"Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!"

The barking threatened to burst eardrums.

Aelina’s so-called fortress was barely a child’s toy—a three-meter stone tower surrounded by a semicircular wall less than half a meter high. Wild dogs surged like a tide, leaping over the wall, slamming against the tower, and clawing its surface. Their nails scraped like chalk on a blackboard as they tried to scale it and tear into Aelina’s delicate frame.

Aelina smirked. Someone must be controlling these beasts—but they hadn’t realized the tower, built with her Molecular Reconstructor, had a molecularly smooth surface. No mere wild dog could climb it. Calmly, she adjusted the Giant Crossbow, aiming at Fro, who’d been pinned by a golden-furred rabid hound. The beast had ambushed him from behind, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Its corded muscles tensed as it twisted its head, forcing the Elven Knight to the ground. Aelina targeted the scar slashed across the dog’s muzzle, its bloodshot eyes wild with frenzy. She pulled the trigger. The crossbow growled low. A three-finger-thick bolt shot toward the hound.

The golden hound’s spine fur bristled instantly. Its ears, perpetually alert, had caught the twang of the string. It had killed an old hunter once—a veteran whose scent alone made fiercest dogs tuck their tails. All he’d left was that scar. Without hesitation, it coiled its body and sprang away, jaws releasing Fro. Human projectiles had never touched it before.

*Thwack!*

The wet thud of bolt meeting flesh. The arrow buried itself in the hound’s flank, pinning it to the earth. It writhed like bait on a hook, howling.

"Beastly cunning."

With Aelina’s aid, Fro rose. He shook off three dogs clinging to his armor, then swung his sword. A spotted mongrel’s head flew. The blade struck the ground, momentum spent—but the gush of dog blood seemed to reignite its force. With a flick of his wrist, he cleaved another hound clean in half. Its bloated belly split open, spilling rotten innards onto the dirt.

*Is this the swordsmanship the Golden Ape mentioned?* Aelina recalled Fro’s excited words days ago—his "Flowing Slash" breakthrough. *Fascinating. Newton’s laws clearly don’t govern macro combat.*

Maddened by the rabid hound’s snarls, the pack lost all reason. Bloodshot eyes locked onto Fro as they charged. His sword sheared through a black dog’s forelegs, gore recharging his blade. He pivoted, the edge sinking into a spotted hound’s chest. But the dogs were endless. In a sea of barks, the snarls behind him grew sharper. Hot, fetid breath seeped through gaps in his armor, flooding his nostrils. Weight crashed onto his back—more dogs had latched on. He bent forward, flipping them off, then drove his sword into one’s chest. Jaws clamped his arms—one, then another. While he dealt with them, more seized him. They twisted, arched their backs, and toppled the Knight.

Fro hit the ground. His helmet *clanged*, askew. Hot breath, flecked with saliva, dampened his neck. He rolled over, straightening his helm just in time to see a sky blotted out by snapping jaws and disease-ridden paws.

*Scritch-scritch-scritch.*

Claws scraping armor sent chills down his spine. The leather strap holding his pauldron snapped. One plate clattered loose. Jaws sank into his shoulder—only the chainmail beneath saved him from being pierced. Fro yanked a dagger from his belt, grabbed a dog, and stabbed wildly. Warm blood soaked his hands as the beast thrashed in his grip. He hurled it aside, braced on one elbow, and plunged the blade deep into the neck of the dog still latched onto his shoulder.

Fro pushed himself up, eight dogs clinging to his body. He shifted, palms flat on the dirt.

*You can do this, Fro!* he thought. *Just like your daily push-ups. You’ve got this!*

His trembling arms strained to straighten. His chest rose two fists off the ground—then a crushing weight slammed onto his back. Dogs piled on. His arms buckled. His chest smashed into the earth. Gauntleted fingers clawed futilely at the dirt. A burly black-and-white wolfhound stood on his spine, barking triumphantly at the helpless Knight.

Suddenly, the barks choked into whimpers. The weight vanished. Fro surged upright. Three wild dogs skewered together by a single bolt writhed on the ground, legs kicking, blood bubbling from the wolfhound’s mouth.

"Aelina, brilliant!" Fro wanted to cheer—but there was no time. He snatched his sword, cleaving through nearby dogs with renewed vigor. He looked up, ready to flash her a thumbs-up.

What he saw froze his blood.

The dogs had built a living ladder at the tower’s base. Crushed hounds yelped beneath the weight. The blue and red rabid hounds shoved aside weaker packmates, trampling their own kind. They leapt—snouts scraping the tower’s edge, claws raking Aelina’s snow-white hem—before tumbling back. *Just a hair’s breadth short.* The tower had grown taller. Fro understood instantly: Aelina had raised it to save him, but the dog-ladder grew faster than she could rebuild.

To his eyes, that sea of snarling darkness was about to shred the pure white figure atop the tower. To defile her utterly.

*If only I were stronger. If only my swordsmanship... This is all my fault—*

"AELINA!"

He roared, hacking and slashing toward the tower. But every step felt like wading through waist-deep swamp mud. Rabid jaws snapped. Saliva flew. The horde never ended, always surging, always blocking his path.

He wouldn’t make it. The dog-ladder reached halfway up the tower. The blue hound charged first. Teeth bared, it vaulted over the wall, stepping on its packmates’ heads. It launched upward—blood-red tongue lolling from snow-white fangs, green drool flying—aiming for the Silverhaired Maiden’s slender neck.

Aelina raised her Molecular Reconstructor. She could see the wrinkles on the blue hound’s wet nose.

*Maximum power. Target: tower roof beneath my feet.*

Stone spikes erupted abruptly, tips aimed at the leaping beast. A sickening *crunch* echoed. The hound’s bloodshot eyes bulged, straining against their sockets.

"Farewell, beast."

The spikes buried deep into its body. Aelina reshaped their bases. The hound writhed, jaws gaping wide, its blood-slick tongue lashing desperately for the maiden’s flesh. But it couldn’t even graze her hem. Its body plummeted. Its chin cracked against the tower edge, fangs shearing through its own tongue. It collapsed onto the dog-ladder, bounced once on a packmate’s spine, and lay still.

Aelina gazed down at the snarling horde below, lips curling. "Mere beasts." She swept the Molecular Reconstructor around the tower’s rim. A ring of stone spikes sprouted, shattering the dog-ladder’s foundation. "The puppet master must be a Golden Ape with a brain the size of a pea."

*Who’d be stupid enough to just raise the tower?* Aelina thought coolly. *Spikes around the rim would’ve sufficed. I merely needed an opening to kill the rabid leaders.*

Observation confirmed it: the rabid hounds commanded the pack with eerie intelligence. True enough, after seeing its comrade die, the last red hound hesitated. It barked orders at the swarm—but when Aelina leveled her crossbow at it, it fled faster than any, vanishing behind the stone wall.

*Stable now,* Aelina calculated. *Fro will reach me soon. Within my Reconstructor’s range, I can keep repairing his armor—he’ll be immune to bites. They can’t reach me. His combat strength plus my terrain control and ranged support... the pack will scatter soon enough.*

"Aelina! Are you unharmed?!"

Fro’s ragged voice rose from below.

*What could possibly—*

Aelina looked up at him. Her heart lurched.

*Disaster.*