The sudden silence from within the bunker was more unnerving than the sounds of combat. Outside, in the blasted landscape before the mountain entrance, the primary engagement had reached a momentary, violent stalemate.
The ground was scarred with fresh craters—some from Korgath's earth-shattering blows, others from where the soil had been flash-vitrified into glass by Wolfen's focused plasma. Korgath bled from a dozen deep, clean cuts where Umbralite shards had found their mark. He panted, his massive chest heaving, his fists clenched and dripping with a mixture of his own ichor and rock dust. His rage was a furnace, but it was meeting something colder and infinitely sharper.
Wolfen Welfric stood twenty feet away, looking mildly inconvenienced. A single, shallow graze marked his cheek where a flung boulder the size of a car had clipped him. In his hand, he held not a weapon, but a long, thin sliver of Umbralite he was idly twirling like a baton.
"You hit hard," Wolfen conceded, his tone that of a wine critic noting a bold tannin. "Your technique, however, is derivative. All force, no finesse. You're a club. An effective one, but still just a club."
Korgath snarled, preparing to charge again. But a voice, calm and absolute, cut through the tension.
"Stand down, Korgath."
From the shadow of a shattered rock formation, General Valerius Kael emerged. He moved with the silent, predatory grace of a panther, his onyx armor not reflecting the weak sunlight but seeming to deepen the shadows around him. To his right, the air shimmered and Umbra Nisha coalesced from the gloom, her pale face a mask of detached observation. On his left, the light bent subtly, and 'Shifter' Nyx appeared, having discarded its crystalline-hybrid disguise, its features now a smooth, neutral blank.
Korgath reluctantly lowered his fists, taking a heavy step back, though his hate-filled eyes never left Wolfen.
Wolfen stopped twirling the Umbralite sliver and looked at the new arrivals. His golden eyes flicked from Kael to Nisha to Nyx, assessing, categorizing. "Ah. The management finally arrives. I was wondering when the hired muscle would get tired."
General Kael ignored the jab. His cold, strategic gaze swept over Wolfen, taking in every detail. "Wolfen Welfric. The Anomaly. Your existence is a fascinating irregularity in a universe of ordered design."
"I try," Wolfen replied dryly.
"Our directive is to cull imperfections," Kael continued, his voice devoid of malice, merely stating a fact. "Eva-01, the Prime, is one. Her constancy is a threat to evolutionary progress. You are another. Your… anachronistic power set is a variable we cannot integrate. It must be removed."
"Must it?" Wolfen asked, tilting his head. "Seems a waste. All this effort, just to prune the garden. Why not… cultivate?"
Before Kael could respond, the bunker entrance disgorged the rest of its occupants. Derek, Leo, Jordan, and Eva emerged, bloodied and breathing hard but united. They formed a line behind Wolfen, facing the Strike Team. Eva's gaze locked onto Kael, her Prime biology recognizing a threat of a different magnitude. Derek's senses screamed danger from all three new figures. Leo cracked his sparking knuckles. Jordan's grip tightened on his katana.
Kael's eyes swept over them, dismissing Leo, Derek, and Jordan with barely a glance before settling on Eva. "Eva-01. You have deviated from your observation parameters."
"I chose to live," Eva said, her voice clear and steady.
"An illogical choice for a control subject," Kael noted. He then looked back at Wolfen. "You spoke of cultivation. Explain."
Wolfen gestured loosely with the Umbralite sliver towards his companions. "Look at them. You see flaws. I see… potential. A new equation. One you didn't write. They've survived your labs, your tests, each other, and now your attack dogs." He nodded towards the panting Korgath. "They're adapting. Evolving in real-time, away from your scripts. Isn't that the point of your whole… project?"
Kael was silent for a long moment. Nisha's shadows coiled subtly around her feet. Nyx stood perfectly still, a human-shaped void of information.
"Your proposal is to spare the targets? To allow the anomalies to persist?" Kael finally asked.
"I'm proposing a new experiment," Wolfen said, a faint, dangerous smile touching his lips. "Leave. Observe from a distance. See what grows here without your shears. You might be surprised. Or, you could try to finish the job now." He let the Umbralite sliver elongate silently into a slender, wicked-looking sword. "But I'm bored of breaking your toys. Let's make a deal. Walk away, and you get to keep your interesting little team. Stay, and I start taking them apart to see what makes them tick. Starting with the big one."
Korgath growled.
General Kael's expression did not change, but a subtle tension entered his frame. He was a strategist, and Wolfen was offering a variable he had not anticipated: negotiation from a position of chaotic strength.
It was at that moment that 'Surge' Jax, the electrostatic hybrid, crackled into view atop a nearby ridge, his body humming with pent-up energy. 'Lens' Oracle stood further back, its crystalline eyes spinning, no doubt feeding Kael a stream of new probabilities.
The balance of power had visibly shifted. It was no longer a hidden strike team against bunker survivors. It was two armed factions, face to face.
Kael's decision was not made with a nod or a word. It was made with a flick of his fingers.
Nyx, the Shifter, and Nisha, the Umbra, did not move. They remained flanking Kael, their focus on Wolfen and Eva.
But Jax, on the ridge, let out a bark of furious laughter. "A deal? With scrap? I don't think so!"
And Korgath, seeing his reinforcements, needed no further encouragement. With a roar that shook the ground, he abandoned all pretense of strategy and charged—not at Wolfen, but directly at the grouped form of Leo, his earlier humiliation demanding payback.
The deal was dead. The battle was back on.
The Fights Begin:
1. Leo vs. Korgath:
This was a clash of titans with opposite philosophies.Korgath was a monument of solid, crushing power. Leo was a lightning storm contained in a biopolymer cage. As Korgath swung a fist that could level a wall, Leo didn't try to block. He dove forward, sliding between the giant's legs, and as he came up behind him, he discharged a concentrated bolt of electricity directly into the back of Korgath's knee. The massive hybrid bellowed in pain and surprise, his leg buckling. Leo rolled away as a backhand swipe missed his head by inches. He couldn't hurt Korgath directly, but he could short-circuit his nervous system, strike at joints, be an infuriating, crackling gnat to the roaring giant. It was a desperate, high-speed game of tag where one mistake meant being turned to paste.
2. Derek & Jordan vs. Silas "Stitch" Mordain & The Acidic Hybrid:
The saboteur and the bio-weapon advanced as a pair.Stitch's needle-fingers reached for the ground, and the rock beneath Derek's feet began to crumble into sand. Derek lunged aside, his body hardening mid-air to deflect a spray of acid from the other hybrid. Jordan was a blur, the Umbralite katana a barrier between them and their foes. He couldn't get close to Stitch—the man's molecular disruption field was a death sentence for any weapon or limb that made contact. Jordan instead focused on the Acidic Hybrid, his perfect swordsmanship keeping it at bay, deflecting its spit, and forcing it to constantly dodge. Derek played interference, using his hardened body to charge the Acidic Hybrid, drawing its attention and taking glancing blows that sizzled against his stone-like skin, giving Jordan the openings to score shallow, bleeding cuts on the creature. They were a shield and a sword, holding the line against a disintegrator and a dissolving spray.
3. Eva vs. 'Surge' Jax:
This was a battle of opposing energies.Jax rained down from the ridge, hurling forks of lightning and superheated plasma orbs. Eva stood her ground, not dodging, but meeting the attacks. Her Prime biology reacted instinctively. Liquid silver metal flowed from her skin, not as gauntlets, but as a wide, shimmering disc-shield she held before her. The lightning grounded into it with thunderous cracks, diffusing harmlessly. The plasma orbs splashed against it, the silver metal glowing red-hot but not failing. Each impact forced Eva back a step, a grunt of effort escaping her lips. She couldn't close the distance under the barrage, but she was an immovable object to his unstoppable force. She was weathering the storm, waiting for a lapse, a moment when the crackling energy around Jax would dim for his inevitable cooldown cycle.
No one was dead. Yet. But the battlefield was a chaotic mosaic of brutal, specialized warfare, with General Kael, Umbra Nisha, and Shifter Nyx watching it all unfold, waiting for the perfect moment to tip the scales. The negotiation was over. The real test had begun.