[Outer Corridor | Rosa]
Rosa didn't run.
She moved along the wall, footsteps lowered until they nearly blended into the environment. The half-beast body revealed its advantage in this moment—no excess force, yet her senses were sharper than ever.
She stopped before the corner.
Two guards ahead. One left, one right. Less than three steps from the door. Weapons at their waists, posture loose.
Not elites.
Rosa made the call instantly.
She raised a hand and gave Bella a brief signal behind her.
Three.
Two—
There was no one.
She moved.
[Interior Room | Jessie]
Jessie counted her third breath.
The footsteps outside changed.
Not patrol rhythm—
The sound of weight dropping.
She didn't look up.
Instead, she let her shoulders sag deliberately, as if her strength had finally given out, releasing a faint, exhausted breath.
The two guards inside exchanged a glance.
One frowned and reached for the collar control, adjusting its frequency.
Now.
Jessie lifted her eyes, voice light—almost pleading.
"…Could I have some water?"
[Outer Corridor | Bella]
Bella crouched beside the fallen guard, fingers already peeling open the casing of the control device.
Her movements didn't resemble combat.
They looked like laboratory work.
Power core offset to the left. Stable output. Over-simplified shielding. Mass-produced—civilian grade.
"…Interference is possible,"
she murmured.
With a twist of her fingers, the energy flow was forced out of alignment.
Not shut down.
Delayed.
[Interior Room | Jessie]
The collar's pulse slowed—half a beat.
Jessie felt it immediately.
She seized the misalignment, letting her body tip forward as if she were losing balance.
A guard instinctively reached out to catch her.
Jessie's fingers locked onto his wrist—not with strength, but with angle.
She used the momentum to rise, shoulder driving forward, dragging him out of position. His head slammed into the edge of the table with a dull thud.
He went down.
The second guard froze.
Just for a moment.
It was enough.
[Outer Corridor | Rosa]
Rosa's hand was already clamped around the second guard's throat.
She didn't snap it.
She compressed—cutting off sound and resistance—then dragged him into the shadows.
Clean. Fast. No wasted motion.
The door was right there.
She tapped twice.
Pause.
Then once more.
[Interior Room | Jessie]
Jessie heard it.
The rhythm they had agreed on.
She turned and kicked the standing guard behind the knee, breaking his balance, then shoved him toward the doorway.
The door burst open.
Rosa stood there.
Her eyes stayed on Jessie for less than half a second—status confirmed—before sweeping the room.
"Move."
No extra words.
[Corridor Junction | The Three]
Bella was already waiting outside.
The control device in her hand emitted an unstable hum. Across the market, collar systems were beginning to fail in patches.
"Thirty seconds,"
she said evenly. "After that, it'll be noticed."
Jessie nodded.
"Enough."
Rosa had already turned and taken point.
They didn't look back at the market.
Because the real chaos—
Was just beginning.
The market erupted all at once.
Not a single explosion, but dozens of sounds slipping out of sync—
Chains hitting the ground.
Shouts.
Screams.
The shrill vibration of collars failing.
All layered together, throwing the entire space into instant disorder.
Bella's interference had worked.
Not just for them.
For the entire slave sector.
Rosa halted the moment the first surge of violence reached them. She spun around and shoved all three into a narrower side passage.
"They're coming," she said quietly.
Footsteps closed in from every direction—no longer scattered guards, but forced-together armed units. The sound of weapons being drawn stretched the air tight.
Rosa didn't wait.
She stepped forward, meeting the first attacker head-on.
The half-beast body moved on a completely different tier now—
Explosive force without wind-up.
Direction changes without adjustment.
Her fist struck just below the collarbone—not to knock him down, but to shatter his breathing rhythm.
In the next second, she was already inside his guard, elbow rising, driving him into the wall.
The sound of bone hitting stone was short and unmistakable.
One down.
The second raised a blade.
Rosa sidestepped, claws flashing as they sliced across his wrist—precise, economical, like dismantling a faulty mechanism.
The blade fell.
Jessie wasn't staying behind.
The instant Rosa engaged, Jessie was already moving along the wall, eyes scanning the edges of the chaos. She didn't take the front—she cut straight into the most easily overlooked gap.
A guard was trying to reactivate the collar controls.
Jessie approached, voice calm—almost gentle.
"You pressed the wrong one."
He hesitated.
Jessie's hand was already on his wrist, twisting outward. The controller dropped. She didn't strike again—just shoved him forward, sending him straight into the clash of bodies.
Chaos would consume mistakes on its own.
Bella stood slightly behind them.
Unarmed.
She dropped to one knee and slammed the dismantled control device into the ground hard enough to expose the energy core. Then she grabbed a shard of metal and drove it into the node.
Sparks erupted.
Not an explosion—
An overload.
The corridor lights flickered once—
Then died.
Darkness fell.
Rosa smiled in the dark.
Not from emotion.
From instinct.
"Good."
Her voice was nearly swallowed by the noise, but Jessie and Bella understood.
This wasn't an escape.
This was the first time—
Using bodies from this world—
They completed a full operation.
The three stood back to back.
No commands. No confirmation.
Rosa held the front.
Jessie took the flank.
Bella controlled the disorder of the field.
In less than a minute, the guards' formation collapsed completely.
But then—
A presence entered the space.
Not panic.
Not greed.
A calm, crushing pressure.
Rosa sensed it first.
Her ears twitched, catching footsteps in the distance—
Even.
Measured.
Heavier gear.
"…Not traffickers," she murmured.
Jessie looked up.
At the far end of the passage, firelight flared back to life.
A unit in standardized equipment stood there—not rushing into the chaos, just watching.
Assessing.
Recording.
Their leader's gaze cut cleanly through the riot and settled on the three of them.
That wasn't the look of someone studying prey.
It was the look of someone evaluating resources.
Bella's breath caught.
"…Someone's marked us."
Rosa didn't deny it.
She slowly withdrew her hand and straightened, fully exposing herself to their view.
Blood still clung to her claws, yet her posture was calm—detached from the riot around her.
She met the gaze.
No provocation.
No retreat.
Just confirmation.
If being seen was unavoidable—
Then let them remember this:
They were not merchandise.
The man at the front smiled faintly.
In the firelight, his shadow stretched long across the ground.
"…Interesting."