Chapter 13: Second Bioform (2)

The ground shook as it fell. For a long moment, no one moved.

Then Blaze let out a weak, coughing cheer. "Hell... yeah..."

Gio didn’t cheer. He walked toward the fallen beast, his legs heavy. The remaining wasp dissolved into white light. His Bioenergy was dangerously low.

[Bioenergy: 8%]

He knelt beside the creature’s massive head. The smell of sulfur and burnt meat was overwhelming. He placed his hand on its scorched fur.

[E-Rank Mutagenic Iron-Boned Bear Core detected.]

[Absorb? Y/N]

Gio swallowed. His mouth was dry. He’d absorbed F-Rank cores without a second thought. But this... the system felt like it was warning him.

He looked back at the camp. At Kojiro, who was watching him with a furrowed brow. At Melody, who was sitting in the mud, her hands shaking, her arms scorched. At Lloyd, who was staring at Gio with wide, tear-streaked eyes.

Gio turned back to the bear.

Yes.

The core was beneath his palm. It was the size of a golf ball, pulsing with a deep, angry orange light that radiated intense heat.

Gio picked it up. It was hot. Almost burning his skin.

But then he thought to himself, if absorbing it just gives me some bioenergy and the bioform, I should swallow it and strengthen my core too.

So, he cleaned it, placed it in his mouth and swallowed.

---

The pain hit him like a freight train.

But it wasn’t just physical agony; it was heat. A searing, white-hot heat that started in his stomach and flooded his lungs. It felt like he had swallowed a live coal. His chest heaved, trying to draw breath, but the air itself felt like it was burning him from the inside out.

Gio screamed, a raw, ragged sound that tore his throat.

He collapsed onto his side, his hands clawing at the dirt. Black and orange veins erupted beneath his skin, pulsing violently. Smoke literally began to rise from his shoulders.

’It’s burning me. I’m burning from the inside. My lungs... my lungs are melting.’

His Mutagenic Core felt like it was sitting in a furnace. The bear’s bioenergy was flooding into him, raw and combative, a raging inferno trying to consume him. His cells screamed. His blood felt like it was boiling.

[Warning: Biofeedback critical.]

[Host core integrity at 62%...]

[58%...]

[54%...]

No. No, no, no. I can’t die here. Not like this.

He thought of the orphanage. The fire. Sister Fall, pinned to the wall, burning. He thought of Caleb’s fist. He thought of the little girl with the messy pigtails.

His hand slammed into the dirt. He anchored himself to the earth, to the pain, to the sheer, stubborn refusal to burn.

I... am not dying here!.

[Host core integrity at 49%...]

[Stabilization attempt initiated...]

[Velithari link: resonating...]

That name again. Velithari. And with it came a pulse. A deep, resonant frequency that wrapped around his fracturing core like a blanket of cool water. It didn’t extinguish the fire, but it contained it. It forced the raging inferno to compress, to refine, to integrate.

The pain didn’t stop. But it shifted. The burning in his lungs cooled, just slightly, as his body adapted to the heat. The bear’s bioenergy was being forced into his system, his internal organs reinforcing themselves to handle the combative energy.

[Core integrity stabilizing...]

[52%... 57%... 63%... 71%...]

[Bioform absorption in progress...]

Gio gritted his teeth so hard he felt a molar crack. Blood poured from his nose, sizzling as it hit his scorched cheek. He could hear his own heartbeat, impossibly loud, a drumroll counting down to either survival or death.

And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain crested.

The burning shattered into warmth. The black and orange veins beneath his skin faded, retreating like a tide pulling back from shore. His breathing slowed. The smoke rising from his shoulders dissipated.

He was lying on his side in the dirt, soaked in his own blood and sweat. His body ached with a deep, bone-level exhaustion, and his throat felt raw, but he was alive.

[Core integrity: 78%. Stable.]

[E-Rank Mutagenic Iron-Boned Bear Core: ABSORBED.]

[Bioform Storage updated.]

[New Bioform registered.]

Gio rolled onto his back and stared up at the sickly sky, gasping.

He pulled up the system panel with trembling focus.

[Bioform Storage] ℴ

[Capacity: 2/3 slots]

1. [F-Rank Mutagenic Wasp]

· Traits: Flight, Venomous Stinger, Swarm Instinct

· Combat Capability: Low

· Bioenergy Cost: 5% per manifestation

2. [E-Rank Mutagenic Iron-Boned Bear]

· Traits: Iron Bone Plating, Combustive Lungs (Fire Breath), Terrifying Roar

· Combat Capability: High

· Bioenergy Cost: 15% per manifestation

Gio stared at the numbers. Fifteen percent just to summon it. It was a beast of a Bioform, capable of acting as a heavy tank and dealing massive area-of-effect damage with its fire breath. But it was a beast he could barely afford to leash.

That’s fine, he thought, a weak smile cracking his blood-stained face. I’ll get stronger. I’ll get more cores.

---

"Gio!"

Kojiro’s face appeared above him. "Kid, you scared the hell out of us. You were screaming, and you were literally smoking. What did you do?"

"Swallowed... the core," Gio croaked. His throat felt like it had been scrubbed with sandpaper and lit on fire.

Kojiro’s eyebrows shot up. "The E-Rank core? Kid, your own core is E-Rank or F-Rank. That’s like swallowing a grenade of your own size."

"I know," Gio whispered.

Melody appeared next, dropping to her knees beside him. She reached out hesitantly, then placed a hand on his arm.

"You’re an idiot," she said softly. "You could have died."

"But I didn’t," Gio said.

"That’s not the point!"

He managed a weak laugh, which turned into a cough that splattered blood on his chin.

Commander Darwin approached, his heavy boots crunching on the gravel. He looked down at Gio.

"You Swallowed an E-Rank core without authorization. At your own rank. That’s not standard procedure, recruit. What you did was reckless." He paused. "It was also brave."

Darwin turned and walked back toward the camp without another word.

Gio lay there for a moment longer. Then he felt a presence nearby.

Lloyd was standing a few meters away. He looked like a child who had just woken from a nightmare.

Their eyes met.

"You..." Lloyd started, his voice barely audible. "You saved me. Back there...."

Gio didn’t say anything.

"I called you a slum rat," Lloyd whispered. "I pointed a gun at a fellow recruit. I ran out there like an idiot, and I froze, and you still... you still came after me."

His voice broke.

"Why?"

Gio stared at him. He thought about Sister Fall, pinned to the wall, telling him to save the children. She hadn’t asked if the children deserved saving. She’d just asked him to save them.

"Because you were there," Gio said simply. "And you were going to die. That’s enough."

Lloyd’s face crumpled. He turned away, pressing a hand over his mouth, and walked back toward the camp, his head bowed.

Kojiro watched him go, then looked down at Gio with a slow, knowing smile.

"You’re a strange kid, you know that?"

"Yeah," Gio muttered, closing his eyes. "I get that a lot."

---

They carried him back to camp. His legs wouldn’t hold him. Kojiro slung one of Gio’s arms over his shoulder, and Melody took the other, and together they half-dragged him to the fire.

Blaze was there, his suit patched up, looking much more subdued.

"you coordinated that takedown," he said to Gio. "Nice work, kid. And you," he nodded to Melody. "Sliding down its throat like that? Insane."

Melody didn’t even snap back. She just nodded, too exhausted to argue, and lowered Gio gently to the ground.

The twins appeared, Tabitha flickering partially visible. "Is he okay? Is he dying?"

"He’s not dying," Reuben said, crouching beside Gio. "But he looks like he went ten rounds with a meat grinder."

"Feels like it too," Gio mumbled.

Tabitha knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a fierce hug. "Don’t do that again!"

"Can’t... breathe..." Gio wheezed.

Reuben gently pulled his sister off. "Give him space, Tabs."

Gio lay by the fire, the warmth seeping into his aching bones. Around him, the camp slowly returned to something resembling order. They had faced an E-Rank monster. Together. Civilians, nobles, prisoners. They had fought as a unit. And they had won.

Gio closed his eyes and pulled up his system panel one last time.

[Host: Gio]

[Species: Human Mutant]

[Core: E-Rank (Stabilized)]

[Bioenergy: 150%(overflow)]

[Skills: Command (E-Rank)]

[Bioform Storage: 2/3]

He stared at the numbers. A wasp and a bear. A scout and a tank. It wasn’t much. But it was a start.

He let the panel fade and listened to the sounds of the camp. The crackle of fire. The murmur of voices.