker than the smaller ones had, joints locking for only a heartbeat before breaking free, and kept coming anyway.
"Pikeman, Brawler, work," Logan called, already reaching for Encouragement.
’Encouragement.’
```
[ Encouragement used on Bulwark Pikeman ]
-50 MP
Attack +10% | Defense +10% for 60 seconds
```
The Bulwark Pikeman met the first ghoul at the mouth of the eastern corridor, shield up, spear driving through a rotted chest before the thing could swing its blade. The second one got past the spear’s reach and clawed at the shield instead, and the Pikeman answered by slamming it back into the wall hard enough to crack bone.
On the western side, the Stone Fist Brawler didn’t bother with finesse. It caught the first ghoul’s swing on a forearm, felt the blade skid off without cutting deep, and answered with a punch that took the creature’s head clean off its shoulders.
The last one made it almost to the core before Thistleblade Ranger’s arrow caught it through the back of the skull.
```
[ 5x Level 10 Rotfang Ghoul (Tier-1/Normal) killed. +500 Tower Points ]
[ +400 Exp. Bulwark Pikeman has reached level 6. ]
[ +400 Exp. Stone Fist Brawler has reached level 6. ]
```
Logan didn’t waste time. He put the Pikeman’s new points into Constitution, since a wall that broke wasn’t much of a wall.
The Brawler’s points went straight into Attack, since it clearly liked ending fights in one hit.
The corridor walls held, scarred but standing. Nobody on his side had taken a real wound.
The third wave didn’t bother pretending to be careful.
Ten shapes came out of the dark at once, spread across every corridor at the same time, moving fast enough that the trenches actually mattered for the first time all night. Two of them charged straight into the trenches. Logan let them be. They were already trapped.
```
[ Level 10 Blightmail Revenant (Tier-1 / Uncommon) ]
```
These monsters wore what was left of real armor, rusted plate fused straight into gray flesh, and they carried honest weapons instead of scavenged bones. Their eyes glowed a sick green in the dark.
The crossbows fired, bolts punching into rusted plate, but the poison barely slowed them down. Uncommon-quality hide needed better than a base-grade box, and Woodwright Sprite hadn’t gotten anywhere near planting that Hisfoil Grass yet. Logan filed the thought away for later and stopped relying on the bolts to do the killing.
Without the paralysis to lean on, the corridors couldn’t hold this wave back on their own. Revenants broke through at four of the six points almost at once.
At the clearing corridor, Billy and the Frostmaw Direwolf tore into the pair that reached them, frost and steel working together until neither Revenant was still standing.
To the east, Bulwark Pikeman drove its spear through one Revenant’s chest and shoved the corpse into the second one behind it, buying just enough of an opening for Billy to arrive and help finish both of them.
To the west, Stone Fist Brawler traded blows with a pair of them at once, taking a rusted blade across the shoulder for its trouble. It held them back long enough for Billy’s bladed wheels to roll through and shred them.
That left two more, and a lone Minion standing guard at the northern point with nothing but a crank in its hands.
"Thistleblade, Billy, north!" Logan was already moving to the edge of his platform, eyes on the gap.
The Thistleblade Ranger peeled off from its post without hesitation, briar-wrapped legs eating up the distance, and put three arrows into the nearest Revenant before it reached the crank. The last one broke off and charged the wall instead, missed its footing, and dropped straight into the trench with the other two already stuck there.
"Hello, ugly things." Billy grinned.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
```
[ 10x Level 10 Blightmail Revenant (Tier-1/Uncommon) killed. +1500 Tower Points ]
[ Bulwark Pikeman has reached level 6. ]
[ Stone Fist Brawler has reached level 6. ]
[ Thistleblade Ranger has reached level 6. ]
[ Frostmaw Direwolf has reached level 6. ]
```
The night wasn’t done with him.
The fourth wave came slower than the others, and that was somehow worse.
Five shapes walked out of the tree line instead of shambling, armor black instead of rust, blades already drawn. Behind them, taller than the rest, something else stepped into the clearing.
```
[ Level 10 Deathless Cataphract (Tier-1 / Rare) ]
```
```
[ Level 10 Ashbound Revenant (Tier-1 / Epic) ]
```
Logan’s stomach dropped. Epic.
’We can do this.’
The Ashbound Revenant didn’t look rushed. It didn’t need to. Black flame curled off its shoulders where a cloak might have been, and the ground seemed to dim wherever its shadow fell.
"Billy." Logan’s voice came out steadier than he felt. "That one’s yours. Frostmaw will come once it’s done killing the undead there."
’Safe Haven.’
```
[ Safe Haven activated ]
-500 MP
Barrier Durability: 1000
```
He dropped the barrier around the base of Billy’s corridor, wide enough to give him room to retreat into if things went wrong.
He quickly distributed the stat points waiting on his summons, making each of them a little stronger before the worst of it hit.
The five Cataphracts hit the corridors first, fast and coordinated in a way nothing tonight had been.
One went down to the Bulwark Pikeman’s spear before it finished its charge.
’This one’s strong. Slow, but high Attack and high Defense.’
Another traded blows with Stone Fist Brawler and lost an arm for its trouble, the Brawler’s new strength showing itself immediately.
’Good call giving him more Speed and Attack. He’s nimble now, and that skill of his can disable something before it even lands a hit.’
The Frostmaw Direwolf took a third apart at the joints while Thistleblade’s arrows thinned the rest from range.
That left one Cataphract and the Revenant itself for Billy.
Frostmaw Direwolf joined the battle the moment its own corridor went quiet. It still had mana to spend, and as a Rare-rank unit same as Billy, it had high base stats of its own.
’Encouragement.’
```
[ Encouragement used on Billy & Frostmaw Direwolf ]
-100 MP
Attack +10% | Defense +10% for 60 seconds
```
The last Deathless Cataphract didn’t get the chance to pick a target. Frostmaw Direwolf hit it from the side before it finished turning.
Frosting Jaw closed around its sword-arm, frost spreading fast through the bite and freezing half its body stiff before the limb snapped clean off.
"Awoo!"
Ice Blade Claw finished what was left of it.
That left only The Ashbound Revenant.
Billy went in first, Wheel Dash carrying him low under the first swing, sword biting into its flank before it fully registered he’d moved.
It answered fast, faster than anything that size should move, its blade made of something that wasn’t quite bone and wasn’t quite shadow.
Billy caught the strike on his own sword, and the impact sent a crack running clean through the blade.
"Billy!"
"I’m good, boss, I’m good!"
He wasn’t, not entirely. The Ashbound Revenant’s second swing caught him across the ribs, black flame biting deeper than the wound itself should have allowed, and Billy staggered back through the edge of the barrier to buy himself a second.
That was the opening Frostmaw Direwolf needed. It hit the Revenant’s flank at a dead run, frost spreading wherever its jaws closed.
’Restore.’
```
[ Restore used on Billy ]
-100 MP
```
The wound closed most of the way this time, faster and deeper than Restore had ever managed before, the upgrade earning its keep exactly when it mattered.
Billy rolled back out of the barrier already moving, blades spinning up to a scream. He hit The Ashbound Revenant with Serrated Rampage while the Direwolf held its other side pinned under frost-slowed jaws, six edges tearing into black flame and rotted bone at once.
It wasn’t enough on its own. The Ashbound Revenant’s flame lashed out in a wide arc, and Billy threw himself back through the barrier again, the fire dying against the shimmering wall instead of him. Frostmaw Direwolf caught the edge of it across one shoulder and didn’t so much as slow down.
"Sky Pierce Shot!"
The blade found the crack Serrated Rampage had already opened, driving deep into whatever passed for The Ashbound Revenant’s heart.
It staggered, black flame guttering low, and this time it never got the chance to recover. Billy came through the barrier one last time, sword and spinning blades together, while Frostmaw Direwolf’s jaws closed around its throat from behind.
Between them, they cut The Ashbound Revenant down where it stood.
```
[ The Ashbound Revenant (Tier-1/Epic) killed. +1000 Tower Points ]
[ 5x Level 10 Deathless Cataphract (Tier-1/Rare) killed. +1500 Tower Points ]
```
```
[ You have reached level 8. You have acquired 5 assignable stat points. ]
[ Billy has reached level 9. ]
[ Your class has reached level 3. You have 1 skill point to spend. ]
```
And then came the quest completion notification.
```
[ Main Quest Complete: Protect your territory throughout the night from Undead rising in this forest. ]
[ Reward: 500 Tower Points ]
```
Logan sat down right where he was standing and let it wash over him.
He put his five points into Constitution, since standing behind a barrier all night hadn’t stopped that Revenant’s flame from finding Billy twice through the edge of it. Billy’s went straight into Speed again, the same logic that had worked every time before.
The skill point he left alone for now. There would be time to think it over once his hands stopped shaking.
Below him, six corridors sat quiet and unbroken, poisoned bolts still smoking faintly in their racks. Not one of his summons had died.
Logan looked out at the dark, empty clearing where an Epic-rank monster had been standing minutes ago.
’Normal-rank class makes me weak individually, but my talent more than makes up for it, and will do even more.’
It was time to merge!
He wanted his first Epic and even Legendary and Mythic quality units quickly!
’The more I survive, and the more difficult achievements I gather from this map like killing major world bosses, field bosses, and clearing secret dungeons, the more Tier points I will get when I win, and with my talent, I can have a powerful army to do all that!’ Logan clenched his fists, eyes blazing.
An ambition had lit up in his heart.
He wanted to win this first match, and that too with a spectacular score!