Chapter 5: The Chieftain's Fall
The roar of the Hobgoblin Chieftain was a physical weight, a wall of sound that smelled of rotted marrow and ancient dampness. It hit Ren's chest like a physical blow, forcing him to plant his feet firmly against the slick stone floor. Behind him, he felt the sharp intake of Mia's breath and the sudden, frigid spike in Elena's mana.
The throne room was a grotesque mockery of a royal hall. Piles of rusted armor and discarded bones served as the "furniture," and at the center of it all stood the Chieftain. He was a mountain of purple-gray flesh, his skin mapped with ritual scars and tribal tattoos that glowed with a faint, sickly yellow light. In his massive, four-fingered hand, he gripped a cleaver the size of a surfboard, its edge notched from centuries of butchery.
[BOSS: THE HOBGOBLIN CHIEFTAIN]Rank: D- (Elite)Trait: Bloodlust (Attack speed increases as HP drops) "He's not just a goblin," Mia whispered, her voice barely audible over the low growl vibrating in the Chieftain's throat. "Ren, the iron in that cleaver... it's infused with mana. It won't break like the others."
"We don't need it to break," Ren said, his eyes locked on the Chieftain's small, cunning yellow eyes. "We just need to move faster than it can swing. Elena, focus on the joints. If we can slow him down, he's just a bigger target."
Elena didn't respond with words. Instead, her silver-violet mana erupted, illuminating the dark chamber. She didn't fire a bolt; she held her hands out, forming a shimmering arc of energy that pulsed in time with the golden cord at her chest. "He is an animal," she hissed, her aristocratic disdain returning as a weapon. "And I have no intention of being stepped on by an animal."
The Chieftain moved with a speed that defied his bulk. With a thunderous grunt, he lunged forward, the massive cleaver whistling through the air in a horizontal arc.
"Down!" Ren roared.
Through the [TETHERED SENSE], the warning reached Mia and Elena a fraction of a second before the blade cleared the space where their heads had been. Ren rolled forward, the wind from the blade ruffling his hair. He came up swinging, his short sword sparking against the Chieftain's thick, leather-like hide.
[ATTACK BLOCKED: 2 DAMAGE DEALT]
It was like stabbing a tire. The blade barely bit into the skin.
"The hide is too thick!" Mia shouted. She dodged a stomp that shattered the stone tiles beneath her, her hammer glowing with a dull, rhythmic heat. "Ren, I can't find a soft spot!"
"Keep him turning!" Ren commanded. He felt Elena's intent through the Bond—a sharp, icy focus. She wasn't aiming for the chest anymore. She fired three rapid-fire mana needles, each striking the back of the Chieftain's left knee.
The brute let out a guttural howl of pain, his massive leg buckling for a split second.
"Now, Mia!"
Mia didn't hesitate. She lunged, using the momentum of the Chieftain's stumble to swing her hammer upward. The iron head slammed into the underside of the brute's jaw with a sickening crack. The Chieftain's head snapped back, his yellow eyes rolling.
But he wasn't down.
[BOSS TRAIT ACTIVATED: BLOODLUST][ATTACK SPEED INCREASED BY 30%] The Chieftain's scars flared bright red. With a roar of pure rage, he swung the cleaver back around with terrifying velocity. Ren barely had time to raise his sword to parry. The impact felt like a building had fallen on him. He was thrown backward, his boots skidding across the stone, his arms numbing from the vibration of the hit.
"Ren!" Mia screamed, reaching out.
Elena's violet mana flared brighter. "Stay focused!" she commanded, her voice ringing like a bell through the chaos. She stood her ground as the Chieftain turned his gaze toward her. She held her hand out, and a shimmering barrier of mana materialized just as the cleaver slammed into it.
The barrier cracked, the force of the blow sending Elena to her knees.
The golden cord between the three of them began to hum, a sound that grew louder and higher in pitch, drowning out the Chieftain's roars. It wasn't a sound of pain—it was a sound of resonance.
[SYNC RATE REACHING CRITICAL MASS: 1.95%][TRINITY STRIKE AVAILABLE][CONDITION: RELEASE THE SOUL-BOUND ARSENAL]
"I can feel it," Mia gasped, her hand over her heart. "The hammer... it's changing."
"The System isn't giving us weapons," Ren realized, his vision blurring as the golden light from the cord began to engulf them. "It's giving us ourselves."
Ren stood up, his short sword dissolving into particles of light. Beside him, Mia's old blacksmithing hammer and Elena's focus-ring also began to shatter into golden dust. The Chieftain lunged, sensing the shift in the air, his cleaver raised for a final, killing blow.
"Together!" Ren shouted.
He reached into the light. His hand didn't find the hilt of a cheap sword. It found a handle of cold, celestial silver. As he pulled, a blade of pure, radiating light manifested—The Sovereign's Edge.
To his left, Elena's mana condensed into a staff of liquid amethyst, humming with a power that made the air freeze—The Valkyrie's Spire.
To his right, Mia's dust reformed into a massive, heavy-headed warhammer that glowed with the orange heat of a dying star—The World-Forge.
The three weapons were connected by threads of gold, weaving through the air and back to their chests. They weren't just holding weapons; they were holding the physical manifestations of their Bond.
[TRINITY STRIKE: OVERDRIVE]
They moved as one. Ren was the point, a streak of silver light that parried the Chieftain's cleaver with contemptuous ease, the Sovereign's Edge shearing through the mana-infused iron like it was paper. Elena was the storm, her staff unleashed a torrent of violet lightning that paralyzed the brute's nervous system. And Mia was the end, her warhammer coming down with the weight of a mountain.
The impact was silent for a heartbeat before a shockwave of gold and orange light leveled everything in the room. The Chieftain didn't just fall; he disintegrated, his malice and his bulk erased by the sheer harmony of the strike.
Silence returned to the catacombs, broken only by the heavy breathing of the three youths. The golden cord was still there, but it looked different now—thicker, more permanent.
[BOSS DEFEATED][REWARD: 20,000 CREDITS DEPOSITED][WEAPON MANIFESTATION: PERMANENT][SYNC RATE: 2.10%]
Ren looked at the glowing silver sword in his hand, then at the two women standing beside him. Elena was looking at her staff with a mix of awe and fear, her hood having fallen back to reveal a face that was no longer icy, but vibrant with life. Mia was hugging her hammer, a small, tired smile on her soot-streaked face.
"We did it," Mia whispered.
"We just started," Ren said, the weight of the new weapon feeling right in his hand. He looked at the golden thread connecting him to the heiress and the blacksmith's daughter. "The world is going to come for us. But let them come. We have a long way to go before this story is even close to finished."
He walked toward the center of the room, picking up a small, shimmering crystal left behind by the Chieftain.
"Let's go home," he said. "We have a lot to talk about before the next gate."
As they walked out of the blue portal and back into the dark basement of the mall, the gold cord followed them, glowing faintly in the dark—a promise of the dynasty to come.