A loose stone, dislodged by the hurried foot of Sir Gareth, tumbled down the sheer rock face with a faint scraping sound before splashing into the unseen stream far below. Kim Hyu-Gi’s heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drum against the taut silence of the ravine. He held his breath, straining his enhanced senses, but the night swallowed the sound, and no alarm rippled from the demon encampment ahead. Not yet. Their luck held, for now. He had chosen this serpentine path, a natural fissure in the mountainside that the demons, in their arrogance, had deemed impassable for anything larger than a stray imp. It was indeed treacherous, a winding, constricted maw of jagged rock and slick moss, barely wide enough for a single knight in full armor to pass without scraping steel against stone. But it was also their only hope for a stealthy approach to the colossal siege engine Kaelan had described, the one relentlessly battering their city’s already crumbling walls. Behind him, the three knights he had selected for this suicide mission—Gareth, a burly ax-wielder; Elara, a nimble archer; and Finn, a quiet but deadly dagger specialist—moved with practiced, silent grace. They were veterans, hardened by countless simulations within this cruel reality, yet even they exuded an aura of suppressed tension. Hyu-Gi felt the weight of their lives, a palpable pressure on his shoulders that far surpassed the phantom burden of his F-Class days. This was real, even if it was a simulation. The fear, the pain, the deaths—they were all real enough. “Hold,” Hyu-Gi whispered, his voice a rasp against the chill night air. He pressed himself flat against the cold stone, peering around a sharp bend. The ravine opened slightly here, providing a fleeting glimpse of the valley floor, where thousands of flickering demon fires painted the night in oranges and reds. And there, amidst the chaos, a grotesque silhouette rose against the distant glow of the besieged city: the siege engine. It was even larger than he had imagined, a leviathan of warped timber, rusted iron, and what looked disturbingly like pulsating demonic flesh, its monstrous maw already glowing with an infernal energy, preparing for another devastating shot. He watched for a moment, analyzing the patrol routes. Imps, dozens of them, skittered around the engine’s base, their high-pitched chittering occasionally carried on the wind. Larger, hulking brutes, likely low-tier Hellfire Guardians, moved with ponderous steps, their heavy armaments clanking. No obvious lieutenant in sight, at least not yet. Good. This was their window. “Two imp patrols, one coming from the west, another from the east, converging at the engine’s rear every five minutes,” Hyu-Gi murmured, relaying his observations. “Hellfire Guardian on a twenty-minute circuit. We need to move when the patrols cross.” Elara nodded, her eyes narrowed, already tracking the patterns. Gareth gripped the haft of his massive battleaxe, his knuckles white. Finn, ever silent, merely tightened his grip on the twin daggers sheathed at his belt. They understood the plan: slip in, disable the engine’s primary power source, and get out before the entire demon legion descended upon them. As the western imp patrol began its slow retreat, Hyu-Gi gave the signal. He moved first, a shadow flowing through the darkness, his Basic Swordsmanship honed to a deadly edge. He relied on the system’s subtle guidance, the faint intuition that had blossomed on the Endless Battlefield, sensing the minute shifts in air currents, the barely perceptible vibrations of approaching footsteps. Each step was deliberate, each breath measured. They reached the edge of the encampment, a patch of thorny scrub providing meager cover. The stench of sulfur and decay was overwhelming here, burning his nostrils. The chittering of the imps was closer now, too close. A patrol of four winged imps, their eyes glowing like embers, rounded a jagged rock formation, heading straight for their position. Hyu-Gi didn't hesitate. He burst from cover, a silent blur. His sword, a simple, unadorned knight’s blade, flashed in the faint light. The first imp barely registered his presence before its head was separated from its scrawny neck with a clean, swift cut. Before its body even hit the ground, Hyu-Gi was already moving, twisting, his blade a silver arc. The second imp shrieked, a high-pitched, maddening sound, as his sword plunged through its chest. It crumpled, black blood spurting. The remaining two imps, startled, tried to scatter, but Elara’s arrows whistled through the air, finding their mark with deadly precision. One imp screeched as an arrow pierced its wing, sending it tumbling. Gareth, with a grunt of savage satisfaction, brought his axe down on the fallen creature, cleaving it in two. Finn materialized beside the last imp, his dagger a blur, silencing it before it could even utter a sound. No alarms. No cries for help from the demons. Their coordination was flawless, a testament to the brutal training of the simulation. Hyu-Gi felt a surge of grim satisfaction. He was no longer the panicked F-Class Hunter, fumbling for his life. He was a leader, a hunter of hunters, guiding others through the maw of hell itself. They pressed on, closer to the siege engine. Its infernal glow pulsed brighter now, and the ground trembled slightly with its rhythmic thrum. They could see the crude mechanisms, the channels of flowing demonic energy, the grotesque orifices that spewed fire and dark magic. The main objective was a large, obsidian-like crystal embedded near the engine’s base, pulsating with sickly green light – the core Sir Kaelan had identified as its power source. As they approached the crystal, a shadow detached itself from the engine’s side. It was a demon, larger and more agile than the Hellfire Guardians, its form vaguely lupine but with razor-sharp claws tipped with dark energy and eyes that burned with malicious intelligence. Its skin was like hardened obsidian, rippling with inner power. A Demon Shadowfang – a lieutenant, exactly what Hyu-Gi had been preparing for. “Intruders!” the Shadowfang snarled, its voice a guttural growl that echoed ominously in the encampment. It lunged, surprisingly fast, a blur of darkness aimed directly at Hyu-Gi. Its claws, wreathed in dark energy, tore at the air, leaving sizzling trails. Hyu-Gi met the charge head-on, his sword flashing. The impact of their weapons sent a jarring shockwave up his arm. The Shadowfang was incredibly strong, its blows capable of shattering stone. He dodged a sweeping claw attack, rolling under its arm, and thrust his blade towards its flank. The sword scraped uselessly against its obsidian-like hide, barely leaving a mark. “Distract it!” Hyu-Gi yelled to his squad. “Go for the core!” Elara immediately let loose a volley of arrows, aiming for the Shadowfang’s eyes, but they deflected harmlessly off its armored face. Gareth roared, charging with his axe, attempting to draw its attention. Finn, ever the opportunist, vanished into the shadows, circling for an opening. The Shadowfang ignored them, its focus locked onto Hyu-Gi. It clearly recognized him as the leader, the greatest threat. It lunged again, a flurry of claw strikes that forced Hyu-Gi to retreat, parrying desperately. He used Battlefield Adaptation, anticipating its movements, finding the rhythm of its attacks, but its defense was equally formidable. Each strike felt like hitting solid rock. Then, Hyu-Gi saw it – a brief flicker, a subtle shift in its posture as it prepared a particularly powerful sweeping attack. A weakness, a moment of vulnerability in its otherwise impenetrable defense. He channeled all his focus, all his accumulated experience from countless deaths and restarts, into a single, decisive move. As the Shadowfang swung its claws in a wide arc, Hyu-Gi didn’t dodge backward. Instead, he lunged *forward*, directly into its guard, a move that seemed suicidal. His blade, guided by an instinct honed to perfection, found the gap, a sliver of exposed flesh where its foreleg met its torso, an area momentarily unprotected as it committed to its attack. He plunged his sword deep, twisting the blade with all his might. A guttural scream of pain tore from the Shadowfang’s throat. Black, acidic blood erupted from the wound, sizzling against the ground. Its eyes widened in disbelief and agony. It stumbled, its powerful attack disrupted, its focus broken. Hyu-Gi pulled his sword free, black ichor dripping from the blade, and spun, delivering a brutal upward slash that caught the demon under its chin, tearing through its throat. The Shadowfang gurgled, its form wavering, before it collapsed with a heavy thud, its obsidian skin cracking, its fiery eyes dimming. The air around Hyu-Gi crackled, a faint, ethereal energy washing over him. A system message, fleeting and almost imperceptible, shimmered at the edge of his vision: [+Temporary Skill Acquired: Demonic Wound Exploitation]. “It’s down! Focus on the core!” Hyu-Gi yelled, his voice strained but triumphant. Gareth was already hacking at the obsidian crystal with his axe, sparks flying, while Elara fired specialized arcane arrows, each one leaving a small, glowing crater in its surface. Finn emerged from the shadows, pressing a small, rune-etched dagger against a pulsating vein of demonic energy feeding into the core, twisting it with precision. The crystal began to crack, a sickening groan emanating from deep within the siege engine. The ground shook violently, a low rumble building from the demon encampment. Their actions had not gone unnoticed for long. Reinforcements would be here within moments. They had done their part. The siege engine would no longer be a threat, at least for a while. “We’re done!” Hyu-Gi commanded, his gaze sweeping the now-alert encampment. “Retreat! Back through the ravine!”

Chapter 46: Serpent's Gullet