The Spinosaurus reaches a treeless area in the forest, where he comes across Mikael and the others.
Mikael: You don't scare me {sneer}
He summons his dinosaur, which forms in front of him. The two large carnivores circle each other. The Tyrannosaurus Rex advances and bites the back of the Spinosaurus's neck, making it lean down. The latter supports itself with its large hands and moves a little, walking and then shaking. Its tail hits a tree, which falls to the ground with the impact. Joana dodges to the side, almost being crushed.
Joana's thoughts: Huh? This animal doesn't look anything like a real Spinosaurus!
The Spinosaurus scratches the Tyrannosaurus Rex's face three times, which in turn headbutts it in the ribs to push it away, making it fall against a tree. He kicks his jaw, preventing a second attack. The two roar again for both of them to return to the fight.
Mikael: Nikolas! Natalie, Riley and Joana, you go help him, quick!
The three of them listen and quickly run in the direction Mikael pointed, while they disappear on the horizon. Tamao concentrated his Vitalis in the palms of his hands to then launch a powerful beam of blue light, which disappears when it touches the Spinosaurus.
Tamao: What?! Why did my attack disappear?
Mikael: I don't know, it must be something that Joana hasn't explained to us yet.
Tamao: I understand, then it will have to be the old-fashioned way.
She pulls out her katana, wielding it and advancing towards the Spinosaurus's back, which at this point knocks the Tyrannosaurus Rex down with a bite on its thigh, making it lose stability. Tamao spins on its sail, cutting in a spiral motion several times. The dinosaur roars and manages to land a slap on her, throwing her back. Mikael, on the other hand, descends from the sky while Tamao attacks, he was setting the stage for a big attack, all the trees surrounded by the chains of his weapon. He pulls them, managing to trap the large carnivore, who spits a laser beam again, destroying the chains and ending Mikael's plans.
Mikael's thoughts: damn, I didn't expect him to do that, I forgot about that ability of his.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex rises and tries to bite the Spinosaurus' neck, who dodges and holds its head and shoulder, while biting its neck, twisting until it breaks. The Tyrannosaurus Rex's body falls lifeless to the ground, while disintegrating into Vitalis, the Spinosaurus roars. Mikael picks Tamao up, carrying her on his back, wanting time to think of something. They leave the forest, meeting Joana and the others.
Meanwhile…
The three girls leave the forest, arriving too late to see the last traces of dust from Nikolas' body disappear into the air over Tatsuko's feet, who looks away from them.
Joana's thoughts: it can't be... Why?
Natalie: hey! You slut! Come here!
She advances towards Tatsuko, while already activating her unique technique, her arms turning to stone as she executes consecutive right and left punches, but her opponent dodges all the attacks as if they were extremely slow.
Tatsuko: it's an undeniable truth, when we get angry, we end up not thinking straight. You're an example of that now, can't you formulate more types of punches than those two?
She spins her weapon, the blade cuts and removes Natalie's arms. Afterwards, she kicks her in the abdomen, making her fall backwards, rolling until she stops at Joana's feet, who was still comprehending Nikolas' death. In turn, Riley charged all her Vitalis, and in an instant, she releases a curve of light beams that go against Tatsuko, who surprisingly begins to deflect one by one of the light beams.
Tatsuko: unlike Kiko, I tried to find out about the unique techniques, these things are... Really useful.
Natalie: I didn't ask anything, you slut!
She regenerates her arms with Riley's help, while scratching the ground in an animalistic posture, but Joana puts her hand on her shoulder, stopping her new attack. Joana: no... We don't have a chance, let's wait for Mikael and Tamao.
Tatsuko: giving up already? How disappointing, I know! Create a little more chaos, you know Julian? So…
In the forest, Mikael comes out with Tamao on his back, he notices Tatsuko and stops in front of Joana.
Mikael: what's going on?
Joana: she killed Nikolas.
Mikael: what? He… He… He… Died?
Natalie: yes, that's why we have to finish that damned woman's face!
Mikael: Got it… Riley! Help Tamao here.
He takes Tamao off his back and leaves her on the ground in front of Riley. The little girl extends her hands over the woman's belly, starting to heal her.
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Riley: Was she hit by a creature's special ability?
Mikael: I don't know, you know that neither I nor Tamao know much about Vitalis, you must know, right?
Riley: Oh my, we'll reinforce these and other teachings later.
Tatsuko: So? Are you really going to leave me out?
She moves the tip of her staff, creating a trail of movement, and then the cut advances, in a similar way to Olivia's unique technique, but the cut advances much more slowly. Mikael dodges the cut, which hits a nearby tree.
Mikael: If you want attention… That's what you'll get.
He closes his eyes and then opens only one of them, managing to activate his elemental mark. He generates his blade once more, advancing against her in a fierce sweep, he executes a diagonal cut to the right from top to bottom, but Tatsuko dodges.
Mikael's thoughts: I'm still improving the elemental mark, but I think I can use it now.
Tatsuko: That's it?
She cuts Mikael's leg, then executes three quick kicks to the sides of his face. Tatsuko opens her mouth and loads a sphere of energy inside it. It spreads like an extremely strong beam of light that burns the front part of Mikael's body completely. His muscles remain exposed and burned, while he falls backwards, rolling to where Joana and the others are.
Meanwhile...
A second smaller ship lands in an area near the Cruise, with strong steps, Kiko descends.
Kiko: That old junk didn't call me here, in fact, she even fired me without giving me a measly part of my pay! But to hell with it! I now have a personal grudge against that Mikael, I've been training tirelessly all these months, and now that I know he's here... {clenches her fists} I'm going to beat his face off!
She laughs madly as, seconds later, she sees a concentration of Vitalis in a nearby area. She advances through the forest to that area, arriving in a few minutes to come across the scene of Mikael rolling on the ground with part of his body completely burned.
Kiko: What do you think you're doing? You bitch!
Tatsuko: Oh? Kiko? You came here so fast? It's even surprising how much affection you have for this guy.
Kiko: You say it as if it were something else, but all I want right now is to kill this man, and if I can't do that, I'll be the UNHAPPIEST person in the world! In the UNIVERSE! She activates her elemental mark, while activating her Venandiagrum, covering Tatsuko and herself.
Kiko: Are you ready to pay for beating my prey?
Tatsuko: I still can't help but take this in another direction.
Kiko: Shut up, bitch!
She advances with four right and left punches, then executes a side kick against Tatsuko's hip, who defends herself with her forearm. Afterwards, the two land a well-aimed punch on each other's left cheek, making them both fall backwards.
Tatsuko: Have you been preparing to meet Mikael? You're much stronger, huh.
Kiko: Don't underestimate me, bitch.
Tatsuko: You love to swear, don't you?
Kiko: Not so much, but now, for some reason, I really want to swear at you.
They start a new exchange of blows, while Riley hits Joana with a slap, making her come out of her trance.
Riley: Wake up, Joana! Help me heal Mikael!
Joana: Oh? Huh?! Okay, okay, I'm sorry about that.
The two of them join forces to heal Mikael's burns, the burned part is healed, after they finish healing him, everyone there leaves the place.
Joana: Let's take advantage of the fact that they're busy and run away.
Riley's thoughts: Even Kiko now seems strong enough to kill Mikael alone.
Everyone runs away from there, going deeper into the continent, getting close to a completely destroyed command center. They enter the building while Riley raises her hands and generates a dome that camouflages everyone's Vitalis emissions. After the test, she deactivates the technique.
Riley: It's working, when you stop feeling the excess Vitalis coming from those two, you let me know and I'll activate the dome again.
Joana: Right! Natalie: What? Can't you leave it activated now?
Riley: Of course not! I can't leave the technique activated for too long, so the more we can ration time, the better it will be.
Natalie: I see, well...
The atmosphere becomes tense between them, with the news of Nikolas' death, until the sound of something falling scares them, enough to make them pay attention. They start exploring the region. Riley comes across an embryo of a dead dinosaur, left on the floor of an incubator.
Meanwhile…
Two beams of light go against each other, the two collide, competing in strength, but Tatsuko's beam of light overlaps and undoes Kiko's energy, hitting her, pushing her body back against several trees in the path. When the energy ceases, three Velociraptors emerge from the smoke, advancing towards Tatsuko. She executes an elbow strike on one of them and knocks down the other two with a low horizontal kick to their legs.
Tatsuko: these mere creatures are not capable of defeating me.
She says, while summoning her own dinosaur, the spinosaurus roars at the small carnivores, biting one of them, digging its claws into another and whipping the tail of the last one, managing, single-handedly, to defeat each of the creatures.
Tatsuko: And your territory... Maybe that's the only thing that saves it, mine is still not more refined than yours, but without further compliments, you've already received too many.
She laughs lightly as she advances towards Kiko, who dodges her front kick, wrapping her leg with her right arm, she tries to pull her forward, to make her lose her stability. Tatsuko supports both arms on the ground and moves to the side, kicking Kiko's face with her left leg, making her let go. As Tatsuko regains her composure to stand up, Kiko advances towards her, wrapping her legs around her neck and pressing her calves against Tatsuko's vocal cords, trying to suffocate her. She throws herself backwards, slamming Kiko's back into the ground, but when she sees that this doesn't work, she commands the Spinosaurus to scratch her. The dinosaur leaves the Velociraptors aside and goes towards Kiko, piercing her belly with its claws. She loses her strength and lets go of Tatsuko, the large carnivore throws her body against a tree.
Tatsuko: That one, you caught me off guard, but that's all.
Laughing in disdain, she takes her blade back, while commanding her spinosaurus to attack Kiko, but before he can, the Velociraptors climb on him once more, starting to scratch him. Tatsuko huffs in frustration, while Kiko gets up and advances against her again, trying to kick her chin, but her opponent bends back, dodging, she moves her blade against Kiko's left leg, cutting it effortlessly. She falls to the ground, getting up with her hands, but Tatsuko kicks her face with all her strength, breaking her neck, while she falls face down on the ground.
Tatsuko: You took a while to die, huh! I thought I would be able to kill you without effort, but you always had ways of withstanding my blows. Throwing dirt in Tatsuko's face, Kiko uses her remaining energy for a powerful critical punch, which goes through her stomach, making her spit blood on her back. Quickly, Tatsuko cuts Kiko's arm, removing her hand from her stomach, while regenerating at an absurd speed. Kiko's thoughts: damn... It didn't work. She falls to the ground, dripping blood, while Tatsuko plunges the blade into her chest consecutively until she lands a critical blow that destroys Kiko's soul, killing her once and for all.
Meanwhile...
Riley: that reminds me, now that I stop to think about it, shouldn't there be some genetic barrier between dinosaurs and humans?
Joana: that makes sense, but I imagine that... No... I can't think of a solution for that, which leads me to think that... That's really strange, how would a virus reach humans if it started in dinosaurs?
Natalie: by the way! I thought the meteor shower would have destroyed these places more, but they're just a little bit destroyed.
Tamao: "just a little bit destroyed" is an understatement, this place is in pieces, yes! Look at all the plants growing in here.
Natalie: nah, to me, this place isn't that destroyed.
She bumps into a small table with drawers, which open and reveal some well-preserved sheets of paper.
Natalie: look! And these sheets here aren't even that disfigured.
She says as she picks up the sheets and starts reading the content on the papers, her brow furrows as she turns to Joana.
Natalie: that spinosaurus is some kind of mutant, no wonder he's so strong.
Joana: really? That Spinosaurus was very different from the usual ones, but unlike the Velociraptors, which changed more in size and feathers, that Spinosaurus was much more robust, had a more different jaw and tail, and its own sail.
Natalie: Okay, okay, I don't want to know about that.
She takes the papers she didn't give Joana to read, her mouth slowly opens in astonishment, when she observes the content presented by the letters written on that paper, especially with an image.
Natalie: It seems like we found the answer to your question, Riley
She turns the papers to Joana and Riley, showing some things written, but what most caught their attention on the papers was a portrait, or an image, of a type of dinosaur, strange, a bipedal but straight posture, a skull divergent between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a human skull. Joana and Riley's expression is one of disgust, while they both step back a little.
Joana: Is that it? That's what's causing this virus, for sure! What was Hirotomo thinking when he created these things?
Riley: He must have had nothing in his head, he must have been drunk when he did this, for sure!
Another sound of falling iron echoes once more, and then, from a shadow projected by the sunlight, a silhouette, in the same shape as the creature they saw in the papers, the gargling sound of that monstrosity is the only thing to be heard in the deafening silence. The creature slowly turns the corner and comes face to face with them.