Utopian System

"Risky dynamic," Zahyla commented while moving at high speed to cover herself. "How much longer can you maintain this impossible balance, Elio? How long before a single error forces you to choose between saving yourself or saving her?"

As if to emphasize her point, she launched a series of attacks specifically designed to separate Lila from Elio's protection.

Each movement was a trap, each attack a forced choice between offense and defense. Her dual-voiced taunts carried an edge of scientific curiosity, as if she were conducting an experiment in human behavior.

Lila's perception fluctuated again, mental exhaustion beginning to show. The strain of maintaining heightened awareness was taking its toll, making each movement more dangerous than the last.

Elio could see the numbers: they would need dozens more hits to have a chance, and each passing second made it harder to maintain the delicate choreography keeping them alive.

In the dilated time of his enhanced perception, each second stretched like minutes. The first minute since Elio's battle began had passed like an eternity of precise and calculated movements.

In the last few seconds, they found three more openings in Zahyla's defense. But Zahyla was adapting. Diana's body responded better and better to her commands, her movements becoming more fluid, more natural. Where before there had been conflict between wills, now there was a chilling integration.

The crucial moment came when Elio had extended his hand covered in a metallic layer to intercept an attack aimed at Lila, while his sword cut Zahyla who had purposely taken Elio's strike head-on.

The coordination had been perfect until that moment.

Zahyla smiled.

Her next movement was a masterpiece of timing.

She launched forward so exposed and in such a brazen movement that not even his enhanced perception had anticipated it, her sword slipping through the exact point where Elio's hand couldn't catch it.

Lila was exposed.

Elio saw the attack coming as if in slow motion, his body already moving to intercept, knowing he wouldn't make it in time. Zahyla's sword traced a deadly arc toward Lila's neck.

Zara's impact against Zahyla sounded like thunder.

Her entry had been almost perfect, crossing the space between them like lightning just after processing the situation for a second, her fist connecting with Zahyla's jaw with enough force to send her flying backward.

"Zara?" Zahyla's dual voice mixed surprise and amusement as she recovered. "Attacking your friend Diana so directly? No confusion? No doubt about striking a companion?" Continue your adventure with empire

Zara positioned herself next to Lila, both forming a defensive line in front of Elio. Their stances were different, Zara powerful and direct, Lila defensive and careful, but their expressions were identical.

"Anyone who attacks Elio," Zara began.

"Is our enemy," Lila completed.

The perfect synchronization of their words made Zahyla's smile falter for an instant.

"Oh, how touching," she regained her composure. "The two women who love the same man, uniting to protect him. Isn't it ironic, Lila? Defending alongside the one who stole your chance… Want me to…?"

"Shut up," Zara and Lila moved in unison, their attacks perfectly coordinated despite not having trained together much.

Zahyla blocked the first series of strikes, but the difference in combat dynamics was immediately evident. Where before she could exploit openings created by Elio's need to protect Lila, now she faced an impenetrable wall of synchronized attacks from three people.

"How chaotic and fascinating," she murmured while dodging a combination of cuts by millimeters. "Love is truly the most powerful catalyst for human cooperation. When it's not forcing them to kill each other..."

Elio observed in the dilated time of his enhanced perception how each of Zara's movements complemented Lila's, how their different styles blended to create something new and harder to avoid.

Zara's steel salamander fused with their summons' dance, its metallic power adding another layer of control over the elements that Zahyla was losing and they were gaining.

The attacks flowed without pause, while Elio cut from the left, Zara pressed from the right, and Lila attacked from above. There was no respite, no moment of rest.

Zahyla barely managed to maintain her defense against the coordinated assault. When she blocked Elio's sword, Lila's fist found her side. When she dodged Zara's attack, another opening was created for Elio to connect.

♢♢♢♢

"We reached SSS!" Zara and Lila shouted in unison, their magical damage reaching maximum range simultaneously. The perfect synchronization made their attacks amplify each other.

"If you get along so well you should shar..." Zahyla tried to comment, but a blow from Lila forced her to interrupt. When she opened her mouth again, Zara's kick forced her to focus on defense.

Elio seized every opening, his sword finding flesh with increasing frequency. The numbers danced in his mind: each hit consumed 16 mana points against Zahyla's system resistance.

With 1000 mana points, discounting what was necessary for movement and defense minus the almost 100 he lacked after taking the potion, only about 50 possible attacks remained.

"We need to find a way to retreat!" he shouted while executing a perfect combination that left another wound on Zahyla. "The numbers aren't enough! We'd need at least 50 hits from me and about 140 from you two so...!"

"190 hits!" completed Zara, her sword passing so close to Zahyla's face it cut some strands of blue hair.

"We can only give her about 160 between the three of us. We know!" added Lila, her kick connecting with Zahyla's side while Elio took advantage to cut from the opposite angle.

"Then run fro..." Zahyla tried to speak again, but this time it was the combined attack from all three that silenced her.

"Mei is on her way, she has a potion too!" Zara slid under a counterattack from Zahyla, creating an opening that Elio and Lila instantly exploited.

"Her hits will give us the excess!" Lila spun in perfect sync with Elio, their attacks forming a lethal net that forced Zahyla into desperate defense.

Zara's steel salamander roared, helping her create a metallic glove on Zahyla's hand and negating another attempt by her to manipulate the elements. Elio's scorpion absorbed the chemical counterattack that followed, while Gorgita created barriers that limited escape options.

Zahyla tried to create space to breathe, to talk, to regain control of the situation. But every time she found a moment, every time she opened her mouth for one of her comments, three different attacks forced her to focus exclusively on defense.

The combat became a storm of continuous movement. Where Elio cut, Zara struck. Where Lila impacted, Elio followed. Where Zara created an opening, the other two exploited it. There were no pauses, no moments of respite.

But amid the controlled chaos, Elio couldn't ignore the numbers. Each hit was precious, each mana point crucial. They needed Mei, and they needed her soon.