A brilliant flash of green light erupted from somewhere in the distant forest. The blinding beam streaked through the trees like a laser, striking the mantis beast squarely in the chest just as its blades were about to separate Leo's head from his shoulders.
The impact sent the creature staggering backward, its attack stopped as it screeched in pain. The beast's carapace cracked open where the beam had struck, revealing the pulsing core beneath layers of damaged armor.
Leo didn't waste the opportunity, despite his exhaustion. "Aria! The chest! Shoot into the opening!"
Aria reacted instantly, her hands moving quickly. She assessed the situation with a tactician's eye. The beast was not recovering at the same quick pace, it would seem its energy was dwindling, she couldn't afford to miss.
She reached for her special arrows, selecting four from her quiver. One was a standard arrow and three with glowing Lumina-infused tips. The mantis was beginning to regain its senses, its sensing organs twitching wildly as it searched for the source of the attack.
"Keep it distracted!" Aria called to Leo, who knew he had nothing left to give. But if he could just slow it for two seconds he would have done enough. Knowing this, he lunged and grabbed the beast's legs, giving Aria all the time she needed.
Aria nocked her normal arrow first, drawing the bowstring to her cheek. "Let's see how smart you really are," she muttered, aiming to the side of the creature's damaged chest.
She released the arrow, which whistled through the air to the beast's right. As she'd predicted, the creature reacted instinctively, leaping sideways to avoid the arrow; it was a reflex that fully exposed the damaged section of its chest.
In one quick motion, Aria nocked and fired all three Lumina-infused arrows in rapid succession. The first struck the edge of the opening, widening the crack. The second penetrated deeper, lodging directly beside the pulsing core. The third embedded itself just below the neck.
For a moment, nothing happened. The beast froze in place, its sensing organs telling it that these were those sticks that could explode.
All three arrows exploded at the same time. The explosion tore through the creature's upper body, severing its head and most of its thorax.
The corrupted core remained intact. Like all other nightmare beast cores, it was incredibly durable and hard to damage. The remains of the beast collapsed, twitching violently before going still.
Leo allowed himself to collapse onto his back, breathing heavily. "That was... too close."
Aria approached the beast's remains cautiously, bow still at the ready. "Is it really dead this time?"
"Fodder-tier beasts aren't capable of regenerating their necks of vital points," Leo confirmed, pushing himself up on shaky elbows. "It's dead and gone."
Sighing, Aria extracted the core from the beast's remains. The core, covered in blood, had taken no damage as if it had never been touched.
"These fetch a good price in some places," she explained, storing the core in a special compartment in her pack. "And they're useful for crafting specialized equipment."
Leo stood slowly, his legs still unsteady. Ignoring as Aria chose to store the core without asking him, he shifted his gaze toward the distant treeline where the green energy beam had originated. "What was that? Or rather, who was that?"
Aria followed his gaze, squinting into the forest. "Another recruit, maybe? That was an Awakened ability for sure, some kind of energy blast."
"They saved us for real," Leo said quietly. "I'm guessing it must have been a stray blast from another battle."
"Maybe so," Aria said. "Guess I forgot we're not the only poor bastards in this arena."
They stood in silence for a moment, scanning the treeline for any sign of movement, but whoever had fired that energy blast had already disappeared.
"Should we try to find them?" Leo asked. "If they've got that kind of firepower, they'd be a useful ally."
Aria considered this briefly before shaking her head. "The forest is too dense, and we'd be wasting valuable time. Besides, someone with that kind of power probably doesn't need our help."
She gestured toward the desert stretching before them. "We stick to the plan. Cross this section quickly, reach the ruins, and then make for the center."
Leo nodded reluctantly, casting one final glance toward the forest before following Aria across the boundary into the desert. The change in terrain was sudden, one moment they were surrounded by trees, the next walking on golden sand that stretched for kilometers.
"By the way, we should find a hidden area for the night. I need to meditate to re-energize my Lumina cells before we encounter another nightmare beast."
Even as he walked, Leo's legs trembled. Not from the heat but from knowing how close he'd come to death. That kind of fear doesn't fade just because the monster is gone.
As they entered the desert, the heat hit them immediately, a stark contrast to the forest's shade. Having no cover, they both used their bags to shield their faces.
"How artificial is this place?" Leo wondered aloud, looking back at the unnaturally abrupt transition between biomes. "The Resistance must have spent a fortune creating these testing grounds."
"You're assuming they built it," Aria replied, checking their position on her map. "From what I've heard, they repurposed an abandoned GPA training facility. The Global Powered Alliance created dozens of these controlled environments for their Awakened soldiers."
Leo considered this as they trudged across the sand. "Makes sense. The GPA would need places to train their people against different types of scenarios."
"And now the Resistance uses their old playgrounds against them," Aria added with a hint of satisfaction. "Poetic justice."
As they walked, Leo kept replaying the moment of their rescue in his mind. The green energy had seemed familiar somehow, triggering a sense of déjà vu he couldn't quite place. Had he encountered an Awakened with similar abilities during his time as a journalist?
"After you do your weird meditation, we should continue walking and only take brief breaks so we can reach the ruins by morning," Aria announced, interrupting his thoughts. "The desert's mostly yellow-coded, but watch for movement in the sand. Burrowers love this terrain."
Leo nodded absently, his mind still on their mysterious savior. Whoever they were, they'd helped them very much. Leo never left a debt unpaid.
"I wonder if we'll meet them at the center," he mused.
"If they're as good as that blast suggests, they'll make it through," Aria said confidently. "Maybe we'll end up in the same Squadron after all."
The pair quickly found shade beneath a large sand dune, where Leo slipped into Luminating for an hour while Aria impatiently kept watch."
The sun beat down mercilessly overhead as the pair made their way through the desert, although they didn't know how, they knew they were being watched by Resistance agents. Maybe they were the ones who shot that beam.