The Crack

The side of the transport hauler crumpled all the way through.

BOOM!

The Variant hadn't even made contact yet. The one with the black plate fused to its face simply stretched out a hand, and something like a black thread snapped across the floor. The cargo crates stacked behind it slammed sideways into the wall.

Cover had stopped being cover.

Noise shoved the shattered terminal into his coat.

"We're cut off!"

His other hand was already dropping to his belt.

A compact pulse carbine.

Tat-tat-tat!

Pulse rounds chewed up the floor in front of the Variant. The shots skipped off a heap of cables, scattering blue sparks, and the creature's arm jerked off course for a fraction of a second.

In that gap, the two wolf-types split left and right. They didn't push in deep. Even they knew that once those hands closed, there was no getting free.

I rode the floor.

The entrance Noise had mentioned was deeper inside the cargo bay. But every path that led straight there was already choked with Variants.

One of the long-armed ones vaulted over a cargo crate. Its fingers hung so low they scraped the ground, and every time it moved, the steel plating under them peeled away in curls.

I didn't need to kill it.

What I needed was a path.

My spiritual sense unfurled wide. The weight of the collapsed crates, the fuel pooling on the floor, the residual current still humming inside the cables, the staggered movements of the Variants—everything locked into place at once.

The long-armed Variant dropped down. The instant its path crossed the black-plated one's, I slid underneath them both.

CRACK!

An arm detonated the floor.

As I passed beneath, the tip of my tail clipped a ruptured battery pack.

ZZZT!

Blue fluid sprayed. Sparks erupted.

The long-armed Variant twisted. Its arm slammed into the chest of the black-plated one coming up behind it.

BOOM!

The two of them tangled together.

It wouldn't hold for long. But a path had opened.

Noise threw himself between the cargo crates first. Geomeunburi followed hard on his heels.

I checked behind me one last time, then folded my body in.

The gap between the cargo crates and the broken gun barrel closed in a blink. The next instant, my body was already behind the wrecked barrel. A Variant's hand raked the floor a beat too late—all it caught was the metal scrap where I had been.

A heavier sound rolled up from behind me.

THOOM.

The Knight-class was still blocking the front of the cargo bay.

It swung the blunt mass in its hand sideways. A tank wreck twisted. A barrel embedded in the floor snapped. Several drones got caught in the shockwave and tumbled, coughing sparks as they fell.

Standing in front of it was the leader of the Red Pine Association.

Alone.

Scattered around him were the remains of the Barrier Coalition forces—crushed tanks, half-melted drones, soldiers still sealed in their powered armor and pinned under the chassis.

And among all of that, only Kajin was still moving.

Even so, he was laughing.

Keh-keh.

A laugh that sounded like blood had lodged in his throat.

"Hey, Beak."

Geomeunburi's feet stopped for the barest fraction of a second.

Kajin jerked his chin toward the back of the cargo bay.

"Coming all the way under the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wall yourself. Dragging the beast cubs along for a little sightseeing, were you?"

"You've still got the breath to run your mouth, Kajin."

Kajin spat blood.

"I'll quiet down once I'm in a coffin."

He jerked his chin toward the cargo bay again.

"So. Under the purification filter. That the way?"

Noise's shoulders locked.

Just for an instant.

The corner of Kajin's mouth curled up.

"Guess I'm right."

Contempt settled in Geomeunburi's eyes.

"Playing dog for the District Government wasn't a total waste, then."

"Heh. If I'm gonna get called a bastard dog, I might as well earn my keep."

Kajin's split lip twisted.

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you? Cleaning up shit and piss in the animal pens."

One of the wolf-types beside them bared its teeth.

Geomeunburi didn't move.

Kajin saw that and laughed harder.

"What. I was treating you like a person—does that bother you?"

Geomeunburi looked at him.

"If you want to die, die alone."

"If I was gonna die alone, I'd have done it already."

The Knight-class turned again.

The thing in its hand rose through the smoke. If that came down inside the cargo bay, the entrance Noise had talked about wouldn't survive either.

Kajin tipped his head.

"That big bastard."

A blood-flecked breath slipped out like a laugh.

"Draw its eyes for a second."

Geomeunburi snorted.

"Get lost."

Kajin didn't answer.

He sidestepped.

The Knight-class's body turned with him. The heavy weapon tilted through the smoke, its tip swinging toward the back of the cargo bay.

Noise's face went rigid.

"If it hits that way, the entrance—"

Kajin laughed, wet and rough.

"See?"

Geomeunburi's mouth twisted.

"You son of a bitch."

He didn't ask anything else.

Snap.

His fingers flicked.

The black-plated Variant straightened again.

It was the one that had staggered back tangled with the other. One side of its chest was caved in, but it didn't stop. Behind it came the long-armed one and another with bone spikes rising from its shoulders.

All three charged us at once.

One wolf-type sprang left. It wasn't going for a bite—just skimmed the edge of their reach and made noise. In that opening, Noise brought the carbine up and snapped off a short burst.

The rounds grazed past the black plate's face, kicking sparks. The creature didn't stop, but its reaction faltered for a beat.

That single hitch was enough.

My spiritual sense locked onto all three movements at once. Inside the black plate, the response fired first. The long-armed one's force concentrated below the elbow. The bone-spiked one's waist folded first.

They looked like they were moving separately, but the instant they lunged, all of them were aimed at the same points.

A hand reaching for me.

An arm meant to tear Noise open.

A body pivoting toward Geomeunburi.

My Eye Art twisted those reactions.

They didn't stop. But where they looked and where they reached came apart. The black-plated Variant clutched empty air. The long-armed one raked the floor where I had already been. The bone-spiked one slammed into a cargo crate that had been standing right in front of it.

I folded my body through the gap between them.

I passed under the black-plated Variant's jaw and drove spirit force into the tip of a scale. My spiritual sense caught the black current running from the base of its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠throat down into its chest.

Spirit force punched straight through that core.

The black-plated Variant froze. Its body was still pitching forward, but everything inside had gone silent.

I was already under the second one.

The long arm came down late. Eye Art caught it again, and the arm scraped past my body by a hair. The floor split open—and I rode that crack, driving in under its waist.

A scale charged with spirit force stabbed into the folded joint from the inside.

Black fibers bunched like tendons snapped, and the core within them collapsed. The long-armed Variant buckled from the knees up.

The third one howled.

Bone spikes flared in every direction.

And between them, a short hole opened below its chest.

A human eye would have missed it.

Mine did not.

Gold light flickered for the briefest instant.

Eye Art locked onto its body. The Variant's howl cut off, and I slid into the opening.

Thuck.

The tip of my head, loaded with spirit force, passed below the chest and reached the core inside.

The bone spikes froze in midair.

The black-plated Variant pitched forward onto its face. The long-armed one scraped the floor in a crumpled heap. The bone-spiked one collapsed over a cargo crate with the underside of its chest caved in.

All three went down in no time at all.

Noise's carbine muzzle swung around a beat too late—there was nothing left to shoot. Geomeunburi's fingers stopped in empty air as well.

The Knight-class felt the gap first.

Its body turned.

That was enough.

Kajin's hand climbed to the base of his neck.

Beneath a black implant, an old terminal where flesh and metal met cracked open. Blood-slicked fingers pressed into the socket.

Zzt.

The black implant at his nape flickered once, short and sharp.

There was almost no sound—just a tiny burst of static, buried under the barrage and the scream of metal.

Kajin gritted his teeth and pushed his fingers deeper.

It was the moment the connection should have locked.

Under the tank wreck he had been leaning against, a plate of steel flipped over.

A Variant buried in the Barrier Coalition's remains unfolded its crumpled body. Half its torso was crushed, and broken saw-blade carapace jutted from what was left of it.

"Kajin."

The saw blades spread.

CRUNCH!

Kajin's side folded. Black serrations drove between the plates of his armor. They chewed down through the seam where flesh and metal met, and his body lurched sideways as blood sprayed from his mouth.

The light inside the nape implant went out.

The laugh wiped clean off Kajin's face.

He seized the Variant's throat with his mechanical arm and slammed it into the tank wreck. The metal plate dented inward, and the follow-through impact caved in the creature's head. Several of the saw blades snapped off inside his side.

Only then did the black fluid start to seep out.

The flesh around the wound stained fast. Black blotches spread through the red blood, crawling from his side up past the underside of his chest toward the implant at his nape.

Sparks burst from inside the mechanical arm. The black implant at his nape flickered wildly on its own, and the black stains spread under the skin.

Kajin didn't look at the wound.

He looked at us.

"What are you doing."

He swallowed blood.

"If you're going, then go."

Noise pressed in toward Geomeunburi.

"Boss, we need to get out now."

Geomeunburi didn't hesitate. His body turned deeper into the cargo bay, and the two wolf-types dropped low and pulled back after him.

He didn't look toward Kajin again.

Geomeunburi's back receded a little farther through the barrage.

That was when Kajin laughed.

Krrk.

Boiling blood flipped over once in his throat.

"Geomeunburi."

Geomeunburi stopped. He didn't turn around.

"What."

"You hate this place, don't you."

Kajin spat blood.

"I was born here. I got old here."

He turned his body toward the Knight-class. Black blood running from his side slid down his thigh and hit the floor. The implant at his nape blinked like a broken marker light, and one leg had already lost its rhythm.

Even so, Kajin did not fall.

"So."

He took a step.

The broken floor of the lower wall groaned low under his blood-slicked feet.

"I can't step aside."

Geomeunburi's mouth twisted.

"Senile bastard."

Kajin grinned.

His split lip pulled open, showing bloodstained teeth. And with that grin, his back and the insides of his arms peeled open.

Old armor plates flared apart and red heat bled out. The blue lights studded along his spine snuffed out one by one, then hammered back on in a frenzy. Between flesh blackened by infection and the machine parts nested in it, the last of his output was being wrenched free by force.

The Knight-class's heavy weapon came down.

Kajin didn't dodge.

He had never looked like he meant to.

He stomped onto a tank wreck and threw himself over a crumpled gun barrel. One leg failed to follow, and black blood sprayed from his side. Even so, the implant at his nape tore free of the flesh and surged, hauling that body one last step forward.

He drove into the place he had been hammering at until now.

Under the armor where the chest plates had split open.

Between scorched meat and metal plating.

Kajin's long weapon buried itself there.

KRRAAAK-KAK-KAK!

For the first time, the Knight-class's body heaved hard. The weapon in its hand failed to plant cleanly and skidded sideways, and a stack of cargo crates detonated in a fountain of sparks.

Kajin bared his teeth.

"Right here."

The devices in his back, his arms, and along his spine all opened at once.

Noise sucked in a breath.

"Self-destruct—!"

Geomeunburi spat it short.

"Down."

Light erupted.

KRAAAAAAANG!

The blast shook the entire cargo bay. An overturned transport hauler slammed onto its side. Drone wreckage rode the fire ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠upward. White-hot metal fragments sprayed in every direction.

I flattened myself to the floor. Spirit force spread thin along my scales, and a few shards scraped past my body. The stink of burnt blood and molten metal hit me all at once.

The smoke cleared.

The Knight-class still looked largely intact.

The armor under its chest had split open, and one knee had dropped a little. That was all. The weapon in its hand wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠broken. It paused for a moment, but it showed no sign of going down.

Kajin was gone.

Only scorched armor fragments and implant shards with the blue light dead in them lay scattered across the floor. Black blood boiled and spread, then dried into something like ash.

Noise bit down on his lip.

"Even after that…"

Before he could finish, a collapsing sound rolled out from deeper in the cargo bay.

KRRRUM.

Noise whipped his head around.

"The entrance!"

The structure blocking the path into the cargo bay—the one that was supposed to lead under the purification filter—was coming down. Whether it was Kajin's blast, a wild swing from the Knight-class, or the lower wall itself finally giving out, there was no way to tell.

The path was sealed.

A crack remained, but it was barely wide enough to shove a single person through. And behind us, the Variants were rising again.

Fresh ones climbed the wreckage.

From the top of the wall, black shapes kept falling.

THUMP.

THUMP-THUMP.

Noise reset his grip on the carbine. His hand brushed the wrist launcher, but he had only one round left.

He clenched his teeth and raised the carbine again.

"Boss, the rear's blocked too."

Geomeunburi looked at the Knight-class.

The opening Kajin had carved was already closing. The Knight-class was slowly straightening, and the black mass of flesh under its split armor writhed as if knitting itself back together. The knee that had dropped was rising, inch by inch.

The heavy weapon scraped across the floor.

Screeeeee.

The metal scream stretched long.

The entrance was blocked.

Behind them, Variants were climbing the wreckage.

Ahead stood the Knight-class.

There was no room left to weigh a retreat.

My spiritual sense swept the Knight-class's body.

Under the front armor, the tremor left by the explosion still hadn't settled. The black mass of flesh writhed, trying to close the gap, but it hadn't sealed completely.

Calling it a weak point was a stretch. But an opening had appeared.

I lowered my body and layered spirit force thin over my scales. While the Knight-class's heavy weapon rose, I drove my senses into the split from the inside.

As Eye Art locked on, heat flared behind my eyes.

Inside the gold light, a serpent biting its own tail began to turn, slow and deliberate.