The Varkyss Ravager stepped into the light.
For several seconds, nobody in Gamma moved.
David had expected something enormous after seeing the footprints.
He had expected claws.
Strength.
A body capable of crushing a Blue-tier beast simply because it had been unfortunate enough to stand in the creature's path.
He had not expected this.
The Ravager emerged from the cave with the slow confidence of something that had never needed to fear another living creature.
Its body was long and powerful, carried on four muscular legs wrapped in overlapping plates of dark blue-black carapace. Purple armor swept across its shoulders, spine, and skull, catching the sunlight in strange metallic hues. Thin streaks of teal ran between sections of the natural armor, glowing faintly whenever the creature moved.
It almost looked constructed.
Almost.
But David could see the muscles shifting beneath the plates.
He could see its chest expanding with every slow breath.
This wasn't machinery.
It was alive.
Very much alive.
Its massive head lowered.
Two enormous yellow-gold eyes fixed on Gamma.
Long ivory fangs extended from its upper jaw, curving downward past the lower.
Then something behind it moved.
David narrowed his eyes.
At first, he thought they were vines hanging from the cave entrance.
Then one curled upward.
Another slid across the stone.
Several long, whip-like tendrils rose from the Ravager's back, slowly spreading around its body. Some dragged along the ground. Others curled through the air, their movements almost unnervingly precise.
June stared at them.
"Those weren't in the footprints."
One of the tendrils suddenly snapped sideways.
CRACK!
A thick branch exploded from the trunk of a nearby tree.
Pieces of wood scattered across the basin.
June raised his Kinetic Baton.
"And now I hate those too."
The Ravager stepped completely clear of the cave.
Its claws sank into the soil.
David focused on it.
"Identify."
System:
Identify Activated.
System:
Target Identified.
Varkyss Ravager
Classification — Legendary Apex
Level — 41
Ability — Kinetic Carapace
Status — Territorial / Hostile
Threat Assessment — Extreme
David's stomach tightened.
Forty-one.
The number alone changed the situation.
"Varkyss Ravager."
Lucian glanced toward him.
"What?"
"That's what it is."
The creature began circling.
David moved with it.
"Legendary Apex. Level forty-one."
Nyra's eyes widened.
"Forty-one?"
"Yeah."
Castiel tightened both hands around his Shadow Blade.
"Anything else?"
David watched the information.
"Kinetic Carapace. Its armor absorbs and redistributes impact."
June looked at David.
Just for a second.
Their eyes met.
June gave him a small nod.
Nothing more.
No question.
No surprise.
He knew.
David returned the nod.
Then both of them looked back toward the Ravager.
Lucian slowly moved his Bloodcrest Blade forward.
"Meaning?"
"Don't know the limits yet."
"Then we find them."
June looked at him.
"That's your plan?"
Lucian smiled faintly.
"Unless you have another one."
"I was thinking we quietly leave."
The Ravager growled.
June raised his baton.
"Apparently negotiations have failed."
David's Claw Gauntlets snapped fully into place.
"Gamma, spread out."
Everyone moved immediately.
David shifted left.
Castiel went right, his Shadow Blade held low beside him.
Nyra moved farther around the Ravager's opposite flank, both Wind Crest Swords ready.
Lucian gave ground toward the center.
Mira moved with him before separating several yards to his right.
June stayed mobile behind them, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet as he watched the Ravager's tendrils.
David kept his eyes on the creature.
"Don't rush it. We know what the armor does. We don't know what else it can do."
The Ravager continued circling.
Gamma circled with it.
David watched its shoulders.
Its legs.
The slow movement of those long tendrils behind it.
"Castiel, keep right. Nyra, wider."
They adjusted.
"Mira, watch those tendrils."
Mira's eyes followed their movements.
"Already am."
David almost smiled.
Of course she was.
The Ravager suddenly lowered its head.
Every muscle along its body tightened.
David saw the change.
"Get ready."
Its claws dug into the earth.
June's Kinetic Baton hummed to life.
Castiel's body began disappearing beneath gathering shadows.
Wind started curling around Nyra.
Thin crimson strands formed around Lucian's Bloodcrest Blade.
Mira lowered her center of gravity, her eyes narrowing as she studied the creature's movements.
David felt Shadow Step waiting beneath his feet.
The Varkyss Ravager growled.
David raised his claws.
"Wait..."
The creature exploded forward.
"NOW!"
It crossed the basin so quickly David barely followed it.
Thirty feet disappeared beneath one enormous stride.
The ground erupted behind it.
"Shadow Step!"
Darkness swallowed David.
He vanished just as the Ravager's claws tore through the place where he had been standing.
David reappeared along its left side.
"Predator Step!"
His first strike hit the Ravager's shoulder.
Then a second.
David stepped with the recoil, his body flowing directly into the next attack.
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
Each movement fed the next.
The Claw Gauntlets hammered the same section of purple carapace.
But instead of cutting—
The armor rippled.
A wave traveled outward from the point of impact, spreading through the Ravager's shoulder and across its body.
David felt the force disappear beneath his claws.
Nothing.
Not even a scratch.
The Ravager turned its head.
One golden eye found him.
David's stomach dropped.
"Move!"
A tendril whipped toward him.
David ducked.
The first passed overhead.
The second came low.
He jumped.
The third was already waiting.
It struck him across the chest.
David flew backward.
"David!"
He hit the ground hard and rolled through the dirt.
Before the Ravager could follow—
"Shadow Veil!"
Darkness folded around Castiel.
He disappeared.
The Ravager turned.
Too late.
Castiel emerged from its own shadow beside its rear flank, Shadow Blade already moving.
"Rend!"
Black energy erupted along the blade.
Castiel slashed upward.
The strike slammed into the Ravager's armored side.
A violent ripple raced across the carapace.
The Ravager staggered half a step.
Castiel's eyes narrowed.
Half a step.
That was all.
"That's ridiculous."
The Ravager's tail swept toward him.
Castiel vanished beneath Shadow Veil an instant before it struck.
The tail continued through a nearby tree.
The trunk cracked.
The entire tree toppled.
June stared.
"Okay. Don't block the tail."
"Helpful!" Castiel shouted as he emerged twenty feet away.
The Ravager spun toward him.
"Nyra!" David yelled.
She was already moving.
"Cyclone Domain!"
Wind exploded around her.
Dust and leaves spiraled upward as a rotating cyclone formed around Nyra's body.
Her long silver-white hair whipped behind her, the soft pink threaded through its length flashing within the swirling wind.
The Ravager lunged toward Castiel.
Nyra intercepted.
"Tempest Dance!"
Her Twin Wind Crest Swords became streaks of blue.
One slash.
Then another.
Then another.
Every movement carried her around the Ravager as compressed blades of wind struck from different angles.
Shoulder.
Neck.
Flank.
Foreleg.
The Kinetic Carapace rippled repeatedly.
Nyra accelerated.
Her swords became almost impossible to follow.
Wind screamed through the basin.
The Ravager's tendrils lashed at her.
Nyra twisted between them.
One passed beneath her arm.
Another above her shoulder.
She spun beneath the third and drove both swords against the Ravager's side.
The impact sent a shockwave through the basin.
Again—
The armor absorbed it.
Nyra's expression changed.
"Oh, come on."
The Ravager roared.
The sound hit them like a physical force.
Nyra's Cyclone Domain broke apart.
The creature lunged.
"Mira!"
"Prediction Field."
Mira's eyes sharpened.
For a moment, everything around her seemed to disappear.
She watched the Ravager.
Its shoulders.
Its hips.
The direction of its eyes.
The tightening of its front leg.
"Nyra, right!"
Nyra moved without questioning her.
The Ravager's paw came down where she had been.
Mira was already running.
"Three tendrils!"
Nyra ducked.
One.
She spun.
Two.
The third curled behind her.
Mira crossed the distance.
"Echo Strike!"
Her Twin Blades flashed.
The first strike hit the tendril.
The second landed in precisely the same place before the appendage could recoil.
Dark blood sprayed.
The tendril snapped backward.
The Ravager screamed.
David pushed himself up.
"There!"
Everyone looked toward him.
"The tendrils aren't armored!"
The Ravager charged Mira.
"June!"
"Kinetic Step!"
June moved.
One step.
Energy gathered around his legs.
Second.
Faster.
Third.
The ground kicked beneath his boots.
Fourth.
The Kinetic Baton began glowing brighter.
June crossed Mira's path.
He grabbed the back of her uniform with one hand and pulled her aside as the Ravager rushed past.
Mira stumbled.
"I had it."
"I know."
June took another step.
More energy gathered.
The Ravager twisted toward them.
June smiled nervously.
"But I've been running for a while."
He planted one foot.
"Momentum Break!"
The Kinetic Baton slammed into the Ravager's jaw.
BOOM!
Stored kinetic energy detonated.
The Ravager's head snapped sideways.
Its entire front half shifted.
For the first time—
The Legendary Apex lost its footing.
One front leg buckled.
June stared.
"Oh."
He looked at his baton.
"That actually worked."
The Ravager's golden eye turned toward him.
June's smile vanished.
"Shouldn't have celebrated."
A tendril wrapped around his waist.
"June!"
The Ravager ripped him into the air.
June's baton nearly flew from his hand.
He rose fifteen feet.
Twenty.
"Okay!"
The tendril tightened.
"Less fun up here!"
"Blood Weave!"
Crimson energy flowed from Lucian's hand into the Bloodcrest Blade.
The energy stretched beyond the blade.
Separated.
Thinned.
Then multiplied.
"Crimson Threads!"
Nearly invisible red lines shot through the air.
They wrapped around the tendril holding June.
Lucian pulled.
The threads tightened.
The tendril stopped.
June dangled above the ground.
He looked down at Lucian.
"Little more!"
"I'm trying."
The Ravager pulled.
Lucian's boots slid through the dirt.
More Crimson Threads wrapped around the appendage.
David ran.
"Hold it!"
Lucian gritted his teeth.
"Working on it!"
David activated Shadow Step.
Darkness swallowed him.
He reappeared in midair beside June.
His claws crossed.
The tendril snapped apart.
June dropped.
David grabbed him.
That had been a mistake.
June's weight pulled both of them down.
They crashed into the dirt.
June groaned.
"You could've just let me fall."
David rolled off him.
"You would've complained."
"I'm complaining now."
"Then nothing changed."
The Ravager screamed.
David looked up.
Its remaining tendrils spread.
All of them.
"MOVE!"
Gamma scattered.
The tendrils struck everywhere.
Earth exploded.
Stone shattered.
One wrapped around a tree and tore it sideways.
Another caught Nyra's sword.
She refused to release it.
The Ravager pulled.
Nyra slid forward.
Castiel appeared beside her.
"Rend!"
His Shadow Blade cut through the tendril.
Nyra stumbled backward.
Castiel caught her arm.
"Got you."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
The Ravager charged them.
"CASTIEL! NYRA! SPLIT!"
They separated.
The Ravager thundered between them.
David watched.
Something was wrong.
They were hitting it.
Hard.
Nyra's Tempest Dance.
Castiel's Rend.
June's Momentum Break.
His own Predator Step.
None of it had seriously damaged the armor.
But June's strike had moved it.
Castiel's Rend had made it stagger.
The armor could absorb energy.
But not infinitely.
David looked at the Ravager's shoulder.
The same shoulder he'd struck repeatedly with Predator Step.
Something caught the light.
A line.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
A fracture.
David's eyes widened.
"There."
Mira glanced toward him.
"What?"
David pointed.
"Left shoulder. Purple plate."
The Ravager turned.
David could see it clearly now.
A hairline crack.
"Kinetic Carapace has a limit."
Lucian understood.
"Overload it."
David nodded.
"Exactly."
The Ravager lowered itself again.
David stepped forward.
"Gamma! Stop spreading the damage!"
Everyone looked toward him.
"Left shoulder! Same plate! Everything we have!"
The Ravager charged.
David didn't move.
"June, build momentum!"
June started running.
"Kinetic Step!"
"Mira, keep him alive!"
Mira moved after him.
"Prediction Field!"
"Lucian, slow the front legs!"
"Blood Weave!"
Crimson energy poured around Lucian's blade.
"Castiel, with me!"
Castiel disappeared.
"Shadow Veil!"
"Nyra!"
Wind erupted around her.
"Cyclone Domain!"
The Ravager came straight at David.
Twenty feet.
Fifteen.
Ten.
David waited.
Five.
"NOW!"
"Shadow Step!"
David vanished.
The Ravager tore through empty space.
David appeared beside the damaged shoulder.
Castiel emerged above him.
"Rend!"
The Shadow Blade struck first.
CRACK!
The fracture spread.
Nyra came next.
"Tempest Dance!"
She spun through the air.
Both swords struck the exact same plate.
Compressed wind exploded.
CRACK!
The Ravager roared.
"Crimson Threads!"
Lucian's threads wrapped around its front legs.
The creature stumbled.
"Mira!"
"I see it."
Prediction Field showed her the opening before it happened.
She moved.
"Echo Strike!"
Both blades struck the fracture.
Once.
Twice.
The crack widened.
The Ravager ripped through Lucian's Crimson Threads.
Its tendrils came down.
"Mira, LEFT!" David shouted.
She moved.
A tendril missed her by inches.
June was still running.
Each Kinetic Step fed the next.
His baton glowed brighter.
"June!"
"I know!"
He changed direction.
The Ravager saw him.
A tendril lashed outward.
Mira saw it first.
"DOWN!"
June dropped into a slide.
The tendril passed over him.
He came back to his feet without stopping.
One more step.
Then another.
The energy around the Kinetic Baton screamed.
June jumped.
"Momentum Break!"
The baton struck the fractured shoulder plate.
BOOM!
The Ravager's entire body lurched sideways.
The purple plate buckled.
But it didn't break.
June landed.
His eyes widened.
"You have got to be kidding me."
The Ravager swung its paw.
David activated Shadow Step.
He appeared between them.
He grabbed June and threw him backward.
The paw struck David.
Pain exploded through his side.
David flew.
"D!"
Castiel's voice followed him.
David hit the ground.
Hard.
For a moment, he couldn't breathe.
System:
Warning.
Physical Trauma Detected.
David forced air into his lungs.
Across the basin, the Ravager turned toward June.
Castiel appeared between them.
"Rend!"
The Ravager blocked with its armored foreleg.
Shadow energy exploded.
Castiel slid backward.
Nyra attacked from the side.
Tempest Dance drove the Ravager away from June.
Lucian's Crimson Threads wrapped around its neck.
Mira struck another tendril.
Gamma was still fighting.
David pushed himself onto one knee.
The cracked plate.
It was barely holding together.
One more.
They needed one more attack strong enough to break through.
David looked at his claws.
He knew what would do it.
He stood.
"Get clear!"
Castiel heard him.
He looked toward David.
Then toward the Claw Gauntlets.
He understood immediately.
"Gamma! MOVE!"
Everyone broke away.
The Ravager turned.
Its golden eyes locked onto David.
David stepped forward.
The creature growled.
Blood ran from its damaged tendrils.
The cracked shoulder plate shifted with every breath.
David raised both claws.
"Cosmic Spatial Severance!"
System:
Activating: Cosmic Spatial Severance.
Space warped around his hands.
The air distorted.
The Ravager saw it.
For the first time since leaving the cave—
The Legendary Apex hesitated.
David disappeared.
Not Shadow Step.
Speed.
Pure movement.
He crossed the distance.
The Ravager swung.
David ducked beneath the paw.
A tendril came from his right.
He twisted.
Another came from above.
He rolled beneath it.
Then he was there.
Directly beside the fractured plate.
David drove both claws forward.
Space split.
The sound was wrong.
Not metal breaking.
Not stone shattering.
Something deeper.
A violent tearing crack ripped through the basin.
The purple plate separated.
For one impossible instant, the space around it seemed to divide.
Then—
KRAAAACK!
The entire section of carapace exploded outward.
Dark blood erupted from beneath it.
The Varkyss Ravager screamed.
David was thrown backward by the force.
He hit the ground and rolled.
System:
Spatial Severance Mastery Increased.
David barely saw it.
"David!"
Nyra ran toward him.
"I'm fine!"
He wasn't.
Everything hurt.
But the Ravager was hurt worse.
It staggered.
Its left shoulder was exposed.
Dark blood poured down its foreleg.
For the first time, David saw fear in those enormous golden eyes.
He forced himself upright.
"Don't stop!"
Gamma moved.
Castiel disappeared.
Shadow Veil.
"Rend!"
His blade tore through exposed flesh.
The Ravager screamed.
Nyra followed.
"Tempest Dance!"
Wind Crest Swords cut across the open wound.
Lucian's Crimson Threads wrapped around the damaged leg and pulled.
Mira moved wherever Prediction Field showed her an opening.
"Echo Strike!"
Her blades struck beneath the Ravager's jaw.
June started moving again.
"Kinetic Step!"
The Legendary Apex fought wildly now.
Not like a ruler defending its territory.
Like an animal realizing it could die.
A tendril caught Lucian across the chest.
He flew backward.
"Lucian!"
"I'm good!"
Another slammed into Nyra's Cyclone Domain.
The wind tore apart.
She rolled.
Castiel appeared above the creature.
The Ravager twisted.
Its tail hit him in midair.
Castiel flew.
"Cass!"
David Shadow Stepped.
He appeared beneath Castiel and caught him badly.
Both crashed into the ground.
Castiel groaned.
"You're terrible at catching people."
David shoved him off.
"You're welcome."
The Ravager roared.
They looked up.
It wasn't attacking.
It was backing away.
One step.
Then another.
David rose.
"No."
The Ravager turned.
David's eyes widened.
"It's running!"
The Legendary Apex bolted across the basin.
"AFTER IT!"
David ran.
Gamma followed.
The Ravager crashed through the jungle ahead of them.
There was no need to track it now.
They could hear it.
Trees snapped.
Vegetation exploded.
Blood marked everything it touched.
David activated Shadow Step whenever the terrain allowed, closing distance before the creature pulled away again.
Castiel used Shadow Veil in bursts beside him.
June's Kinetic Step kept him moving despite the beating he'd taken.
Nyra used compressed wind beneath her feet.
Mira and Lucian followed close behind.
The Ravager was wounded.
But it was still Legendary.
Even injured, it was fast.
The chase tore through H-09.
Minutes passed.
Then more.
The terrain began rising.
David recognized the rocky ridges marking the eastern portion of the sector.
The Ravager climbed.
"Don't lose it!" David shouted.
"I'm trying not to die!" June called back.
"Do both!"
"Demanding leadership!"
David almost laughed.
Almost.
Then the Ravager reached the top of the ridge.
It stopped.
David slowed.
Gamma came up behind him.
Lucian glanced at his navigation display.
"We're at the boundary."
David looked east.
"A-08?"
Lucian nodded.
The Varkyss Ravager stood on the ridge ahead of them.
Blood poured from its shoulder.
Several tendrils hung limp.
One had been completely severed.
It was breathing hard.
They had it.
David raised his claws.
"Spread out."
Gamma moved.
The Ravager watched them.
David stepped forward.
"We finish it here."
The creature lowered its body.
Castiel raised his Shadow Blade.
Nyra's Cyclone Domain began forming again.
June tightened his grip on his baton.
Mira lowered both blades.
Lucian's Crimson Threads appeared.
David waited for the charge.
It never came.
Instead, the Varkyss Ravager lifted its head.
Its chest expanded.
David frowned.
"What is it doing?"
The Ravager screamed.
The sound tore across the ridge.
David flinched.
But this wasn't the roar it had used during battle.
This was different.
Deeper.
Longer.
The sound rolled across H-09 like thunder.
David could feel it through his boots.
Through his chest.
Through the stone beneath them.
The Ravager continued.
Its call traveled for miles.
Then—
Silence.
June slowly lowered his baton.
"What was that?"
Nobody answered.
A distant cry came from somewhere inside H-09.
Then another.
Farther away.
Another answered from the south.
Then the north.
David turned.
The jungle moved.
Not one place.
Everywhere.
Trees shook.
Branches snapped.
Heavy bodies crashed through vegetation.
Nyra raised both swords.
"Movement!"
"Multiple directions," Mira said.
David's eyes moved across the jungle.
"Gamma, together!"
They formed around him.
The first creatures appeared.
A pack of Blue-tier beasts burst from the trees.
June raised his baton.
"Of course."
"Hold!" David shouted.
The pack came closer.
Thirty feet.
Twenty.
Then—
They changed direction.
The creatures ran around Gamma.
David turned.
"What?"
More emerged.
Blue-tier predators.
Green-tier beasts.
Armored creatures.
Pack hunters.
Winged monsters burst through the canopy overhead.
Gamma stood ready.
But nothing attacked.
They were running.
All of them.
Not the native animals.
David could still hear the small creatures in the trees.
Birdlike calls remained in the canopy.
Tiny animals moved through the undergrowth.
The natural wildlife wasn't leaving.
Only the hostile beasts.
The monsters Gamma had been sent into H-09 to remove.
June slowly turned as another group raced past them.
"Are they..."
Mira watched the creatures disappear through the jungle.
"Leaving."
Nyra looked toward the Ravager.
"The call."
David understood.
It wasn't summoning them.
It was warning them.
The Varkyss Ravager backed toward the eastern slope.
David turned.
"No you don't."
He started forward.
The Ravager looked at him one last time.
Then turned and ran.
"AFTER IT!"
Gamma surged toward the ridge.
The Ravager disappeared down the opposite side.
David reached the top first.
He could still see it below.
A wounded dark shape moving through the distant vegetation.
Lucian reached him and checked his navigation display.
"It's crossed."
David didn't take his eyes from the creature.
"A-08."
"Yeah."
David started down the slope.
Castiel grabbed his shoulder.
"D."
David looked at him.
Castiel shook his head.
"Our mission is H-09."
David looked back.
Hostile beasts were still moving through the jungle behind them.
Dozens.
Perhaps hundreds.
Leaving the sector.
Their objective had been to clear H-09 of the beasts threatening Human operations.
They needed to know whether the Ravager's call had actually done that.
David hated it.
The Apex was wounded.
This might be their best chance to kill it.
But Castiel was right.
David looked toward the others.
Everyone was exhausted.
Bleeding.
Bruised.
June was barely hiding a limp.
Nyra had blood running down one arm.
Lucian's uniform was torn across his chest.
Mira's breathing was heavier than usual.
Castiel looked like he'd been thrown through half the jungle.
David probably looked worse.
They couldn't abandon their assigned sector without confirming what had happened.
David watched the Varkyss Ravager disappear into A-08.
His claws slowly folded back.
"Fine."
June bent over with both hands on his knees.
"Best decision you've made all day."
David looked at him.
"You wanted to leave before the fight."
"I stand by that decision too."
Mira walked past him.
"You screamed when it grabbed you."
June straightened.
"I was twenty feet in the air."
"Still screamed."
"That was tactical communication."
Castiel snorted.
June pointed toward him.
"Don't encourage her."
For a moment, despite the blood and pain, David smiled.
Then another distant call echoed through H-09.
He turned.
The hostile beasts continued their exodus.
The jungle itself remained alive.
Native creatures still moved through the trees.
Still called from the canopy.
Still watched Gamma from the undergrowth.
But the beasts they had spent days hunting were leaving.
David looked back toward A-08.
The Legendary Apex had escaped.
They had tried to kill it.
They had come close.
Very close.
But it was alive.
Wounded.
And now it was somewhere inside another sector.
David flexed his aching hand.
"We verify H-09."
Castiel nodded.
"Then we go back."
David stared east one final time.
"And tell Vance exactly where that thing went."
Far beyond the ridge, something roared from inside A-08.
David's eyes narrowed.
Their fight with the Varkyss Ravager wasn't over.