The Jaxson shape broke down. The burned skin split open. The face peeled away from the skull.
Something thin pulled itself out of Jaxson's skin, leaving the ruined flesh in the dirt. It shifted back into the form from the first encounter.
The Mimic looked at them.
"The wires slowed me down."
It snapped its fingers.
A sharp crack echoed off the ravine walls. The dead Scorpion corpse reacted to the trigger. Shell plates lifted as blue blood boiled inside the open chest cavity. Pressure built deep inside the ruined carcass.
The Scorpion corpse swelled again.
The Nexus core pulsed beside it.
Elara moved for Caleb.
The Mimic stepped into her path.
The dead beast detonated.
No flame followed. Only pressure, bone, and corrosive blood. A shockwave of jagged shrapnel ripped outward, shredding the gray moss and scouring the rock walls.
