Marcus's smile lasted less than a second.
Then blood spilled over his teeth.
His head dropped forward, chin nearly touching the shattered plate strapped to his arm, and the faint movement in his chest stopped long enough for Jason's heart to forget its next beat.
"Marcus."
Jason did not shout the name.
He breathed it.
The Rampager heard him anyway.
All four crimson eyes shifted toward the body embedded in the far wall.
The Alpha dragged its severed arm across the ruined floor. Blood-red knuckles carved trenches through concrete. The dead fingers bounced once against a broken support beam, then tightened from the force of the monster's grip until the corpse-limb became a club again.
Elias moved first.
His greatsword tore free from the crater with a shower of molten sparks. Orange-gold mana flared along the edge, but the light came unevenly now. His last attack had emptied too much from him. The blade still looked monstrous.
The boy holding it suddenly looked thirteen.
