Jinx drove the twin swords deep into the flesh of the Titanaboa as its scales glead wetly under the rain.
Black blood sprayed across Jinx’s face, then burned at every part of her skin it touched.
"AAARGH!"
She pulled the blade free and ducked, rolling as the creature’s head whipped toward where she’d been standing.
The creature’s jaws snapped shut with a sound like boulders colliding.
Jinx’s boots slipped on the rain-slicked road as she scrambled backward.
Despite its size, the creature moved with terrifying speed, coiling in a half-circle, fixing its eyes on Jinx.
"Shit."
Jinx’s head snapped to the left the mont her retreat toward the building was cut off by the creature’s whipping tail.
From the corner of her left eye, she saw the survivors huddling on the opposite buildings closer to the News Industry, carrying pale expressions.
At the front of the blue-painted building, adjacent to the yellow one, Cassy stood at the front, her phone raised, recording.
’Run, idiots. What are you waiting for?’ Jinx’s thoughts hamred against her skull as the creature lunged.
She threw herself sideways. The wind following the creature slamd her against an overturned white Jeep.
’Get up. GET UP.’ She pushed herself off the vehicle, ignoring the white-hot pain lacing through her spine.
The creature’s tail swept across the car, slaughtering it into two. Luckily, Jinx jumped before the tail shot forward.
She landed on it, then ran toward the creature’s back. Rain hamred against her skin and sang on the blades of the swords raised high.
With an enormous strike, she drove them down. The Titanaboa scread, a sound that sent shockwaves through the street, shattering the remaining unbroken windows of the nearby buildings.
As the creature thrashed its body, Jinx’s muscles scread as she increased her grip on the sword that jerked like a living thing trying to escape.
Black blood poured over her arms, chest, then neck. "Don’t let go. Don’t you dare let go." She scread when her blade tried to eject from the creature’s skin.
At high speed, the creature slamd its body against jagged concrete, trying to crush the lady. Jinx released the sword at the last second and dropped into the ruins as debris rained down on her.
She coughed as the taste of dust and blood, mixed with sothing acrid, lanced through her lungs.
Through the debris, Jinx saw the Titanaboa turning, the sword still left in its back, while black blood pumped from its wounds.
The creature was weakening. So was Jinx.
Jinx’s legs threatened to buckle as she pushed herself up. The rain felt colder as her vision swam.
From the distance, more screams erupted. The tallic bodies of military vehicles and their thick tires ramd through the ground.
The soldiers opened heavy guns on the flying creatures that began to descend on the ground, capturing survivors one after another.
The Titanaboa lowered its eyes, locked them onto the lady that had struck its back, then opened its jaws.
Jinx’s blood ran cold, but she raised her hands. "Co and get them."
A roar tore through the sky as the wings of a military aircraft scread overhead, their weapon pods swiveling to aim at the Titanaboa.
The creature’s head snapped up, and for a heartbeat, Jinx thought she was saved. But then the Titanaboa’s tail whipped around and caught her in the chest.
The world beca a blur of rain and broken glass and distant screams as the impact sent Jinx flying.
She slamd into a wall, a vehicle, then onto the ground. Her body bounced twice on the ground, then kept going, tumbling through debris until she finally crashed into a building’s round tal pillar.
"I can’t move..." she whispered, her arms fraying aside. Through fading vision, she saw the aircraft engaging the Titanaboa with missiles and firing guns that rained down from the sky.
With wounds dressing it, a wet roar escaped the creature, yet it didn’t stop moving.
And from a distance, Cassy’s voice scread her na as darkness consud her completely. "Jinx..."
...
Twenty minutes later, the dical evacuation team found Jinx’s body buried under debris. In her unconscious state, her right arm held tight to the sword.
"She’s alive!" a dic shouted, her gloved hands guarding Jinx’s neck to stabilize her.
"Multiple fractures, possible internal bleeding. We need evac NOW!"
A few other dics joined and helped load her onto a stretcher. The rain continued falling, the sounds of roars echoing from other parts of the city.
As the dics lifted the lady into the waiting helicopter, Cassy pushed her way through. "That’s my friend! I’m going with her!"
A soldier blocked her path. "Ma’am, you need to—"
"I don’t need to do anything except get in that helicopter," Cassy said in a bold voice. "I’m her ergency contact. And I have footage of everything that happened. Everything."
The soldier turned and looked at his commanding officer, who gave a slow nod.
Cassy climbed into the helicopter. Inside, Jinx lay strapped to a stretcher, her white hair matted with blood and rain.
"Hold on, Jinx," Cassy whispered, grabbing her friend’s hand, then kissing her fingers. "You’ve survived the worst. This is just a small task. Don’t die on ."
The helicopter lifted, banking hard as it cleared the destroyed street. Below it, dozens of places in Central City burned, while more creatures kept appearing.
anwhile, at the commanding post of the military group at the Nurses Estate, Sergeant Hu’s jaw tensed as he stared at the tactical display.
’Seventeen soldiers lost in the first hour, and the Hunter Units aren’t arriving. Hmm.’
"We can’t hold that long, sir," his communication officer said quietly. The communication officer was a young guy with wounds dressing his cheeks, blood dripping from his forehead, and arms trembling.
He gave no reply, his gaze fixed on the live footage from the News Industry—the civilian white-haired lady holding two swords and fighting a Titanaboa.
’This lady isn’t just a normal civilian.’ He squeezed his eyes, trying to figure out her face.
"Find out who she is," he ordered, raising his gaze from the display to the communication officer. "And find out where they’re taking her."
"Sir?"
"If she survived that, she’s got sothing we need." Hu’s eyes closed as new death-scented air lanced through his nostrils.
"Right now, we need every advantage we can get." He exhaled sharply. "Send out a distress call, and lure everyone that has so strength to fight."
Behind Kai’s window, he stood there, dressed in his black hoodie—the very one that he uses whenever he sneaks out.
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