In the clearing, far from the titanic duel, Jett and Marcus fought desperately.
Their struggle had lost all glory. It was a fight against apathy itself. Jett's energy arrows missed their deadly mark, often dissipating before hitting anything. Marcus's wind blades were weak, barely cutting the skin of the monsters advancing with a hungry, artificial drive.
At the center of their small defensive perimeter, Leo still lay unconscious, a dead weight in their broken strategy.
Damn…, thought Jett, sweat mixed with dust running into his eyes. How long is this going to last?
His gaze, burning with helpless frustration, shifted to Serene.
She remained in the same spot, motionless, at the center of her black energy field. Her large glasses hid her eyes, but the neutral curve of her lips was a response more eloquent than any words.
She was watching them. She was holding them in place. She wasn't an active executioner, but the impassive warden of a prison whose walls were their own weakness, and whose bars were the monsters' claws.
There would be no respite.
No negotiation.
They had become a simple variable—temporarily set aside—while the main event unfolded elsewhere.
---
Meanwhile, in the heart of the forbidden forest.
Remedy sat atop his hammer, both floating in the air, defying all logic. A series of silent notifications, reserved for him alone, scrolled through his mind.
[DING! -100 RP. PERMANENT INJECTION OF CONCEPT "FEATHER_WEIGHT" ON HOST – SUCCESSFUL.]
[DING! LINK ESTABLISHED. EARTH GRAVITY AND THE "GIANT HAMMER" ARE NOW TIED TO THE HOST'S CONCEPT.]
> > > Linked Users: Earth Gravity (Guest) | Giant Hammer (Guest)
[DING! LINK ESTABLISHED. EARTH GRAVITY IS LINKED TO THE CONCEPT CARRIED BY THE "GIANT HAMMER".]
> > > Linked User: Earth Gravity (Guest)
Under the effect of these absurd links, the Boss also began to float, light as a feather.
[DING! -10 ENERGY. TEMPORARY INJECTION OF CONCEPT "FEATHER_WEIGHT" ON THE BOSS – SUCCESSFUL. DURATION: 10s.]
REMEDY — (ENERGY: 45% ➔ 35%)
[DING! LINK ESTABLISHED. EARTH GRAVITY IS NOW LINKED TO THE CONCEPT CARRIED BY THE "BOSS".]
> > > Linked Users: Earth Gravity (Guest)
A long breath escaped Remedy's lips. The end of the fight had already been programmed.
He rose atop his floating hammer. Then he jumped, weapon in hand.
[DING! LINK BROKEN. EARTH GRAVITY IS NO LONGER LINKED TO THE HOST'S CONCEPT.]
[DING! LINK BROKEN. EARTH GRAVITY IS NO LONGER LINKED TO THE CONCEPT OF THE GIANT HAMMER.]
The normal laws of the universe reasserted themselves with vengeance. The weight of the world struck them.
He and his hammer fell. Heavily.
But he had planned the fall. In its wake, he spun his hammer in a devastating vertical whirlwind, drawing two iron circles in the air. With each rotation, he accumulated monstrous kinetic energy, transforming his fall into an unavoidable impact.
Then, at the apex of his swirling descent, he released all that accumulated force into a planetary hammer strike.
BOOOOOOM!
The blow exploded onto the chest of the still-floating Boss.
(Boss Health: 58% ➔ 19%)
At the precise moment of impact:
[DING! LINK BROKEN. EARTH GRAVITY IS NO LONGER LINKED TO THE BOSS'S CONCEPT.]
The werewolf, instantly regaining its colossal mass, was hurled like a cannonball and crashed into the ground, carving a new crater.
But Remedy wasn't finished.
[DING! LINK ESTABLISHED. EARTH GRAVITY IS NOW LINKED TO THE HOST'S CONCEPT.]
His fall stopped instantly. He began floating again. He pointed the hammer's handle toward the fallen Boss, grabbed its head with one hand, and slammed it down with all his strength. The weapon, once again subject to gravity, became a guided meteor.
THWOOOM—SHUNK!
It sank into the monster's chest by the handle, pinning it to the ground.
(Boss Health: 19% ➔ 0.01%)
Then, by precisely controlling the linking and unlinking of gravity with his own concept, Remedy controlled his final descent. He lowered himself slowly, majestically, like a deity descending from its chariot, and landed elegantly atop the flat head of his hammer, planted in the Boss's body.
(Boss Health: 0.01% ➔ 0%)
A victorious smile, tinged with deep intellectual satisfaction, spread across his face.
— There… murmured Remedy in the sudden silence. That's what I call knowing how to use your skills.
Remedy stepped down from the hammer planted in the ground, while the last fragments of the monster were sucked into a translucent green vortex, which closed with a wet, muffled sound.
[DING! BOSS DEVOUR SUCCESSFUL: +1 100 RP | +110 EXP]
---
NAME: REMEDY
LEVEL: 10
[HEALTH: 21% | ENERGY: 35%]
EXP: 17.5% ➔ 18.2%
RP: 539,000 ➔ 540,000
NAME: SERENE
LEVEL: 9
[HEALTH: 90% | ENERGY: 100%]
TEAM POINTS: 65,500 ➔ 76,600
(+1,100 + 10,000 for Boss elimination)
He made his hammer disappear into pixelated fragments, noting its reduced durability (600/900). The weapon had endured the impact but bore the marks of the battle.
Then, suddenly, an impersonal and definitive systemic announcement rang in the minds of all survivors:
[THE DUNGEON "DEVOURING FOREST" HAS BEEN COMPLETED.]
[SURVIVORS: 9]
[DISTRIBUTION OF TEAM POINTS AND AUTOMATIC TELEPORTATION OF ALL SURVIVORS IN PROGRESS…]
Immediately, a warm white light enveloped every remaining student, dissolving them gradually from the landscape.
For Remedy, this light arrived as a smile of deep satisfaction still illuminated his face. The pain of his wounds was real, but overshadowed by the pure joy of combat, victory, and discovering his own limits—and how to break them.
In the clearing, Jett and Marcus, exhausted, lifted their heads toward the light like a release.
Finally… But behind Jett's fatigue, in the bitter crease of his mouth and the cold gleam of his gaze, a new grudge was taking root. He hadn't lost. He had been sidelined. And that, he would never forgive.
Serene, impassive, let her black energy field retract. The darkness was absorbed into her palm, particle by particle, as if it had never existed.
Then, the light completed its work. The forest, witness to carnage and triumphs, was empty and silent, except for the crater and the broken trees.
---
> > > FINAL EXAM RANKINGS <<<
1. REMEDY — 49,600 pts
2. NEVE — 43,000 pts
3. SERENE — 27,000 pts
4. [Class 1 Student] — 24,900 pts
5. JETT — 21,000 pts
6. [Class 4 Student] — 17,000 pts
7. [Class 5 Student] — 15,600 pts
8. MARCUS — 12,000 pts
9. LEO — 11,880 pts
---
The first act was over. The pieces were in place. And the true stakes—far beyond a simple ranking—were only just beginning to emerge.
Chapter 16 — The End