The smog welcomed us as we stepped outside, wading through the waves of dark clouds cascading down the building. I tried not to think about the Nature’s Assassin behind us and whether it had finished its… target… or not.

  Would we be the next thing it hunted?

  Maria and I took up opposite ends of the group, with her and Christian leading while Zahra and I watched the middle. Ritesh was helping Amy move as quickly as he could, but we were still moving about 30% slower than before.

  My Energy was slowly recharging too, now at 16/50. I could still only use Density Shift 3 times, but It would have to be enough. Luckily Force Resonance was a free skill, so I could use it whenever I could hit something after taking damage.

  Let’s hope Density Shift can protect me against those razer-sharp blades-for-arms.

  The image of the third survivor’s torso flying through the air flashed in my mind.

  Yeah… I should find something to protect myself, quickly.

  Besides the occasional spark or crackle of energy from Ritesh’s antlers, The group was relatively quiet. We were all alert, especially as Graxis’ creatures found their prey. The sound of shattering glass echoed in the distance, sometimes accompanied by a loud gurgling hiss or a scream of terror. I tried to keep my focus on the group in front of me, but my mind was consumed in worry. If Caleb or Mckenna were still here, I hoped they’d already escaped from the buildings and hid somewhere else.

  I heard Ritesh whisper to the younger woman in front of me.

  “There you go. You are doing great. Just one foot in front of the other. If you trip I'm right here." I was surprised at his kindness, but as I looked a little closer at the man I made out more details. I wasn't sure if it was because of Greater Observation or just my heightened state, but I could make out every wrinkle of worry across his forehead, and the tired smile lifting his round cheeks as he encouraged Amy forward. I could tell he was experienced at giving support. Something about it was comforting, and helped me focus as we walked down a small road, large buildings surrounding us on both sides.

  I began to make out the shape of a maintenance truck by a large garbage station, near one of the building entrances. The passenger side door had been ripped off, lying in a mangled state beside the vehicle. The truck’s white paint job and UCLA logo were covered in dried blood, splattered and running down the back side panel and wheel well. I shivered, hoping that whatever caused it was far, far away.

  My hopes were dashed as quickly as they had arisen.

  Maria put up her hand and we all stopped, everyone following her gaze to the building to our right. We could hear a dull thudding sound from inside, above us, the beat rising in intensity. Amy had begun to silently cry, staring wide-eyed at the building. I couldn’t blame her. Besides a few pieces of garbage, the only thing to hide behind was the truck, which was a few seconds away.

  Suddenly, we heard the shattering of glass from the building in front of us as a dark shape flew and crashed through a window on the other side. It was still 3 or 4 stories up, but we heard screaming as the creature hissed in excitement.

  Zahra started moving at the same time I did.

  “Go, get cover!” She whispered harshly at the group, pointing at the truck. Maria led the way, hand now raised at the other vehicle, a slowly growing grimace on her face as we caught up and moved together. The rope snake around Christian’s arm continued to sway from side to side, mimicking a more threatening scaly noodle, like a cobra. We huddled behind the truck as the screaming suddenly went quiet. A few seconds passed, only interrupted by Amy’s gulping and sniffling.

  “Shut the fuck up, you’re going to get us killed!” Christian whispered harshly, only stopping the girl for a second before she nearly hyperventilated. Ritesh supported her, staring at the man with plain disgust and anger.

  We all held our breath when the loud thumping returned above us. The sound of glass breaking was much louder and closer this time, and we all jerked our heads to the skies, still surrounded in smoke. I heard the dull thud and crunch of something hitting the pavement in front of us, on the other side of the truck.

  I peeked through a gap in the wheel, identifying the body of a man on his stomach in a black, blood stained hoodie. He had fallen from high up, and his legs were obviously broken. Long slash marks tore through his clothing and back, making canyons of red in his skin. He looked up at me and barely raised a hand, his lips moving but no sound coming out.

  I looked up at the building, just in time to see the Nature’s Assassin shoot out of another window, about to land directly on top of us. It had both arms crossed, ready to cleave the group in half. Almost immediately, I realized it wasn’t aiming for the group.

  It was aimed directly at Zahra.

  I reacted without pause, activating Density Shift and grabbing the closest weapon I could find. I tore the tire off the truck with more speed and power than I knew I had, grunting as I spun and threw it at the still mid-air creature.

  The monster was ready for me.

  It sliced the tire perfectly in two, the exertion sending it onto the roof of the truck as we all jumped backwards. It was heavy enough for its legs to pierce into the cabin, the sharp loud tearing of aluminum and steel filling the small street.

  The Nature’s Assassin just stood there for a second, looking down at the new car-tights it was wearing. The four flaps of skin around the corners of its mouth opened, showing jagged skin and sharper teeth. It had large eyes which were positioned nearly on the sides of its head. The beady black orbs flickered to each of our forms before flashing behind it, a squeal of glee leaving the hunter’s maw as it leapt away from us, and to the other side of the truck.

  The man let out a final, desperate, deflated yell as the sound of blade sawing through bone filled my ears.

  We had to survive. I wanted to help, but my body froze as I stared at the truck blocking my view. I clenched my teeth until I tasted blood, turning away from the scene and to the others.

  “We need to go the other way, kee-”.

  At the same time, Zahra ran past me towards the truck, leaping over the hood of the vehicle, and towards the slaughter. I cursed my hesitation as she momentarily left my view, the creature hissing loudly as Zahra yelled, “Enough! No more!” I heard the sound of flames igniting as we all raced around the truck to follow her.

  Zahra was standing a few paces away from the creature beside the guy who fell out of the building. Or rather, what was left of him.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Zahra was quick, but it looked like it didn’t take much for the Nature’s Assassin to cut a long, nearly perfect incision down the middle of the man’s body. It looked like Zahra had interrupted whatever it was about to feed on, and the creature was visibly shaking with anger.

  The creature was hunched over a little, a blazing footprint kicked into the right side of its head. Its arms were always flexed at the elbow, using them to cover the wound as it recovered from the strike. The four jaw flaps around its mouth oscillated with anger as it let out a low, threatening hiss.

  We were all shocked as the thing began to speak, low hisses turning into English.

  “No… interrupt… feast.” It stared at the body of the man, small amounts of blood stained its ‘lips’ as it gently rocked from side to side. “Good… prey. Leave… live.” It gestured with a scythed claw towards the truck, and back out the way we came.

  It was trying to make a deal. One life for ours. I couldn’t help but respond.

  “Why? Why do you need to do this!?” I couldn’t help the tremble, or how my voice cracked on each ‘why’.

  “Grow… needs… prey.” It ‘pointed’ towards the body. “This… prey… good. Grow… more.” It flashed the rows of teeth behind the mandible flaps, giving us the creepiest smile I had ever seen as it scanned each of us.

  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.

  None of us were going to stand for that. I knew as soon as I saw the looks of righteous fury on my companion’s faces. I only had 2 uses of Density Shift left, but it didn’t matter. We needed to stop this thing, no matter what.

  Ritesh stepped forward and yelled, “fat chance!” as a lightning bolt arced from his antlers towards the hissing insect. Zahra dashed as the insect dodged, immediately engaging with the silver-haired girl and trying to slice her in two.

  I heard the sound of earth shifting behind me, but I was already rushing towards the fight as fast as I could, the rest of the group leaving my peripheral as I focused on the two in front of me.

  They both had incredible reflexes, reacting to each other’s slashes and kicks with relative speed and accuracy. It was almost hard to keep up, especially as the flames began to lick at Zahra’s heels, causing silver-grey smoke to follow her movements.

  She was demonstrating what a single-point difference in speed was like; She was able to barely dodge the Nature’s Assassin’s cleaves while every third or fourth kick was making contact with the creature, damaging it and filling the street with the smell of burnt rubber with a side of cilantro. It seemed more annoyed than anything, each successful kick followed by an angry hissing whistle.

  As I got within a few feet, it suddenly turned towards me, bolting forward super close to the ground. It raised its arms to its chest in a ‘X’ shape, preparing to slash through my chest. I was caught off guard by the creature’s sudden movement. I activated Density Shift on my arms in front of me, fully prepared to lose both of them to the attack. At the very least, I could see Zahra sliding up beside me, a fully charged roundhouse kick ready to counter and hopefully kill the mantis.

  The slash to my chest never came. Instead, I was suddenly shorter as I felt my ankles separate from my legs, the creature colliding with my now-airborne lower body, flipping me through the air as it ducked under Zahra’s attack. I screamed out in pain as my health dropped just above the halfway point.

  “Levi! Shit!” Zahra crouched to help me as I collapsed, catching my head before it hit the ground. We watched as it continued to dash forward in a zig-zag pattern, dodging the rocks and lightning flying through the air from the others. It quickly diverged from its path, going towards the body instead of the group.

  It was going to feed, whether we were here or not.

  It leapt onto the man, mouth and mandibles digging into his chest, digging around and slurping the internal organs. It was a horrible, disgusting noise. A bolt of lightning from Ritesh hit the creature, momentarily distracting it as it tensed backwards in pain. I heard Maria cry out as the ground in a circle around the creature rumbled.

  Like a bear trap, the ground below the Nature’s Assassin snapped around the creature, confining it in dark grey stone and rock. Its muffled hisses continued for a few seconds before going silent, giving us a moment to breathe. I could hear Amy crying and Maria calling out to us, which Zahra responded to.

  I could feel my wounds closing, the bone slowly regrowing as my health slowly ticked up. It looked like missing limbs regenerated at the same rate as my health, meaning I needed at least another 30 seconds before I could walk, maybe more. Zahra looked back at me.

  “I got you, here.” She leaned down to carry me, unfortunately in bridal-style which felt a bit awkward. I was too focused on the stone coffin Maria had made to care. Was that it? Was it dead?

  Zahra carried us back to the group, who was still by the truck. Christian was reaching inside the passenger-side console, looting the vehicle. He moved to the main console and even the side door before standing upright and slamming the roof of the truck.

  “Damnit!” I heard him say as we approached them. Ritesh had a wide-eyed, all consuming focus on the prison, one armed raised and the other supporting Amy, who’s legs were shaking like we were in the freezing cold. Maria was holding both fists towards the structure, her arms trembling as the ground around it shaked and stuttered every few seconds.

  “No keys. We need to go.” Christian said, moving behind Maria.

  She looked back to the man, brows furrowed in tense concentration.

  “It's still alive! It keeps digging away the ground as I move it! It's doing something in there, we ca-”.

  Before she could finish her sentence, the rock prison exploded, sending debris and rubble flying in every direction with the speed of a cannon. Immediately, my vision was distorted as Zahra tried to duck away from it, large rocks and asphalt bouncing off her back, calves, and shoulders.

  Despite my blurry vision, I received a message and instantly understood it, another helpful quirk of the System.

  Art: Levi, you have some of the worst luck. That Nature’s Assassin just fed on a symbiote-adapted human, like you and Zahra. It's evolving at a rapid pace, probably closer to level 2 now. Tell Zahra to run away, you can use the others as a distraction.

  I didn’t bother entertaining Art with a response. Leaving the others was not an option I would ever consider. Instead, I stared intently at the slowly fading dust cloud where Maria’s attack once stood. The more I could see, the more I wished my feet would regenerate faster. We needed to get the fuck out here, and fast.

  It was like the mantis had taken an Arnold-level of steroids. It had grown 2-3 feet, and had tiny wings flapping like a humming bee from its knees. The beady black eyes were replaced with large red lenses, flashing with light as the creature stretched backwards, six mandibles ripping open as it let an ear-splitting scream mixed with a hiss. It felt like all the glass around us shattered, showering us in jagged debris which ripped through clothing and skin alike. I had to bring both hands to my ears to stop the noise, I was taking too much damage.

  Zahra, on the other hand, was staring at the creature as she scrunched her face in anger.

  Before I could react, I was placed gently back on the ground as Zahra sped at the monster, and towards our friends who were crumpled over in pain. She screamed as she jumped into a flying kick, catapulting towards the Nature’s Assassin.

  Right before she landed the kick, the red light flashed on its face, and it hit her with a backhand that sent her spinning into the side of the truck. She made a massive dent in the door as she hit the ground, momentarily dazed.

  My legs were moving before I had time to think. Each step sent a shockwave of pain through my stumps as bone and skin tried to reform, filtering out the bits of rock, dirt, and asphalt on the ground between me and the group. My balance was horrible, but I didn’t care. I was 10ft away, and it was moving towards Zahra. She was trying to sit up, but a blue streak through the back of her silver hair showed some of the damage she’d taken.

  A magical rope wrapped itself around the creature’s upper body. It stopped for a few seconds, looking down at Christian’s attempt at restraint with a tilted grin.

  It slashed the rope in two in a blur, too quick to see. It kept slowly walking towards Zahra, dodging Ritesh’s attempts to fry the bug. Maria raised a few walls of Earth and tried to box the monster in, but it walked through the stone and dirt like it was nothing. I heard Christain swear as he turned around, running behind the truck.

  “I must… feed more…” It moaned, thick goblets of salvia splattering on the ground in front of it. It was paying no attention to the other four, just Zahra.

  I kept pushing as hard as I could, but I was too slow. It was going to reach Zahra and do the same to her, and probably the rest of us shortly after. I grabbed a rock as I ran, throwing at the creature’s back. It bounced off the scales like a ping pong ball, nothing distracting it from the meal in front of it.

  I screamed as the creature leaned back, preparing to pounce on the downed girl. It raised its bladed arms, preparing to cut her in half. Maria and Ritesh couldn’t do anything, their attacks were barely affecting it.

  It slashed down on Zahra.

  BANG!