[Celestial Academy — Administrative Wing Corridor — 11:08 AM]

The creature changed tactics.

It no longer charged in a straight line.

Its spiritual limbs deployed forward like scouts — touching the plane between life and death before the physical body moved, searching for where the two Fragments were before committing its mass.

It was learning fast.

Too fast.

"It’s reading the Fragments before attacking," said Alex.

"I know." Seraph with F2’s scythe active, her eyes tracking the spiritual limbs that were visible to her the same way they were to Alex.

"When it detects F1 or F2, it adjusts its trajectory before launching."

"Then we stop being predictable."

"Do you have a specific suggestion, or just the general observation?"

"Working on it."

The creature lunged.

---

The spiritual limbs arrived first — two of them, from forty‑five‑degree angles, trying to fix Alex’s and Seraph’s positions on the spiritual plane before the physical body arrived.

Alex activated [Soul Sight].

The spiritual limbs became visible.

Four meters long.

[Shadow Step — not to the flank. To the space between the two spiritual limbs.]

Alex materialized at the exact point where the two limbs couldn’t reach simultaneously without colliding with each other.

The creature processed the unexpected position.

0.4 seconds of recalibration.

"Now," said Alex.

[F2 — The Scythe — spiritual‑plane cut — right limb]

Seraph’s scythe cut the right limb — not severing it, creating desynchronization between the two planes for 1.8 seconds. The physical limb on that side lost coordination, the blow coming from that angle deviating forty‑two degrees from its calculated trajectory.

Alex into the weak point that created.

[Blood Weapon — crimson sword — channeled via F1+F4]

[Necrotic Burst — concentrated into the blade at the moment of impact]

The sword connected with the right‑rear exoskeleton — the point of lower density that the desynchronization exposed — with the Burst collapsing inward at the moment of contact.

BOOM.

[Creature — damage: 52,400]

The creature went three meters to the right.

It didn’t recoil. It *went* — the distinction mattered because recoiling would imply something had pushed it, and this was more like the ground decided to be three meters to the right of where it was.

Seraph looked at the result.

"That was more than the previous exchanges."

"I changed the Burst’s angle." Alex repositioning.

"Instead of exploding outward, I concentrated it at the impact point. The exoskeleton distributes external damage, but internal damage has nowhere to go."

"Why didn’t you do it before?"

"Because before I didn’t have someone creating a consistent enough weak point." He held the crimson sword. "The pattern needed both of us."

The creature reoriented.

This time more slowly. Processing what had just happened.

---

"How much HP does it have?" said Seraph.

"I have no way of knowing exactly." Alex with Soul Sight active, looking at the creature’s energy signature.

"F1 doesn’t catalogue it. It’s pre‑system."

"Estimate."

"Enough that what we just did didn’t finish it."

"Helpful." Seraph evaluating the next angle. "How much longer can you maintain F1 and F4 synchronization?"

"I’ve been at it for twenty minutes." Alex. "The first time I tried it was half an hour ago."

"Is it degrading?"

"Not yet. But corruption rises with each exchange where I take damage."

[Corruption: 93% — rising slowly]

"Then don’t take damage."

"Thanks. Hadn’t occurred to me."

The creature lunged — this time differently.

The spiritual limbs didn’t deploy forward.

They retracted toward the physical body, like something that had learned.

The physical body alone.

Without the spiritual limbs as anticipation, the creature was faster — its mass moving without the added weight of the spiritual plane, at a speed that didn’t match its size.

Alex didn’t have time for Shadow Step.

The blow connected with his left shoulder.

[Alex HP: 312,400 → 285,700]

[Corruption: 93% → 95%]

Alex against the corridor’s left wall.

F1 offered.

F4 offered.

*Let us.*

"No." Out loud. Not for the Fragments — for himself. To confirm it was still him answering.

Seraph between Alex and the creature before the second blow arrived.

[F2 — cut barrier on spiritual plane — immediate radius]

The scythe created a structure on the spiritual plane that the creature couldn’t pass without becoming completely desynchronized. The kind of F2 use that came from fifteen years of integration.

The creature stopped one meter from Seraph.

Evaluating the barrier.

"Are you okay?" said Seraph without turning.

"Yes."

"How long before corruption becomes the main problem?"

Alex processed the number honestly.

"Two more exchanges with this level of damage."

"Then you don’t take any more damage." Seraph holding the barrier. "I contain, you strike. Only strike."

"If you contain, you can’t desynchronize."

"I know."

"Then how do I create the weak point?"

Seraph considered that during the second the barrier gave her.

"F2 can do both, but not with the same intensity." A pause. "Containment at 70%, desynchronization at 30%. The weak points will be smaller and will last less time."

"How much less?"

"0.4 seconds instead of 1.8."

Alex processed what it meant to hit the exact weak point in 0.4 seconds instead of 1.8.

"I need to be in position before you create the weak point."

"Exactly."

"That means I need to anticipate where the weak point will be before it exists."

"Exactly."

"Can you tell me where before you create it?"

"It’s too fast. You’ll have to read it."

Alex looked at Seraph. Looked at the creature evaluating the barrier.

"Then we need a signal."

---

The creature found the barrier’s edge.

It pushed.

[F2 — barrier — pressure increased]

Seraph absorbed the push — the scythe glowing brighter, the corridor’s spiritual plane distorting around the two of them with the kind of visual quality that Alex’s Soul Sight processed as roughness on an otherwise smooth surface.

"What signal?" said Seraph through her teeth.

"The scythe." Alex repositioning. "When you switch from containment to desynchronization, the scythe’s light will change, right?"

"How do you know that?"

"Because you’ve been using it in front of me for twenty minutes, and every time you desynchronize with F2, the light goes from blue‑white to pure white for 0.2 seconds before the cut."

"You noticed that from the beginning?"

"From the third exchange."

"Why didn’t you say something? You’re analyzing my fighting style... You’re good."

"Because as long as it was predictable for me, it was also predictable for the creature. Now that the creature has changed tactics, it doesn’t matter that I know."

The creature pushed harder against the barrier.

[F2 — barrier — 60% capacity remaining]

"In five seconds the barrier gives way," said Seraph. "Are you in position?"

Alex on the left‑rear flank — the angle the creature never covered because its retracted spiritual limbs created a blind spot exactly there.

[Blood Weapon — sword and chain — charged]

[F4 via F1 — Necrotic Burst — concentrated into the blade]

"I’m in position."

"When the barrier gives way, the creature will charge directly at me." Seraph. "Two meters away. 0.4 seconds of weak point on the right‑rear side."

"Understood."

"Alex?"

"What?"

"Don’t miss."

"I don’t intend to."

---

The barrier gave way.

The creature charged at Seraph exactly as calculated — full mass, no spiritual limbs as anticipation, maximum speed in a straight line.

Seraph with F2’s scythe switching from containment to desynchronization.

The scythe’s light shifted from blue‑white to pure white.

0.2 seconds of signal.

Alex already moving from the left‑rear flank — not with Shadow Step, on foot, because Shadow Step created a signature on the spiritual plane that the creature had learned to read, and this needed to arrive without announcement.

The creature’s right‑rear side — its plates slightly misaligned due to F2’s desynchronization.

0.4 seconds of weak point.

Alex used 0.3.

[Blood Weapon — sword — impact on weak point]

[Necrotic Burst — collapsed inward]

BOOM.

[Creature — damage: 67,800]

The creature didn’t go sideways.

It went forward — the impact from the right‑rear side deflecting its charging trajectory to the left, its full mass projecting against the corridor’s left wall with the speed it had from the charge plus the momentum of the blow.

The impact against the wall.

The entire corridor vibrated.

The ceiling cracks from the previous fight extended another three meters.

The creature on the ground.

First time since it had entered the corridor.

Two seconds of silence.

---

Seraph looking at the creature on the ground.

Looking at Alex.

"That worked better than expected."

"Yes." Alex evaluating the creature’s energy signature with Soul Sight — still massive, still active, but with something different in the distribution. The accumulated damage from the previous exchanges plus the last 67,800 had found something. "It’s actually damaged."

"How much?"

"I don’t know its total HP, but F1 reads its energy distribution differently than three minutes ago. Something internal is compromised." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The creature began to get up.

More slowly than before.

"It’s still dangerous," said Seraph.

"It’s still dangerous," confirmed Alex.

[Corruption: 95%]

F1 offered.

F4 offered.

Both with more urgency than in any previous exchange — reading the corruption at 95%.

*Now. Let us now.*

Alex pushed back.

Whatever it cost.

[Corruption: 95% — stable. For now.]

"How much longer can you maintain control?" said Seraph.

"Long enough to finish this."

"Sure?"

Alex looked at the creature getting up. Looked at the corruption that F1 returned as a number.

Looked at Seraph with F2’s scythe glowing between them.

"No." Honest. "But it’s what we have."

Seraph processed that.

She nodded.

"Then let’s finish it fast."

The creature fully standing.

Reorienting.

It was learning too.

"It’s changed again," said Alex.

"I see it."

"The previous pattern won’t work anymore."

"I know." Seraph with the scythe adjusting to the creature’s new configuration — reading the spiritual plane, calculating. "I need thirty seconds to find the new weak point."

"Can you give me those thirty seconds?"

"I can give you twenty."

"Enough." Alex activating [Shadow Step] toward the opposite flank — putting himself between the creature and Seraph while she calculated. "I’ll keep it busy."

"Alex."

"What?"

"Don’t take damage."

"You already told me."

"I’m repeating it because the first time didn’t work."

Alex dodging the first spiritual limb of the new configuration by four centimeters.

"Working on it."