Crack…
The sound came from somewhere behind the overturned tricycle.
Maela froze instantly, body locking before her mind even processed why. The broken tile under her knee shifted again with a dry crunch and she slowly lifted her weight off it, inch by inch, praying the noise hadn't carried far.
The two creatures near the corpse stopped feeding.
Their heads lifted at the same time.They were equally sensitive to interruption.
Her heartbeat slammed so hard she felt it in her throat. The air smelled like hot metal, blood, and rotting food from the nearby drainage line. Jasper lay three steps ahead of her, half wrapped in that pulsing organic webbing, fingers twitching weakly.
"Bad timing," she breathed silently.
One of the creatures shuffled sideways, sniffing with short animal jerks. Its jaw opened too wide. Strings of saliva stretched and broke. It didn't fully understand the sound but it knew something changed.
Maela lowered herself flat and didn't move at all.
"Don't move, Don't scream, Do you dare scream"
seconds dragged.
Maela swallowed slowly, throat burning.
Jasper was only a few meters away now, tangled in that organic binding, chest barely moving. Up close she could see the strands wrapped around him weren't rope they pulsed faintly, like dried veins. One of the creatures had produced it, maybe it was a trap or storage web.
Her hands trembled.
"This is stupid," she mouthed silently to herself. "This is so so stupid."
She wasn't built for this kind of moment. She wasn't like her brothers.She wasn't brave. She wasn't strong.
But Jasper had once walked her home in heavy rain without an umbrella and laughed the whole way.
Memory is cruel like that it shows you kindness right before danger.
She slid forward on her elbows, inch by inch, dragging herself across grit and oil stains. Every small movement felt louder than thunder. One creature shuffled away, chasing a fluttering tarp. Another crouched over a body, chewing with slow fascination.
The distance shrank as she got closer stealthy as she can come up with.
Three meters.....Two...
She reached Jasper's shoe and almost cried from the shock of success.
Up close, the blood smell hit hard metallic, thick, dizzying. His face was pale under the smear of red across his cheek. His eyelids fluttered weakly.
"Ma…?" he breathed, not fully conscious.
Her heart lurched.
"Shhh," she whispered. "Don't wake up. Please don't wake up."
The bindings were tougher than they looked. She tried pulling, nothing. Tried unwinding, they tightened. Panic clawed up her spine.
Think.
Think.
Her eyes scanned the ground, Broken tile. Bottle shard, Bent license plate.
She grabbed the glass.
Her first cut barely scratched it. The strand flexed and stuck to the glass like gum. She bit back a sob and sawed harder, wrist shaking, every second stretching thin.
One strand split with a wet snap.
Jasper groaned.
A creature's head jerked up.
Maela stopped breathing entirely.
It listened but listening required understanding, and understanding wasn't fully there. After a moment, it returned to its corpse-work, distracted by easier rewards.
She kept cutting.
Another strand parted.
Then another.....
Her fingers slipped and the glass sliced her palm open. Pain flashed hot and bright but she didn't make a sound only pressed her lips together until they turned white.
"Almost," she whispered. "Almost, almost…"
[Framework Upload: 71%]
The text flickered across her vision again, distorted, like a cracked screen.
"Hurry up," she begged it silently. "Please."
The last binding snapped.
Jasper's body rolled free and the movement was too big.
The slim creature turned fully this time.
It looked towards the direction of the sound.
Maela didn't know if they could see them, but she knew she messed up.
It shrieked.
The bigger one reacted instantly, launching forward with jerky speed.
Maela didn't think she grabbed Jasper under the arms and dragged with everything she had. His body felt twice his normal weight. Her shoes slid in blood. Her arms burned.
A creature slammed into a parked motorbike and toppled it, slowing itself for half a second.
Half a second was everything.
She dragged Jasper behind a jeepney and shoved both of them underneath, squeezing into the dark space under the frame just as claws scraped across metal above them.
Something knelt.
Sniffed.
Wet breath pushed under the chassis.
Jasper stirred, trying to speak. She clamped her bleeding hand over his mouth.
"Please," she mouthed. "Stay Quiet."
A warped arm reached under and slashed blindly. Nails scraped her ankle and tore fabric but missed skin by centimeters.
Her vision blurred from fear.
Then distant explosion. Somewhere toward the highway. Loud enough to redirect instinct.
Both creatures sprinted toward the sound without hesitation.
Silence returned slowly.
Maela stayed frozen for a full minute before crawling out.
"I almost died," she whispered hoarsely. "That was stupid. That was really stupid."
But Jasper was free.
She dragged him toward a narrow back-alley storage shed and forced the half-broken door open. Inside smelled like rice sacks. Safe enough.
She wrapped his leg wound with torn cloth and pressed tight. He hissed awake.
"Monsters," he murmured.
"I know."
"Your brothers... morning... they came looking for me," he said weakly. "We split near the crossing...when the fog rolled in."
Her chest tightened painfully.
Were they alive.
maybe
She was losing Hope hurt but she held it in.
[Framework Upload — 93%]
The system text stabilized more this time. Less glitching. More structured.
"What are you looking at?" Jasper asked quietly.
"its nothing i was just thinking what happened recently"
"Okay...Silence
Although I am kinda dying of pain here ." Jasper chuckled even with the pain.
Maela looked at him and smiled, he is still his old self.
"You might still be," she said automatically then felt bad. "Sorry."
He gave a faint laugh anyway.
Her phone still showed no signal. Last messages from her brothers sat unread beneath the timestamp.
"We're getting Jasper. Stay with Lola."
She pressed the phone to her forehead and shook.
"I left her," she whispered. "I left my grand aunt."
"You're alive," Jasper said. "That counts."
"I don't know if it should."
[Framework Complete — Initial Class Stabilized]
The message appeared with a soft internal chime.
A new panel unfolded it was clearer now.
Class Seed: Spirit Marksman — Field Healer (Base)
Growth Type: Support / Precision
Physical Boost: Minor
Stability: Low — Skills(Novice)
A warmth spread through her arms and eyes not strength exactly, more like steadiness. Her shaking reduced slightly. Her vision sharpened at distance. Edges became clearer.
Another line appeared.
"Starter Functions Unlocking…"
She felt a pulse in her right hand like energy gathering behind her palm.
"What now," she whispered.
"Skill Prototype: Vital Patch — Level 1
Short-range contact required.
She stared at it.
"I'm supposed to touch people and they don't die," she muttered. "That's my superpower."
Jasper looked at her and saw see was mumbling something and he asked what happened.
Maela took her time to explain everything that happened till now to him.
"It seems very useful," Jasper said faintly.
"Only if it works."
She pressed her glowing palm lightly over his bandaged leg.
Heat surged.
Pain shot up her arm like electric burn. She gasped and almost pulled away but forced herself to keep contact. Jasper's wound tightened slightly, bleeding slowing as it healed slowly.
He looked at her in shock. "Do that again."
"I think I'll pass out if I do."
System text confirmed it.
Energy Reserve: 8%
"Yeah. Definitely not again."
A heavy thud landed outside the shed.
Both of them froze.
Not the same creatures this step was heavier, more controlled.
Another step.
Closer.
Something was testing the doors.
Her system pulsed again.
Skill Prototype: Focus Shot — Locked (No ranged tool detected)
Marksman — but she had no weapon.
"Of course," she whispered.
The door handle moved slightly.
Jasper tried to sit up but fumble backwards.
"Window," she whispered.
"There isn't—"
"The Roof vent dummy." She said quietly as she can.
A small square opening near the ceiling barely large enough.
She stacked two crates quietly, climbed, then pulled herself halfway through. Hot air hit her face. She reached down.
"Come on."
"I can't climb."
"You can or you die."
Motivation worked better than encouragement. With shaking effort he got one foot up. She pulled with everything she had, muscles screaming, and somehow dragged him onto the roof just as the shed door splintered open below them.
They didn't look back.
They crawled across corrugated roofing toward the next building, city noise spreading in waves sirens, screams, distant gunfire, something else underneath like animal chorus.