BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

"Shit!" Floyd didn't have defensive powers.

He tried to reduce the energy that was influencing the heat in the surroundings, but his mana pool was not enough. It got replenished, true, but it was like trying to fight a river with a water cannon. It helped, but not to the point he could stop it.

Gwen went between Floyd and the beast, her armor boosted to the maximum resistance she could make, and she kept pumping as much mana as she could into it to keep it in its best shape.

The heat started burning her, and she caught fire. She used her regenerative powers to heal, which worked, but even with the armor on and Floyd's powers working, she was still getting serious burns, and the heat was making her weaker, sapping away at her.

Martha created another plant barrier in front of them, this time a dense wall of thorny vines and thick branches.

The defense barely had time to fully materialize before the heat made it burst into flames, and the green foliage crackled and blackened in seconds.

Then the plants burned, and the fire hit Gwen. The fire must have chemically reacted to the poison they were imbued with, because the result was an explosion that sent Gwen flying, making her crash into a tree.

Rick, in the meantime, healed Ben, and once he was done, helped by June, they attacked the beast again. Benedict slammed his halberd into the thaid's chest with the force of a meteor, disrupting its movements.

The creature staggered back, momentarily off-balance.

"Aaron!"

The young man created so much slime there was no way for the beast to move. The monster immediately understood that if it touched the slime, it would get some nasty wound, but nothing on the level of the corrosive fog.

Martha created plants once more. They wrapped around the beast's limbs, anchoring it in place. Mickey's insects returned, and Aaron's slimes moved toward the creature, targeting the wounds Allan and the others opened.

The thaid thrashed against its restraints, but Floyd's and Martha's poison had dampened its strength.

Benedict charged, driving the weapon into the creature's side with all his might.

The thaid howled, its voice carrying pain for the first time. It twisted violently, one of its limbs breaking free. With a single swipe, it caught Martha in the chest, sending her flying across the battlefield.

How that thing got so fast as to cover that much distance was unknown, but it did.

"Martha!" Benedict screamed.

That cost them.

The thaid's mana pulsed, and a wave of smoldering heat reached them. The temperature rose so much that even Erik could not make it, not if he didn't use huge amounts of mana.

The blast knocked everyone back, shattering their coordinated attack and scorching their front. Rick's lips and eyelids burned, but he healed himself.

The creature broke free, more wounded but somehow more dangerous. Now that Floyd, Martha, Aaron, and the others weren't restraining it anymore, the group was in for a nasty surprise.

It focused on Allan, recognizing him as the source of the paralyzing electricity, by far the most painful of the attacks it received.

Before anyone could react, it pounced.

Rick threw himself into its path, and the thaid crashed into him with enough force to crack the ground beneath Rick's feet.

The impact sent Rick tumbling across the battlefield like a rag doll, his limbs flailing helplessly as he crashed through the underbrush. When he came to a stop nearly thirty meters away, his body lay twisted and limp, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Rick!" June was panicking at this point. Rick was the strongest among them, and even he was having trouble.

The remaining fighters regrouped, forming a protective circle around their injured comrades.

Gwen stirred, her regenerative powers already knitting broken ribs back together.

Rick remained motionless.

The thaid stalked toward them, slower now but no less determined.

Dark fluid leaked from a dozen wounds, sizzling because of the heat, and evaporating before touching the ground.

Its mana pulsed and became increasingly erratic.

"We've hurt it," Benedict said, his voice tight with pain. "We can kill it."

"One more coordinated strike," June agreed. But that if all of them were standing, and without Rick, there was no one who could heal the others, meaning they had to be careful. It wasn't just that, but without Rick, the group got their fighting power severely reduced.

"Don't mind me!" Rick said. He was still conscious.

Rick was already healing himself. The point was, would he be able to heal in time? Would the others be killed before he could heal himself and those already injured?

The thaid gathered itself for another charge, its four remaining eyes—now bloodshot and pulsing with rage—fixed on the group with malevolent intelligence.

It knew the humans in front of it were dangerous, but that only increased its lust for their meat. It wanted to devour them, but this time, it wasn't going to underestimate them.

"We need to give time to Rick," June said.

"Martha?"

"Unconscious," Gwen said.

June's eyes never left the beast.

"Floyd?"

"He is up," Gwen confirmed, noting how Floyd was still swaying slightly from the attack but remained standing, his hands trembling, but he was still going to join the battle.

However, Gwen was more worried about Allan, her boyfriend. He was still standing through sheer willpower, but his wounds were severe.

Deep gashes across his chest were still bleeding, his left arm hung limply at his side, and burns covered most of his exposed skin.

The thaid's muscles tensed, ready to launch itself forward.

"Floyd, focus only on stopping it from moving!" June said.

"Allan, you must get close enough to electrocute it!"

"Easier said than done!"

"I know," Gwen said. "But you have to try!"

Aaron's slimes resumed their attack on the beast, forming corrosive tendrils that whipped and wrapped around the creature.

However, the thaid's body temperature had risen to such extreme levels that the slimes began breaking down.

As the viscous material evaporated into toxic steam, it left behind crusty, crystallized residue that clung to the creature's wounds and to the ground, like hardened amber.

While these crystallized remnants restricted the thaid's movement somewhat, acting like obstacles, they were far less effective than the slimes' attacks.