"We don’t have sixty seconds, Zen!" Jax scread, raising his shield as his hands shook uncontrollably. "That thing is going to turn into a red paste before then!"
"You just have to hold its attention, Jax!" Zen shouted, ripping his combat knife out of his belt and jamming it into the seams of the beacon’s tal maintenance panel. "Keep the Lure on your chest! Let it attack your shield!"
"Maya, get behind !" Jax yelled, taking a wide stance.
Maya scrambled behind the tall shield, pressing her hands against Jax’s back. "Vitality Aura! Maximum output!"
A thick, pulsing green shield of healing magic layered itself over Jax’s blue kinetic barrier.
Zen pulled the heavy tal panel off the beacon, exposing a complex web of glowing blue circuitry and mana crystals. He didn’t have a hacking tool, so he just reached his bare hands into the raw mana streams.
"System," Zen commanded. "Translate the Vanguard spatial code into Imperial Shorthand."
[Translating... Override protocols ready. Proceed with manual rewiring.]
Zen’s fingers flew across the crystals, forcefully rearranging the modern magical pathways using his ancient, vastly superior knowledge of spatial physics.
At the edge of the plaza, carefully hiding in the blind spots of the Vanguard caras, Valeria was executing her orders. She was systematically butchering the remaining corrupted wolves that tried to follow them into the courtyard, snapping their necks with ruthless efficiency.
She couldn’t use her S-Rank magic, but her E-Rank physical output was more than enough to keep the smaller mobs off Zen’s back.
BOOM.
The Void Beast charged across the plaza and slamd its massive bone-fists directly into Jax’s shield.
Jax scread in agony as his boots slid backward, carving deep trenches into the concrete plaza. Maya poured every ounce of her mana into his back, keeping his bones from instantly shattering under the pressure.
"Hold the line, Jax!" Zen yelled, not looking away from the circuitry. "Thirty seconds!"
The beast raised its arm to strike Jax again, but Valeria materialized from the shadows.
She leaped off the hood of a rusted car, using her restricted E-Rank strength to deliver a devastating spinning kick directly to the side of the Beast’s skull.
The blow didn’t damage the massive monster, but it threw it completely off balance. The Beast roared in annoyance, swatting blindly at Valeria.
Valeria ducked under the massive claw, her eyes burning with suppressed rage. She drew a standard academy combat knife and drove it deep into the weak point behind the beast’s knee.
"I am the Vanguard of the Emperor," Valeria whispered to the beast, her voice dripping with toxic malice. "You do not deserve to breathe the sa air as him."
The Beast thrashed wildly, its corrupted instincts confused by the small girl hurting it while the Aggro-Lure on Jax’s chest scread at it to attack the shield.
"Val, get out of its range!" Zen yelled. "Ten seconds!"
The beast ignored Val entirely, turning its massive body back toward Jax. It raised both of its massive, bone-plated fists high into the air. Purple Void energy violently condensed around its arms.
"Jax, brace yourself!" Val shouted, sprinting backward.
"I can’t hold that!" Jax scread, his blue barrier already flickering and dying. "Maya, run!"
The beast slamd both fists directly into the plaza floor.
It wasn’t a physical strike. It was a localized spatial earthquake. The concrete ground violently buckled and exploded upward. A massive, jagged shockwave tore through the plaza, splitting the earth in two.
"Aah!" Maya scread as the ground beneath her gave way.
Jax lunged backward, grabbing Maya by the collar and pulling her to safety just as a twenty-foot-wide chasm ripped open across the center of the courtyard.
Valeria was caught on the edge of the blast. She gracefully flipped backward, landing safely on the far side of the massive crack in the earth, right next to Jax and Maya.
But Zen was still standing at the beacon, completely isolated on the other side of the chasm.
"Zen!" Valeria scread, her calm facade finally breaking. She rushed toward the edge of the pit, but the drop was too wide and too deep. "Zen, step away from the pillar!"
"Got it!" Zen shouted, ignoring her.
He violently twisted the final blue mana crystal inside the panel.
The extraction beacon let out a deafening, high-pitched whine. The blue light at the top of the pillar suddenly turned pure white. A localized spatial vacuum expanded outward, washing over the entire plaza.
The purple Void tear hovering directly above the Aggro-Lure on Jax’s chest violently collapsed in on itself. It vanished with a loud pop.
The red blinking light on the steel box in Jax’s armor finally went dark. The lure was completely dead.
"You did it!" Jax gasped, collapsing to his knees behind his cracked shield, breathing heavily. "Zen, you absolute genius, you killed the lure!"
Maya collapsed onto her back, completely out of mana, staring up at the artificial sky in pure relief.
Valeria didn’t celebrate. She stared across the massive chasm at Zen, her yandere instincts screaming at her. He was isolated. He was too far away for her to protect.
"Zen," Valeria called out urgently. "Stay there. I am going to jump the gap."
But the fight wasn’t over.
Jax let out a confused noise as the massive B-Rank Void Beast didn’t disappear. Without the Void tear to sustain it, the beast was trapped in the dungeon, but it was still very much alive.
"Uh... guys?" Jax whimpered. "It’s still here."
The beast slowly stood up to its full, terrifying height. But it didn’t look at Jax anymore. The Aggro-Lure was dead. The forced-target spell compelling the beast to attack Jax was completely gone.
Now, its ancient, corrupted instincts were fully in control.
The massive monster stood perfectly still. It slowly tilted its head back and sniffed the air.
It slled the residual ambient mana floating around the extraction beacon. The mana Zen had just forcefully inhaled and expelled using the Primordial Void Breathing.
The beast froze.
The Void Singularity didn’t just recognize magic. It recognized souls. And it specifically rembered the terrifying soul of the Emperor who had tried to permanently seal it five hundred years ago.
The beast slowly turned its massive, hollow eyes away from Jax. It looked straight across the twenty-foot chasm, staring directly at Zen.
"System," Zen thought, his blood running completely cold. "Target change?"
[Critical Warning: The Void Singularity recognizes your soul signature. The Aggro-Lure has been overridden. You are now the primary target.]
The beast let out a horrifying, ear-splitting roar of pure, ancient hatred. It ignored Jax, ignored Maya, and ignored Valeria entirely.
It crouched down on its massive hind legs and leaped cleanly over the chasm, crashing down onto the concrete directly in front of Zen.
"Zen!" Valeria scread, her voice tearing with genuine, unhinged terror.
Zen was completely alone. His mana core was completely inverted and useless.
The massive, B-Rank nightmare was raising its claws to strike, and his heavily restricted Vanguard was trapped on the other side of a twenty-foot drop.
"System," Zen thought, his heart hamring against his bruised ribs. "What are my options?"
[Critical Warning: Target lock confird. Probability of surviving a direct physical strike without mana reinforcent: 0%.]
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