"I need control of the northern exit and someone who can read their regrouping patterns," Scarlett replied, swiftly decapitating a Crawler that attempted to sneak around Jin. Her twin blades moved in a deadly dance, severing the creature's head with one strike while disemboweling it with the second. The Crawler's intestines spilled onto the floor in a tangled mess of blackened tissue. "Your strategic perspective might help in timing it perfectly."

"Clara!" Sera called, her tone carrying the authority of a leader, yet devoid of her earlier defensiveness. "Could you establish a temporary blockade at junction C-7?"

"I-I think I can!" Clara responded, her fingers gliding over various screens as the blue light from her engineering glasses highlighted her focused determination. "B-But, I'll need someone to... go down to the maintenance level and adjust the blast door servos by hand!"

"I'll handle it," Rosa stepped in, already heading to the access hatch with a swift ease that showed she was the perfect pick for those cramped maintenance spots.

Jin noticed a change in the atmosphere. The team was starting to gel without much effort, kinda like a well-oiled machine.

**[Rallying Presence: Allies within 10m gain +20% all stats]**

**[TEAM COORDINATION: SYNCHRONIZING]**

**[LEADERSHIP SYNTHESIS: ACHIEVED]**

**[COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS: +35%]**

"Jin," The two women said it together and exchanged a look that mixed a bit of rivalry with a dose of respect.

"Stay on the front line," Sera advised, "However, it's important not to go too far. Retreat to fallback positions if they bring in reinforcements."

"And trust your gut," Scarlett added. "Your sword skills are improving with each moment. Let the weapon lead you."

*'Working together already? How disappointing. I had hoped their rivalry would take out at least one opponent...'* Shūmei's thoughts lingered beneath her worried expression as she continued her lethal movements around Jin's area.

The next few minutes were a total mix of organized chaos. Sera's quick thinking helped her predict the Crawlers' moves, setting her team up for some slick attacks while keeping an eye on their ammo situation. Scarlett's clever tactics made sure that every fight turned into a pinpoint strike, throwing the enemy off balance.

Clara worked her magic in the training room, turning it into a tricky maze filled with controllable hazards—blinding emergency lights, vents that could fill areas with disorienting gas, and weak spots that could be triggered to set up barriers or traps.

Meanwhile, Rosa floated through the maintenance areas like a ghost, her voice popping up on the comms with updates on positions and ambush spots. "Three down at the northern approach. They're trying to regroup at the junction B-5."

"Got it," Sera acknowledged. "Clara, can you flood that area with nitrogen?"

"Already on it!" Clara's response showed how happy she was to be totally into her area of expertise.

Jin was right in the thick of it, able to pick up on all the intricate tactics happening around him thanks to his heightened senses. He continued to struggle with his sword technique, but every now and then, those moments of mastery would flash through him.

Two Crawlers cornered him, and Jin felt a spike of fear. He raised his sword, trying to remember the proper defensive stance. His movements were clumsy at first, but then—again—that brief moment of perfect form. His blade moved with impossible speed and precision, disarming and disabling both creatures in seconds.

**[TSURUGI SWORD SYNCHRONIZATION: 22% → 24%**

**[Adaptive Combat Mastery: Environmental object weaponization active]**

The first Crawler lost both arms at the shoulders, black ichor spraying from the stumps as it screamed in agony. Before it could recover, Jin's blade sliced through its torso, splitting it open like a ripe fruit. Organs and dark blood spilled onto the floor as the creature collapsed. The second Crawler fared no better—Jin's sword removed its head in one clean stroke, then plunged into its chest, piercing the heart. The creature's death throes sent it crashing into the wall, leaving a smear of blood and viscera before sliding to the floor in a heap.

"Did you see that?" Rosa's voice crackled with excitement over the comms. "Jin's getting better!"

"It's like something takes over sometimes," Jin panted, looking at his blade with a mixture of awe and confusion. The metal was coated in black blood, and droplets dripped onto the floor. "I wish I could do it all the time, not just in short bursts!"

**[SKILL EVOLUTION: BATTLEFIELD AWARENESS]**

**[TEAM COORDINATION BONUS: +25% ALL STATS WHEN FIGHTING WITH COORDINATED ALLIES]**

**[AFFINITY GAINS DETECTED]**

The key moment happens when a larger Crawler—nothing quite like an Alpha, but definitely an enhanced version—broke through one of Clara's carefully set up choke points. It was significantly larger than the others, standing nearly eight feet tall when on its hind legs, with bony spurs protruding from its elbows and a thicker, calloused hide. Its muscles bulged with unnatural strength, and its milky eyes burned with predatory intelligence.

"Clara!" Jin acted on reflex without even thinking about it, but he was too far away to do anything.

**[Death Defiance: 25% chance to survive fatal damage with 1 HP remaining]**

**[Alpha's Bane: +15% all stats vs Alpha enemies active]**

"I've got her!" Sera and Scarlett jumped into action like they were totally in sync. Sera started shooting to grab the creature's attention while Scarlett sneaked in for the finish. But this enhanced Crawler was smarter than the others; it pretended to go after Clara and then quickly turned to attack Sera's open side.

That's when Jin felt something shift within him. Time seemed to slow down, and he could see every detail of the attack—the Crawler's muscles tensing, the trajectory of its claws, the vulnerable points in its anatomy.

His body moved before his mind could catch up, the sword becoming an extension of his will. For a few precious seconds, he fought with the skill of a master swordsman—every movement precise, every strike deadly. He flowed between the Crawler and Sera, his blade deflecting the attack with impossible grace before finding a gap in the creature's defenses.

**[TSURUGI SWORD SYNCHRONIZATION: 24% → 28%]**

**[Phoenix Strike: 300% damage multiplier, pierces all defenses available]**

**[Inhuman Might: Lift/throw up to 500kg active]**

Jin's sword became a whirlwind of death. The first strike severed the Crawler's arm at the elbow, black blood spraying in an arc. The creature howled in pain and rage, but Jin was already moving. His blade sliced through its thigh, crippling its movement, then plunged into its chest. The enhanced Crawler staggered, ichor pouring from its wounds, but it wasn't finished yet. With a roar of fury, it swung its remaining arm at Jin, but he ducked under the attack and drove his sword upward into the creature's jaw. The blade exited through the top of its skull, and the Crawler's eyes went wide with shock before it collapsed in a heap of torn flesh and broken bones.

The enhanced Crawler fell, cut down by a series of strikes that Jin could barely comprehend, let alone replicate on command. As the moment passed, he stumbled, nearly falling as the master-level skill faded away, leaving him breathless and confused.

That's when Shūmei's usual calmness showed a bit of a crack. With pinpoint accuracy, her blade hit the Crawler's spine, cutting through nerves like she really knew how its body worked. The creature's death throes ceased instantly as its spinal cord was severed.

"Oh my," she gasped, "That was lucky. It just stumbled right onto my blade."

Scarlett scanned intently on the injury, thinking there's no way it could be just an accident given how specific and intentional it looked. Just as she was about to speak up, the emergency alarms suddenly went silent.

**[THREAT NEUTRALIZED]**

**[COMMAND WING: SECURED]**

**[TEAM PERFORMANCE: EXCEPTIONAL]**

The air was heavy with the usual odors of cooling machines, used ammo, and that sharp ozone smell that hangs around after energy weapons go off. But now there was something else—the coppery scent of blood and the foul stench of Crawler ichor. The floor was slick with dark fluids, and body parts were scattered across the room. Jin noticed the subtle shifts in his teammates' bodies—they were slowly calming down, lowering their heart rates, and moving from being on high alert to a feeling of tired relief.

**[Phoenix Vitality: +20% all resistances active]**

**[HP: 280/280] [Stamina: 285/285] (Regenerating at 5x normal rate)]**

"What's the damage report?" Sera asked, her voice noticeably more relaxed than it had been an hour earlier.

"Um, just a little bit of damage to the main systems," Clara said softly, glancing at her tablet as it beeped with its findings. "I think I can fix it all in, like, six hours... maybe?"

"And the casualty count is zero," Scarlett chimed in, clearly pleased. "We need to re-evaluate our defensive approaches because this pattern of breaches shows that they're starting to identify our vulnerabilities."

"Agreed," Sera replied without the defensiveness Jin had anticipated. "Hmmp.. Your evaluation of the situation was absolutely accurate."

Jin couldn't help but smile when he saw how the team was getting along. His skill "Apex Predator" had eased up, and he wasn't picking up on any threats—except for this one person with red eyes who was cleaning her blade with a creepy level of focus.

**[AFFINITY UPDATES]**

**[SERA VALERIUS: LEVEL 2 - TRUSTED ALLY (15/100) - Leadership Synergy: +20% team coordination]**

**[SCARLETT KENDRICK: +6% (BATTLEFIELD PARTNERSHIP)]**

**[CLARA VANCE: LEVEL 2 - TRUSTED ALLY (10/100) - Technical Support Bond: +30% healing effectiveness]**

**[ROSALIE THORNE: LEVEL 2 - TRUSTED ALLY (8/100) - Combat Coordination: -20% stamina in joint combat]**

**[SHŪMEI TSURUGI: +2% (CONTINUED PROXIMITY) / -1% (HIDDEN AGENDA DETECTED)]**

"Well," Rosa's voice crackled over the comms as she stepped out from the maintenance shafts, "does anyone else find it strange how Shūmei's blade found just the right spot to take down that monster?"

Her question lingered in the air. Shūmei had this innocent look on her face, but Jin caught a quick flash in her crimson eyes—something that sent warning signals flashing in his mind.

"Just a stroke of luck," Shūmei replied softly, her voice tinged with a breathy fatigue. "I was so scared, I just swung my weapon without thinking."

"Sure," Scarlett responded in a laid-back way, but her emerald eyes were focused on Shūmei like a hunter sizing up its next target. "Lucky."

Jin realized that even though they had won and dodged an immediate threat from the Crawler attack, new issues might have popped up. As his team got stronger, the secrets each member carried seemed to get more complicated.

The training room fell quiet, broken only by the soft buzz of the recycling systems working to clear the air after the recent fight. But Jin sensed something else under the lingering smell of battle; it was the uneasy vibe of hidden truths waiting to come out.

As they started cleaning up, Jin looked down at his sword, remembering those brief moments when he had fought with impossible skill. The blade was still stained with black ichor, a reminder of the violence they had just survived. He tightened his grip on the hilt, determination burning in his eyes.

**[Tsurugi Bloodline: Genetic combat instincts active]**

**[Sword Mastery (Lv. 2)Level up!]**

"I need to get stronger," he whispered to himself. "I need to learn how to control this power inside me. For everyone's sake."

He couldn't shake the feeling that their toughest challenges were just kicking off. The Crawlers outside were a clear threat, which was at least somewhat comforting. But the uncertainties within his own team felt like the real danger to their survival.