The streets east of Market were bones.
Jax limped beside , cleaver strapped across his back, armor humming each ti the weight shifted. "You sure this is the right way?"
"If it’s not," I said, "we’ll die faster. Saves ti."
Hana didn’t even try to smile. She kept one thread unspooled, brushing the ground like a blind man’s cane. Every ti it touched rubble, it twitched—alive, nervous.
[Quest Progress: Evac Lanes Σ 2 %]
Sowhere ahead, a drone wailed orders it didn’t understand."Corridor Lambda unstable... fallback to Command Row..."Then it looped, static drowning the rest.
"That’s encouraging," Jax muttered.
"Better than silence," I said. "Silence ans everything’s already dead."
We passed what was left of a tram stop. Bent rails, broken screens, a vending unit still blinking insert credits like it expected soone to care. The air slled like tal fat.
Darkharness tightened against my ribs when sparks showered nearby, then relaxed again—protective, overbearing, smug. Hana noticed it move.
"That armor," she said. "It responds on its own?"
"Yeah," I said. "Adaptive fra."
"You made that too?"
"Sa forge session i was on fire today."
Jax snorted. "There is sothing about you."
"Yeah i like older woman."
He looked over like the numbers didn’t add up. "You’re serious."
"I already told you—i have Crafting Affinity A-rank. It’s in the log ask the guildmaster."
"I’ve seen A-ranks work," Jax said. "They don’t make sentient wardrobe in a living room."
"Guess I’m an overachiever."
Hana’s gaze dragged up and down again, analytical, almost wary. "You’ve changed."
"Shaved," I said.
"Not that kind of change." She gestured vaguely. "You’re taller. Broader. The air around you feels... heavier."
"That’s just the armor weight."
"Ethan." Her tone landed between disbelief and accusation.
I sighed. "Look, I’ve been busy not dying. Maybe it’s good for posture."
She kept staring. Jax joined in, eyes narrowing. "You vanish for half a day while the city explodes, co back glowing, and hand out miracle gear. Forgive for noticing the math’s off."
"I told you, I was out cold," I said. "
"Out where?"
"In my apartnt," I said too fast.
Jax’s brow creased. "You slept through a dungeon break."
"Apparently."
He barked a humorless laugh. "You’re either lying or the luckiest bastard alive."
"Pick whichever helps you sleep."
They traded a look that said we’ll circle back to this later.
Fine by .
We hit a stretch where the street turned into a gash. Tram lines hung overhead like veins, still sparking. The ground dipped into a crater filled with sludge that used to be asphalt.
"Watch footing," Hana warned, tossing a thread across the gap. It latched to a traffic pole still pretending to be upright. She tested it, then walked first, thread tightening beneath her boots. Jax followed, swearing at gravity.
When I crossed, Lightning Transit whispered behind my eyes—too tempting. I ignored it.
Midway over, Jax broke the silence. "You asked about Mikey before. He made it out."
I stopped mid-step. "He’s okay?"
"Evac’d through Corridor Theta."
Relief hit so hard it felt foreign. "He’ll hate being benched."
"Better than buried."
"Yeah."
The conversation died with the next gust of ash.
We walked another block before Jax spoke again, quieter. "He keeps asking for you on the net."
"Tell him I’m still ugly."
"I’ll do that."
Hana’s thread brushed against a collapsed sign. The letters still read Arcadia Tramline 7 — Guild Row Express. She stared at it like it was an obituary. "This used to be the safe part of the city."
"Arcadia’s allergic to safe," I said.
She didn’t answer.
We passed a burned-out transport. The windshield had half-lted into a puddle. Soone had carved no heroes left into the door with a knife.
Jax adjusted the strap on the Grav-Edge and glanced toward the smoke curling over the southern blocks."Been hearing chatter on the Guild net," he said. "Deathspace freaks showed up near the quarantine lines. Picking fights with anyone wearing a badge. Whole thing feels staged."
That na hit like cold water.I rembered Darius’s briefing—his voice low, eyes hard, that little pause before he said the word like it could rot the air.
Worse. People who trade in power the way others trade in organs.The ones who strip hunters for parts. Deathspace.
He’d told their leader could rewrite matter with a thought—SSS-rank, walking apocalypse.If they were moving now, during a break this bad...
"They planning sothing?" I asked.
"When aren’t they?" Jax said. "Half their freaks are rcs, half cult. Every break they crawl out looking for scraps."
"Guild’s got bigger problems than wannabe anarchists," Hana said.
"Yeah," Jax replied, "but Deathspace isn’t the kind that waits for cleanup. They build empires out of ruins."
I didn’t say what I rembered from the Verge—the symbols carved into the shaman’s altar, the sa rings, faint and wrong. Maybe coincidence. Maybe not.
Darkharness pulsed once along my spine, sensing the spike in heart rate. I forced a breath.
"Whatever they’re planning," I said, "we’ll deal with it after the fire stops spreading."
"Assuming we’re still breathing," Jax said.
"Jax the optimist." i said.
"Soone has to balance you out."
We reached the tram crossing. Cables sagged overhead, dripping molten insulation.The ash thickened enough to taste.
A flicker of movent snapped all of us still.
Far end of the street—three silhouettes. Too tall. Too broad.
Orcs.
[ System Alert: Hostile Signatures Detected ]
[ Classification: Orc Raiders (B–Rank, Mutated) ]
[ Threat Assessnt: Moderate ]
[ Adaptive Response Recomnded — Party Formation: 3 Active ]
"Contact," Hana whispered.
"Positions," I said.
Jax swung the cleaver down from his back, the Grav-Edge humming like an angry planet. "I got left."
"Take center," I countered. "You’re more of a tank."
He grinned despite himself. "Copy."
The orcs broke into a charge.
The first impact was gravity itself; Jax t it head-on. The cleaver hit, air folded inward, and the street cracked open like an eggshell. The orc disintegrated under force alone.
I blinked forward—
[ Lightning Transit Activated ]
[ Instant Spatial Relocation: 42 m ]
[ Chain 1 / 7 — Cooldown Pending ]
[ Pulse Discharge: 2 m radius, Minor Stun applied ]
The world snapped from one fra to another. The sll of ozone burned my throat as I re-appeared behind the second orc; lightning still crawled along my arm. Fangpiercer was already moving before thought caught up.
[ Fangpiercer Critical ]
[ Armor Penetration : 30 % ]
Steel t spine. The creature’s roar cut off halfway to a vowel.
[ Hostile Neutralized — Orc Raider (B-Rank) ]
[ EXP 120 ]
[ Level 22 Progress: 880 → 1000 / 2200 ]
The last one swung a club big enough to have its own orbit. Hana’s threads flared bright blue; the Lotus V2 hardened around her shoulders, weaving into a barrier that caught the hit and shattered like glass, slowing it just enough for Jax’s follow-through to erase the problem.
Silence after violence always feels fake.Ash drifted back down like applause no one wanted.
[ Containnt Progress → 40 % ]
[ Absolute Regeneration Activated — Minor ]
Hana exhaled hard, threads fading to a dim glow. "That was close."
"Close is fine," I said. "Close ans we’re still here."
Jax wiped sweat from his brow. "You ever going to admit that lightning trick breaks every rule of physics?"
"Physics started the fight," I said. "I’m just returning fire."
He shook his head. "Still can’t tell if you’re joking or insane."
"Why not both?"
We moved on. Every few ters, I caught civilians moving between shadows—responder groups, scavengers, kids with backpacks too heavy for their fras. The ones who noticed us stared longer than they should. Word traveled faster than drones now.
A teenager whispered, "That’s him... the F-rank from A-rank gate."
Hana heard it too. "You’re becoming a rumor."
"Great. My lifelong dream."
She almost smiled. "You hate attention?"
"I hate paperwork more. Fa’s just louder paperwork."
Jax looked at the ash clouds ahead. "If the city survives this, the guild’s going to eat you alive for answers."
"They can choke on the footnotes."
I kept walking, eyes on the cracks spreading through the boulevard, but the lie itched under my tongue.
I used to want that—fa. Badly. When I was sixteen, I’d watched him—the strongest hunter in Arcadia—take down an S-rank beast during a dungeon break live on national broadcast. The man carved through nightmare like it owed him rent. He stood there after, covered in blood and glory, and I rember thinking: that’s it. That’s who I’ll be.
Didn’t matter that I was F-rank. That I had no skill, no money, no guild. I still signed up for the exam. Still took the first party that didn’t laugh out of the room. Still almost died in a hole because of them.
Now here I was—still bleeding, still pretending I didn’t want the sa thing. The difference was, the System decided I could actually do it. The hero I wanted to be, just... ssier. Louder. Hornier.
The boulevard narrowed into a canyon of half-collapsed buildings. Fire burned inside one tower like a candle no one rembered to snuff.
Another drone voice broke through static: "Command Row defensive periter—holding... casualties—severe..."
"That’s our stop," I said.
"Feels like ho already," Jax muttered.
We climbed over a bus that had decided to nap on its side. Hana used her thread to steady the descent. My harness adjusted again, plates thinning over my legs for flexibility.
She noticed. "It learns?"
"Faster than I do."
"That’s not funny."
"Didn’t say it was."
By the ti we hit the next intersection, my lungs burned from the air. The ash was thicker, the noise sharper. The city sounded alive again, just in the wrong ways—gunfire, distant roars, collapsing steel.
We paused under the remains of a billboard—half of a smiling idol, now lted into sothing monstrous.
Jax leaned against the wall, breathing hard. "How far?"
"Two sectors," I said. "If Command Row’s still standing."
He nodded slowly, then looked over at again, that sa studying look he’d had since Market. "You really did change, you know."
"Yeah," Hana said quietly. "It’s not just the armor. It’s you."
"Different haircut?" I tried.
"Different everything," Jax said. "Posture. Eyes. Power rolling off you like a furnace. You’re not the sa guy who got drunk on half a beer after a C-rank raid."
"Maybe I finally sobered up."
He frowned. "That’s what worries ."
For a second, none of us talked. The city filled the space instead.
Then Hana broke it: "So what now?"
"Now we keep walking," I said. "Because sobody has to."
Reviews
All reviews (0)