The adrenaline kicked in like a lightning strike.
The creature slowly drew itself up to its full, unnatural height. It towered over Henry, who was already dropping into a combat stance, his hand resting on the hilt of his tactical sword.
Jacob, our designated tank, stepped forward. He cracked his knuckles, a low, rhythmic rumble vibrating in his chest as his body braced for impact. Behind him, Julie hovered like a coiled spring, ready to strike the second an opening appeared. Layla immediately retreated to the rear, her fingers tracing the medical vials in her pack, ready to patch us up the second things turned bloody.
I stood frozen, desperately keeping my head down. I knew my eyes were still burning a volatile, unmistakable red. If Henry looked at me right now, the gig was up, and I'd be facing a different kind of execution.
Suddenly, the entity lunged.
It didn't go for the weakest link, it went straight for the biggest threat. It kicked off the ground with terrifying speed, launching itself directly at Jacob. But Jacob was a human brick wall. He met the beast head-on. I had seen him train in the underground gyms, but watching him in a real fight was awe-inspiring. He was a perfect killing machine. He threw a devastating left hook that connected with the creature's jaw, a sickening crack echoing through the silent, simplified woods. The anomaly let out a metallic, grating shriek, but Jacob didn't stop, raining down heavy, bone-shattering blows that should have reduced any normal living thing to dust.
But this wasn't a normal living thing.
Jacob reached out, grabbing a handful of its matted black hair to pull its head back for a finishing blow.
The moment his fingers locked in, the entity opened its jaw wider than humanly possible.
It unleashed a high-frequency screech so violent the air rippled.
The sound hit my eardrums like physical pressure, making them ring painfully. A second later, a kinetic shockwave blasted outward. The force of the sound tore Jacob off his feet, sending his massive frame flying backward. He crashed violently into one of the crayon-like trees, the trunk splintering as he slumped into the grass, motionless.
"Jacob!" Layla screamed, already sprinting toward his fallen form.
I whipped my head back to the anomaly.
It stood tall, its black eyes burning with a twisted, manic joy.
My breath hitched. Even with my limited knowledge, I knew a standard B-Class anomaly couldn't toss a high-tier Section 77 tank across a field like a ragdoll.
Henry's face went dead pale. He had spotted it, too.
"This isn't a B-Class," Henry hissed, his voice tight with rare panic. "It's an SS-Class. Look at the nape."
I squinted through the red tint of my vision. There, tracing along the back of the creature's emaciated neck, was a faint, jagged black mark, a runic brand pulsing with dark energy.
Julie didn't hesitate. She drew her heavy, steel-reinforced baseball bat (the same one she'd used to knock me clean out on the day we met) and adjusted her grip.
"Think we can take an SS-Class?" she asked, a manic, dangerous edge to her voice.
"I don't know about you,"
Henry replied, his sword slipping from his saya with a cold click.
"But I certainly can."
With a burst of speed, Henry charged.
Julie smirked, kicking off the dirt right behind him.
"If you can take it, old man, I'm leaving you in the dust."
What followed was a terrifying dance.
Their fighting styles were completely different but flawlessly synchronized.
Julie was a blur of acrobatics and momentum, dodging beneath the creature's sweeping, razor-sharp claws, her bat connecting with its ribs in heavy, echoing thuds.
Henry was the surgical knife: precise, silent, and lethal. Every time Julie drew the entity's attention, Henry's blade flashed, carving deep, black-bleeding gashes into its limbs.
They were a deadly duo. But against an SS-Class, they were fighting on borrowed time.
"Nico!" Henry roared mid-strike, parrying a claw that missed his throat by millimeters.
"Don't just stand there like a useless idiot! Get on the comms and tell Marie we need immediate backup!"
I snapped out of my daze.
Still seeing the world through a haze of crimson, I scrambled toward the backpack resting near Layla and Jacob. I grabbed the radio receiver, my hands shaking.
"Marie! Marie, do you copy?" I yelled into the mic. "The classification was wrong! It's an SS-Class! Jacob is down, and—"
Before I could finish the sentence, the battlefield went dead silent.
I looked up. The entity had found a microscopic gap in their coordination. In a flash of movement too fast for the human eye to track, its long, spindly gray fingers shot forward.
It tapped Henry and Julie simultaneously on their foreheads.
The effect was instantaneous.
Both of them froze mid-motion, their muscles locking up as if struck by lightning. Their weapons slipped from their hands, clattering uselessly into the grass.
They collapsed forward, falling to their knees like stone statues.
My heart stopped.
Through the comms, Marie's voice was screaming my name, but the sound felt miles away. I watched in horror as Henry and Julie stared blankly ahead, their eyes glassy and vacant, while thick, dark tears of blood began to stream down their cheeks.
The anomaly stood over them, its jaw stretching into that wide, multi-fanged grin. It raised a massive, clawed hand, preparing to paint the grass with their blood.
In that fraction of a second, my brain stopped calculating. I did the only thing I have ever been truly good at:
I acted completely recklessly.
I dropped the comms receiver onto the grass.
Layla looked up from patching Jacob, her eyes locking onto mine.
She saw the deep, glowing red of my irises. She knew what it meant, she knew I had broken the rules and accessed the forbidden part of my biology.
But she also knew we were out of options. She gave me a single, desperate nod.
'Save them.'
I stood up.
"Hey! Ugly!"
I shouted, my voice echoing through the silent forest.
The entity paused, its claw hovering inches above Henry's skull. Slowly, it turned its head, its empty black eyes locking onto me.
We stared at each other.
For a brief, surreal moment, the creature's murderous grin faltered. A flicker of profound confusion crossed its distorted features, making it look almost... human.
It sensed it.
It felt the latent, crushing weight of the Rhohonoids pulsing inside my veins, an energy signature that belonged exclusively to the monsters of the paranormal world.
But the confusion didn't last. In its place came a wave of pure, unadulterated hatred.
The anomaly recognized what I was.
I wasn't just a parasite or an anomaly player. I was the anomaly's worst nightmare. I was the Child of the Prophecy, the threat to Yuri's entire existence.
Even from yards away, the sheer force of its homicidal intent hit me like a physical wall, making my chest tighten.
But I didn't back down. I took a step forward, my heart hammering against my ribs, a strange mix of terror and electric anticipation flooding my veins.
I couldn't run. I couldn't hide. I didn't have Julie's speed or Henry's flawless technique, but I wasn't going to stand by and watch my team die.
I gripped my tactical knives, tilted my head, and met the monster's gaze.
"Let's play," I whispered.