A blur of motion followed it.
Einstera.
Her feet barely touched the ground as she vaulted a gap between buildings, hair snapping behind her like a banner.
Just behind her, struggling to keep pace, was XIU, boots cracking concrete with each step.
"Slow down!" Xiu shouted. "I can't keep."
"We can't!" Einstera barked without looking back. "If it breaks line of sight, we lose it!"
The parasite cut hard left, and vanished.
Einstera skidded to a stop. Xiu slammed to a halt beside her, bent over, hands on her knees, gasping.
"...Where did it go?" Xiu panted.
Einstera crouched low, fingers brushing the rooftop. Her nose twitched. Her pupils narrowed.
"I'm sniffing," she said simply. "Give me a second."
Xiu straightened, watching nervously as Einstera moved in a slow circle, head tilted, breathing deep. Wind slid across the roofs.
Then, Einstera's ears twitched.
"There," she said.
She took off.
They spotted it three rooftops ahead.
The parasite turned, realizing too late they'd closed the distance. It reared back and roared, an ugly, wet sound.
Xiu grinned, rolled her sleevs.
"Alright," she said, rolling her shoulders. "My time to shine."
She jumped, Abi surging into her fist, and Einstera cut in front of her.
Xiu skidded to a stop. "HEY! What are you doing?!"
Einstera didn't turn. Her eyes stayed locked on the parasite.
"This is a Black Ops mission," she said. "Top secret. If you level half the district, it stops being secret."
Xiu clenched her fist, Abi crackling. "I don't know how to control it like that!"
Einstera glanced back at her, calm but firm.
"Then you learn. Or you don't punch."
The parasite bolted.
Einstera sprinted ahead, deliberately cutting it off, herding it away from the residential blocks, toward a long, empty stretch of open road where construction had stalled months ago.
She shouted over her shoulder, "Straight line! If you hit it, hit it down, no buildings!"
The parasite skidded, trapped.
Einstera leapt, and in midair, her body twisted, bones reshaping.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
A massive wolf slammed down in its path.
Her eyes flared.
"Fear Prey."
An invisible pressure rolled outward.
The parasite shrieked, and ran.
Straight back the way it came.
Xiu was already there.
She planted her feet, breath steadying, Abi coiling through her muscles like a tightening serpent.
"This one's... gonna break you." she muttered.
She drove her fist forward.
"KING SNAKE: COILBREAKER."
The punch landed.
The parasite didn't just shatter, it detonated, its body collapsing inward before bursting apart in a spray of dark sludge that splattered the road.
Silence.
Then, Xiu stared down at herself.
"...I'm covered in it."
Her lip trembled.
"I'm, I'm actually.."
She burst into tears.
Einstera shifted back into human form, wiped parasite goo off her shoulder, and sighed.
"...Don't be so dramatic."
Elsewhere: Forest Edge
Leaves crunched underfoot as Plum and Yusuke moved through a narrow forest path.
Plum's eyes glowed orange, scanning far beyond what the trees should allow.
"So this is where they are," Yusuke said.
"Yes," Plum replied quietly.
Yusuke glanced at her. "How far can you see right now?"
"About fifty miles," she said. "Any farther and it starts to hurt."
Yusuke frowned. "Then why the forest?"
Plum's gaze hardened. "They're animals too. Smart ones. Forest creatures are easy food."
She stopped suddenly.
"There."
Up ahead, several parasites huddled over a dead deer, tearing into it messily.
Plum summoned her scythe.
Yusuke raised a hand. "You don't look too good, perhaps you ought to sit this one out."
She shot him a look. "What do I look like, some Scytherian letting a man do all the work?"
She rushed forward.
"Hey, uglies!" she shouted. "Mama's come to send you home!"
The parasites turned, roaring, charging her all at once.
Plum moved fast, dodging, slicing, severing limbs mid-stride. One parasite collapsed. Another howled.
She drove her scythe into a third, and it stuck.
"Tch!"
The parasite slammed into her.
She flew through the trees, smashing into a trunk with a sickening crack.
"Plum!" Yusuke shouted.
She slid down the bark, tried to stand, and collapsed.
The parasites turned toward Yusuke, clicking eagerly.
"One less Black Op," one rasped. "Guess there are only five now."
Yusuke sighed.
"What a waste," he said calmly. "A Scytherian without proper nutrition is just a withering flower."
A parasite lunged, blade flashing, Yusuke caught it bare-handed.
Abi wrapped his palm.
He stepped in and struck the parasite's chest.
A wave of force tore through it, bursting out its back in a spray of gore.
More parasites closed in.
Yusuke didn't move.
"Take me to your leader," he said evenly. "Or maybe you are the leader."
The air warped.
A glitching, impossible shape unfolded behind him.
A hovering tesseract of fractured space.
Avatar 1: LIMIT.
Anything that approached slowed. Stretched. Failed.
Yusuke lifted his hand.
"Digital Convergence."
A red surge erupted.
The parasites were hurled backward, bodies twisting like an illusion, bodies ripping apart mid-air.
Silence returned.
Plum tried to rise again.
Failed.
She sat there, shaking, breath ragged, tears sliding down her face.
Yusuke walked over and offered his hand.
"We did good," he said gently.
She slapped his hand away, shoved past him, hands in her pockets.
She didn't look back.