"Set the barricades only outside the wound. Leave a passage open to the south! Whoever blocks its escape route—once it regains mobility, you'll be the first ones it swats to death!"
The Joint Research Group leader's shout drowned out the noise at the scene over the remote channel.
The Polluted Star Beast Juvenile lay in the middle of the dried-up riverbed, its abdomen slowly contracting with each breath. Several crystalline armor plates had flipped outward around the wound, and blackish-purple blood dripped down its scales into the river mud, quickly hardening into clusters of crystal spikes.
[Target Status: Tier Three · Severely Injured] [Life activity continues to decline.]
The panel could only confirm that it was still alive. No one present knew how much longer it could hold on.
Tremors came again from behind the collapsed root wall, making the gravel on the riverbed bounce. The bait deployed earlier had lost its effect, and the Thorn-Mouthed Burrower was digging back toward them. Even through such thick crystalline roots, the sounds came one after another.
"How much longer until the supplies from the perimeter arrive?" the captain asked.
The player in charge of communications checked the shared map. "Soon, soon. If we call people over from New Black Rock City now, they can switch to regional transport and get here just in time to collect the juvenile's corpse."
Before the Beast Drive operation began, a Gale Hunter had left Wind Beacons along the old collection route. They were simple markers capable of guiding wind-type psionic energy; they were useless once one left the route. He was still ahead maintaining the airflow, while the other transport players held the towing ropes to control the direction. Only then could the skeletal sleds loaded with supplies glide swiftly along the