"That creature..." Julian’s voice was a low, dangerous whisper. "The energy it’s emitting. It’s identical to the area nullifier." He held up the dormant device, which was now pulsing in perfect, sickly sync with the pulses from the gaunt monster below.
"You’re right," Celestia confird, her analytical mind racing through possibilities. "The frequency is a perfect match. This isn’t a coincidence. That creature is either the source of this technology... or a living embodint of its principle."
"The white cores," Beatrix added, her eyes wide with a scholar’s horrified fascination. "It’s pacifying the other monsters and harvesting their energy to fuel its own evolution."
"We cannot let it continue," Julian stated, his decision absolute. "If it consolidates this much power, its nullification field could beco permanent, or cover a vast area. We will be rendered helpless. We attack now, while we still have the advantage of our skills."
There were no objections. The threat was too clear.
In a coordinated assault, they struck from the high ground.
"Lightning Strike!" Julian’s opening move was a spear of pure electricity aid directly at the nullifier monster.
"Silverthread Barrage!" Celestia’s threads shot out, not at the central creature, but at the humanoid mutants surrounding it, aiming to disrupt the harvesting process and create chaos.
"Pyrokinesis!" Emma unleashed a wave of fire into the basin, forcing the creatures to scatter.
The reaction was instantaneous, but not what they entirely expected. The nullifier monster, moving with uncanny speed, avoided the brunt of Julian’s lightning, the blast scorching the ground where it stood. It let out that sa grating shriek, and its white eyes glowed brightly.
But the humanoid mutants didn’t just panic. They recoiled, then turned towards the attackers with a unified, intelligent hatred. One of them, its voice a distorted, gurgling rasp, spoke.
"Uninvited guests..." it hissed.
Another mutant, clutching a harvested white core, snarled, "Be wary! The humans... they carry the Blessings!" It was a clear, terrified reference to their skills.
A third let out a contemptuous laugh, its mutated jaw clicking. "Their Blessings will be silenced! They are just prey! Tainted prey!"
The fact that they spoke, that they recognized their abilities as "Blessings," and that they were organized, sent a fresh chill through the group. These weren’t mindless beasts. They were a faction. A cult worshipping the nullifier creature.
The nullifier monster itself fixed its solid white eyes on Julian. It seed... curious. It tilted its head, and another pulse of white energy began to build around it, far stronger than before. The air grew heavy, pressing down on them. The lights on their weapons and the nascent energy of their skills flickered.
It was preparing to unleash a full-scale nullification field. They had seconds before they were all rendered powerless in the middle of an army of hostile mutants.
But they were too late.
The familiar hum of latent energy vanished, replaced by a deafening silence in their souls. The purple glow of the nullifier device in Julian’s hand died completely. Emma’s flas winked out. Celestia’s silver threads dissolved into motes of light. Zoe’s enhanced form reverted to her normal self in an instant.
The nullification field was active. They were utterly, completely cut off from their skills.
"To your weapons! Now! Fight like you did before the world fell!" Julian’s voice was a whip-crack of command, devoid of panic.
The team reacted instantly, a testant to their training. Swords were drawn, guns were raised. But the mutants did not rely on weapons. They charged with claws, fangs, and brute strength, their bodies their only tools.
A more horrifying realization dawned as one of the mutants opened its maw and spat a glob of corrosive, black acid towards Veronica. She dodged, but the acid sizzled and ate into the ground.
"How... how are they still using powers?!" Emma yelled, barely parrying a clawed strike with the hilt of a knife.
The mutant who had spoken earlier let out a gurgling laugh. "Curious, little Blessed? I’ll sate your curiosity! Our power is not a ’Blessing’ we call upon! It is our blood! Our flesh! We have evolved beyond your fragile dependence on skills! This is true strength!"
It was a fundantal difference. Their abilities were biological, innate, a part of their mutated physiology, not a separate "skill" that could be switched off. The nullifier silenced the system, but it couldn’t silence the monster they had beco.
"Then we fight them on their own terms!" Celestia shouted, her tactical mind already adapting. "They are still flesh and blood! Aim for joints, eyes, and tendons! They can be hurt!"
"Understood!" Clarissa called back, using her body to shove a mutant back with a powerful kick. Even without active skill use, her body retained its trained conditioning.
Julian’s eyes never left the central threat. The nullifier monster. It watched him, its white eyes unblinking. It seed to understand he was the leader.
"Leave the big one to ," Julian said, his voice dangerously calm. He drew the twin monomolecular blades from his back. A cold, predatory smile touched his lips. "It’s been a long ti since I relied solely on this."
With his Inventory locked, this was pure, unadulterated combat. The foundation upon which all his other powers were built.
The monster shrieked and lashed out. Not with energy, but with its body. Jagged, bone-like tentacles erupted from its back, whistling through the air towards Julian.
He didn’t flinch. He moved.
His form beca a blur of precise, economical motion. He ducked under one tentacle, spun away from a second, and with a clean, sharp swish, one of his blades severed a third tentacle that got too close. Black ichor spurted from the stump.
The monster recoiled, shrieking in surprise and pain. It was fast, but Julian was faster. His movents were not enhanced by Boost or Lightning Step, they were the product of a lifeti of training, honed to perfection and augnted by the superhuman physique.
He pressed the attack, his blades a whirlwind of silver, driving the creature back. Each step, each parry, each strike was a calculation. He was analyzing its patterns, its tells, looking for an opening in its defenses.
He was a predator who had simply reverted to his most fundantal nature. And he was terrifying. For the first ti, the nullifier monster, the "shepherd," looked not just curious, but genuinely threatened.
The one variable it couldn’t nullify was the sheer, relentless killing instinct of the man before it.
"I hope you won’t run away because it will be troubleso."
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