CHAPTER 198: CHAPTER 198- SUPPORT

Lucy’s lips peeled back into a grin that had half-insect in it. "Two support joining hands won’t change the outcome. I’ll kill you all." Her voice was flat and hungry, then she surged forward, a blur of chitin and malformed grace. Insects peeled off her skin and darted like living shrapnel.

Veronica cocked a brow and answered the threat with the most Veronica things possible, arrogance and polish. "Oh, how terrifying," she said, tone sugary. "Try not to cry when I ruin your makeover."

She inhaled, and the enchantment came on like armor being put on midair. Lines of rune-light laced across her skin, first a lattice of defensive wards, then fluid glyphs that coiled along muscle and bone to increase speed and strength. The air around her hummed with acceleration, she moved with new, honed precision. "[Enchant]" she murmured, activating the last strand of the charm.

Sebas nodded once. "Miss Aya, cover fire. Rea, use this time to stabilize, just a quick patch and you’ll be back up." Rea forced a strained smile and sank into a crouch to breathe and re-check his stance, the cut on his arm already being treated with a medic-kit Sebas tossed to him.

Aya swallowed her fear and raised her weapon. Her shots were small, accurate, tracking bolts that clipped insects out of the air and forced Lucy’s swarm to split. Each hit bought Veronica a fraction more room.

Lucy slammed into the open space with a flurry of strikes, chitinous fists like hammers, a leg that whirled with jointed knives. She was faster than before, brutal and unpredictable. Veronica met her head-on. The two collided, Veronica’s enchanted forearm caught the first blow and shuddered, her legs pumped like coiled springs, and she countered with a clean, controlled elbow that snapped across Lucy’s jawplate.

Lucy reared and spat a cloud of shimmering dust, an irritant meant to blind. Veronica’s protective weave flickered, shrugging the shot off like water on lacquer. She answered with a short series of precise, clinical strikes, no wasted theatrics, aimed to break insect clusters and expose the mutant’s joints. Her enchanted fists hit like small hammers, ringing against carapace and meat.

Between the melee, Aya’s rounds found gaps, Sebas lobbed a compact stun-device that detonated in a net of static, tangling a portion of the insect swarm and giving Veronica a clean opening to drive Lucy back. Veronica’s voice was cool, half-derisive as she pressed the advantage. "You’re loud for someone wearing a crown made of bugs."

Lucy howled, then lashed out with a sweeping leg-knife that Veronica narrowly dove under, cartwheeling and coming up with a flourish that might have been theatrical if the room weren’t full of shards of fallen concrete. Veronica’s enchantments kept her light on her feet, her counterattack was a thunderous uppercut aimed at Lucy’s chinplate. The blow connected, sending the monster staggering.

But Lucy wasn’t done, the crystal’s residue in her blood blistered into renewed vigour and her insect halo reformed faster now. She threw a hand toward Veronica and a half-dozen beetle-proxies lunged forward, living missiles. Veronica pivoted, her enchanted speed carrying her through the projectiles, she grabbed one on the fly, crushed it, and used its momentum to vault into Lucy’s flank, burying a knee into the mutant’s midsection. Pain flared across Lucy’s face in a way that still bore human echoes.

Sebas barked orders, calm and surgical "Pin her down! Miss Aya, keep suppressing the swarm! Rea, two steps and then back in, don’t overextend." The team moved like machinery, support, offense, containment.

Lucy spat blood and hissed, rage pouring from every pore. "You think this is over? This is only the beginning!" Her fist smashed toward Veronica again. this time infused with a small burst of the crystal’s condensed power and the blow rocked them both. Veronica’s ribs hit with a crack, she tasted copper. Still she smiled, savage and precise.

"Noted," she said between gritted teeth, pushing Lucy back with a final, clean combination that left the mutant stumbling. "But beginnings can be... curtailed."

For the moment, Lucy was on the back foot, her insect swarm fragmented, her forward momentum checked. Veronica’s enchantments had not won the fight outright, but they’d turned what looked like a massacre into a contained brawl, Sebas’s coordination and Aya’s steady fire had made the difference.

Veronica steadied, breath smoking in the cool air, and called out in a voice that didn’t pretend to be gentle "Finish the suppression, hold her long enough for extraction. We can’t let those insects reattach elsewhere."

Lucy snarled, red eyes flaring. "You’ll be the first to go."

Veronica’s grin was a razor. "Try me."

Then Lucy lunged at them again, this time her body warped grotesquely, twisting into the shape of a massive bird fused with writhing insects. Wings buzzed and shimmered with fragments of carapace, feathers dripping with chitin. She screeched and dove straight at Veronica.

Veronica clenched her fists, the enchantment still burning bright around her arms. "Come on, then," she hissed, and met the monstrous bird head-on. Her punch landed with brutal precision, smashing into the creature’s beak and sending shockwaves through its body. Chitin cracked.

But Lucy retaliated instantly, the bird slashed forward with razor-edged wings, forcing Veronica to duck and roll aside, debris scattering under her boots.

Aya steadied her breathing, raised her crossbow, and fired. The bolt shimmered midair, its flashing just before impact, then exploded in a burst of concussive light. The explosion tore through the swarm and sent the mutant bird crashing to the ground.

Lucy screamed, her form flickering between human, insect, and avian. Burn marks laced across her chest, but even as smoke rose from her body, the wounds began to close rapidly, skin knitting back together in seconds.

Lucy raised her head, eyes glowing red, and unleashed a surge of raw energy, an unstable blast of corrupted crystal power.

Before it could reach them, Sebas reacted. He slammed his palm onto his device, and a dome of flickering blue light flared up in front of the team. The blast hit the barrier and disintegrated, the energy being absorbed and neutralized instantly.

Sebas lowered the device, smoke trailing from its vents. "Not this time," he muttered, eyes narrowing on Lucy as she hissed in frustration, wings twitching and swarm reforming around her once again.