Chapter 18: Echoes of Guilt

Hannah found herself standing in a narrow alleyway, walls of cracked concrete and weather-worn brick hemming her in on both sides. The air was strangely still, silent enough that even her shallow breaths seemed to echo. Neon lights flickered faintly somewhere in the distance, casting sickly flashes of purple and blue across the damp ground.

She knew this place.

Her stomach twisted. The rough texture of the brick…the overturned dumpster…the faint scorch marks from the explosions.

This was the same alley she and her brother had escaped through when the goblins first attacked.

But there was no sign of Jagger now.

No sign of anyone.

Just the cold, stale air pressing in on her.

She was alone.

“Hannah… don’t leave me…”

A weak voice scraped through the silence like rusted metal.

Her stomach twisted. She turned toward the sound.

Jagger lay slumped against the wall, his body half-propped, half-collapsed, blood pouring from him in dark rivers. The puddle beneath him spread inch by inch, thick and glistening. His left forearm was split open to the bone, blood leaking steadily. Deep claw marks shredded his chest and arms. His calf and ankle bubbled with a mess of gore. His face was pale beneath smeared dirt, blood trickling from a gash in his scalp and down his neck, soaking into his shirt.

He looked like death dressed in flesh.

His right arm lifted, a trembling, desperate reach. His fingers shook violently, barely holding themselves up. His eyes were glassy with pain, desperation, and the hollow terror of someone reaching for their last connection.

“Hannah…” he whispered. “Don’t… go…”

Her heart clenched. Her breath hitched. She took a step toward him.

“Hannah!”

Another voice shouted her name hit her like a slap, and Hannah flinched.

She opened her mouth, but once again the voice echoed from behind her.

“Hannah!”

A man with a Japanese accent shout in urgency again.

Hannah’s breath stuttered. She looked back at Jagger.

He was still reaching for her. Fingers curled weakly. A silent plea.

“Don’t leave me…”

“Hannah!” He screamed, sharper this time.

Something inside Hannah cracked.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered, though whether it was to Jagger or to herself, she didn’t know.

Then she ran.

Leaving him behind.

Alone.

Bleeding out.

Reaching for someone who never came.

The image burned into her skull.

Her brother’s fallen body, abandoned, the life fading from his eyes as she fled.

Hannah’s eyes snapped open.

A gasp ripped from her lungs so violently she staggered. Her vision blurred with tears as her heart hammered in her chest.

“Hannah! Me o samase, baka! Get your FUCKING head in the game!”

She jerked.

A man stood a few meters away from her, tall, broad-shouldered, wearing a tattered black suit smeared with blood. His face was unshaven, sharp with stress, jaw tight. Short blond hair matted with grime stuck to his forehead. His brown eyes were fierce, snapping between Hannah and the nightmare in front of them.

Fang Spitters.

Three of them, massive spiderlike creatures taller than cars, skittered across the corpse-littered street. Their eight limbs clacked against the ground with sickening rhythm. Each jagged spike was coated in a viscous green poison that dripped to the asphalt, sizzling and melting holes into the pavement. Their mandibles clicked, saliva hissing as it burned small pits in the ground.

The battlefield was chaos.

Cars overturned, doors torn off.

Bodies strewn everywhere.

Limbs. Organs. Burned chunks of flesh.

Smoke curled into the sky, mixing with the acrid stench of poison and blood. Screams echoed from distant blocks.

“Hurry up and kill these kono kusottare yarou-domo!” he barked, stepping backward to dodge a jet of acidic spit from a nearby creature.

Hannah’s fingers twitched. Her breath stuttered.

“Hannah!” he barked again. “Dame da yo! Don’t tell me you’re losing it now. KUSO!” He said dodging another spray of acidic spittle, his voice raised in urgency. “THIS IS NOT THE FUCKING TIME!”

She blinked rapidly, shaking her head. “S-sorry, Mr. Sato… I’m fine.”

A system window flickered before her eyes.

–

Exterminate [Brute] Fang Spitters. [12/15]

–

The monsters tensed. Their spiked legs dug into the earth, venom hissing.

Hannah drew a deep breath. Her irises glowed purple.

Her hair lifted, weightless.

A swirling aura of violet particles ignited around her body.

“EVERYONE GET READY!” Mr. Sato shouted.

The hunters around them stepped back, finding cover in that instant, their boots crunching over shattered glass and bone fragments.

“Focus Pulse.”

The world sharpened instantly.

Her perception snapped into clarity.

She could see each twitch of their limbs, each bead of poison dripping, every shift in air pressure. She could even feel the confusion in their alien minds, the feral anger.

–

[Focus Pulse- Increases own focus by 30% for 10 seconds. 10-minute cooldown]

–

“NOW!” she screamed, opening her arms wide.

Every hunter threw a dagger, a knife, or anything sharp into the air.

Purple whisps moved like living smoke, wrapping each blade, coiling into dense telekinetic force.

Hannah’s hands came together in one swift motion, fingertips pressing tightly, palms touching.

“Telekinetic Burst!”

The daggers fired forward like bullets indiscriminately, propelled with monstrous force. Blades shredded through spider-like carapace, impaling limbs and chitinous armor. One blade struck the eye of the nearest beast, sinking hilt-deep.

The Spitters screamed, spasming, legs flailing. Acidic spit exploded from its mandibles, arcing in a wide arc.

Hannah unable to react after a Telekinetic Burst. She didn’t have the time to move, and the only thing she could do was to raise her arms instinctively but suddenly two hulking bodies appeared before her.

It was a duo of hunters, a man and a woman, all covered with sweat and grime, both of them held a large tower shield. The acidic liquid landed on the tower shields, eating its way through the metal until a large hole appeared. “Fuck! A waste of a good shield.” Both of them said simultaneously.

The two hunters dropped their shields. The acid began melting its way through the asphalt.

The duo looked back, their voiced coming together in a loud shout. “You rest here, we got this!”

“ATTACK!” Mr. Sato roared.

Everyone surged forward.

Hannah’s aura flickered out, her eyes returning to normal and then the warm, wet trail slid from her nose.

She touched her upper lip and saw Crimson.

’Not again…’

A single chime.

–

[Telekinetic Burst has leveled up! Lv. 2 → Lv. 3!]

Mental stability [45%↓

]

–

Sato carved through the wounded Fang Spitter with brutal precision. Darting left to right, he slipped between its stabbing, razor-sharp legs, each strike missing him by inches as his katana cut through its joints one after another with the fluidity of a master swordsman.

The creature screeched, its limbs shuddering. As it toppled, the monster thrashed wildly, stabbing at the ground in a frantic search for anything, anyone, to drag down with it.

“Blitz!”

–

[Blitz – Surge forward at 150% movement speed for 1.5 seconds. 30-minute cooldown.]

–

Sato surged forward. His body blurred, the air itself seeming to snap around him from the sudden acceleration.

It happened so fast the world barely caught up.

To the onlookers, there was only a brief flicker of motion above the creature’s head, like an arcing streak of steel passing through a curtain of mist and just as instantly Sato skidding a meter across the blood-slick street, boots scraping against cracked asphalt.

A heartbeat later, the Fang Spitter’s head dropped clean off. Its legs buckled, collapsing under its weight with a wet, heavy thud. Dark blood pooled quickly, steaming in the cold night air and carrying a metallic tang that stung the nose.

Sato exhaled sharply and spun toward Hannah. As he swiped his blade through the air, a fan of warm blood arced outward, splattering across the ruined pavement.

Sato strode over, wiping venom and blood off his blade with a sharp flick. The liquid hissed where it touched the ground, eating small holes into the asphalt.

“Hannah!! Nanda yo, ima no?!” he snapped in Japanese, frustration cracking his voice.

“I’m sorry,” Hannah murmured, wiping the blood away with the back of her hand.

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” he growled, sliding his blade back into its sheath, it vanished instantly in a shimmer of magic. “What the hell was that?!”

“I-I…” She stared at her boots, unable to meet his gaze.

He was about to speak, but Hannah whispered, almost mechanically:

“He was asking for help… all alone and scared…”

Sato froze. His jaw tightened.

Then he exhaled sharply, scratching the back of his head so hard his nails scraped skin. That is when a surge of cheers echoed through the battlefield.

“Kuso…” he muttered, then climbed onto a ruined car and shouted, “EVERYONE LISTEN UP!”

–

[Extermination completed!]

[You have leveled up! Lv. 10 → Lv. 11!]

–

A wave of energy washed through her body, but Hannah couldn’t feel anything.

Nothing except numbness.

The group immediately gathered.

“Let’s harvest these monsters,” he barked. “We need limbs, venom glands, chitin plates, fangs and especially the mana cores! Let’s get this done before night fall.”

He clapped twice, loud and sharp before stepping down.

“Yes, Sir!” came the echo of voices as the hunters scattered.

“You know the drill. Move!” A woman shouted. “We a few on guard duty, the rest help the injured and harvesters do your thing!”

Behind them, Hannah stood still, her hand pressed lightly to her bleeding nose.

her mind replaying Jagger’s voice in that alley over… and over… and over.

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