Victor's cold, sharp eyes, like surgical lamps, locked onto Alan with terrifying, purely academic fervor. His faint smile deepened, as if he'd discovered a specimen more precious than his Entropy Catalyzer.
"Perfect 'Neutralizer'… Anima field stability is anomalously high…" he murmured, his voice cutting clearly through the lab's hum, each word a needle of ice in Alan's nerves. "Withering pollution spontaneously subsides near you… Fascinating resistance… Or… conversion?"
Alan felt the targeted cold pull surge violently! It was as if countless invisible needles stabbed into his energy field, trying to forcibly extract his unique Harmonizing Anima! The suppressor cuff shrieked, its temperature spiking to near-burning levels, power pushed to the absolute limit! He grunted, veins bulging on his forehead, legs buckling. His Harmonizer ability instinctively fought back, forming a resilient "buffer layer," desperately resisting the assault, but the drain was immense, the agony excruciating.
"Get off him, metal freak!" Fenrir's roar exploded through the lab like thunder! The werewolf's berserker rage ignited the moment Victor targeted Alan! His eyes blazed with feral light. Ignoring the grotesque vats and pipes, he became a blur of grey fury, alloy claws tearing the air, aimed to shred Victor and his mechanical arm together!
"Fenrir! Look out!" Lena's warning echoed. She reacted with lightning speed! Both hands snapped forward. Several silver throwing stars etched with Warden wards became streaks of light, not aimed at Victor, but at inconspicuous metal protrusions on the walls flanking his office door—triggers for the lab's internal defenses!
But Victor was faster! His cold mechanical hand didn't leave the rune array. Only a tiny crystal embedded in his index finger joint pulsed faintly.
Hummm—!
Panels in the floor before the office snapped open! Thick, serpentine creatures, armored in dark green slime, topped with flower-like spray nozzles, lashed out! They had no eyes, only heat/Anima-sensing organs, reeking of acid!
Splurch! Splurch!
Lena's stars hit the triggers dead-on, unleashing disruptive arcs that temporarily crippled some defenses. But Victor's creatures didn't need system control!
Two acid-sprayers whipped towards Fenrir! Thick, bubbling yellow-green acid jetted from their nozzles like pressure hoses! Two more sprayed towards Lena and Alan, laying down suppressive fire!
"ROAR!" Fenrir bellowed, his charge unbroken, claws a whirlwind of steel! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Acid was partially deflected by the savage claw-storm, splattering onto the metal floor and nearby vat glass, instantly corroding sizzling pits and white smoke! But droplets pierced his defense, spattering his tough hide and arms!
"ARGH!" Fenrir roared in pain! Where the acid hit, smoke rose instantly, fur charring black, searing agony erupting! His charge faltered! The two tendrils seized the moment, coiling around his arms and torso like constrictors, corrosive suckers adhering with crushing force! Their nozzles aimed at his head for another blast!
Lena dodged the acid stream with acrobatic grace, twisting aside. The main jet missed, but corrosive droplets spattered her infiltration suit's shoulder, sizzling faintly. Landing, she crushed a "Ward Shield" crystal in her palm! A translucent golden energy barrier flared into existence, shielding Alan!
Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!
Acid slammed into the shield with a sickening hiss! The golden light flickered violently, thinning rapidly! Lena paled; maintaining the shield drained her Anima fast!
"Alan! Suppress him!" Lena yelled, switching her shock baton to max power, blue-white arcs crackling. She needed to deal with the immediate threat!
Alan gritted his teeth, enduring the agony of his draining energy and the cuff's burning heat. He focused his entire will! Instead of fully resisting the pull, he channeled his Harmonizer ability towards Victor's draining energy stream! Not a clash, but like a rock diverting a torrent, forcing it into chaos and sluggishness!
A flicker of surprise crossed Victor's coldly focused face! He felt the precise energy siphon from his mechanical arm disrupted, deflected, its efficiency dropping by nearly a third! "Resistance… intriguing…" His eyes gleamed with heightened interest. The runes on his mechanical arm glowed brighter, attempting to restabilize the flow.
Suddenly, another threat emerged!
From the shadows behind Victor, a larger shape materialized silently! A creature resembling a monstrous fusion of scorpion and pangolin! Over three meters long, covered in thick, metallic dark-red chitin, a segmented tail tipped with a venomous blue stinger arched high! It had no eyes; its head was a rotating, fanged suction maw, reeking of carrion!
"Armored 'Impaler.' Eliminate the rune-caster." Victor ordered calmly, as if commanding lab equipment.
The Impaler emitted a subsonic screech (felt as vibration). Its massive body moved with shocking speed, six legs clacking rapidly. Its stinger-tipped tail lashed out like a siege engine, whistling through the air, aimed to impale Lena as she held the shield against the acid spray! Simultaneously, its suction maw gaped open, generating a powerful pull targeting Lena's shock baton and the pouch holding her runes!
Lena's eyes widened! The Impaler's speed and power dwarfed the acid-sprayers! She had to drop the shield to dodge, but that would leave Alan fully exposed!
"Lena!" Alan cried out in desperation! His Harmonizer ability surged violently within him, fueled by rage and Fenrir's peril! He tried diverting some power to disrupt the Impaler, but Victor's draining grip held him fast!
Fenrir was locked in a brutal struggle with the acid tendrils, roaring in pain and fury, unable to break free! Lena was about to be skewered!
In that split second, Lena revealed elite Warden reflexes and nerve! She slammed the faltering shield forward as a concussive blast against the acid spray, simultaneously throwing herself into a desperate, near-horizontal backbend!
CRUNCH!
The shield's remnants collided with acid, exploding into corrosive mist! The Impaler's deadly stinger whistled past, inches above Lena's upturned face, burying itself deep into the alloy base of a vat behind her! Solid metal crumpled like foil! Shrapnel and nutrient fluid sprayed!
Using her left hand to push off the floor as she fell, Lena twisted her body like a spring. Her right hand, still gripping the crackling baton, thrust upward, jamming it into the Impaler's vulnerable leg joint!
CRACK-ZZAP!
High-voltage current discharged! The Impaler shrieked, a metallic scraping sound, smoke rising from the struck joint! Its movement froze momentarily!
But Victor wasn't done. He seemed indifferent to the Impaler's setback. His mechanical hand finally left the rune array, palm turning towards the embattled Fenrir.
"Conflux… Degraded Application… Specimen harvest." Victor stated flatly.
HUM!
A force of suction, vastly stronger and wider than before, engulfed Fenrir! This time, it wasn't just Anima! Fenrir felt his physical strength, his blood flow, even the vital energy fueling his berserk rage being violently ripped away! The acid tendrils wrapped around him were the first to suffer; their energy and vitality visibly withered and desiccated! Their corrosive slime turned grey and inert! The tendrils themselves shriveled like drained vines, crumbling to dust!
"GRRRAAAAHHH—!" Fenrir howled in agony and fury! His werewolf vitality fought the drain, but the pull from Victor's palm was a ravenous vortex! The acid burns on his body worsened instantly! Muscles visibly atrophied! Fur lost its luster! His berserk state was forcibly suppressed, eyes bloodshot with pain and disbelief!
"Fenrir!" Alan's vision blurred with rage! Victor's power—this direct theft of life energy—was far more terrifying than the Greenhaven circle! This was a degraded "Conflux of Elements"! Alan's Harmonizer ability boiled over with fury and desperation! The suppressor cuff emitted a piercing, glass-shattering shriek! Spiderweb cracks instantly covered its surface!
"Now!" Lena seized the Impaler's paralysis. She sprang up like a coiled viper, firing a specialized "Spatial Bind" rune pellet from a wrist launcher! It struck the Impaler's suction maw dead center!
The rune activated! A shimmering field of distorted space momentarily glued the Impaler's head and legs!
Without pause, Lena switched her baton back to melee mode and charged Victor like a thunderbolt! She had to break his hold on Fenrir! It was the only way!
"Foolish." Victor watched her charge, expressionless. His hand draining Fenrir clenched slightly tighter! Fenrir choked, agony intensifying, dropping to one knee! Simultaneously, Victor's free left hand flicked dismissively. A barrier of pure "Decay" energy, like roiling emerald smoke, bloomed between him and Lena!
Lena's baton stabbed into the smoke barrier!
HISSSSS—!
No clash! The crackling blue arcs on her baton were swallowed, extinguished by the emerald decay! A wave of intense corruption surged up the baton! Lena's arm went numb; a cold, invasive force tried to breach her defenses, disrupt her Anima flow! She gasped, her assault shattered, forced to leap back. Her baton clattered to the floor, its surface instantly rusted and pitted!
Victor stood unmoved, his mechanical arm relentlessly draining Fenrir's life, the emerald decay barrier drifting like a shroud of death before him. His gaze swept over the agonized Alan, the struggling Lena, and the rapidly withering Fenrir. A genuine, scholarly smile of satisfaction finally touched his cold lips.
"Data acquisition… exceeds projections. Especially you…" His eyes locked back onto Alan. The suction from his mechanical palm seemed to shift frequency, becoming more precise, more targeted. "The nature of 'Harmony'… perhaps more valuable than fragments of the 'Loom'… The perfect key…"