novelraw Chapter 464: We Can Save You!
Chapter 464: We Can Save You!
Sera turned her head slowly, trying to find the person speaking.
She found him quickly since the man was pointing down toward Zubair, Lachlan, Alexei, and Aerenyx, as if he had identified the "real victims" in this situation. "We can get you out!" he shouted. "You’re not under arrest. You’re not being targeted. We can extract you right now!"
Sera’s smile sharpened as her creature laughed, delighted. Oh. They think your horde is captured. They think you are a handler. That is going to hurt their pride when they learn the truth.
Zubair didn’t answer.
Neither did Alexei.
Lachlan didn’t even look in the man’s direction.
Aerenyx’s gaze did lift, slow and cold, and the Black-Badge man faltered when he met it.
The rescuer tried again, louder. "She can’t control all of you! Move toward us! We’ll cover you! We can keep you safe from the creature."
Sera walked forward, letting her boots crunch on rock and debris so the man would know she was approaching. She didn’t rush. She didn’t need to.
She reached the last body she had dropped, crouched, and tore off a piece of meat she hadn’t finished, chewing thoughtfully while she watched the Black-Badge man’s face change.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking at anymore... his plan was collapsing in real time and he had no backup.
Sera swallowed and spoke, her tone conversational. "They’re not going anywhere."
The man flinched at her words as he looked around at his man in her hands.
Sera held the body up just a bit before she took another bite.
Her creature spoke, amused and clear. They are trying to rescue wolves from the mouth of a wolf. Humans seem to love the stories they make up in their heads. They keep trying to force reality into them.
The man on the ridge raised his rifle again, hands shaking. "Stop!" he shouted, voice cracking. "Stop eating him!"
Sera blinked up at him, genuinely curious. "Why?"
His mouth opened. No answer came out that wasn’t stupidity.
Sera moved again.
She hit the ridge line with a burst of speed that turned the last of their spacing into a joke. She grabbed the shouting man by the vest and slammed him into the rock behind him. His helmet cracked. His weapon dropped.
She pressed her mouth to his jaw and ripped, taking the cheek clean off.
He screamed.
She ate his tongue next to stop the noise.
The ridge fell into a new kind of panic, the kind that didn’t organize into tactics anymore.
They fired again, closer range, desperate.
A cluster of rounds struck Sera in the abdomen and chest, tearing her open and splashing blood across her hands. Her body repaired itself mid-step. The men stared, horror spilling out of their posture even as they kept shooting.
One of them fumbled a magazine.
Another turned and ran.
Sera caught the runner by the back of the armor and yanked him down. He hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of him. She stepped on his spine, felt the vertebrae compress, and then crouched to feed.
She did it methodically.
She tore open the abdomen first, not because it was dramatic, but because she liked the warmth there. She reached inside and took what she wanted, chewing with steady efficiency while the runner’s hands clawed weakly at the dirt and then went still.
She swallowed and rose.
Behind her, something exploded.
A drone had dipped into Zubair’s heat and detonated, shrapnel raining down across the slope. Lachlan’s lightning cracked again, arcing from metal to metal, forcing the remaining Black-Badge to scatter. Alexei’s ice claimed the edge of the ridge in a spreading sheet, and two men slipped into it, falling hard.
Aerenyx walked through the chaos like it was weather.
One man tried to aim at him.
His hands began to tremble.
The tremor turned violent.
He dropped his rifle and fell to his knees, coughing blood.
Aerenyx didn’t touch him. He simply stepped past him as if the death was already decided.
Sera watched the remaining Black-Badge regroup behind a chunk of broken rock, their leader barking orders with a voice that was trying very hard not to sound afraid. He gestured upward, and Sera followed the motion with her eyes.
Another drone formation approached.
Not three this time.
More.
Their hum layered into a thicker sound, the air vibrating with synchronized machinery. Panels opened beneath them. Something heavier than sonic emitters shifted into place.
Sera’s creature stirred, pleased. Now they are trying harder. Good. I was worried they would run too soon.
Sera licked blood from her thumb and smiled up at the sky. "Do you think they learned anything?"
They learned that bullets are prayers, the creature replied. And they learned that, while we might be a god, we do not answer prayers.
The leader shouted into his mic, voice raw. "All units, fall back to secondary line! Heavy strike incoming! Do not engage hand-to-hand! Repeat, do not—"
Sera moved toward him.
He saw her coming and his voice broke. He raised his rifle and fired until it clicked empty. The rounds hit her and tore and healed and tore again, and it did nothing except annoy her.
She closed the remaining distance.
She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
His boots kicked in the air.
His eyes met hers through the visor, wide and wet and disbelieving.
Sera leaned in close enough that he could see the blood on her teeth.
"You came to process me," she said, mild as anything. "You should have stayed home."
Then she bit.
She tore into the side of his neck, chewing through muscle and artery, swallowing until the frantic kicking slowed and stopped. She held him there as she ate, not because she needed a shield now, but because she wanted the rest of his team to see.
His body went heavy in her grip.
She dropped him.
The sky above them changed pitch as the new drones came into range.
Sera tilted her head back, eyes bright, and felt her creature grin inside her like a second smile.
Yes, it hissed, satisfied and hungry all at once. That looks like it might finally be fun.