The retreating Elven garrison had been a decoy all along.
This inner customs yard wasn’t a simple administrative plaza; it was a pre-engraved, high-tier druidic kill-zone.
Before the infantry could even raise their shields, giant, iron-wood roots erupted from the courtyard, thrashing through the air and slamming down between the ranks.
In a matter of seconds, a dense forest of shifting timber separated Kane’s core vanguard from Rutheus’s mountain berserkers.
Stone walls slid and shifted along magical tracks, sealing off their retreat lines and forming isolated, claustrophobic corridors explicitly designed to negate northern brute strength.
"Commander!" Brak shouted, planting his tower shields into the cracked stone just in time to block a spiked timber root lashing straight for his chest.
"The courtyard is moving! I cannot see the mountain banners!"
"It is a Tier III Verdant Labyrinth!" Misha called out, her eyes flaring blinding silver as she pushed her oracle sight to its limits, trying desperately to untangle the shifting mana threads.
"The customs house wasn’t just a treasury; it is an artificial spell-focus! They are trying to divide and crush our front line!"
Somewhere from behind a towering barrier of thorny vines, a familiar, booming voice echoed across the courtyard.
"You elves play too many games with weeds!" Rutheus roared, followed by the crisp, ringing sound of a greatsword biting into solid timber.
"Give me ten minutes and my boys will chop this entire garden into firewood!"
’I underestimated their garrison commander,’ Kane thought, drawing his mana-forged sword and slicing through a sweeping root before it could sweep Kessa off her feet.
’They knew their kinetic barrier would fall to modern siege weapons, so they turned the entire fortress into a magical meat grinder. Conventional military tactics won’t work in a shifting maze. I need to force the system to break their domain.’
"They want to isolate our commanders and wear our stamina down with endless summons," Kane said, turning his shoulder to Thora and Seraphine as poisoned wooden spikes rained down around them.
"We stop playing defensively right now."
While blocking a second flurry of incoming projectiles with his blade, Kane opened his command interface in his peripheral vision.
Fighting through a regenerating labyrinth by brute force was a waste of time and energy. Instead of dumping his remaining points into personal combat stats, he bypassed his individual skill tree entirely and activated his [Tier III Warlord’s Domain: Aura of Conquest], immediately merging it with his [Mana-Forged Arsenal] network.
By anchoring his system authority directly into the ley-lines running beneath the customs house, Kane forced a territorial dispute inside the magic itself.
He used the system to override the Elven runes, granting his elite officers temporary elemental resistance and structural perception, turning their weapons into mana-conductors capable of severing the enemy’s connection to the roots.
A vibrant blue system grid flashed across the eyes of Kane’s inner circle.
Blinking in surprise, Kessa watched as intricate golden pathways suddenly illuminated through the dense foliage, mapping out the hidden architecture of the maze in her mind.
"What did you just do to my claws, Commander?" Kessa asked, staring at the blue system mana crackling across her fingertips.
"I can smell the exact spot where these roots are drawing power!"
"I shared my processing with the vanguard," Kane explained, his voice carrying a resonant, dual-tone hum of system authority that vibrated through the air.
"You are seeing their mana anchors. Don’t just slash the vines, destroy the glowing nodes!"
"A shared sensory network," Seraphine murmured, spinning her wooden stiletto as it hummed with a destructive blue edge.
"Useful. I will clear the left corridor."
"Glowing targets!" Sira let out a wild, thrilling cheer as her short axes ignited with blinding system mana.
"Even I can understand that! Out of my way, leaves!"
’Sharing domain processing drains my personal mana pool at an alarming rate, but the results are undeniable,’ Kane thought, watching his stamina and mana bars tick downward as he kept the interface stabilized.
’My vanguard isn’t just fighting blind anymore, they are acting as extensions of my own tactical interface. Let us see how long the elves’ ancient magic holds up against modern system processing.’
Empowered by the system’s tactical guidance, the vanguard systematically dismantled the living labyrinth.
Kessa used her feral speed to vault effortlessly through the glowing pathways, her mana-infused claws shredding the root-anchors before the Elven druids could force them to regenerate.
Up above the shifting walls, Griselda folded her black-and-gold wings and dove through the canopy, dropping sharp wind-blades directly onto the Elven spellcasters attempting to hide on the upper balconies of the customs house.
"Left flank anchor destroyed!" Kessa called out, landing smoothly on a severed timber vine and grinning back at the group.
"Keep pushing forward!" Kane ordered, stepping into a sweeping spin that shattered a wall of iron-wood into harmless splinters.
"Thora, take the center!"
"With pleasure!" Thora drove her halberd into the main junction node, causing a wave of blue system mana to pulse outward and wither the surrounding vines instantly.
Smashing through the final central thorny barrier, Kane, Thora, and Brak stumbled out into the open space of the central administrative square just as Rutheus and his berserkers hacked their way through from the opposite side.
The two forces united in the middle of the courtyard, where the remaining Elven spellcasters fell to their knees on the flagstones, completely exhausted and drained of mana as their labyrinth collapsed around them into harmless seeds and withered twigs.
Rutheus stepped over a massive, decaying root, plucking a long thorn out of his leather shoulder armor with a deep scowl.
"I hate fighting trees, Kane," Rutheus grumbled, kicking a pile of branches out of his path.
"Give me a squad of men in iron suits any day over a shrub that tries to eat my boots."
"You need to appreciate the local flora, Rutheus," Kane teased, catching a captured Elven officer’s wand from the air and tossing it over his shoulder toward his logistics team.
"Though I admit, their gardening is aggressive."
Wiping sweat from her forehead, Thora rested the shaft of her halberd against her boot while looking up at the towering bronze doors of the inner keep.
"The maze is dead, Commander. The customs gatehouse is fully secured."
"And the spellcasters are too tired to even lift their fingers," Sira added happily, prodding an exhausted Elven druid with the flat of her axe.
"Can we go open the treasury now? Firlia looks like she is going to faint if she doesn’t see some gold soon."