Silent Steps in a Hostile Land
The forest around them seemed to hold its breath.
Caidyn and Lira slipped through the thick underbrush, moving with practiced silence. The orc outpost loomed ahead — crude but sprawling, made of rough-hewn logs and heavy stone, surrounded by makeshift barricades and guarded by heavily armored sentries.
No room for error, Caidyn thought, adjusting the Frostfire Marksman's grip. Her fingers flicked the switch, readying the Phase Breaker core and loading incendiary rounds. Lira mirrored her calm focus, her gaze sharp and calculating.
They timed their approach carefully, weaving between sentries with fluid precision. The fog grenade from earlier clung faintly to the air, an unseen veil in the shadows.
First target: the armory. A low building, guarded but vulnerable. With a synchronized nod, they moved in—Lira disabling a pair of guards with swift, silent strikes, while Caidyn laid down precise shots, taking out locks and explosives to ignite within.
The armory erupted quietly in controlled chaos behind them. They moved fast, cutting to the food stores next, setting small fires that would cripple the orcs' ability to resupply.
Supply caches—powder, tools, and crude weapons—went up in smoke or shattered under their hands. Every hit was calculated, every step measured.
The mission ran like a clockwork operation—until the unexpected happened.
A deafening roar shattered the calm. From the shadows of the chief's hut burst a towering orc, eyes wild with fury, veins pulsing with rage. His war cry echoed like thunder across the camp.
[System Notification]
Hidden Quest Activated: Rage of the Broken Chief
Lira's eyes locked with Caidyn's—no more stealth now. The fragile balance shattered.
They braced for the fight to come, knowing this battle would be unlike any they'd faced so far.
The orc chief's roar tore across the clearing, visceral and primal.
Caidyn didn't so much as blink. Stealth's gone. Time to flip the switch.
She unslung the Heavy Suppressor with practiced ease—its weight now a manageable extension of her body thanks to Enhanced Hauling. As the first wave of lesser orcs charged, she opened fire.
The machine gun barked with controlled fury, sweeping arcs of stagger-heavy suppression across the battlefield. Her Essence Flow meter began to tick upward, climbing in time with every impact. 25. 50. 75. Keep it up.100. 125. The mounting flow synced with her rhythm—each pulse driving more power into her strikes.
Behind her, Mountain's Fury fired autonomously under Kairos's control, its barrels tracking the charging orc chief. Rounds poured into the frenzied brute, slowing him, stalling him—but not stopping him.
As the final few orcs fell under her barrage, the meter hit 150. A fresh rush of energy surged through her.
The Heavy Suppressor swung down on its sling as she yanked the Purifier Coil from her back, snapping the Phase Breaker Core free from her Frostfire Marksman and locking it into place beside the Corrosive Bloom Core. The weapon shimmered with latent power—sleek, lethal, focused.
[System Notification]
Essence Cascade Triggered — Single-use effect primed.
Effect (Purifier Coil): 100% Armor Penetration + High Radiant Burn + Corrosive Damage Over Time
Caidyn was already moving.
She dropped to a knee, heart pounding, eyes narrowed.
The Purifier Coil pulsed in her grip, its reinforced casing humming with barely-contained power. The Phase Breaker and Corrosive Bloom cores were synchronized, ready—just one shot. Her breath slowed, her mind cleared, and the Essence Flow Cascade surged through her like a living current.
Her sights locked on the orc chief barreling through the haze—massive, enraged, armored, wounded—but not slowed enough. His roar fractured into guttural, frenzied snarls.
Center mass. Straight through. Shut him down.
She exhaled. Then pulled the trigger.
The Coil's single cascade shot fired with a recoil she could feel in her spine—less a bullet and more a bolt of judgment. The high-density round, supercharged by essence and dual-core resonance, tore through the chief's enchanted plate like wet parchment.
The shot hit dead center in his chest.
It punched clean through—front to back—leaving a molten-edged tunnel that sizzled as it passed, flames licking outward with radiant burn and acrid black smoke curling as the corrosive payload went to work.
He stumbled mid-step, arms wide, the force throwing him backward slightly.
But he didn't fall.
Caidyn's eyes flicked wider. Missed the heart.
He howled in pain, louder than before. Where most would drop, he surged forward, fury made flesh. His body was beginning to melt from within—burnt veins pulsing with fire and rot—but his will was unbroken.
Kairos's voice crackled in her ear, dry as ever.
"You know, I don't think he liked that."
Caidyn rose from her crouch, weapon lowering only slightly as the chief dug his boots into the dirt and bellowed, one fist slamming into his own chest. He's still coming.
She gritted her teeth. "Then let's make him like what comes next even less."
Behind her, Mountain's Fury was already adjusting trajectory.
Beside her, Lira snapped another clip into her weapon.
And all around them, the battlefield simmered in the wake of a single missed heart.
She could hear her heartbeat in her ears.
Not fear. Fury.
The orc chief charged—unstoppable, injured, a wall of muscle and hate bearing down like a freight train too mad to stop. His breath came in ragged, foaming snarls. His chest still smoked from the Purifier Coil's shot—but he hadn't gone down.
And now, he was here. Up in her face. Inches away.
Caidyn didn't even think. No aiming. No careful stance.
Just motion.
She planted her feet and swung.
The Heavy Suppressor came around in a brutal, wide arc, her whole body following the momentum like a lever snapping.
Essence Flow: 17.
The orc raised an arm to block—too slow.
Essence Flow: 20.
The barrel crashed into his shoulder with a sickening crack.
Essence Flow: 23. 24... 25.
[System Notification]
Essence Flow Milestone Reached: 25
Effect Triggered: Bludgeoning Force Enhanced — 40% increased kinetic output on melee strikes.
Caidyn didn't stop.
Didn't think.
She followed through.
The Heavy Suppressor became a warhammer in her grip, and she wielded it like one. One hit. Then another. She beat him back with sheer force, the amplified strikes throwing his defense into chaos.
Another hit—his knee buckled.
A fourth—his tusked jaw snapped sideways with a spatter of dark blood.
By the fifth, the orc collapsed to one knee.
By the sixth, he was down.
Her hands were shaking as she stepped in, barrel lowered to his chest. Her arms felt like iron cables ready to snap, her teeth grit hard enough to hurt.
"You should've stayed down."
She squeezed the trigger.
The Heavy Suppressor howled—300 rounds per minute, and she gave it everything left in the magazine.
The barrel lit with fire. Spent casings spilled like coins onto the ground. Every shot slammed into the orc's chest, shoulders, neck, head—until there was no movement left. Just steam. Just silence.
Kairos' voice cut through the haze.
"...Damn."
Caidyn exhaled, slow and violent.
Her pulse still roared in her ears.
"Yeah," she muttered, lowering the empty gun. "That's what I thought."
The last casing clinked to the dirt.
Smoke curled through the ruins of the orc outpost—black ribbons against the moonlit sky, slow and ghostly. Broken crates, collapsed tents, shattered supply lines... The work of quiet sabotage and violent desperation was everywhere.
And at its center stood Caidyn, half-slumped against the still-warm frame of the Heavy Suppressor, chest heaving, arms trembling with aftershock.
[System Notification]
Hidden Quest Complete: Rage of the Broken Chief
Boss Defeated: Orc War-Chief Brax-Thul
Primary Sabotage Objective: Success.
Bonus Objective: Eliminated Target Commander — Reward Modifier +40%
She didn't even smile.
Instead, she let herself fall.
Dropped down onto the dirt with a graceless thud, one hand still on the weapon like it was an anchor keeping her from floating off the edge of consciousness.
A few seconds later, another figure dropped beside her, just as drained.
Lira didn't speak at first. She just leaned back, arms outstretched, eyes on the sky. "Well... that happened."
Caidyn exhaled a half-laugh. "That happened way too fast."
"More like it happened way too hard." Lira flexed her hands, still trembling. "You pulled the roof off with that last barrage. Not metaphorically. Like... actually pulled the roof off."
"Yeah," Caidyn murmured, letting her head fall back against the dirt. "He didn't like being shot through the chest. Not even a little bit."
There was a beat of silence—quiet, heavy, but not uncomfortable.
Only the distant crackle of fire, the subtle churn of smoke, and the fading ring of adrenaline in her ears.
Kairos finally broke the silence, his voice dry.
"So, you're both alive. Somehow. Mostly intact. Mostly conscious. That's better odds than I gave you, not gonna lie."
Caidyn smirked weakly. "Don't tell me the odds, Kairos."
"I didn't. I just strongly implied them."
Lira groaned, tossing a small piece of scrap metal toward the AI's projection marker. "Not now, ghost boy."
Caidyn looked over at her companion. For a moment, they didn't say anything. Just traded the kind of look you only share with someone who got through it with you.
Then Lira nudged her boot lightly against Caidyn's.
"You good?"
Caidyn gave a faint nod. "I'll be better in five minutes."
"Make it ten," Lira said, closing her eyes. "We earned ten."
Caidyn leaned back fully now, the dirt and ash strangely comforting.
And for a while, they just rested—beneath the haze of victory and the weight of exhaustion, on a battlefield that smelled of gunpowder, burned wood, and hard-earned survival.
They moved through the treeline in near silence — not from stealth this time, but exhaustion.
The forest canopy swayed above, dappled sunlight slipping through in scattered shafts as Caidyn and Lira made their way back to the glade. Their limbs ached. Their clothes reeked of gunpowder and sap. But the job was done.
Up ahead, just where they'd last seen them, the two elven scouts waited — anxious, watchful, probably not expecting them to return at all.
Caidyn fished into one of her thigh pouches and pulled free the artifact: the arcane mortar shell, still faintly glowing with threads of static light, unmarred despite everything.
The taller of the two elves let out a breath. "You... actually retrieved it."
"We said we would," Caidyn replied, her voice low but steady.
Lira gave a lopsided grin. "There were a few complications. Minor things. Goblins. Fire. Rampaging orc chieftains."
The elf's mouth twitched into something like amusement. He bowed slightly and took the artifact with reverent care. "This relic is older than our grove. Your effort means more than you know."
His companion stepped forward and offered Caidyn a small, rune-etched silver case.
She popped it open, eyes narrowing in quiet curiosity. Inside, nestled in a cushioned foam lining, were half a dozen bullets — sleek, crystalline-tipped, and faintly pulsing with inner light.
[System Notification]
Hidden Quest Complete: Artifact Retrieval
Reward Received: Enchanted Bullet Primer — Recipe Unlocked
You may now craft Magic-Tier Ammunition using elemental cores and refined dust catalysts.
[Crafting Recipe Unlocked]
Magical Bullet Type: Enchanted Primer Round
Required Components:
Base Bullet Frame
Dust Catalyst (x1)
Miniaturized Elemental Core Fragment (x1)
Arcane Binding Resin (x1)
Effect: Adds elemental payload to ammunition. Damage type and effect scale with core affinity and quality.
Caidyn tilted the case, letting the bullets catch the light — like prism-glass with the punch of a warhead. She closed it with a soft click.
"These were yours?" she asked.
The elf nodded. "A gift — and permission. Few outsiders earn the right to recreate them. Use them wisely."
Caidyn tucked the case into her belt kit. "I intend to."
As the scouts slipped away into the brush, Lira leaned in with a grin. "So. Magical bullets now?"
Caidyn smirked faintly. "Just another tool in the kit."
The wind carried the lingering scent of burnt wood and ash — the memory of the outposts they'd left in ruin. A brief pause hung between them.
Lira rolled her shoulder. "Let's get somewhere we can sit for ten minutes without an explosion."
Caidyn didn't argue.
They turned west, deeper into the forest. Just a little more to do before this floor was behind them.