The Goblin Mines deepened, the rough-hewn tunnels giving way to a more deliberate, almost ceremonial architecture. The air grew heavy, thick with the metallic tang of old blood and the acrid smoke of crude iron braziers. Ahead, the tunnel opened into a large, circular antechamber sealed by a massive door banded with black iron.
The space was a waiting room for failure.
Two other parties sat slumped against the cavern walls, their gear dented, their expressions sullen. They were licking their wounds, waiting out the cooldown timer for another attempt at the boss. Kage's eyes swept over them, cataloging their equipment—mostly Uncommon gear. They were higher level than his own group, yet they were here, defeated.
Jax let out a low whistle. "Looks like the welcome wagon got run over."
Then, a familiar voice, slick with disdain, cut through the gloom. "Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in."
Argent, leader of the Gilded Jackals, pushed himself off the wall. His polished silver armor was scuffed, a long scratch marring the pristine surface of his breastplate, and his perfect hair was slightly disheveled. The look of frustration on his face melted into one of cruel amusement as he sized up Kage's mismatched party.
"I could smell the Common-grade gear from the tunnel," Argent sneered, his gaze lingering on Finn's worn leather tunic and then on Kage's own plain, functional sword. He jabbed a thumb toward the iron-banded door. "Don't even bother. The Goblin Chief is a Level 10 brute with a nasty enrage."
He paused for dramatic effect, his cronies behind him smirking. "It's a straight-up gear check. A DPS race. We just wiped because our healer's mana management was subpar." He shot a venomous glare at a woman in the back of his group, who flinched. "And you five..." His lips curled into a contemptuous smile. "You'll be a red smear on the floor in thirty seconds. But please," he leaned back, crossing his arms, "go on. Entertain us."
Lily's shoulders slumped, the confidence she'd gained at the bridge visibly evaporating. Finn fidgeted with his bowstring, his eyes wide. Even Zara's analytical calm seemed shaken by the tangible aura of defeat in the room. Jax just gripped the handle of his axe, his knuckles white, his jaw tight with suppressed rage.
Kage's expression remained unchanged. He was processing the data. Level 10. Enrage timer. DPS race. Gear check. Argent's insults were just noise, useless packets of social data to be discarded. The strategic variables, however, were valuable. He scanned the heavy door, then the defeated players. His mind was already in the throne room, running simulations.
Argent was a metagamer. His assessment was likely accurate, from a systemic point of view. A gear check was a wall designed to be broken by stats and numbers.
Kage just didn't plan on playing by those rules.
Without a word, he walked past Argent and placed his hand on the iron door. Behind him, he heard Argent chuckle.
"Don't say I didn't warn you, copycat."
The doors groaned open, revealing a cavernous, filthy throne room. Garbage, bones, and broken weapons were strewn across the floor. At the far end, slumped on a throne made of scrap metal and skulls, was a hulking, monstrous goblin. It was twice the size of the Taskmaster, clad in crude but thick plate armor, and it wielded a colossal club studded with serrated rocks.
[Goblin War Chief Skarlang - Lvl 10]
HP: 5000/5000
As the party stepped inside, the Chief's beady eyes snapped open. It heaved itself from the throne, planting its club on the stone floor with a heavy thud. Its voice was a low, guttural growl, thick with arrogance and contempt.
"More fools," Skarlang grunted, his gaze sweeping over them. "Come to challenge my rule? To break yourselves upon my throne?"
He let out a guttural roar that shook the very stone. A crimson aura flared around him.
And he charged.
"Jax, hold him!" Zara snapped, her voice tight with tension.
Jax roared and met the charge, his axe swinging in a wide arc.
[Power Strike I]!
The blow slammed into the Chief's pauldron, but it barely seemed to notice.
[-68 HP]
"Weak!" Skarlang bellowed, batting Jax's axe aside. He grunted and swiped its club. The attack was deceptively fast. Jax tried to block, but the force of the blow sent him stumbling backward, his health bar dropping by a quarter.
[-95 HP]
Lily's hands glowed.
[+40 HP]
The fight was immediately, brutally chaotic. The Chief was a whirlwind of aggression. It ignored Jax after the first exchange, its aggro table seemingly random. It spun and lunged toward Finn, who yelped and scrambled away.
"It's not holding aggro!" Finn yelled, loosing a hurried shot that went wide.
"Kite it! Don't let it pin you down!" Zara commanded, launching a Frost Bolt that struck the creature's back, slowing it marginally.
The pressure was immense. Jax was a DPS, an off-tank at best. He lacked the taunts and defensive cooldowns. He could deal damage, but he couldn't control the flow of battle. They were just reacting, always a step behind.
And the pressure on Lily was biblical. Her minor heal spell was being used on cooldown, a single bucket of water against a raging inferno.
Jax, furious at being ignored, charged back in, swinging his axe wildly. The Chief, as if annoyed by a buzzing fly, delivered a crushing backhand with its club. The blow was so powerful it sent Jax flying, a [Stunned] icon flashing above his head as he crashed near the far wall.
The boss's eyes, burning with malevolent intelligence, immediately snapped to the weakest link. To the source of the healing.
It lowered its head and charged straight for Lily.
There was no time to think. No time to analyze.
Kage moved.
He didn't have the stats to block. A direct hit would kill him. He didn't have a taunt. He had a Level 4 sword and the muscle memory of a grandmaster.
The Prodigy took over.
He slid into the Chief's path, his body low, his weight centered. The colossal club swung down, a blur of motion meant to obliterate Lily from existence. Kage's sword rose to meet it. He angled his blade to deflect, the tip of his sword meeting the club's shaft at the perfect angle.
CLANG!
A perfect parry. The system confirmed it. But the sheer difference in power was too great. A shockwave of force traveled up his arm, and a crimson number floated over his head.
[-24 HP]
His arm screamed in protest, but the parry held. The blow was deflected. Lily was safe.
A soft green light washed over him as Lily, her face pale with terror, cast her heal.
[+40 HP]
The Chief roared in frustration, turning its full attention onto this new, irritating gnat. "You dare stand against me? I will grind your bones to dust!"
Kage was now the de-facto tank, a role he was laughably unqualified for on paper. He backpedaled, his mind racing. The boss was fast, far faster than the Taskmaster. Its club came down in a brutal overhead smash. Kage sidestepped, the wind of the blow ruffling his hair. He tried to counter, but the Chief immediately followed with a blindingly fast horizontal sweep. He was forced into a desperate parry, the impact jarring his arm and chipping his health again.
[-18 HP]
There was no opening. No rhythm. Just relentless, overwhelming force. He tried to impose order.
Title: Goblin Chief
Poem: Bind
A faint purple shimmer flickered over the boss for a split second, barely visible against its thick hide. The Awen cost was significant, the effect negligible against a creature of this level. It was like trying to slow a charging bull by throwing pebbles.
[-50 AWN]
The Chief ignored the verse, lunging again. Kage parried, backpedaled, parried again. He was losing ground, being forced back toward the wall. His Awen bar was plummeting with each defensive verse he desperately willed into existence—a Bind on its leg that held for less than a second, a Strengthen on his sword that barely seemed to make a difference against the sheer force of the blows.
"It's still hitting too hard!" Zara yelled, her Frost Bolts chipping away tiny fragments of the boss's health. "Lily, can you keep him up?"
"My mana!" Lily cried, her voice tight with panic. "I can't keep this pace!"
Jax was finally staggering to his feet near the wall, still dazed. He was a non-factor. Finn loosed arrows, but his damage was a pittance against the Chief's massive health pool.
Kage felt the fight spiraling out of control. He was just reacting, always a step behind, his Awen draining, his sword's durability ticking down. He parried another blow, the impact sending a jolt of pain up his arm. He was playing the boss's game, a brutal rhythm of block-and-retreat. He was losing.
This isn't working, Kage's internal monologue snapped, sharp with frustration. Trading Awen for chip damage is a losing equation. Healer's going OOM, Jax is useless. There's no clean disengage here. It's either find a way to turn this now, or we wipe.
The brutal assessment left no room for error. Wiping meant losing time, being mocked by Argent, and having to wait for a retry timer. Failure was unacceptable.
Lily was behind him. If he fell, she was next.
It was in that moment of desperation, pushed to the absolute brink, that an old voice echoed in his mind, unbidden. Master Jin, patient but firm, in the quiet of the dojo, watching him struggle against a faster opponent.
"Don't fight the blade, boy. Don't fight its speed. Find its rhythm. Feel the space between the strikes. Lead the dance, don't just follow the steps."
Rhythm.
Something shifted. A switch flipped.
His reactive backpedaling stopped. His feet settled, his posture flowing into the smooth, gliding steps of suriashi. His body became a pendulum of controlled energy.
The Chief swung its club in a wide, horizontal arc. As Kage glided backward, just out of the swing's reach, he began composing, his thoughts forming a quiet, two-beat rhythm in his mind.
(Step)"Strength-"(Slide)"-en."
His mind formed the concept with a distinct cadence that matched his footwork. On the final beat of the verse, as the Chief overextended, committing to a follow-up lunge, Kage's slide ended. His feet planted. His sword came up to parry at the exact millisecond the verse "completed" in his head.
CLANG!
Another perfect parry. This time, it felt different. A shimmering, silver light enveloped his blade, pulsing in time with the impact.
[Synergy Achieved! Your verse's rhythm matched your combat action. The effect of 'Strengthen' is temporarily doubled.]
[You have harmonized the cadence of combat and verse!]
[New Hidden Passive Ability Discovered: Rhythmic Flow]
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 1/10)]
[Current Bonus: +2 Base Physical Damage, +2% Action Speed]
A jolt, electric and warm, shot through him. The ceaseless, grinding hum of the Operator in his head went completely silent. For a breathtaking second, he was no longer in a goblin-infested mine.
He was back in the dojo, the air thick with the smell of polished wood and ozone from a summer storm. Master Jin was demonstrating a kata, his movements a seamless, unbroken current of energy, his wooden shinai a blur in the dim light.
"The sword is not a tool, Klaid," the old man's voice rumbled in his memory. "It is a note in a song. Your body is the instrument. Your spirit is the rhythm. When the three flow as one, there is no separation between the swordsman and the strike. There is only the music of the blade."
The memory was so potent, so real, that the Chief's answering roar of fury felt like a jarring interruption, dragging him back to the cold, digital reality. It's a stacking buff, the Operator reasserted, its voice sharp with annoyance at the intrusion. Analyze it. Exploit it.
It's not just timing, the clinical tone of his mind was a stark contrast to the warmth still fading from his chest. It's flow. Cadence. Zanshin. The rhythm of the blade and the rhythm of the verse... they're the same system.
For a second, the Operator and the Prodigy were pulling in the same direction.
The fight found a new, deadly rhythm.
"Zara, three-step pattern! It follows every overhead smash with a two-swing combo!" Kage's voice was calm, cutting through the chaos.
He glided away from an overhead smash. As the Chief began its combo, Kage's mind was already composing.
(Swing One)"Weak-"(Swing Two)"-en."
The verse landed on the Chief the moment it finished its attack, a window of vulnerability he had created.
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 2/10)]
[Current Bonus: +4 Base Physical Damage, +4% Action Speed]
"Now, Zara!" he commanded.
A Frost Bolt slammed into the Chief's chest, its effect amplified by the verse. Its movements grew sluggish.
The battle became a symphony Kage was conducting. His body was a dance of deflections and evasions. His parries were beats in a song, each one perfectly timed to a one-word poem that buffed an ally or debuffed the boss. With each synergistic action, a stack of Rhythmic Flow was added, and his movements became visibly faster, a faint silver aura beginning to wreathe his arms.
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 3/10)]
80%…
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 4/10)]
He was a ghost on the battlefield, redirecting blows that would have crushed Lily, creating openings for Jax's wild swings, and timing Weaken verses to maximize Zara's damage. The party, once a frantic mess, was now a cohesive unit, their actions guided by his cues.
Argent and his Jackals were no longer smirking. They were standing at the edge of the doorway, their mouths slightly agape. What they were watching was impossible. It defied the game's logic.
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 5/10)]
60%…
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 6/10)]
The Chief's health bar, once an insurmountable wall, was steadily bleeding away.
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 7/10)]
40%…
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 8/10)]
30%..
[Gained Rhythmic Flow (Stack 9/10)]
At 20%, the boss let out a definitive, soul-shaking roar. Its green skin flushed a deep, menacing red. A new status icon appeared.
[ENRAGE]
"ENOUGH!" Skarlang bellowed, his voice cracking with pure fury. "NO MORE GAMES! MY RAGE IS MY STRENGTH! KNEEL OR DIE!"
All debuffs were instantly purged. Its damage and speed skyrocketed. It ignored Kage's parry, ignored Jax's desperate charge. Its eyes, burning with pure hatred, locked onto Lily.
This was it. The wipe mechanic. It lowered its head and charged.
Argent smirked from the doorway, a flicker of satisfaction on his face. He recognized the move. This was where the gear check became absolute.
Kage saw it too. The charging boss, the helpless healer, the inevitable wipe. His mind raced, cycling through calculations—Awen costs, cooldowns, remaining party HP—searching for an equation that equaled survival. There wasn't one.
He was already deep in the rhythm of the fight, nine stacks of Rhythmic Flow singing in his virtual veins. The world felt slightly slowed; the heightened state, a blend of the Operator's analysis and the Prodigy's intuition connecting almost seamlessly.
Yet, even from this peak, logic offered no solution.
Panic should have followed. Instead, the frantic simulation of calculations simply ceased. The noise of the battle seemed to recede, leaving a pocket of intense, focused silence. It was the razor's edge focus he used to find before a Kendo match began—thought replaced by pure, unwavering intent. The Prodigy's domain, amplified by the near-perfect cadence he'd achieved.
Logic was insufficient. All that remained was will—the raw, focused intent of a swordsman imposing order on chaos.
His lips, which had been set in a firm, neutral line, parted. His voice, when it came, was a low, resonant command, cutting through the Chief's furious roar with chilling authority.
"An Order, Forged in Desperation, to the Unyielding Earth Below," he spoke, the title itself a perfect reflection of his mental state. Each word was precise, laden with power.
His hand raised, fingers slightly curled, as if gripping the very fabric of the world.
"Bind."
The party flinched, startled as much by the sound of his voice as by the effect it carried.
A system notification, almost superfluous after such a display, blazed in his vision.
[Your Spoken Verse is resonant with your intent! Awen cost increased, effect greatly amplified!]
[-200 AWN]
[Poet's Lexicon: Keyword [Bind] Resonance increased. (3%->7%)]
His AWN plummeted to almost zero, but the stone floor of the throne room trembled violently. Thick, crude shackles of rock erupted from the ground directly in the Chief's path, clamping around its ankles with a grinding crunch.
The enraged charge stopped dead. The Chief roared, struggling against its bonds, its feet literally chained to the floor. It was immobilized.
Kage's voice cut through the Chief's pained howl.
"Now."
It was a floodgate opening. Jax, back on his feet, let out a savage cry and unleashed his strongest attack. Zara's hands flickered, loosing a rapid volley of empowered Frost Bolts. Finn stood his ground, activating Rapid Shot, his arrows becoming a blur that pummeled the stationary boss.
The Chief's health bar evaporated. 15%… 12%… 10%...
With a final, agonized bellow, the Goblin War Chief shattered the stone shackles. But the damage was done. On its last legs, it raised its gargantuan club high above its head and slammed it into the ground.
A visible, shimmering shockwave of red energy erupted from the point of impact, expanding across the entire room. An unavoidable AoE. It was the creature's final, desperate gambit.
Kage's mind processed it instantly.
Attack vector: all directions.
Effect: CC.
Dodge: impossible.
His mind flickered to his own ability list, recalled in a split second of hyper-analysis.
[Unflinching Verse]
Type: Passive Ability
Description: …While actively composing a verse, you gain immense CC Resistance…
A new path appeared. A loophole, written into the very fabric of his class.
For the first time, not out of creative intent, but for pure, cold, tactical exploitation, his fingers flew as he summoned the actual UI composition window. Words appeared in the floating panel, formed by the frantic need for a single, life-saving flag in the game's code.
Just as the red shockwave was about to hit, he finished typing a nonsensical phrase.
Title: Stall
Poem: Stall
The red wave washed over the room.
Zara, Lily, Finn, and Jax were frozen in place, their bodies locked in their last action. A bright, blazing icon appeared above their heads.
[Stunned (20s)]
The wave rushed toward Kage. But as it reached him, it parted, flowing around his still form like water around a stone. The CC Resistance had triggered.
He immediately canceled the verse composition. The UI window vanished.
He stood alone, untouched, wreathed in a silvery aura. His Level 4 Novice's Iron Sword held ready.
Before him, the enraged, near-death Goblin War Chief pushed itself to its feet, its health a sliver of red, its eyes promising a swift, brutal end.