The brutal efficiency of the kill was instantly rewarded. As the crimson mist settled and the shattered remains of Ken's warhammer clattered to the stone, vibrant, golden notifications seared themselves across Adam's vision, a stark contrast to the gore.

[ Adventurer (Ken) Defeated! ]

[ +280 EXP | +290 EP ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 54! ]

[ Skill Points: +1 ]

[ Next Level: 42 / 340 ]

[ Evolution Points: 597 -> 887 ]

[ Crown of the Hollow Glutton - Domineering Will: 34 -> 35/1000 ]

A wave of pure, potent power surged through Adam's veins, washing away the lingering pain from his wounds, the sensation even more intense than the Blooming Vitality. His muscles thickened, his scales hardened further, his mind grew sharper. He let out a shuddering breath that misted with particles of light and dark.

'This is it,' he thought, his galactic eyes blazing with a terrifying mix of fury and euphoria. 'This is what I wanted. Humans… they're the best.'

The Crown of the Hollow Glutton on his brow thrummed in agreement, its hollow hunger pulsing in time with his own.

On the human side, The shock of Ken's sudden death turned into overwhelming mourning and anger.

"KEN! NO!" roared Silas, the scout, his discipline shattering. He abandoned his position, his face a mask of tear-streaked fury, and charged Adam with his short swords gleaming with a reckless, green energy. "YOU SCALED BASTARD! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"SILAS, NO! HOLD THE LINE!" Resmond bellowed, trying to rise, his own body protesting.

But it was too late. Silas's blind charge took him directly through Lilith's new kill zone. She had observed the human's break in formation with cold, analytical precision.

«A gift, offered in anger,» her psychic voice sliced through the chaos, audible only to her allies.

As Silas passed beneath her fungal pillar, Umbral Silk, stronger and sharper than before, shot down not in strands, but in a single, guillotine-like sheet. It passed through his neck and upper torso with a wet shnick. His charge turned into a headless stumble, his body collapsing in one direction, his head in another.

Another set of notifications, less grand but still substantial, greeted Adam.

[ Adventurer (Silas) Defeated! ]

[ +265 EXP | +290 EP ]

[ Next Level: 307 / 340 ]

[ Evolution Points: 887 -> 1177 ]

[ Crown of the Hollow Glutton - Domineering Will: 35 -> 36/1000 ]

The crown's count ticked up minimally, but the EXP and EP were a river compared to the trickle from dungeon monsters.

A young, terrified voice from the back of the human formation let out a choked sob. "S-Silas… Ken… they're… they're gone…"

"Shut up and focus!" Max growled, his voice thick with his own grief, his tower shield still held high. But the fear was now palpable in the ranks. "Don't break formation again! That's what it wants! We regroup! We fight smart! They have to be tiring! We wear them down and bring our brothers home!"

But then, the humans witnessed something that shattered their understanding of the dungeon's natural order.

Ignis, who had been steaming and twitching on the ground, gave a final, full-body shudder. The last of the paralyzing electricity crackled and died on her scales. With a furious snort, she pushed herself up, her body glowing with inner heat but her eyes slightly dim—mana depletion.

Their mana is limited, preventing continuous regeneration. Since it constantly drains, they must turn to potions to replenish their strength.

Adam, still under the disruptive static of Tia's scroll, couldn't communicate clearly, but he locked eyes with Alice and gave a sharp, purposeful look towards Ignis, then a glance at his own wounded flank, and finally at Lilith who was favoring two of her legs, her carapace cracked from the flash-fire.

Alice understood instantly. With a regal flick of her tail, she channeled her void energy. Three familiar vials materialized from thin air, suspended in her Void Locker's retrieval field. One deep blue (Mana Potion) flew to Ignis, who caught it expertly in her jaws and crunched down, the blue energy surging over her, reigniting her inner fire to a roaring blaze.

One crimson (Health Potion) shot towards Lilith, who used a delicate foreleg to pierce and pour it onto her wounds, the cracks in her carapace sealing with an audible click. The final health potion zoomed to Adam. He caught it, bit down, and felt the last vestiges of pain from Adel's strike vanish, his vitality fully restored.

The human party stared, their blood running cold. The monsters weren't just looting; they had their own supply line.

"W-What…?" Jeff the rogue stammered, lowering his knives. "They have… their own potions? Stored… magically?"

"They're not just using tools, they have logistics," Derek whispered, his bow arm lowering slightly in sheer disbelief. "That panther… it's a storage unit."

"It's not just intelligence," Tia said, her voice hollow with dawning, horrific realization. She looked from the now-rejuvenated monsters to the crown-wearing serpent whose wounds had closed. "It's a full combat team with roles: vanguard, artillery, control, and now confirmed support. These aren't monsters following instinct. This is a nightmare."

She turned to Resmond, her face pale but decisive. "Resmond. We have to retreat. Now. This is not a fight we can win with this squad, not without heavy losses we cannot afford. We have critical intelligence. A new, sentient, cooperative monster species of extreme power, utilizing advanced tactics, tools, and sustainment. We must report this. We need an S-Rank suppression team, or a full military contingent. We must fall back to the forward outpost. Immediately."

"Retreat? NO!" Resmond's voice was a raw, guttural roar, cutting through Tia's logical plea. His eyes, fixed on Adam, burned with a grief that had hardened into a need for vengeance that outweighed survival. "They just killed Ken and Silas! We are not running from the things that butchered our comrades!"

"Resmond, be reasonable!" Adel shouted, her own anger warring with the cold tactical understanding Tia voiced. "This is suicide!"

"Our mission was to find Kaela and return, not wage war on a new breed of Dungeon Lord!" Derek argued, his voice strained as he kept his bow trained on the slowly advancing monsters.

"Everyone, shut up!" Max boomed, his shield still raised, but his voice held a note of desperation. "We can't fracture now! We need a clear order, Resmond! Think with your head, not your heart!"

But clear thinking was a luxury they had run out of time for.

Seeing the hesitation, the internal conflict, Adam struck. He didn't need telepathy to coordinate this. A low, threatening hiss was signal enough for his family. It was time to end this.

He drew a deep breath and exhaled a sweeping cloud of Venom of the Void. The neuro-paralytic mist, now empowered by his increased level and intelligence, rolled towards the humans, thicker and more insidious than before. It didn't just smell of rot and despair; it seemed to whisper of it.

"Venom cloud! Don't breathe it in! Purifying Gust!" Pix reacted instantly, weaving air and holy magic to disperse the mist. But the edges of the cloud reached them. Zen, already wounded, inhaled a wisp. His eyes widened as hallucinations gripped him visions of his own body decaying, of Silas's headless corpse calling his name. He stumbled back, clawing at his face, completely incapacitated.

The momentary distraction was all Ignis needed. Her mana restored, her fury at being shocked earlier was a palpable heat. With a shriek of pure rage, she unleashed Solar Wind, a continuous, torrential blast of superheated air that washed over the human formation like a desert simoom. It wasn't aimed to kill one person, it was meant to break their ranks.

The Frostward Aegis had long since fallen. The intense heat forced Max to raise his shield, blinding him. Adel and Derek were forced to dive for cover behind fungal trunks that immediately caught fire. The disciplined diamond formation shattered into scattered, burning pockets of resistance.

"Now!" Adam's thought was a command.

Lilith, her wounds healed by the potion, moved with silent, deadly purpose. She ignored the frontline fighters and skittered along the ceiling, her target clear: the backline, the support. Alice, a shadow with gleaming purple eyes, used the chaos and flames to Void Step behind Jeff the rogue, her claws aiming for his spine.

Resmond saw it all unraveling. His heart screamed for vengeance, but his soldier's instincts screamed of a total rout. In a final, desperate gamble, he gathered every ounce of his remaining mana, his body blazing like a human star.

"SOLAR JUDGEMENT!" he roared, not at the scattered monsters, but directly at Adam, the linchpin.

A column of concentrated, searing sunlight, hot enough to melt stone, lanced down from the cavern ceiling where his magic gathered it, aimed to spear straight through Adam's skull.

Adam saw it coming. He couldn't fully dodge in time. He twisted, raising his wing and tucking his head. The Solar Judgement scorched across his feathered wing, burning away patches of the beautiful, star-absorbing plumes and searing the membrane beneath. Pain, bright and sharp, flared. But Monarch's Aegis and his Draconic Affinity mitigated the holy damage. It hurt, it wounded, but it was not a killing blow. With a roar of his own, Adam retaliated, lunging through the beam's aftermath towards Resmond, Stormrend beginning to form in his maw.

In the chaotic periphery, death came for the weakest.

Leo, the young porter, had been trying to drag the hallucinating Zen to safety. He had no combat skills, only the desperate courage of someone trying to save a friend. He never saw Lilith's Umbral Silk until it was too late.

A single, sharp strand, shot with the precision of a master archer, pierced straight through his throat from above. He made a small, wet gasp, his eyes wide with surprise, then collapsed over Zen, his pack of precious potions and scrolls spilling onto the cavern floor.

[ Adventurer (Leo) Defeated! ]

[ +41 EXP | +18 EP ]

[ Ding! Level Up! ]

[ You are now Level 55! ]

[ Skill Points: +1 ]

[ Next Level: 8 / 360 ]

[ Evolution Points: 1177 -> 1195]

[ Crown of the Hollow Glutton - Domineering Will: 36 -> 37/1000 ]

The notification was smaller than the others, the essence a mere fraction compared to the seasoned warriors, but it was enough. Combined with the river of experience from the two veterans, it pushed Adam's being over a crucial threshold. A fresh, if more modest, wave of power surged through him, stitching the last of the seared flesh on his wing and sharpening his senses further. The Crown's soul count ticked up by one.

On the human side, the death of Leo broke something more than their formation. It broke their spirit.

"LEO! NO!" It was Tia who screamed, her analytical composure shattering. She rushed forward, not to fight, but to the boy's body, pulling him off Zen. She cradled his head, her hands glowing with useless healing magic, but the light sputtered and died. The wound was too fatal. "He… he was just a kid…"

The sight of their vice-leader holding the dead porter, of Zen weeping and clawing at his own hallucination-induced scars, of their formation in ashes and two of their strongest dead, drained the last dregs of fight from many of them.

Resmond, panting and mana-drained from his Solar Judgement, stared from Adam's still-advancing form to the grieving Tia and the body of Leo. The fiery vengeance in his eyes finally sputtered, drowned in the cold waters of horrific reality. He had refused the retreat, and now they were all going to die here.

The cost of his pride, his grief, was being paid in the blood of his comrades, and it was a price that was becoming too terrible to bear.

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