Nera's blade sliced through a creature.

  A piercing screech punctuating the thick fog.

  Karauro’s signals flickered across her helmet's HUD.

  “Aaron, they’re pulling back. I’m going after our mutt,” Nera said, forcing herself to stay steady.

  Aaron jumped into the Hauler, with Roy and Riven.

  He pulled in beside her.

  “Not alone. We're coming to protect him this time,” he stated firmly.

  The fog peeled off the Hauler.

  Blasting outward.

  Sections of ruined structure shattered from above.

  Nera looked up and caught two figures tearing across the rooftops.

  Forcing Aaron to make sharp turn beneath falling debris.

  "What the hell?" Aaron whispered.

  Buildings crumbled, clouds of dust billowed outward.

  Ruined Jackals had already driven their hauler towards where Noose’s ping had stayed.

  Nera zoomed in with her cyber-optic and saw the two figures slamming through the ruins.

  Her eyes widened.

  Aaron caught the look on her face.

  “Don’t tell…” he muttered.

  “Yea, he’s fighting Hollow-Shade,” She said while clenching her fist tightly.

  ---

  Noose pushed herself up through the pain.

  Fey’s voice crackled over comms. “We’re nearing your position. Why are there Onyx signals here?”

  “They’re fake,” Noose said. “Monarch is copying ours. Most of our people are still with Spine.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  She looked up at the two beasts tearing into each other overhead.

  The fumed beast seized Hollow's head and smashed it into the walls several times.

  Hollow lashed out with tendrils again, trying to spear into him.

  The beast slipped past it, seized Hollow again, and dragged him toward a window before kicking him in the face.

  Fog dispersed away from the impact.

  Pike hauled Noose up and pulled her away from the building.

  “Why not activate the dampener?” he asked.

  “Because that's precisely what Monarch expects,” she responded.

  “And with Hollow here, this isn’t just a capture.”

  Her gaze caught the Fumed beast entangled in numerous tendrils, launched high into the air.

  More black-armored soldiers began firing at Noose and Pike.

  She raised her rifle just as Hollow-Shade crashed down in front of them.

  The fumed beasts landed on him, flinging Hollow into the soldiers.

  Multiple sniper shots rang out, striking the Fumed-Beast.

  Serum-filled tubes injected into it.

  The creature shook, growling, then fired Ichor spikes into the snipers' skulls.

  Its form began to revert. Claws trembled, bones snapping back into human shape.

  Karauro dropped to his knees, gasping.

  The creature loomed over him and bit into the seam of his shoulder.

  Then it dissolved.

  “Ciro, fall back!,” Noose shouted.

  Hollow emerged from the alley, absorbing the bodies of the black soldiers.

  Bones snapped into his Ichor as they screamed.

  Karauro stood, halo eyes burning orange, helmet off.

  He glanced at Noose and Pike as the Ruined Jackals closed in behind them, then fixed his eyes back on Hollow-Shade.

  “It’s no wonder Monarch fears you, the defective one,” Hollow stated, then lunged.

  Noose gritted her teeth and fired her rifle at Hollow, halting his attack.

  She kept firing as she moved to Karauro’s side.

  Her rifle clicked—empty.

  Karauro quickly grabbed Noose's hand, pulling her close as her rifle dangled by the strap.

  He shot a wire onto a rusted car and propelled himself with boot thrusters.

  Purple Ichor pillars erupted from where they stood.

  "You're crazy, you know that?" he growled.

  "We're a team, remember!" she shouted back.

  "I know. That’s why I don’t want you getting hurt because of me," he snapped back.

  Noose gripped him tightly.

  "You can’t keep pushing everyone away—"

  Suddenly, she felt his movement slow drastically.

  He shoved her away, releasing a pulse burst that sent her flying into Fey and Crowe, who were engaged with other soldiers.

  A massive wall of hardened Ichor rose from where he stood.

  He dodged, then saw something erupting beneath Noose and her squad.

  Karauro did what he always did—he moved toward them.

  His tendrils formed a dome over them, and hardened.

  Noose saw a smile on his face behind the wide tendrils.

  ---

  Nera faced the creatures once more with unit 7.

  "Didn't these assholes retreat?" Roy yelled, firing the turret at a swarm of hollows.

  "Feels like an ambush!" Aaron responded over comms.

  Nera caught static on her comms.

  Noose’s voice broke through the static. “Need backup... static... KARAURO.”

  A jolt went through her.

  Nera fired her wire snare into a building as the Hauler dragged under the creatures’ weight.

  "Nera, go!" Aaron shouted, firing his rifle with Riven into the crowd.

  She nodded, retracted the wire, and launched onto the rooftops.

  Nera kept moving.

  Noose’s voice, shouting Karauro, echoed in her mind.

  ---

  Nera noticed Noose's ping getting closer.

  She leaped down, letting her boot thrusters bleed off the drop.

  Noose was attempting to break off the ichor spikes from where Karauro was impaled.

  He coughed up blood.

  Nera’s eyes widened as heat surged beneath her skin.

  She charged at Hollow, who tilted his head in her direction.

  Her blade ignited with thermal violet energy, and her boots surged forward.

  Hollow swung his ichor blades, but her assault drove him back.

  Filled with fury, she didn’t let him recover.

  Her elbows slammed into his jaw, followed by a downward slice from her blade.

  He swung again, but her cyber-arm caught the blow.

  Nera channeled her weight into an elbow strike, pushing Hollow back.

  He staggered, wrapping his tendrils around her leg and body before flinging her away.

  Nera caught herself with her wire snare and landed on her feet.

  The ichor pillar collapsed.

  Noose tried to rise, pain ripping through her ribs, and Pike pulled her up.

  Nera sprinted towards Karauro, who had fallen from the pillars into her arms.

  Noose slid beside Nera.

  Hollow stood still for a beat, almost thinking.

  Then he charged.

  Another large figure collided with Hollow, pushing him back.

  "Wraith? Why are you here?" Fey exclaimed.

  “Verran’s orders. I was occupied,” Wraith’s raspy voice replied.

  He looked toward Nera and Noose, where Karauro struggled to breathe.

  A large gash leaked blood from his chest.

  "Fuck...so I couldn't even keep this?" Karauro muttered as his hands slid onto Nera's cheeks..

  "Move him now," Wraith insisted.

  They stayed still.

  Wraith lo oked ready to yell, but held himself back.

  Karauro's hand dropped, Nera grabbed it, blood seeping onto her palm.