Beast Evolution Forge

Lucia coughed blood but managed a knowing smile. "You're not as threatening without your main powers, are you?" She pulled out a glowing syringe from her armor. "Suzy, Plan Z. He's vulnerable."

"The readings confirm it," Suzy added, revealing her own syringe. "His main core is sealed. No access to his dimensional or crystal abilities, not even his corruption powers I heard so much about."

Vell's eyes narrowed. They did their homework. These weren't just random agents after all, they were people that knew a lot about him.

"Are you sure about this?" Suzy asked Lucia, examining the pulsing liquid in her syringe. "The latest batch was still unstable..."

"Do it!" Lucia jammed the syringe into her neck. Suzy hesitated for just a moment before following suit.

Vell stepped back cautiously, maintaining his guard. Without his main core, he couldn't afford to be reckless. The swords in his hands were draining his reserve core steadily - he needed to end this quickly.

Dark veins spread slowly across their skin as Lucia's experimental mana began taking effect. Their muscles tensed and grew denser, but not to monstrous proportions. This wasn't a brutal transformation - it was calculated, controlled.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Lucia's voice remained steady, though her eyes had darkened. "We learned from our mistakes. Small doses, properly refined. No need for dramatic mutations."

She moved first - not blindingly fast, but with precise, efficient movements. Vell brought up his dark sword to block, but her enhanced strength made his arms shake from the impact. Before he could counter, she had already pulled back to a safe distance.

"Your form is different," he observed, trying to buy time for his reserves to stabilize. "More controlled than those enhanced soldiers back at the lab."

"Because we understand corruption better than ever," Suzy explained, circling to his left. "We studied every sample, every reading. Learned its patterns."

They attacked together, but not in a wild rush. Their movements were coordinated, probing his defenses. He deflected Lucia's strike with his light sword while evading Suzy's low kick, but the effort cost him precious energy.

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"Running low already?" Lucia noticed his slightly labored breathing. "Those reserve cores can't maintain those energy weapons for long, can they?"

She was right. The swords were a desperate gambit, burning through his limited power too quickly. But without his main abilities, he needed the reach they provided.

Suzy pressed the advantage, her enhanced strength letting her push through his guard. Her fist caught his ribs - not a bone-crushing blow, but precise enough to make him stumble. Lucia followed up immediately, her kick sending him sliding backward.

"Your defenses are weak," she analyzed clinically. "No mana barrier to absorb impacts. Just standard reinforcement."

He spat blood, his reserve core straining. "Not bad," he admitted, maintaining his stance despite the pain. "But you're not the first ones to try studying my powers." He dismissed the light sword, channeling that energy into reinforcing his remaining dark blade. The weapon pulsed with concentrated power, more stable now that he wasn't splitting his focus.

Lucia's eyes lit up with scientific interest. "Adaptive energy redistribution. Even with limited resources, you're optimizing on the fly."

"Less analyzing, more fighting," Suzy warned, launching another coordinated attack.

This time, he was ready. He met their assault with controlled, economic movements. No wasted energy, no flashy techniques - just precise strikes with his remaining sword, forcing them to respect its reach while conserving his strength.

"What's wrong?" he taunted, parrying Lucia's strike while sidestepping Suzy's grab attempt. "All that knowledge, and this is the best you can do?"

Lucia's enhanced form blurred as she pressed forward, her movements becoming more aggressive. "We've mapped every pattern of your fighting style," she said, throwing a combination of strikes that forced him to give ground. "Every tendency, every habit."

"Then you should know," he growled, suddenly stepping into her attack instead of away, "that I don't like being predictable!"

He dismissed his remaining sword mid-swing, catching Lucia off guard. The energy he'd been channeling into the weapon exploded outward in a controlled burst, sending her stumbling back. Before Suzy could capitalize on his seemingly defenseless state, he was already moving.

His fist connected with her solar plexus, enhanced by the redistributed energy from his sword. She doubled over, enhanced durability or not, the strike still hurt.

"Your enhancement isn't perfect," he observed, following up with a knee strike that she barely blocked. "You're fighting your own bodies' instincts. Natural movements versus programmed responses."

"And yet," Lucia recovered, pulling something from her belt, "we're still standing."

She threw several small devices that exploded into clouds of shimmering particles. Vell's eyes widened as he sensed his mana being suppressed. He backed away, but Suzy had already circled behind him, herding him toward the cloud.

"Nowhere to run," she said, her strength letting her keep pace with his evasive movements. "The compound will stick to your mana pathways, making it harder to channel energy."

His reserve core flared in warning - he couldn't maintain this pace much longer. The women's enhanced forms showed no signs of degrading, their controlled transformations proving more stable than he'd anticipated.

His body felt heavy and this left him wide open. 'This is so annoyi-'

Lucia's fist slammed into her jaw with enhanced force, sending him crashing through a nearby wall. Before he could recover, Suzy appeared above him, her heel driving down into his sternum with crushing impact.

Blood sprayed from his mouth as he hit the ground. They didn't let up, their forms blurring with synchronized attacks. Each hit echoed with brutal force, driving him further into the crater their assault had created.

"Target neutralized," Suzy reported clinically, stepping back from his motionless form.

Lucia pulled out a scanner, frowning at the readings. "Vital signs dropping. Maybe we overdid-"@@novelbin@@

A sound cut through the air – laughter. It started low, almost inaudible, then grew into something unhinged that made both of them take an instinctive step back.

Vell's body twitched, then began to rise. Blood ran down his face, dripping onto the ground as he stood like a puppet with cut strings. His head hung at an odd angle, that disturbing laughter still spilling from his lips.

"What the fuck," Suzy whispered, taking a step back, her expression nervous.

His head snapped up, and both women felt their blood run cold. His eyes held something primal, something that stripped away their scientific confidence and reminded them of bone chilling fears, of things that hunted in the dark.

"1st limiter," he rasped, blood-stained teeth visible in a twisted grin, "release."

The air itself seemed to recoil.