I landed near Marla, the floor of the CENO research lab groaning under Koba's immense impact. Red alarms screamed, blending with the high-pitched warning of "Containment Breach!" The sterile white lab was instantly plunged into chaos, dust swirling.
"Syn," I snapped, pointing toward the fractured containment chamber, "Secure the Element-X, while we raid CENO! The Hand will cover you from above."
Doctor Syn, pulling herself together with remarkable speed despite the dust and ringing in her ears, approached the nearest console. "Hopefully they haven't locked me out," she muttered, her fingers flying across the glowing screen, already calculating how to manually extract the volatile material.
I turned my focus outward. The hole in the ceiling where The Hand was anchored looked like a flesh wound. "Ash! Security Response is immediate! Multiple hostile targets converging! CENO forces are armed with plasma and non-lethal sonic deterrents!≫" Herja's warning was sharp. The sealed door at the end of the corridor hissed and unlocked. The first CENO security team, four armored figures, charged in, weapons up.
Back at the Forge Room, the situation was escalating just as quickly.
Felicity, her usually cheerful, fanged grin replaced by a feral snarl, had landed lightly between Vespa Nox and the Territory Key.
"Over my dead body, bat-bitch!" Felicity spat, bracing herself.
Vespa Nox's cold, predatory smile vanished. She saw the challenge, the key, and the clear path. Her movement was the first decisive action. 'Shadow Surge!''
She didn't engage Felicity directly with a melee attack. Instead, Vespa Nox instantly unleashed a wave of dark, disorienting sonic pulses from the horns atop her head. The air in the Forge Room violently vibrated, hitting Felicity and Mothman with a powerful concussive burst that was designed to shatter their focus and defenses. Simultaneously, Vespa Nox didn't move toward Felicity, but rather diagonally to the side, attempting to bypass the succubus entirely and get closer to the altar housing the Territory Key.
Her two hulking, carapace-armored clan mates, acting on instinct, immediately followed up by charging Felicity, aiming to pin the flying demon down and clear the path for their leader.
Felicity, anticipated the direct charge but was momentarily stunned by the sonic pulse. But over coming the pain of the sonic concussion she reacted in kind.
''Ricochet Rampage!''
With a furious scream, Felicity whipped out a pair of glowing, chakrams of her own bio-tech. She didn't waste time on Vespa Nox, who was already flanking her. Instead, she whipped out the chakrams at the two charging clan mates in a defensive maneuver designed to stop their momentum with an energy charged blast before instantly returning to her grasp.
The sonic assault from Vespa Nox was brutal and punishing. Mothman was caught flat-footed, the force of the dark energy wave slamming into him. His thin thermal under-suit offered zero protection. He was hurled backward, his skates skittering uselessly on the polished floor before he crashed hard near the living anvil, the impact knocking the wind from his lungs.
He faded in and out of consciousness, the furious shrieks of Felicity and the metallic clang of her Chakrams against Vespa's charging guards becoming distant echoes. He fought to hold on, his body raw and weak. "If only I was stronger." His thought was a desperate, primal plea. "If only I knew how to put on the armor."
It was a strange moment between life and death—a flash of singular, focused intent, unburdened by self-doubt or the need for bladder relief. It was the purest essence of will demanding reunion with his tool.
Mothman's eye snapped open. He didn't think the word "Release" this time; he focused his entire being on the alien name Syn had given the suit, the identity he had come to embody on the surface.
"Xun'Dral Unit!"
There was a blinding flash of silver-black energy that filled the Forge Room.
The armor didn't materialize from storage; it seemed to flow and snap together from nothingness, wrapping itself around Mothman's body mid-air. He was no longer a man; he was the High-Value Asset 001, 'The Hunter.'
He flipped, the sudden density and weight of the suit correcting his fall. He landed in a perfect three-point battle pose—one knee on the ground, one sonic blade half-drawn, the other hand resting on the floor.
Steam jetted out of certain vents along its shoulders, and the odd, segmented mouthpiece of the helmet hissed, indicating the internal systems were now fully active and compensating for the heat of its rapid appearance. The change in the room was instant. The sonic waves that had just been battering the walls now seemed to deflect off the suit's shell.
Vespa Nox, who was mid-flank toward the altar, stopped cold. She turned her head slowly, her crimson eyes wide with shock. "We've got a situation." Mothman's voice crackled through the helmet's speakers, no longer shaky, but low, digital, and utterly menacing. He rose to his full, towering height, a genuine threat now standing between the Shadow Fangs and the Territory Key. The Forge Room, usually a center of creation, became a scene of immediate, brutal conflict.
The sealed door hissed open, and the first four CENO security agents, clad in heavy white polymer armor, stormed into Sub-Level 5. Plasma rifles were instantly leveled at the invaders.
"Agents! Stand down!" one of the CENO commanders barked, his voice distorted by his helmet comms, aimed directly at my bonded assets. "You are violating CENO proprietary space! Cease hostilities and secure the rogue assets, Marla and Koba!"
The CENO forces hadn't registered me or Syn yet; their systems defaulted to identifying the known, heavily augmented threats. Marla was already moving.
Ignoring the command—which now registered as nothing more than background noise thanks to my Beast Commander link—Marla launched herself upward. She didn't fly straight; she executed a complex jump-glide maneuver, using her black wings to slow her fall as she bounced off the nearest wall of shattered containment units. She briefly wall-latched twenty feet up, placing her above the security team.
Her crimson eyes glowed, and the twelve vipers adorning her head hissed, focusing their energy. She wasn't firing a simple laser. She was aiming for a full-power, health-scaled assault: the Serpent Flash. The security commander saw the charge building and shouted a final, desperate warning. "Marla! Your aggression parameters are in violation of contract 407-B! This is not your target!"
It was too late. The twenty-four viper heads unleashed their payload. A blinding, seething wave of green Orgone energy beams erupted from Marla's vipers. The sheer damage, scaled to her 25,500 HP, was overwhelming. The beams didn't just strike the CENO armor; they instantly vaporized the commander and the agent next to him in a spray of molten polymer and scorched flesh. The remaining two CENO agents barely managed to throw up a hastily constructed kinetic barrier, staggering under the residual shockwave. They hadn't expected a rogue asset to hit with the destructive power of a pressure jet.
Koba roared, seeing his master's asset already engaged. He pounded the floor, creating immediate seismic cracks, and charged the remaining stunned agents, his enormous beetle horn lowered.
I watched the initial clash—a perfect demonstration of my assets' deceptive power. Marla had vaporized two CENO guards with a single, devastating Serpent Flash, proving her HP-scaling damage was no joke. Koba roared and slammed into the ground, stunnning the remaining two guards. "Syn, focus on that console! Koba, shield her!" I commanded, launching the War Beetle into his designated defensive role.
Now it was my turn to get into the mix. I paused only for a moment to consider my options. I could easily engage the next wave of CENO forces with my Plasma Tail or my alloy claws, but if I wanted to advance my Beast Master path, I would need more skill points. And those points only came from cultivating with the Dahkra Rod—which meant absorbing the unique bio-signature of a stunned enemy. But this is where things got interesting. I didn't need to bond every one I subjected to the rod to cultivate with it. I could also cultivate by turning the orgone of the victim against them, punishing them with it.
I sent a focused Beast Commander order to Marla: ''Do not kill the remaining two CENO guards.'' They were my immediate cultivation opportunity.
I reached down and grabbed the Dahkra Rod from its resting place, pulling the violet crystal spike from between my cleavage. I launched myself forward, entering the main corridor where the CENO teams were converging. I streaked down the hallway like a shadow, my superior Agility making me a blur against the strobe of the red alarms.
The second CENO security team, still focused on the noise of Koba's assault and the devastation Marla had caused, didn't even see me flank their position. I landed silently just behind the lead guard. He was raising his plasma rifle, preparing to fire around the corner. My moment had arrived. I slammed the Dahkra Rod into the small gap between the guard's helmet and his neck armor. The violet crystal instantly flared as it tagged the orgone signature, I sent out a wave of pain, punishing the guard with his own orgone!
The guard went rigid, his consciousness screaming in silent agony as his unique augmented bio-energy was violently punishing his chakra pathways.
A system message popped up: ''New Bio-Energy Signature Absorbed. Training cultivation reward acquired: 1 Skill Point." I ripped the rod free as the now-lifeless guard crumpled. My focus shifted to the remaining agent, my eyes glowing with predatory intent.
The Forge Room was a storm of raw augmented power. Vespa Nox was momentarily stunned by the sudden, dramatic materialization of the Xun'dral Unit. That pause was all the opening Felicity needed.
"Try dodging this, Vespa!" Felicity screamed, spinning with wicked speed.
She didn't aim at Vespa, who was still flanking the altar. Instead, she hurled the chakrams at the hardened Scyther/Mantis clan members. The rings struck the first one's thick carapace with a shrieking metallic CRANG! before instantly executing a ricochet technique, bouncing off the wall and streaking toward the second mantis-beast's exposed knee joint. The unexpected, unpredictable trajectory caught the second brute mid-swing, severing tendon and armor plating.
Vespa Nox, realizing the tide had just turned, snapped out of her shock. Her large, membranous bat-wings flared, and she launched herself high toward the ceiling in a rapid, silent ascent, preparing for a dive-bomb attack on the vulnerable altar!
But she wasn't the only one who had accessed new power.
Mothman rose, the black armor of the Xun'dral Unit humming with internalized energy. He didn't speak a word; he simply drew his sonic blades. The twin weapons emitted a high, invisible hum of vibration, eager to cut.
He knew Vespa was too fast for him to catch in the air. Instead, he channeled the sheer force of his newfound armor into a defensive maneuver. He crouched low and then launched himself not at Vespa, but at the Territory Key. Mothman was a blur as he glided along on the single huge skate wheel beneath each heel. Mothman's First Strike: He slammed his right boot down, momentarily locking his specialized armor onto the floor, and swept his sonic blade in a wide, horizontal arc. A concussive sonic wave, far more powerful than Vespa's initial attack, erupted from the blade's vibration and tore across the room's ceiling, directly intersecting Vespa's ascent path.
Vespa was caught mid-flight. The powerful wave of focused sonic force knocked the air from her lungs and violently slammed her against the cavern wall, causing fragments of rock and her own chitinous armor to spray out. She tumbled, hitting the ground twenty feet away from the key, momentarily winded but enraged.
"So the hardware actually works," Vespa hissed, rubbing her helmeted head. She met Mothman's menacing, silent form. "You're going to regret that, little Hunter. This isn't your fight."
Mothman didn't reply. He simply held his ground in front of the altar, his sonic blades steady, a pillar of black alien defense against the invaders.
The sonic blast from the suddenly activated Xun'dral Unit had accomplished its mission: it stopped Vespa Nox cold. She knew, with chilling certainty, that her window of opportunity to steal the Gutter Nest territory Key had slammed shut.
Mothman, now a towering silhouette of wheeled alien armor, stood unmoving before the Territory Key. The Xun'dral Unit was unpredictable, immensely powerful, and utterly neutralized her aerial advantage. Worse, Felicity, having rebounded from the shockwave, had swiftly finished disabling the two Mantis-beast clan mates, who now lay writhing, entangled in their own guts.
Vespa Nox cursed under her breath. Her plan had been a surgical strike. 'In and out,'' while Ash and his two body guards were gone. The appearance of this armor, piloted by someone whose intent was now locked on defense, made a continued fight suicidal. "You win this round, little Hunter," Vespa hissed, her voice laced with venom. "But tell your boss that the Gutter is shrinking. She can't hold this territory forever."
Without waiting for a reply, Vespa Nox flared her massive bat-wings. This time, she didn't aim for the altar; she executed a rapid, vertical ascent, flying straight up into a hidden jagged tunnel entrance that led back to the upper layers. Her retreat was as swift and sudden as her appearance. Felicity didn't pursue. She let her energy chakrams dissolve and turned to the downed clan mates, a satisfied, predatory smirk returning to her face. "Yeah, run back to your hole, bat-bitch!"
Mothman remained rooted to the spot, his sonic blades humming down to silence. He watched the last shadows of Vespa Nox disappear, the adrenaline finally starting to recede.
"That... that was intense," Mothman's digitized voice crackled, the gravity of the situation finally setting in.
Felicity walked over, kicking one of the downed clan mates lightly. "Told you this place was dangerous, how' did you like that little bit of ''action'' Xun'dral biscuit? Ash is gonna be thrilled with our victory."
Meanwhile, in CENO Black Site Onyx, I had just claimed my second kill with the Dahkra Rod. I had ripped the violet spike from the second guard's neck. The guard collapsed, twitching, his vital energy gone.
"New Bio Signature Absorbed. Cultivation Advanced. Acquired: 1 Skill Point."
I now had four Skill Points in my pool, perfect for unlocking another tactical advantage. I didn't hesitate. I needed to ensure Marla maintained max health as well as Koba my aggro brute and wall.
I now had four Skill Points in my pool, the perfect amount to unlock a critical defensive advantage. I couldn't risk my assets being permanently damaged, especially since Marla's attack power scaled with her HP, and Koba was the only wall between Syn and the converging CENO forces.
I mentally selected the third skill in the Symbiotic Enhancement branch, the path focused on mutual buffs and healing.
"≪System: Unlocking Regenerative Synergy. Cost: 4 Skill Points.≫"
"Regenerative Synergy confirmed," I thought, executing the purchase with all four points.
Herja purred suddenly in my mind. "Feel your Orgone flow."
Just then, I experienced an incredible rush of Orgone energy. The wave didn't just stay in my head; it surged into my prime meridians and settled intensely in my heart chakra point, a warm, potent reserve of healing force. I focused the energetic wave upward and outward, channeling the newly unlocked power through my arms and out through my palms, which now pulsed with soft light from my ram chakras.
The field activation effect was instantaneous and visible.
A faint, blue-green aura immediately flowed from my hands toward Marla and Koba, who were currently engaged in suppressing the last two agents. They were within my Regenerative Synergy proximity range.
Koba, who had taken a few glancing energy shots to his thick carapace, visibly relaxed as the deep cuts began to seal and smoke, his immense Defense quickly patching itself up.
Marla, whose primary threat was maintaining her massive HP for her devastating Serpent Flash, showed an immediate increase in internal system stability, the faint scorch marks on her glossy armor fading. The continuous feedback of my Orgone energy flowing to them established the synergy. My assets would heal faster as long as they fought near me. The tide of battle was turning from a desperate scramble into a controlled, calculated demolition.
"Herja," I commanded, ready to move, "how much longer until Syn gets that console unlocked?"
"Doctor Syn reports 75% progress on the stabilization chamber console. But Ash, we have a major problem—a specialized CENO response unit is entering Sub-Level 3 and is moving fast. They are designed for asset retrieval. You must move."