Orion's expression hardened.
"That's… not possible."
Protocol was already running at full priority, tearing through the incoming data. Mana sense
flared, recalibrated, discarded false positives. Temporal Locus anchored again, mapping
continuity instead of structure.
And then he saw it.
Another anchor.
Not where the first had been.
Deeper.
Offset at a different vector entirely.
A second core.
Smaller. Denser. Newly formed.
His eyes narrowed.
"So you can regenerate the anchor itself."
That was new.
The realization landed at the same moment the abomination attacked again.
But this time, it didn't attack harder.
It attacked faster.
The shift was immediate and violent. Appendages blurred, no longer telegraphing their motion
with pressure buildup or displacement cues. Instead of massive, crushing strikes, the creature
switched to rapid, precise sweeps—slashes, hooks, glancing blows meant to overwhelm
reaction time rather than brute defenses.
