Shadow (2)

A translucent violet whip carved a trench across the marble surface of the city.

I rolled my feet back and leaped a great distance behind me.

The whip split the air, sweeping past directly beneath my feet.

Even as I retreated, I flicked my tail and counterattacked.

Spiny bristles rained down like a volley of arrows. The whip in her hand twisted of its own accord, as though possessed of a will, and swept the bristles out of the air.

In that gap, I touched down on the ground and yanked the blood-drinking tentacle free from my severed left arm's upper joint. The tentacle shot out like a spear and slammed into the ground at her feet.

She had read my attack—by the time it landed, she had already slipped sideways out of the way. Before she could slice the tentacle off with her whip, I retracted it in a hurry.

She's strong.

We had traded blows several times in a matter of moments, and it was abundantly clear this was no easy opponent.

She's got more than one or two abilities up her sleeve.

She'd only shown two so far, but those were far from everything.

The moment I saw the yak horns, I knew she wasn't Cult.

The Cult had no way to hide their horns short of sawing them off artificially.

In other words, my enemy was a gene-modified human implanted with Cult genes.

I knew of someone very much like her. The one who raided a research vessel alongside the Spacedogs—the woman who tried to unleash terror on this space city.

Sihyeon Yujin.

She had died and become nutrients in my body, and now the Yujin family had appeared to attack me in her place.

Well, the Board of Directors Meeting is happening right now, after all.

It wasn't particularly strange for members of the Noble Capital's Yujin family to come here. Though I certainly never expected to run into one in this vast city—and not in the Monument, of all places, but an ordinary residential district.

They said they're here to capture me.

I didn't know exactly why they wanted me, but I could make a rough guess. Their visit to the Dissection Team Leader's house had probably been about gathering information on me too.

Maybe I should have been more careful with my body.

A flicker of regret passed through me, but I shook my head and shook the thought loose. Now was the time to focus on the fight.

Confirmed so far: a transformation ability and the Psychic Whip. Plus at least one more ability I don't know about.

I glanced down at the cross-section of my severed arm. Thanks to my Regeneration trait, the wound itself was already sealing over, but growing a whole new arm would take considerable time.

That's far too powerful for a Psychic Whip.

The Psychic Whip—the very trait I'd used as material for my Ghost Claws—was normally a mid-range harassment tool. It wasn't a technique that could sever my arm from dozens of meters away and shred a road into ribbons.

She has a support ability that empowers her traits and techniques.

And its level was potent enough to rival my own Unique Trait. Ordinary support abilities could never push a skill this far.

This can't go on like this.

It looked like I would need to use Insight.

The Insight trait I'd taken from William after catching him revealed a random selection of the enemy's equipment, techniques, and traits. I'd been rationing it because of the five-per-day limit, but the woman in front of me was a foe worth spending it on.

I activated Insight.

Violet light kindled in my eyes, and the information my enemy carried assembled itself into translucent text boxes floating before me.

While the information surfaced, a violet whip came flying at me—from my enemy. No, from Code Black.

I pressed myself flat against the ground to slip under the whip, and without rising from that posture, opened my jaws wide. The combustion organ deep in my throat activated, and a torrent of flame poured out.

"Fire. You cannot harm me with something like this."

Her voice drifted over the flames consuming the road.

I know that.

The fire and smoke were a smokescreen. I fired my spiny bristles into the pitch-black smoke and bolted without looking back. While her whip batted the bristles away, I had to get clear of that spot fast.

I thought as I ran.

Code Black, just like Sihyeon Yujin, was implanted with Gallagon genes.

And not just any—Black Gallagon genes, from a being standing even higher than the White Gallagons.

Among her skills, Dragon's Heart was a special ability that came only from Gallagons of Black Gallagon rank and above. Holding the Dragon's Heart skill triggered a special state called Dragonification, whose effects resembled my own Hunter's Avatar.

Amplifies the effects of psychic-power skills held, plus rapid recharge.

Looking only at the part where it empowered psychic-power skills, it seemed inferior to Hunter's Avatar—but the crucial part was the rapid recharge. With Dragon's Heart, you could spam techniques like Psychic Breath that devoured monstrous reserves of mental strength and energy.

Psychic Master plus Dragonification. No wonder she seemed absurdly strong.

Psychic Master was a kind of passive effect automatically granted to Cultists bearing yak horns. It strengthened psychic-power traits and techniques across melee, ranged, buff, and crowd-control categories.

With her skills doubly enhanced by two separate effects, even that outrageous destructive power made sense.

Moreover, Black was using two or more techniques simultaneously.

She's casting psychic-power skills while in the Dragonification state.

When I fought Sihyeon Yujin, I won by exploiting the fact that she couldn't use multiple abilities at once. That strategy was impossible against Black.

On top of that, there was an enhancement state Insight couldn't reveal—and Unique-grade equipment too.

The enhancement state I couldn't guess at, but the equipment I had a pretty good idea about. A Unique-grade item shaped like black mourning dress? There was exactly one thing I knew of that fit.

Black Shroud.

One of the relic-grade reinforced suits obtainable only by the Cult—its wearer could cheat death once every three days. Even an attack that reduced the body to powder wouldn't kill them, so long as the cooldown wasn't active.

Which means to beat Black, I have to kill her twice.

Her skills, her equipment—for this body of mine, she was an enemy I absolutely could not face head-on. If I had Psionium like during my fight with Sihyeon Yujin, maybe. But there was none of that solution here.

I need the Hunter's Avatar.

This was no time to worry about the aftereffects.

I broke down the door of a nearby house and hurried inside, activating the Hunter's Avatar at once.

Insight didn't show it, but she'll have tracking abilities too.

Even as my body morphed into its combat-optimized form, my auxiliary organs kept sweeping my surroundings without pause.

She's coming.

I felt Black drawing near through the wall—and felt intense psychic power erupting from her body as well.

Oh no—

The whip smashed into the wall, and the house began to collapse. The Psychic Whip didn't stop at bringing the house down; it pulverized the furniture as it came surging toward me.

Guh—!

The whip slammed into my head a hair's breadth before my transformation completed. The impact was comparable to taking a Plasma Launcher hit. The only difference was that back then, I'd been struck while not in Hunter's Avatar form.

This time, I was.

I can take this.

The outer hide at the impact site had been torn away, but it wasn't fatal. A wound like this would heal quickly under my enhanced Regeneration.

I tensed my legs and slammed down hard against the floor. My body burst through the collapsing house and launched itself at my enemy.

I was faster than she'd expected—her eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly. Her right hand swayed with elegant grace, and the whip lunged for my flank.

Using the shield-shaped carapace that had formed at my forearms under the Hunter's Avatar, I blocked the Psychic Whip. Metal-on-metal shrieked from my arm as sparks flew.

Even an enhanced Psychic Whip could not punch through my hide—reinforced three times over by my Type, my traits, and the Hunter's Avatar.

"…Not bad."

Just before my horn could skewer her abdomen, her left hand spread wide open. In the same instant, my body froze as though nailed to empty air, then was flung violently backward.

Even as the formless force shoved me away, I lashed out a tentacle to strike her. She must have anticipated my counterattack, because she shifted sideways and dodged my tentacle by a whisker.

After that first clash, the one bleeding losses was me.

I was smashed down into the middle of the collapsing house. Debris from shattered wooden furniture and chunks of concrete from the ceiling came pouring down on my head.

Tch.

Her yak horns had given me a hint, but she'd had a defensive psychic technique in reserve as well.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠technique she had just used was Reflection. A psychic-power skill that repelled attacks flying in from the direction she was looking. It couldn't repel everything—psychic attacks would get through. Or failing that, you could strike from a blind angle instead of head-on.

Among the psionic traits I currently possessed, I had exactly one offensive one.

The Psychic Breath channeled through my Monster's Tentacles. Nothing else.

It won't be easy… but it's not impossible.

I rose from the rubble. The moment I did, Black swung her whip, targeting my position with pinpoint accuracy.

Certain now that she had tracking capabilities, I dodged the whip, heaved up a wooden table from the wreckage, and hurled it at her.

"Tricks are useless."

At the cold voice, the table split clean in two.

Tricks, she says.

This was all necessary work.

I escaped the ruined building and ran. Behind me, she gave chase, whip in hand. Whether it was the Black Shroud's enhancement effects or a separate physical-boosting technique, she was pursuing me without the slightest strain.

The long whip flickered its tongue like a serpent and lashed at my back. Even with my senses focused to their limit in my auxiliary organs while fleeing, dodging it entirely was beyond me.

The broken hide left blood streaming down my flank, but I gritted my teeth and kept moving.

…I have to endure it.

Looking weak was the most effective lure. As long as I avoided anything fatal—anything that would kill me or put me at a decisive disadvantage in the fight—there was no problem. That said, even so, the agony of my back being torn open while fully conscious was hard to bear.

Thank goodness for Pain Mitigation.

Without that trait, I would have been shrieking in a thoroughly undignified fashion.

"Is this still not enough?"

With those words, Black drew a second Psychic Whip from her left hand as well. A two-headed serpent hissed and swayed, rasping out its threats.

Damn it.

I hadn't seen that coming.

My original plan had been to run all the way to a subway station beneath the district. But if I kept eating attacks like that in succession, my body would be reduced to scrap before the lure operation even began.

A basement, then.

I cut my angle and charged at a nearby house. The moment I smashed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through the wall, a Cultist inside screamed at the sight of me.

I ignored them and went down into the basement. The Cultists wailing and fussing behind me were torn to ribbons by the psychic power Black hurled their way.

Blood gushed down over the stairs, followed by the sound of her footsteps.

"So a beast is just a beast after all? Running for your life, and of all places, you choose a dead end."

The voice drifted down from the top of the stairs. I flicked my tail, firing spiny bristles up at her.

"Useless."

She batted the incoming bristles away with Reflection. Robbed of a target, the bristles buried themselves in the ceiling above her head and in the walls here and there.

"It seems some discipline is in order before I take you away."

She stepped down the stairs. Even in the pitch-black basement, the horns on her head glowed a vivid violet.

As if to declare that nothing in existence could so much as scratch her.

That arrogance. I wonder just how far it will carry her.

From my pre-chosen position in the corner of the basement, I fired the Psychic Breath I'd been holding ready.

"?!"

The violet sun gathered within my Monster's Tentacles flared into a flash of light. The distilled essence of pure psychic power stretched long from its spherical form and became a beam of thermal energy.

A thermal beam that annihilated everything in its path.

"Ghhk!"

She dismissed her Psychic Whip and thrust both hands up in a scramble toward the beam. A black sphere bloomed from her palms and became a thermal beam identical in form to the one I'd fired.

The power of a violet dragon and the power of a black dragon collided beneath the earth. The ground shook violently—not just under the basement, but across the entire Administrative District. Under the concentration of such immense psychic power, the concrete and rebar encasing the basement crumbled straight into dust.

Guhk—!

The shockwave of the clash alone was flaying the hide from my body. My Acid Blood evaporated the instant it flowed, vaporized by the ambient psychic energy, and the tip of my Monster's Tentacles split apart until it scattered into powder.

"Gaaahk!"

She was suffering the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same agony—her face was contorted badly. The body protected by the Black Shroud remained unharmed, but both her hands, still channeling the breath, were drenched in blood.

And so her Psychic Breath and mine, neither gaining the upper hand, annihilated each other.

Still, anyone who saw us standing amid the ruined wreckage of the basement would have thought she had won. Me, with nearly every scrap of hide torn from my body—her, pristine except for her palms. On appearances alone, the victor was obvious.

"That was unexpected, but it appears this is my victory."

She said it with an air of leisure. Paying her words no mind, I hurled a fragment of the collapsed building at her. It struck the last remaining chunk of ceiling hanging above her head. The broken slab of ceiling lurched, and dust cascaded down over her shoulders.

"Blind now, are we? Though I hardly see anything there worth calling eyes."

Blinded. As if that could be true.

In the Hunter's Avatar state, my senses sharpened to a degree that my eyes could never compare to. In other words, that attack of mine had been entirely deliberate.

The spiny bristle hanging by a thread above her head dropped down onto her neck.

The second weakness of Reflection: it could only block attacks coming from the direction she was facing.

So I just have to aim for her blind spot.

The bristles sank into her utterly defenseless neck.

Midway down the stairs, she felt a sharp sting and touched the back of her neck. The moment her fingers found the spines, her eyes flew wide.

"Wh-what…? Th-this is…?"

Lately my enemies had been wrapped head to toe in protection like Edgerton's knights, so it was easy to forget—but the true power of my spiny bristles lay elsewhere.

Unblockable neurotoxin spread rapidly through her body and seized it in its coils.

She staggered and tried to catch herself on the wall, but it was no use. Her arms and legs refused their owner's commands, and she tumbled gracelessly down the stairs.

"……"

Before I knew it, she was no longer able to speak at all.

I approached her to finish this.

It only ends when she's dead twice.

The instant I raised my combat arm to smash down on her head, her body flared violet.

Light? Don't tell me—

I twisted my body in a rush. The moment I dodged, a violet spear tore past the very edge of my waist.

Ghk!

If I hadn't moved in time, that psychic-powered weapon would have skewered my organs and my heart.

Clutching my bleeding flank, I retreated. Behind me, Black stood unharmed, without a single wound, as if nothing had happened.

"Excellent. Without Code Red, I would have fallen to you."

I breathed fire at her. Shrouding myself in flame and smoke, I escaped the basement through a gap in the collapsed ceiling.

What had just happened to Black was the effect of a technique called Spirit Attunement.

Spirit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Attunement was a support-category psychic-power skill that a caster placed on a single recipient, and it carried an extremely potent effect: the caster could teleport the recipient anywhere, at will. During the teleportation, the recipient's body was temporarily turned to spirit-form by the powerful psychic energy, which completely nullified intoxication effects like my neurotoxin.

It had its drawbacks—the teleportation range was short, and while the effect was active, the caster couldn't move at all. But for catching an enemy off guard, exactly as she'd just done, there was no better technique in existence.

There are two of them!

When I'd scanned Black with Insight, there was an enhancement state that wouldn't unlock in the display, and I'd wondered—never imagining it was the Spirit Attunement state.

Spirit Attunement ranked among the advanced psychic-power techniques. In terms of rarity, it was on par with Dragon's Heart.

And that's not all.

As I fled, I checked my bleeding flank. The technique Black had used to stab me from behind after teleporting was one called Pain Spear.

A psychic-power skill with high penetration that also degraded the victim's regeneration for a period of time. Because of it, my wound was healing far more slowly than usual.

This is bad.

Black alone was a fortress, and somewhere in this district was another enemy every bit her equal. Spirit Attunement had a maximum radius of one kilometer, and while the effect was active on a recipient, the caster was left completely defenseless.

I have a rough idea where the caster is hiding…

But Black wouldn't simply let me get that far.

Running isn't a good option either.

Keeping to a retreat here would do nothing but buy time. Watching how Black tracked me down in an instant, I knew she would find me no matter how far I ran.

The moment the Hunter's Avatar runs out, it's truly over.

Their goal was capture, so they wouldn't kill me—if it were extermination, they'd simply have buried me under a barrage of Psychic Breath.

They're wary of me too.

I'd thrashed them once already, so they'd fight cautiously for a while. Of course, that window wouldn't last long either. The moment my full hand of cards was laid bare, it would genuinely be the end.

How do I break through this?

I was grinding on that one question when the Monster's Tentacles at the back of my head buzzed and trembled.

How do I get past—

At that familiar wavelength, my head snapped up. The wavelength tickling my Monster's Tentacles was from No. 26.

And the ground I stood on shook.

The concrete of the road split open, and from within it, dozens of long, thick tentacles surged upward.

Bursting out of the exploded concrete hole came a colossal pink jellyfish, towering well past five meters in height.