Shadow Husband:I Have a Hidden SSS-Class System-Chapter 24: COORDINATED ASSAULT

The Player Network gathering point was a coffee shop in Menteng that looked completely ordinary from the outside. Inside, however, the back room was reserved for Players only—reinforced walls, privacy barriers, and equipment storage lockers hidden behind false panels.

Rama arrived at eight AM to find Sari, Budi, and Dewi already gearing up.

"Morning, baby," Dewi called out, checking her dual blades. "Ready to do C-rank properly this time?"

"Ready."

"Good. Because we’re not babysitting you." She pointed at the holographic display showing their target dungeon. "This is a proper four-person tactical assault. Everyone pulls their weight or we all die. Clear?"

"Clear."

Budi approached with a tablet. "We’re hitting the Iron Forge dungeon. C-rank. Fire and metal elemental enemies. Final boss is a Forge Master—level 44, high defense, area control abilities." He pulled up formation diagrams. "Standard setup. Budi and I are frontline tanks. Dewi is primary DPS and flanking. Sari is support DPS and battlefield control."

"What’s my specific role?" Rama asked.

"Secondary tank and damage sponge," Sari said. "Your Vitality is stupid high for your level. You can take hits that would kill Dewi instantly. So you protect her while she does the real damage."

"Got it."

"Equipment check," Budi ordered. "Rama, what are you carrying?"

Rama opened his inventory display. "Sword, backup dagger, five healing potions, three mana potions, emergency beacon—"

"Remove the beacon," Dewi interrupted. "If your HP drops and that thing calls your wife, we’re all exposed. We handle our own emergencies."

Rama hesitated. Sekar would notice if he removed it.

"I’ll take responsibility if something goes wrong," Budi said. "But Dewi’s right. We can’t risk S-rank intervention in a Player operation."

"Okay." Rama disabled the beacon, feeling like he was cutting a safety line.

"Good." Sari distributed communication devices—small earpieces that linked to the System’s party chat function. "We stay in constant contact. If someone’s in trouble, they call it immediately. No heroics. No solo plays. We win as a team or we retreat as a team."

They moved out.

The Iron Forge dungeon manifested in an abandoned foundry in South Jakarta. The gate pulsed with deep red light, heat radiating from it even at a distance.

[C-RANK GATE DETECTED]

[DUNGEON: IRON FORGE]

[RECOMMENDED PARTY SIZE: 5-7 HUNTERS (C-RANK)]

[PARTY DETECTED: 4 PLAYERS]

[PROCEED?]

"Everyone ready?" Sari asked over the comm.

Three confirmations.

"Then let’s show this dungeon how real Players work."

They stepped through together.

Heat and the smell of molten metal hit immediately. The dungeon was a massive underground forge—anvils the size of cars, furnaces burning with impossible flames, rivers of molten iron flowing through channels in the floor.

[YOU HAVE ENTERED: IRON FORGE]

[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT THE FORGE MASTER]

[ENEMIES DETECTED: NUMEROUS]

[ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD: EXTREME HEAT, MOLTEN METAL]

"Formation," Budi commanded.

They arranged automatically—Budi at point, Rama covering the right flank, Dewi protected in the center-left, Sari at rear providing overwatch.

The first enemies appeared within seconds.

[IRON AUTOMATON - LEVEL 39]

Humanoid constructs made of segmented metal plates, wielding hammers and tongs as weapons. Three of them, moving with coordinated precision.

"Budi, Rama—split aggro," Sari called. "Dewi, focus fire the left one. I’ll CC the right."

Rama activated [Provoke] on the middle automaton while Budi taunted the right. The constructs divided their attention perfectly.

Dewi’s blades flashed. Her assassination techniques found gaps between the metal plates, striking at the core mechanisms inside. The left automaton collapsed in eight seconds.

Sari’s phantom blades immobilized the right automaton long enough for Budi to crush its head with his hammer.

Rama faced his automaton alone, using [Steel Body] to absorb hammer strikes while targeting joints and weak points. It took longer—twenty seconds—but he destroyed it without taking significant damage.

[IRON AUTOMATONS DEFEATED]

[PARTY PERFORMANCE: A-RANK]

"Solid opening," Sari acknowledged. "Keep that formation. Advance."

They pushed deeper into the forge. More automatons. Then flame elementals that required different tactics—Rama and Budi using defensive skills to protect Dewi and Sari from area attacks while they burned down the high-threat targets.

Every engagement was coordinated. Every skill activation called out. Every position shift communicated.

This was what Sekar had tried to teach him yesterday. What Budi had drilled into him. Real team combat where four people fought like one organism.

"Boss chamber ahead," Budi reported. "Everyone check status."

"HP at ninety percent, mana at sixty," Dewi said.

"HP full, mana at seventy," Sari added.

"HP at eighty-five, mana at fifty," Rama reported.

"Good. Conserve resources. The Forge Master is a war of attrition." Budi pulled up a tactical overlay. "It has three phases. Phase one is adds management—it summons automatons constantly. Phase two is environmental hazards—it controls the molten metal flows. Phase three is berserk—pure damage race."

"How do we handle adds?" Rama asked.

"You and I tank them while Dewi and Sari burn the boss. We don’t try to kill adds—just control them. The boss takes priority." Budi’s expression was serious. "If either of us falls, the adds overwhelm the DPS and we wipe. Tank discipline is everything."

They entered the boss chamber.

It was enormous—a circular arena with a massive central furnace. Walkways crisscrossed over channels of molten iron. And standing before the furnace was the Forge Master.

[FORGE MASTER - LEVEL 44 - BOSS]

A four-meter-tall construct of blackened iron and burning coals, wielding a hammer that crackled with heat and lightning. Its eyes glowed like forge fires.

"Engage!" Sari commanded.

Budi charged left. Rama went right. The Forge Master’s attention split between them.

It swung its massive hammer. Budi caught the blow on his shield, the impact creating shockwaves. Rama used [Void Step] to teleport past the backswing and strike at the boss’s knee joint.

[FORGE MASTER HP: 47,800/48,000]

Barely a scratch. This would take a while.

The boss roared and slammed its hammer into the ground. The floor cracked. Automatons began climbing out of the fissures.

"Adds spawning!" Rama called.

"I’ve got left side!" Budi shouted. "Rama, right side!"

Four automatons emerged on Rama’s side. He activated [Guardian’s Resolve], his defensive aura spreading. He didn’t try to kill them—just kept them busy, blocked their attacks, prevented them from reaching Dewi and Sari.

Behind him, he heard Dewi and Sari’s coordinated assault on the boss. Blade strikes. Phantom slashes. The sound of tearing metal.

[FORGE MASTER HP: 44,200/48,000]

The boss’s HP dropped steadily while Rama juggled four enemies at once. His HP dropped too—eighty percent, seventy-five percent, seventy percent—but he held the line.

"Phase two incoming!" Sari warned.

The Forge Master raised its hammer overhead. The molten iron channels throughout the arena began flowing faster, rising higher.

"Move to high ground!" Budi ordered.

Everyone scrambled for the walkways as molten metal flooded the lower areas. The automatons Rama had been fighting dissolved in the heat.

Now they fought on narrow platforms with limited space and death below them.

The boss adapted too. It began using its hammer to destroy walkways, forcing them to constantly reposition.

"Rama, cover me!" Dewi called.

She was sprinting along a collapsing walkway toward the boss’s exposed back. Rama used [Void Step] to teleport beside her, then activated [Steel Body] and physically blocked a hammer strike meant for her.

The impact drove him to one knee. His HP dropped to fifty-two percent.

But Dewi reached the boss’s back and unleashed a full assassination combo directly into its core mechanism.

[FORGE MASTER HP: 34,000/48,000]

"Phase three at thirty percent!" Sari called. "Conserve burst cooldowns!"

They ground the boss down methodically. Thirty-five percent. Thirty-two percent. Thirty percent.

The Forge Master’s eyes flared white-hot.

[FORGE MASTER - BERSERK MODE ACTIVATED]

[ATTACK SPEED +100%]

[DAMAGE +50%] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The boss moved twice as fast now, its hammer swinging in devastating patterns. Rama and Budi could barely keep up with the aggro, let alone block every attack.

"All DPS, burn phase!" Sari ordered. "Tanks, survive!"

Rama stopped trying to attack. Just defended. Used every defensive skill he had in rotation. [Steel Body]. [Guardian’s Resolve]. [Perfect Guard]. Anything to stay alive while Dewi and Sari unloaded everything.

His HP dropped. Fifty percent. Forty percent. Thirty-five percent.

A hammer strike caught him across the chest, cracking his armor.

[HP: 154 → 98]

[WARNING: HP BELOW 40%]

"Rama’s critical!" Dewi called.

"I’ve got him!" Sari’s phantom blades created a barrier, giving Rama three seconds to drink a healing potion.

[HP: 98 → 128]

The boss’s HP was at eight percent now. Almost done.

"Final push!" Budi roared, his own HP at forty percent. "Everything we’ve got!"

Rama activated [Adaptive Combat], his combat efficiency increasing. He stopped defending and went pure offense, striking at the boss’s damaged joints with everything he had left.

Dewi triggered some kind of ultimate assassination technique, her blades glowing with compressed killing intent.

Sari’s entire phantom blade arsenal materialized at once—twenty spectral swords striking simultaneously.

Budi’s hammer blow crushed the boss’s head with enough force to crater the arena floor.

The Forge Master seized. Sparked. Then collapsed in a cascade of breaking metal.

[FORGE MASTER DEFEATED]

[DUNGEON CLEARED]

[PARTY PERFORMANCE: S-RANK]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL 34 → 35]

[MILESTONE REACHED]

They collapsed on the walkways, breathing hard, covered in burns and dents and exhaustion.

"That," Dewi gasped, "was a proper C-rank clear."

"S-rank performance," Sari added with satisfaction. "We earned that."

Budi clapped Rama on the shoulder. "You held the line when it mattered. Good work."

Rama just nodded, too exhausted to speak. But inside, he felt something shift.

He’d done it. Properly. With a team. With coordination. With strategy.

This was what being a real Hunter felt like.

Not solo grinding in the shadows.

Fighting alongside people who trusted him to do his part.

They exited the dungeon together, emerging into Jakarta’s mid-morning heat that felt cool compared to the forge.

"Loot split?" Sari asked.

"Equal shares," Budi said. "Everyone contributed."

The dungeon had dropped several high-quality materials, a pile of currency, and one skill book.

[SKILL BOOK: MOLTEN STRIKE - RANK B]

[EFFECT: Weapon attacks deal additional fire damage. Stacks with existing skills.]

"Rama should take it," Dewi said immediately. "Tank DPS is rare. This would help."

"You sure?" Rama asked.

"We’re a team. We optimize the team." She shrugged. "Besides, I’ve got enough skills. You’re still building your kit."

Rama learned the skill, feeling the knowledge flow into him.

[MOLTEN STRIKE - RANK B ACQUIRED]

His phone buzzed. Multiple messages from Sekar.

[SEKAR: Beacon went offline. Where are you? Are you okay?]

[SEKAR: Rama, answer me. Now.]

[SEKAR: If you don’t respond in five minutes I’m tracking your phone.]

Rama typed quickly.

[RAMA: I’m fine. Beacon malfunctioned. Just finished training with some Hunters I met at the Forge. Back soon.]

[SEKAR: Training where? What kind?]

[RAMA: C-rank dungeon. With a proper party this time. Cleared it successfully.]

Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.

[SEKAR: We need to talk when you get home. Now.]

"Your wife?" Budi asked.

"Yeah. She noticed the beacon."

"What will you tell her?"

"Partial truth. That I ran a C-rank with experienced Hunters. All true. Just leaving out the Player part."

Sari studied him. "How long can you keep doing this? The double life?"

"Six more days," Rama said quietly. "Then one way or another, it ends."

The group was silent for a moment.

"When it ends," Dewi said finally, "and you need backup—we’re here."

"All of us," Budi confirmed.

"Network takes care of its own," Sari added.

Rama felt something warm in his chest. Not the System’s power. Something else.

Friendship. Real friendship.

"Thanks," he said.

They parted ways. Rama headed home to face Sekar, knowing she’d be furious about the beacon but hoping the successful C-rank clear would temper her anger.