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The movements became more precise, more efficient. Where before they needed three impulses to move someone to safety, now they managed to do it with two.

Elio, Zara, and Micah also improved their timing. They learned to read the King Locus\'s movements, to anticipate its jumps. With each attempt, they became more efficient in their escapes, trying to reduce mana expenditure.

"It\'s working!" Kriz shouted while coordinating another successful escape.

But the improvement wasn\'t enough.

Even with their increased efficiency, the numbers were relentless. They didn\'t have the 300 mana points needed to move everyone twice until defeating the monster.

"Thirty points!" Mei warned, her voice tense while monitoring their remaining mana.

"Twenty here!" Brok responded.

♢♢♢♢

The group adapted to the point where they only needed 1 mana point per person to dodge.

But 35 attacks after their adaptation, the situation became critical.

King Locus: 1554 resistance

The group had almost completely exhausted their mana reserves.

"I can\'t maintain position!" Lila shouted, her last mana points vanishing. None of the supports had mana now.

Zara was forced to use her own mana to dodge, a resource they couldn\'t afford to waste.

Zara: 14 mana

Every point she spent on movement was one less point for the fire attacks they needed.

Elio managed to connect another hit, the flames impacting against the King Locus.

Elio: 15 mana

But this time, something changed.

The monster\'s roar resonated differently, and the glow emanating from its body intensified until it became almost blinding.

"Watch out!" Micah shouted, seeing the monster move with a speed that made its previous attacks seem slow.

Micah pushed Elio and himself out of the attack\'s path.

Micah: 1 mana

The impulse saved them by a hair\'s breadth.

Zara, trying to maintain the pattern, launched her fire attack.

Zara: 13 mana

But the King Locus responded with a roar that seemed to make reality itself tremble. An energy burst more intense than any before erupted from its mouth, disintegrating Zara\'s flames before they could reach it.

"The pattern!" Mei exclaimed, her voice broken by amazement and terror. "It\'s changed again!"

"It\'s not just faster!" Kriz added, watching in horror. "Now it can intercept our attacks!"

The group watched, desperation threatening to overtake them. They had managed to adapt to the monster\'s first change, even to the second, but this... this was too much.

"We don\'t have any more mana!" Brok\'s voice resonated with frustration. "And now we can\'t even guarantee our attacks will connect!"

Zara\'s failed attack marked the beginning of a chain of events that would change everything.

The King Locus, relentless in its new phase, extended its enormous arms toward Elio and Micah, who were still struggling to regain their balance after the new energy burst that had hit them.

Micah, seeing the imminent danger, spent his last mana point to push Elio away.

"Elio!" The scream tore through his throat as he pushed his friend out of the monster\'s reach, knowing this would leave him exposed.

Micah: 0 mana

The shadows of the King Locus\'s colossal fingers darkened Micah\'s vision.

Time seemed to slow as he watched death descend upon him. But Elio, breaking his own rule of conserving mana only for attacks, released a helium burst that tore Micah from death\'s grasp.

Elio: 14 mana

The mana he should have saved for attacking, spent in a moment of necessary desperation.

Zara, seeing an opportunity, closed the distance.

Ranged attacks no longer worked; the monster intercepted them easily. Her fire attack, launched from dangerous proximity, managed to connect this time. The flames licked the King Locus\'s carapace, and seizing the moment, Zara discharged all her 6 pints of mana.

Zara: 7 mana

But the cost of this success was terrible.

The proximity that gave her success also left her vulnerable, too close to dodge the King Locus when it turned toward her.

The monster\'s speed in its final phase was overwhelming.

Despite using helium impulses, it wasn\'t enough. Before Zara could move away, a deafening roar released an energy burst that hit her like an invisible hammer. Her legs stumbled and in a devastating instant, the King Locus\'s claws closed around her body.

The crunch that followed was horrible, a sound that froze the blood of all present. The King Locus\'s hundred points of strength crushed Zara\'s armor like paper.

Her scream of pain, a sound none of them would ever forget, broke something fundamental inside Elio.

The calculated calm he had maintained until now evaporated.

With a cry of rage, Elio launched himself directly at the monster, releasing six attacks in rapid succession.

Elio: 8 mana

The flames impacted the King Locus\'s back, but its resistance was still too much.

King Locus: 306 resistance

Zara tried to fight, but the position was different from her previous encounter. The effort only caused her immense pain. Her arms were trapped at an impossible angle, with no freedom to counterattack.

The monster roared again, turning toward Elio with terrifying speed.

Without charged mana, Elio couldn\'t dodge.

No one had energy to help him.

The hand descended, but caught Micah, who had interposed himself at the last moment.

The crunch was worse this time.

With less defense and resistance than Zara, Micah\'s body almost collapsed instantly.

Blood burst from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, his scream choked by the vital liquid.

As his resistance vanished faster than Zara\'s, Micah thought about that day, years ago, when he found Elio crying.

\'Maybe it\'s time to go complain to my father too,\' he thought, an ironic smile forming on his bloodied lips as darkness began to claim him and a strange floating sensation invaded his senses.

But his eyes snapped open when he felt new energy flow into him.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, through his blurred vision, he made out Lila, her face contorted in concentration as she transferred her own resistance to him.

"Don\'t give up!" Lila\'s voice was barely audible above the battle\'s chaos.

The others were several meters behind, their faces marked by terror and helplessness.

The King Locus wasted no time; with its attention divided between its current prey, it extended its free hand toward Lila.

But Elio would have no more of this.

Acting on pure instinct and desperation, he moved even faster. His mana wasn\'t charged, but his legs still responded. He arrived just in time to push Lila out of the monster\'s reach.

The others couldn\'t arrive in time. The King Locus\'s hand closed around Elio. He tried to kick the monster\'s palm and managed to separate a bit.

But it wasn\'t enough...

His leg was trapped.

Elio: 70 Resistance / 44 Armor Resistance

The sound of breaking bones resonated in the chamber. Elio\'s scream of pain mixed with Lila\'s horrified "NO!", creating a symphony of desperation that froze the blood of all present.

The monster had its attention on Elio; he had been the last to damage it.

He would be the first to be devoured.

The King Locus\'s speed was relentless, and Elio wouldn\'t have time to charge his mana before being chewed.

"ELIO!" Lila\'s shattered cry cut through the air.

Time seemed to slow as Elio hung from the King Locus\'s grip moving directly to its mouth. His mind, surprisingly clear despite the unbearable pain, evaluated his options. The faces of his captured companions flashed through his mind.

He couldn\'t let the King Locus win.

Maybe while being chewed he would have time to launch the final attack and die saving them?

No, the easy way is for cowards. I can\'t risk it.

I choose the path of pain.

Elio\'s eel responded to his silent call, its serpentine body coiling around his trapped leg. The familiar, unable to harm the King Locus, had another purpose nevertheless. It couldn\'t harm the King Locus, but it could harm its own master. If Elio still didn\'t have his mana available, he would have to force it out.

With a thought, he ordered his familiar to extract his mana while cutting off his own leg.

Elio: 30 Resistance / 0 Armor Resistance

Elio: 7 mana

The decision, made in a fraction of a second, would resonate in the nightmares of all present for years to come.

The King Locus\'s jaws were plunging toward Elio when the eel completed its macabre task. The severed leg remained in the monster\'s grip while Elio, using his remaining limb, propelled himself away from the monster.

His mind, despite the unbearable pain, focused on one thing: accumulating the mana necessary for one final attack.

But the King Locus wouldn\'t give him that time.

Its remaining hand rushed toward him as he fell, the distance between its fingers and Elio\'s body shortening with each millisecond.

"NO!" Elio\'s frustrated cry resonated in the chamber, mixing with his companions\' screams of horror.

Just as the claws were about to reach him, Elio switched to his swift with superhuman agility.

Elio: 6 mana

The helium explosion that followed propelled him at an impossible angle, dodging the monster\'s hand by millimeters and heading directly toward its belly.

With the book firmly gripped in his hands, Elio made another change in mid-flight. The eel appeared instantly, its serpentine body charged with the energy of the last five charged attacks remaining to its master.

At point-blank range, with no possibility of failure, the sacred flames impacted directly on the King Locus\'s belly. The monster\'s roar transformed into an agonized shriek as its colossal body began to disintegrate into particles of light.

Victory, bought at the price of blood and flesh, came in a blinding flash that illuminated the entire chamber.

The King Locus, the being that had seemed invincible, vanished into nothingness, releasing its captives in the process.

Elio fell to the ground, his consciousness fading as adrenaline abandoned his body, leaving him only with the searing pain of his sacrifice and the knowledge that, against all odds, they had won.