Valtross wasn't always a tyrant.
He was once Lt. Colonel Elias Valtros, decorated strategist in special operations. Sharp-minded, steel-nerved, the man they sent when diplomacy failed and victory was vital.
He believed in order. In tactical elegance. In war with purpose.
But when the System descended, everything fractured.
One moment he was reviewing blueprints for a refugee corridor.
The next… fire and code replaced his body. Reality shattered.
[Candidate: Valtros Elias | Class: Tactician's Core]→ Trait: Battle Efficiency Over Morality→ Hidden Trait: Order Before Compassion
He spawned alone, in a red wasteland. No allies. No orders.
Only goals: survive, conquer, adapt.
But the System… whispered.
It rewarded cruelty. Rewarded domination.
"You only get to lead the living," he had once said.
But after days starving, hunted, wounded, the words that echoed were:
"You can only survive by leading the dead."
He made his first pact that night.
Not with a person. Not with a faction.
But with the System itself.
And from then on, he would become Valtross.
The name of calculated survival.The name of those who walked over others to live.
The forest trembled.
The Gloom-Reavers walked first—hulking brutes bound by cursed sigils, dragging heavy siege hooks and claws sharpened on bone.
Behind them, armored candidates marched with conscripted survivors, weapons gleaming with cursed ore.
"We hit them at dawn. Fast and loud," one muttered.
They never reached the wall.
[System Alert – Trap Triggered]
[Cluster Spike Mine — Activated]→ 5 Units Eliminated→ Status Effect: Concussed
The first Reaver stepped onto a false root.
The forest exploded.
A chain reaction of mines ripped the underbrush apart, tearing trees, limbs, and strategies to dust.
From the trees, volley fire whistled: spectral arrows from Sharpshooter skeletons, enhanced by Nyra's tracking glyphs, struck glowing targets.
"Push forward!" one enemy screamed. "It's just traps!"
But the moment their second wave advanced…
The sky howled.
[Titan Fang Launcher: Fire Mode Engaged]
The missile arced high—a beautiful, glowing serpent.
Then it split midair into five smaller pods, streaking like comets, and plunged straight into marked sectors.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Screams. Earth split. Entire squads vanished.
Iden stood in silence, watching from the top. His face unreadable.
Rael and Kael flanked him. Arlen adjusted knobs on a glowing panel.
"That's phase one," Arlen said. "What's next?"
Iden's eyes narrowed.
"We show them they were never hunting us."
"We were baiting them."