The crystal chandelier hanging from the mall ceiling began to sway violently, its metal fittings screeching as they scraped against each other.
Inside the barbecue restaurant, diners cried out in confusion. Some put down their chopsticks and stood up, pulling out their terminals to record the flickering lights.
Then the air outside the window warped.
Something was forcing its way out from the center of that distortion!
Jiang Nuan saw it.
A four-legged monster tore free in a sudden burst!
Its belly hugged the ground. Four barbed limbs supported its bloated body, and its skin was covered in a smooth, heavy shell.
It looked uncannily like a spider.
But no spider could grow as large as a compact car.
It crashed through the entire floor-to-ceiling window. Shards of glass sprayed outward like a torrential downpour.
One of its barbed limbs went straight through the skull of a man who had been making a phone call by the window.
He did not even have time to make a sound. His terminal slipped from beside his ear, its screen still lit with the call interface.
A woman’s voice came faintly from the terminal. “Hello? Honey? Why aren’t you saying anything—?”
Blood gushed from the puncture wound, staining the broken glass a horrifying red.
Screams erupted throughout the barbecue restaurant.
Tables and chairs crashed to the ground. Dishes shattered. Footsteps pounded, people cried and shouted—every sound twisted into a single cacophony.
“Didn’t they say the anomalous energy was only in those areas outside the city? How did it get into downtown?!”
“Help! Please, let me through—”
The crowd surged madly toward the back exit, shoving and trampling over one another.
The monster flung the corpse off its limb. Its compound eyes turned, locking onto its next target.
The boy who had hit on her earlier.
He had been about to get up and pay at the counter. The instant the chaos began, his legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed into the aisle.
He wanted to run, but his legs would not listen.
The monster’s mandibles opened.
Slime dripped from between its split tooth plates, stretching into long strands and carrying the rotten stench of decay.
It lunged faster than anyone could have expected. All four limbs drove against the ground at once, sending its flattened body skimming across the floor.
A voice in Jiang Nuan’s mind screamed, Don’t get involved. It’s all fake! He’s only an Echo of a bygone era.
But that face, twisted by terror.
Those vivid eyes, so desperately clinging to life.
Fake?
But that fear was real.
And besides, Jiang Nuan knew better than anyone: if the boy died, the monster’s next target would, without question, be her—the closest person, sitting in the corner.
Damn it.
Jiang Nuan drew on the ability within her.
The power she had once called a little stream.
But now, it was no longer a stream.
Beneath the current, surging undercurrents roiled like a river that had been gathering force for years. A strength unfamiliar even to her flowed toward her palm.
A wave of pure, frigid energy condensed above her hand.
A crescent blade, thin as a cicada’s wing.
Without the slightest hesitation—
She flicked her wrist.
The crescent blade flew from her hand, becoming a silver streak of light.
“Shhk—”
The streak sliced into the joints of the monster’s two front limbs.
The shell that had seemed so hard offered almost no resistance to the silver light.
The sound of cracking carapace rang out. Both front limbs were severed at their roots.
The monster let out a shrill screech. Its attack abruptly stalled, and its massive body lost balance, pitching forward half a step.
Now.
Jiang Nuan sprang forward.
She grabbed the boy by the arm. “Get up!”
Without giving him time to react, she half dragged, half pulled him toward the nearest overturned dining table.
Su Yang stumbled after her until they reached the table. He slid to the floor behind it, gulping down great breaths of air.
Jiang Nuan crouched in front of him with her back to him, her gaze fixed on the monster ahead. Though it had lost two legs, it was still writhing and screeching.
Its remaining hind limbs braced against the floor as it adjusted its center of gravity. Slime dripped continuously from its severed limbs.
It wasn’t dead yet.
“Um, that…”
Su Yang’s trembling voice came from behind her.
Jiang Nuan did not turn around.
“My name is Su Yang.” His voice was still shaking. “Are you and that big guy boyfriend and girlfriend? Actually, it’s fine! As long as you’re not married, I think I still have the right to compete fairly—”
Jiang Nuan’s eye twitched. She did not spare him so much as a glance, every ounce of her attention pinned to the monster as it tried to regain its footing.
“Or! Sis! If you don’t want to deal with such a complicated love triangle—”
Su Yang’s voice grew more urgent.
“Do you need an accessory? The kind that cheers you on, says ‘awesome,’ and brings you tea and water! And I’m rich! Think about it, okay?”
“The thing you should be thinking about right now is shutting up,” Jiang Nuan ground out through clenched teeth.
Before the words had even faded—
The crippled monster threw back its head and released an even more piercing shriek.
Its flattened abdomen suddenly swelled. Cracks split across its shell, spreading from the center to both sides.
Then three smaller creatures of the same kind burst out from inside it.
They were only one-third the size of the parent creature, but twice as fast.
Their thin limbs scrabbled frantically across the floor as they rushed toward the corner where Jiang Nuan and the boy were hiding.
Three directions.
Striking at once.
The crescent blade flew from Jiang Nuan’s hand again. Silver light carved an arc through the air, slicing the leading creature cleanly in half.
The other two were not slowed in the slightest, flanking her from both sides at once.
Then, in that instant—
Boom.
A black shadow hurtled down from above and slammed into the ground before her.
A massive shield embedded itself deeply in the floor. One of the monsters was smashed into pulp against its face.
The other was caught in midair by the shield’s edge and swept away, its entire body flung into a wall hard enough to blast straight through it.
Broken bricks scattered everywhere.
Jiang Ce did not look toward the wall. With one hand, he pulled the heavy shield from the floor, sending dust flying.
With a casual shake, the thick monster flesh and blood on its surface flew off, leaving a filthy smear across the ground.
For a moment, the world fell silent.
Jiang Nuan looked up.
He was over six foot three, his broad shoulders and back like a wall.
He stood there as steady as a mountain.
In his left hand, he held a black heavy shield nearly as tall as he was. Monster fluid still clung to its surface, slowly sliding downward.
In his right hand, he carried two cups of milk tea.
The labels were still perfectly intact. Even the tiny print was visible: [Less Ice, 30% Sugar].
He tilted his head slightly and looked down at her.
His breathing was a little ragged. Clearly, he had run back at full speed.
But he still smiled.
“These are for you.”
He held the milk teas out to her.
“Peach Oolong and Mango Pomelo Sago. I didn’t know which one you wanted, so I bought both.”
Jiang Nuan looked at the two completely unscathed cups of milk tea.
Then at the shattered glass, overturned tables and chairs, and monster remains scattered all over the place.
And at the dumbstruck Su Yang behind her.
She reached out and took the milk tea.
Su Yang’s expression underwent a complicated series of changes.
Shock. Admiration. Despair. Acceptance.
The boy quietly shrank farther behind the table and muttered under his breath.
“…Yeah. That’s some seriously tough competition.”
