Allisson kept his eyes fixed on the bluish holographic projection floating before Ângela. His own experience indicator was stalled at 55/200 XP at Level 5—the cap of a survivor who had bled for every square meter of this school block. Ângela, however, displayed 90/200 XP, maintaining her lead on the group’s progression curve.
The asymmetry between them was disconcerting. Allisson possessed higher direct combat attributes, forged in raw strength and mechanical endurance through physical pain. Yet, Ângela had accumulated 12.0 total Mana points and two devastating touch-range active skills. While Allisson fought back and forth with an improvised spear and cracked bones, the doctor had dismantled a Level 6 apex predator with the cold precision of someone performing a routine incision.
Suddenly, the biological matter of the Mutant Carcará began a process of accelerated magical decomposition. The residual Mana gathered within the corpse started condensing into unstable, luminous threads. The bird's bony skull and serrated beak expanded, darkening under a supernatural chemical reaction until they solidified into a hollow, rigid shell similar to an anatomical helm. The five primary wing feathers detached from the skeleton and fell onto the floor with a heavy metallic clatter.
At the center of the beast's chest, the flesh split open to expel a translucent Mana Core, which rolled across the ceramic floor and came to rest at Ângela’s feet.
Without hesitation, the woman removed her right glove, exposing her bare skin, and bent down to scoop up the crystalline stone. The moment her fingers touched the core's surface, the mineral structure dissolved into luminous dust, absorbed directly into the pores of her skin. Allisson, still keeping his [Structural Analysis] overlay active, registered the instantaneous update on the System interface:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[STATUS CHANGE: ÂNGELA]
Mana Pool: 12.0 ➔ 13.0 / 13.0 (+1.0 Permanent Point via Small Mana Core)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ângela raised the modified Carcará skull and placed it over her head. The dark bone completely covered the upper half of her face, fitting with millimeter precision as the bony beak projected forward. The dark design transformed her figure instantly: the blood-stained white lab coat combined with the predator's shell gave her the grim, sinister appearance of a Plague Doctor.
Leaning down again, she gathered the five metal-shimmering feathers and stowed them without a word into Adson’s backpack.
BOOOOOOM!
A deep, hollow, brutally dense roar echoed in the distance, making the school corridor tremble and shaking a shower of plaster dust from the ceiling. The combat against the sonic predator and the multiple bursts of [Sonic Screech] executed by the bird had acted as an acoustic beacon, drawing the attention of something far larger in the outer courtyard.
"They are coming," Ângela’s voice came muffled and cold from behind the bone mask.
The fog of uncertainty that threatened to freeze the survivors was swept clean from Allisson’s mind. His passive skill, [Until the End], suppressed his panic response, sharpening his mind with the cold, analytical reading of a death that was approaching at a rapid pace.
"I stored food and water in the computer lab," Allisson said, planting the shaft of his spear into the floor to steady his stance. "It’s a room reinforced against theft, with barred windows and a heavy door. We need to clear out of this corridor now."
Ângela gave a single, rigid nod, taking tactical charge of the retreat.
"Adson, carry the boy," she ordered, pointing at Pierre, whose body remained limp with lips smeared with foam following his seizure. "Jade and Abner, grab Paulo. He's suffering from vestibular disorientation due to acoustic trauma. Move, quickly!"
Adson, keeping [Textural Mimicry] active, draped Pierre’s arm over his neck and lifted the unconscious boy as if he were a light parcel. Jade and Abner flanked Paulo, taking his weight as he blinked dazedly, trying to keep his balance.
Before Allisson could take his first step, Ângela closed in silently and grabbed his left arm firmly—the limb torn by the bird’s talons and carrying a cracked ulna from the previous fight.
[Metabolic Stimulation]
A sharp, piercing, terribly cold surge shot through Allisson’s nervous system from the point of contact on Ângela’s skin. The excruciating ache of the fractured bone ceased within seconds. Under his skin, the cellular division rate reached an unnatural acceleration: the open lacerations on his forearm contracted visibly, expelling dirty blood as the edges of the muscle tissue stitched themselves together in real time. The fissure in his bone structure sealed over under a muffled crack of forced calcification.
However, before the tissue regeneration could complete entirely, Ângela broke the Mana flow and pulled her hand back.
"Wait... why did you—" Allisson began to question, but the words died in his throat.
His legs instantly buckled. Allisson’s peripheral vision darkened into a black tunnel, and a spike of sheer exhaustion and a hunger so overwhelming hit his chest that it felt as though his stomach lining were tearing open. The cost of Ângela’s skill did not come from an external magical source; [Metabolic Stimulation] acted as a biological catalyst that had violently consumed Allisson’s own glycogen and fat reserves to fund the accelerated cellular mitosis.
Allisson only avoided slamming face-first onto the ceramic floor because Ângela caught him firmly by the shoulder, holding his center of gravity.
"We don't have the caloric reserves to fully close the dermis, and we don't have time for you to pass out from hypoglycemia," Ângela declared from behind her Carcará mask, her voice stripped of all empathy. "We don't have time to finish. Run."
Allisson swallowed hard, his mouth completely dry and his body trembling from the severe nutritional deficit, but he used his spear as a lever to push himself up and realign with the vanguard.
The group began a desperate sprint through the school's desolate hallway.
As they rushed forward, the path of destruction left by the brutal battle with the Mutant Carcará revealed the scale of the clash: the aluminum doors of the classrooms were dented and twisted by the bird's impacts, while the infirmary's aluminum door had been ripped entirely off its hinges and lay bent on the floor. The masonry walls displayed deep gouges left by the razor talons, and the floor was littered with shattered fluorescent tubes and glass shards that crunched under their running footsteps.
From the far end of the hallway, the sound of heavy claws and multiple footsteps scaling the access stairs to the floor echoed with terrifying clarity.
Reaching the end of the block, Allisson handed the key to Adson, who unlocked the iron gate and the door. Adson then threw his weight against the reinforced door of the computer lab, barging inside. The group poured en masse into the barred sanctuary.