Chapter 53: A Legendary Shows Up—and Tries to Run
After that eye opened, the movement inside the western fissure stopped instead of getting louder.
The ordinary wild monsters drawn in by the Wild Tide Lure did not stop.
The first line of Eclipse Legionnaires had already taken three consecutive waves.
Silver Aegis Fold lines kept lighting from the first point of impact and spreading outward.
No single position absorbed the entire force alone.
And no one broke formation to chase just because the enemies in front of them were only Elite or Rare.
Veyra stood behind the second line.
"Two steps left."
"Third group, don’t advance."
"Let them hit you."
Her orders were short.
The formation did not become chaotic as the number of targets increased.
Cassian watched for several breaths.
He did not need to manage this part.
His attention stayed entirely on the western fissure.
The huge eye had disappeared again.
Not because the target had left.
It had retreated back into the darkness.
Watching.
Aurelia had noticed it too.
"The Lure isn’t dragging it blindly."
"No."
"It can still think."
"Then don’t move yet."
Aurelia did not ask again.
The light-wings behind her stayed folded.
She did not take to the air.
The twenty Dwarf Rocketiers also held fire.
Cassian even ordered them to dim the loading runes that had already begun to glow.
What he wanted that thing to see was a defense that still had not shown all its cards.
---
Six minutes in, the first Rare targets from the west appeared.
Two Six-Eyed Gloomcrows dropped over the gray slope.
Dark light flared in all six eyes.
They tried to pass over the shield line from above.
Eleven Highbloods raised their bows.
Rapid Shot.
The arrows did not scatter across the monsters’ bodies.
The first volley hit wing roots.
The second went for the eyes.
Neither Rare Gloomcrow made it a hundred meters into the Domain before crashing into the broken stone.
Cassian did not check their drops.
He was not here to count loot today.
At eight minutes, the basin held close to two hundred wild monsters.
Aether Mist flowed slowly through the Domain.
It did not suddenly raise anyone’s Level.
It did not make the shields harder either.
But when the front-line Legionnaires rotated out, their Aether recovered noticeably faster than it had before.
Veyra sent the fifth group forward.
The first group withdrew.
The line never opened between them.
She looked at Cassian.
"That 1.1 million you spent on the environment."
"Feeling better about it now?"
Cassian watched the first group recover a visible portion of their power.
"It’s doing more than making the ground comfortable."
Veyra laughed.
"Barely counts as a good answer."
The next second, the dark-silver ring atop the Beacon Watchtower stopped.
It did not turn toward something.
The entire observation ring locked due west.
HUM—
A high-energy outline thicker than anything before pressed into the edge of its 1,300-meter observation radius.
Mist above the fissure bulged upward from below.
The head emerged first.
Pale.
Long and flattened.
No clear neck.
Behind it came an enormous body covered in ghost-blue scales.
It had no legs.
Its body did not touch the ground.
It moved through the air like a giant fish held up by invisible water, slowly swimming out of the fissure.
Roughly fifty meters long.
Bone spines ran from its back all the way to its tail.
The humanlike face at the front was nearly ten meters wide and completely expressionless.
The system information appeared at last.
[Ghost Leviathan]
[Race: Abyssal Beast]
[Quality: Legendary]
[Level: 20]
[Core Trait: Abyssal Pressure]
[Skills: ???]
Cassian’s eyes did not stop on Legendary.
They went straight to the Core Trait.
Abyssal Pressure.
It was not something the Lure could have selected for him.
But something carrying it had been hiding in that western fissure all along.
Cassian had only chosen the direction the Blackfang most strongly refused to approach without knowing what was inside.
Veyra glanced at the panel.
"You picked a bigger problem than usual this time."
"Yeah."
"Regret it?"
Cassian did not answer immediately.
The Ghost Leviathan answered for him.
A ring of ghost-blue ripples spread silently from its body.
The air became heavy.
Not wind.
It felt as if the entire Domain had suddenly been submerged in invisible deep water.
Several Legionnaires at the front raised their shields more slowly.
Even the Gloomhoof’s manes seemed pressed down by an unseen current.
[Ghostwater Field]
[Continuously projected by Core Trait: Abyssal Pressure.]
[Suppresses the movement and power circulation of hostile units within range.]
[Suppression increases with proximity to the source.]
This time, Cassian did not skim past it like an ordinary skill.
Ground Anchor made it harder for someone else to force him out of the position he chose.
Abyssal Pressure worked from the opposite direction—anything entering his range would have its movement and power flow slowed before it could fully act.
Not redundant.
It complemented Ground Anchor by covering what Ground Anchor couldn’t.
Cassian stared at the Ghost Leviathan.
"I want that."
Sigrid understood immediately.
"The last hit?"
"Mine."
Silver light from the Beacon Watchtower swept across the entire western side at the same time.
The dispel patterns on the tower flashed once.
Then went dark.
A Legendary Level 20 Field was not an ordinary negative status the Rare tower could reliably clear.
Cassian had expected that.
What the Beacon still gave him was observation.
Inside 1,300 meters, the enormous outline remained locked under the dark-silver ring and could not simply disappear back into the war fog.
The 200,000 had not been wasted.
But expecting one Rare Watchtower to solve a Legendary threat by itself?
Impossible.
Aurelia drew her sword.
"Now?"
"No."
Cassian watched the Ghost Leviathan.
It had entered the Lure’s influence.
It still stayed far out.
Wave after wave of wild monsters died ahead of it while it crept toward the marker in small increments, stopping again and again to observe.
The Lure was pulling.
Its caution was still intact.
Cassian understood quickly.
If he exposed his high-grade firepower too early, this Legendary would retreat first.
And now he did not merely want to keep it here.
He wanted Abyssal Pressure for himself.
"All high-grade firepower stays hidden."
Sigrid raised her spear slightly.
"Stormlance too?"
"Clear anything that crosses the line."
"Don’t chase it."
"Understood."
Cassian looked toward the Rocketiers.
"Load."
Twenty Dwarves set their launchers in place.
Runes began to light.
But they were positioned behind the stone wall west of the Muster Hall.
The Ghost Leviathan could not see them.
Thirty seconds.
They needed that time in advance.
Veyra had already understood what he was doing.
"You want it closer."
"Yeah."
"Then the first line has to give ground."
"There’ll be injuries."
"I know."
Veyra looked at the Legionnaires currently taking the pressure.
She did not agree immediately.
Instead, she walked to the side-rear of the first line and checked the condition of every group.
Only then did she speak.
"One line back is acceptable."
"Any farther and the Muster Hall training ground is behind them."
Cassian looked at her.
"We don’t give up that ground."
"Good."
Veyra was not deciding whether Cassian was allowed to take the risk.
She was telling him how much ground this army could safely give.
Cassian accepted that boundary.
"First line."
"Fall back."
The two hundred Legionnaires did not turn around.
The front ranks stepped back first.
The rear ranks caught the shields.
The whole formation retreated into the Domain in sections, like an enormous heavy door being pushed inward without opening.
The wild monsters that had been held near the western boundary surged forward at once.
Dozens crossed the old line together.
One already-damaged section of outer wall collapsed under the impact.
Stones rolled to the edge of the training ground.
Veyra’s expression did not change.
Her eyes stayed on the new shield line.
"Hold."
BOOM!
For the first time, all nine Praetorian tower shields dropped into the second line together.
Silver Aegis Fold lines flashed between them.
The new position stabilized.
But from the Ghost Leviathan’s perspective, Forgotten Shrine had retreated.
The first defense line had been pushed inward.
No high-grade Hero had appeared.
The Rocketiers that looked most dangerous had not fired either.
The Leviathan swam another hundred meters forward.
Then another hundred.
The Wild Tide Lure’s marker lay farther inside.
More and more ordinary wild monsters were already fighting over the dark-red influence around it.
At last, something changed on the Ghost Leviathan’s pale face.
Greed.
A low sound almost too deep for human ears rolled out of it.
The Ghostwater Field pressed forward again.
This time, even the Highbloods at the front visibly slowed.
A line of dark red finally appeared in Veyra’s hand.
Crimson Oath.
She did not throw it.
She only held it ready.
Cassian glanced at her.
"Wait."
"I know."
Veyra’s eyes remained on the battlefield.
"I’m only making sure you don’t enjoy the waiting so much you forget there are people standing in front of you."
The corner of Cassian’s mouth moved.
"I won’t forget."
The Ghost Leviathan kept closing in.
Five hundred meters.
Three hundred.
A little over two hundred.
It had crossed the Domain boundary.
The Beacon Watchtower’s observation ring had it completely locked.
The twenty Rocketiers had finished loading long ago.
Every Aether rocket sat ready in its launcher.
Aurelia asked quietly,
"Now?"
Cassian still did not answer.
Because the Ghost Leviathan suddenly stopped.
Its pale face slowly turned toward the Muster Hall.
Then the Beacon Watchtower.
Finally, toward the stone wall behind which the Rocketiers had never shown themselves.
One breath.
Two.
Its enormous body snapped backward.
No attack.
It fled straight toward the western fissure.
Far faster than it had moved while approaching.
Veyra’s eyes went cold.
"There it is."
Cassian did not know exactly what the Leviathan had detected.
He did not need to figure that out first.
Abyssal Pressure had already entered his Domain.
Now the creature wanted to take that Core Trait back into the fissure with it.
No.
"Rocketiers."
Twenty launchers rose at once.
The Ghost Leviathan had already gained its first hundred meters.
Cassian raised a hand.
"Fire."
WHOOSH—!
Twenty trails of flame shot into the sky from behind the Muster Hall.
The Ghost Leviathan whipped its head around.
It clearly had not expected a full volley to be waiting behind that wall.
The twenty rockets were already in flight.
But the Leviathan was still changing its retreat line.
Cassian’s second command came immediately.
"Change target."
"Western fissure entrance."
All twenty Dwarf Rocketiers closed one eye.
[Mental Guidance]
Twenty flaming trails bent in midair at the same time.
They were not following the Ghost Leviathan’s current position.
They were cutting off the route back into the fissure.
Ninety degrees.
Then farther.
BOOM—!
The first volley tore an entire section of the fissure wall apart.
Boulders collapsed into the passage.
The Ghost Leviathan’s enormous body was forced upward.
Its retreat slowed for half a beat.
Half a beat was enough.
Aurelia’s light-wings exploded open.
All twelve Stormlance ignited with lightning at the same time.
And the Crimson Oath in Veyra’s hand finally stretched into a dark-red line.
Cassian spoke first, his voice low.
"Don’t kill it."
Aurelia glanced at him from the air.
"I’ll leave the core to you."
Only then did Cassian look up.
"Don’t let it get back."
The next second, silver-white light, golden lightning, and dark red power all surged toward the Level 20 Legendary at once.
Cassian already had his short sword in hand.
This one had to end with him.