Utopian System

"Move!" she ordered while maintaining her position. "I'll contain it!"

Some veteran soldiers remained with her, but most began their hasty retreat.

The artromus watched them depart with cruel amusement, like a predator that knows its prey can't really escape.

With fewer people maintaining the metallic restrictions, the task of containing the monster became exponentially more difficult. The bands that before enveloped it like an endless net now barely managed to slow its movements.

Step by step, the artromus gained ground.

Selene could feel her arms trembling each time their attacks clashed, fatigue beginning to take its toll.

"Commander!" A veteran captain shouted while maintaining his summon active. "You must retreat! Losing you would be catastrophic for the city!"

Selene shook her head, drops of sweat mixing with the blood still flowing from her eyes. "If it explodes and escapes, we'll lose dozens of soldiers in the retreat!"

The red glow intensified.

The approximately thirty soldiers who stayed to give time for the retreat struggled to keep the monster contained, but it was a lost battle.

"You too, retreat!" Selene ordered the last resisters. "I'll keep it long enough!"

But the artromus laughed again, and this time there was something in its tone that made a shiver run down Selene's spine.

The transformed beast no longer seemed frustrated or angry. On the contrary, everything in its posture suggested it was exactly where it wanted to be.

♢♢♢♢

Zantem's remaining mana had been reduced to a critical minimum.

The transformation, though powerful, limited his reserves to only a hundred points, and these were rapidly depleting.

However, his transformed jaws curved into a predatory smile, he still had more than enough for one last act of massacre.

'The core is lost,' he thought while pretending to struggle against his restrictions, 'but one mission can be fulfilled in other ways.'

His objective was clear: ten level 10 kills would give him the necessary pass to cross the barrier and inform the Queen.

He had already eliminated seven warriors of that level, and though he had killed several level 9s, those didn't matter as much for the requirement.

'Just three more,' he thought while energy accumulated in his core. 'And I have more than enough candidates right here.'

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The metal prison containing him was pathetically weak compared to previous efforts.

With fewer soldiers maintaining it, it barely represented an obstacle.

Zantem continued charging power, observing how Selene tensed, preparing to intercept what she believed would be another explosion of fire and wind.

'Time for the surprise.'

He had been pretending and accustoming his prey to a monotonous pattern but...

At the exact moment Selene launched toward him, Zantem executed his trap.

Using his monstrous strength, he abruptly retreated, breaking the chains just before impact. The movement left Selene completely out of position, vulnerable, plus...

This time, there would be no fire and wind.

The combination of fire and earth erupted like a volcano.

The range was smaller than his previous explosions, but with the reduced number of soldiers, he didn't need to cover so much space.

Besides, he only needed three more casualties.

Selene tried to intercept the attack with her water sword, reacting fast even in her compromised position, but the elemental composition took her by surprise.

The earth neutralized her element, letting the fire pass unopposed. The shockwave hit the commander and her soldiers with devastating force.

'Perfect.'

While bodies fell to the ground, Zantem was already accumulating energy for the final blow. One last attack to secure his objectives and complete at least one mission.

The burning power pulsed in his center again, this time mixing with another element's very essence.

The few soldiers still standing tried to reorganize, but it was too late.

Selene struggled to rise too, her system armor glowing weakly while trying to regenerate the massive damage. But there wouldn't be enough time. Not against the attack Zantem was preparing.

'A level 10 commander's death,' the Artromus reflected while energy grew, 'will be excellent consolation for losing the core.'

♢♢♢♢

Rising was an exercise in pure will for Selene.

Pain pierced every fiber of her being while the system armor struggled to regenerate the devastating damage she had received.

But pain was secondary; if she didn't act, all the soldiers who had trusted her, who had stayed to support her, would die.

"RETREAT ALREADY MORONS!" Her voice, hoarse from damage, resonated over the battlefield. But shouting the order wasn't enough, she had to give them time to escape.

'I have to predict his next attack,' she thought frantically while evaluating her options. 'If he uses earth again, I'll need to combine water with wind. But if he changes his pattern...'

The artromus's laughter interrupted her calculations. Energy already pulsed around his monstrous form, the explosion imminent.

'I won't make it like this.'

The distance was too great, her position terrible, the pain almost unbearable.

But there was no choice.

Selene forced her muscles beyond any limit she had known before. The pain made her scream, a heart-rending sound that mixed agony and determination.

It was a superhuman effort, the kind of movement that would leave permanent sequels in a world without a system, but she achieved her objective, reached the monster.

Her sword descended in a perfect arc...

And the artromus laughed.

There was no explosion.

Instead, the monster's transformed claws closed around her extended arm, the arm with which she held her sword and hadn't managed to damage the monster again, trapping her mid-attack.

"Got you," whispered the artromus, his voice distilling cruel satisfaction.

♢♢♢♢

Victory tasted sweet in Zantem's transformed mouth.

After all the frustration, losing the core, being contained and humiliated, he finally had the most annoying of the humans in his claws.

There was no point risking the woman guessing his attack's elemental combination and wasting more mana.

The other soldiers would be easy prey once she fell.

'She was not the little disrespectful one,' he reflected while pulling Selene toward his mouth deformed by transformation, 'but this warrior...'

There was something about her, in her determination and ability, that had earned a small degree of respect from him.

Of course, that only made the moment of her death more satisfying.

His jaws, which though "reduced" by transformation remained monstrous, opened for the final blow. The movement was perfect, precise, lethal...

And found emptiness.

In an act of desperation and courage that even Zantem had to admire again, Selene had cut off her own arm, using the movement's momentum to get away from his claws.

'Impressive,' he thought while preparing for the final assault, 'but useless.'

With one arm less, her ability to control impulses would be severely compromised. Her speed, her main advantage, had been significantly reduced. She would be easy prey.

Zantem launched forward, his claws extended for the final blow...