The Colossus didn't remain motionless waiting for their next move. As soon as it saw that its plate had reattached perfectly, as if nothing had happened, it opened what must have been its metallic mouth and ROARED.

  The sound it emitted wasn't human, nor animal. It was something completely alien, a mix between the hiss of an alarm siren and the scream of metal twisting under extreme pressure. The high frequencies hurt their ears, while the low ones made bones vibrate in their chests. It was the sound of pure mechanical warfare, of artificial intelligence switching from analysis mode to elimination mode.

  Its electric sword began charging with energy. Not gradually, but with an intensity that grew exponentially. Arcs of blue-white energy danced along the blade, creating geometric patterns that burned the air itself. The light was so intense it cast sharp shadows across the plain, transforming the landscape into a game of dramatic contrasts.

  "It's moving! Everyone away!" Tommaso yelled with a rocky voice trying to break through the noise of accumulating energy.

  The Colossus made another ten-meter leap and landed with surgical precision in the spot where Giordano had been one second before, only one second before. The ground didn't just crack. The impact was so apocalyptic that it literally exploded upward in a fountain of packed earth.

  Brando had been fortunate enough to be beside Giordano when the Colossus had made its leap. His reflexes, honed by years of survival in Rione Sanità, had allowed him to grab his friend and roll away at just the right moment. Both ended up in the dust, coughing and spitting debris, but alive.

  "Fuck! It's fast!" Brando panted, helping Giordano get up.

  But the Colossus wasn't finished. Its sword came down on the spot where they had been a moment before, missing them by centimeters. The slash cut the ground in a fissure three meters deep and half a meter wide.

  "It's not giving us any rest!" Giordano said, panting as he looked at the smoking scar in the ground. If they had been even one second slower, they would now be cut in two.

  Alessio, who had witnessed the exchange with a veteran's expert eye, began shouting orders. "We need to coordinate attack and defense! Tommaso, you and Eleonora create a distraction! Brando, Giordano, get ready to hit the plates when I give the signal!"

  It was a sensible plan, based on decades of tactical experience. But the Colossus wasn't a normal enemy. It didn't follow the behavioral patterns they were used to. It was unpredictable in its predictability, if that made sense.

  The group tried to reorganize, but the mechanical giant kept them constantly under pressure. Every time they attempted to position themselves for a coordinated attack, it changed targets, forcing them to flee and breaking their formation before they could implement it.

  When Tommaso tried to position himself on the left flank for a distraction attack, the Colossus immediately rotated in his direction. Tommaso had to throw himself backward while thickening his rock armor instinctively, but without managing to complete the tactical movement.

  When Eleonora tried to use her agility to reach an attack position behind the enemy, the Colossus seemed to literally have eyes in the back of its head. It turned with a speed that shouldn't be possible for something of its size, and Eleonora had to jump away, her blades not even managing to graze the enemy armor.

  "We can't even get close!" Eleonora shouted, frustrated.

  It was at that moment the group noticed something new. The Colossus had let go of Rusty. The small Pseudo-Glacial lay on the ground where the mechanical giant had deposited him, apparently no longer in stasis but clearly exhausted. His three eyes were open, but moving slowly, as if he was struggling to focus. His breathing was labored, irregular, and his body trembled slightly.

  "Rusty!" Brando didn't hesitate. Regardless of the danger, he launched toward his companion, dodging a swipe from the Colossus that could have crushed him like an insect. His hands closed around the small, warm body of the Pseudo-Glacial, and immediately he felt something was wrong.

  Rusty was burning hot. His body temperature had risen to dangerous levels, as if he had been subjected to an energy overload. His three eyes looked at him with an expression of fatigue, confusion, but also relief at seeing his master.

  "Hey, buddy," Brando whispered, gently stroking the silver fur. "What did they do to you?"

  But he didn't have time for a more thorough examination. The Colossus, with its hand now free, was doing something none of them expected. It raised its left hand toward Eleonora, who was trying to reposition for an attack, and from its palm energy began to pour forth.

  It wasn't like the sword. It was something more direct, more primitive. A pure bolt, white as burning magnesium, that formed in the air and launched toward Eleonora with the speed of lightning.

  "Shit!" Eleonora threw herself to the side, but the explosion when the bolt hit the ground beside her caught her anyway. The shock wave threw her to the ground, making her roll for several meters before she managed to stop. "What brutal force!" she said, getting up with difficulty. Her light armor had been damaged by the explosion, and one of her blades had flown away in the impact.

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  The Colossus didn't stop. Like Zeus hurling thunderbolts from Olympus, it began bombarding the group with bolts of pure energy. Each shot was calculated, precise, designed not necessarily to kill but to control their movements, to prevent them from coordinating any effective strategy.

  "Tommaso, Brando, Giordano! Now or never!" Alessio shouted, trying to create a tactical opening.

  Brando and Giordano launched toward the shoulder plates. Brando materialized his Rust Ice, preparing to hit the plate already struck initially. Giordano activated his Cold Enhancer, feeling the ring's energy pulsing in sync with his adrenaline.

  But the Colossus was ready. It had predicted exactly this move too. It rotated on itself with the fluidity of a dancer and its sword traced a lethal arc in the air. Brando managed to jump backward, but the blade grazed his jacket, cutting the fabric with surgical precision. Giordano threw himself to the ground, rolling away as the sword passed over his head.

  "Nothing doing! Every time we get close, it repels us!" Brando shouted, frustrated. The Colossus wasn't just fighting, it was playing a chess game, anticipating their moves and neutralizing them before they could be implemented.

  The situation was rapidly deteriorating. The Colossus attacked by making another jump that brought it directly toward Tommaso. The stone giant didn't have time to dodge. He raised his arms to protect himself, his armor thickening instinctively, but when the electric sword struck, the force of the impact was devastating.

  Tommaso flew backward five meters. His body crashed against one of the metal towers with a dull noise, and when he got up, spitting debris and dust, his rock armor showed deep cracks along his left arm. For the first time in twenty years, the man who seemed indestructible appeared vulnerable. He wouldn't withstand a second blow.

  "My armor... is cracked..." he said, looking at the fractures propagating along his arm with an expression of shock.

  "We're losing!" Eleonora shouted, desperate. It wasn't in her nature to admit defeat, but the reality was undeniable. They had been outmatched in every aspect: strength, speed, endurance, tactics... everything!

  The Colossus pointed its sword toward Alessio, the group's leader, the one who had kept everyone alive for two decades. Energy accumulated along the blade, then exploded in a directed bolt that crossed the air like a spear of pure light.

  Alessio tried to roll away, but wasn't fast enough. The electric discharge hit him full-on, he was thrown away a few meters and his body immediately stiffened on the ground. His muscles contracted spasmodically, then locked completely. His war hammer had rolled away, then dissolved.

  "I... I can't move!" he yelled, fighting against the paralysis that had invaded him. The veteran had been reduced to helplessness.

  "It's destroying us one by one!" Giordano shouted, seeing the situation precipitate. Alessio paralyzed, Tommaso wounded, Eleonora mentally shattered, and he and Brando unable even to get close enough to attack.

  The Colossus positioned itself in the center of the group while its sword rotated slowly in a hypnotic movement. It was clear it was studying them, analyzing their behavioral patterns, and planning the final blow. In its electric eyes was something that resembled satisfaction. It had demonstrated its superiority, had neutralized their tactics, and finally nullified the threat they represented.

  "Guys... I think it's time to admit we're in trouble," Eleonora whispered, her voice trembling for the first time since they'd known her.

  But Giordano looked at Rusty, who lay exhausted in Brando's arms, and something hardened in his eyes. "No. No, I can't accept it. Rusty is counting on us. Gaetano died so we could continue. I can't... we can't give up now."

  The Colossus began charging energy in its sword. But this time was different. The amount of energy accumulating was enormously superior to anything they had seen before. The blade lit up with electric light so intense it was almost blinding, and the air around began to crackle with a violence that hurt their teeth.

  "Wait... look at the plates!" Brando shouted, carefully observing the energy flow running along the Colossus's armor.

  "What it's preparing will kill us all!" Tommaso said urgently, struggling to stay on his feet despite the cracks in his armor.

  "No, wait! Look!" Brando spoke quickly, surprised that only he had noticed it. "When it charges the sword, energy flows from the plates to the sword! Not the other way around!"

  Giordano looked at him, confused. "So what?"

  "So if we hit the sword while it's overcharged, the energy will flow back to the plates violently! It'll fry them from the inside and make it implode!" Brando spoke so quickly the words seemed to overlap. "Like a short circuit!"

  Eleonora looked at the energy-charged sword, then at the plates that pulsed increasingly weakly as their energy was drained. "Like a short circuit... it could work."

  "But we have to coordinate everything perfectly," Brando said, grabbing Giordano's arm. "It'll only work if we catch the precise moment of maximum overcharge. Too early and the backflow energy will be insufficient. Too late and that thing disintegrates us."

  It was then that Giordano noticed something strange. His Cold Enhancer was pulsing in sync with the Colossus's energy. After the upgrade it had received, after the transformation it had undergone, he could sense the electric energy flows running around him. It was as if the ring had become a sensor, an energy detector that allowed him to "read" the electrical patterns of the environment.

  "With my Cold Enhancer I can sense the rhythm of its energy," he said, concentrating on the ring. "I can predict when it'll reach the peak."

  Brando nodded, understanding immediately. "Then you coordinate. You're the only one who can sense the right timing."

  Alessio was still paralyzed, couldn't do anything. His tactical experience would have been precious, but his body didn't respond to commands.

  "When I say 'now', hit the Colossus's sword with everything you have," Giordano said, studying the energy flowing through the enemy armor. "I'll deliver the finishing blow."

  Eleonora looked at him, confused. "The sword? But it's not a plate!"

  "It's not a plate. It's the main conductor!" Brando explained quickly. "If we hit it while it's overcharged, the energy explodes backward and fries the repair system!"

  Giordano felt the energy growing in the ring. He felt a sensation like hearing the heartbeat of an electric giant. "It's about to reach the peak... three... two..."

  The Colossus completed charging its sword. The electric energy reached a level where the blade became white-orange from the intensity of the light. It was like looking directly into the heart of the sun.

  "NOW!" Giordano shouted with all the strength he had in his lungs, feeling the ring pulse frantically.