The Mutant Carcará shot through the air on a straight trajectory, tearing through the corridor space directly toward Allisson’s chest. With analytical precision, the creature had identified the weakest link in the formation: the weakened leader whose left forearm bone was cracked.
At the very last second, before the razor talon could sever Allisson’s jugular, Jade squeezed her eyes shut and triggered her skill: [Blinding Light].
A flash of blinding white light exploded in the center of the narrow corridor. The light reflected off the ceramic floor tiles and bounced off the light-colored walls, blinding everyone in the vicinity. The Carcará, possessing heightened Perception and pupils hyper-developed for hunting, took the full impact of the flash directly onto its retinas.
Guided solely by the sudden shift in airflow, Allisson threw his body sideways in a blind evasive leap. The bird ripped through the space where he had been standing a millisecond prior; even with the dodge, the Carcará’s sharp talons grazed him violently, opening shallow cuts across his injured left arm that sent hot blood dripping down his skin and tearing through the chitin on his forearm.
The brutal displacement of air and the metallic stench of ozone and blood passed mere inches from his skin. Disoriented by the sudden blindness, the Carcará lost its flight line and slammed hard into the side wall. The impact shook the drywall, sending a dense cloud of dust and plaster debris tumbling onto the floor.
"Now! Don't let it regain its vision! Push forward!" Abner’s voice echoed loudly down the corridor, providing the exact cue for the group’s counter-attack.
Allisson used the shaft of his spear as a brace to push himself up, blinking away the dark spots burning across his field of vision.
Paulo and Pierre pressed forward in partial blindness. The Carcará shook its head, bristling its feathers and assuming a bipedal combat stance to slash at anything within reach. Paulo delivered a heavy thrust with his iron bar; by pure reflex, the monster swiveled its neck, thrusting its bone beak in a lethal counter-strike aimed directly at Paulo’s eyes.
At the absolute limit of his reaction time, Paulo triggered [Synaptic Acceleration].
To Paulo’s accelerated perception, the bird’s beak appeared to slow down mid-air. He dodged his head a fraction of an inch to the left and brought his metal bar down with the full Strength of his vanguard build onto the monster’s skull. A dry crack echoed down the hallway. Pierre capitalized on the opening, striking the side of the beast's neck with his improvised rod.
Reeling under the dual impact, the Carcará pulled its reinforced wings tightly over its chest and head, locking itself into a rigid shell. Its blade-hard feathers formed an armored shell that caused Paulo and Pierre’s subsequent strikes to bounce off with sparks and muffled thuds.
Standing against the back wall, Allisson observed the scene under the analytical clarity of his [Until the End] passive. His left arm throbbed in pain from the cracked bone and fresh lacerations, but his mind recorded the fight's progression:
They are maintaining pressure. The creature's posture is purely defensive... They can handle this.
Before that hope could solidify, the Carcará unfolded its wing armor and expanded its ribcage.
SKREEEEEEEEEEECH!
Its [Sonic Screech] exploded in a violent pulse of high-frequency sound. The acoustic wave reverberated off the narrow hallway walls like an invisible sledgehammer.
The shockwave hit Paulo and Pierre point-blank. The atmospheric pressure caused blood to burst from both of their ears. Paulo dropped his iron bar and fell to his knees, clutching his head in agony as his face contorted. Pierre collapsed onto the ceramic tiles, completely incapacitated by a blinding pain that felt as though it were drilling straight through his brain.
The bird lowered its neck and aimed its serrated beak straight for the throat of the defenseless boy on the floor.
"PIERRE, TELEPORT!" Abner screamed in desperation from the rear line.
By a miracle, amid the deafening ringing and numbing pain, Pierre understood Abner’s warning and managed to activate his skill an instant before impact.
POP!
A vacuum crack echoed in the air. Pierre reappeared a mere 12 inches to the side. The Carcará’s massive beak slammed into the floor where the boy’s head had been a second earlier, piercing the concrete and shattering the ceramic tiles into dozens of pieces.
Frustrated by the miss, the Carcará swiveled its neck toward Pierre’s new location and released a second sonic blast—even deeper and more sustained. Positioned right beside the creature, Pierre couldn't withstand the pressure overload: his consciousness blacked out instantly, leaving him convulsing on the floor as blood dripped continuously from his ears.
The Carcará raised its right talon, adjusting its angle to execute the unconscious target.
Suddenly, a gray blur cut through the corridor. Adson charged forward, his skin and uniform fully encased in the rigid concrete layer of [Textural Mimicry].
Adson lowered his shoulder and plowed into the beast in a charge of pure mass. The impact pinned the Carcará sideways against the wall with a deafening thud. The bird thrash in wild fury, tearing at the petrified surface of Adson’s chest with its scalpel-like talons, but the density of the mimicry prevented its claws from reaching his flesh.
"Aaaaaah!" Adson roared, digging his feet into the floor and trapping the monster against the masonry.
With calm, cold, and rhythmic steps, Ângela approached. Her white lab coat swayed lightly, and her gaze betrayed not the slightest hint of hesitation. Without uttering a word, she reached out her right hand and touched the Carcará’s exposed left wing joint directly.
[Neuro-Muscular Inhibition]
A translucent shimmer coursed through the contact point. In a fraction of a millisecond, all electrical impulses and Mana flow in the creature’s nervous system were summarily shut down. The Carcará’s muscles unlocked, freezing in a rigid spasm. Its wings dropped limp and its red eyes went rigid, burning with a mix of fury and absolute powerlessness.
Ângela pulled a stainless steel surgical scalpel from her lab coat pocket. With a clean, precise motion stripped of any anatomical hesitation, she drove the silver blade straight through the monster’s eye socket, piercing through its brain all the way to the occipital bone.
The Mutant Carcará went dark instantly, slumping limp like a broken doll.
Silence returned to the hallway, broken only by the heavy breathing of the survivors. A bluish holographic window floated into the air:
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[SYSTEM: ENEMY ELIMINATED]
Target Defeated: Mutant Carcará (Level 6)
Experience Distribution:
Jade: +20 XP
Paulo: +25 XP
Pierre: +25 XP
Adson: +50 XP
Ângela (Final Blow): +80 XP
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Allisson observed the scene with a flicker of astonishment in his eyes. An extremely lethal, Level 6 apex predator that had nearly wiped out his squad had been completely dismantled by a single touch and a surgical strike.
Maintaining his focus under the effects of [Until the End], Allisson fixed his gaze on Ângela and triggered [Structural Analysis] to inspect his new ally's status panel:
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[SYSTEM INTERFACE: ÂNGELA]
Name: Ângela (Human)
Level: 5 (90 / 200 XP)
Class: None
[STATS]
Strength: 10.5
Dexterity: 13.5
Constitution: 11.5
Intelligence: 15.5
Perception: 16.5
Mana: 12.0
[ACTIVE SKILLS]
[Metabolic Stimulation - Lv. 1]:
Effect: Through direct physical touch, the user injects Mana into the target's organism to drastically accelerate mitosis and cellular metabolism—closing cuts, stopping hemorrhages, and regenerating tissue within seconds.
Cost: Consumes the user's Mana pool (2.0 Mana per cast) and forces the patient's body to burn calories/nutrients at an extreme rate.
Lethal Risk (Nutritional Bottleneck): If the target is malnourished, under prolonged fasting, or suffering from severe hypoglycemia, the process will consume what little biological reserve remains, resulting in cardiorespiratory arrest, organ failure, or hypovolemic shock (turning the heal into a fatal metabolic poison).
[Neuro-Muscular Inhibition - Lv. 1] (Crowd Control / Debuff):
Description: By manipulating bioelectric or biochemical impulses via Mana through touch or a targeted strike to nerve nodes, the user directly interferes with the enemy's peripheral nervous system.
Practical Effect: Temporarily interrupts motor impulse conduction. Inflicts partial paralysis (drastic movement reduction) or involuntary muscular spasms in the targeted limb for 3 to 5 seconds.
Cost: 3.0 Mana per activation.
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