The Transit Gate spat the team out onto a platform suspended precariously over nothingness. Kenji gasped, not from fear, but from the sudden, disorienting change in the physical laws of the environment.
They were in the Icarus Crater, a relic D-H spanning an immense, ancient impact zone located high in the atmosphere of the western continent. The air was thin and bitingly cold, but the true oddity was the constant, upward pull. The entire crater was saturated with kinetic lift scrap, the residual magic of the original gravitational experiment, creating a pervasive, gentle upward draft.
"This is terrifying," Mateo whispered, his Sonic Burst power useless for stabilization. He tried a small jump and drifted upward a full ten feet before floating slowly back down. "It's like walking on a sponge."
Bjorn, whose physical strength relied on solid grounding, looked intensely uncomfortable. "Anchor strength is minimal. I need firm footing."
"We'll give you firm footing," Zola promised, stomping her foot down. A stabilizing disc of compressed earth magic, laced with magnetic iron ore, spread out beneath them, momentarily anchoring them against the persistent lift. "This is the nature of the D-H. The environment itself is a weapon. The Aura Harpies thrive on this kinetic buoyancy."
Elara, adjusting the thermal regulators on her suit, surveyed the environment. Far below, the actual crater floor was obscured by mist and perpetually swirling winds. Above them, fragmented, metallic ruins from the original scientific facility floated lazily, buoyed by the lift scrap.
"The Aura Harpies are Rank B creatures," Elara stated, reciting the briefing. "They don't have heavy armor, and their primary attack is physical, augmented by kinetic acceleration. Their true defense is speed and evasion. In this environment, they are virtually untouchable."
Kenji, clutching the Epic Scrap of Absolute Defense (now a permanent, golden shimmer near his core), felt the distinct energy signature he was hunting. The Kinetic Lift Scrap permeated everything, a light, almost bubbly feeling of power that promised unmatched agility.
"The Epic Scrap is likely at the center, where the lift is strongest," Kenji said, pointing toward a massive, broken spire floating silently miles away. "But we can't fight their speed up here."
As if summoned by their conversation, the first Harpies appeared. They weren't flying so much as gliding long, slender figures with wings that shimmered with absorbed buoyancy magic, allowing them to make instant, sharp, non-linear shifts in trajectory.
The first volley of attacks was a disaster.
One Harpy dove, moving faster than Mateo's eyes could track, and slashed Bjorn's protective field. Bjorn roared in pain, struggling to keep his footing on Zola's shrinking earth disk.
Elara unleashed a volley of precision ice shards, her usual kill shots but the Harpies simply shifted their kinetic bubble, and the shards, instead of piercing, were deflected upward into the sky.
"They're too agile!" Elara cursed, her core burning with wasted energy. "The energy here is too chaotic. I can't predict their path!"
Zola tried a heavy, concentrated earth spike. It shot up, but the Harpy effortlessly used a pocket of buoyant scrap to dodge it, and the spike sailed harmlessly into the low orbit. Zola, a ground-based Lancer, was frustrated and impotent.
"I can't use my Lancer strike effectively! I need a fixed, grounded target!" Zola growled, her focus splitting between offense and maintaining their anchor.
Kenji closed his eyes, focusing past the physical danger and into the magic itself. He saw the Harpies not as physical threats, but as sinks creatures constantly drawing on the ambient kinetic lift scrap to maintain their unnatural speed.
"The problem isn't them, it's the air!" Kenji shouted. "They are powered by the environment. We have to regulate it!"
He took a grounding stance, focusing all the energy of his Rank 3 core, pushing the boundaries of his newly discovered Regulator identity. He extended his arms, initiating a massive, core-straining pull.
[Scrapsmith: Kinetic Lift Neutralization]
Instead of absorbing the scrap from a target (like the Golem), Kenji was attempting to absorb the entire ambient field over a fifty-meter radius. It was an insane task, taxing his core far more than the Thermal Neutralization had.
The air around the team instantly felt heavier, thicker. The upward draft lessened dramatically. The low-gravity sensation vanished.
The Harpies immediately felt the change. Their shimmering wings flickered violently. They stopped gliding and were suddenly forced to flair their wings, using pure physical force to stay airborne. Their flight path became visibly slower, more linear, and less erratic.
"It's working! They're sinking!" Mateo cheered, deploying a Sonic Burst that successfully startled a nearby Harpy.
But the cost was immediate and brutal. Kenji's face was white with strain. The constant, massive draw on the ambient field was draining his core energy at an exponential rate.
"I can't hold this field for long," Kenji gritted out, his voice a tight whisper. "It's a black hole in my core. I have maybe three minutes of clean regulation before I collapse and the field snaps back. Zola, this is your window! Become the Lancer!"
Zola understood. The Harpies were sinking into the 20-to-40-meter range exactly where her Geomancy could reach with force and precision.
She didn't create spikes. She switched tactics entirely.
[Geomancy: Aerial Net!]
Instead of shooting linear spears, Zola manipulated the pulverized stone of the floating ruins above them, weaving a complex, interconnected net of razor-sharp, magnetic rock wires. The Harpies, slowed and confused by the loss of their buoyant field, flew right into the invisible, high-altitude trap.
The rock net glowed faintly, capturing and immobilizing five of the screeching creatures.
Elara immediately went on the offensive. [Frost Weaver: Mass Shard Barrage!] With the targets fixed, she didn't need precision; she needed volume. Hundreds of ice shards erupted, tearing through the trapped Harpies. The attack was clean, surgical, and devastating.
Mateo, freed from evasion, began deploying concentrated sonic bursts to disorient any Harpies that remained above the net.
The synchronized assault was perfect. They had turned the environmental advantage against the enemy.
The system, constantly monitoring Kenji's combat effectiveness, updated his progression.
[CURRENT OBJECTIVE: Defeat Rank B Boss (The Harpy Matriarch) with the assistance of a Rank 5 Lancer.]
[LANCER ASSIST TRIGGERED: ZOLA MABASO (Aerial Net Deployment)]
Kenji felt his core energy dipping into the red zone. The Neutralization Field was stuttering, and he could feel the lift magic pushing back against his will.
"I have to drop the field! Now!" Kenji yelled.
He cut the connection. The lift magic instantly surged back, and the remaining Harpies shot upward into the safety of the heights, screeching warnings.
The team collapsed, panting. Bjorn finally found solid footing on a large piece of anchored debris Zola had solidified.
"That was brilliant, Kenji," Elara admitted, her tone mixing shock and respect. "You regulated the fight into Zola's kill zone. That was a high-level tactical move."
"It cost him almost everything," Priya said, rushing over and instantly laying a palm on Kenji's shoulder, radiating warm restoration magic. "He needs time to recover. His core is critically strained."
Kenji nodded, accepting the boost. "We used our one shot. The Harpy Matriarch knows we're here. She felt that energy pull."
He pointed toward the floating spire in the distance. "The Epic Scrap's signature is now screaming from that spire. That's where the Matriarch is waiting."
Just as he finished the sentence, the large spire began to move. It didn't drift; it launched.
A massive, shadowy figure detached from the spire, dwarfing the Guardian Harpies. It was the Matriarch, and her wings, instead of shimmering, radiated a thick, compressed field of golden-yellow kinetic lift. She moved with impossible, silent speed, closing the distance in seconds.
The Matriarch's presence was so saturated with buoyant kinetic scrap that the lift field around her instantly overloaded Kenji's previous Neutralization zone.
She stopped fifty meters away, a powerful, terrifying silhouette against the pale sky. She didn't attack; she simply released a massive, localized pulse of kinetic lift scrap aimed directly at the team.
The force slammed them, not outward, but upward. They were instantly ripped from Zola's magnetic anchor, thrown into the chaotic, low-gravity zone, tumbling out of control toward the clouds.
"Anchor failed! We're airborne!" Zola screamed. The true Rank B fight had just begun.