CHAPTER 69: BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL

DING!

~----~

[Improvisation Draw Activated!]

...

[Improvised Gear: Kinetic Shard Net]

A collapsible, energy-thread net that can disrupt magnetic fields temporarily.

~----~

Seeing the improvisation that he got this time, Ethan could not help the thought crossing the back of his mind. ’If not for Survivor’s Gacha, where will I be?’

’Maybe in the stomach of some monster, digesting’.

His special ability was the perfect tool to survive the apocalypse.

The car didn’t kill them.

WHOOSH!

It screamed through the air, weightless in the Ravager’s pull, and then... the Wheel burned Ethan’s hand hot as the Kinetic Shard Net snapped into being.

Filaments of crackling blue tore open from his palm, splaying wide in the air like the ribs of a collapsing star.

The car hit the field and jolted sideways, metal shrieking as the pull went wild, magnetic tension scattering into sparks as the Ravager and the net’s powers contended, then...

CRASH!

It smashed into the pavement five meters off instead, skidding to ash and leaving the group alive.

Ethan let out a grin, breathless. "I did it, again".

Jonas laughed once, a laugh that was both half relief and half hysteria. "You’re insane, Ethan!"

"I know".

"Keep moving!" Reid snapped.

But the Ravager had noticed.

Thud... thud... thud...

It lumbered forward, every plate grinding, every joint bleeding sparks as it closed the distance to the group with every step that it took.

It exhaled again, triggering a guttural rumbling through the air.

Metal scraps jittered across the road as it moved, dragged toward its chest. Its jaws split wider, rebar teeth glinting red in the floodlights.

Jonas surged with a roar, briefly forgetting his pain.

BAM!

His fists cracked the asphalt as he leapt, muscle density driving him like a cannonball. He slammed into the Ravager’s leg, making it stumble one step, and felt his bone shiver all the way up his arm.

"Not enough!" Kara barked.

She was already there, flickering across the beast’s flank with a dancer’s fluid movement as her spear stabbed between plates. Sparks sprayed, not blood as the spearhead scraped off hide like steel on steel.

Reid’s rifle barked three shots.

Bam... bam... bam...

He had slipped into slowed perception, the world dragging as time became liquid. He aimed at the beast’s knee-joint gap, squeezed the trigger, and saw the bullets spark and skid aside.

It was nowhere near a kill, just surface scratches.

His jaw clenched, teeth grinding as he reset his approach.

On another side, Mira’s voice rose in a low, sharp cry and the air shifted.

Bzzz!

A sudden gale burst sideways, catching the cloud of bolts and nails the Ravager had ripped free, deflecting them into the dark.

Her face was pale and her hands trembled but she held the wind like reins, dragging projectiles off their line of death.

Travis hovered behind Jonas, Vital Surge burning faint gold on his palm.

His teeth ground against each other; he was ready to touch and pour energy at any given moment, to give his friend back bones that could stand.

"Don’t die, don’t die," he kept on muttering like a prayer he didn’t believe.

"Look!" Holt’s voice cut sharp as his finger stabbed toward the Ravager’s chest. He had noticed something.

Every time the beast pulled, every time the halo of metal spun tighter, a glow pulsed under its armored chest plate, a heart of orange fire... a magnetic organ.

"There!" Reid shouted, eyes narrowing. "That’s its core!"

Jonas roared and tried to pry plates apart with bare strength. Kara stabbed for the seam, her spear screeching against steel hide. But the Ravager bellowed, its jaws snapping for her.

"Ethan!" Reid’s voice cut through the chaos. "Now!"

The Wheel spun again.

Ethan’s breath came hard, but his eyes saw the map of it all... Kara distracting it, Jonas anchoring for a strike, Reid setting the shot, Mira holding the storm, then...

[Shadowstep!]

Bzzz!

The world shifted.

His body blurred into semi-shadow, steps silent, speed doubled.

Light bent around him, bending wrong, distorting him out of the Ravager’s pull. He slipped past bolts that screamed sideways, ghosting between flying shrapnel like a shadow that wasn’t quite there.

And then, he reappeared under the beast’s chest.

The Gauntlet flared alive, spikes jagged, resin glow pulsing. Ethan only had one thing in mind after arriving here.

[Rugged Overload!]

He slammed the Gauntlet upward.

Strength surged into his arm, his strike hitting with four times the force his bones should have endured.

BAM! CRACK!

The gauntlet cracked plate.

The Ravager shrieked, the sound like an iron foundry exploding. The glow underneath spilled brighter, molten and angry.

Ethan staggered back, lungs on fire, but he grinned. "Bleed, you bastard!"

The Ravager staggered two steps back, jaw snapping wide, sparks bleeding from its cracked plate.

The Shieldbearers, holding formation a lane away, finally saw the opening and they didn’t hesitate. Their leader’s shield blazed bright, and his voice rang out like a commander’s. "Now! Strike with them!"

But a certain group didn’t move, not yet.

The Scavenger Pack, shadows in the rear, whispered curses to each other as they watched. One darted forward, knives glinting. He wanted to slip past, to stab the beast in the wound and claim the kill for themselves.

Holt saw him, his rifle snapping sideways instinctively.

BAM!

He pulled the trigger as one shot barked. But the scavenger ducked back, snarling as his plans were ruined.

"This is our fight," Holt muttered. "You can’t just swoop in to get the kill without doing nothing!"

Maybe his actions were a mistake, but at this moment, Holt didn’t care. The Scavanger Pack were already getting on his nerves since due to their inactivity and slippery attitude.

The Ravager exhaled again.

This time, it was not a pull, but a storm.

BZZZ!

The magnetic organ pulsed. Though cracked, it was not dead and suddenly everything metal lifted.

Cars groaned upward like titans waking, rebar screamed into the air, and streetlights bent and tore free. The suppression line itself faltered as the beast drew too much into orbit.

"Cover!" Reid shouted, but there was none.

The Shieldbearers braced behind their manifest wall.

The Scavengers? They bolted like rats, one too slow as a car flung sideways, crushing him flat against wreckage.

"...!"

They were shocked, but none of them lingered.

Mira screamed and flung wind, but there was too much as she faced an avalanche of metal flying on invisible strings. Ethan ducked low, Shadowstep now on cooldown, his chest heaving.

Jonas had slowed, ribs heaving as sweat poured down his face. He had given too much. ’Dammit!’ He cursed.

The Ravager’s jaws locked onto him, rebar teeth glowing, hunger in every hinge.

"Jonas!" Noting Jonas’s predicament, Travis screamed, running as Vital Surge lighted up in both of his hands.

Jonas raised his arms to shield himself, but it wasn’t enough, not against a beast born of scrap and hate.

The Ravager lunged!

’C’mon, not again!’

Ethan was tired; he was panting, bleeding, his Wheel spinning like judgment in his skull, but he charged again.

The fight wasn’t over.

It couldn’t be, but he knew. ’I can’t make it in time!’