The Hunter Monarch

The signal was given, and the world fractured.

From Lin Yu's perspective, it was a sudden, violent unraveling of reality. The first assault was on his ears. The POP of the smoke arrow was not merely loud; it was a physical blow, a concussive force that seemed to momentarily vacuum the air out of the plaza before slamming it back into him. His skull vibrated with the sound, and the ground beneath his feet seemed to jump. Before the ringing in his ears could even begin, it was shredded by the piercing, high-pitched screech of Lin's clashing daggers. It was a sound that bypassed hearing and went straight to the nerves, a sound like tearing metal and a dying animal, designed to trigger a primal flinch in anyone who heard it.

Then came the visual assault. The smoke was not a gentle cloud; it was a greasy, black, roiling wall that erupted from the ground, instantly swallowing the space between him and his teammates. It smelled acrid and chemical, like burning oil and sulfur. At the same moment, the [Sparksong] skill detonated, not as a gentle shower, but as a blinding, magnesium-white flare. It was like staring into the heart of a sun. The world vanished into pure, painful white light, burning a ghostly after-image onto his retinas that left him effectively blind, seeing only dancing black spots against a searing white canvas.

He stumbled back a step, instinctively raising an arm to shield his face. He could hear Chen's sharp grunt of surprise, Tao's terrified yelp. The orderly standoff had devolved into a sensory hurricane in less than a second. His analytical mind, his greatest asset, was useless. There was nothing to analyze but pure, overwhelming chaos. He was deafened, blinded, and adrift in a sea of smoke.

From across the plaza, Su Wan saw the detonation and her blood ran cold. It wasn't a random street brawl. The precision, the timing—it was a coordinated attack. Her sprint became a desperate, frantic charge, fueled by a surge of adrenaline so powerful it made her vision narrow into a tunnel. The only thing that existed in her world was the cloud of black smoke where her team was. She shoved past startled onlookers, ignoring their angry shouts. She could feel it in her bones, a certainty as cold and sharp as her own blade: she was already too late.

Zhao Hu watched from a safe distance, his face a mask of calm, feigned concern. Internally, he was electric. He saw Su Wan's desperate charge and savored it. He saw the smoke bomb do its work, the perfect smokescreen. Every piece was moving exactly as he had commanded. It was beautiful. It was art.

Inside the cloud, the deadly play continued. Chen, blinded but ever the protector, bellowed, "Stay together! Back to back!" He tried to move toward Lin Yu, his shield raised, but a terrified rookie Hunter, shoved hard from behind by Kai, stumbled directly into his path.

"Watch it!" the rookie shrieked, falling against the Paladin.

"Get off me!" Chen roared, his frustration mounting. He was forced to catch the boy, his momentum halted, his attention completely consumed by this unexpected, clumsy civilian. He was neutralized.

At the same time, Bao, the mountain of a man, executed his own role with brutish perfection. Seeing Su Wan closing in, he took a heavy, stumbling step backward, turning as if to flee the "dangerous" brawl. He put his massive, plate-armored body directly in her path.

Su Wan, moving at full speed, had no time to swerve. She slammed into him with the force of a transport collision. It was like hitting a wall of solid rock. Her momentum died in a jarring, painful impact.

"Whoa there!" Bao grunted, holding up his hands as if to ward her off. "Crazy woman! Watch where you're going!"

"Get out of my way!" she screamed, shoving him with all her might. But he was an anchor of muscle and steel, and he had cost her everything: two precious, irreplaceable seconds.

That was all the time they needed.

Lin Yu, still blinking away the spots in his vision, felt a presence at his side. He turned, hoping it was Chen or Li Mei, hoping for a steadying hand, a familiar anchor in the chaos.

It was Jin-ho. The Archer's face was a mask of wide-eyed, theatrical panic. "Crazy!" he yelled over the ringing in Lin Yu's ears, gesturing vaguely toward the still-bickering assassin twins who were now being approached by plaza guards. "We have to get back!"

He lunged past Lin Yu, a convincing performance of a man scrambling to get away from his own teammates. In that fleeting moment of passage, his hand, already glowing with the faint, sickly purple light of the activated Transit Hex, brushed against Lin Yu's back.

Lin Yu felt a sudden, shocking coldness seep through his worn shirt and the leather straps of his pack. It was an unnatural cold, a chilling sting that felt like a shard of frozen poison had been pressed directly against his spine. It was a sensation so alien and so brief that his brain hadn't even finished processing it when the final blow came.

Kai, having successfully used the rookie to entangle Chen, had spun back around. His face was a grimace of fake urgency.

"Get out of the way!" he snarled, as if Lin Yu were the final obstacle to his own escape from the chaos.

He shoved Lin Yu with the full, driving force of his powerful body. The push was perfectly centered, a brutal, unbalancing impact to his upper back. Lin Yu, already disoriented, his senses still reeling, had no chance to resist. His feet, which had been planted firmly a moment before, were now stumbling forward on the slick plaza tiles. One step. Two. His arms windmilled uselessly as his center of gravity pitched forward beyond the point of no return. His right foot left the solid stone of the plaza and found nothing but the strange, humming energy of the portal.

He was falling.

The last thing he saw before the world dissolved was Su Wan's face. She had finally shoved the mountainous Bao out of her way. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open in a silent scream of pure, undiluted horror. She was reaching for him, her hand outstretched, her fingers straining, just centimeters away from his own. He could see every detail of her face: the desperation, the fury, the dawning, soul-crushing realization that she had failed.

He saw the hope of rescue in her eyes, and then he saw it extinguished as the silver curtain of the portal enveloped him, severing the connection, and plunging him into an unknown darkness. The trap had closed.