The northern crystal depot looked wrong from the moment they entered it.
Pale blue crystal formations stretched across the ruined landscape in massive jagged clusters erupting through collapsed buildings and broken stone roads alike. Even the outer harvesting zones contained enough raw crystal growth to finance smaller organizations for months, yet the entire sector sat almost empty. Mining equipment remained scattered near unfinished extraction points while transport crates full of partially refined crystals stood abandoned beside damaged carts.
Nobody willingly left resources behind like this.
Riven moved deeper through the depot while Serena's squad spread across the surrounding ruins securing elevated positions and perimeter routes. The farther they advanced, the stranger the area felt. There were signs people had left quickly, but not enough signs of actual fighting to explain why such a valuable area had been abandoned so completely.
Most warzones inside the dungeon carried obvious damage. Burned terrain, collapsed structures and lingering skill residue usually covered entire sectors after battles between factions. The crystal depot looked different. The harvesting sites were disrupted, but the surrounding structures remained largely intact.
Serena eventually stopped beside an overturned transport cart and brushed dirt away from several refined crystal containers still packed inside.
"This alone should've been enough to keep both factions here," she said quietly while looking across the crystal fields.
Riven's attention remained on the surrounding ruins.
"Something made staying more dangerous than losing the resources."
That answer lingered over the group while they continued searching the depot. The harvesting structures deeper inside the crystal fields carried damage patterns that didn't match ordinary combat either. Several extraction platforms had partially collapsed while nearby crystal formations were fractured around the lower sections like repeated force had been applied from beneath the ground.
One of Serena's squad members eventually called out from farther ahead near the eastern structures.
"Bodies over here."
Three corpses lay near the remains of a broken harvesting rig partially buried beneath crystal fragments. Hollow Dogs insignias still remained attached to their equipment, but the bodies themselves looked strangely intact at first glance. Their armor carried minimal damage and the area surrounding them showed barely any signs of struggle.
Serena crouched beside the nearest corpse and examined him more carefully. Only after pulling aside the collar did she finally notice the actual wound.
A small puncture mark near the side of the neck.
The skin surrounding it had turned pale while faint discoloration spread beneath the veins around the wound. Another squad member checked the second body nearby and found the same injury almost immediately.
Riven examined the surrounding terrain instead of the corpses themselves. The dirt near the harvesting rig carried shallow drag marks leading toward the crystal formations nearby before disappearing completely between the jagged structures.
"This wasn't faction fighting," Serena said after standing again.
Riven nodded slightly.
"Most of them probably died before they even understood what attacked them."
That realization changed the atmosphere around the depot immediately. Several squad members instinctively tightened their grips around their weapons while scanning the crystal fields surrounding them more carefully. The towering formations distorted visibility badly once someone moved deeper between them. Pale reflections scattered across every surface while overlapping crystal structures broke sightlines after only a few meters.
A place like this favored ambush predators perfectly.
The deeper they searched, the more bodies they found scattered throughout the depot. Some belonged to Obsidian Circle operators while others carried Hollow Dogs insignias. A few looked like independent contractors caught between both factions during earlier harvesting operations. Most carried the same puncture wounds near the neck or other vital points.
Several corpses still had partially activated defensive skills visible across sections of their armor. It hadn't helped them at all.
Serena looked across the abandoned harvesting sectors while unease slowly spread through the group.
"The factions blamed each other for this."
"They were already looking for excuses to escalate," Riven replied. "Once patrols started disappearing, nobody stopped long enough to question what was actually happening here."
That explained why the situation inside the dungeon spiraled so quickly. Missing harvesting teams became sabotage. Dead patrols became retaliation. Then the war consumed everything before either faction properly investigated the northern sectors.
Riven continued moving deeper into the crystal depot until the surrounding formations became dense enough to completely distort the terrain. Massive crystal structures climbed over ruined walls and swallowed collapsed buildings beneath layers of pale blue growth. The reflections across those surfaces constantly shifted depending on where someone stood, making movement incredibly difficult.
That was when Riven finally noticed the pattern.
The bodies weren't scattered randomly across the depot. Almost every corpse they discovered remained near isolated structures, collapsed harvesting points or narrow routes between crystal formations where visibility became restricted from multiple directions.
The thing hunting here deliberately targeted operators once they separated from larger groups.
Riven crouched beside several shallow marks cutting through the dirt near a collapsed ruin. The tracks looked narrow and strangely light for something capable of dragging fully armed operators through the crystal fields. Whatever made them moved with very little weight distribution across the ground.
Serena noticed his attention settling on the tracks.
"You figured something out?"
"It's patient," Riven replied while examining the marks more closely. "It waits for people to isolate themselves before attacking."
One of Serena's squad members glanced uneasily toward the crystal formations surrounding them.
"You think it's still nearby?"
Before anyone answered, movement flickered briefly across the crystal reflections farther ahead.
Several people immediately raised their weapons toward the disturbance, but nothing emerged from between the formations afterward. The reflections returned to normal almost instantly, leaving only pale blue light stretching across the ruined depot again.
Serena narrowed her eyes toward the same area.
"I saw something."
"So did I," another squad member muttered.
Riven remained still while studying the crystal fields ahead. Whatever moved out there hadn't behaved like ordinary dungeon monsters charging prey directly. It behaved less like a dungeon beast and more like a patient hunter waiting for mistakes.
The realization bothered him more than the bodies themselves.
Monsters inside lower and mid-tier dungeons usually relied on aggression or overwhelming numbers. A predator capable of silently stalking armed harvesting teams for days without exposing itself was far more dangerous than anything either faction likely expected when they entered the dungeon.
And judging from the abandoned depot surrounding them, both factions had already paid heavily for underestimating it.