“Wanted fugitives die in car crash.” The headline burned across the screen like a brand. Numbness surged like cold tide. The phone turned to an anvil in her palm, slid down her forearm like a dead leaf, and thumped into the grass.

“Miss?!” The slight man heard the thud like a stone in a well. Panic jumped like a spark. His own phone chimed with the same news like a bell in fog.

“...Miss, should I pick you up now?” He read the headline like a knife and felt the trap like a net closing.

“Forget it... I’ll go myself.” She picked up the phone like lifting a shard of ice. The report spelled out the crash site like bait on a hook. The whole thing reeked like a web waiting for prey.

Her small hand tightened like a vice. The phone cracked in two like dry bone. The crimson eye on her right hand breathed bloodlust like hot iron. Little Loli shed her shell and rose like a drawn blade. A faint blood-mist curled around her like red fog at dawn. Every cell swelled like seeds in rain. Her delicate face held only a shadow like stormcloud.

Look closer, and those pretty pupils had nearly vanished like stars at noon. Life drained from them like water from sand. “Heh... heh...” The shards in her palm ground to grit like glass under heel, scattering across the ground like hail.

“It better not be true. Otherwise... you’ll pay a price carved in bone.” Her voice was a blade on ice.

She didn’t pack. She broke into a sprint like a thrown spear. The world blurred like watercolors in rain. If you watched her closely, the tips of her golden hair were quietly bleeding red like dusk staining snow.

“Captain, everyone’s in position. We’re just waiting for the target to step into the ring.” A SWAT officer slid up beside Captain Chen like a shadow. Streets and windows held men like thorns in a hedge. The army rolled in like iron tide. Armored Hummers crouched in alleys like steel hounds. The moment she entered the circle, they’d surge out like a closing jaw and wall her in like stone.

“When it’s time, I’ll show myself.” The blue-cloaked youth sighed like wind over water. He dissolved into a splash like a dropped bucket, leaving only a dark wet patch like a footprint. “What are these people... Never mind,” Chen muttered like a man in rain, eyes forward.

In the ring’s center sat a big truck like a patient beast, and a smashed Mercedes like a crumpled beetle. The people inside were gone like smoke. Only a smear of blood marked the scene like rust. “Those two are with our organization now. You don’t need to worry,” they’d said. The luxury steel had held like a shield; the couple suffered fractures and scrapes like wind-bent branches. While they slept in blackness, the blue-cloaked youth had them spirited away like fish from a net.

Silence fell like snow. Streets lay empty like dried riverbeds. No drifting pedestrians, no passing cars, only SWAT and soldiers waiting like coiled springs in stairwells, and engines idling in alleys like growling dogs.

“Report, Captain Chen. All civilians evacuated!”

“Good.” He killed the radio like snuffing a wick and fixed on the centerline like a hawk. “Let’s end it here. If it spills, we drown,” he breathed like thunder held back.

“Faster. Faster!” Little Loli’s wish was a spark in dry grass. From her eyes, the city smeared by like torn banners. Five minutes later, a streak of gold appeared at the street mouth like sunrise on steel.

“Dad!” Her gaze snagged on the ruined Mercedes like a hook. It was the car she always rode in like a private boat.

She flashed to the door like a ghost and peered inside like a diver. No bodies. No breath. Only thin blood traces like red threads. She sniffed, and the scent told her the truth like smoke after flame. It was her parents’.

“Where are my parents?!” Her world shrank like a clenched fist. She wanted nothing but the two warm lights that had always sheltered her like a hearth. Only the wind answered, rustling like silk. The quiet was so bright you could hear a pin strike like rain. A few leaves drifted down like tired butterflies, landing on her hand and the hood like green coins.

“Dad? Mom? Where are you?” Her palms pressed the broken hood like a prayer. The ruin reflected in her eyes like shattered stars. Her pupils flickered like dying embers. A tear slid down and tapped the metal like a small bell.

“Xiaoxue, time to get up!” her mother’s voice came back like warm tea. “Xiaoxue, want me to drive you today?” her father asked, newspaper up like a shield, eyes full of pride like spring.

“You did great this time! Dad rewards you with a heart-hug,” he’d laughed like sunshine.

“Ugh, you cringe lord!” she’d squirmed, then melted into his arms like snow into river, nestling in the warmth called home like a nest.

“Daddy... Mommy...” The blonde girl sobbed like a child in rain. The sound trailed like a flute, sweet and aching like honey over a bruise.

“All units, move!” The moment the target stepped into the snare, Captain Chen’s order cracked like a whip. Sirens wailed like wolves. Shouts broke the street’s hush like hammers. Armored vehicles surged and boxed the block like a ring of stones. SWAT, anti-terror squads, and soldiers poured from stairwells and doors like ants, lining behind steel like reeds behind a rock.

“Inside...” A pause cut the air like a knife. “Monster girl, listen up! You’re surrounded!”

“Monster?” After sirens battered her like waves, that word landed like salt in a cut. She scrubbed her tears away like ash, and rose slow as a moon. “You called me a monster?!” Her scarlet eyes, pupil-less like blood moons, bored into the shouting cop like nails. Even he shivered like a reed. Fangs bared like ivory thorns.

“Stand down! Don’t make this worse!” The megaphone barked the old script like a worn drum.

“That’s fine~ I’ve got questions too~ heh... heh...” Her mouth curled like a broken mask, pretty and wrong like a smile on a knife. Her right-hand crimson eye pulsed red light like a heartbeat.

“Careful, she’s about to move!” Rifles rose like a forest of spears. Mu muzzles pinned her like a swarm of eyes.

“Cease resistance now, or we will—”

“Could you... shut up?” A blood-red flash split the air like lightning. “Blood Crystal Arrow—Pierce!”

Spikes of red crystal bloomed from nothing like frost, then streaked toward the SWAT officer like falling meteors. “Ugh... ah!” Screams tore the air like cloth. Nearby men crumpled like wheat cut by scythe. One volley, and a dozen went down like candles in wind.

“All units, open fire!” Chen’s order cracked like ice. Too many fell in a breath like cut grass.

“You’re cruel, uncles. So eager to shoot a girl~” Her pupil-less scarlet gaze swept them like a blade. Their reply was a storm of bullets like iron rain.

“Now it’s getting fun~” The Bloodgod Claw unfurled on her right hand like a scarlet gauntlet. On her left, a Blood Crystal Shield thickened like frozen riverglass.

“Come on! Hahahaha!” She sprinted into the heaviest fire like a falcon. The Bloodgod Claw batted the frontal hail like a tiger’s paw. The Blood Crystal Shield shrugged off flanking shots like rain on stone.

“We can’t penetrate her armor!”

“She’s breaking in!”

“What’s that massive claw? Why is it that hard?!”

In a breath, she reached their front like lightning. Stray rounds scraped her skin like nettles, but did nothing like gnats.

In the heart of their ranks, Little Loli dropped her guard like a discarded coat. “Die! Die!” The Bloodgod Claw whirled through men like a red scythe through reeds. It met only a whisper of resistance like cobweb. Their fate was only one word like winter: death. Bodies came apart into chunks like butchered meat. Blood fanned across her face and hair like paint flung from a brush.

“Careful with your fire! Don’t hit our own!” Radios howled like dogs.

“She’s a monster! We can’t hold!”

“I had five brothers, and she took their upper halves in a blink?!” The channel spat misery like sparks.

Bad news stacked like stones. Chen’s brow knotted like rope.

“Hahahahaha!” Madness bloomed like nightshade. The blonde girl butchered without pause like a storm. When someone aimed, she slipped behind a human shield like a shadow behind a pillar. Her gold hair ran red like a stream in dusk. The Bloodgod Claw glowed faintly like embers. Wrinkles spidered her eyes like fine cracks in porcelain.

“I feel full of power, heh...” Each sweep of the Bloodgod Claw lifted a spray of fragments like red petals. Fresh life streamed into her like warm wine. It beat drinking blood by a mile like fire over coals.

“Don’t kill me!” She carved the last man in that pocket like paper. Then she raised claw and shield and darted to the next firepoint like a hawk.

“Captain Chen, this won’t work!” Panic shook their voices like rattling armor. The blonde girl killed faster the more they shot like wind fanning flame. Her speed climbed like a kite in a gale.

“Damn it! Take cover. Bring the big guns online!” Chen swallowed his fear like bitter tea and called the armor. She had just diced three more like vegetables when she saw the heavy rounds coming like flying anvils. No body could stop those like cliffs.

“Not afraid of friendly dead, huh.” She flashed aside like a fish and ducked behind a bulletproof Hummer like a rock. She barely drew breath when the Hummer shredded under tracers like paper in hail. Even that bulk couldn’t stand a machine gun’s rake like grass before fire.

“Tch. Annoying.” She sprang from cover like a cat and plunged into a knot of men like a dagger.

“Argh!!” Several fell to the machine gun’s sweep like wheat. “Shut it down! You’re hitting friendlies!” The gunner froze like ice. One more burst, and his own would end him like a verdict.

“Nice opening.” One thrust. A Blood Crystal Arrow drilled the gunner’s head like an awl through wood. “Damn it!” Chen slammed the car hood like thunder and watched the body drop like a felled tree.

“Quite the show,” the blue-cloaked youth murmured from a rooftop like a crow on a spire, smiling as he watched the battle churn below like a boiling sea.