"Spread out, everyone! Don’t tag our own with your bullets!"

"She’s on me! Ahhh—!"

"Open fire! Damn it, open fire!!"

Roars tangled with gunfire, and screams cut off mid-breath like candles snuffed by wind. Their formation shattered like a sandcastle under a wave. "Push back! Don’t run!" Captain Chen bellowed into his radio, watching his men drop or get shredded like paper in a storm. Helplessness welled up in him like a black tide.

"Captain! We’re down to less than half!" A runner sprinted up, voice cracking like a snapped wire. They were getting butchered, plain as noon sun.

"I’ll take you with me, you monster!" A SWAT officer charged the blonde Little Loli, bullets splashing at her like rain on stone.

"Useless." She raised the Bloodgod Claw, a crimson shield like a thorned moon, and swallowed the fire.

"Let’s die together!!" He yanked every pin on his belt, a bouquet of grenades blooming in steel, and dove at Little Loli. The last thing he saw were her crimson, lifeless eyes—two winter stars without warmth.

"A-Ming, fall back!" someone howled, voice breaking.

Swish—the Bloodgod Claw skimmed past, carving a few gaping holes through his chest like a scythe through straw. No one saw the ghost of a smile left on his face as he fell.

Boom!! The corpse erupted like a buried mine. "What—?!" Shards screamed at her, and she caught them on her blood-red claws, but the shockwave hit like a hammer and flung her away.

"Gah—" Her insides flipped like a capsized boat. She spat blood in scarlet arcs. Her vision fogged like frosted glass. "Careless, huh..."

Severe damage detected. Essence Repair mode: engaged. The mechanical voice rang in her skull like cold iron, but Little Loli heard nothing; her eyes grew heavy as dusk. Am I... dying? Blood trickled from her lips, bitter and metallic like rusted rain.

"Captain, they did it!!!" A cheer burst like fireworks. Their teammate’s self-detonation had finally crippled the monster. She lay there, wrecked, as if the night would swallow her. "Nobody get sloppy! Prep for capture!" Captain Chen let a thin smile crack his face.

Then the world turned. The terrible eye on her right hand spun like a whirlpool. Life Essence Repair... initializing.

What color is life? No one knows—but today, they saw it.

A milky-white fluid tinged pink burst from her right hand like a spring, then spiraled back with a will of its own, pouring into the fallen Little Loli.

Repairing.

Red-white essence sheeted over her body like a living veil. "Mmm..." Warmth pooled in her chest like sunlight through leaves. "So warm..." It flowed to her belly like a gentle stream; even those damned kidneys quieted, pain ebbing like a receding tide.

She opened her eyes. Her head still throbbed like a dull drum, but the rest of her wounds were mostly knitted. The eye in her right hand stopped spinning and resumed its usual bloodthirsty glow, a predator in the dark.

"System, what was that?" She stood slowly, dusting off her skirt like ash from snow.

"Life essence plundered earlier by the Bloodgod Claw. It cannot be used again shortly."

"No need. That was plenty." Her lips curled into a wicked smile; her fangs showed like ivory knives.

"Captain—she’s up again!!" A finger pointed, shaking like a twig in wind.

"Is she unkillable?!" Captain Chen rubbed his eyes, disbelief like grit under the lids. She was on her feet—scrapes gone, skin smooth as new porcelain. He glanced at the remnants of his force—half, at best. "Call the army. Get more men. We go all in!"

"You even made your teammate blow himself up~" Little Loli opened her scarlet eyes, amusement flickering like foxfire as she stared at the panicked SWAT and soldiers.

"You damned monster! Give me back my teammate!" The one who’d shouted for A-Ming hurled his rifle aside, ripped out a bayonet, and charged, voice ragged like torn cloth. Others did their part, muzzles barking flame like wolves.

"You came for me first. You hurt my parents. When I’m done with you, I won’t spare your families either~" She smiled sweetly, spring flowers masking winter frost, and chills ran through the crowd like a draft in a tomb. "Best not let me walk away~ or you’ll regret it. Oh, right—regret it in heaven~"

She slipped through bullets in bullet-time, each round a lazy firefly in her night. "Now." She found a slit in their fire. One foot kissed the ground, then kicked back hard. She borrowed the impact of their shots, and her body shot backward like an arrow loosed from a warbow.

"Don’t run, you monster!" The SWAT officer panicked, a bead of sweat cold as ice. He’d popped his grenade pins, betting on mutual doom under cover fire. But the blonde Little Loli opened distance with a ghost’s footwork, widening the gap like a river in flood.

"Bye-bye, stinky old man!" She flashed a sugar-sweet smile and flicked her small hand. A massive blood-crystal arrow bloomed in the air and skewered him, then carried his body toward the packed crowd like a comet.

"Holy shit! Run!"

"Don’t come near me!"

"Stay back!"

Guns clattered to the asphalt as men scattered like autumn leaves. Too late. Despair froze his face as he detonated midair, a scarlet flower bursting open. Little Loli dissolved the blood-crystal arrow into a storm of tiny spikes. The blast shoved shrapnel and blood-spikes alike into flesh. When the smoke rolled back like a dying tide, no one in that sector stood.

"Now it’s my turn~" A petite silhouette knifed through the thick smoke. Her crimson eyes burned with the thrill of the hunt, and she sprinted toward the last surviving pocket like lightning chasing a ridge.

"What are you waiting for?! If you don’t move, they’ll all die!" A shout pointed at a street turned into a butcher’s river. Blood paved the road like a red carpet to hell.

"Don’t rush." A blue-cloaked youth spoke, light as a breeze over water.

"Fire! Keep the grenades coming!" The survivors tried to shrink their line, a turtle shell under hail. It didn’t matter. To the blonde Little Loli, clustering only sped up their funeral.

She tilted sideways and let a burst hiss past like a swarm of bees. Momentum carried her into a clean aerial flip. "This is the end..."

She wore a playful smile. "Justice Rain From Above!" In midair, blood-crystal spikes bloomed like a crimson storm and poured down on SWAT and soldiers below.

"Ahhh!!"

"Full power!!" More blood-crystal arrows answered her call and scythed downward, merciless as winter rain.

"Ugh—!" The last man hit the ground. She scanned the field—no one left standing. Bodies looked like wasp nests, riddled with holes that bled in steady streams like leaking barrels.

"Splendid performance!" Little Loli’s strength had run dry. Overuse of blood-crystal arrows left a sting under her skin like nettles, and she crouched, panting hard. The sudden voice made her snap upright, wary as a cat at thunder.

A blue-caped youth appeared at the center, as if stepping from a ripple. He raised both hands. His cape melted into colorless water and drifted upward like mist.

"Looks like we’ve got another guest~" Her pupil-less scarlet eyes fixed on him like twin blades. "Almost forgot—the Ability Organization hasn’t even taken the field." She rolled her wrists, and her lips quirked up like a knife’s edge.