The purple ogre was tearing through our line. Soldiers scrambled everywhere, formation completely broken. One man tripped, and the ogre closed the distance in a single stride, raising its massive club for a killing blow.

  It never landed.

  I stepped in front of him just in time, my bat clashing against the ogre’s weapon with a jarring crack. The strength potion surged through my muscles, letting me redirect the swing and knock the club sideways. The ogre stumbled, thrown off balance.

  I didn’t waste it.

  Its left knee was already damaged from our earlier clash, and with my boosted strength I went straight for it. One clean strike was all it took to finally break it. The joint collapsed inward, sending the giant crashing down on its side with a pained roar.

  By the time it hit the ground, I was already moving. I tightened my grip, planted my feet, and lined up my swing—perfect home-run stance. As its head dropped into reach, I swung with everything I had.

  The impact echoed across the battlefield. The ogre’s head launched clean off its shoulders and tumbled across the dirt.

  A notification appeared.

  Ogre General – Level 10 Defeated

  Experience Awarded

  Congratulations! You have leveled up!

  You are now Level 9

  I dismissed the notifications instantly and sprinted toward the fourth ogre. By the time I spotted it, the commander was already engaged, trading brutal blows with the massive creature. I reached them in seconds, boots kicking up dirt as the battlefield roared around us.

  “Took you long enough,” the captain said without glancing my way, his voice steady even as he ducked under a swing that would’ve turned his skull into paste.

  “Sorry, I—” The words jammed in my throat. I had lost one of his men.

  “Not the time, son,” he barked, reading the guilt on my face as clearly as any battlefield map. “Help me finish this one off so we can get back to our men.”

  Our men. Not his. Somehow that single word hurt more than the ogre’s club ever could.

  The ogre roared and swung its massive weapon downward. The commander dodged by inches, then slammed his shield up into the creature’s jaw with a sickening crack. Bones splintered. Purple blood sprayed. The ogre staggered, but only for a breath—then it rounded on me, club lifting high.

  I planted my feet and met the blow square with my bat. The impact rattled every bone in my arms but held, Sweet Spot cutting through the brute’s unnatural strength. The commander saw the opening instantly.

  “Left knee!” he shouted.

  I lunged. My bat smashed into the joint with a crunch that buckled the creature sideways. The commander was already moving, sliding behind the ogre like water slipping around stone. He hamstrung its other leg with a single clean strike, and the beast toppled to one knee, roaring in frustration and pain.

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  Even kneeling, it towered over us.

  The commander didn’t hesitate. He drove his blade upward, jamming it into the softest spot he could find—beneath its ribcage, just under the heart. The ogre howled and thrashed wildly and responded in turn with a swing of his own.

  I didn’t freeze. I lunged forward and cracked my bat against the ogre’s club, forcing its deadly arc wide. The commander barely flinched as the massive weapon swept past him, missing his skull by inches.

  “Good!” he grunted. “Now finish it!”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I stepped onto its lowered thigh, pushed off, and leapt high enough to meet its face. My bat came down with every ounce of strength I had left.

  Sweet Spot triggered.

  The crack echoed across the field like thunder.

  The ogre dropped, collapsing in a heap of twitching muscle and shattered bone. Purple blood seeped into the soil beneath it. I landed awkwardly but stayed upright, chest heaving.

  As soon as it fell, we split off without a word—back to our lines, back to our soldiers. The remaining green ogres were easier to handle with morale flooding back into the troops. We carved through them like a tide reclaiming ground. Within minutes, the last monster hit the dirt, and the battlefield finally—finally—fell quiet.

  A familiar chime echoed.

  Wave 2 of 3 — Completed

  Next Wave Incoming: 01:59:56

  Two hours.

  I wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a warning. Either the System was giving us time to recover… or it believed the final wave would be bad enough that we’d need every second.

  My train of thought vanished when a wave of cheers swept across the battlefield. The sound should have felt uplifting, a sign of relief and victory, but I could not join in. My eyes stayed fixed on the mangled body lying only a few yards away.

  One of my men.

  Several soldiers knelt beside him and began straightening his limbs, brushing dirt from his armor, and arranging him with slow, respectful care. They worked in silence, trying to make him presentable before carrying him back to town. I assumed they had their own burial rites, something similar to what we had back on Earth. Something meant to honor the fallen.

  I stood motionless.

  It felt like the air around me had thickened to the point that every breath required effort. I might have stayed frozen there if I had not felt a hand tug lightly at my shoulder. I knew this was all part of the Dream Dungeon and that, more than likely, the person laying dead there did not exist outside the dungeon. It still hurts. Just as with Orsik, they were real tonight. They were real to me.

  “Mike.”

  I turned and saw the soldier who reminded me of Ben. I had not even bothered to ask his name when we first spoke.

  “Oh. Hey. What was your name again?”

  “Lucas, sir.”

  “I told you not to call me sir.” My voice came out flat, my attention already drifting back to the body on the ground.

  “Right. Sorry.” Lucas shifted awkwardly, unsure of himself. “I wanted to thank you. You were incredible out there.”

  The word incredible hit harder than I expected. One of our soldiers had died. That loss was on me. There was nothing incredible about that. If I had been more focused or faster or stronger, the man would still be alive.

  I stayed silent. I did not trust myself to speak without letting the anger and guilt spill out, and none of it belonged to Lucas.

  He seemed to sense it. He nodded once. “I’ll let you be. Looks like we have two hours before the next wave.”

  Lucas turned and headed back toward the town.

  I remained where I was.

  The cheers around us kept rising in celebration, but none of it felt like victory.

  Not to me.

  I looted what I could and went back to town.

  Loot Acquired:

  Ogre’s Skin Patch x 7 (Common)

  Ogre’s Greater Skin Patch x 2 (Rare)

  Gold Coins x 50 (Uncommon)