Not toward Aurum — Aurum with his signature still suppressed while he recovered. Not toward Raven — F3’s signature back to normal levels after deactivating Soul Manipulation.

Toward Marcus.

Level 74. No Fragment. Without the magical intensity of Aurum or F3.

But the only presence in the corridor that hadn’t attacked directly yet — and pre‑sealing level‑200 entities processed threats not by level but by actions taken.

Raven had attacked.

Aurum had attacked.

Marcus had given instructions.

In the creature’s logic, Marcus was the unconfirmed variable.

"It chose you," said Raven.

"I noticed," said Marcus. Without changing his tone.

"Can you hold up without Aurum?"

Marcus looked at the creature approaching.

Looked at Raven.

"Do you have a plan, or are you genuinely asking?"

"Both."

Marcus processed that.

"The rear joint zone is compromised," he said. "If something gets in there now — before it regenerates — the damage multiplies." Evaluating angles. "I need you to reach that point while the creature is focused on me."

"The rear zone is three meters high when the creature is upright."

"Yes."

"I have no way to reach three meters high in a corridor without the creature seeing me."

"Sure?"

Raven looked at the corridor.

The stone blocks from the collapsed ceiling — irregular, some still on the ground, one leaning at an angle against the left wall forming an accidental one‑and‑a‑half‑meter ramp.

The left wall with cracks from the previous fighting deep enough to provide handholds.

"No," said Raven. "I’m not sure."

[Shadow Meld — activated — MP: 80/minute]

Raven melted into the corridor’s shadows — the residual dust from the collapsed ceiling helping, the contrast between the broken east windows and the north corridor’s darkness creating enough light variation for Shadow Meld to work better than under normal conditions.

The creature reached Marcus.

Marcus didn’t dodge — not because he couldn’t, but because dodging would shift the creature’s attention, and the creature’s attention needed to stay on him.

The physical limb’s blow connected with the magic shield Marcus activated.

[Marcus — shield — MP: X → X-3,200]

[Marcus HP: 280,000 → 280,000] — shield absorbed.

The shield held.

The second blow wasn’t going to hold the same way.

---

Raven on the left wall.

Her fingers in the stone cracks — not climbing with climbing skill, climbing with the specific determination of someone who knew exactly how much time she had and couldn’t waste any of those seconds hesitating.

One and a half meters. Two meters. Two and a half meters.

The creature preparing its second blow against Marcus.

Raven on the angled stone block — the highest point available in the corridor. Approximately three meters from the ground.

The creature’s rear joint zone one and a half horizontal meters away.

[Shadow Meld — deactivated]

[Blood Weapon — sword — MP: 50]

[Hemomancy — activated on blade — all the blood in the corridor converging on the edge]

The solidified blood sword with twenty minutes of combat blood concentrated in its edge — not just Raven’s, but the Inquisitors’ from the earlier fight, from the exchanges against the creature that had left marks on the floor that no level‑200 creature had noticed because level‑200 creatures didn’t track blood.

[Assassination Arts — passive — surprise damage: +85%]

Raven jumped.

The sword toward the rear joint zone.

The exact point where the plates were separated.

The point where Solar Supremacy had interrupted local regeneration.

The point where the exoskeleton couldn’t be densified without losing mobility.

Impact.

[Creature — rear joint zone — damage to compromised point: 89,400]

[Creature — HP: 498,700 → 409,300]

The creature bent.

It didn’t fall — it bent. The rear zone giving way partially under the damage to the already compromised point, the creature’s movement losing symmetry for 2.1 seconds while its compensation system processed the localized damage.

2.1 seconds in which the creature couldn’t use its spiritual limbs because it needed all available coherence to keep its physics functioning.

Marcus used it.

[Containment magic — advanced level — focused on rear joint zone]

Not to damage — to fix. The same skill he had used against Davan’s F5 field but applied to compromised inert matter instead of active energy.

The separated exoskeleton plates fixed in that position by magical containment.

The rear joint zone locked in a vulnerable state.

[Creature — rear zone — vulnerability fixed: estimated 40 seconds]

Raven on the ground, standing, looking at the locked rear zone.

Looking at Marcus.

"Forty seconds," said Marcus. "Then containment gives way."

"That’s enough."

[Army of Bones — Death’s Army — maximum]

Five hundred skeletons converged from the adjacent corridors — not in formation, in mass. The kind of attack that didn’t require precision because the precision was already in the target point.

The rear joint zone.

The compromised point.

The only place on the creature’s exoskeleton where five hundred level‑40 skeletons could cause real damage because the regeneration system was interrupted and the plates were fixed in a vulnerable position.

The five hundred struck simultaneously.

The entire corridor vibrated.

[Creature — rear zone — accumulated damage: 124,000]

[Creature — HP: 409,300 → 285,300]

The creature roared.

The sound wasn’t audible in the normal sense — it was a vibration on the spiritual plane that Raven felt through F3 as pressure in her chest and that Marcus felt as the sudden, irrational instinct that he needed to be somewhere else.

The creature’s spiritual limbs exploded outward from its center — not a directed attack, an emergency response. Like a system releasing pressure when internal pressure exceeds the threshold.

Raven and Marcus moved in opposite directions instinctively.

The five hundred skeletons dissolved by the spiritual energy explosion — F3 absorbing the impact of losing five hundred connections simultaneously.

[Raven — F3 corruption: 17% → 19%]

The corridor was silent.

The creature standing.

HP: 285,300.

The rear joint zone — Marcus’s containment gave way with the explosion. The plates were still separated but no longer fixed. The regeneration system was returning to operation in that area.

Aurum lifted his head from the ground.

Eight minutes of recovery remaining.

Raven looked at the numbers.

Marcus looked at the numbers.

"Two hundred eighty‑five thousand," said Marcus.

"Yes."

"And Aurum needs eight minutes."

"Yes."

The creature reoriented.

This time toward both of them simultaneously — no longer prioritizing one over the other. Something in the last two minutes of fighting had updated its threat assessment system.

"Do you have another plan?" said Marcus.

Raven looked at the corridor. At the creature. At the rear zone, already regenerating.

At F3’s spectral crow, which had reconstituted after the explosion and was orbiting her position with eyes that saw the spiritual plane.

"Working on it."

"Work faster."

"Someone already told me that today."

The creature charged.