Phase One of "The Iron Grinder" worked with terrifying efficiency.
For the first twenty minutes, the battle was a slaughter. The goblins, driven by mindless bloodlust, poured into the narrow gap of the gate like water into a drain. There, they met the Anvil—a wall of tower shields and spears held by the Garrison's heavy infantry.
CRUNCH. STAB. PUSH.
The rhythm was hypnotic. The front line held. Behind them, the Hammer—the mages and archers on the walls—rained down firebolts and arrows into the dense, shrieking mass. Every spell hit a target. Every arrow found a throat.
Ren stood in the Reserve Corps, watching the carnage with cold, analytical eyes.
'It's too easy,' Ren thought, his Intelligence (132) picking up patterns the others missed. 'The goblins aren't retreating. They aren't scared. They are waiting.'
Then, the sky darkened.
A roar, deep and resonant, shook the very stones of the palisade. It wasn't the shriek of a goblin; it was the thunder of a predator that sat at the top of the food chain.
From the rear of the goblin horde, a massive shape rose into the air.
[Appraisal]
[Monster: Verdant War-Dragon]
[Rank: B (Commander Type)]
[Status: Commanding]
It was a Dragon. Not a true High Dragon, but a B-Rank sub-species with emerald scales and a wingspan that blotted out the rising sun. It hovered above the battlefield, its yellow eyes glowing with malevolent intelligence.
The Dragon didn't breathe fire. It took a deep breath and let out a series of sharp, guttural barks.
"KRAA! GOL-RAK! SHII!"
It was a language. A command.
Instantly, the chaos of the horde vanished. The goblins stopped rushing the shield wall. Instead, the larger Hobgoblins grabbed the smaller ones and threw them. Not at the soldiers, but at the walls. They began to pile up, forming living ramps of bodies, climbing over each other like ants to bypass the gate entirely.
"They're changing tactics!" Elara screamed from the command post. "Adjust fire! Target the ramps!"
But before the mages could aim, the Dragon roared again.
From the clouds above, three shadows dived.
[Appraisal]
[Monster: Razor-Wing Wyvern]
[Rank: C]
[Count: 3]
The Wyverns didn't attack the soldiers. They strafed the top of the walls.
WHOOSH.
Razor-sharp talons tore through the line of mages and archers. The Hammer was shattered in seconds. Bodies of adventurers and garrison archers fell from the battlements, landing with sickening thuds behind the shield wall.
"The air defense is gone!" a captain yelled, panic cracking his voice.
With the ranged support gone, the goblin ramps succeeded. Hundreds of goblins spilled over the walls, flanking the shield wall.
The Anvil broke.
"HOLD THE LINE!" Vargus roared, but it was too late.
The formation collapsed. It became a brawl. The screams of dying men filled the air. In minutes, fifty soldiers were dragged down and torn apart. Twenty adventurers were swarmed, their armor peeled off like tin cans as the goblins feasted on them alive.
The smell of blood was overwhelming.
"Damn it!" Vargus drew his massive greatsword. "Elara! Bilt! We go in! If we don't stabilize the line, the city falls!"
Vargus charged, a whirlwind of steel, cleaving three Hobgoblins in half with a single swing. Elara and her knights followed, their discipline cutting a path through the chaos.
Bilt, the Dark Swordsman, moved with them. "Protect me!" he ordered his squad. "I'll aim for the Wyverns!"
He unleashed a wave of dark energy, clipping a Wyvern's wing, but the sheer number of enemies was suffocating. Even the elites were getting bogged down. The B-Rank Dragon hovered above, laughing—a guttural, mocking sound—as it prepared to dive and finish them off.
Ren watched the line crumble. He saw Leo, the young soldier from earlier, get dragged into the horde, screaming for his sister.
Ren sighed.
"I just bought this house," Ren muttered. "I'm not letting you burn it down."
He stepped forward.
The Reserve Corps was retreating, terrified. Ren walked against the flow.
He opened his System Interface. A memory flashed in his mind—a moment from yesterday, right after he had acquired the Shadow Step Skill Card.
[Flashback: 12 Hours Ago]
Ren sat in his tiny room, the Shadow Step Skill Card dissolving into his hand.
[Skill Acquired: Shadow Step (Lv. 1)]
He immediately began practicing. He didn't have to read a manual; the knowledge was simply there. But the execution was clumsy. He tried to step into the shadow of his chair. He vanished, but reappeared two feet away, stumbling and nearly falling.
'The skill is raw,' Ren analyzed, his Intelligence (132) working overtime. 'It requires precise control of Mana and a high degree of physical coordination. My Speed (26) and Agility (18) are high, but they are not enough to stabilize the teleportation.'
He spent the next hour practicing, using his Graceful Hand (30) to fine-tune the minute muscle adjustments needed for the skill. He couldn't master it, but he could learn to mimic the effect using his raw stats. By combining a burst of Speed with a precise, low-mana displacement, he could create the illusion of a short-range teleportation—a technique far more reliable than the clumsy, Level 1 skill.
[Present Time]
Ren gripped the hilt of Eclipse. The S-Rank dagger hummed, hungry for blood.
He didn't use the Level 1 Shadow Step. He used his own perfected, Assassin-based technique.
He vanished.
He appeared in the middle of the goblin ramp.
[Strength: 76] + [Eclipse: +50 Attack].
He spun. A circle of black steel decapitated ten goblins instantly.
He moved again, a blur of black and silver. He appeared on the back of a Hobgoblin. He drove the dagger into its spine, kicked off, and launched himself into the air.
He appeared on the wall, right next to a Wyvern that was chewing on an archer.
Ren didn't stab it. He grabbed its neck with his left hand.
[Strength: 76].
He squeezed.
CRUNCH.
The Wyvern's windpipe collapsed. Ren threw the carcass off the wall, crushing the goblins below.
The battlefield went silent for a heartbeat. Everyone—Vargus, Elara, Bilt—stared at the blur of black violence that had just cleared the eastern ramp.
"Who is that?" Elara gasped, parrying a goblin sword.
"It's the ghost," Vargus grinned, smashing a shield with his fist. "Go, kid!"
Ren didn't stop. He looked up. The B-Rank Dragon was staring at him, its yellow eyes narrowing. It recognized a threat.
The Dragon roared and dived, its claws extended to crush this annoyance.
Ren stood on the battlement. He sheathed his dagger.
"You're loud," Ren whispered.
He waited. The Dragon closed the distance. 50 meters. 20 meters.
Ren channeled his Mana (60) into his legs. He combined it with his Speed (26) and Agility (18).
BOOM.
He launched himself directly at the Dragon.
He vanished in mid-air, reappearing above the beast.
He drew Eclipse. The blade glowed with a terrifying purple aura, fueled by his Intelligence (132) and Mana (60).
[Skill: Assassinate (Critical Strike)]
Ren drove the dagger into the Dragon's neck, right between the scales.
The Dragon shrieked. It wasn't a clean kill—the beast was too big—but Ren drove the dagger deeper, tearing through muscle and bone. Black blood sprayed like a geyser.
The Dragon thrashed, losing altitude. It crashed into the muddy field outside the gates, rolling and crushing its own goblin troops.
Ren landed gracefully on the Dragon's heaving chest. The beast was stunned, its HP critical.
"Die," Ren said, raising his dagger for the final blow to the heart.
The victory was secured. The soldiers were cheering. Vargus was roaring in triumph.
Ren's Intelligence spiked. A warning.
[Danger Sense: High]
It wasn't the Dragon. The Dragon was dying.
The threat was behind him.
Ren tried to turn.
"You're stealing my glory, trash," a voice hissed.
Bilt.
The Dark Swordsman had used the chaos to close the distance. He wasn't attacking the Dragon. He was standing ten meters behind Ren, his sword glowing with a sinister, condensed black light.
[Skill: Dark Sever (Rank B)]
Bilt swung.
A crescent of pure dark energy tore through the air. It was wide, fast, and aimed directly at Ren's unguarded back while he was locked in the animation of finishing the Dragon.
There was no time to dodge. Ren was focused on the kill.
Ren's eyes widened as the darkness swallowed his vision.
SLASH.
[End of Chapter 28]