Giordano stared at Brando for a moment in the shadows of their hiding place. The sound of the last shreds of flesh being torn from Ripa's arm echoed in the silence with grotesque noises.

  "You're completely insane," he whispered, but a mad smile appeared on his lips. "Distract that thing? I'll become worm food."

  "You don't have to fight her," Brando insisted. "You just need to keep her busy long enough to give me time."

  Giordano took a deep breath then, as if resigning himself to the gallows. "If we survive, you owe me a soul. Make it two."

  He didn't wait for a response. He launched himself into the open with a shout that echoed off every wall in the laboratory.

  "HEEEEEEY, SHIT FACE!" Giordano yelled, frantically waving his arms. "HERE! LOOK AT ME! I TASTE BETTER THAN THAT ASSHOLE RIPA!"

  The Bianca-Glacial snapped her deformed head up with an inhuman movement. Her red eyes fixed on Giordano; she had found her new prey. Giordano wouldn't escape her. She dropped what remained of Ripa's arm with a thud.

  Giordano had to react, immediately. He had only a few moments and needed to do something. He materialized a dozen sharp spikes that shot through the air toward the Bianca-Glacial. They struck her body, bouncing off her skin as if it were made of rubber.

  "C'mon, princess!" Giordano shouted, running sideways trying to maintain distance. "YOU MOVE LIKE MY DEAD GRANDMOTHER!"

  A guttural growl erupted from Bianca's throat as she lunged at Giordano like a fury with a deadly swipe, and Giordano threw himself sideways at the last possible moment. He felt the deadly hiss graze his chest, freezing the blood in his veins. If that attack had reached him, at that precise moment the world would have known two Giordanos, each tragically halved.

  Brando didn't waste a moment. He slid through the shadows on the opposite side of the laboratory while his eyes scanned the ceiling for weak points.

  Main beam, north connection, he thought, identifying the first critical point. Right support at the central joint. Left support above the entrance.

  His Cold Veins trembled beneath his skin as he materialized the first sphere of Rust Ice. I can't miss, he told himself. Not by even a millimeter.

  Meanwhile, Giordano continued jumping from one side of the laboratory to the other, dodging the creature's lethal attacks each time by a hair's breadth. The slightest distraction would cost him his life; this being wasn't even serious yet, but soon she would be angry. At that point, nothing could save Giordano from being torn apart in the most atrocious way.

  "You know, you're really ugly up close!" he shouted, materializing more ice spikes. "And to think everyone wanted to date you! You should have seen Ruocco, he drooled after you like a—SHIT!"

  Bianca's hand missed him by a hair, smashing a cryogenic capsule next to him. Glass and metal flew in all directions.

  Brando then gripped the Rust Ice sphere and aimed carefully, calculating the trajectory.

  Now.

  The sphere shot across the laboratory like a bullet, hitting the base of the main beam. The impact released corrosive energy, and the metal immediately began to sizzle, coating itself with a reddish patina that expanded like an infection.

  A metallic groan resonated above their heads. Brando was already creating the second sphere. "Two more points."

  Giordano dodged another attack, but ten seconds had already passed. He was slowing down, his jacket was torn in multiple places, and a cut on his arm was bleeding. He didn't even know how he'd gotten it, probably just from the air displaced by Bianca-Glacial.

  "Hurry up!" Giordano shouted. Brando then aimed at the right support, and the throw was perfect. The sphere hit the lateral support, and the corrosion began immediately, eating through the metal in no time. The structure emitted another groan, now louder and longer. Dust and small debris began to rain from the ceiling.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "Last one," Brando panted, creating the third sphere.

  On the other side of the laboratory, Bianca-Glacial had cornered Giordano, cutting off every escape route. Bianca's deformed hand shot forward, grabbing him by the throat. She lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing, her fingers tightening atrociously around his neck. Giordano kicked at empty air, trying to free himself from the deadly grip. A few more seconds in that position, and Giordano would be strangled to death.

  "Giordano!" Brando shouted. There was no more time for calculations. He threw the third sphere with all his strength. It flew across the room, leaving a trail of condensation in the air. Time seemed to slow as the sphere traversed the laboratory. Brando held his breath. If he missed the target, if he didn't hit the exact spot...

  The sphere struck the third support with a sharp sound. The corrosion was almost instantaneous. The ceiling began to move. The metal melted like butter under the assault of the Rust Ice, but then it stopped. The hit hadn't been strong enough to make it collapse.

  Brando felt the blood freeze in his veins. I failed. Giordano continued to struggle in Bianca's deadly grip, his face becoming increasingly cyanotic as the seconds passed relentlessly.

  "No," Brando whispered. Even with a fourth shot, he wouldn't have time to save Giordano; life was already beginning to leave his body.

  But then, a thin, almost imperceptible creak. Then another, louder this time. The laboratory walls trembled slightly, vibrating like a struck tuning fork.

  Ripa, despite his bleeding stump, raised his eyes, clouded by suffering. "The ceiling..." he murmured in a weak voice, but still lucid.

  A long metallic groan tore through the air, followed by a series of deafening cracks. The structure now began to shake with violent tremors that made the ground itself vibrate. Bianca looked up, and her eyes widened in an almost human expression of danger. Her grip on Giordano loosened, and then, as if in slow motion, the entire structure collapsed on top of her. Tons of metal, concrete, and debris plummeted downward with the force of an avalanche. Giordano had managed to roll away just in time. Dust then rose in a dense cloud, blinding Brando.

  "Giordano?" Brando called, coughing from the dust.

  "Alive... I think," came Giordano's response from across the room. He emerged from the dust cloud, visibly limping. His face was dirty as hell, severely tested, but still in one piece. "She almost tore my head off."

  "Did we get her?" Brando cautiously approached the mountain of debris, scanning for any signs of movement.

  "I don't know," Giordano joined him, massaging his neck where the marks of Bianca's fingers were still visible. "But I don't want to stick around to find out." He was still panting with a funeral expression.

  They turned toward Ripa, who lay motionless in a slowly expanding pool of blood.

  "He's still alive," Brando said, kneeling beside him. "We need to get him out of here."

  Giordano bent down, examining the stump. "This wound... Christ. At least his Cold Veins are already working. Look."

  Brando observed the point where the arm had been torn off. Blood continued to flow, but not with the initial fury. Thin filaments were forming around the severed vessels, slowly sealing the wounds.

  "Even someone like him can't handle something like this," Brando murmured. "We need to move."

  "Take this," Giordano extracted a KryoPill from his KryoWatch, the last one remaining. "Here, Ripa. Swallow it."

  Ripa weakly opened his lips. Giordano placed the pill in his mouth, helping him swallow it. The effect wasn't as immediate as the first time, but after a few seconds, the giant's color improved slightly.

  "We need to get him out of here," Brando said. "The others could be in danger. And Esposito needs to be informed about what happened."

  Grooooaassh...

  An imperceptible tremor shook the floor beneath their feet. What was that sound? Everyone stopped, looking around.

  "Did you hear..." Giordano began.

  A second tremor, stronger. Then a third.

  The rubble began to move.

  "SHIT!" Giordano exclaimed. "That's impossible!"

  The mountain of debris was trembling as if it were alive. Bianca was freeing herself.

  "Run," Brando whispered as the blood froze in his veins. "RUN!"

  Brando quickly grabbed Ripa by the shoulder, but they hadn't taken two steps when an explosion of debris shook the entire laboratory. Bianca emerged from the pile of rubble, more thirsty for blood than ever.

  The ceiling collapse had not only temporarily buried Bianca but had also destroyed part of the side wall, revealing a hidden area of the laboratory. Emergency lights flickered weakly, illuminating a control console that had been completely concealed behind metal panels.

  Rusty, who had faithfully followed them until now, suddenly stiffened. His third eye opened wide, glowing with a feverish light as he stared at the newly revealed console. Something seemed to be calling him. As if in a trance, Rusty darted toward the console with a determined sound.

  "Rusty! NO!" Brando shouted, certain the puppy was running to its death. Perhaps it wanted to sacrifice itself to give the three of them one last chance?

  The puppy reached the control panel and, with surprising precision, jumped onto the surface and pointed its third eye toward a red lever, almost hidden among the controls. A sharp click echoed through the laboratory, and everything changed. The system, awakened from its hibernation, reacted immediately. The laboratory lit up with ultraviolet lights, and hidden panels in the walls opened to reveal hieroglyphic symbols etched into the metal. One after another, the symbols began to glow with an intense electric blue, pulsing in a rhythmic sequence.

  "DEVIANT CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL ACTIVATED," announced a synthetic voice, crackling through speakers that must have remained silent for decades. "INITIALIZING PRIMARY SEQUENCE."