Chapter 54: Who Said You Had a Choice?

The barricade came apart with a sound like a wounded beast.

Ken and Ren leaned into the reinforced plating together, their massive frames straining as they dragged the heavy metal barrier away from the main entrance of Takashimaya mall. Steel groaned against marble, the noise echoing up into the hollow atrium and lingering there, sharp and ominous. Every scrape felt like an announcement. Every second felt deliberate.

Behind them, a line of hunters stood ready. Weapons were raised. Fingers rested near triggers and hilts. Faces were tight, stripped of bravado and humor. This was not a patrol. This was not a warning.

This was a line being crossed.

The entrance yawned open.

What had once been a polished glass façade was now a wide archway flanked by cracked pillars and jagged frames. The original doors lay shattered long ago, replaced by welded furniture, metal bars, and scavenged debris. Now even that protection was gone. Beyond the threshold, the plaza waited, slick with rain, shadows pooling between broken stone and toppled statues.

Darkness breathed back at them.

Shin Lu stepped forward first.

He took his place at the very edge of the entrance, calm and immovable, spear grounded at his side. Hector moved to his left, posture relaxed but coiled, prosthetic arm humming faintly as internal systems synced. Kade stood to Shin Lu’s right, shoulders squared, twin blades already in hand, eyes burning with restrained hostility.

Just behind them stood Jane and her team.

Jane was centered, spine straight, gaze locked outward. Lynis planted himself half a step to her right, shield angled forward. Porpo stood to her left, fingers flexing as faint traces of magic curled and vanished. Jagger lingered slightly farther back behind Jane, close enough to act, far enough to observe.

Behind them, two of Kade’s high-level hunters took position, silent and watchful.

Ken and Ren fell back once the barricade cleared, moving to reinforce the rear as the rest of the hunters fanned out in practiced arcs, filling the area with healers, mages and rangers at the back, melee fighters in the front.

Jane’s eyes never left the plaza.

The Bloodclaws waited openly, the rain now a fine mist clinging to their armor and skin.

They did not hide. They did not prepare. They laughed.

A loose knot of hunters sprawled across the shattered stone, shoving one another, weapons slung casually over their shoulders. Cigarettes burned between fingers, orange embers glowing bright against the storm. One man drank openly from a flask, lifting it high in a mocking toast before taking a long pull.

They looked relaxed and confident.

They looked like they were already inside.

Jagger’s gaze drifted upward.

Long, thin pillars of light hovered in the distant skyline, piercing the rain and low clouds like spectral lances. They pulsed slowly, softly, marking locations with cold indifference. Each one felt wrong. Not threatening in the way monsters were, but heavier, as if the world itself acknowledged them.

Heralds.

But what stood out to him was some were in a specific area, unmoving. But other pillars moved, ’It’s a live tracker.’

A voice cut through the rain.

“Looks like my dear has grown stronger since we last fought.”

Reika’s tone was cheerful, almost affectionate, and it crawled under the skin.

She sat atop the corpse of a Razorfur Wolf, one leg draped lazily over its massive flank. Rain slicked her short blue hair flat against her scalp as she idly stroked the matted fur beneath her fingers. Her smile widened when her eyes met Shin Lu’s.

“You forgot to get this.”

She lifted her other hand.

Nestled in her palm was the Razorfur’s core.

It was deep blue, fist-sized, and alive with faint pulsing light. Energy rippled beneath its surface like a slow heartbeat.

“You were always so sloppy, Shin.”

Shin Lu’s jaw clenched. His grip on the spear tightened until his knuckles whitened.

“Claim.”

The word left Reika’s lips softly.

Light bloomed from her palm.

It spilled outward in a gentle glow, then sharpened, turning hungry and violent. The core dissolved into streaks of blue energy that wrapped around her forearm, spiraling tighter and tighter. Dark metal formed piece by piece, jagged plates locking together with a low, predatory hiss. Black fur threaded itself between the seams, alive and shifting, while thin crimson runes flickered to life across the surface.

The fingers elongated.

Claws formed, serrated and brutal, each edge gleaming like a predator’s fang.

When the light faded, a Razorfur-forged gauntlet clung to her right arm. It looked less like armor and more like something grown, sleek and dangerous, as if it might snap shut on its own.

She flexed her hand.

The claws scraped together with a metallic snarl.

“Brute-rank Razorfur gauntlets, huh?” she mused, tilting her head. “Not bad.”

She giggled, eyes never leaving Shin Lu.

“Now then. Where were we?”

Her gaze swept across the hunters at the entrance, lingering on Jane, on Kade, on Lynis and Porpo, before settling back on Shin Lu.

“What are you here for, Reika?” Shin Lu asked.

His voice was steady. Controlled. Every word was measured.

Reika laughed, the sound harsh and grating. “Didn’t you see the notification? We have a quest. And we’re here to complete it.”

She gestured lazily toward the pillars of light looming behind her.

“What does that have to do with us?” Shin Lu shot back. “Leave.”

“No can do.” She shook her head, mock regret painted across her face. “Those pillars? They’re the Heralds. The system’s very clear. They need to die.”

Her smile sharpened.

“But we’re not stupid. Elite-rank loot is nice, but fighting Heralds is going to hurt. So here’s the deal.”

She leaned forward slightly.

“We join forces. Temporarily. We kill the Heralds together. In return, we take all the loot.” Her eyes glinted. “And we don’t kill you all.”

A murmur rippled through the hunters behind Shin Lu.

“And if we refuse?” Shin Lu asked.

Reika pushed herself upright, standing atop the Razorfur corpse as rain streamed down her armor and bare skin. Her hunters burst into laughter around her, voices rising into a cacophony of mockery.

“Who said you had a choice.”

Her laughter cut off abruptly, followed by everyone else.

She tilted her head.

Her brown eyes flared, yellow light bleeding into the pupils as her gaze locked onto Shin Lu.

“…Dear.”

The rain seemed to hold its breath.

And every hunter at the plaza felt the weight of what was about to begin.

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