The Rampager answered by bringing its remaining fist down.
Jagger moved before the shadow fully covered him.
He threw himself sideways, the blow missing his spine by inches and striking the broken half of the severed arm instead. Dead flesh burst. Blood-red crystal knuckles shattered across the floor. The impact wave caught Jagger in the ribs and rolled him through dust, but he kept hold of the Acid Maw Broadsword.
"Jason!" he shouted.
"I see it."
Jason's staff came up, then stopped.
Lightning gathered around the crescent headpiece, bright enough to turn every drifting particle silver-blue. His eyes tracked the Alpha's red crystal stump, the pulsing veins beneath its chest, the ruined limb at its feet.
Then he dismissed the charge.
The lightning collapsed harmlessly into sparks.
Jagger understood.
"Don't feed the armor."
"Exactly."
The Rampager lunged at Jason.
Marcus's voice rasped through the comm.
"Left."
Jason stepped right.
