Persistence paid off. After a long stretch of methodical core-hunting, Chase finally found exactly the ability he'd been chasing.[Held Breath: suppresses your presence from detection while active.]He didn't need to breathe at all anymore, which meant he could hold this indefinitely. Paired with Secret of Shadow, he now had a real path into the base slip through the shadows, hold the ability active the entire time, and move past any detection-type operative without tripping a single alarm.To cover for any surprises while he was gone, Chase gave the whole stronghold a heads-up to stay sharp and hold the line in his absence.Realistically, he expected nothing to go wrong. Today's trip was reconnaissance only confirm the base's overall strength, locate Miles, and get a clean read on the situation. He had no actual extraction plan yet. Getting Miles out safely would take more groundwork than one solo trip could manage."Master, take me too!"Rex waved both paws frantically from below, E

"Captain Piper a little mercy, if you don't mind."Franklin released a wave of pressure of his own before any of the other captains could react, his aura carrying real, murderous weight behind it.Piper didn't flinch. She just smiled, gentle and unbothered, holding steady eye contact with everyone in the room.Bram pushed himself up off the floor, one hand clutching his chest, fear and fury both flickering behind his eyes. Whatever had just torn through his body the searing pain, the blood pressure spike that felt like his ribs were about to give out he had no framework for it at all. Special-tier himself, and he still couldn't identify the mechanism of what had just happened to him.Chase tracked every ability signature in the room with careful attention, still fully possessed, his actual body tucked into shadow elsewhere in the same space.This single room held roughly two-thirds of the base's total red-core population. Part of him wanted to just commit to a sneak attack right now b

"Adrian you're actually SERIOUS about this!"Bram was in real pain now, explosions still detonating around him in a steady rhythm he couldn't track or predict.Faye channeled a ball of green light around Bram's hands, working fast to close the damage.New wounds kept opening faster than she could heal them. Bram hadn't even managed to land a second real hit.He genuinely couldn't tell how Adrian was attacking. No visible windup, no trajectory just sudden, precise damage."Adrian don't push this too far!"Faye could see her healing output losing the race against his offense. She raised a hand and sent a volley of stones flying at Adrian from behind, the fire field wrapping every projectile in flame, output amplified well past normal.Every single stone detonated in midair before reaching him, the fragments veering off in the opposite direction like they had a mind of their own.Without advanced speed and malicious-intent sensing stacked together, dodging Adrian's attacks at this level

"Cyrus you're going to DIE if you don't stand down!"Cadence's panic was real. She couldn't process why Cyrus had turned on them but every second she hesitated, the creeping paralysis crept closer to locking his whole body, and the poison underneath it was moving toward something fatal."Have to protect the base. Not letting either of you through cough"Blood spilled from Cyrus's mouth. A frame that slight bleeding this heavily read as one step short of full shock."Cyrus! That base is YOUR home! Snap out of it!"If Holt released another vine-strike, he'd catch a vital point outright but both of them were still trying to talk Cyrus back before it came to that.Three light arrows streaked toward Holt's face, deflected easily by a wall of living plant matter.A swarm of blade-edged leaves spun toward Lulu like a locust cloud, and Cyrus threw himself forward, planting his body directly between her and the attack."AH""CYRUS!"Lulu couldn't reconcile it the same foul-mouthed instructor w

Sandra had reconstructed herself in front of that mirror with something close to euphoria.She'd pictured young cells replacing old ones throughout her entire body. A narrow waist. A face worth looking at twice.Younger, thinner, prettier than the girl who'd stolen her promotion.The world worships young and pretty. Fine. I can be young and pretty too, apparently.Looking at the girl staring back from the mirror, she understood immediately tired, worn-down Sandra was gone. In her place: someone beautiful enough that nobody would ever question her again.She'd admired the firm cheeks, the narrow waist, smiling at her own reflection with real satisfaction.From there, she'd practiced deliberately copying the mannerisms of youth, the tone, the small physical tics. It felt unnatural at first. Didn't matter. Nobody criticizes a beautiful girl for anything.The world's never been fair. But for once, I'm the one it's favoring.Even mid-apocalypse, life had genuinely never felt better to her