[Celestial Academy — Side Corridor — 11:29 AM]

Three more exchanges.

That was what Raven had said.

The first came immediately.

The creature charged with its physical limbs from the front and its spiritual limbs from above — the new pattern it had developed after learning that the flanks were predictable. Above was less predictable because the corridor limited response options.

Raven moved left, using her whip as an anchor to change direction without losing speed.

Cael from the right flank — not with containment magic this time. With something more direct, the kind of skill a level‑89 Inquisitor develops after twenty years of executing operations that the Temple never officially documents.

[Cael — Temporary suppression seal — applied to upper spiritual limb]

Not damage. Suppression — the spiritual limb losing cohesion for 1.2 seconds, the attack from above deflecting before it could connect.

1.2 seconds.

Aurum from the ground with the angle calculated from the previous exchange.

[Solar Breath — focused — rear zone — second impact]

[Creature — accumulated thermal damage: 58,400]

[Creature — HP: 218,100 → 159,700]

The cracks in the rear zone expanded — the second sustained heat impact to the same point caused more damage than the first because the material had already lost thermal cohesion in the first exchange.

The creature roared.

A spiritual vibration stronger than the previous one.

The corridor ceiling gave way at two points simultaneously — stone blocks falling, one a meter and a half from Cael, another directly where Raven had been 0.3 seconds earlier.

---

[Central Courtyard — 11:29 AM]

Five lesser creatures stopped.

Not two. Five.

Kira counted them in real time with [Predator’s Sense].

"Five now," she said.

The mother in the center of the courtyard with her ventral cavity pulsing at a rate that was half the initial — she was no longer actively generating. The entire system was redirecting resources toward the second creature, which was taking sustained real damage.

The ten Inquisitors took advantage of the five that had stopped — the level‑72 Inquisitor coordinating with hand signals, three Inquisitors toward each stopped creature while the other four held the perimeter against the ones that were still active.

Maya read the redistribution.

"If the system keeps redirecting resources, ten more could stop in the next exchange."

"And the mother?" said Emily.

"The mother without generation resources is just a level‑200 creature without the lesser ones as backup." Maya looked at the mother, still in the center. "She’s still a problem. But a more manageable problem."

The mother turned toward Emily.

She didn’t charge.

She evaluated.

Kira between Emily and the mother before the evaluation finished.

[Predator’s Sense — reading the mother]

The energy signature different from ten minutes ago — more concentrated, less diffuse. Like something that had been distributing resources in multiple directions and had just contracted them all toward the center.

"She’s changing mode," said Kira.

"What mode?" said Maya.

"I don’t know what to call it. But the signature she had when generating creatures was expansive. This is the opposite."

"Contraction."

"Yes."

Maya processed that.

"If she contracts all her resources into herself—" Calculating. "—generation stops completely. The existing lesser creatures remain active, but there won’t be more."

"And her?"

"Stronger. Temporarily."

The three looked at the mother.

The mother looked at the three.

Akari between the two positions with her nine tails evaluating.

"How much stronger?" said Emily.

"It depends on how many resources she had distributed." Maya. "I have no way to calculate it exactly."

"Estimate."

Maya looked at the mother. At the lesser creatures that had stopped. At the generation rate that had dropped from six every three seconds to zero in the last two minutes.

"A lot."

---

[Celestial Academy — Side Corridor — 11:31 AM]

Second exchange.

The creature had processed Aurum’s pattern — Solar Breath from the ground, rear angle, after Cael’s suppression seal. Three variables connected in a predictable sequence.

This time the spiritual limbs didn’t go upward.

They went directly at Aurum — crossing the corridor diagonally, seeking the dragon before he could position for Solar Breath.

Marcus saw the angle.

"Aurum. Left wall."

Aurum moved toward the left wall — not the ground, the wall. The golden dragon had the ability to adhere to vertical surfaces, a passive skill rarely needed in open terrain but critical in an enclosed corridor.

The spiritual limbs followed Aurum toward the left wall.

Leaving the center of the corridor free.

Raven in the center of the corridor.

[Soul Manipulation — F3 — activated on the two hundred partially reconstituted skeletons]

Not to attack the creature. To create a signature — the two hundred skeletons pulsing simultaneously on the spiritual plane, F3’s signature amplified and distributed across two hundred points in the corridor, creating magical noise that competed with Aurum’s signature.

The creature’s spiritual limbs processed two simultaneous signatures — Aurum on the left wall and amplified F3 at two hundred points in the center.

0.6 seconds of evaluation.

Cael used the 0.6 seconds.

[Cael — Suppression seal — applied to right spiritual limb]

The right limb lost cohesion.

Aurum from the left wall — the lateral angle he had never used.

[Solar Breath — focused — rear zone — third impact — from lateral angle]

The lateral angle exposed a different section of the rear zone — not the exact point of the previous two impacts, but adjacent. The existing cracks acted as heat conductors toward the surrounding areas.

[Creature — lateral thermal damage: 71,800]

[Creature — HP: 159,700 → 87,900]

Eighty‑seven thousand nine hundred.

The creature’s rear zone now had its cracks interconnected — not isolated points of damage but a fracture network covering forty percent of the posterior exoskeleton.

The creature bent.

Like in the exchange with Davan and F6’s bearer — it didn’t fall, it bent. But this time more pronounced. Its physical limbs lost coordination for 3.1 seconds while its system compensated for the structural damage to the rear zone.

3.1 seconds.

Raven looked at Cael.

Cael looked at Raven.

"One more," said Raven.

"Aurum," said Marcus.

Aurum from the left wall evaluated his resources — two high‑level Solar Breaths in five minutes. The third would leave the dragon in mandatory recovery regardless of the fight’s outcome.

Aurum’s golden eyes focused on the creature’s rear zone.

On the interconnected cracks.

On the forty percent of fractured exoskeleton.

Aurum positioned himself.

---

[Central Courtyard — 11:32 AM]

Eight lesser creatures had stopped.

The mother was not generating.

And the mother’s energy signature — the contraction Kira had described — was completing. All the resources she had distributed to generation and to the lesser creatures in the system were converging toward the center of her own mass.

[Predator’s Sense — Kira — reading the mother]

The signature denser than at any previous point in the fight. Denser than when she had emerged from the ground. Denser than when she had been generating at maximum capacity.

"She’s finished contracting," said Kira.

"When will she attack?" said Emily.

"Now."

The mother charged.

Not with the calm of lesser creatures following magical orientation. With the speed of something that had all its resources in a single point, and that point was movement.

Akari at full form between the mother and the three.

[Nine-Tails Inferno — Akari — maximum]

The nine tails channeled simultaneously — not focused fire, a full field. Akari’s ultimate attack created a heat barrier between the mother and the team.

The mother passed through the barrier.

Not without damage — she passed through it.

[Mother — damage from Nine-Tails Inferno: 89,000]

[Mother — HP: estimated X → X-89,000]

Akari flew backward from the impact of the mother’s mass passing through the field.

[Akari — HP: X → X-62,000]

Maya’s eyes on Akari before the fox landed.

"Akari."

Akari touched the ground and stood up — Phoenix Revival not activated, the damage within the threshold she could absorb without needing it. But with the kind of posture that said the next impact would be different.

The mother six meters from Emily.

Kira between them.

[Predator’s Sense — reading the mother at six meters]

The dense signature. The speed with all resources concentrated. The movement patterns completely different from the lesser creatures — more direct, more massive, less oriented by magical detection and more by physical trajectory.

*She doesn’t use magical detection when she’s in contraction mode. She uses direct trajectory.*

"Maya," said Kira without taking her eyes off the mother. "Can you predict a direct trajectory?"

"Yes."

"Then predict."