"You two are absolutely shameless."

Isabella couldn't hold back anymore. She'd been spectating the whole time, and the sheer toxicity of Leonidas and Orion's little trolling routine was too much to ignore. She finally broke her silence, calling out Kraken and Makareth for falling for it.

And why was Makareth catching strays?

Because he'd watched Orion's entire fight. The psychological damage he took from witnessing that combat was far more direct—and visceral—than the verbal roasting Kraken had endured.

"Hahaha... oh, Isabella, sweetheart," Leonidas laughed, his voice dripping with condescension. "You just don't understand the meta."

"She's a total casual about it," Orion chimed in.

"Feels bad, man," Kraken typed into the chat.

"Super feels bad," Makareth added.

Isabella wasn't stupid. Sometimes her behavior or comebacks seemed a bit cringe, but was she actually clueless? Hardly. Her seemingly inane comment was exactly what was needed to bait the sulking Kraken and Makareth back into the public channel. The awkward atmosphere Leonidas and Orion had created evaporated instantly.

If the group was a chaotic machine of grinding gears, Isabella was the lubricant. She was the necessary glue holding this bunch of dudes together.

"Bro, seriously though, don't get too comfortable," Leonidas shifted gears, his tone sobering up. "My intel on the Unhallowed is looking grim. A lot of territories are getting chain-aggroed by a second, even a third wave of those things."

He paused, letting the weight of the info sink in. "The Abyss isn't as weak as we hoped, even if it's not invincible. We're not fighting paper tigers here."

Jokes aside, Leonidas knew when to be the leader.

"I hear you," Hulk replied. "I've already given the order. We're turtling up. The defensive wards on the city are running 24/7."

He continued, laying out his strategy. "I've decided to play the long game. We'll use the collective strength of the group to stall out the Unhallowed in a war of attrition. We hold the line until the Abyssal Ruler returns to swing the ban hammer."

Orion shared his decision openly; there was no point in hiding his build or strategy from the boys.

"Smart play," Leonidas approved. "I'm doing the exact same thing, heh."

It wasn't that Leonidas was cowardly; it was just simple math. Right now, neither he nor Orion had the raw stats to effectively provoke the Unhallowed. If those Grey Crystals were as critical to the World Dragons as they suspected, then farming the Unhallowed was an endgame activity. They needed to grind, stack their resources, and wait until they were truly OP before going on the offensive.

Besides, if they really wanted to mass-farm the Unhallowed, the Champions Alliance needed an Abyssal Ruler on the roster. Without that supreme buff, they wouldn't be feasting on loot—they'd be the ones getting farmed.

"By the way," Leonidas added, "Our boy is officially tying the knot with Staghelm City on behalf of the Champions Alliance in a couple of days. Squiddy, Isabella—you guys need to port over to Staghelm."

"Let's get a full party going. We need to flex a bit. Can't have anyone looking down on the Champions Alliance."

The business talk shifted to the upcoming wedding.

Currently, the Champions Alliance controlled about eighty percent of the Moonlight Continent in the Silverwood Realm. Orion's political marriage to the Moon Elf Isilra was a strategic masterstroke.

At the very least, it bound the Demigod of the Moonwell and Isilra—a future demigod herself—to the Stoneheart Horde and the Alliance.

The Demigod of the Moonwell was a top-tier support and healer, specializing in defense. Isilra was a hybrid DPS/Support. Locking down two powerful units like that as unofficial members of the Champions Alliance was huge. They deserved maximum respect.

"Hulk, what kind of loot do you want?" Kraken asked. "Name it. If I have it in my inventory, it's yours."

Kraken was chilling in the shallow zones of the Silverwood Realm, so attending the wedding was easy for him.

"You absolute man-whore," Isabella snapped.

Unlike Kraken, Isabella didn't hold back her disdain.

To be fair, in this brutal world—in the environment Isabella grew up in and even within the territory she currently governed—the status of women was trash. In the savage, early-game development phase of any faction, women were treated as either commodities or spawn points.

It was a cruel reality that most people ignored, but for someone like Isabella who actually believed in equality, it was suffocating.

She wanted to patch the system, but she couldn't.

The moment she tried to push those modern ideals, her entire territory would crash. The first to revolt would be her own nobles and knights. Without their support, Isabella would be soft-locked, unable to make a single move.

"Hahaha... I don't know about 'man-whore'," Leonidas laughed, intervening. "But bro is definitely about to unlock the 'Fatherhood' achievement again!"

"Oho," Kraken typed. "Is this a shotgun wedding scenario?"

Kraken was always monitoring Leonidas's channel for the latest gossip.

"Kraken, save the gifts," Hulk replied, ignoring the jab. "Just find me a decent spawn point in the shallow seas."

"When the grey fog of the Abyss recedes, my Abyssal Dreadfin avatar is going to need a place to farm the Cult of Four. It might come in clutch."

Orion had already theory-crafted this. He'd send the Abyssal Dreadfin avatar to test the waters—literally—of the Silverwood Realm. It was a good way to gauge its combat power and simultaneously buff the Champions Alliance's presence in the ocean biome.

"Also," Hulk turned his attention to the chat, his virtual gaze locking onto Isabella. "Isabella, sweetheart, you're acting like a bitter old spinster. If you don't get hitched soon, you're going to be vendor trash."

"Or maybe you need the boys to recommend a match for you?"

"Or perhaps," he pressed, "you're ready to sacrifice yourself for the greater good and enter a political marriage with another faction for the Champions Alliance?"

Orion hated the term "man-whore" or "stud." It implied a loveless, mechanical act. A transaction.

But Orion and his women? That was real. They had grinded through hell together. There was genuine affection there. Calling him a stud was a slap in the face to that bond. So, his counter-attack on Isabella was calculated to hit her right in the hitbox—targeting her insecurities about age and duty.

"Holy crap," Makareth messaged. "Didn't know Hulk had that kind of DPS in his trash talk."

"Isabella, don't panic," Leonidas interjected smoothly. "I know a guy. He's a bit of a boomer, sure, but he's a whale. Loaded with cash. If you're interested, I could—"

"Fuck off," Isabella typed.

"Hahaha... just try it! You never know, you might like the gameplay loop," Leonidas teased.

The topic was veering off the rails. Orion decided to stop grinding Isabella down; there was no honor in a full party ganking one girl in chat.

"Let me drop some knowledge on you guys," Hulk shifted the topic back to mechanics. "If you want to spawn your own heirs, the meta strategy is to find a partner on the same tier as you."

"If your life-force levels are compatible, the RNG for conception is way better."

It was a biological discussion, nothing to be ashamed of. Leonidas had actually already theory-crafted this with Arthas and Alexander ages ago.

"Heh... it's a bit more complex than that, bro," Leonidas corrected, stepping in to patch the lore. "Let me update your wiki."

"It's not just about matching tiers. If that were the only requirement, why aren't the demigods and gods swimming in offspring?"

It was a profound question. Orion paused. He hadn't actually thought that deep into the lore.

"Think about it," Leonidas continued. "By your logic, if a god matches with a god, the kid should auto-spawn as a god, right?"

"If that was how the game worked, why would we even bother grinding? We might as well just go AFK and give up!"

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