The creature processed the two of them. Evaluating. Learning.
---
"Do you know what makes this fascinating?" said the bearer as she repositioned for the next exchange.
Davan didn't answer immediately — he was reading the creature's next attack angle with all the attention he had.
The bearer continued anyway.
"It doesn't yield."
The creature charged — spiritual limbs covering the left flank, physical body toward Davan.
"F5 doesn't affect it. Entropy degrades it from inside but doesn't stop it." The bearer dodged the right spiritual limb with the movement of someone who had spent twelve minutes memorizing exactly when they arrived and from where. "Everything wears down eventually. Everything yields to Entropy given enough time."
[F6 — distributed degradation — seventh pulse]
[Second creature — accumulated degradation: 127,400 total inside exoskeleton]
