The serrated shadow-claws of the enraged Guut descended, aimed perfectly to sever Edy's connection to the living world. Edy squeezed his eyes shut, his psychic energy depleted, waiting for the cold bite of death.
It never came.
BOOOM.
A shockwave of displaced air slammed into Edy, knocking him flat on his back. The sound wasn't the wet tear of flesh, but the thunderous crunch of metal meeting dense matter.
Edy gasped, opening his eyes through the dust cloud.
Standing over him was a figure wreathed in a crimson aura. Malina stood like a statue of war, her boots cracked into the asphalt from the force of her arrival. Her left arm was raised, catching the Guut's descending wrist. Her uniform was torn, blood staining her shoulder from her previous fight, but her posture was unbreakable.
"Arrival time," Malina grunted, the strain audible in her voice as she held back the monster's arm, "optimal."
The Guut shrieked—a sound of pure, vibrating hate—and pushed down. The ground beneath Malina's feet shattered, sinking her ankles into the concrete. This creature was stronger than the one she had just killed. Grief and rage had triggered a secondary mutation; its muscles were swelling, the shadow-flesh bubbling and hardening into jagged spikes.
"Edy," Malina said, her voice tight. "Move. Now."
Edy didn't argue. He scrambled backward on his hands and knees, his head still throbbing. "Malina! It's in a frenzy! It's stronger than the other one!"
"I am aware," Malina replied calmly.
The Guut lashed out with its free hand, aiming a vicious swipe at Malina's ribs. Malina didn't try to block; she released the wrist she was holding and ducked under the swing, driving a piston-like jab into the creature's solar plexus.
THUD.
The blow would have caved in the chest of a normal Class 4. This Guut merely stumbled back a step, coughing up black ichor, before lunging again with renewed ferocity.
"It's adapting to impact trauma," Malina analyzed, dodging a knee strike that pulverized a stone bench behind her. "It is increasing its density to negate blunt force."
She needed backup. She was strong, but she was tired, and this thing was fighting without self-preservation.
A golden blur flickered in the corner of her vision.
Eren, battered and bleeding from his collision with the lamppost, had dragged himself to his feet. His face was pale, his energy reserves critically low, but his eyes burned with determination.
"Hey! Ugly!" Eren rasped, spitting blood.
The Guut turned its head.
Eren didn't run at Mach 3. He couldn't. His body was too damaged. Instead, he vibrated his vibro-daggers to their maximum frequency, creating a high-pitched hum that grated on the ears.
"Malina, hold it still!" Eren shouted.
"Easier said than done," Malina muttered.
The Guut charged Malina, ignoring Eren. It saw the Titan as the primary threat. It unleashed a flurry of chaotic, wild attacks—claws, elbows, headbutts. Malina was forced on the defensive, parrying and weaving. She caught a claw swipe on her gauntlet, the metal shearing away, leaving a deep gash in her forearm.
"Damage critical," she whispered.
She saw an opening. As the Guut overextended on a right hook, Malina stepped inside its guard. She grabbed its shoulders, planting her feet.
"Titan Grip!"
She squeezed, her fingers digging into the shadow-armor. She tried to throw the beast, to leverage its own momentum against it. But the Guut did something horrifying. It extended spikes from its shoulders, driving them through Malina's hands.
Malina didn't scream. She didn't let go. She used the pain as fuel.
"Now, Eren!"
Eren sprinted. He moved at a subsonic blur—fast, but visible. He slid across the pavement like a baseball player stealing home, aiming for the Guut's legs. He slashed with both daggers at the creature's Achilles tendons.
ZZZZZT.
The vibro-blades sliced through the hardened shadow-flesh. The Guut roared, its legs buckling. It fell to one knee.
"Edy!" Eren yelled as he rolled away to avoid a retaliatory stomp. "Do something!"
Edy was hiding behind the fountain, clutching his head. "I'm empty! I got nothing left!"
"You're a Psion!" Malina shouted, struggling to keep the kneeling beast pinned. The Guut was thrashing, its spikes tearing at her uniform. "Find a frequency! Jam its motor functions!"
Edy looked at his friends. Malina was bleeding from her hands and shoulder, holding back a monster twice her weight. Eren was limping, his speed failing him.
Think, Edy told himself. Stop trying to scream at it. Stop trying to break it. Just... tickle it.
He closed his eyes. He couldn't blast the Guut's mind—its rage was too loud. But the Guut relied on the Hive Mind connection to fight efficiently. Even though its twin was dead, the receiver in its brain was still searching for a signal.
Edy focused on that empty channel.
He didn't send an attack. He sent... noise. He projected the mental equivalent of a screeching microphone feedback loop directly into the Guut's sensory input.
The Guut froze. It clutched its head with one hand, shrieking in confusion. Its movements became jerky, uncoordinated.
"It's working!" Edy yelled, nose bleeding again. "Its equilibrium is gone!"
"Finish it!" Malina commanded.
She released her grip on the Guut's shoulders and delivered a massive uppercut to its chin. The blow launched the creature backward, flipping it into the air. It crashed onto its back in the center of the dried-up fountain.
The three friends stood in a triangle around the fallen monster. It was trying to rise, twitching and snarling, its regeneration already knitting the cuts on its legs.
"We hit it together," Malina said, breathing heavily. "One point of impact. Maximum force."
"I can't run fast enough to pierce it again," Eren admitted, his legs shaking.
"And I can't hold it down," Edy wheezed.
Malina looked at the heavy, decorative stone statue in the center of the fountain—an angel holding a vase. It weighed easily two tons.
"I provide the mass," Malina said, walking toward the statue. She gripped the base of the stone angel. With a roar of exertion that turned her face purple, she ripped the statue from its foundation. She lifted the two-ton stone above her head.
"Eren, you provide the velocity," she ordered.
"You want me to... throw the statue?" Eren asked, bewildered. "I can't lift that!"
"No," Malina said, her muscles trembling under the weight. "I throw it. You push it."
Eren understood. Physics. Force equals mass times acceleration. Malina had the mass. Eren had the acceleration.
"Edy," Malina grunted. "Targeting."
Edy wiped his eyes. "I'll guide it."
The Guut scrambled to its feet, roaring. It sensed the danger. It crouched, preparing to leap out of the fountain.
"Now!" Edy shouted, using the last of his energy to telekinetically nudge the Guut's foot, making it slip on the mossy stone.
Malina hurled the statue downward.
"GRAAAH!"
As the massive stone left her hands, Eren was already moving. He didn't hit the Guut. He hit the statue.
He slammed both palms into the back of the falling stone angel, vibrating his entire body, transferring all his remaining kinetic energy into the object.
BOOM.
The statue didn't just fall; it accelerated to the speed of a cannonball. It broke the sound barrier in a distance of three feet.
The Guut looked up just as the shadow of the angel eclipsed the sky.
CRUNCH.
The impact shook the entire plaza. The fountain disintegrated. Dust and stone chips exploded outward like shrapnel, forcing the three agents to cover their faces. The ground trembled for a full five seconds after the hit.
Silence returned to the West Sector.
Slowly, the dust settled.
Where the fountain had been, there was now a crater. In the center of the crater lay the shattered remains of the stone angel. And underneath the stone, flattened into the earth, was the Guut.
It wasn't regenerating. It wasn't moving. It had been crushed so completely that its physical form couldn't hold the shadow together. As they watched, the black limbs sticking out from under the rock began to dissolve into grey ash.
Malina fell to her knees, clutching her bleeding hands. The red glow in her eyes faded, leaving her looking exhausted and human.
"Target... neutralized," she whispered, her voice trembling.
Eren collapsed next to her, lying flat on his back, staring up at the dark dome. "That... was... awesome. And I think I broke my hand."
Edy limped over to them, sliding down to sit against a piece of rubble. He looked at the other two. They were battered, bloody, and bruised. Their uniforms were shredded.
But they were alive.
"We need a vacation," Edy mumbled, closing his eyes. "Somewhere with a beach. And no shadows."
Malina looked at her comms unit. It was still crackling with static, but a faint signal was trying to push through.
"We are not done," she said, forcing herself to stand up, though her legs screamed in protest. "We survived. But Max... Max is alone in the South Sector."
Eren groaned, rolling over. "Don't remind me. Do we have to run?"
"We walk," Malina said, offering a hand to Edy. "But we move. If we faced this... imagine what he is facing."
Together, the three battered members of Squad 5 began to limp out of the ruins of the plaza, heading South, leaving two piles of ash behind them. They had proven they could kill the monsters. Now, they had to make sure their friend hadn't become one.