The rift in the sky vomited Corrupted drop-pods. They slammed into the fungal forest, and from them emerged not just Walkers, but a Corrupted Ravager—a Tier 7 beast with crystalline armor and scythe-like limbs. Its blood rhythm was a pounding, furious war-drum that echoed in Echo's skull.
"Defensive circle!" Korvax yelled, rallying the un-paralyzed members.
The Ravager charged the disabled Gravorgs. They would be slaughtered.
Echo made a choice. He reached deep into his own veins, pulling not just awareness, but power. He felt a sharp pain in his palms. Ten milliliters of his own blood seeped from his pores, hovering in the air before him, glowing crimson.
[ Ability Unlocked: Sovereign's Claim ]
[ Cost: Own Blood. Effect: Exert dominance over lesser foreign biological systems for 10 seconds. ]
He flung his blood toward the Ravager. The droplets splattered against its armored leg.
For ten seconds, Echo was the blood inside that limb. He felt the corrupt ichor, the violent will, the alien life. He issued a command: STOP.
The Ravager's leg locked mid-stride. It stumbled, crashing into a mushroom tower with a ground-shaking roar.
It was only a stumble. But it was enough.
Leyla and Mira moved as one. Leyla phased into the shadow beneath the fallen beast, her claws finding the gap in its crystalline armor at the throat. Mira folded space around its head, creating a momentary vacuum that stifled its rage-shriek.
Echo, drained but focused, pointed. "Its core is behind the third thoracic plate! Now!"
Korvax, with a last burst of Zephyrian speed, drove his plasma lance into the exact spot.
The Ravager shuddered, let out a final, wet gasp, and died.
The remaining Corrupted forces, without their commander, became disorganized. The squad mopped them up.
Silence returned to the fungal forest, broken only by the hiss of suits and the moans of the wounded.
The betrayed Drakani, Sylas, lay still, the conflict within him having burned out his life force. Vor'k was restrained, his eyes now vacant—the corruption had fled, leaving a hollow shell.
Korvax limped to Echo. "That blood trick… I've never seen anything like it."
"A latent bloodline," Echo said, the official cover story already forming. "Triggered by stress."
Korvax nodded slowly, but his avian eyes were sharp. "It saved us. The Academy will have questions… and so will others."
He was right. Echo had revealed a fraction of his power to a mixed squad. Word would spread.
The traitors were real. His secret was leaking.
And the Corrupted now knew that something on the battlefield could command the very essence of their being.