Chapter 107: Countermeasure 2

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: Countermeasure 2

Seren ripped the blue vial off her tactical belt, downed the liquid in one swallow, and tossed the empty glass aside.

A faint, sapphire-blue sheen washed over her golden sound mana.

"Serum active," Evelyn reported, watching her monitors. "Mana discrimination online."

Seren took a low stance. The blue glow concentrated along the edge of her right forearm like a razor-sharp sonic blade.

The Flameclaw roared, lunging with open jaws. Seren didn’t retreat. She slipped under the snapping fangs, twisted her body mid-air, and drove her mana blade deep into the monster’s left shoulder.

SHRED.

Blood sprayed, but the beast whipped its heavy forelimb around in a frantic reflex.

THUD.

The backhand struck Seren across the ribs, sending her tumbling hard across the concrete.

"Seren!" Elena tensed.

"She’s fine," Felix said, his eyes never leaving the fighter. "She’s already back up."

Seren spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor, wiping her chin with the back of her glove.

As the beast reared back to crush her, Seren lunged low, driving her open palm straight into the bloody shoulder wound she had just cut open.

BANG.

Thick ribbons of sapphire mana shot out from her fingertips, drilling straight into the exposed flesh.

"She’s hunting the foreign circuit," Felix said, leaning forward against the glass.

Seren’s teeth gritted, her muscles locking as she forced her energy deeper. Beneath the monster’s scales, the chaotic black mana raged against her blue current.

For three tense seconds, the monster writhed, trying to shake her off.

Then,

SNAP.

A faint, glass-like shattering sound echoed through the chamber. The deep crimson faded from the beast’s eyes. The violet flames in its maw flickered out into thin gray smoke. The violent, overwhelming A-rank pressure abruptly flatlined back down to zero.

The beast’s legs buckled, dark blood pouring from its nostrils and ears, before it crashed heavily onto the floor, completely lifeless.

The chamber went silent.

Seren staggered back two paces, panting heavily, and dropped to one knee.

The blast doors rolled open, and Felix was inside before the pneumatic hiss had even finished. He knelt beside her, a warm emerald light already spreading from his hands over her chest. Her cracked ribs slid back into place, the bruises faded from her skin, and her ragged breathing smoothed out.

Then something strange happened.

The faint blue sheen lingering over her golden mana didn’t just settle, it dissolved into thin air, completely vanishing.

Seren blinked. "Wait... my buff is gone."

Felix froze, looking at his glowing green hands, then at her fading aura.

Elena and Evelyn hurried into the arena. "What happened?" Elena demanded. "The serum’s active window was supposed to be thirty minutes."

"My healing mana prioritizes restoring the body’s natural baseline," Felix said, piecing it together. "It treats the foreign discrimination catalyst in her system like an intrusive substance and flushes it clean."

Elena’s eyes widened with sudden alarm. "If your healing cancels the serum, that’s a massive tactical flaw. Hunters won’t be able to rely on both your support and the enhancement at the same time."

?"Hold on," Felix said calmly, rising to his feet. He looked down at his palms, the emerald light flickering beneath his skin. "That was instinctual healing. My mana acted on pure reflex to purge impurities. But that doesn’t mean I can’t filter it."

?His head turned, meeting the Director’s gaze. "Director. Administer another dose to Seren."

?Evelyn hesitated, stepping forward. "Felix, back-to-back injections put severe strain on the heart and mana circuits. If your control slips—"

?"I won’t slip," Felix interrupted, his voice quiet, steady, and utterly confident. "Let’s test it properly."

?The Director stared at him for a tense second before nodding. A technician quickly hurried into the testing bay with a pneumatic injector, pressing it against Seren’s neck. With a soft hiss, the vivid fluid emptied into her bloodstream.

?Instantly, Seren’s golden aura flared back to life, wrapped in that jagged, electric blue sheen. Her muscles tensed.

?Felix took a slow breath and stepped in close. He didn’t just flood her with healing light this time; he narrowed the emerald glow until it resembled delicate, needle-thin threads of raw mana. He pressed two fingers against her shoulder, sending his energy gliding into her pathways with microscopic precision.

?Elena held her breath. Evelyn leaned in, eyes glued to the diagnostic monitors on her tablet.

?Inside Seren’s mana channels, Felix’s emerald threads weaved directly around the violent blue serum, ignoring the foreign catalyst completely.

Instead, his energy pinpointed the hairline stress fractures in her core and the muscular fatigue from the previous round, mending the tissue without brushing against the artificial buff.

?A second passed. Then five.

?The golden-and-blue aura around Seren continued to blaze at full intensity. Not a single spark of the enhancement faded.

?Seren looked down at her hands, clenching them tight. "The buff... it’s still completely active. And the chest tightness from the injection is gone."

?Felix pulled his hand back, the emerald threads dissolving into the air.

?"It isn’t an all-or-nothing reaction," Felix said, looking back at Elena with a calm smirk. "I have complete discretion. If an enemy dopes themselves on an illegal combat stimulant, I can touch them and strip their buffs down to zero in seconds. But if our squad needs healing while relying on the serum, I can mend every wound without shaving off a single second of their boost."

?Elena let out a stunned breath, staring at him like he was a monster. To isolate microscopic foreign compounds while simultaneously rebuilding living tissue, required a level of mana manipulation that shouldn’t have been humanly possible.

?"Absolute selective purification," Evelyn whispered, her tablet trembling slightly in her grip. "That isn’t just healing anymore. That’s surgical command over mana itself."

"Is that a bad thing?" Gideon asked, walking up.

"The opposite," Felix said, standing up. "It means if an operative suffers an adverse reaction or mana poisoning from the serum, my healing can wipe the compound out of their system instantly."

"Another safety net," Elena noted, thoroughly impressed.

Felix turned to Seren. "How’s your core feeling?"

Seren drew in a deep breath, pressing a hand to her sternum. "Heavy. Like I just ran an entire marathon through a high-gravity zone without a rest."

Evelyn nodded, recording every symptom.

"Core heaviness, rapid stamina depletion. Expected. The serum forces your mana channels to process sensory data at an unnatural rate."

Felix glanced down at the dead Flameclaw. "And the beast?"

"Total mana circuit rupture," Evelyn said, checking the creature’s dead core. "Severing the foreign thread mid-surge caused an instant backlash. The monster’s original circuits were already burnt out by the black pill. It couldn’t survive the crash."

"A one-way street," Gideon grunted. "Once a beast takes the black pill, it’s dead either way."

"The important part is that the blue serum works," Felix said. "It cuts the monster down before it can slaughter an entire raid team."

"It works, but it’s demanding," Elena said. "We can’t hand these out like candy. Hunters will need specific training to isolate and sever the foreign circuit under live combat pressure."

Seren gave a weak grin as she got to her feet. "Definitely not drinking that stuff before casual dungeon runs."

"Definitely not," Felix chuckled.

Elena turned to the research assistants.

"Package the logs, the core readings, and the video feeds. Transmit the complete file to Continental Headquarters immediately."

"Including Doctor Valerius’s purge interaction?" an assistant asked.

"Every single line of data," Elena ordered. "If our front-line medics can use healing energy to manage the serum’s fallout, that’s vital field intel."

She turned back to Felix. "Good work today."

"I just stood around and patched a few cracked ribs," Felix shrugged casually.

"Your humility is terrifying, Valerius," Gideon muttered.

Felix smirked. "I try."

The banter faded as Felix’s gaze drifted back to the dead Flameclaw. The charred scales and ruptured core were an exact match for the mutated dark elf from days ago.

The Association had finally forged a shield to fight back against the sudden rank spikes. But a shield only worked if you saw the blow coming.

Whoever was manufacturing these black pills had already murdered thousands of heroes across the globe with a single coordinated test.

And next time, they wouldn’t stop at A-rank monsters.

"Send me the final chemical breakdown once the lab clears it," Felix said to Elena, his voice dropping low and cold.

Elena looked at him. "Thinking about jumping into the next one?"

Felix looked at her, his eyes cold. "If someone is turning gates into traps, I want to be there when we hunt them down."

And for the first time since the catastrophe, the Association had something more solid than a theory.

It had a countermeasure.

---

Author’s Note:

?A new month is here, which means November Privilege is officially unlocked!

?For those who want to binge ahead without waiting, Tier 3: The Yandere Inner Circle(20 Chapters ahead) is now live alongside our 2-Chapter and 10-Chapter tiers.

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