The moment the last bloated CC burst into smoke and acid mist, an unnerving stillness sank over the battlefield.
Wawa didn't need to change colors to warn anyone — his sudden agitation alone told Kaodin the fight was nowhere near over.
Kaodin felt it too.
A crawling unease in his stomach.
The thick, disgusting stench of rotten meat — maybe from the massive chain of head-bursting CCs — finally punched straight through his focus. For one second, just one tiny lapse, the boy gagged.
He turned away fast, trying to hide it. He felt as if showing the frail part of himself would ruin his image — especially in front of older girls he found attractive. Some old habit from overhearing his senior disciples talk about which girls they liked.
He didn't understand it then, but now he finally knew what they meant.
Regardless… he couldn't hold it.
…He threw up.
Nyla noticed immediately. She didn't pry, didn't mock. She simply saw the pale look on his face — such a stark contrast to his earlier explosive fighting energy — and quietly patted his back, easing her guard long enough to let him breathe.
A deep, dragging gnarl rolled from behind the shattered alley —
low enough to rattle ribs,
wet enough to promise decay.
Wawa shot upward in a jolt, circling Nyla in frantic warning spirals, nudging her gaze toward the far shadows.
But Nyla, still steady despite everything, misread the sound.
"That low?" she muttered. "Probably a big one. Slow. No immediate threat."
She was wrong.
Han-Xiao's visor caught a blur.
Arika's did too — a pale streak, no heat signature.
"Contact — moving fast!" Han-Xiao barked. "Everyone, caution! Strange creature in proximity!"
Arika's eyes narrowed. "It's observing. Not charging blindly."
Ken added, "Feels like it's toying with us… like a predator playing with its prey."
Everyone felt it — if they turned their backs and ran, the creature would begin its bloodbath instantly.
And to honor the grace of serving under the virtuous Commander Arika, none of them dared to feint from the fight.
An afterimage flickered atop a half-collapsed window frame.
Another blinked behind a barricade.
Scans failed — no warmth, nothing alive, nothing trackable.
And then —
it was simply there.
No warning.
Standing.
Motionless.
No blinking, no breathing — like a grotesque parody of a Buddha statue.
Directly in front of exhausted Kaodin and Nyla — both unprepared.
A colossal CC — the Colos Variant.
Twice the height of the others.
Shoulders bulging with parasite sacks.
Black-green veins pulsing under tearing skin like cables forced where they didn't belong.
A jaw hanging too wide, serrated with bone-like protrusions.
A long, spine-like parasite jutting from its upper back, humming with a sick internal grind.
It slashed toward Kaodin immediately.
Even Nyla's quick reflexes couldn't match its parasitic-enhanced speed.
And yet—
Wawa moved first.
His small body reacted with pure animal instinct. His vision and reflexes processed the attack in less than twenty milliseconds — far faster than any human. In that split millisecond, Wawa wished he were stronger. Strong enough to protect his master and friend.
He would sacrifice anything.
And in his inner thoughts — fragmented instincts, old memories he couldn't fully grasp — he felt that he had always protected this boy. Longer than the boy had been aware of him. Their connection was not new; it was built from something deeper, something ancient.
If he couldn't overpower the enemy now, then he would at least buy a heartbeat of time.
A burst of fiery Qi flared off Kaodin — unintentional, uncontrolled.
But that faint spark was enough.
Nyla dove forward, shoving Kaodin out of the monster's swing. In the same breath, she slid her 9.9mm pistol from her thigh pouch and leveled it point-blank.
Thud—!
A tentacle-like appendage snapped through the air, striking her before she fired.
Blood sprayed, scattering across the ground.
The sound was loud enough to finally cut through Kaodin's dizziness.
Still crouched, unguarded after being shoved aside, he blinked hard.
Voices returned to his ears:
"—protect the pink-haired lady!"
"She's fatally wounded!"
"TXA, now— pressure on the wound!"
Kaodin couldn't bring himself to look at her.
He wanted to — desperately — but he couldn't.
He let someone close.
And she got hurt because of him.
His link with Wawa pulsed.
Wawa's earlier desperate distraction — that reckless attempt to buy Kaodin seconds — hit the boy's consciousness like a comet impact.
It felt like a heavy flick to the head — punishment for failing to protect the person beside him.
Some whisper that the moon was bound long before mankind ever learned to crawl,
sealed by an unknown hand across a gulf of millions of light-years.
Its crimson face was the omen — a stain of ancient sacrifice,
left by a being older than memory, older than any god men dare name.
They say the seal still holds —
a cosmic ritual wound tight around a monster pressing outward in silence,
yearning, forever yearning…
…but Kaodin did not care.
His gaze locked on the towering Colos CC.
It stood before him as if smirking — mocking — testing.
Albert was about to leap forward to protect the boy, as any knight of the righteous King Kadavar would.
But he froze when Arika raised her hand sharply.
"Do not interfere," she commanded.
She trusted her instincts — something was building inside the boy.
A heat signature climbing far too rapidly for any normal human.
Behind her, Ken and Han-Xiao worked quickly, injecting IV TXA to stop Nyla's bleeding.
Her unconscious form was pale, limp, stable, yet.
Arika stood rigid, visor glitching from interference. She had spent minutes trying to reach SAI for reinforcements — every attempt failed.
The red moon, the storm, the static — something in the sky had shut their signals down entirely.
Rain began to fall — thin, cold droplets — as if the heavens themselves recoiled.
And through the haze, the boy stood before her.
Grey poncho.
Black shirt.
Small frame — thin, but toned like a trained fighter.
Pitch-black wavy hair clinging to his forehead.
Red sports shoes soaked in dust.
And then —
a bloom of fiery red aura erupted from him.
Wawa's earlier pale glow surged into a deep crimson, matching the boy.
The red moon overhead reflected in both of them.
Arika and Han-Xiao's visors flashed alarms —
HEAT SIGNATURE CRITICAL — ORGANIC SOURCE — UNKNOWN CLASSIFICATION
No augmented human could do this.
No training manual explained this.
No scientific doctrine prepared them for this.
And Kaodin…
Kaodin simply slid his foot back, shoulders tightening, breath drawing into the rhythm his father drilled into him.
The quiet didn't last.
Arika gave the order softly:
"Everyone… hold position.
Observe the boy and the monster.
Whatever happens next —
do not get in his way."
Han-Xiao swallowed, visor flickering.
The boy moved.
And the entire squad held their breath.