The colossal kinetic pulse from the Harpy Matriarch slammed into Kenji's team, instantly nullifying Zola's magnetic anchor and launching them into the chaotic, upward-swirling winds of the Icarus Crater.
Bjorn, the heavy anchor, was the first to panic. His body, designed for grounded combat, tumbled uncontrollably. "I can't find my footing! Kinetic overload!"
Priya, floating alongside him, screamed, desperately pumping restorative magic into his aura to prevent his armor from rupturing under the immense, directionless force. "Stay focused, Bjorn! I'm buffering the impact!"
Elara spun, her Frost Weaver magic a frantic, chaotic spiral around her hands. She was trying to generate localized ice anchors, but the buoyant scrap dissolved the crystalline structures before they could solidify. "We're exposed! The Matriarch is using the lift field as a massive cannon!"
Kenji, however, felt a strange, cold calm amidst the chaos. The Epic Scrap of Absolute Defense, now humming faintly within his core, was not just knowledge; it was an intuitive grasp of kinetic movement. He couldn't stop the lift, but he could regulate his team's reaction to it.
"Don't fight the pull! Use the lift!" Kenji roared, pushing all his remaining core energy toward the Epic Scrap.
[Scrapsmith: Kinetic Flow Stabilization]
A faint, iridescent gray haze, the signature of his newly absorbed defense scrap coated the five members of his team. Kenji wasn't shielding them; he was tuning their bodies to the ambient kinetic flow. Instead of tumbling, they suddenly felt the chaos organize. They were still ascending, but they were now moving smoothly, floating in formation like five synchronized sky divers.
The Matriarch a terrifying hybrid of ancient bird and shimmering kinetic energy screeched, clearly annoyed that her initial attack had failed to scatter them.
She raised her enormous, buoyant wings, and the massive, floating metallic wreckage of the old spire structure began to descend rapidly. She was turning the debris field into artillery, using the concentrated kinetic lift to accelerate the ruins toward their positions.
"Projectile defense!" Elara yelled, recovering her composure now that she was stabilized. She began generating rapid-fire ice shields, trying to intercept the incoming razor-sharp metal fragments.
Zola, her Geomancy now stabilized by Kenji's field, was furious. "I can't hit that thing if I can't get close! It's untouchable!"
"You don't have to anchor, Zola! You are the Lancer!" Kenji shouted, ducking a piece of debris that Elara's shield only partially deflected. "Look at the flow! The Matriarch is pulling the ambient lift scrap into her core to maintain that massive shield! It's a pressurized pocket of power!"
Kenji looked at his own interface. His Sonic Disruptor was ready, but it was too low-powered to pierce the Matriarch's fully charged field.
"Zola, I need you to strike the Matriarch with the raw kinetic power of the crater itself!"
Zola looked at him, confusion mixing with determination. "How? I can't generate that much kinetic force in zero gravity!"
"You don't generate it, you channel it!" Kenji explained rapidly, pointing toward a massive, cylindrical piece of ruin floating fifty meters above the Matriarch. "Mateo, get that cylinder in line! Create a sound funnel!"
Mateo, understanding immediately, used a low-power [Sonic Burst] aimed at the cylinder, gently nudging the heavy metal artifact until it was perfectly aligned with the Matriarch's position.
Kenji turned to Zola. "Zola, use your Geomancy to momentarily anchor yourself to that cylinder. Then, use the Ambient Kinetic Lift Scrap as your propulsion system! Launch yourself with the full force of the Icarus Crater behind you! It's our only Lancer strike!"
Zola's eyes gleamed with cold calculation. This was the ultimate high-risk, high-reward move: turning her defensive, grounded power into a high-speed, orbital assault weapon.
She activated her Geomancy. [Earth-Metal Anchor]. Zola shot out a thin, magnetic tether of solidified earth-metal, snapping it onto the massive floating cylinder. She immediately felt the enormous inertia of the cylinder, but more importantly, she felt the entire kinetic lift field pressing against the cylinder's surface.
"Anchor set! Charging launch sequence!" Zola's voice was strained as she pulled her body close to the metallic cylinder.
Kenji moved into position. He knew exactly where the Matriarch's core was drawing energy, a swirling point just below her massive wings.
The Matriarch sensed the danger, ceasing her artillery attack and focusing her kinetic lift power entirely on herself, compressing her shield to maximum density. The air around her shimmered golden.
"Now, Zola! Eject!"
Zola cut the tether. [Geomancy: Kinetic Ejection!] She leveraged the massive inertia of the cylinder against the concentrated pull of the kinetic lift field, launching herself not downward, but forward, accelerating at terminal velocity toward the Matriarch. She was the Lancer, transforming into a human, earth-shattering projectile.
Just as Zola reached the golden perimeter shield of the Matriarch, Kenji acted.
He unleashed the full force of his [Sonic Disruptor], aiming it precisely at the kinetic pressure point below the Harpy Matriarch's wings.
VVVVVrrrrrrrRRUMMMMMM!
The silent, high-frequency sonic ripple did not shatter the shield, but it found the point of maximum rigidity where the Matriarch's core was pulling the buoyant scrap. The shield was designed to absorb physical impact, not molecular vibration. The sonic blast caused a momentary, catastrophic structural failure, creating a tiny, unstable crack in the golden kinetic field.
Zola, traveling at supersonic speed, slammed her Geomancy-reinforced shoulder directly into that hairline crack.
The force of the impact, the full momentum of Zola's Geomancy combined with the acceleration of the Icarus Crater's kinetic field was devastating. The Matriarch's defense failed instantly and completely.
The creature didn't bleed; it dissolved. The golden kinetic lift field instantly collapsed, and the Matriarch exploded into a brilliant, chaotic cloud of pure kinetic scrap, shimmering gold, green, and blue.
The resulting energetic implosion sent Kenji and the rest of the team spiraling away, but the mission was successful.
[RANK B BOSS DEFEATED: HARPY MATRIARCH]
[OBJECTIVE 4 TRIGGERED: EPIC SCRAP ACQUISITION]
Kenji, bleeding energy from the massive Sonic Disruptor usage, fought against the chaotic winds to reach the epicenter of the explosion. In the center of the dissipating energy cloud, floating silently, was the Epic Scrap of Kinetic Lift. It was a massive, feather-shaped crystal, pulsing with the irresistible energy of flight.
Kenji grabbed it. The rush of knowledge was exhilarating: the absolute mastery of kinetic buoyancy and momentum.
[EPIC SCRAP: KINETIC LIFT INTEGRATED]
[SECOND PERMANENT SKILL BLUEPRINT ACQUIRED]
[RANK UP PATH ADVANCEMENT]
USER: KENJI TANAKA (RANK 3)
OBJECTIVE 5: SKILL FORGING & RANK UP TO RANK 4 (ADEPT)
Requirement: Acquire 25,000 units of residual kinetic energy and successfully forge the permanent skill [Scrap Velocity].
REWARD: Permanent Skill: [Scrap Velocity] & Rank Up to Rank 4 (Adept).
Kenji's core, now housing three massive energies (the Abomination's dark scrap, Absolute Defense, and Kinetic Lift), felt incredibly powerful and stable. He had the blueprint for his second skill: [Scrap Velocity], the power to utilize kinetic scrap for hyper-acceleration.
Priya reached him first, her restorative magic washing over his exhausted body. "You did it, Kenji. You got the blueprint."
Zola landed heavily on a piece of debris nearby, her face pale but triumphant. "I'm not a bad Lancer after all."
"You were perfect," Kenji said, nodding. He looked at the massive, empty space where the Harpy Matriarch had been. They had won. They had the power.
But the moment of triumph was shattered by the flicker of his System interface. It was flashing a warning that bypassed the normal quest log.
[ALERT: SYSTEM COLLISION DETECTED]
[HIGH-RANK ENERGY SIGNATURE TRACED TO LOCATION]
[DANGER LEVEL: EXTREME]
An unnatural sound, a deep, resonating thrum that had nothing to do with the wind or the kinetic lift began to echo through the crater.
Looking down toward the ground-level entrance of the Icarus Crater, Kenji saw a brilliant, blinding flash of pure, focused light, the signature of a Rank 8 Grand Master.
"That's not the Obsidian guards," Elara whispered, her eyes wide with fear. "That power signature… it's pure, consecrated light magic. That's a Grand Master of the Central Authority's Enforcement Division."
The voice, calm, cold, and utterly terrifying, echoed across the vast, open crater, amplified by high-rank energy.
"Kenji Tanaka. Your unauthorized integration of High-Rank Volatility is a direct threat to the System's stability. Surrender the Epic Scraps now, or face immediate Oblivion."