— Watedia, Ranth 13, 8054 —

“RAAGH! GET BACK HERE, WILLTHIEF!!”

Strén roared in fury as he grabbed a massive chunk of Tresnon’s ruined eastern wall, hefting it into the air in preparation to hurl it at Ralak — only for a streak of silver light to suddenly shatter the rocky chunk to pieces. In the sky above, Twy drew back the string of her bow again, creating an arrow of silver light that she aimed directly at Strén — only to stumble as she felt something hit her in the back. Quickly, she turned around, just in time for a second projectile of reddish energy to slam into the shielding protecting her face. The bright golden light blinded her for a second, and by the time she could see again, the deranged visage of Feral met her eyes as the Chaostechnic flew through the air and latched onto Twy.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!” Feral cackled as she drew her clawed right hand back. “Time to see how an Earthian squeals~!”

“SIS!!”

A searing blast of flame rolled across Feral and Twy, brightly lighting up both of their shields and vaporising the bubble of water that Twy had been using to hold herself aloft. As she began to fall to the ground, Feral leaped off of her, allowing Twy to quickly create another bubble of water to keep herself in the air — just as Feral shouted out, “Chaos Explosion!” A burst of Chaos Energy detonated right under the Bleeder’s feet, launching her high into the sky; Twy quickly readied her bow and began shooting at her while Sky blasted upwards to try and catch her, all while Feral rained down Chaos Cannon shots on the two twins while using bursts of Chaos Explosion to keep herself in the air—

“Overdrive: BARBARIAN’S ROAR! RAAAAAGGH!!”

“What the—?” Twy and Sky both looked back to Strén in surprise — only for their hearing to cut out a second later, replaced by a shrill ring. In that moment, both of them froze, raw fear taking hold of their bodies and breaking the concentration required to keep themselves in the air.

“Shit…!” Gavon scowled as he watched Twy and Sky fall to the streets, and Feral dive after them. He quickly whipped around and fired his laser sniper at the Chaostechnic, successfully launching her away from the twins before returning his attention to Strén — who had just activated his Overdrive and was now on a warpath through Tresnon, using his superstrength and Geotechnism alike to tear into the surrounding buildings and hurl the debris at Ralak. Even she’s affected, Gavon thought to himself, noting how Ralak’s movements had grown significantly more conservative after Strén’s roar — though not quite enough to stop her from dodging his attacks.

Gavon then turned his attention back to Strén, where he coolly and calmly took aim and fired his gun several times. Blasts of energy exploded across Strén’s shields, drawing his attention up to Gavon, who offered a cheeky wave. “You should pick on someone your own size!” he shouted down. “…Which would preferably mean you leaving the Compound, thanks!”

“You…!” Strén stared up at Gavon in confusion, only to take a deep breath and release another bellowing roar. “RAAAAAAAGGGHH!!!” His shout echoed through the streets of Tresnon, momentarily immobilizing Ralak and again freezing Twy and Sky in their spots… but Gavon kept his gun focused on Strén, taking note of the subtitled roar that appeared on his AR Heads-Up Display — yet failed to reach his ears.

I knew it. Cybernetics are the key! Gavon thought to himself as he continued taking shots at Strén — who at that point had clearly grown frustrated with Gavon’s apparent immunity to the deafening and fear-inducing effects of the Bleeder’s roars. Cut my hearing, but let the cochlear implants translate all sounds into subtitles on my HUD. Now I still know what’s going on, without any sounds getting past my ears! Gavon fired twice more at Strén before glancing to the side, where he noticed Feral ruthlessly tearing into the shields of Twy and Sky. I wondered if Strén’s allies would have similar tech to render them immune to Strén’s roar — that seems now to be the case. I bet they didn’t count on running into someone else with that same tech… which also means they didn’t count on running into someone who knows the weaknesses of the SFC’s inferior cybernetics! But first—!

Gavon quickly returned his thoughts to Strén, just as the Bleeder threw a massive boulder at him. A mere 5Gs of downward force would do little to stop a boulder thrown by a Forectechnic, so Gavon instead prepared to shoot the boulder to pieces — just as Ralak flew up to it and slapped it with her hand, taking control of the boulder in that moment. Gavon offered her a quick nod, only to begin falling away from the battle with his gravity manipulation. Sorry, Ralak — I’ll have to leave Strén to you, for a second! He then whirled around, bringing his gun to bear and aiming at Feral… at which point he intentionally fired his laser sniper at the street beyond the Bleeder, blasting the dirt with a burst of energy. As soon as the burst hit, Feral snapped her attention to the laser burst, and then immediately whipped around to spot Gavon — just quickly enough to dive out of the way of his next laser shot.

…Or no weaknesses, Gavon mused, his brow knitting in irritation as he lined up another shot. You know, I was sure that the SFC version of the sound-to-text program didn’t have directional indicators, but I suppose they’re more on top of cybernetics than I thought! Either way—! Gavon braced himself as the words “Chaos Explosion” appeared on his HUD and the air exploded beneath him, launching him further skywards. A second explosion launched Feral straight at Gavon, only for him to whip his laser sniper around at just the right timing to smack Feral out of the air. As she tumbled to the ground, he levitated in the air and fired upon her twice, lighting up her shields with bursts of energy that sent her rolling through the streets.

Gavon then fired once more before diving back down below the building tops, hoping to keep Feral in the dark about his location as he ran over to Twy and Sky. The twins remained on the ground, still shocked and stunned after Strén’s roar and Feral’s assault — but importantly, both of their shields were still intact. On noting this, Gavon quickly knelt next to them and placed a hand on each of their shoulders to draw their attention. But as he did, both twins jumped in surprise, with Sky summoning flames to her hands and Twy reflexively aiming her bow at Gavon. As soon as they realized who they were looking at, however, they tentatively lowered their guards, allowing Gavon to move close again. …I’d heard from Colonel Saito and Luke about the fear-inducing effects of Strén’s Overdrive, Gavon mused as he looked between the twins. …If it was enough to instill fear in even a hardened officer like Saito, or a former Bleeder like Ralak, then I can scarcely imagine what the twins are feeling right now. He then gestured into the distance, nodding in the direction of his finger in an effort to tell the twins to flee. They can’t hear me, and we don’t have time for me to write a message. Hopefully, this will do the trick—!

Interrupting his thoughts was another explosion, followed almost immediately by a massive boulder falling through the sky. Gavon quickly reversed gravity on the boulder to stop its fall, and then altered his own gravity to zip through the air and away from the twins — right as Feral leaped onto him and latched onto his back. Immediately, she began raking his face with her Chaos Claws while Gavon attempted to shake her off, only for Strén to bound onto the scene and slam his fist into Gavon’s chest. The force of the blow sent both Gavon and Feral rocketing through the air, where they slammed into part of Tresnon’s outer walls. “Ngh—!” Gavon grunted in pain, but didn’t let the hit stop him as he brought his left hand up to Feral’s face and blasted her with a small laser cannon mounted into his palm. The blow momentarily stunned Feral, allowing Gavon to alter gravity to drift away from the wall, and then slam back into the wall at 4Gs of force, all while bringing his laser sniper to bear and firing on Strén — who had leaped right at him. In the same second, Strén was knocked to the ground by the blast from Gavon’s laser sniper, while he also slammed into the wall to stun Feral again and dislodge her from his back.

Immediately, Gavon took to the skies, seeking to make some distance between himself and the Bleeders. A second later, a caption appeared on his HUD, pointing behind him and reading out as a drawn-out “Chaos…!” Shit, she’s going to—! Gavon scowled and whipped around towards Feral, trying to bring his gun to bare before she could finish her invocation… but he was beat to the punch by a silver streak of light, striking Feral square in her chest and knocking her over. Flames promptly bathed the Bleeder, licking away at her energy shields as she jumped back to her feet and turned to glare at Twy and Sky. It would figure that they didn’t get the message, Gavon thought bitterly, firing his laser twice at Feral to floor her once more before turning back to the twins — just in time to see Strén bounding towards them. Gavon quickly took aim at Strén, but a pillar of rock exploded out of the ground to block his shot just as he fired. “Damn…!” Gavon then flew up into the air, exceeding the height of the rock pillar to take aim at Strén again, hoping to stop the Bleeder from bringing his wrath down on the twins…

…Only to find that Strén had suddenly frozen in place, his hands raised over his head in preparation to bring them down on Sky and Twy.

“Ngh…! RRrrggh…!!” Strén growled, fury stretched across his face as his body failed to follow his commands, allowing the twins to scurry away. “…Willthief…!!”

“You really… don’t know how I got that name…” Ralak remarked, standing just off to the side of Strén — her body trembling from a combination of combat injuries and the induced fear from Strén’s earlier roars, yet her expression defiant. “…My will isn’t ‘strong’. Not compared to people like you. But my control… it lingers, longer than most Imperators. And when my target stops watchin’ me, when they lose focus… that’s when I strike. That’s when I take their will. Just one touch, lasts for hours. One touch… is all I need.”

“Way to go, Ralak…” Gavon muttered to himself, smirking as he eyed Strén — only to turn his attention to the side, where Sky and Twy were attempting to hold Feral back with their flames and water. But Feral’s energy shielding allowed her to ignore the hostile elements surrounding her as she raised her hand toward Ralak, a look of deranged fury on her face. Gavon made to warn Ralak, only to recall that she was almost certainly still deaf — and that she also had no shielding of her own.

“Chaos…!”

“Shit—!” Immediately, Gavon dove to the ground, using his gravity powers to descend to Ralak’s side almost instantly — just in time to block the Cannon shot that Feral launched their way. His quick movements enabled him to protect Ralak, but the force of the blow still knocked him backwards into Ralak, sending both of them tumbling to the ground.

“HuuuRRRAAAGGH!!!”

With a thundering roar, Strén charged forward, suddenly breaking free of Ralak’s control. Within a second, he was upon Ralak and Gavon; the latter quickly dodged the Bleeder’s incoming hands, but Ralak wasn’t able to recover as quickly, and soon found herself in Strén’s grasp. Immediately, Strén put Ralak into a chokehold, while simultaneously holding her right in between him and Gavon — who had already brought his laser sniper to bear.

“Drop that gun, or she dies!” Strén shouted.

“…Tch…!” Gavon snorted in irritation, still holding the gun toward Strén. …My Gravitatechnism isn’t working on him. He must have a CENT field generator amongst all of his cybernetics… that would explain how he broke through Ralak’s control, too. And I haven’t seen his shields drop yet, either. So a kill-shot is out of the question… wait. Now that I think about it… His eyes flicked to the side, watching as Sky and Twy continued trying to fend off Feral — though the Bleeder Chaostechnic clearly had the twins on the back foot. …By all the reports I’ve heard, isn’t there usually a third person with Strén and Feral? A Visitechnic, calling herself Shade? But there’s been no sign of her at all during this fight. Is she somewhere else? And if so, where…?

Surreptitiously, and without moving a single part of his body, Gavon made use of his AR cybernetics to send a quick message to Selind, making note of the current situation and his observations. He then finally tossed his gun away, turning his attention back to Strén — and to Ralak, who was ineffectively struggling against Strén’s chokehold. Even with his Forcetechnism suppressed by his CENT field, Strén’s raw strength and cybernetic augments were more than enough to hold Ralak in place. “…What do you want?” Gavon questioned. “And make it fast.”

“Hmph…” Strén scowled as he glared at Gavon. “So you really can hear me? It’s that Black Suns tech, ain’t it?”

‘Black Suns tech’, he calls it… Gavon mused, and then replied, “surprisingly astute observation.”

“The hell is a Sun even doin’ here, huh? Gettin’ in the way of this raid?”

Gavon eyed Strén cautiously. “…Was I not supposed to?”

Strén returned the glare, only to grunt. “…It don’t matter. Fuck, can’t believe I actually had to use the damn CENT field… but, ultimately, I came here for one reason: to kill the Sentry.”

“Moving the goalposts, already?” Gavon retorted. “Were you truly so intimidated by fighting a competent opponent?”

In response to Gavon’s jab, Strén tightened his hold on Ralak’s neck, forcing her to gag and choke.

“Alright, alright…” Gavon quickly acquiesced. “But if you want to know where Davídrius is, then I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

“You’re lyin’,” Strén insisted.

“I’m not. Remember, I’m an outsider, here — Davídrius barely ever keeps me apprised of his activities,” Gavon replied. “I have no idea where he is, amongst all the fighting.”

Strén responded with silence, instead staring at Gavon, as if attempting to discern the truth of his words. Ralak and I must have really spooked him, for him to suddenly behave so cautiously. Well, all the more likely that he’ll fall for my bluff, Gavon mused, his eyes focused steadily on Strén — all while watching Feral in his peripheral vision. She, Sky, and Twy were fighting behind Strén, so Gavon was able to aid the twins by remotely altering Feral’s gravity without Strén noticing. As he did so, however, his gaze eventually dropped to Ralak, briefly meeting eyes with her. In that moment of eye contact, Ralak mouthed out something:

“Go! Leave me!”

…Prioritizing the students over herself, huh…? Gavon mused, but further thoughts were cut short as Strén spoke again.

“…Fine. I’ll believe you… for now,” Strén growled. “But I’m leavin’, now, to go find the Sentry on my own. And I’m takin’ the Willthief here with me.”

“You should hurry up, then,” Gavon responded. “Davídrius is a Velocitechnic, after all. They tend to be quite impatient.”

“Ha!” Strén chuckled, at which point he began walking forward and past Gavon — stopping for just a second to crush Gavon’s laser sniper underfoot, utilizing the strength in his cybernetic legs. He then glanced toward Feral, shouting, “Feral! The rest is up to you!”

“My pleasure!!” Feral shouted back, in between wild swings of her claws at Sky.

“Then I’m gone,” Strén declared, watching Gavon as he left. “And you better not follow me, or the Willthief dies!”

“As if that wasn’t clear enough…” Gavon muttered, eying Strén for a brief moment, contemplating whether or not to tail the Bleeder. He then looked down at his broken gun — the second one, today — and then back at the twins, who remained on the defensive against Feral. “…Damn it…” he muttered, and then activated his comms as he dashed toward the remaining Bleeder. “Gavon to Selind! Strén has Ralak as his hostage, and he’s looking for Davídrius! Watch out for that! Now, I need to get back to fighting!”

And with that, he dove into combat with the Bleeder Chaostechnic, hoping that the Tresédians could handle Strén while he focused on locking down Feral.

---

*

“A’ight, we’re here.”

“A fourth one…” Austin muttered as he and Spike entered a building in the northern area of Tresnon. Inside was a windowless interior, not unlike a large garage, containing the battered and fried remains of one of the Compound’s shield generators. “…I didn’t think Tresnon had so many generators…”

“It’s supposed to all be part of a big array, right?” Spike said as he approached the fried generator to begin removing the scrap. “Six generators all workin’ together to make one shield, or somethin’…”

“Can you actually recreate that with your powers?”

“I can try.”

“Guess that’s as good as we’ve got…” Austin responded uneasily. He warily glanced back at the closed door that served as the entrance; outside was the continued battle that raged in Tresnon, even as the afternoon was waning. Spike and Austin had been busy for the past while with replacing Tresnon’s fried generators, having now replaced three of them — but none of them were active, yet. By Selind’s suggestion, Austin and Spike were waiting to activate the generators until they could all be activated at once, so as to stop the Bleeders from catching on until it was too late. But that also meant that the Defense Force was continuing to fight under the knowledge that Bleeder or SFC reinforcements were still a possibility. Judging from what Austin could see while moving through the city, the Defense Force seemed to have established a defensive line a few blocks back from Market Street… but reports also claimed that Strén, Feral, and Shade were still at large. In the face of that, how long the Defense Force could hold out remained an open question.

“…Alright,” Spike said, wiping his hands as he looked to the side, where he had piled the remains of the old generator. In its place was now mostly empty space. “…Time to make another one.”

Austin watched as Spike steadily planted his feet and held his open hands out towards the open space. “…I can still barely believe this actually works,” Austin remarked. “You making these massive shield generators, that is.”

“I’m not sure I believe it, either…” Spike muttered, his back to Austin as he focused on fabricating a shield generator. “…It takes a lot of effort to make somethin’ this big, and I don’t even know how strong the shields are. Hell, we ain’t even tried turnin’ ‘em on yet, so we don’t even know if they work!”

“Well… here’s hoping, right?”

“Here’s hopin’…”

Austin eyed Spike uneasily, the latter still concentrating. With nothing to do, himself, Austin found himself fidgeting and glancing around, anxious about the situation in Tresnon. The Bleeders ACTUALLY attacked… I can’t believe it, he thought to himself. …Well, I mean, they attacked a couple months ago, too. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But they also have a PMC with them? What the hell is that… about… wait…! As Austin’s eyes roamed about the room, they eventually returned to the door — which had just silently closed. …We didn’t leave that open, did we—?

A flash of light interrupted Austin’s thoughts as a blast of energy exploded in his face, knocking him to the ground. Golden light intercepted the energy, thereby protecting Austin’s face — but the light still effectively blinded him to whatever had just hit him. “Spike!” he shouted out, “someone’s here!!”

“What—?” Spike questioned, already turning around — only for another blast of energy to hit him in the chest. Caught off-guard, he was unable to brace himself and was knocked partially off-balance… though he quickly stomped his foot to recover, at which point he fabricated a physical shield in his hands and chucked it at the room’s door to jam it shut.

“What the…?” Austin looked at the door in confusion as he scrambled back to his feet. “What’re you locking us in for?!”

“Look around…” Spike replied, his hands held out in a defensive posture as he scanned the room. “…Whoever attacked us is invisible. Without blockin’ the door, they could slip out without us knowin’.”

“Well, well, well… aren’t you fast on the take?”

“What the?!” Austin looked around frantically, in an effort to locate the disembodied female voice that just spoke. “Where are you? …And why does your voice sound so familiar—ack!”

Another blast of light exploded across Austin’s face, knocking him to the ground again — but Spike immediately responded, taking note of what angle Austin had been hit at and rapidly fabricating and throwing shields to try and hit anything standing in that line. In the midst of a throw, a blast of energy hit him in the face, conjuring up his energy shielding to protect — and blind — him. But Spike was prepared this time, and remained on-balance to turn and chuck his last shield in the general direction of the laser blast… where the shield suddenly deflected off of seemingly nothing.

“There—!” Austin shouted, jumping forward to try and grab the invisible individual. Thanks to his Simulator powers, he was able to borrow Spike’s strength to rapidly close the gap — but he stumbled on the landing, and another blast of energy to his arms ensured that he fell on his back again. With that said— “they’re here!” Austin shouted out, “I felt ‘em!”

“Got it!” Spike responded, already mid-lunge towards Austin’s location, all while fabricating two shields into hand and then throwing them left and right of Austin, with the aim of keeping the invisible attacker in place. When neither shield deflected off of anything, Spike assumed that their assailant had remained in place, and quickly made to close his arms around them. For a moment, he could feel his hands brush by something, only for another blast of energy to knock him back… followed by a yelp, and a shout from Austin.

“Got ‘em! …I think!” Austin shouted.

“Good…!” Spike responded, only to trail off as he realized that Austin had disappeared. “…Wait… where the hell did you go?”

“Oh… sorry,” Austin apologized, at which point he suddenly became visible just in front of Spike, with his arms held out in front of him as though he were tightly hugging an invisible object. “Whoever attacked us, they’re right here!”

“Tch… it seems I played around too much.”

“Hmph…” Spike crossed his arms as he looked down — down at the woman who had just become visible, still trapped in Austin’s grasp. Her entire body was draped in white robing, including an oversized hood that obscured the top half of her face. “…Wait,” Spike muttered, his eyes widening in recognition. “You’re the Bleeder that attacked us on Nayasis!”

“Wait, really?” Austin questioned incredulously. “You mean… this is Shade?!”

“Marvelous deductive reasoning,” Shade replayed coyly. “…And I’ll grant that the two of you are more competent than I expected. But I’m afraid that our encounter will have to end here.”

“Huh—?” Austin began to question, only for Shade to suddenly overpower his hold. “What the—? A CENT field?!” he began to splutter, all while Spike quickly moved to try and restrain Shade on his own — but the Bleeder quickly thrust out her hands, one towards Austin and one towards Spike, revealing the small laser cannons embedded in her palms as she fired at each of their faces. Golden shielding protected Austin and Spike both from harm… but it also obscured their vision for just a second. By the time that second had passed, Shade was gone again — and the sound of a laser blast blowing open the door heralded her swift exit.

“Fuck, she got away…” Spike growled.

“A CENT field, and palm-mounted lasers…” Austin muttered. “How the hell do the Bleeders have all of these cybernetics? …And where can I get them?!”

“This ain’t the time to be worried about that,” Spike countered. “More importantly, we just learned that Shade was followin’ us!”

“…Oh, fuck… do you think she knows that we’re re-making the generators?”

“We gotta assume that she does…”

“Shit. Doesn’t that ruin the whole plan, then? Since she can just go and destroy the generators after we make them?”

“Yeah…” Spike muttered, only to turn his attention back to the rest of the room, which had yet to be filled with another generator. “…But the Defense Force set up a defensive line, right? And they’re holdin’?”

“I mean, for now, yeah…” Austin replied. “…What, do you think our plan is still viable?”

“Maybe. Shade’s probably the only attacker who can move around the city unnoticed, which means that the Bleeders only got one person to sabotage our shields. And she can’t exactly move fast.”

“Oh, I see… so, basically, you wanna try making generators faster than she can sabotage them?”

“It’s kind of a crap idea, but do you got a better one?”

“…Not really…” Austin muttered. “…So this is the rest of our day, then, huh? Oof.”

“Well we gotta stop reinforcements somehow,” Spike replied as he returned to the center of the room, preparing again to fabricate a replacement shield generator. “Keep watch over the door. Make sure no one else comes through.”

“Ah ha ha… right…” Austin responded with an uneasy laugh as he turned back to watch the door, preparing himself for a race against time.

---

*

“I already told you — you can’t be involvin’ yourselves!”

“Why the hell not? The whole Compound’s under attack, and you want us to just stand here and do nothin’?!”

“Damn right I do,” Davídrius insisted, his brow furrowed in frustration as he looked over the WCU students gathered around him. Late afternoon sunlight shone through the windows of WCU’s classroom building, but Davídrius ignored the long shadows as he continued, “y’all ain’t been in a real fight, before. That makes you dead weight! Worse than dead weight, even!”

“Bullshit, we can hold our own!” retorted one of the students.

“And if one of the SFC soldiers decides to shoot your unshielded ass?” Davídrius countered. “What then, eh?”

“Then my barriers can stop them!” Obra argued from his position to the side of the group — with Karísah standing just next to him. “Why are we arguin’ about this? I thought we settled this at the hospital!”

“That was before I knew just how many SFC soldiers had surrounded the campus!” Davídrius declared. “As is, you, Karísah, and I got lucky that we were able to sneak onto the campus at all. Spike made a few shields for us, sure, but not nearly enough to help with taking on the SFC! Even if the whole student body attacked at once, there’d be casualties for sure!”

“So? You got injured, and you’re fine,” one of the students pointed out while gesturing at Davídrius’s leg.

The Dean glanced down at the tight bandaging around his thigh, and then readjusted his grip on his crutches before looking back to the student. “This injury is proof of what I’m talkin’ about,” he insisted. “If the Bleeders can pull off injurin’ me, then they’ll eat the lot of you for fuckin’ lunch!”

“Oh man, now you’ve made me think about how I missed lunch…”

“Huh—?” Davídrius whipped around to look at the entrance to the building, through which Conrad, Phoenix, and Kestrel had just strode through — followed by Pierce, who carried Liask in his arms.

“Oh great, it’s the outsiders,” Obra drawled, only to balk upon noticing Liask’s unconscious form. “…Wait…! What the hell happened to Liask?!”

“She was injured…” Pierce replied while gently setting her down against a nearby wall. Her eyes remained shut, her brow furrowed and face sweating, all while she remained unconscious. “Damn Rokresians…”

“The folks from Rokres did this…?” Davídrius questioned, his gaze drifting over to Liask — only for his eyes to grow wide when he spotted the silver rashes extending across her abdomen. “She’s infected?!”

“The Rokresians had an infected animal with them,” Phoenix reported. “Liask took a hit while protecting Pierce…”

“Of course she fuckin’ did.” Obra scowled. “You fuckin’ outsiders—!”

“Now ain’t the time for this,” Karísah quickly interjected as she physically interposed herself between Obra and the Earthians. She then passed Davídrius an uneasy look. “But if there are infected creatures out there, then—!”

“Then that means you really need help, right?” questioned one of the students behind Davídrius. “Our help!”

“Someone ain’t been payin’ attention in class,” the Dean retorted. “The metallic infection is more dangerous than the Bleeders and SFC combined! One single scratch from an infected animal, and you’re fuckin’ dead!”

“One scratch…” Pierce echoed quietly.

“Fightin’ the infection without any energy shields is pure dumbassery,” Davídrius continued. “And like I said earlier, we don’t got nearly enough for everyone! So sit your asses tight and wait for the Defense Force to sort things out!”

“Will the Defense Force sort things out…?” Conrad questioned.

Davídrius passed Conrad an annoyed look. Before he could respond, however, another student burst through the doors of the building and began frantically searching the premises. Upon spotting Davídrius, they quickly approached. “Uh, Dean! Big problem!”

“Bigger than Tresnon bein’ under fuckin’ attack?” Davídrius retorted.

“Wow, real subtle,” Conrad muttered under his breath.

“Uh, kinda!” the student responded to the Dean’s question. “…The leader of the Bleeders is outside the campus gates!”

“What— Strén?! Here?!” Davídrius whipped around to face the student fully, only to stumble on his crutch; Karísah quickly reached out to steady him and keep him from falling over, which he barely acknowledged as he focused on the student. “Fuck… first the infection, now fuckin’ Strén, too…?”

“If Strén’s here, that’s all the more reason to fight!” Obra insisted.

“He— he has Instructor Ralak with ‘em!” the student said. “Says he’ll kill her if we don’t do what he says!”

Murmuring grew amongst the students, with several of them seeming to grow wary in response to the news.

“First Davídrius, then Ralak…?”

“They’re the toughest instructors in the whole school!”

“I wanna fight, but if even Ralak got beat, then…”

“Don’t forget, they got to the Wanderer, too. Maybe we should listen to Davídrius…”

“Oh c’mon!” Obra countered, turning to address the rest of the students, “we’re talkin’ about our lives here! Y’all ain’t just gonna roll over and let the Bleeders fuckin’ kill us all, are you?!”

“Obra…” Karísah muttered.

“Tch…” Davídrius snorted impatiently, glancing at the group of students before turning back to the one who had relayed the news of Strén’s arrival. “Let’s see what the kingpin of motherfuckers actually wants before we start tryin’ to sacrifice our dirt-damned lives, huh?”

“Uh, well…” the student responded uneasily, their gaze notably dropping to Davídrius’s injured leg.

“Spit it out,” the Dean insisted. “We don’t got all day!”

“Okay, well…” the student replied. “…He says that he wants to kill someone, Dean. And that if we let him, then he’ll get the Bleeders to leave.”

Davídrius’s expression grew dark. “’Course he does. And let me guess: the someone he wants to kill…”

The student nodded slowly. “…Yeah. It’s you.”