Beasts should have followed blood, heat, pheromones, and panic. They should have slammed themselves against the strongest scent on the field and died there, stupid and hungry.
These turned, shielded themselves, and attacked only when the chance arose, as opposed to the previous behavior of attacking regardless of their chances of success.
Nero saw it from the left, fire still burning along his blade, human-infected bodies falling apart in blue-white ash around him.
Arion saw it from the center.
Hendrik saw it from the command map.
"North-east deviation," Hendrik snapped. "They are not pushing the line. They are bypassing."
Dean's neutralization field flared. "Toward what?"
For one heartbeat, no one answered.
Then Otto's voice came through, cold enough to cut bone. "First resistance point."
The field went silent in all the wrong places.
