The five newly empowered members of the Cultivator Compact—all now Tier 2, save for Maggie—stood in the overgrown courtyard, the stench of the dead Queen Mosquito and the raw hum of their surging Orgone pools defining the moment. Their transformations were complete: Elias's terracotta armor was thicker, Kira's head-wings more stable, Maya's speed heightened, Marco's resilience cemented, and Maggie a sleek, crimson-armored blur. "Tier 2," Elias muttered, his voice still ragged but laced with authority.
His gaze was fixed on Maggie, the newest and most lethal addition. "This changes the math. We don't scavenge; we hunt. "Kira, now able to glide more purposefully, circled in the air above. "True, darling. But power makes noise. And noise attracts the kind of thing that thinks five Tier 2 crystals are an easy feast."
She didn't need to finish the thought. A new, far more immediate threat emerged, boiling up from the very ground beneath them. The Beast Zone City wasn't just a surface phenomenon; it was anchored by the subterranean, ancient power of the Beast Vein. From the deep shadows cast by a collapsed highway overpass, a pack of lethal, nightmarish creatures materialized. These were not mere Genome Beasts, they were a pack of predatory ambush Splicers—hyper-evolved. They were the result of the Beast Vein merging with discarded human and military genetic projects.
They resembled monstrous, humanoid were wolves—sleek, fast, and horrifyingly intelligent.
They possessed the lean, coiled power of a timber wolf fused with the sinewy physique of a human sprinter. Their hands were replaced by oversized, razor-sharp splicer claws—three-foot-long blades of bio-steel bone that vibrated at high frequency, designed to bypass conventional armor and cut through chitin. Their hide was a mottled grey-black, capable of a limited, shadow-based camouflage. They specialized in coordinated, fast-strike ambushes, using the dense jungle and the low-light environment of the urban ruins to their advantage.
There were at least six of them, moving with synchronized, chilling precision. They didn't rush in a chaotic swarm; they launched a calculated, coordinated attack on the weakest points of the Compact's formation. Two werewolf Splicers immediately engaged Elias, knowing his robust armor was the key to holding the line. They didn't strike the thick chitin but focused their vibrating claws on the joints, seeking to sever tendons and cripple his mobility.
Two other Splicers, moving with terrifying speed, attempted to flank Maya Kwon, hoping to overwhelm her Kinetic Flow before she could generate enough momentum to evade them. The final two Splicers made a beeline for Marco Diaz, they knew if they could remove the passive healing anchor, the entire line would break.The attack was a blur of shadow and razor steel. The newly crowned Tier 2 heroes of the Harvest War were thrust into their first true test of coordinated combat.
The Ambush Splicers' attack was swift and ruthlessly effective, immediately targeting the weaknesses and strengths of the Cultivator Compact. The two Splicers dedicated to flanking Maya Kwon surged forward, Mosquito Maggie reacted with the blinding speed and predatory instinct of her new bond. Her innate trait, the Queen Mosquito's Bloodlust Aura, was her immediate, lethal defense. With a high-pitched hum, a wave of sickly crimson Orgone exploded from Maggie, washing over the two approaching Splicers. The creatures, designed for kinetic speed, instantly stumbled. Their movements, which had been a terrifying blur, became sluggish and heavy, as if moving through deep mud.
Their sophisticated splicer claws lost their high-frequency vibration, slowing their attack significantly. This act of instant debuffing created the critical space Maya needed. Her Kinetic Flow activated, and she retaliated with a terrifying, shimmering flurry of speed, turning the tables on her slowed attackers. The healing anchor Failed however, the Splicers were ruthless in their focus on Marco! While Maggie was dealing with the speedsters, the two Splicers targeting the rear moved with savage precision. Marco Diaz—the rookie, the Kinetic foundation build anchor—was simply too slow to raise his defense in time. The Splicers' vibrating claws slashed across Marco's torso and legs!
Even with his nascent Tier 2 hardening, the attack was devastating. Marco crumpled with a ragged cry, his steel pipe clattering away. The subtle, internal glow of his Foundation Build flickered violently; he was crippled, his ability to serve as the team's stationary healing point instantly nullified. Kira's Critical Response with Marco down and Elias still locked in a grinding defense against two Splicers; the formation was collapsing. Kira realized the danger was no longer the Splicers—it was the sudden collapse of their defensive structure.
She executed a desperate, low-altitude Tier 2 flight burst, gliding over the fray. Her Scavenger's Luck trait activated, and she immediately spotted the subtle, pulsing junction point where the two Splicers were focusing their joint force on Elias's terracotta shoulder joint. Kira did not strike to disrupt; she struck to kill. She slammed both her massive, taloned feet down into the spine of the Splicer closest to Elias, driving the creature down and severing its spinal cord removing it from the combat. The compact was fractured but not broken. Maggie had immobilized the speed threats, Marco was down, and Kira had bought Elias precious seconds. The fight for survival in Beast Zone City had just begun.
The initial Splicer ambush, though coordinated and devastating to Marco, failed to break the center, thanks to Kira's timely disruption and Maggie's immediate application of her Bloodlust Aura. The time for calculated defense was over; Elias seized the momentary opportunity for a reckless counter-attack.
Elias, the antlion, ignored the throbbing pain in his joints. With a grunt, he unleashed the upgraded power of his Tier 2 Chitinous Resolve. He didn't just passively defend; he triggered an overload. He converted a massive percentage of his physical defense into a raw, surging burst AoE shockwave!
FWOOM! A wave of deep, burnt-orange energy pulsed violently outward from his armored form.
The two Splicers that had been focused on him, their claws seeking the weaknesses in his chitin, were slammed backward by the sheer force of the crushing wave. The energy didn't wound them, but it hit their delicate balance and speed, sending them reeling into the rubble-strewn street.
The surge instantly revitalized his allies. Kira, her aerial maneuver complete, felt a wave of stabilizing energy flow into her head-wings. Maya's already flowing Kinetic Flow intensified, allowing her to press her advantage against the two slowed Splicers. Most critically, Maggie and the fallen Marco felt the boost.
The disruption created a critical window. The Splicer pack, now fractured and disoriented, was exposed to the full, specialized fury of the Compact's newest Tier 2 powerhouses.
Mosquito Maggie was the first to act. The two Splicers she had slowed with her Bloodlust Aura were still stumbling. She leveraged her natural, needle-sharp precision. With a graceful, crimson blur, she closed the distance, she twirled mid-air as her new razor-thin proboscis went snapping out like a rapier.
She executed a rapid, focused strike, piercing the vulnerable necks of the were wolves, and then, using her improved agility, spun to deliver a series of powerful thrusts as she flew backwards through the air impaling the splicer over and over again. The splicer howled out in terror as the Mosquito girl wiggled her butt around in the air. Maggie finally dealt a deathblow penetrating the splicers chest cavity, instantly her clear mosquito blood tank began to fill as she moaned, 'Delicious.' Even though Marco was severely wounded, the surge of Stamina from Elias's overload allowed him a moment of clarity and critical action. He painfully dragged himself against the base of a massive bio-steel pillar and pressed his back against it.
His kinetic foundation build trait instantly flared, and the soft, internal glow of his crystal intensified, signaling the start of his slow but continuous passive healing. He was down, but he was not out; he had successfully anchored the rear, forcing the Splicers to choose between engaging the heavily armored front line or dealing with the healing threat.
The fight had swung wildly. The Cultivator Compact, though battered, had successfully withstood the ambush and leveraged their combined, newly acquired Tier 2 traits to turn the tide. The New Kids on the Block were proving their worth.
The orgone shockwave from Elias had bought the Compact the decisive moment they needed. Four of the six Ambush Splicers were either stunned, slowed, dead or dying. The time for defense was over; the moment for specialized, lethal annihilation had arrived.
Maya 'chameleon' Kwon saw her opportunity. Her upgraded Kinetic Flow trait surged, turning her into a devastating projectile.
"Mine!" she hissed, a flash of motion preceding the sound.
Maya didn't run; she flowed. Her body became a shimmering, silver-green streak across the battlefield, leveraging the momentum from her previous evasion and the added Stamina Buff from Elias. The two Splicers she had initially slowed with Maggie's aura were still struggling to regain their footing.
Maya struck the first reeling Splicer from behind. Her speed was so extreme that the creature didn't register her presence until the pain hit. She used her serrated katana to execute a perfect, high-velocity decapitation, severing the creature's head from its body in a silent, blinding slash. The Splicer's body crumpled before the head hit the ground.
Without breaking stride, Maya pivoted on the corpse of the first. Her speed generated a massive amount of residual kinetic energy. She used the momentum to carve a figure-eight pattern through the second Splicer's torso, effectively dissecting the monster with a series of surgical, hypersonic strikes.
Maya's Kinetic Flow was now fully charged, granting her near-instantaneous speed. She darted over to the two Splicers that Elias had pushed back with his Chitinous Resolve. They were just beginning to clamber back to their feet. She struck both creatures simultaneously, driving her katana deep into their exposed nerve centers and snapping their bio-steel spines with the kinetic force of her movement.
Annihilation Complete
In less than three seconds, Maya had transformed from an evasive speedster into a terrifying, lethal whirlwind. The air around her calmed as her kinetic energy dispersed, and she came to a halt amidst the collapsing bodies of four highly evolved Splicers. She stood perfectly still, her silver-green scales shimmering, her katana dripping.
The overwhelming majority of the immediate threat was gone, annihilated by focused speed.
Elias, still anchored and pulsing with his Stamina Buff, let out a ragged breath. "Tier 2 suits you, Maya."
Mosquito Maggie gave a predatory, bloodless smile. "See, Elias? No pipe required."
The two remaining Ambush Splicers, realizing the fight was lost, attempted to dissolve back into the shadows and make a hasty retreat, their initial speed hindered by the trauma of the attack. They didn't make it. Mosquito Maggie was not just a close-quarters fighter; she was a master of attrition. She focused the entirety of her upgraded Tier 1 Bloodlust Aura onto the two fleeing targets. A concentrated wave of crimson Orgone rings flowed outward, a psychic siphon specifically targeting the Splicers' kinetic energy and vitality.
The retreating creatures instantly slowed to a crawl, their muscles seizing up. They stumbled, weakened, and collapsed into the spongy bio-moss, their razor-claws digging futile trenches in the earth. Their bodies were no longer moving; they were paralyzed by the extreme drain. The final two Splicers were secured not by a killing blow, but by a strategic application of debilitating debuff. The battlefield was silent once more, leaving five Cultivators standing over six defeated Ambush Splicers.
Elias Vance moved quickly to the downed Splicers, using his heavy pipe to deliver the final, crushing blows, ensuring no regenerative surprises. He then rushed to the wounded Marco Diaz. "Marco, hold still," Elias instructed, his antennae sweeping the area. "You need to activate that Foundation Build fully. Don't move until we say so. "Marco, pale but conscious, pressed his back firmly against the large bio-steel stalk, focusing entirely on his internal healing process. The gentle, pulsing glow of his crystal intensified, his Tier 2 Foundation Build working furiously to knit his sliced flesh. Kira landed gently, her head-wings perfectly balanced, and began efficiently extracting the Beast Crystals from the dead Splicers. "Six high-tier kills, Elias. Excellent haul for our debut.
Let's see what these 'Splicers' dropped. "Maya Kwon, her katana wiped clean on a clump of alien moss, scanned the periphery. "We just broadcast our location to every predator within a mile. We take the crystals and move—now."
The New Kids on the Block had passed their first major test, securing a massive six-crystal haul and proving their combined Tier 2 traits were a devastating force. The only cost was Marco's temporary crippling, a wound that demanded immediate resource allocation.