"Jorgen! Make that thing fall back!" Marge demanded as she pressed the button on her leader’s suit. The mechanism answered with a metallic click, tightening the tourniquet around the amputated limb.

  "Let me…" he growled, shoving her aside with his good shoulder. "Go fight. Makina, how much ammo do you have left!?"

  He tried to stay upright, but the drained color of his face betrayed the pain burning through his stump. Even so, his voice remained strangely calm, almost cold"the stoicism of a hunter who refused to fall.

  A gunshot echoed from the rear and Makina shouted:"That leaves me with ten shots! Nene!"

  "Y-yes!"

  "Start bringing Jorgen ba-"

  "No! Don’t bring her, she’ll just get in the way!"

  The Hunter staggered forward toward the battle. His whole body protested with every step, but his pride dragged him onward, stubborn to the point of stupidity.

  "That… idiot" Makina muttered, biting her tongue. For a moment she considered sending Nene to stop him, but when she saw the girl’s shattered arm, her skin trembling with pain, she knew she couldn’t give an order like that.

  "Damn it…" she took a deep breath. "Nene, find an exit. While the rest distract it, find a way out. I don’t have the feeling we can kill that thing."

  "Y… yes…"

  Nene pressed her broken arm and began to run, though every movement tore a sob from her throat. She looked around in desperation.

  "Where is… the exit? What do I do…?

  There was nothing. No cracks. No outside light. Only that solid darkness, like breathing obsidian.

  A perfect dome. Sealed.

  "Think, think, Nene" she repeated, biting her lip. "Something… you must be able to do something…!"

  She tried to remember how they had defeated Lorelley before. That cheap trick. That distraction.

  She discarded the idea. This new creature wasn’t an insect. It was far more intelligent. And its gaze… that gaze would never fall for the same trap.

  "Nene!"

  "Huh?"

  "Breathe" Makina said from behind, without stopping her fire. "I know you can think of something. You’ve done it before. Just think."

  "I…"

  The rifle thundered.

  "I’ll take care of protecting you."

  Nene’s eyes welled up.

  "Miss Makina…" she trusted someone as pathetic as her; she couldn’t let her down.

  This prison had appeared just when the woman was trying to escape at that moment…

  Then she remembered.

  It was a Technique. She didn’t know where it had come from, but she was sure of that fact, because she had glimpsed a faint orange hue when it formed. If it was… then that meant she might have a way to help.

  "Residual Synchrony – Target [Incomplete Territory (Technique)]: Domain."

  Her eyes shone an intense orange. For five seconds she tried to attack the effect of that “Incomplete Territory” from the inside -whatever that was.

  The dome’s ceiling creaked, whitish cracks spreading like veins across it.

  "AAARGH!"

  The jellyfish doubled forward, coughing up purple blood. Its muscles contracted, the air filled with a sharp, acrid stench, and its face twisted into an expression of pain so deep, so human.

  The Hunters didn’t waste the opportunity.

  Luca lunged first.

  His shield lit up with an energy unusual for a shield-bearer.

  "Shieldbearer Technique Deployment I: Modified Great Shield" (20 P.R.)

  Long spikes emerged from his shield, along with a radiant aura.

  The blow smashed into the monster’s jaw, tearing off fragments of bluish skin that fell to the ground like broken petals.

  "Argh!… It hurts… filthy humans…!"

  Nail and Maik followed, ramming with their shields. One to the chest. Another to the elbow. A dry crack marked how the limb bent at a grotesque angle, nearly torn off.

  The creature shrieked; a wet, grating sound full of agony.

  Marge appeared like a whip, firing, causing part of the jellyfish’s skull to burst with a horrifying sound.

  "AHHHHHH!"

  The Bizarre let out a scream, its twisted face locked in a terrible grimace of pain and agony.

  Jorgen immediately sprinted forward, gripping his greatsword with one hand and aiming straight for the jellyfish’s neck. He didn’t know for sure, but his instincts told him it wouldn’t be able to move if he cut off its head"then he’d have enough time to look for its core.

  "Swordsman Technique Deployment I: Ssh ; Connect [Bite and Sever (Arghnipraksma/Intervertebral Disc)]" (10 P.R)

  It seemed like a perfect chance to kill it, but the cracks in the dome vanished with a dry crunch.

  In an instant, the creature stood back up.

  "Humans! KILL NOT ARGHNIPRAKSMA!"

  With a graceful tilt of its head it dodged Jorgen’s ssh, then immediately used its tentacles to cover its face from Makina and Marge’s shots. It blocked Maik’s low strike with its knee.

  And then, like a lightning bolt of death, its hair shot forward toward the shields, piercing them like soaked paper. It punched through Luca’s chest.

  "LUCA!" Jorgen screamed in horror.

  The creature tore off the arm holding the shield and hurled it violently toward the rest of the team, retreating to create distance. Then it adopted a guard stance. It used the stolen shield as if it were part of its own body. One tentacle acted as an arm"perfectly positioned, flexed, threatening.

  "Luca! Are you alive!?"

  Jorgen shouted as he caught the weight of his most loyal shield-bearer. It seemed that the thing had missed the heart by a hair, but the damage to his lungs was severe.

  Marge immediately fired to keep the Bizarre at bay, but she didn’t expect that abominable humanoid to use the shield to reflect the shot back at her. Fortunately, the other shield-bearers covered her.

  "It’s learning to use tools!"

  "Girl, do that one more time! Break everything, now!"

  Jorgen ordered as he realized Nene was the key to winning. She could give him the time he needed to use his Resonance.

  His resonance, Bite and Sever, allowed him to generate cuts with millimetric precision, as long as he knew exactly where what he wanted to cut was located.

  If he had enough time, he could figure out where that thing’s core was and rip it out without damaging it by using the Bite mode.

  But he needed time and to visualize the location. Things he couldn’t do while that Bizarre remained alert and attacking.

  Now more than ever, that useless girl could spare him the trouble of cutting off the head.

  "Come on, Nene! You can do it!" Makina encouraged her with another shot at the jellyfish.

  Nene gathered her courage and tried once more to strike at the color of that dome.

  But it wasn’t enough… The rebound of her attempt hit her so hard that it knocked her into the water. This time she couldn’t even make cracks. It was much more solid now.

  She was far too weak to break that dome on her own… Once again, her weakness was what kept her from being useful...

  NO!

  She scolded herself as she felt negativity creeping in.

  If she couldn’t break that area in a single blow, she’d do what she knew best: improvise!

  Ouro