Chapter 98: Dark Fall Conquest (4)

’Eleven points. In one fight.’ He almost laughed at the number, disbelief and satisfaction tangled together in equal measure. ’Elder Rishin, you might’ve undersold your own art a little.’

The Warden staggered, weaponless and exposed, and Overgrim Slash finished what the other two techniques had already broken open.

```

[ You have eliminated Duskbound Warden. +1,400 points. ]

```

Alice lowered her bow, staring at him with an expression that mixed genuine awe with a competitive spark she didn’t bother hiding. "What was that."

"New tricks." Logan’s grin came slow, still riding the high of the insight settling properly into place. "Been sitting on them a while. Guess they needed the right target."

"Show off." She said it warm despite the word itself, already turning back toward whatever the next wave planned to throw at them.

Twenty towers over, Kruk and Lyria dismantled their Warden through raw, brutal attrition. Kruk waded straight through the greatblade’s strikes, Undying Fury turning every fresh wound into fuel, while Lyria’s lightning arced through the sigil ring one crackling strand at a time.

"Not pretty." Kruk grunted through a hit that would have folded a lesser man, grinning through the blood. "But it works."

"Pretty’s overrated." Lyria didn’t look up from her steady concentration, wings flaring with each bolt she called down. "Alive is better."

The Emberleaf twins solved theirs a different way entirely, patient volleys mapping the sigil ring’s rotation until both siblings found the exact half-second gap where two mirrored shots could slip through together.

The synchronized strike blew the ward apart from the inside, and four more arrows finished the exposed Warden before it managed a single counterattack.

Sylvana exhaled once, lowering her bow. "Clean."

"Cleaner than the last one." Corvin agreed, already resetting his stance for whatever came next.

```

[ Individual Elimination Leaderboard, Wave 20 ]

1. Leon Flanke: 11,460

2. Ruby Starviel: 10,920

3. Lyria Windshard: 10,505

4. Sylvana Emberleaf: 10,340

5. Corvin Emberleaf: 10,300

6. Kruk Bloodfang: 10,110

```

"Back on top." Alice glanced at the numbers, satisfaction and a hungry, competitive edge both bright in her eyes at once. "Let’s stay there."

---

Wave twenty-one opened on a field that felt fundamentally different from everything before it, the ambient pressure of the whole event ratcheting up a full step the moment the horn sounded.

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[ Wave 21: Incoming. Legendary-rank herds standard from this point onward. ]

```

Logan studied the notification for a long moment, an idea taking shape that had nothing to do with the wave itself.

’Grim Lock covers five kilometers at Level 6.’ He glanced past the treeline at the scattered lights of other towers, working the numbers through without much effort. ’A one-kilometer gap between towers isn’t even a stretch for that.’

He turned the idea over once more before finally voicing it out loud.

"The rules said one of us can leave the tower." He said it slowly, watching Alice’s expression for how she’d take it. "What if I did?"

Alice’s eyebrows drew together. "And go where?"

"Anywhere else." He gestured out past the treeline, toward the scattered lights of other towers holding their ground against the same escalating waves.

"Score’s shared across the whole board." He kept his voice even. "Same as you told Rourke back at the gathering point. Every kill still counts toward mine, no matter whose tower it happens at."

"While I hold ours alone, and get more points since we don’t have to share." Alice grinned. "Yep. You can handle a tower on your own."

Logan met her eyes directly, meaning every word of it. "I’ve watched you do it for twenty waves already."

She held his gaze a moment longer than the question strictly needed, calculation and stubborn pride both working behind her eyes before she finally nodded.

"Alright. Go rack in points from other waves. I’ll hold the fort."

"Call if it gets bad." Logan squeezed her shoulder once. "I mean it."

"I know." Alice’s grin came back full force, bow already rising toward the treeline. "Now go. You’re wasting good farming time standing here talking to me."

He left on the next swing, Grim Lock snapping onto one of the monsters already scaling Rourke’s wall, and Reaper’s Stride delivered him straight onto the neighboring platform before the lock had even finished settling.

---

Rourke Fangmane spotted him coming before Logan had even fully landed. His expression cycled through confusion, alarm, and outright relief in under two seconds flat.

"You’re not supposed to be over here!" He called it out anyway, void of any real complaint behind the words.

"Rules said I could leave my own." Logan cleared half his wave’s remaining herd in a single Overgrim Slash, Grim Siphoning Edge pulling a clean surge of MP back the instant the blade passed through something carrying real magic. "Didn’t say I couldn’t visit."

"Steal my kills, why don’t you." Rourke’s grin came wide despite the words, clearly not minding the help in the slightest given how thin his and Thessa’s numbers had worn.

"Consider it payback." Logan finished the wave and was already moving again before either beastfolk could properly thank him.

He hit three more towers over the next stretch of waves, Grim Lock catching a fresh target at each one and Reaper’s Stride delivering him straight there, cutting deep into herds that had started overwhelming defenders barely holding their ground.

The dwarves’ tower came next, Borga and Thrain both too buried under their wave to spare him more than a resentful glance before accepting the help in stony silence.

’They still hate me.’ Logan noted it without much heat behind the thought, already turning to clear the herd’s flank before it could fully encircle their tower. ’Fine by me. Hate can wait until after they survive.’

Grim Siphoning Edge kept pace with every strike that carried real magic behind it, MP climbing back nearly as fast as he spent it. By the fourth tower, Logan had stopped worrying about running dry at all.

```

[ Individual Elimination Leaderboard, Wave 23 ]

1. Leon Flanke: 18,700

2. Lyria Windshard: 13,200

3. Sylvana Emberleaf: 13,150

4. Corvin Emberleaf: 13,050

5. Kruk Bloodfang: 12,980

6. Ruby Starviel: 12,600

```

Back at their tower, Alice caught the flash mid-draw. Anxiety knotted hard behind her ribs, sharper than anything the herd pressing her line could manage.

’Damn it.’