“Xiaoxue, are you okay? Damn… it’s all my fault…” Joanna’s voice broke into a wet sob, grief flooding in like monsoon rain. Her best friend had already endured so much; if she fell because of her, wouldn’t that—
“Don’t spiral, Nana.” Xiao Qianxue slipped a vial into her vein like a thief in moonlight. Her head, heavy as a thousand-catty stone, eased a little. She turned to the brown-haired girl pressed against her and managed a brittle smile.
“They can’t do much to me for now. But, Nana—” The blonde seized her. At full strength she’d yank Joanna away with her wings like a hawk stealing a lamb. Now she was only half herself; she’d stall midair and crash like a cut kite. “You have to promise you’ll run on your own, okay?” Her gorgeous golden-red eyes pinned Joanna’s brown ones, twin suns trapping a sparrow.
“3”
Joanna edged toward the little door Xiaoxue had indicated, body tight like a drawn bow. Trust was all she had; the truth stung—she was a burden in a battlefield of knives.
“2”
Her golden irises tightened to pinpoints, and shooting mode clicked in like clockwork gears. She mapped every target’s position, motion, and next likely move, three passes in a heartbeat. Her hands clenched the Star-Red Twins, magazines packed with special rounds. Anyone hit wouldn’t live—unless they had that vial that turned men into monsters.
“1”
To Ouyang Si’s crew, Xiao Qianxue was meat on the slab. After the anesthetic, who could still fight? They eased their guard and drifted closer, never noticing death descending like frost.
She sprang lightly; before minds caught up, bullets were already roaring from the chambers, whooshing toward throats and hearts.
“Moonfade!”
Bang-bang-bang. The nearest enemies shredded into a smear of meat, special rounds blooming inside them. Their bodies couldn’t bear the impact—like tofu smashed to paste under a brick.
“What—?!” Ouyang Si squinted through the blood-spray, vision a red fog. Instinct yanked his body right; a bullet burned past his shoulder like a comet.
“Tideguard.” At a thought, dull-colored water wrapped him like a river-cloak. Thud—thud. His skull and heart felt hammered by iron. He looked down; two spent rounds clinked to the floor by his boots.
“Guh—” A mouthful of dark blood burst out; sweat beaded his brow, and his heart lurched like a startled deer. Fear finally bit. If he hadn’t raised Tideguard at once, he’d have been planted here by Xiao Qianxue’s first volley.
If Ouyang Si was dancing on a cliff edge, the others were already over it. Close enemies fell to one bullet; distant ones had their paths pinned with one shot and their lives taken with the next. Ouyang Si got a special three-round greeting.
They didn’t even trigger their powers before becoming mince. A few slipped through on niche abilities, but they were all missing arms or legs, scattered like broken dolls.
The instant Xiao Qianxue moved, Joanna ran flat-out for the door, every muscle burning like a fuse. In a blink, men beside her turned to chunky splatter that warmed her skin; nausea couldn’t rise before her feet carried her through the back door and into a familiar route. A spike of pain slammed the back of her head; the world went black, and she crumpled like a cut flower.
“Hah… hah…” After that kind of precise sweep, even on a good day she’d be half-dead. “Combat mode. Emergency Treatment—initiate.” The blonde sagged against a table, lungs sawing, fatigue surging like a flood to drown her mind. With her last breath of will, Xiao Qianxue switched modes.
“Emergency Treatment… initiating.” The system’s mechanical voice chimed in her skull. She couldn’t tap the Bloodgod Claw’s life-essence repair; she hadn’t killed with the Claw, hadn’t harvested a drop.
If I could repair with essence, I’d be more than half back—maybe enough to drop that man. She fixed her gaze on Ouyang Si. Blood-mist rose like a scarlet tide, curling around her.
“Don’t let her finish!” Ouyang Si’s heart howled with a thousand whys—why fight after the anesthetic, why stronger, why— But thinking was a luxury. If she recovered, this mission was ash.
Head-sized water orbs swelled around him. “Go!” He shoved, and the spheres jetted toward the blonde like slingstones from a storm.
Before, Xiao Qianxue would’ve had no clean answer. Now— “Hardened Wings!” Black-red wings ripped from her back and folded around her like a steel cocoon. She knew they couldn’t eat the full force, but one wave was enough; then Emergency Treatment would be done.
Bang-bang-bang. Water-balls smashed into the handsome black-red wings; the span shuddered like a struck bell. “Mm—” The force climbed her bones, but it beat canceling the treatment to raise the Bloodgod Claw mid-attack.
Black-red feathers whirled through the air like storm-tossed embers. “What?” Ouyang Si froze, attack faltering. “What the hell is that?!” The blue-caped youth flinched at her metamorphosis. Lack of intel kills.
Ouyang Si slammed both palms into the floor. “Water Dragon Shot!” Two water-dragons ripped up from the boards and lunged for the girl like serpents from a well.
“Too late!” A clear, bell-like voice rang above. Emergency Treatment complete, Xiao Qianxue bit through the ache and shot skyward, slipping the strike like a swallow through rain. She had roughly thirty percent of her strength—not much, but miles better than half-dead.
“Bloodcrystal Arrow—Pierce!” No more wild spray; she steered each shard true, turning a former wide-area storm into razor-precise single-target shots across multiple foes.
“Ah—ah!” Not just punishing Ouyang Si, she finished the stragglers too, cleaning the board to a bare 1v1.
“Got any moves left? Bring ’em.” The girl in the air beat her black-red wings; feathers bristled like barbed quills. Her blood-red eyes carried a hunter’s spell—get caught in them, and prey-terror creeps your spine. The massive, savage Bloodgod Claw on her right hand glinted—a beauty honed to kill. She snapped at Ouyang Si, who had eaten her Bloodcrystal spike behind Tideguard.
“Damn it!” Ouyang Si had no good answer to the thing soaring above him. Luckily, he’d saved a trump.
“Do you still want Joanna alive?”
