Lancet’s eyes scanned the surroundings frantically.

Wait. Not four. There was one more. There were five now. And it looked like they were going to attack separately.

One for every Awakener.

Two burst from the treeline ahead, screaming their war cries. One dropped from the canopy above, claws extended toward Vera. One erupted from the mud behind them—it had burrowed somehow, tunneling through the soft earth. And the last one circled wide, coming at Lancet directly from the left flank, its four eyes locked onto the squad leader with predatory intelligence.

"Behind us!" Vera screamed, stumbling backward as the burrowing Macaque surfaced right at her feet, mud exploding outward.

Dane was already moving, his hand reaching for his Summon—

"Hold!" Lancet’s voice cracked like a whip. "Trust the formation!"

They quickly regrouped behind the two present Summons, causing the monkey beasts to regroup.

Min Tu’s Skeleton Soldier moved quickly, its Wind Mage magic blazing as it summoned a concentrated cyclone around the burrowing Macaque.

The beast was completely caught off guard. The next thing it knew, it was grabbed off its feet and spun helplessly in a vortex of debris and leaves.

Before it could orient itself, the Skeleton thrust forward with the spear, piercing through the cyclone and impaling the Macaque through its shoulder, pinning it to a massive tree root.

But the attack left the Skeleton exposed. The two Macaques charging from the front saw the opening and lunged, their sixteen combined claws slashing through the air in a whirlwind of death.

Thankfully, Metalhead intercepted.

Its left fist launched outward like a piston, the forearm extending on telescoping chains to clothesline both beasts simultaneously.

The impact was thunderous, bones cracking, but the Macaques were relentless. One latched onto the extended arm, its claws tearing through the chains.

The other ducked under the swing and scrambled directly up Metalhead’s chest, its four clawed hands finding purchase on the iron plating, climbing toward the vulnerable head cavity.

The canopy Macaque landed on the muddy ground right beside Vera, its jaws unhinging to reveal rows of backward-curving fangs. It lunged for her throat.

Vera let out a scream. However, she was alert enough to activate her powers. Her eyes flashed green, and the vines shot out from the grounds, thorny tendrils wrapping around the beast’s four arms and yanking them back.

The Macaque shrieked, its claws inches from Vera’s face, held at bay only by her rapidly straining plant magic.

"Skeleton!" Min Tu commanded with a sharp voice. "Burn it!"

The Skeleton Soldier wrenched its spear free from the pinned Macaque and pivoted, launching a fireball directly at the canopy beast. The flames engulfed the Macaque’s back, and it howled, giving up on Vera as it rolled in the mud to extinguish itself.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

The fifth Macaque—the one that had circled wide—finally made its move. It burst from the left flank, all four arms extended, its claws aimed directly at Lancet’s chest.

Its bone-white face was twisted into something that almost resembled a smile, its red eyes gleaming with triumph.

It had found the leader alone.

Lancet looked at the silly little beast, realizing how unfazed he was. Maybe after killing a Demon Head, a mere Level 35 monster barely phased him.

He simply stood his ground, eyes locked on the incoming predator, and waited.

"Lancet!" Kasto panicked.

The Macaque was ten feet away. Eight. Six. Its claws were extended, ready to tear through flesh and bone.

Five feet.

Metalhead’s head hurried to the rescue. Not that Lancet particularly needed it, but the risk of his Grace going off couldn’t be taken in that heavy moment.

Metalhead didn’t fire forward this time—it rotated. The cylindrical cavity swiveled within its shoulder housing, the bronze rings spinning faster and faster until they became a blur of motion.

Then, roaring like a machine car, the entire assembly fired sideways, the chain extending on a diagonal trajectory that intercepted the Macaque mid-lunge.

The projectile skull caught the beast in its side with the force of a freight train, the impact so powerful that the Macaque’s body folded around the metal mass, its ribs shattering, its spine snapping, its four arms going limp as it was carried sideways through the air and smashed directly into the trunk of a giant tree.

The tree shook. Leaves rained down. The Macaque’s body slid to the ground, motionless.

Lancet pouted his lips, nodding like he was impressed. He turned to Kasto who looked extremely relieved and he gave him a thumbs up.

"Four down," he said calmly, as if he had never been in danger at all. "Three remaining. Let’s finish them."

The pinned Macaque—the one the Skeleton had speared to the root—finally tore itself free, leaving a chunk of its shoulder behind. It was wounded, bleeding, but its eyes burned with undiminished hatred. It charged the Skeleton Soldier, all four claws extended.

The Skeleton met it head-on.

The Berserker’s cleaver came down in an overhead chop that split the Macaque’s skull down the center, its bone-white face cracking apart like an eggshell. The beast collapsed, dead before it hit the ground.

Metalhead was still grappling with the Macaque that had climbed its chest. The beast had reached the shoulder cavity and was tearing at the rotating rings with its claws, trying to disable the head-launching mechanism. Sparks flew. Metal screeched.

"Get it off!" Kasto shouted.

Metalhead’s response was brutally efficient. Instead of trying to grab the beast, the giant simply slammed itself backward into the nearest tree trunk, crushing the Macaque between its iron back-plating and the unyielding wood.

BOOM-SPLASSSSSHHHHH!

There was a wet, crunchy sound, and the Macaque’s claws went limp, its body sliding off and falling into the mud.

The final Macaque—the one Vera had tangled and the Skeleton had burned—struggled to its feet, its fur still smoking, its movements sluggish. It looked around at its dead packmates, and for the first time, something other than rage flickered in its four red eyes.

Fear. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

It turned to flee, leaping for the safety of the canopy.

But like its master, Min Tu, the Skeleton Soldier was pretty ruthless.

It hurled the spear perfectly and precisely at the crawling monkey beast. The weapon spun through the air, a dark comet against the bioluminescent glow of the jungle, and struck the Macaque directly between its shoulder blades.

The beast jerked, its four arms flailing once, then went still. It crashed through the branches and landed in the mud, the spear still quivering in its back.

Silence.

The jungle was silent once again. Even more silent than before; the distant hoots and rustlings seemed to pause, as if the Primate Monster Jungle itself was taking a moment to reassess the intruders who had just slaughtered an entire pack of its children.

Lancet exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders. "Status?"

"Metalhead’s knee joint is damaged," Kasto reported, his voice shaky but steadying. "Hydraulic pressure is at sixty percent. It can still fight, but mobility is compromised."

"Can you fix it?" Lancet asked.

"I can," he replied. "It’ll take a while though."

Lancet nodded. "Try to get it done as we go forward."

"My Soldier is unharmed," Min Tu said coolly, her Skeleton walking back toward her. The flames in its eyes had dimmed slightly, but it still looked eager, hungry for more violence. "It performed adequately."

Dane let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. "Adequately? That thing was a monster."

Min Tu shrugged.

Lancet stepped forward, surveying the carnage. Eight dead Macaques, their bodies scattered across the muddy clearing, their blood darkening the earth.

It seemed so far his strategy was working perfectly.

"Good work, everyone," he said, and meant it. "Kasto, your positioning was flawless. Min Tu, your Skeleton’s versatility is exactly what we needed. Vera, quick thinking with those vines. Dane, I know it was hard to hold back, but your restraint was the right call."

He turned to face the floating brass camera drone that had been tracking their every move. The lens glinted back at him.

"AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! SUMMONER-D HAS JUST CLEANED OUT AN ENTIRE PACK OF FOUR-ARMED SKULL MACAQUES!"

The crowd erupted, a wave of cheers and applause crashing through the stands. Thousands of spectators—students, instructors, Awakeners from across the continent—leaned forward in their seats, eyes glued to the screens that showed Lancet’s squad reforming their positions.

"But WAIT!" the Announcer continued, his voice dripping with theatrical intrigue. "Let’s rewind that engagement and analyze what we just witnessed, because I have a feeling some of you might have missed a crucial detail!"

One of the massive screens replayed the battle in slow motion: the Macaques charging, Metalhead anchoring the center, the Skeleton Soldier tearing through the pack, and critically—Dane, Vera, and Lancet himself not summoning at all.

"Did you catch that?" the Announcer’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial tone. "In that entire engagement, Summoner-D only deployed TWO members. Two! Against a pack of eight Lvl 35 beasts!"

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Whispers of disbelief, admiration, and curiosity.

"Kasto, their Guardian, and Min Tu, their Striker. That’s it. The Disruptor, the Healer, and the Squad Leader himself didn’t lift a finger! Now I have to ask—was that intentional? Is this some kind of strategic conservation play? Are they hiding their full capabilities from the other squads?"

The screen split to show multiple feeds: Elementalist-D hacking through a different section of jungle, their full squad deployed. Specialist-D moving cautiously through a foggy marsh. Enchanter-D locked in combat with their own pack of Macaques. All of them fighting with everything they had.

"Keep your eyes on this squad, folks!" the Announcer roared, the excitement building. "Because if Lancet Leogardt and his team can clear threats with only forty percent of their firepower, what exactly are they saving the other sixty percent for? Is it for the Boss? For the Artifact? Or... could it be for their fellow competitors?"

The crowd’s cheers grew louder, speculation running wild.

"We’re barely into the first hour of this trial, and already, the mind games have begun! Will Summoner-D’s strategy pay off? Or will their reserved strength leave them vulnerable to an ambush? Stay tuned, because this Dungeon expedition is only just beginning to heat up!"

The camera feed refocused on Lancet, who was calmly directing Vera to loot the beast cores, and other valuable loot.

He glanced up at the drone one more time, and for just a moment, a small, knowing smile crossed his face.