Date: TC1853.11.14
Location: Corrupted Nexus Point — Dead Forest east of Thornwall
The evolved Breaker hit like a landslide.
Raven dodged the first swing — barely. The wedge-hand carved a trench in the corrupted earth where she'd been standing, throwing up a spray of blackened soil and Necrotic residue. The impact crater was two meters wide. The ground shuddered. The Void Skitters on the clearing's floor scattered from the shock wave, then reformed their approach like water flowing around a stone.
She answered with fire. A concentrated spear aimed at the Breaker's shoulder joint — the weakest point on the original model, where the carapace plates overlapped and left a gap. The fire hit, flared, and—
Bounced.
Not reflected. Absorbed. The evolved carapace drank her dragon fire the way the corrupted earth drank spiritual energy — pulling the creative essence in and converting it, using the very thing that should have destroyed it to reinforce the joint she'd targeted.
