Rei Ayanami's calm voice was like cold water splashed into boiling oil, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"It is right there," she said, raising her hand to point precisely toward a seemingly empty, precipitous cliff face upstream of the river valley.
Almost the exact instant her words fell, the light in that patch of space underwent an extremely subtle distortion, resembling the shimmering air above intense heat. Immediately following, a blurry, towering silhouette that was nearly perfectly integrated with the environmental colors flickered past, moving so fast it seemed like an illusion.
"Open fire!" Colonel Quaritch's reaction was incredibly rapid, bellowing the command almost the very moment he spotted the anomaly.
The well-trained soldiers of the Hellfire squad immediately poured a dense barrage of plasma bolts and live ammunition into the area, despite the target's blurred visibility. Scorching beams and kinetic rounds hammered the cliff face, sending splinters of rock flying as dust and smoke filled the air.
Simultaneously, the Na'vi contingent reacted. Tsu'tey and several of the most elite hunters notched and drew their bows nearly the heartbeat after hearing Rei's warning. Powerful bone-tipped arrows tore through the air, whistling toward the distorted space. Their movements were swift as lightning, showcasing the pinnacle of a Na'vi warrior's combat instincts.
However, the opponent's reaction was even faster and far more uncanny. Just an instant before the blanket of firepower swept over, the blurry figure bounded backward and sideways with inhuman agility, evading the vast majority of the strikes. Even though a few stray plasma bolts grazed its body, they merely left minor scorch marks on armor that seemed to be constructed of a specialized material, failing to inflict severe damage.
During its evasive maneuvers, the active cloaking field of the invisible attacker appeared to suffer brief interference from the energy weapons, causing its silhouette to become noticeably sharper for a fleeting moment. It was an exceptionally tall, heavily built humanoid creature radiating raw power. Its head featured a bizarre structural design, and its body was outfitted with equipment of unknown utility.
"Keep up the suppressing fire!" Sergeant Reynolds shouted loudly, attempting to box in the target's operational space.
The cloaked figure clearly had no intention of engaging in a drawn-out skirmish. With a flick of its arm, its forearm gauntlet deployed, revealing a fiercely styled, highly aggressive alien weapon. Accompanied by a low energy hum, three blazing white, high-speed plasma bursts erupted in a fan pattern, striking precisely in the open ground directly ahead of the Na'vi and RDA formations.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Consecutive explosions blasted geysers of dirt and shrapnel into the sky, sending a scorching shockwave laced with the scent of burning matter washing over everyone. The blinding flashes forced the frontline warriors to instinctively shield their eyes; the Na'vi hunters were compelled to leap backward in search of cover, while the tactical formation of the RDA soldiers was disrupted by the concussive force.
This volley was clearly calculated with high precision, inflicting no major casualties while perfectly achieving a tactical delay. Amidst this chaos, the blurry figure shifted and darted like a phantom. Leaping across the cliff faces with an agility that shattered biological limitations, its true body vanished into the depths of the convoluted stone forest and bioluminescent flora upstream before its afterimages could even fade from their retinas.
Within mere moments, only swirling smoke remained on the battlefield, making the brief engagement feel almost like a collective hallucination. From the moment Rei delivered her warning to the target's disappearance, the entire sequence had taken no more than 20 seconds.
A dead silence fell over the site, broken only by the faint, high-pitched hiss of overheating plasma weapons cooling down and the crackle of foliage ignited by the blasts. The air was thick with the sharp tang of gunpowder, ozone, and scorched earth.
Everyone understood that they had just confronted an unprecedented adversary—one possessing highly advanced technology and formidable solo combat capabilities. The speed, raw power, and highly efficient yet brutal plasma weaponry it displayed far exceeded conventional understanding.
Jake Sully stared in the direction the figure had vanished, muttering to himself, "What... what the hell was that thing?"
His understanding of human technology was upended yet again, and a cold dread washed over him; Pandora seemed far more perilous than he had ever imagined.
Neytiri gripped his hand tightly, whispering, "It... is not part of the forest. Within the whispers of Eywa... no such presence exists."
Colonel Quaritch's face was grim. He walked over to a crater scorched by the plasma bursts, squatting down to inspect the molten edges before looking back up toward the attacker's escape route. "This isn't Na'vi tech," he said heavily, "and it sure as hell isn't any human tech we know of."
He was forced to admit that the assessment made by Mann and those "Seekers of Knowledge" was entirely correct.
Eytukan's expression was equally grave. He looked at Quaritch, then toward Mann and Rei Ayanami, his voice low and laced with suppressed fury. "It appears we share a common enemy lurking in the shadows. It has used the blood of our respective warriors... to make fools of us."
This common, formidable, and ruthless adversary acted like a bucket of ice water, temporarily dousing the imminent fires of war between the Na'vi and the RDA, forcing the focus of both factions in the exact same direction. Following a brief period of shock and silence, the atmosphere in the river valley grew exponentially more complex. The suspicion and hatred had not vanished, but they were effectively suppressed for the time being by a far more immediate and uncanny threat.
Colonel Quaritch was the first to break the silence. Stepping closer to the river, his eyes swept across to Eytukan on the opposite bank. His tone was stiff, but no longer dripping with murderous intent. "Looks like we've all been played. Some suicidal bastard is trying to start a war, and he's treating all of us like prey."
His use of the word "prey" precisely described the feeling brought by that exhibitionist slaughter.
Eytukan took a deep breath, forcing down his long-accumulated revulsion for the Sky People, though the sharpness in his golden eyes remained undiminished. "It desecrates life, and it must pay the price. The warriors of the Omatikaya will not allow the murderer of our kin to go unpunished."
Although Tsu'tey remained hostile toward the Sky People, his rage had predominantly shifted toward the cloaked killer. "Hunt it down!" he snarled. "Find it, and let its blood appease the spirits of our warriors!"
Seze stepped forward from the crowd. Her gaze swept over the horrific remains belonging to both factions. Forcing down the trembling in her heart, her voice carried clearly and firmly into everyone's ears: "It is exceptionally dangerous, and extremely adept at hiding. Its weaponry and capabilities far exceed the understanding of either side."
She paused, looking toward Eytukan before turning back to Colonel Quaritch on the far bank, her tone growing even more solemn. "If we continue to suspect one another and fight separate battles, the only outcome will be this hidden hunter picking us off one by one until we bleed out entirely. Neither side can withstand this threat alone."
Her words were like a heavy stone dropped into water, triggering deep reflection among the leaders and warriors of both factions. The anger hanging in the air seemed slightly suppressed by this calm, objective analysis, as a pragmatic sense of crisis began to supplant pure hatred.