Rixor was still mid-rant when Bash finally cut in.

  “That’s enough,” Bash said flatly, stepping between them. He didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t have to.

  His tone carried the weight of command, calm but final.

  Calen’s jaw tightened, his eyes fixed on the sand. Rixor’s glare lingered a second longer, then broke

  away with a heavy exhale.

  “Either side of this swarm are individuals,” Bash continued, glancing down at his wrist-display. “East

  or west?”

  Taren checked the map overlay. “East puts us closer to the next pack. We loop clockwise, stay

  efficient.”

  Bash nodded once. “Then east it is. Four klicks. Hydrate, tighten formation, and move.”

  No one argued.

  The march carried them through a dead quiet wasteland. Wind coiled around their legs, dragging loose

  grit into long, ghostly ribbons. Each step left shallow prints that were gone within seconds. The heat

  came not from the sun, hidden behind a pale haze, but from the ground itself, radiating like a forge.

  Even with the muffled hum of armor-vent circulation, Bash felt the weight of the place pressing against

  his chest. Every world felt different when they arrived, but this one felt hungry.

  S-C murmured quietly in his mind. Residual mana density low. No flora signatures. Predatory

  ecosystem. Apex zones clustered within five klick radius.

  “Sounds like a lovely place for a stroll,” Bash muttered under his breath.

  Your sarcasm remains consistent across all environments. That’s good baseline data, she replied.

  “Appreciate the feedback.”

  The first shimmer of color ahead almost didn’t register. An oasis, small and mirage-like, a mirror of

  blue breaking the monotony of yellow and bone.

  “That’s real,” Taren confirmed, checking her scanner.

  The team approached cautiously. And then they saw it.

  The beast drank in silence, massive shoulders rolling under golden fur. Its mane caught the light like

  molten copper. For a moment, it almost looked regal, until the tail rose, segmented, tipped with a black

  stinger that pulsed faintly with venom.

  Then the wings unfurled, leathery and veined, catching the hot wind.

  “Manticore,” Bash said quietly.

  Rixor’s grin was humorless. “Finally, something worth swinging at.”

  They fanned out automatically, ranged wide, melee low and forward. Every motion was practiced,

  refined through repetition and shared danger.

  The creature’s head turned. It sniffed the air once, then again. Its jaw opened slightly, just enough to

  show three rows of teeth.

  Then it roared.

  The sound tore across the desert like a shockwave, kicking sand into the air.

  “Contact!” Bash shouted, already moving.

  The manticore leapt skyward, wings catching the thermals. Its descent was like a strike of lightning,

  sudden, violent, precise. Rixor caught the first blow, hammer braced, the impact rattling his bones.

  Liora met the follow-up, parrying with both blades while Darik slashed from behind, forcing the

  creature to pivot.

  Taren and Bash opened fire, essence-rounds flashing, sand bursting under each impact.

  Classification: T2G minimum, S-C reported. Possibly Apex. Hybrid signature detected.

  Bash repeated it aloud, breath sharp. “Tier Two Greater or higher! Expect hybrid traits!”

  “What kind?” Taren called.

  Unknown. No database match.

  “Unknown,” Bash echoed grimly. “Stay flexible.”

  The manticore’s claws gouged trenches through the sand. It twisted faster than anything that large had a

  right to move, tail flicking like a whip. The stinger struck Rixor’s shoulder plate and sparked, venom

  sizzling on impact.

  “Poisoned!” Taren shouted.

  “Still standing!” he growled, hammer crackling.

  Calen and Nyra moved to flank, one firing plasma-coated bullets, the other lining precision shots

  through the haze.

  “Ground it!” Bash ordered. “Wings first!”

  He sprinted forward, knives flashing in the sunlight. The blades arced through the air and struck deep

  into the main joint of the left wing. The manticore shrieked, spiraling downward in a spray of sand and

  feathers of torn membrane.

  It hit hard, slamming into the dunes with a shockwave that rippled through the ground. The team closed

  in instantly, weapons flaring with coordinated precision. Rixor’s hammer struck first, cracking ribs;

  Liora followed with twin slashes to its flank; Darik drove both cleavers into the beast’s side, dragging

  them free in a spray of black blood.

  But the manticore wasn’t finished.

  With a violent twist, it lashed out. A claw raked across Rixor’s chest plate, throwing sparks. Its tail

  whipped around, catching Darik in the ribs and sending him staggering. Liora tried to intercept the next

  strike but took a glancing blow to the shoulder that spun her halfway around.

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  Taren’s pistols snapped in perfect rhythm, each burst keeping them barely upright. “Keep pressure on

  it!” she shouted.

  Bash ducked another wild swing, drove a blade into the creature’s shoulder, and saw the blood pour

  freely, until it didn’t.

  The wound closed. Slowly at first, then faster.

  He froze for half a second, watching the shredded muscle knit itself together. “What the...”

  Rixor slammed his hammer down again, splitting the same spot open, only to watch it heal right back.

  Liora stumbled back, breathing hard. “It’s… healing?”

  The manticore roared, a deep, guttural sound that rattled the dunes. As it lunged again, its movements

  seemed sharper, faster. The hits it landed weren’t random, they were feeding it.

  Bash’s mind caught up with the pattern instantly. “It’s healing every time it hits us! Don’t let it make

  contact!”

  Rixor spat sand and rage in equal measure. “Then stop talking and kill it!”

  He swung again, hammer glowing bright as lightning.

  Rixor cursed. “It’s healing! What the hell?”

  Liora slashed again, the cut sealing almost instantly. “Regeneration, it’s recovering faster than we can

  damage it!”

  The team tightened formation. Darik parried a claw strike, twisting under the swing to open the beast’s

  flank. Rixor slammed it back with a blow that cracked bone.

  Taren’s pistols flashed in alternating bursts, her heal-field pulsing steady over the team.

  Nyra adjusted her scope, breath steadying. “Ten seconds,” she whispered.

  The manticore jerked its head up, sensing danger. It jumped just as she fired, her bullet tracked through

  the arc, guided by her weapon’s resonance, and tore through one of its eyes.

  The creature screamed, crashing to the ground.

  “Confirmed!” she called.

  “Push in!” Bash shouted.

  Rixor charged, hammer glowing with stored essence. Each strike landed like thunder. Liora and Darik

  drove blades into its chest, each hit spraying black blood that sizzled in the sand.

  But the tail lashed out again, striking Liora’s side, scraping armor but not piercing. Taren counter-fired,

  green light wrapping around her before the next swing could land.

  Nyra fired again, another ten-second charge, and the second eye burst, light spraying outward in a burst

  of gold and red.

  Blinded, the manticore howled, thrashing violently. Its wings beat the air in panic, sending a wave of

  sand over the field.

  “Stay back!” Rixor shouted. “It’s blind and panicking!”

  Bash darted forward through the chaos. One knife found its mark, buried deep in the creature’s

  shoulder. Razorvein flared, grinding inward. The manticore convulsed, muscles locking midmovement.

  “Now, Rixor!”

  Rixor raised his hammer, every vein of his armor glowing blue-white. He leapt, a roar tearing from his

  throat, and brought it down in a single, explosive arc.

  The impact cratered the ground. The manticore spasmed once, then went still, the air humming from

  the aftershock.

  Silence.

  The pulse hit Bash like a hammer to the chest. His vision blurred, knees almost buckling.

  T2G lifesteal alignment confirmed, S-C said, her tone clinical. That explains the regeneration.

  Bash nodded weakly. “It wasn’t healing, it was feeding.”

  Taren was already moving, reloading and healing simultaneously. “Everyone still up?”

  “Scratched,” Liora said. “Not broken.”

  Rixor flexed his arm, still coated in drying venom. “Guess I hit harder than it bit.”

  The others laughed, the sound tired but genuine. The tension from earlier finally broke, carried off by

  the wind.

  The manticore’s body lay twisted, its once-vibrant mane darkening by the second. Bash crouched near

  its head. Three rows of teeth glimmered like glass.

  “Beast Fragment located,” S-C confirmed. Jawbone, tri-serration pattern.

  Rixor pried it free. The massive jaw shrank instantly, condensing into a small trinket, pulsing once

  before fading to dull red.

  They took a moment to breathe, the desert air thick and hot in their lungs. Calen sat with his bow

  resting on his knees, staring off toward the horizon.

  “Every time it feels like we’re getting close,” he said quietly, “and still nothing.”

  Bash folded the map open, the next marker pulsing faintly to the northeast.

  “Pack’s four klicks out,” he said. “We’ll rest five minutes, then move.”

  Rixor nodded. “That thing was Tier Two. We’re past the warm-ups.”

  Bash stared at the horizon, flat, shimmering, endless. The sun hung high, turning the dunes to molten

  gold.

  “Good,” he said finally. “Then maybe next time, one of us gets something worth the blood.”

  The team gathered their gear and started forward again, their silhouettes cutting against the dying light

  as the desert wind swallowed their trail.