Chapter Five: Black Zone Simulation

It smashed one phantom's knee with its shoulder armor, trapped another arm with a broken steel beam, used loose rubble to force a slide, and dragged a third into a sinkhole when the ground failed. None of it was pretty. All of it was brutally efficient. Rafe stared. Light sharpened in Mira's eyes. "All units, abandon textbook formation," she said quickly. "Rafe, do not fight them head-on. Use the loop you lost to yesterday, reversed. Ilya, create false signals. Tao, push the convoy shield like a wall." Third Squad's rhythm changed. Rafe clenched his jaw and followed the order. He stopped chasing elegant thrusts and began offering deliberate openings, drawing the silver phantoms into attacks before finishing them inside the rubble breaks Leon had