Chapter 26: Neural Link

"Well, recruit." Darwin’s voice was quiet. "What’s our move?"

Gio stared at the cloaked figure standing in the fog. His head was pounding, a blinding spike of pain driving through his temples from the mental strain of the serpent encounter. His Bioenergy was hovering at a miserable twenty-five percent. He couldn’t summon the bear. He couldn’t even afford to lose a wasp to the 1% reconstruction cost if things went south.

But as he looked at the figure, his System—the alien interface bound to his consciousness—began to scream data across his vision.

The cloaked figure took a step closer to the truck. "I asked for the drive." The voice echoed, no longer just projecting through the metal, but vibrating directly inside their skulls. "Hand it over, and I let you pass. Refuse... and my hounds tear this box apart. With you inside it."

Then, the figure raised a hand.

A wave of crushing, invisible pressure rolled out from him.

Inside the cabin, the air grew instantly heavy. Melody gasped, her cat ears pinning flat against her skull as her knees buckled. Lloyd clutched his head, a thin line of blood trickling from his nostril. Even Darwin’s bionic arm began to whine, the servos trembling under the sheer weight of the psychic aura.

This wasn’t just a D-Rank threat. This figure was on an entirely different level.

"My master does not tolerate thieves, we thank you for retrieving it...but..." The tone dripped with arrogant authority. "...Give me the drive."

Gio gritted his teeth, forcing his mind through the suffocating pressure. He looked out the slitted window at the twelve bioengineered hounds circling the truck, their yellow eyes glowing in the mist.

His bracelet flashed red.

ERROR: NO MUTAGENIC CORE DETECTED.

"They don’t have cores!" Reuben shouted from the front cabin, his voice cracking. "Scanners are glitching—we can’t get a read on ’em!"

Normal military tech was useless here. But Gio’s System wasn’t normal.

[Scanning...] ℯ

[Bioform Detected: Cybernetic-Organic Hybrid (x12).]

[Mutagenic Core: None.]

[Analysis: Creatures are remote-controlled via a localized neural command link. Source of signal: The cloaked figure’s cervical spine.]

Gio’s eyes widened. Remote-controlled.

The hounds weren’t acting on instinct. They were meat puppets, and the figure holding the leash was using his psychic pressure to keep the squad paralyzed. If Darwin handed over the drive, they were dead. If the hounds attacked, they were dead.

Unless he cut the leash.

Gio did the math in his head. Four wasps. Twenty percent. That would leave him at five percent. One wrong move, one destroyed construct, and he’d be scraping the bottom of his reserves. If he hit zero, every construct he had would vanish and stay gone until he recharged.

But if he didn’t act, they were all dead anyway.

’Wasps,’ Gio thought, pushing through the headache. ’Four.’

White light erupted from his palms in four sharp flashes.

[Bioenergy: 5%]

Five percent. He could feel it—the hollow, scraping sensation of running on fumes. His vision dimmed at the edges. His hands trembled.

The four Mutagenic Wasps materialized, their wings humming with an aggressive, high-pitched whine that cut through the psychic pressure.

’Ignore the hounds,’ Gio commanded, his mental voice sharp and absolute. ’Target the master. Sting the back of his neck. Inject the venom.’

The cloaked figure saw the constructs and scoffed. "Parlor tricks."

He swatted a hand through the air, a burst of kinetic force crushing two of the wasps into mist.

[Construct destroyed. Reconstructing. 1%]

[Construct destroyed. Reconstructing. 1%]

[Bioenergy: 3%]

Three percent. Gio’s vision swam. A sharp, white-hot spike of pain drove through his skull. He could feel the System straining, the threads of light connecting him to his constructs flickering like dying candles.

But the figure’s focus on the front had left his back exposed for a fraction of a second. The remaining two wasps, small and blindingly fast, zipped through the fog. They dive-bombed, their glowing stingers piercing the thin fabric at the nape of the figure’s neck, injecting a microscopic dose of mutagenic venom directly into the neural node.

The figure stiffened. A muffled, very human gasp of pain escaped his hood.

Instantly, the crushing psychic pressure in the cabin vanished.

Outside, the twelve bioengineered hounds froze mid-stride. Their glowing yellow eyes flickered wildly, the remote control link shattered by the venom. Deprived of their master’s commands, the beasts reverted to their base, feral instincts.

And the strongest source of fresh blood and movement right now was the cloaked figure, who was stumbling backward into the fog, clawing at his neck.

The hounds turned on him.

"Get off—get OFF me!" The voice wasn’t a calm, projected echo anymore. It was a harsh, strained rasp. He drew a blade of condensed bio-energy, slashing wildly, but the pack swarmed him, their acidic saliva sizzling against his protective aura.

With the figure distracted and the hounds turned on their master, the pressure on the truck vanished.

"Commander!" Gio shouted. "The interference—it was tied to his control link!"

As if on cue, the truck’s dashboard flickered. The localized disruption dissipating, the engine roared back to life with a deafening growl.

Darwin didn’t waste a second. He slammed the truck into gear. "Hold on!"

The convoy surged forward, tires spinning in the toxic mud before catching traction. They plowed through the fog, crushing two of the feral hounds beneath the reinforced bumpers as they sped down the King’s Road, leaving the snarling pack and their cursing master behind.

Inside the cabin, the recruits were breathing hard. Lloyd wiped the blood from his lip, his hands shaking. Melody’s claws slowly retracted.

Kojiro let out a low whistle, leaning back against the metal wall. "Four wasps." He coughed. "Whole pack of un-scannable hounds. Broke a psychic hold." He shook his head slowly. "Kid, you’re really full of surprises."

Gio just nodded, his head still throbbing. He checked his System.

[Bioenergy: 3%]

Three percent. He was one destroyed construct away from total system failure. If a single wasp had been crushed instead of reconstructed, he’d be at zero. Everything would have vanished. He’d be just a man with a headache and a plasma handgun. Worse, he really didn’t believe that would be all to it if he fell to 0%.

He dismissed the remaining wasps. The white light faded, and the mental pressure eased slightly, but the exhaustion hit him like a wall. He slumped against the truck’s metal wall, his vision swimming.

He looked out the back window. The cloaked figure was nowhere to be seen, just the thick yellow fog swallowing the road behind them.

Darwin’s voice came over the bracelet, calm and clinical as always. "Recruit Gio. That was... efficient. Explain your reasoning."

"They were remote-controlled," Gio replied, keeping his voice steady despite the tremor in his hands. "No mutagenic cores. Just bioengineered meat tied to a neural link. I targeted the master’s neck. Severed the signal."

A brief silence on the comms. "And the psychic pressure?"

"Same link... I think." Gio kept his voice flat. "When the wasps hit him, the feedback loop broke... So...."

He didn’t mention the System’s exact analysis. Just played it off as tactical observation.

"Hmm, Noted." Darwin’s mechanical pupil whirred, glancing at Gio in the rearview mirror for a fraction of a second too long. "Keep your guard up. We are deep in the King’s Road now."

As the truck sped deeper into the wasteland, Gio’s System pinged one last time, a quiet notification flashing in the corner of his vision.

[Analysis: The black data drive’s sub-space transmitter remains active. Current signal range: expanding. Multiple bio-signatures converging on convoy trajectory from the east.]

Gio clenched his fist, his nails digging into his palm.

The beacon was still broadcasting. The cloaked figure hadn’t known about his System, hadn’t known about the Velithari link. He had just wanted the drive.

But as Gio looked at the dark road ahead, a chilling realization settled in his gut. They weren’t just explorers. They weren’t just bait.

They were being herded. And whatever was waiting at the end of the King’s Road already knew exactly where they were.