†Chapter 8: Raid†

 

 

 

†Chapter 8: Raid†

 

EARLY morning, just as first light began to cut through the dark after the rain, Zelaide’s lengthy figure was reflected in a puddle of water. He was standing in an empty alley behind an abandoned building somewhere in Romanesque City. Four shadows suddenly emerged from the dark alleys weaving between the multistory buildings that seemed short compared to the rising skyscrapers of Gothic City.

Four Beast Bloods. Three men and one woman.

One man was large and burly like a bear, the second tall and skinny, and the third was a handsome redhead who looked younger than Zelaide. The woman was clad entirely in leather blacker than her long, raven hair. In the early morning when the sun hadn’t risen yet, their eyes gleamed.

“Long time no see, Zelaide.”

“I was hopin’ it’d be longer.”

“That’s some attitude ya’ve got there.”

“Were ya able to locate the enemy with the intel I gave, Vulcan?” Zelaide asked the bearlike man.

“Yeah,” Vulcan Asymmetry responded, unaffected by his younger kin’s lack of formality. Just like his last name suggested, his eyes were two different colors. Slits at the end of his eyebrows made them look like snake tongues. The man himself looked more like a giant red bull than a snake. He gestured with his chin to the woman in black crouched behind him. “Mizelle, share your intel.”

Mizelle was unusually slender for a Beast Blood, and had a beautiful but narrow face.

“Only two helicopters arrived in this city today. One was quite large and landed on the rooftop of Speyer Building early in the morning,” Mizelle explained in an emotionless voice. “We have confirmed a number of civilians were onboard that one. The other was a small two-seater. It flew north of the city before noon, but I don’t know the landing point.”

The larger of the two was likely the helicopter Euphemia and Ronaldo took from Gothic City.

“We can’t enter the northern part of the city. The area is restricted to VIPs who own holiday homes there and security is tight. The helicopter seems to have landed somewhere inside there,” she finished.

Haydn! Zelaide’s silver hair stood on end.

“There’s more,” Mizelle said, shooting a frosty look at the man about to bolt from the alleyway. “But I’ll leave if you don’t want to hear it.”

“…Tell me.” Zelaide had no choice but to stop and listen to the cut and dry woman.

“I don’t know where it landed, but the car that left the villa zone right after parked at the Speyer Building. The area around that building is my territory. I always have my ears pricked to catch anything out of the ordinary. The car was tinted to prevent prying eyes. But I sniffed out something strange and told the kids to keep an eye on it and the surrounding buildings. This was before Vulcan contacted me.”

“Good instinct,” the skinnier man said.

“Mizelle looks after the parentless Beast Blood kiddos living in this city. Ain’t she admirable?” Vulcan threw in.

Mizelle didn’t even glance his way.

“What was strange ’bout it?” Zelaide asked, also ignoring Vulcan.

“Speyer Building is home to a TV station and normally has a lot of traffic coming and going from it. Suspicious types often mix in with the other humans. It’s impossible to check every vehicle or person, but…that particular car reeked of Nightz.”

“Nightz…?”

“That’s right.” Mizelle held her IHT out for Zelaide to see for himself.

The black car captured on screen was a luxury vehicle that didn’t look suspicious. Why would this vehicle reek of Nightz?

Nightz generally didn’t have a strong odor. The smell given off by the normal stuff available on the black market could be completely hidden by human perfumes, hair products, food, sweat, and soap. But it was not odorless. If there was a large amount in one place or if it wasn’t diluted, anyone with an acute sense of smell would notice it.

And it was believed that Beast Bloods had a sense of smell several times that of humans. Experts said that while their smell wasn’t as good as a dog’s, it was much sharper than any human and some animals. Research had also shown that Beast Blood children had a better sense of smell than the adults. It’s what allowed the children to survive even without parents.

“A lot of entertainers and celebrities frequent the building and some of them do Nightz,” Mizelle explained. “But Amanda said the smell was too strong for that. Amanda has exceptionally heightened senses among the kids I look out for. Either that car is full of pure, undiluted Nightz or it was shortly before showing up here. No doubt about it.”

Zelaide silently pondered what that meant for Euphemia.

“The car stayed parked there for half a day. There were too many people and cars coming and going from Speyer Building for my kids to pick up on this Haydn man or your mate. It was even worse today because they seem to be holding some sort of event. But what I can say is that the car only headed back to the villa zone just before rainfall. One of the kids I had taking watch shifts sent me video of it leaving. I don’t know if your mate was inside or not. This is all the information I can provide.”

　Mizelle fell back and melted into the darkness created by the collapsing wall.

“What’s the plan, Silvergray?”

“I’m goin’.” Zelaide’s reply was brief. The other man’s face hardened.

“That zone’s security is topnotch.”

“Luce is right,” Vulcan chimed in. “A private militia protects that zone. They ain’t Guardian strong, but strong ’nough. Basically some rich man’s mercenary team. You’re up against a fat cat, right?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Zelaide responded and meant it.

“Charging in through the front is suicide. They don’t have machine guns, but they’re packing anti-Muta weaponry. Those things work just as well on Beast Bloods. You don’t even know how many are stationed in a single villa, much less the entire complex. Think before you act. If you truly want to save your mate, that is,” the skinny man, Luce, advised in a grave voice.

“I want to save her. Even if I have to die to do it,” Zelaide roared, his throat rumbling.

“Then it’s settled.”

The redhead nodded, followed by the other two.

“Take command, Zelaide.” Vulcan cracked a broad smile.

Zelaide lifted his chin. “I’m going to save my mate. Assist me.”

“Mission accepted.”

“Affirmative.”

The Beast Blood men accepted his request as one.

“Wahaha! Hell yeah! Bein’ able to demand a favor outta ya later is a good feelin’. Ain’t it, Luce, Leo?”

“…Hmph.”

“Oh yeah.”

The skinny man and the young redhead replied in their own ways. They were all Beast Bloods from Romanesque City.

“Leo, go get us a few more guys. Luce, you’re on weapon duty,” Vulcan ordered the men. He was the most familiar with the local area and everyone present. “I’ll take stock of what security is like in the villa zone. Zelaide, you’re with me. No rushin’ things, ya hear me?”

“…I know.”

“Mizelle, gather more intel,” Vulcan instructed the shadows. “A lot of the residents in the villa zone are big cats, so none of the addresses are public. They’re often registered under different names. But we can’t get started if we don’t know where that car went. Likely get reported while we’re lookin’. Can any of the kids do it? Unlike us, they can blend in.”

“…Can try it,” Mizelle reluctantly agreed. “But I’m bringing them back the moment it gets dangerous.”

“Do that. Those kids are your life. Put them first. You all good on your orders? Gather back here once I give the word. There aren’t any eyes here and the back roads will get us to the north quick…” Vulcan turned from the other Beast Bloods to Zelaide when he noticed the dangerously deep lines etched into his brow. “Don’t make that face. Worrying is only gonna drain you of energy that much faster.”

It took tremendous effort for Zelaide to suppress his desire to charge in after Euphemia right away. Throwing away reason to rescue one’s mate was a natural reaction for Beast Blood males. Even more so if their woman was kidnapped. It wasn’t uncommon for a male to go into a crazed frenzy in his position.

He’s got a lot of self-control for a youngster, Vulcan thought. And that’s why we’ve gotta be quick about this.

“Go!”

The Beast Bloods went in four different directions letting out a howl telling the world that the Beast Bloods were on the hunt.

†††

MIZELLE contacted them in the late-afternoon.

“Amanda is tracking the car. Tire marks were found on the way to the vast mansion overlooking the forest in the mountains, located in the northernmost part of the villa zone. The rain washed away the smell of Nightz, but we’re lucky that the mountain road isn’t paved because it counts as a nature reserve. Amanda dropped Sand Limas along the way, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding it.”

Sand Limas were small legumes with an irritating odor. Adult Beast Bloods didn’t have the same sharp sense of smell as their children, but they could easily sniff out and follow the Sand Lima stench. Mizelle had thoroughly thought out a plan before sending Amanda in.

“There were also humans hunting down the same target. I’d guess they’re Gothic City Guardians by the smell of them. Can’t say if they are friend or foe,” Mizelle explained in an emotionless, matter-of-fact voice.

“Gothic City Guardians are on your side, right, Zelaide?” Vulcan looked over at Zelaide. “But we don’t work well with humans. Thanks for your help, Mizelle.”

“It’s too soon to thank me. Amanda hasn’t come back yet.”

“She tracked down the location of a single car in that huge territory. That merits thanks enough.”

“Who owns the property?” Zelaide asked with impatience. Panic flashed in his eyes.

“Don’t know yet. But we were able to determine it belongs to a big player from Gothic City.”

That was all he needed to hear.

“I’m goin’,” Zelaide stated, fists clenched.

“Yeah, time to go. Look after the kiddos who came back, Mizelle. You don’t have to fight.”

“Amanda isn’t back yet. I’m going too.”

“……”

Zelaide tightly furrowed his brow. He wasn’t used to fighting with others. Especially alongside women.

The older Beast Blood laughed and pacified him. “Don’t look like the world is over, Zelaide. It’s true that our kind doesn’t usually work in a pack. But it’s a different story when it comes to our mates. We’ll band together to protect them. It’s not an exaggeration to say we males live solely for our mates. This Euphemia you roared about and nearly burst the speakers on my IHT for is your mate, right?”

“…She is.”

“Then this is a job for us men. It’ll be a debt owed, but ya don’t have to pay it.”

“If we rescue Euphemia, I’ll pay you back double. I’ll even work with the humans… Let’s move!”

“I’ll remember that! But do me a favor now and don’t try to be a lone hero for your woman. I won’t be able to collect on your debt if you end up dead!”

“Time to go?” Leo rose from the shadows. The other Beast Bloods he contacted stood with him.

Zelaide wordlessly slid into his car and started it. He gunned it and was out of Vulcan’s sight in seconds.

“Wilds be with him. He’s at his limit. Not that I blame him.” Vulcan got on the oxlike motorcycle that was custom built to fit his size.

The other Beast Bloods scattered to take their own routes to the villa.

“Get to cut loose for the first time in a long time. This is gonna be fun.” Vulcan zoomed after his young kin with a roar.

†††

“…BUILDINGS are gettin’ sparse… Is this still the city?”

Romanesque City had a smaller population than Gothic City, but more than double the space. The farms and research facilities that Gothic City had to build on the city outskirts were constructed within Romanesque’s shield walls.

Farmland and industrial facilities were scattered near the north outer edge of Romanesque City, and the surrounding landscape looked nothing like what one might expect to find inside one of the most advanced cities in the frontier colonies. It was the largest city on this planet when it came to surface area contained within defensive walls.

“Chwirk! Chwirk! Chwirk!”

Tipsy threw a fit in the car. The restive Muta was telling his master he wanted out after patiently sitting on the back seat for hours. Zelaide pressed the button at his fingertips and opened the sunroof. Tipsilox flew outside, brushing Zelaide’s hair with his thin, membrane-like wings on the way out. He caught a good tailwind that lifted him into the sky above the car where he flew comfortably in the direction Zelaide was headed.

Before long, Zelaide saw the forest down the road. Even this massive forest was maintained within city walls. And it wasn’t just any forest. It was the bulwark acting as the first line of defense for the VIPs who owned the land beyond it. Various camouflaged sensors scanned anything that approached. Unsettlingly, none of them reacted to Zelaide’s car.

Did someone else take them out before he got there? He didn’t have time to worry about what that could possibly entail for him up ahead.

Euphemia is in one of these villas?

Tipsy flew to the right of the villa zone. The open sunroof instantly alerted Zelaide to why. The pungent smell of Sand Limas exuded from the right, not the villa zone.

Zelaide spun his steering wheel hard right. Vulcan followed him.

The road went up a gently sloping hill. Beautiful villas were built on the slope. Although the streetlights were on, few homes were lit because the resort season was over. The gated villas were on his left as the road took him up and around them. Shrubs grew tall on either side of the bumpy road, suggesting this path fell outside of property management’s jurisdiction.

Zelaide stepped on the gas, running over the branches and vines hanging over the road. After driving around and around the hill as it took him higher, he finally came to a clearing. Located in a hill basin, the clearing was geographically positioned out of sight from the villas downhill and the road leading up to it.

A large spheric mansion unlike anything on this planet lurked in the dark clearing. At the back of the building was a dome built into the slope. The building loomed like a small mountain surrounded by high-tech walls. Dull light illuminated the foreground from the large and beautiful mansion gate.

Zelaide parked his car in the middle of a thicket some distance from the gate to avoid triggering the sensors. Tipsy sensed the danger. He flew off into the distance, avoiding the sky above the property.

Zelaide broke some branches around his car to mark where he parked. He sent the mansion location to the other Beast Bloods and, after a moment’s hesitation, sent the same message to Erica with his IHT. Equipped with his favorite gun and knife, he slipped the small IHT in his inner coat pocket and got out of the car.

The night breeze alluded to the coming autumn.

Vulcan broke through the thick shrubbery and caught up to Zelaide.

“This it?”

“Looks like it,” Vulcan said, scanning the area. “Surprised there’s a place like this out here. No one has been allowed to map the area. Only way to find it is if you came knowin’ something was ’round here and searched by copter. But they deliberately left it out in the open without activating a shield. Keeping the shield off was a clever move. No heat signal to detect at long range.”

“…Reeks of Nightz.”

The mansion was too far away to get a feel for what was inside. But a sinister presence bled into the darkness from beyond the stalwart, gilded gate. The earthy aroma of the devil’s narcotic blended into the night breeze.

Vulcan sniffed the air. “There are all sorts of smells mixed in, but that’s the stuff. They’ve got a large stockpile somewhere.”

The property was quiet.

She’s here. Zelaide’s instincts told him Euphemia was held captive somewhere within.

His eyes gleamed.

They trudged through the thicket and avoided the road. Scaling the side wall away from the main gate was their ticket in. Clouds obscured the moon, casting shadows over the land. It was the darkest hour of night and they were in the middle of a forest. Humans would easily lose their way. But their heightened senses guided them through the dark labyrinth of trees as if they were on a pleasant hike.

“Oi, oi.” Vulcan halted.

Grass and pine masked the Sand Lima’s unique odor, but it was an altogether different scent that invaded Zelaide’s nostrils. This was a smell he was all too used to.

Blood. It reeks of blood.

The worst possible scenario chilled him. He waded through the thicket and jumped in the direction of the smell. Hundreds of nocturnal insects sprung soundlessly from the brush.

“No!”

Lying in the middle of the brush was a child bleeding from her chest. Light gleamed from her partially open eyes.

She was a Beast Blood.

“Are you still with me?!” Zelaide held the girl up in his arms. Her eyelids fluttered.

This had to be the girl Mizelle sent out. Although she was still breathing, her injuries were life-threatening. A sharp blade had slashed her diagonally from her shoulder down to her navel. Her heightened regeneration must’ve kept her alive. The blade missed her vital organs, but white fat was visible from the open gash.

“Dammit… Who did this?!”

Zelaide removed the long-sleeve shirt he wore under his jacket, ripped it into makeshift bandages, and wrapped it around the child’s bleeding stomach. His large shirt easily covered the girl’s wounds, but she quickly bled through it. She was on her way to dying from blood loss.

“Vulcan.”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of her. But it’ll mean you goin’ in alone.”

“That was my plan from the start.”

“I’ll come back as soon as I hand her over to Mizelle,” Vulcan said, picking up the child and melting into the dark.

The stench of blood lingered.

Zelaide continued on alone until he came upon two men collapsed on the ground. They looked like Erica’s Guardians. Their injuries were severe and they were barely breathing. But Zelaide couldn’t stick around to treat them. Their IHTs had been destroyed before they even hit the emergency alert button.

When Zelaide stood up, the man with his face pressed into the dirt suddenly grabbed his ankle.

“Y-You…Silver…gray.” It was the captain of the Guardians who came to arrest Zelaide at City Hall, Andre Jossel. “Did you…come for…her?”

“Yeah. Sorry, but I can’t save you. I’ll send word to Erica at least.”

“Don’t…worry…about us. But…be c-careful. He’s strong. U-Uses w-weird disc-like throwing weapon…” Captain Jossel’s body armor was missing chunks. It was the work of a sharp blade that wasn’t a knife.

“He? A single enemy?”

“Yeah…w-wearing all black…and d-dark tinted specs…”

“Got it. I’ll look out for him.”

“G-Go… S-Save…her.”

Zelaide heard that gasped request behind him. He was already running through the woods again. While running, he pressed two numbers which sent the location coordinates and SOS text automatically to Erica again. The small IHT in his pocket buzzed a second later.

“Zelaide!”

“Erica? I’m outside the mansion now. Your guards are seriously injured. No doubt ’bout it. Yumi is here."

“Yes, there’s no mistake. I researched the coordinates you sent. It’s not included in public records, but Haydn’s company owns that property,” Erica said.

“Smells like Nightz. And…blood.” Zelaide didn’t stop running. Erica was silent.

“Please…save Euphemia…” she finally said in a quiet voice.

“I swear it on my life.”

Zelaide launched himself into the air by kicking off the ground. The treetops swayed loudly beneath his feet.

He was almost to the edge of the forest.

The crescent moon rose over the low mountains and breached the cloud cover.

†††

“ZIGGURAT, you screwed up,” Burhardt said as he looked down at Euphemia sprawled on the floor. “You didn’t notice because of your big car, but you were followed. By two different enemy camps. They’ve already sniffed this location out.”

“So they have. Doesn’t matter either way. They can’t touch me.” Haydn was unconcerned.

“You think so? Those Guardians are Saionji’s elite unit.”

“What are they capable of? They can’t enter these grounds. The most they can do is sniff around the area like dogs. I suppose Saionji has finally determined this property belongs to me. Did you kill them?”

“They were barely breathing last I checked,” Burhardt reported with indifference.

“Who’s the other enemy camp?”

“It’s not a group so much as a lone Beast Blood child.”

“Did you say a Beast Blood youngling? Wonderful! I wonder if we can still torture them and feed them to the Muta.” Haydn glanced over at the latest camera equipment covering the wall.

“I cut the child down and discarded her in the forest. The Guardians succeeded in destroying our sensors and defense system in that time. I thought things seemed odd recently. They must have suspected us for a while. Saionji is no fool. She wouldn’t take this kind of risk without proof of some kind. You have gone too far. You can’t expect your position to protect you forever when you use misuse it to do whatever you please without taking precautions.”

“Well, it’ll be a blow to lose this mansion. I hid it well, but looks like time’s up. I can move to another location anytime. Not even the great Saionji can touch me once I steal the crown from her. Without her position in Gothic City, she’s nothing more than a concerned citizen. Powerless. Just how much money do you think I’ve poured into the police and research institutes? They won’t turn on me,” Haydn bragged, full of confidence.

“That has worked until now. But you can’t buy Beast Bloods. He’s on his way here. Sand Limas are in the air. He might be scaling the walls as we speak.”

“…Kill him. Torment him to death. And be sure to take high quality video of it all,” Haydn ordered, restiveness creeping into his voice.

“I’d do it without you telling me to. I’m content as long as I get to kill him…kill Silvergray,” Burhardt said coldly.

“Zel?” Euphemia stirred awake and lifted her head off the floor. She had lost consciousness after Burhardt showed up. “…Director Burhardt…”

The appearance of her trustworthy boss had filled Euphemia’s emerald eyes with hope, but the words died on her lips before the frigid eyes that stared down at her. He had shown up right before she fainted and given her a look colder than death itself.

“I see you’ve come to, Mia. Yes, it’s me.”

Burhardt looked completely different from her levelheaded boss who always wore a white lab coat. Black leather clothes, dark tinted specs. If it wasn’t for his name, she would’ve never recognized him. His voice, more than his name, was what forced Euphemia to acknowledge it.

“Director… Why? How could you do something so…so horrible?” she accused.

“Director, huh? That identity lasted a long time. I had grown quite fond of it. I can’t go back to it now… Too bad.”

“I’ll give you another identity,” Haydn offered. “In the meantime, hold back those Beast Bloods, Shank. Killing them all will eliminate any solid evidence against me. The rest will work out on its own. I have accumulated that much power and influence over the world.”

“Shank? You’re Shank…Director? I don’t believe it.”

Shock widened Euphemia’s emerald eyes. Her head shook weakly as if fighting to accept it.

Shank was the name that came up from the very beginning as the frightening man leading both Infernum and Vermis. Every day Euphemia went to work alongside that dreadful crime lord.

“No way…” she breathed.

“It’s one of many names I go by, but yes, I am Shank,” Burhardt said without inflection. Did any emotion show in the eyes hidden behind his dark specs?

“Y-You’re the o-one who…f-framed Zel for murder….” she stuttered, emotions getting the better of her.

Burhardt closely assessed Euphemia. His thin lips curled into a merciless sneer. “Indeed, that was my failed attempt. I’ve been so long without a woman, I didn’t account for the lack of sperm.”

“…Coward… I trusted you…” she hissed.

“What are you going to do with this woman?” Burhardt asked Haydn, leaving Euphemia unanswered.

“I’ll play with her until she becomes an obedient doll. There are plenty of ways to break a person.”

“Your perversion never ceases to amaze. Well, it’s no concern of mine. Do what you wish with her.” Burhardt—Shank—slowly looked around the room. “This is not a good place to fight. I’ll pick a good spot and wait for him to come to me.”

A slight smile touched Shank’s lips as he turned his back on Euphemia. That was no longer the back of the kindhearted researcher she knew. It was the broad back of a man going to fight—much like she had often seen in Zelaide.

“Wait! Don’t go yet, Director Burhardt!”

“…What is it?” Shank turned around and watched with amusement as Euphemia pushed herself off the ground and managed to stand on swaying legs.

The large monitors behind her cast a shadow on her face, but Shank easily saw her desperation. On the monitors, the footage of Euphemia being attacked replayed for the thousandth time.

Shank pulled a short steel spike from the leather holder on his chest and threw it at Euphemia.

She ducked with a small cry as the black spike whooshed passed her ear. The stagnant room was shaken by shattering glass.

The strangely shaped steel spike stuck out of the largest monitor directly behind Euphemia.

“What did you do?!” Haydn roared.

“They will be here soon. You can’t let yourself be distracted by that,” Shank said flatly.

Boots pounded the floor outside the door. The door should have been locked, but three armed guards rushed into the room after using the emergency release code. They were Haydn’s private bodyguards.

“President! Are you safe?!” shouted the leader pointing a gun at Shank. The other two guards positioned themselves in front of Haydn. “We only allowed this man inside because you permitted it.”

“Nothing’s wrong. We just had a slight disagreement.”

“You should send this man away. He’s dangerous.”

Shank let the leader’s threatening gaze wash over him like a spring breeze.

“Take your men and intercept the Beast Bloods heading here,” Haydn ordered.

“Beast Bloods?”

“Beast Bloods are headed here?”

The bodyguards panicked.

“They are. This man told me that Beast Bloods with a grudge against me are on their way. I’m going to evacuate into the inner area with this girl. Two of you come with me. The rest are to work with Shank to eliminate every single Beast Blood foolish enough to come into my domain. You can kill them. Actually, do kill them. I’ll be filming the whole thing so we will have evidence that it was legitimate self-defense.”

Nervous tension ran through the guards, but they filed out of the room at their leader’s command. They were headed to give orders to the rest of the guard team.

“What are you people thinking? Murder is wrong! You won’t get away with any of this!” Euphemia yelled at their backs.

“Get away with it? This is an act of self-defense,” Haydn demurred. “I didn’t think you had much energy left to shout. Guess that should be expected of your stubbornness, huh? I can’t have you throwing a fit on me. I’ll make you nice and quiet…with the highest quality Nightz.”

“Nightz?!”

“Yes, Nightz. Allow me to show you a supreme dream.”

“S-So you were the main source behind Gothic City’s Nightz problem!”

“No, no. I’m not so arrogant as to take credit for that. The main problem lies in weak humans who rely on narcotics. I merely gave them the option. I will become the king of this world after I burn away all the trash that readily relied on narcotics. Becoming mayor of Gothic City is just a step in that direction.”

“Pretending to be the savior of the problem you caused? Devil!”

“Aah! Those eyes! I have been longing to see those eyes burning with anger. Clouding them over with drugs will be such a waste. But it must be done. You will be out of it until I can drag Saionji down by announcing her biological sister is a Nightz addict. It won’t take long. Then I can see those eyes again. Come along then. Time for your injection.”

“NO! Let go! Zel! Zel!”

Shank silently watched Haydn drag Euphemia out of the room.

“I don’t make a habit of fighting alongside humans, but…the situation calls for it…” He removed his tinted specs and tossed them aside. His right eye glowed like a cold, blue flame. “Come, Silvergray… Death awaits.”

†††

I’M almost to the forest’s edge. Only a few hundred feet to go!

Zelaide’s surroundings suddenly turned into a beautifully maintained garden promenade. Decorative iron-wrought streetlights and elaborately pruned trees neatly lined the walkway under the indigo sky. But this was no public park—it was Haydn’s private estate.

Immediately after he walked into the small flower-filled plaza, something sharp cut through the quiet late-summer evening and echoed in his eardrums.

Gunshots!

Came from the north…inside the mansion! Yumi!

He couldn’t afford to worry about tripping the sensors anymore. Zelaide ran like lightning toward the white wall towering ahead of him. The wall was too high for a private villa. It was more suited to a high-security facility.

The mansion was constructed to go higher as it followed the sloping mountain, and it ended in a semicircular dome built right into the mountainside.

Gettin’ over this wall comes first.

Something dry cracked the air at his feet. If he had been running even a little slower, he would’ve taken a bullet to the leg.

Zelaide shot out his right arm, releasing his wrist wire into the tree in front of him and using it as a fulcrum to pull him horizontally through the air. It whipped his body around at an almost complete right angle turn. Bullets blew holes in the pavement.

There!

Snipers always targeted from high ground.

With his bird’s eye view, Zelaide spotted two watchtowers sandwiching the main gate. Snipers aimed at him from both. He’d never infiltrate the mansion if he kept getting shot at from above.

I’ll silence this side first.

Zelaide swung under the tower on the left. Putting his back against the wall made it hard for them to shoot him from the right, but left him open to being sniped from above. He fired the wire hook into the tower’s angled roof and used its powerful contraction force and his feet to scale the tower in a zigzag motion. Bullets grazed his hair, shredding it. Several more passed through his billowing coat. But the snipers weren’t skilled enough to land a direct hit on a moving target.

In less than a minute, he scaled the sixty-five foot tower and swung onto the platform, plunging his feet into the face of one sniper. The sniper’s rifle flew from his grasp and onto the ground below. He lost his balance and fell off the turret platform.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!” His scream echoed the whole sixty-five feet down.

The other sniper, who was too busy gaping to do anything, took Zelaide’s fist to the nose. He landed hard on top of the narrow platform. Blood gushed from his broken nose and split-open lips, staining the decorative white tile. He wore gear from the Romanesque City Guardians, but he was still too young to be on the force. The sheer difference in power robbed him of the will to fight back.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Bullets sprayed the pillar behind them. Snipers fired on Zelaide from the opposite tower. Zelaide grabbed the young man by the neck and moved forward with him as a meat shield.

Fire temporarily ceased as the other guards hesitated to shoot one of their own. Zelaide used that opportunity to lift his gun and fire on them.

He only fired off a few shots, but each hit their mark. Blood sprayed in the distance. It wasn’t a high-caliber gun, but it dealt a fatal blow if aimed right. Zelaide couldn’t stay still long enough to judge if he had taken them down. There should’ve been at least two shooters in the other tower, but they had stopped firing on him. By the look of things outside, it was unlikely the mansion had many guards. Zelaide was in luck. Being a Beast Blood only made him superhuman not invincible. Maybe Haydn wasn’t expecting a full-scale attack this soon.

Zelaide jumped from the tower.

He landed on the wall first before hopping into the shadow of the leafy shrubs below. The sun had set, leaving no natural light. Floodlights kicked on in the garden. Two wide circles of light from the right and left exposed him. Bullets rained down from above. He rolled on top of the soft grass, escaping the cadence by the skin of his teeth. Back on his feet, he fired at the bright lights as he ran. He wouldn’t miss this shot with his eyes closed. With a loud crack, the area was bathed in darkness once more.

Darkness gave Beast Bloods an advantage. At the price of not seeing in color, they saw the finer details of what was in the dark. If anything, their senses heightened with the lack of color and light.

Zelaide, who managed to get under the eaves of the building while the enemy was stunned, broke a large stained glass window and charged inside the mansion as glass fell around him.

Haydn likely held Euphemia captive in the dome at the back of the mansion.

Zelaide rushed through a series of hallways before exiting into a spacious greenhouse with a skylight ceiling. The only way forward was through the greenhouse.

Someone stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the massive room. Their silhouette wasn’t that big, but cold, silver light radiated from their right eye.

It was a Beast Blood.