Keynes’s group covered barely a half kilometre when the event message informed everyone that the dominion had been sealed. It meant no help from outside. While Keynes was fine with that, most of their group had been struggling. It was a hard task to move forward when a random roar in the distance could freeze people in place.

The number of lesser debuffs that had an extremely short duration or range was staggering. They came and went, though Keynes’s defensive buff was usually enough to completely block them off, others didn’t have the same luxury. Only the dominion debuffs were stronger than Keynes’s protection.

Luckily for them, they hadn’t been attacked by any monster, but it could only be attributed to Alice who guided them between packs of roaming beasts. Nonetheless, she warned Keynes that very soon the passage would become too narrow and they’d step into the range of monsters’ senses, ending their ‘peaceful’ time.

Their plan was to get to the narrow ledge with only two positions to defend. They were planning to make a camp there and consider their next step. Esopp didn’t hide that the number and severity of debuffs had surprised him as much as the event sealing the dominion.

Also, when the dominion sealed itself, it released the total count of contenders inside.

Dominion Contenders: 5023

The event ranking was currently unavailable but Keynes had already received 10 points that accrued passively for being inside the dominion. It meant that they spent an hour inside the dominion.

A roar cut through them like a sword. Keynes felt like his insides were caught on fire. The procession immediately halted, many ascenders dropped on the ground and started writhing.

Keynes, Esopp and Serrata who were least affected looked sharply around as the roar came from nearby.

Alice! What’s going on? What was that? Keynes asked while he watched the thick bushes and trees near them. The difference in foliage between the dominion and the outside was stark. The dominion must have some undisclosed effect on the flora. Trees were taller, bushers thicker and denser, colours deeper. Even the World Reserve wasn’t this abundant. On top of that, the air grew harder to breathe.

I do not sense… oh! Watch out!

A car-sized, green panther jumped out of bushes, aiming its twenty centimetres-long claws at Keynes.

“GET BACK!” Keynes roared and then unleashed his two auras, narrowing them down to absolute limit. [Chaos Aura] hit the monster’s side as Keynes rolled out of its way. He sensed the breath of air touching his head and heard the massive paw slam the ground shy of where Keynes stopped the roll.

Shit, this was close! It was easy to discard the 20% base attribute penalty at first but that amounted to 6 points per attribute and when confronted by a Level 3 monster, the penalty became a real deal.

Esopp and Serrata didn’t wait and attacked too. [Ice Shot]s tore through the panther’s fur with ease. A bow appeared in Serrata’s hands.

“[Piercing Arrow].”

An arrow flashed and pierced the panther.

It roared in agony, momentarily disorienting everyone.

Keynes enveloped himself with [Chaos Aura] remembering Alice’s trick from the labyrinth. The powerful debuff was completely neutralised before it reached him but Keynes’s stamina dipped dangerously. The Deadly Labour debuff was a pain in the neck.

As others still reeled from the panther’s cry, the monster reoriented its body, its eyes found Serrata. Somehow the woman had dealt the most damage to the monster. Its muscles tautened as it readied itself to pounce on her but Keynes reached the monster faster, Shortsword of Speed appeared in his hands as he swung down. The blade cut the nape of the panther but didn’t manage to sever its spine. The panther blurred, its clawed paw missing Keynes’s chest by a hair’s breadth.

It was a spell, Alice informed Keynes. A counter-attack type. Your attack must have triggered it by meeting some condition. I believe it was some kind of grave wound.

Keynes felt that too; a gentle outburst of spiritual energy.

The panther’s front fur changed colour to red from the excessive bleeding. Still the panther stood, but upon probing with spiritual aura, Keynes felt that the monster’s life was being drained at a rapid pace.

“Why doesn’t it attack?” Serrata asked as she got back to her feet.

It was a good question. Usually, rift monsters were unrelenting in their attacks except… Oh. Shit. Keynes remembered champions from the Level 3 rift. They hadn’t been smart but they’d been cunning.

Alice! Check the perimeter!

But they were too slow in the realisation as several smaller panthers exploded out of the woods and tore through the backlines until they met the six elites from Untainted Paradise.

Keynes’s spiritual senses pinged an alert and his attention snapped back to the large panther. Its health pool was no longer dropping. There had to be some kind of a recovery link between the large panther and the smaller ones.

“Help the backlines. I will take care of the large one,” Keynes said, Serrata gave him a doubtful look but Esopp moved without hesitation.

“You sure?” she asked.

Keynes nodded then shot forward activating [Spiritual Ghost]. The panther saw him coming but without a spiritual signature, it must have assumed it was an illusion or something along the line and didn’t react. At least until Keynes got very close. It barred its long fangs and tried to snap at where Keynes was approaching it but he saw it coming and unleashed his [Chaos Aura] again, slamming it into the panther’s face. This time the aura did its job melting the monster’s face, killing it.

As it died, the Hateful Slayer debuff activated and the panthers from the backlines rushed at Keynes, ignoring everyone around them. This time the debuff worked against the dominion monsters as blinded by the primal hate, they made no moves to block or avoid attacks coming from Esopp, Serrata and a few others who were capable of inflicting damage. It also revealed that there had to be either a local cooldown to the taunt or some kind of hierarchy that ignored deaths of lesser creatures after the stronger monster had been killed.

Only one Level 2 panther reached Keynes alive. Keynes killed it with his shortswords with some serious effort. While the taunt had the cooldown, it still stacked five times, which amounted to 100% increase in strength.

When the last monster was killed off, a tense silence stretched for a few seconds. Even groans of the wounded barely disrupted it. But as no more attacks came, they relaxed. Healers shook off the dazed they’d been under and rushed to the wounded.

Keynes found himself completely drained from the short skirmish. It was disturbing how taxing the fight was inside the dominion. It was a single Level 3 monster and a few Level 2s. This shouldn’t have been so difficult.

“Seven dead,” someone said in the background.

Keynes’s eyes widened at this. Seven people, already? Then he checked the contender’s counter and shook his head in disbelief.

Dominion Contenders: 2144

Almost three thousand ascenders died within an hour. The difficulty of this dominion was insane.

Esopp and Serrata approached Keynes once all the orders had been given.

“You’re alright?”

“Yeah.” Keynes nodded then turned to them. Behind their backs, activity bustled.

“We must get to the ledge before nightfall,” Serrata said, bringing Keynes’s attention back to her. “If an attack like this happens during nighttime, we’re dead.”

Esopp agreed with her. In fact, the skirmish prompted a discussion from the three leaders. Clearly, their previous assumptions and plans were insufficient inside the dominion. The worst feeling came from the realisation that the weakest ascenders in their group slowed them down. Some of them had to be carried because they’d gone completely stiff from the amount of debuffs they had no protection against.

Once the dead were buried, the group moved forward. The ledge was only five kilometres away but their current pace meant they’d arrive there in the middle of night. This, assuming they wouldn’t be attacked, of which they were quickly disabused an hour later. A small horde of Level 1 and 2 monsters came at them from all sides. They weren’t cunning like the Level 3 panther and rushed at the ascenders like normal rift monsters. Still, the monsters managed to kill another two people and wound ten more. The battle lasted about half an hour, which drained everyone’s stamina. Even though the singular monsters weren’t strong, their number made up for that shortcoming.

Unfortunately, their break wasn’t long as the fight had attracted more powerful creatures from farther away and soon the group found itself chased by a Level 3 centipede that shot venomous stings. That wasn’t even the worst. Keynes and others realised that something was seriously wrong when some people in their groups went pale or blue or green.

Keynes’s spiritual sense blanketed as much area as possible and he found the issue. A quick [Inspect Plant] revealed a species of plants that mildly burned uncovered flesh. While the damage from the plant wasn’t anything serious, when it coupled with the Offsprings of Hate debuff the results were devastating, their people were falling over and not getting up.

Keynes made the group stop as woods and bushes grew even denser ahead of them.

“Healers, see to the wounded!” Esopp shouted, while the strongest regrouped to fight the centipede. It scampered toward them with untamed eagerness. As Esopp sent [Ice Shot]s at it, the centipede twisted its body, evading the attacks. Keynes felt the spiritual energy again. The centipede used a skill. Assuming it had a cooldown, Keynes shouted, “Attack it again!”

Both Esopp and Serrata dumped their attacks on the centipede. Even though the monster didn’t use active spells again, it still managed to dodge a few [Ice Shot]s and arrow spells. The centipede’s elusiveness came at a cost though, its durability was quite low. It only took several spells to take the monster down, but that wasn’t why they’d been running away. Its death taunted other monsters in the vicinity and soon they had another fight at their hand.

“We can’t keep fighting like this.” Esopp looked worse for wear. He was panting as much as everyone else. This time even non-combatants were forced to defend their lives. “The Hateful Slayer debuff is ridiculous. What is the range of that thing?”

“It may be the Level-dependent thing,” Serrata said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. It was a smart assumption. “But I don’t think we saw the worst of it. We’ve barely entered the dominion and look at us. We’re already down to thirty people.”

The exhaustion was taking its toll as well. The true peril of dominions didn’t lay in the monsters but the debuffs. The crazy ones like Deadly Labour were draining them so quickly they had to take turns fighting the strongest monsters. Keynes’s trump card, [Chaos Aura], was so heavy on his stamina that he had to switch back to using his shortswords.

Eventually, the monsters stopped coming at them. But no one in the group had any reason to be happy about it. Yes. One or two people actually levelled up but a single Level wasn’t going to make a difference because the night was approaching. Serrata feared it the most, for some unexplained reason and she wasn’t wrong.

Shortly after Taker, one of the elite squad from Untainted Paradise, came to tell them that Umber, one of his fellow soldiers, had perished, an event message appeared.

Bonus Event

Rulers of the Night

With the onset of nighttime the true perils awake. Survive the night and be rewarded.

Countdown: 1 hour to start.

“This is over,” said someone from the group. They were all exhausted beyond measure and were losing the will to continue the dangerous journey. Going back was out of the question, especially during the night and moving forward didn’t look like a viable option when the body refused to even twitch.

Some others were too tired to say anything and only nodded in resignation.

“Retreat?” Serrata whispered when the three leaders walked a distance away from the rest. They considered collecting the fallen but the arrival of the bonus event cancelled their plans. They couldn’t leave the survivors. Their number dropped to twenty-six out of forty-six in the span of seven hours. The total count of contenders inside the dominion showed only 899 ascenders now.

“We’re halfway to the ledge,” Esopp mused.

“What good awaits us there if we’re out of people when we reach it?”

“We have one hour to press forward. Judging by the timing between the disappearance of the monsters and this bonus event, I am pretty sure we have an hour to recover before more dangerous creatures will attack. If we get to the ledge, we can make a stand there. I still have [Blizzard] and I am sure you two can come up with some extra stuff.”

Serrata gave Esopp a long look. Without Alice around, Keynes could only guess what her feelings were other than being tired of this shit. Esopp didn’t falter under her stare and stood straight as always. He had a presentation of a leader.

“I don’t think they’ll listen to you though,” Serrata admitted. “I haven’t seen people so wretched and tired in a long time.”

A vial appeared in Esopp’s hand.

“Stamina potion,” he explained.

“Why haven’t you given this to us earlier?” Serrata asked, growing wary.

“Because it isn’t for us. Wagner pushed this potion to the limits and while it is very potent, it has a massive drawback. Once its effect runs out, you’ll find yourself on the ground unable to lift a finger. Nonetheless, it is enough to get this bunch up and running. Two and half kilometres isn’t some unachievable distance.”

Serrata squinted at Keynes, clearing, seeking his opinion.

“We came here to get stronger. Yes, we’ve made the mistake of dragging others with us but with the potion, we could give them a choice. Those who want out will be safe outside of the dominion. But other than that there is no doubt in my mind about pressing forward.”

Serrata nodded.

“Fair enough,” Esopp said. “Let’s go. Time isn’t exactly on our side.”