The swamp seemed to shrink as the trait took full effect. The remaining two heads of the Three-Headed Mire Serpent thrashed with such violence that the trees at the edge of the bog snapped like twigs. A deep, bloody crimson light pulsed beneath its scales, turning the black mud around it into a toxic sludge.

"Move! Now!" Barry screamed, his voice cracking. He threw himself backward, skidding along a muddy root.

He was right to run. The serpent’s middle head no longer bit as it became a battering ram of scaled flesh. It slammed into the stone platform where Barry had been standing a second ago, crushing the rock into powder. The shockwave of the impact sent a wall of mud and water flying outwards, knocking Dominion off her feet and sending her sliding into the swamp’s edges.

Priscilla was already in motion. She was closest to the beast after shattering the right head. She tried to leap back, but the serpent’s left head was waiting for her. Its speed was now terrifying. It whipped its heavy neck around, slamming its side into Priscilla mid-jump.

Priscilla was sent flying horizontally across the swamp, her body skipping twice on the surface of the mud before crashing into the roots of a giant tree. She didn’t get up immediately. Her black sword lay a few feet away, half-buried in the slime. Her breathing was shallow, her essence clearly strained from overuse.

"Priscilla!" Eric yelled, his speed rune making him a desperate blur of red light. He ran along a narrow root toward her, his short blade ready, but the monster’s rage wasn’t finished.

The middle head turned toward Eric. It raised its head high and slammed it down onto the root path, missing Eric by inches, but the force caused the massive root to shatter, plunging Eric into the freezing, waist-deep black mud.

Rohan, standing at the rear, bit his lip so hard it bled. He was furious. Not at the monster, but at how slow this was going. He looked down at the status bar shimmering in the edge of his vision.

’Sixty-five percent frontier essence,’ Rohan cursed inwardly, his fist clenching around the hilt of the Steelwind Sword. ’Priscilla is down, Dominion is out, and Barry and Eric are trapped in the mud. At this rate, it’s going to be a total party wipe.’

He was frustrated, but he still couldn’t unleash his full power. If he did, and they survived, how could he explain that a Common Class had more utility than all of them combined? He had to keep pretending to be weak, but he had to make sure the monster focused only on him.

....He had to be the decoy. A small idea surfaced in his mind.

Rohan deliberately let out a loud, mocking laugh. "Is that all a three-headed worm can do? Lose its temper and miss everything?"

He knew monsters didn’t understand language, but they understood intent. He projected his essence outwards, making his single class feel annoying, persistent, and arrogant. He wanted them to feel his contempt.

To his utmost surprise, it worked.

The serpent froze. Its two heads stopped their wild thrashing and turned slowly. Four glowing green eyes locked onto Rohan, and the rage within them seemed to narrow, to focus.

The creature’s necks twisted as it lifted its heads to their full height, looking down at the small hunter with a slow, purposeful menace.

’That’s it. Come on.’ Rohan’s heart hammered, but his mind was cold. Not a single hint of fear was on his face.

The serpent struck but did not strike simultaneously. The middle head lunged first, not aiming to bite, but to flatten. Rohan activated Shadow Linger on instinct. He forced his body to move against gravity, twisting in the air.

The giant snout of the middle head smashed into the spot where Rohan had just been, but because of his ability, the monster’s delayed mind still perceived him there. The blow missed.

But the left head was smarter. It didn’t wait for the middle head to finish. It predicted where Rohan would land. It snapped its jaws as Rohan hit the slippery root.

Rohan saw the rows of yellow teeth coming. He had no time to move and no space to run. He only had one choice. He let his body go completely limp, sliding off the slippery root and dropping into the mud.

The massive head snapped shut directly above him, its teeth clicking together with the sound of two large stones colliding. The wind of the closed jaws ruffled Rohan’s hair, and venom dripped onto his cheek, burning a tiny hole in his skin.

He was in the mud, waist-deep, right under the monster’s left neck. His Shadow Linger trait was still active, but the monster was raging, still trying to destroy everything and run down the Level One Hunters.

Rohan raised his Steelwind Sword, the silver blade slick with swamp water, and with a guttural scream of pure frustration, he rammed it upward into the joint where the left neck met the main body.

His sword hit the thick, bone-like plating on the serpent’s neck and slid off. The scales, now reinforced by the shared rage of the third trait, were too hard for his single-class strength.

"Tsk!" Rohan’s frustration peaked. He wanted to use his other Classes, but he was in view of the others. Eric was just twenty feet away, struggling to pull himself out of the mud.

The left head, realizing something was stinging it, twisted its neck backward, its jaws opening. It was about to eat him whole.

"I said... NOT HAPPENING!"

The voice was rough, full of pain.

A silver object shot through the mist. Barry, who had used Dominion’s collapsed stone pillar to get a proper grip, had thrown his iron spear with every bit of reinforced power he had left. The magical weapon, glowing with white light, spun in the air and struck the serpent’s left head right in the orbit of its glowing green eye.

The magical spear buried itself deep. The left head let out a scream like a dying trumpet and instantly stopped its attack on Rohan. It began to thrash around wildly, slamming its head against the trees and the mud, trying to dislodge the spear.

"Rohan! Move!" Dominion’s voice was strained. She was back on the roots, her face pale, but her hands were pressed hard against the earth.

Rohan saw the mud around his legs begin to ripple. Dominion was forcing the earth to move. She couldn’t raise a pillar, but she could still shift the terrain. She caused the ground to swell, physically pushing Rohan up and out of the mud and back onto the slippery root.

Rohan gasped, mud clogging his boots, but he didn’t wait. He scrambled backward, getting distance.

He looked over at Priscilla. Eric had reached her and was desperately pouring a basic healing potion down her throat, but she was still unconscious. Barry was weaponless. Dominion was leaning heavily against a tree, her magic nearly exhausted.

The monster was still dangerous. It was down to one functional head — the middle one — and the left head was now blind in one eye and in severe pain. But its rage was still active.

’If you guys want to survive... you have to let me finish this. But you can’t know it was me.’

He hissed.

’Think fast, Xui. Think fast.’