The man in Sera’s arm was too terrified to stand up straight. His legs buckled as his screams turned into a wet choking sound, the fight quickly leaving him.
Through his struggles, through his screams, and even through the bullets hitting both of them, Sera kept eating.
The humans didn’t matter; the bullets didn’t matter to her... neither one did any type of true and lasting damage to her. It was like a bumble bee stinging her for getting too close to their honey. They were just making things harder on themselves than anything else.
Her wounds closed almost as quickly as they opened, her skin knitting back together before her next breath as her muscles rebuilt themselves just as fast. Even her bones re-ford themselves beneath her torn flesh, becoming even stronger than they were.
In fact, the most inconvenient part was the irritation, the constant interruption of impacts that tried and failed to slow her.
The Black-Badge team’s control shattered.
"Why isn’t she dropping?" soone shouted. "Even the hosts in the lab can’t take a bullet to the head! She should be dead by now!"
"Keep firing!"
"More headshots!"
A volley of bullets hit Sera’s skull in the next instant sending blood and brain matter all over the place.
Her head snapped slightly with the impacts, her hair jolting with each impact, as her blood splattered across the dirt. Then she lifted her chin again, her eyes bright with amusent, and continued chewing on the man in her arms like nothing had happened.
The soldier holding the launcher on the ridge shifted just enough to make his presence known.
Sera felt the change in the air before she saw it. The man behind the launcher was shaking. His breathing was fast. His hands were steady only because training had forced them to be.
Sera tightened her grip around her living shield and dragged him half a step sideways, repositioning his body between her and the launcher.
Her creature’s voice slid through her mind, delighted. Yes. Use him properly. If they want to shoot, let them earn it.
The launcher fired.
A bright streak tore through the air and exploded against the man in her arms.
He burst apart like an overfilled ballon. Heat and blood and shattered armor sprayed across Sera’s front. Sothing hot licked her skin. It singed, not enough to harm, but enough to register as rude to her creature. The force of the blast staggered her half a step.
Her body corrected instantly.
Her smile widened. "Good," she said softly with a nod. "Now we’re getting sowhere."
Behind her, Zubair’s heat flared. A wave of controlled fire rolled up the slope, not a wild wall but a precise bloom that forced two shooters to duck back as their cover began to smoke. Lachlan answered on the opposite side, lightning cracking into the ridge and snapping across tal like it was hungry for it. The sll of burned circuitry rose as one drone dipped too low and exploded midair.
Alexei moved with cold certainty, ice creeping across the ground at the ridge’s edge. Boots slipped when they hit the ice and knees hit dirt. A man tried to scramble back and found his legs freezing in place, joints locking as frost claid him.
Aerenyx didn’t bother to raise his hands. He didn’t need to.
The very air around him turned wrong.
Two n who thought they were safely positioned behind cover began to cough. The coughs turned into convulsions as lesions opened beneath their armor. Their bodies collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Sera felt the battle around her as background noise, her entire focus had narrowed to appetite and opportunity.
She stepped forward into the smoke and reached for the nearest living body still moving.
A man rushed her with a blade, a an looking knife that was ant more for soft targets than true predators.
Sera caught his wrist, twisted until bone cracked, and yanked him close. She bit into his shoulder and ripped free a slab of muscle, chewing as he howled. He tried to punch her. He tried to headbutt her. He tried to do anything that might return control.
So, she ate his throat next.
When he fell, she didn’t watch him drop. She turned to the next one.
The Black-Badge team tried to regroup.
They threw smoke. It blood thick and chemical, swallowing the ridge line in a grey wall. Flashbangs followed, bright bursts and concussive pops ant to disorient.
Sera stood in it and blinked once, bored.
Her creature spoke with mild disgust. They keep using tricks ant for humans. It is almost embarrassing. Can you die from second hand embarrassnt? I feel like that is a thing. Maybe that is the only true way to kill us. What do you think?
Sera snorted at her creature’s comnts as she moved through the smoke with steady steps. She used scent and sound and the faint vibrations of footfalls to find what she wanted and were she wanted to go more than her eyesight.
She found a man crouched behind a rock, trying to reload his shotgun with shaking hands.
She grabbed him by the back of the neck and lifted him, ignoring him when he made a thin, panicked sound.
Sera bit into his ribcage and tore until she found the warm mass beneath, then sank her teeth deeper and pulled out what she wanted.
Organs gave in a wet spill as his body went slack.
She swallowed, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and listened as the smoke cleared enough for her to see.
That was when she noticed sothing else.
One of the Black-Badge n was shouting down the slope, not at her, but past her.
His voice had changed.
It wasn’t a command aid at enemies. It was a practiced tone ant for civilians. The kind people used when they wanted to sound safe and reasonable.
"Hey!" the man called out. "You four! You don’t have to stay with her! You don’t have to defend her! We aren’t going to hurt you."
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