Chapter 41 Killing blow...

Words : 1203 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

"And then," Kelvin held up the crystalline stone, his eyes bright with excitement, "it literally moved two centimeters to the left. All by itself!" "No way," Cora drawled, checking her Ravager's charge level for the third time in five minutes. "Yes way! The quantum displacement readings are off the charts!" "You don't say." "I do say! The molecular structure suggests—" "Fascinating," Cora interrupted, her voice dripping with sarcasm that Kelvin somehow kept missing entirely. She caught Noah's eye and rolled hers, mouthing 'Help me' while Kelvin launched into another explanation about crystal matrices. Noah might have found it more amusing if he wasn't preoccupied with Lila's unusual silence. She hadn't said a word since they'd found the bracelet, her usual alert posture replaced by something more withdrawn, her eyes distant. "Hey," he ventured, "that bump to the head still bothering you?" Lila shook her head slowly. "It's not that. Did you notice what they did? With the young one?" "The cute act?" Noah asked, though he had a feeling this wasn't about simple tactics. "They sent their youngest, their most vulnerable, to play bait." Her voice carried an edge he hadn't heard before. "They knew we'd hesitate. Knew we'd see it as harmless. That's not just intelligence, that's..." she trailed off. "Manipulation," Noah finished. "Strategy." "It's twisted," Lila said quietly. "An intelligent society willing to risk its young like that... it just feels wrong." Noah glanced at her, somewhat surprised by the philosophical turn. 'She's really overthinking some alien monkeys,' he thought, but something about her observation nagged at him. The classification bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Level 2 beasts were supposed to be dangerous but manageable. Yet these creatures showed tactical thinking, weapon proficiency, and coordinated assault strategies. On Earth, the classification system was pretty straightforward – the smarter they were, the harder they were to kill, the higher their threat level. 'Either the classification system works differently here, or someone seriously underestimated these things,' he mused. His recent kills had each given him 20 XP – decent for Level 2 beasts, but their behavior suggested something far more dangerous. But something else nagged at his tactical instincts. The Spider Apes' retreat had been too organized, too purposeful. Earth's beast hierarchies had taught him one universal truth – there was always something bigger, something stronger, something in charge. They just hadn't met it yet. "Look alive, people," Micah's voice cut through his thoughts. "Ground's different here." The forest floor had shifted from packed earth to loose, granular soil. Kelvin finally stopped his crystal monologue, his tech scanner to scan the terrain. "The soil composition is strange," he reported, actually serious for once. "It's like something's been—"@@@@ They fell into a desperate rhythm – dodge, fire, miss, repeat. The beast was toying with them, testing their defenses. Even Micah, with all his combat experience, couldn't land a solid hit. His gauntlet's energy discharge disappeared into empty holes as the Bore Mole ducked and weaved through the earth. "This is getting us nowhere," Noah snarled, rolling away from another near miss. His Ravager's charge indicator blinked warning – they were burning through ammunition, and the beast showed no signs of slowing. If anything, it was getting faster, more aggressive. The ground had become a maze of tunnels. Kelvin's scanner showed a complex network spreading outward, but the readings made no sense. "It's not random," he realized, eyes widening. "It's creating a pattern—" The Bore Mole burst from the earth with unprecedented force, its massive form fully vertical. The rotating teeth reached toward the canopy, spinning at maximum speed. For a moment, it seemed almost beautiful, obsidian plates catching the filtered sunlight. Then it slammed down. The impact sent a shockwave through its tunnel network. The ground collapsed in a carefully engineered sequence, the maze of tunnels becoming a deadly trap. The granular soil behaved like liquid, dragging them down as miniature sinkholes opened beneath their feet. Noah felt himself sinking, the loose earth pulling at his legs. Around him, the others struggled with the same problem. They were being drawn together, herded into a killing zone. The Bore Mole's true strategy became terrifyingly clear – it hadn't been attacking randomly. Every tunnel, every dive and emergence, had been preparation for this moment. The beast emerged one final time, its circular maw spinning up to full speed, ready to finish what it had so carefully orchestrated. Micah's patience snapped like a frayed wire. 'Enough playing around.' He slammed his gauntlet into the ground, but this time it wasn't just beast tech at work. The air grew heavy, reality itself seeming to bend as his powers took hold. The Bore Mole's next emergence slowed, as if moving through invisible molasses. Its massive form strained against the localized gravitational field, teeth grinding against the increased force. Micah's face contorted with effort as he ramped up the pressure, forcing the beast to fight for every inch of movement. While slowing his own gravitational pull to stop sinking, hence the whole thing was twice as hard. Meanwhile, Lila stared at Cora sinking deeper into the quicksand trap, her regular telekinesis useless against the countless grains. 'No choice. They're going to find out eventually.' Her fingers trembled as she reached for her second ability, the one she'd been hiding Something strange began to happen just then. Time fractured around Cora, individual sand particles reversing their course. Cora's eyes widened as she felt herself rising, moving backward through the last thirty seconds. "Since when could you—?" she started to ask, but Lila's focus was absolute, blood now trickling from her nose. 'Just a little longer,' Lila thought, her vision blurring. 'Can't pass out. Not yet.' Kelvin, ever the problem solver, had already converted his scanner into an improvised sonic pulse device. The vibrations solidified the sand around him just enough to create a stable platform. 'Physics for the win,' he thought, pulling himself free. Noah materialized on solid ground, void blink leaving a trail of purple afterimages. The Bore Mole was breaking free of Micah's gravity well, its plates scraping against each other as it prepared to dive. 'Oh no you don't.' Noah's eyes narrowed, calculations running through his head. Fifteen seconds between blinks. The beast's approximate speed. The tunnel angle. All the variables clicked into place. He began to dart towards the beast, grabbing his ravager from the ground. "Noah, don't you dare—" Micah started. But Noah was already moving, void blink activating just as the Bore Mole began its descent. He followed immediately and once the sand covered him up, purple light chased obsidian plates down into darkness. 'Five hundred XP,' Noah thought, a grin spreading across his face as he plunged into the earth. 'All mine.' The last thing he heard was Micah's creative cursing, fading away as he followed the beast into its domain. The hunt was on, and this time, he wasn't letting it escape.

Chapter 41 Killing blow...

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