---
The newly mutating Toad-beast convulsed, inflating with obscene speed. Muscle balloons swelled beneath splitting skin, eyes budding like tumors, and ribs cracked outward to make room for yet more rage-flesh.
Kai didn't give it the courtesy to finish.
He moved.
A single flash-step put him inside the fog of rupturing tissue. Obsidian claws carved a crimson wake in the air. Mid-mutation limbs flailed, but they were still half-formed—and half-formed things die fast.
SHRIP—SHRIP—SHRIP!
Three incipient arms hit the mud before they even understood pain. Kai's aura flared ivory-hot, cauterizing the splash of acidic blood before it touched him.
Azhara, battered and limping, let out a breathless laugh. "He's not letting the ugly blossom."
Akayoroi's antennae quivered. "He's… pruning the bud before it blooms."
Vel shuddered. "That's poetry and terrifying."
The Toad-beast roared, voice doubled as two throats tried to synchronize. "STAY… STAY BACK!"
