Utopian System

Lucien dodged another of the artromus's strikes, his crystalline wings flaring to deflect a lateral blow.

Around him, soldiers were just beginning to stir, their system armor still pulsing with regenerative energy.

Time was running out.

"You there!" he called out, his voice cutting through the chaos. "Find Ren! Tell him we need more metamorphosis potions!"

The soldiers exchanged bewildered glances at the alien word "metamorphosis," but given the insanity unfolding around them, the moving city, the transformed monster before them, they simply nodded and began their retreat.

The wall continued its slow transformation, blue lines pulsing across its surface as the soldiers ascended with their impulses.

Lucien snapped his attention back to the fight. The artromus unleashed a flurry of strikes with its transformed claws, each aimed at vital points with lethal precision. But Lucien's enhanced form let him perceive these attacks as if they were happening in slow motion, his heightened senses catching every minute muscle tension that telegraphed the monster's moves.

He was pushing his strength to extremes to match the creature without wind impulses, yet somehow the strain felt different, easier, as if his body could handle far more than before. He could push himself beyond even Elio's capabilities now.

A quick sidestep avoided the first swipe.

His wings contracted, allowing him to slide under the second attack while his sword traced an upward arc. The blade found its mark on the same spot on the monster's neck he'd struck before.

'One thousand two hundred forty points,' he counted mentally, pivoting on his axis.

The artromus roared and countered with a downward strike.

Lucien deflected it with his sword's flat, using the momentum to reposition himself. His second thrust found exactly the same point, deepening the previous cut.

'1280.'

The monster, catching onto the pattern, protected its neck with one arm while launching into a spinning kick. Lucien leaped over the extended leg, his wings providing exactly the lift needed to maintain perfect trajectory.

He delivered a powerful kick to the artromus's arm and…

His blade found its mark again.

'1320 points of accumulated damage to the same spot.'

The theory was sound: concentrate damage on a specific area to eventually overcome the monster's resistance. If he could decapitate it, perhaps he wouldn't need to reach the full damage threshold.

But the numbers were merciless.

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Even targeting the same point, he'd need hundreds of precise strikes to succeed.

And time...

A quick glance at his transformed body reminded him of God's words.

Five minutes.

Just five minutes of borrowed power, of which he'd already spent precious seconds reaching this point and saving Selene.

The artromus seized upon his moment of distraction to launch a particularly vicious combination. Its claws carved deadly arcs through the air.

The lethal dance continued, each second more precious than the last. Lucien needed to find a way to increase his damage output, and he needed to find it soon.

♢♢♢♢

Zantem's fury grew with each failed attack.

The parasite moved as if it could predict every strike, every claw, every attempt to crush it. Its movements were so precise they seemed to mock everything the artromus represented.

'How?' The question burned in his mind as he launched another combination of attacks. 'Does it somehow possess level 20 perception?'

A claw to the right, dodged. A leg sweep, evaded with an impossibly graceful twist. A downward strike with full force, blocked and redirected as if it were a novice's attack.

At least the initial panic of taking real damage had subsided.

After several exchanges, it became clear that while the usurper could breach the two-hundred-point threshold, it barely managed to do so. Its strikes, though precise, barely scratched his true resistance.

'Pathetic,' he thought, blocking another series of thrusts aimed at his neck. 'A few dozen points per hit. At this rate, it would need hours to kill me. Its mana shouldn't…'

But the situation remained incredibly frustrating.

Could he end this quickly if he used his last mana points?

A well-calculated wind impulse, a sufficiently wide area explosion... but he only had just over ten points left. Using them precipitously would be a novice's mistake.

'I only need three more parasites,' he reminded himself while retreating from another perfect assault from the transformed human. 'Three level tens and I can cross the barrier. Informing the Queen is more important than fighting this abomination.'

But the usurper gave him no respite.

Every time Zantem tried to create distance to eliminate an unconscious soldier, those crystalline wings, a mockery of true artromus wings, instantly brought it back into combat range.

Another cut grazed his neck, in the same spot as the others. The wound was superficial, but the precision was unsettling. Did this parasite really believe it could decapitate him with such weak strikes?

The lethal dance continued. Zantem launched a series of coordinated attacks: frontal claws as distraction, kicks targeting the legs, a headbutt when the opponent jumped to evade... but somehow, the transformed human found the only blind spot in every sequence.

'This is ridiculous,' rage threatened to cloud his judgment. 'Our sacred form... how dare it imitate it? Profane it like this?'

The last mana points pulsed inside him, tempting. It would be so easy to use them all in one final devastating attack... but no.

He needed to be patient.

Wait for the perfect moment.

As he received another impossibly precise strike, his patience finally snapped. Zantem began to glow. He would not endure more of this ridiculous situation...

The true battle was about to begin.

♢♢♢♢

The carbon tunnel, once a masterpiece of straight and precise magical engineering, now lay broken, a grim reminder of the artromus's destructive power.

Selene raced through the debris, silently thankful that the force of destruction had thrown most of the rubble to the sides, leaving a relatively clear path.

In the distance, like a beacon of hope, she could make out an intact section of the tunnel. Her calculations told her it was beyond the halfway point, a considerable distance covered in record time.

Each impulse was a battle against her own body. Her muscles, already punished from the previous confrontation, protested with every step.

Her resistance, reduced to just under three hundred points, continued dropping in small increments with each superhuman effort.

'Doesn't matter,' she thought, forcing another impulse. 'The kids need me.'

Her combined summon responded to her determination, providing another burst of speed that catapulted her forward. Behind her, the loyal soldiers who followed were forced to chain multiple impulses just to keep her in sight.

The potions Lucien had entrusted her with knocked gently against her side with each step, a constant reminder of her mission. If these potions could give them even a chance...

'Just a bit more,' she pushed herself as she launched another devastating impulse. 'Just a little further...'

The intact tunnel drew closer, and with it, the hope of arriving in time to make a difference in the battle surely unfolding at the deposit.