## 1 Introduction  
Materials labeled as quasi-brittle are those where the rupture process is governed by the damage induced by their loading patterns. Such materials include concrete, rocks, and ceramic composites in high demand for technological applications, as discussed in ref. [1]. Understanding such a process is far from a solved issue, especially if its analysis is based on finite element methods (FEM), as verified in refs. [2; 3; 4]: even with the aid of homogenization techniques, success is limited to minimal damage ranges. For a detailed review of such methods, see refs. [5; 6]. The limitations of traditional FEM techniques applied to such quasi-brittle materials stem from the latter's inherently discontinuous nature, which include the effects of phenomena such as localization, interactions among micro-crack clusters, and scale dependency. Some techniques using FEM were successfully implemented to bypass the difficulties presented by the presence of discontinuous terms, such as the cohesive interface method [7] and the extended finite element method [8], where the discontinuities are embedded in the element's interpolation functions. However, these types of approaches have led to the loss of information regarding the spasmodic growth of micro-fissures within the structure. Deep discussions on the topic can be found in refs. [5; 6]. According to refs. [9; 10; 11; 12], such processes define universal patterns when a given control parameter (CP) approaches a critical value, e.g., the temperature appearing as a typical CP for states of matter or magnetization properties. Within such a theoretical framework, the density in the state-of-matter could be considered as an example of an order parameter (OP) and their dependency on the associated CP is described as a power law function. The exponents of these functions close the eminence of the critical situation--that is, the change in state, the collapse, among other examples, could be calculated through the renormalization group methodology proposed by [PERSON] [13] and explained at an introductory level by [14]. On the other hand, experimental evaluation of failure processes rely extensively on the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique, which focuses on the elastic waves formed within a structure as it undergoes damage. With suitable sensors mounted on the structure's surface, such waves are detected and interpreted as an indicator of a damage process, where damage extension translates into the amplitude and number of counts of detected wave signals. Moreover, the analysis of such signals leads to the calculation of several exponential parameters, with the so-called \(b\)-value appearing as the most popular one in refs. [15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23] as well as in works by other authors [24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29]. That exponent relates the statistical distribution of AE signals (\(N\)) and their corresponding magnitudes (\(A\)) through the power law \(A\propto N^{b}\), which strongly resembles the relations between OP and CP in the phase transformations discussed in the previous paragraph. Such similarities also appear in Natural Time analyses [30], which also rely on finding parameters that reach a critical value as the structure approaches failure, as illustrated by [31; 32; 33; 34; 35]. There are other wave-based methods for monitoring the damage process in structures, as illustrated in refs. [36; 37]. Here, we apply the method introduced by [PERSON] et al. [38], where the temporal derivative of the measured global elastic energy appeared as a precursor to failure time. While that metric was applied to the study of total collapse only, and the analysis was restricted to numeric results, we extended its use here as a precursor to local failures also, verifying its usefulness as a critical parameter in a broader sense. To that end, a basalt-made prismatic specimen was tested until its complete rupture.