The air on the first floor of the Iron-Vein Mines tasted of copper and burning sulfur. The orange veins of ore pulsing along the jagged cave walls cast a harsh, flickering light over the wet stone floor, turning every shadow into a writhing shape.
"They’re coming from the ventilation shafts above and the side tunnels," Donald muttered. His eyes were half-closed, his mind deeply tuned into [Lesser Mana Perception]. The static of the cavern buzzed sharply, resolving into multiple fast-moving signatures. "A pack of five. Cinder-Stalkers. D-Rank pack hunters."
Evelyn stood back-to-back with him, the crimson blade of the Bloodhound’s Fang resting lightly against her shoulder. Her breath was slow and steady, her posture loose and ready.
"Pack hunters rely on flanking and overwhelming coordination," Evelyn said, her voice a calm, low whisper. "They will test our sides. Don’t fight like a lone brawler, Donald. Think of us as a single unit. You are the heavy anchor; I am the edge."
"Got it," Donald replied.
From the dark mouth of a side tunnel twenty feet ahead, the pack broke cover.
They looked like lean, hairless hounds with skin the color of cooled charcoal, but their spines were embedded with glowing, molten-hot mineral plates. Their eyes burned with a dull orange fury, and long strands of toxic drool dripped from their jaws, hissing as they hit the stone floor.
The alpha of the pack let out a sharp, piercing howl and lunged directly at Evelyn, while the remaining four split off into the shadows to hit their flanks.
"Left flank, two coming in!" Donald warned, his [Valuation Eye] flashing text across his vision to highlight their trajectories.
Evelyn didn’t even turn around. Trusting Donald completely with her blind spot, she moved forward to meet the alpha. With blinding B-Rank speed, she sidestepped the beast’s mid-air pouncing snap, the Bloodhound’s Fang tracing a brilliant crimson crescent through the air that sliced clean through the alpha’s front leg.
The alpha shrieked, crashing hard to the ground, but before Evelyn could finish it, the two flankers burst from the darkness on her left, aiming straight for her throat while her sword was committed to the alpha.
Donald moved.
He didn’t wait for them to reach her. Tapping into his Level 4 physical stats and his C-Rank mobility skill, Donald roared, "[Bull Rush]!"
Explosive kinetic force coiled and released in his legs. The stone floor cracked beneath his boots as he shot forward like a cannonball. He angled his body, using his left arm—wrapped in the shimmering magic of [Aura of the Vanguard]—as a protective wedge.
The first Cinder-Stalker leaped, its jaws open to clamp onto Evelyn’s shoulder. Donald intercepted it mid-air, slamming his glowing, shielded forearm directly into the beast’s jaw.
CLANG!
Because Donald angled his arm with precise choreography, the hound’s teeth slid off the F-Rank magic shield without breaking it. But the sheer momentum of Donald’s Bull Rush carried the heavy hound away, pinning its body against the jagged cave wall.
Without breaking his stride, Donald used the massive thirty-pound weight of the Type-3 Pile Bunker on his right arm, swinging the heavy metal tube like a giant club into the second flanking hound.
CRACK.
The heavy iron crushed the hound’s ribs, sending it flying sideways into a pile of loose rocks.
"Clean block," Evelyn’s voice rang out behind him, filled with fierce approval. "Now use the bounce!"
Donald didn’t need to be told twice. He used the recoil from hitting the wall to spin his body back around. The fourth hound was circling behind him, trying to blindside him while his weapons were occupied.
The hound lunged, its molten spine flaring bright orange.
Donald lowered his center of gravity, planted his heavy boots, and threw a devastating punch straight from his hips, putting every ounce of his 35 Strength stat behind the heavy Pile Bunker barrel. He didn’t fire the explosive spike—he saved the ammo—but the sheer kinetic mass of the B-Rank weapon smashed into the hound’s skull with bone-shattering force.
The beast dropped instantly, dead before it hit the floor.
Behind Donald, a wet shhhk sounded. Evelyn had cleanly decapitated the alpha, its dark blood instantly drawn out by the curse-cleansed magic of the Bloodhound’s Fang.
The fifth and final hound, seeing its entire pack wiped out in less than ten seconds, let out a whimpering yelp and turned to bolt back into the dark tunnel.
"Don’t let it warn the others," Evelyn said, stepping past Donald with terrifying grace.
She raised her left hand, channeled her B-Rank mana, and unleashed a compressed arc of blue energy. The magic wave slammed into the fleeing hound’s hind legs, sweeping it off the ground. Before it could recover, Donald was already there.
He brought the heavy metal heel of his boot down hard on the monster’s skull, ending it.
The cavern fell silent, save for the crackling of the glowing orange ore veins and the heavy, controlled breathing of the two fighters.
Donald stood over the pile of dead beasts, his heart beating fast, but his muscles felt loose and energized. He hadn’t just survived; they had moved as a seamless, terrifyingly efficient machine.
[Experience Gained.]
Evelyn walked over, wiping a speck of monster ash from her sleeve. She looked at Donald with a gaze that was no longer just amused or grateful—it was the look of a veteran warrior recognizing an equal on the battlefield.
"You didn’t swing wildly once," Evelyn said, a proud smile touching her lips. "You used your shield to deflect, your momentum to control the space, and your weight to crush. If you keep fighting like that, kid, you’re going to make a name for yourself in this city."
Donald let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, offering a small, confident grin. "I had a good teacher."
He knelt down, pulling his hunting knife to carve out the glowing, high-value metallic cores from the Cinder-Stalkers.
[Items Acquired: Cinder-Core (D-Rank) x5.]
[Estimated Value at Midnight Market: 1,500 Credits.]
"Fifteen hundred credits on the first skirmish," Donald said, holding up the glowing orange cores. "At this rate, we’ll have enough to buy you proper Vanguard armor by tomorrow."
"Don’t get cocky yet," Evelyn warned, though her eyes danced with excitement as she checked the depths of the tunnel ahead. "That was just the scouting pack. The deeper we go into the Iron-Vein, the heavier the resistance gets. Come on, kid. Let’s see what else this Dungeon is hiding."