The branded monstrosity advanced through the corpse-field with ponderous inevitability, each footfall cracking stone and sending tremors through the unstable ground. Twelve feet of corrupted flesh and layered brands, its too-many eyes burning with malevolent intelligence that made Leo's Master-ranked perception recoil.

Behind it, more branded students were converging dozens of them, moving with the mechanical coordination that suggested the massive entity was directing them like extensions of its will.

Leo and Colonel Hestian stood side by side at the portal's threshold, weapons raised. Through the shimmering breach behind them, Hestian's soldiers maintained defensive positions.

"Are those more survivors?" Hestian asked, his eyes tracking the approaching branded students with tactical precision.

Leo's gaze fixed on the geometric patterns carved into their foreheads, then shifted to the creature's body where identical brands covered every inch of flesh in dense, layered configurations. "Look at their heads. Same marks as that thing. They're not survivors anymore they're extensions of it."

The Colonel's expression hardened with understanding. "A hive-mind construct. Military intelligence theorized about corrupted networks, but we've never encountered one at this scale."

One of Hestian's soldiers a young man with lieutenant's insignia moved toward the threshold. "Sir, permission to provide combat support "

"Denied." Hestian's voice carried absolute authority. "Your priority is portal security. If anything gets past us, you collapse this breach immediately. No hesitation, no exceptions."

"But Colonel "

"That's an order, Lieutenant. Protect the extraction point."

The soldier retreated reluctantly, positioning himself with his fellows to guard against anything that might slip through.

The creature stopped thirty meters from the portal, its multiple eyes studying the two Master-ranked fighters with calculating precision. When it spoke, the words were English heavily accented, distorted by vocal structures that weren't designed for human language, but unmistakably comprehensible.

"Stronger ... humans." The voice carried undertones of dozens of other voices speaking in unison the branded students' vocal patterns merged into something that approximated coherent speech. "Soon... I'll be adding you... to my collection."

Leo felt ice run through his veins. The thing wasn't just intelligent it had learned language from its corrupted victims, was using their collective knowledge to communicate. Every student it had claimed had made it more sophisticated, more dangerous.

"How many?" Leo asked quietly. "How many students did it take to build that vocabulary?"

"At least forty," Hestian replied, his tactical mind processing the implications. "Probably more. It's been collecting specimens for weeks, maybe longer."

The creature raised one massive arm, and every branded student in the corpse-field suddenly moved as one. They spread out in a wide arc, creating a perimeter that would allow the central entity to engage while preventing any escape or flanking maneuvers.

"Standard engagement protocols," Hestian said quietly. "I'll handle crowd control, you focus on the primary target. We've got maybe fifteen minutes before this portal close."

"Understood." Leo adjusted his grip on his blade, essence flowing through his body in preparation. His Master-ranked aura manifested as visible pressure around him not just power, but control. The kind of refined essence manipulation that took decades to develop, that marked the difference between novice-rank fighters and true Masters.

Hestian's own aura flared in response, military discipline evident in how his essence signature remained perfectly controlled despite the massive output. Master-ranked awakened didn't just have more power they had fundamentally different control over how that power manifested.

The creature attacked first, moving with speed that defied its massive size. One moment it stood thirty meters away, the next it was there its fist driving toward Hestian with enough force to crater stone.

The Colonel's response was immediate: a barrier of pure essence materialized in the air between them. Not constructed from any element or technique, but raw power given temporary form through Master-ranked will. The kind of technique only possible when someone had refined their essence control to levels where imagination directly shaped reality.

The creature's fist struck the barrier, and kinetic energy dispersed in visible ripples. But the impact still sent Hestian skidding backward, boots carving furrows in corrupted ground. The power differential was clear this thing matched or exceeded Master-ranked output.

Leo struck while the creature was committed to the attack, his blade targeting the dense concentration of brands on its exposed flank. The edge bit deep, carving through corrupted flesh and drawing black ichor mixed with geometric light.

The creature's backhand caught him before he could disengage, sending him tumbling across the corpse-field. His Master-ranked durability kept bones intact, but the impact still drove the air from his lungs.

"First contact... established," the creature's merged voices rasped. "Bleeding... detected. Conversion... initiating."

Leo rolled to his feet, checking his body for damage. The creature's strike had been brutal, but his body had held no broken bones, no blood drawn.

"It needs us wounded!" Leo called out. remembering Sarah's incidents, "Multiple contacts with open wounds before it can mark us like the others!"

"Noted!" Hestian engaged from the opposite angle, his weapon enhanced by his essence that made each strike carry weight beyond the physical. "Defensive priority don't let it land clean hits!"

The branded students closed in, moving to flank while the central entity pressed its assault. Twenty of them broke from the perimeter, their hive-mind coordination creating attack patterns that would overwhelm lesser fighters.

Hestian's aura flared, and three branded students simply stopped frozen mid-stride by the pressure of his essence signature overwhelming their corrupted systems. The technique lasted only seconds before they broke free, but those seconds allowed him to cut them down without resistance.

Leo's blade work was economical, each strike designed to kill or disable. He'd spent thirty years teaching combat theory now he demonstrated why those theories worked. Positioning that forced enemies into each other's strike zones, timing that exploited fractional hesitation, angles that made defense impossible.

But each branded student he eliminated meant essence spent, attention divided. And the creature was watching, its multiple eyes tracking their techniques with calculating intelligence.

"It's learning our patterns!" Leo warned, parrying a strike from the central entity that would have taken his arm. "Every technique we use "

"I see it." Hestian's barrier technique intercepted three branded students simultaneously, buying space. "It's processing combat data through the network. Standard counter-insurgency protocols we need to disrupt the hive-mind's coordination."

The creature's merged voices laughed a sound that combined dozens of different laughs into something grotesque. "You cannot... separate us. We are... one purpose. One will."

Leo's tactical mind raced through options. The branded students weren't just puppets they were extensions of the creature's essence, connected through the network it controlled. Which meant...

"Hestian! The students aren't just soldiers they're batteries! It's using them as external essence reserves!"

The Colonel's eyes widened with understanding. "Then every student we kill "

"Weakens the central entity proportionally. It's sustaining Master-ranked output by distributing the cost across dozens of corrupted individuals."

The creature's multiple eyes narrowed, recognition that its vulnerability had been exposed. "Clever... but irrelevant."

It raised both arms, and the brands covering its body began to pulse with synchronized light. The branded students across the battlefield suddenly stiffened, their own brands flaring in response. Thin streams of luminescent essence began flowing from each student toward the central entity visible tendrils of stolen power that connected the network like glowing threads.

"It's draining them!" Hestian's Master-ranked perception analyzed the energy transfer. "Building up for a massive attack!"

The branded students didn't scream they couldn't. Their mouths hung open in silent agony as essence was pulled from their cores in steady streams. Their skin began to pale, taking on a grayish cast as their life force was systematically extracted.

But the process was slow. The creature was pulling power carefully, sustainably, trying to accumulate maximum essence without killing its batteries prematurely.

"That's our opening!" Leo's tactical mind seized on the weakness. "It needs time to charge! We cut down the students before it can complete the drain!"

"Understood!" Hestian's weapon blazed with Master-ranked power as he engaged the nearest cluster of branded students.

They moved with desperate efficiency two Master-ranked fighters performing tactical amputation on the creature's power network. Each student they killed was one less battery feeding the accumulating attack, one less connection sustaining the drain.

Leo's blade found the first student's throat, severing the glowing essence tendril that connected it to the central entity. The stream of power cut off abruptly, and the creature's charge faltered fractionally. He moved to the next target, then the next, his decades of combat experience allowing him to kill with mechanical precision.

Hestian's approach was equally ruthless. His barrier techniques isolated clusters of students, preventing them from coordinating defensive responses while he systematically eliminated them. Five fell to his blade in rapid succession, their essence streams dying as their bodies collapsed.

The creature's merged voices rose in fury as it watched its power source being dismantled. "NO! My collection... my power!"

But it was committed to the charge stopping now would waste the essence already accumulated. So it pulled harder from the remaining students, trying to complete the attack before too many batteries were eliminated.

The branded students began to convulse as the drain accelerated. Their skin darkened further, veins standing out in stark relief as their bodies struggled with the increased extraction rate. But they couldn't resist the brands locked them into compliance, forced them to feed their essence to the central entity even as it killed them.

Leo cut down three more students, his blade moving in patterns refined over thirty years of teaching and combat. Hestian eliminated four, his military training evident in how efficiently he targeted vital points.

Twenty branded students had fallen by the time the creature completed its charge. The attack it released a wave of corrupted essence that rolled across the corpse-field like a tsunami was still dangerous, still potentially lethal, but compromised. The power that should have obliterated everything in its path instead struck with reduced force, its effectiveness crippled by the systematic elimination of its power sources.*****

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