Phase Two arrived the way a blade arrives—clean, sudden, and nothing after was the same.
The Sovereign Venom Serpent surged, and the lane bent to its will. Shutters exploded to splinters; signboards tore from iron hooks; dust rose and turned instantly pearl-gray as venom thickened the air.
Frostwing ripped a seam of winter through the street—not a wall, but a laminar curtain that told particles to slow. Brandon ran the narrow dry vein down the center like a thought that refused to doubt. The koi hugged the rim of his bowl until water slicked his gills, then launched on command for that familiar hinge he and Brandon had learned to disrespect.
Mark. Strike. Numb.
Mark. Strike. Numb.
They carved delay into the serpent's reflexes one heartbeat at a time. Predators do not forgive clumsiness; it enraged the thing.
"Window," Brandon said, two fingers sketching left of the jaw.
The koi slid through that geometry. Blood Scales scraped gum, smeared pain-that-numbs. Frostwing's glare flared across its eyes. The serpent blinked too slow. Brandon's boots skimmed Frostwing's ice, blade opening another thin seam.
[Numb stacks: 5 → 6]
[Motor latency ↑↑]
[Survivor extraction: 100%]
Good. The street behind them was empty of breathers. In front of them: one colossal problem.
"Keep it here," Brandon ordered. "No tunnels. Fight where the sky can see."
Frostwing screamed agreement, smoothing her frost into obedient fog. The serpent's tail bulldozed a market stall to ash. Its body rippled, as if shaking off the seconds strapped to its instincts.
"Brace," Brandon warned.
The shed began.
Scales lifted with a susurrus like a thousand coins ringing. Edges pried up, then peeled—not one skin, but a storm. Armor plates tore free and spun outward, each a saw-coin dusted with venom crystal.
"Down!"
Frostwing folded a wing around them, whispering cold that dragged many plates to earth. Not all. Three ricocheted off Brandon's bracer; one cut his cheek. Two curved for the bowl—koi flared Blood Scales, slammed them with his own edges. Pain lit him, numbness spread. The plates fluttered and fell.
The serpent stood revealed—sleeker, meaner, body steaming with toxins. The slow was gone.
[Status: Sovereign Venom Serpent — SHED STATE]
[Armor profile: reset]
[Venom output: ↑↑]
[Apex ability: concealed]
"Ultimate incoming," the koi sent.
It came.
Not spit. Not spray. A beam.
A pressurized lance of translucent green scored the lane. Wood vaporized. Stone sagged. Frostwing cut across to deflect and paid: the beam grazed her wing, icy vanes combusting to steam. She screamed, crashed to the street, one wing hanging ragged.
"Wing!" Brandon barked, one word heavy enough to break a heart. He interposed without thought. The serpent obliged with another beam. It grazed his arm. Skin smoked. Nerves screamed.
He did not fall. He planted harder.
[Alert: Brandon — Venom exposure confirmed]
[Motor control: destabilizing]
[Frostwing — Wing integrity: 41%]
[Aerial capability: null]
Despair found teeth.
System, the koi thought, voice like stone dragged low. We lose here?
[Failure risk ↑↑]
[Recommendation: Retreat]
Retreat where? Through alleys already emptied? Retreat meant the serpent undoing everything luck had bought.
Not this time.
Not this time, he told Brandon.
Brandon nodded once—a soldier's amen.
"Give me a mark," the koi said. "Best we'll see before it learns us."
Brandon's pupils lagged, but discipline held. He read the serpent as it recast its equation: broken bird = sure meal; man = nuisance; fish = nothing. It shifted weight it couldn't take back.
"Taste reflex," he rasped. "When the tongue flicks—root."
The koi coiled, Harden bracing under Blood Scales like rebar in stone.
"Frostwing," Brandon called, voice fraying, "give him cold."
The phoenix lifted her head, exhaled not a cone but a seam of winter across the bowl. Cold kissed his plates, seeping in. Affection brushed the bond.
[Affinity threshold reached]
[Cross-signature resonance detected]
[Hybrid pathway: OPEN]
Not yet more. Just the door cracked.
The serpent struck, tongue a blur. Brandon's fingers twitched the cue.
The koi moved.
The jaws slammed shut on air. Its head smashed a beam, snapping it to matchsticks. The beam collapsed across Frostwing. Brandon lunged, caught the weight, roared as poisoned muscle tore, and heaved it aside. Frostwing dragged herself clear, breath frosting venom haze to sugar-slow threads.
The beam came again. Brandon shoved the bowl clear with his knee, took half the line across his cuirass. Leather smoked, buckle burst. He did not yell. He only spread his stance wider and held.
"Koi," he said, voice steady because it wanted to break, "we're at the edge."
The koi knew. The edge sings like wire.
[Battle state: Critical]
[Legendary Task Clause: If Host dies before first attempt on Bonus Objective (Emerald Dragon), task = failed]
[Penalty: immediate upon revival]
He could not die. He could not retreat. He could not let Brandon fall. He could not let Frostwing be consumed on stone that used to be her sky.
The serpent coiled, toxins boiling off its SHED body. The air constricted.
"On me," Brandon ordered, and for the first time it sounded like prayer.
The koi's answer was action. Bounce loaded until the world thinned.
The serpent's shadow covered them, jaws opening into a cathedral of knives. The koi's bowl rocked—water rippled, writing its angle, its timing.
Now.
He launched straight up, a red shard into a green engine.
[Outcome: pending]