Footsteps thundered into the botanical garden as the Enforcers swarmed in and spread out from three dires with ons raised. As the first few entered, fres illumihe luscious greenery with an ominous red haze from the pollen.

  Orion held his breath behind a bush, praying their goggles wouldn't help them see through the dense fog of pollen as easily as the usual Uy smog. Within a split sed of thinking that, Orion watched a thug burst forth from the foliage, howling with rage as his bde tore an Enforcer's leg off.

  "AAAA" The Enforcer colpsed, screaming and dropping his on in agony. The thug raised his bde to finish him but was struck down with a shot to the chest, colpsing with a gurgling cry.

  The battle erupted into chaos. Blood-curdling screams and shouts filled the air. Enforcers left behind at eatrance picked off several charging thugs, but the pollen's haze turhe fight into a deadly, disorienting mess.

  Orion infused himself with offensive magic, darting toward the Enforcer with enhanced speed. The Enforcer, catg the movement, tried to whip his gun around but Orion's strike ected first, shattering his mask and sending him flying several feet back to the ground.

  eling the magic to his legs, Orion sprinted bato the shadows to evade as several Enforcers immediately turned and fired on the bush he just left.

  Orion gnced back at the man he'd struck, pretty sure he didn't hit him hard enough to kill him. The Enforcer was writhing on the ground coughing and spluttering, g at his throat as the pollen visibly g to him aered his mask, intensifying his agony.

  Fog on speed, Orion sprinted up the side of one of the prees and unched himself toward an Enfuarding a side exit.

  The gss ceiling shattered above, light refrag off the Enfoggles, giving him away as he rotated and fired. The bullet pierced Orion's shoulder, but he gritted through the pain, maintaining his el as his fist collided with the Enforcer's chest.

  "AGH-" The Enfasped, the sound of a chest bone snapping as he smmed against the er wall jutting out and colpsed.

  Clutg his shoulder, Orion stifled the desire to shout in pain as he resumed moving. His gaze darted to the Kirammans, his angle of movement starting to rotate toward them.

  Rustle-RIP

  a sprang from the shadows, a slender bde ripping up Orion's chest and sending him stumbling backward to the ground.

  "A traitor, just like Vander," she sneered.

  Her fingers wiped the blood from her bde before lunging again. Orion kicked out desperately, nding squarely in her chest and sending her flying bato a tree.

  Intense pain shot through Orion's leg however as her bde embedded itself into his thigh, severing his magic el with equally agonizing sharp pain rippling through his body. "AGH!" Orion's cry blended into the thick gunfire and screams.

  Somehow she was already rec when Orion lifted his head, hands clutg at his wound. Sparks of white dotted his vision through searing pain as he took out his gun, aiming it at her.

  a, coughing and wheezing in pain as she struggled halfway to her feet, returned his gaze too te.

  BANG

  Her blood sprayed across the tree before her body smmed against it again, colpsing lifelessly to the ground.

  Orion immediately sed his surroundings, adrenaline barely holding him together as he stashed his on. The Kirammans were less than teers away as he dragged himself into a nearby bush for cover.

  Orion wheezed and tried to steady his breath, gripping the short bde stig out of his thigh before ripping it out with a pained gasp. Blood sprayed, dotting the foliage around as the gunfire in the background became less frequent.

  'Fuck, I o get out of here.' Orion cursed, eling light-green healing magito his leg. His chest burned, his wounded shoulder hung limp, and his limbs felt shredded from extended use of magic- pain amplified by a severing his e.

  The vents, still hissing aing pollen, were starting to quiet. Through the thick haze, Orion spotted a dder on the innermost wall, away from the fighting. It was now or never as his exhausted figure broke into a weak jog.

  Orion's legs and arms felt like someoook scissors to them, his muscles screaming in pain. His vision blurred, the haze of pain and fatigue weighing him down. Even so, he forced himself forward, his stumbling jing him closer to the dder.

  He couldn't move much faster. His legs- especially his retly wounded oruggled with sharp, shooting pains. It was closer to Fiddlesticks, or an old man with bad joints trying to move.

  His saving grace was the pollen. While the gunshots had faded, the thick fog still g to the first three meters of the botanical garden, obsg him from view. The top half of the garden had cleared, blown out with the pressure release.

  Reag the rooftop, Orion groaned and hoisted himself up, every act of sheer willpower. Keeping himself as loossible, he tio crawl toward the htly packed rear buildings.

  Once far enough from the Cultivar, he colpsed fully onto his stomach befng back.

  "Fuck," Orion cursed aloud, his heart sinking as he realized his wounds left a blood trail. g his teeth, he climbed back to his feet and resumed taking agonizing half-steps forward.

  "What a fug day," Orion grumbled bitterly, limping back to his home instead of heading topside.