“Any idea why he seems so obsessed with you? I mean, it’s not that he usually makes sense, but shouldn’t he be more afraid now that you’re a Talc?” Dario said, breathing heavily as he leapt over a ledge and onto the next rooftop.

  “It has been bothering me. When Saigo told his story, he was about to explain the parasites’ motives before it cut off. I’ve since been asking myself what a parasite might want. There is only one answer I can come up with: the vile things want to spread.”

  She paused to climb a ledge, kicking off before landing smoothly and silently on the other side.

  “This floor has nothing but death and dust. The parasites do not seem satisfied with inhabiting beasts. There is nothing below, so that leaves only one direction for them to go.”

  “Up?” Dario said, eyes widening with horror. “Tenjin’s beard, we basically left them a path! Wait, then why haven’t they just gone through yet? Uso must know we must have gotten in somehow.”

  Nika nodded, face serious.

  “There have never been reports of powerful beetles or other infected beasts on any of the floors above. It follows that they must not be able to pass. Perhaps they are forever stuck at the level of Clay, unable to advance. Or there is some unknown working of the Mon that holds them back.”

  “Right. So it needs you for some reason?”

  “I cannot say for certain, but it is not exactly subtle in-”

  They snapped their heads around at a loud crack and the violent clatter of stone on stone.

  “Uh-oh.”

  Uso hung from the side of the tower, the thin legs of his host’s body suspended in the air like reeds as his long claws spread outward to dig into the stone walls.

  “Come, children. You will forget all your troubles. Together, we will usher in a new age!”

  The huge parasite dropped to the rooftop below, then used its claws as legs, crawling over the houses like a giant spider. A chill ran down Dario’s spine as he saw how quickly he skittered forward with that eerie gait.

  “Is it just me,” Dario said as they turned and ran, “or is he moving faster than before?”

  “He is certainly faster,” Nika said as she glanced back over her shoulder. “And quickly gaining on us. We will have to move through the streets.”

  They leapt down into a gaping hole in the next building, boots crunching on old tiles and cracked glass. The air was thick with dust and the smell of rotten wood and rusted metal as they wove through broken doorways and hallways full of debris.

  “Through here,” Dario called out, having taken the lead with his better eyesight.

  A familiar howling sounded from up ahead.

  They turned sharply and burst into an alley, moving away from the howls. Behind them, the constant tapping and cracking of Uso’s giant claws got closer.

  “Shit, we have to go faster!” Dario cried as he dashed ahead, skidding around a corner and nearly running into two cats. Without thinking, he blinded them with bright flashes of light as he grabbed for his dagger, watching closely as they moved. He caught the movement of Ki and twitch of a muscle just in time, leaning out of the way of a swiping claw and cutting along the cat’s side.

  Nika caught the other mid-leap and slammed it into a wall so hard that its skull cracked.

  There was no time to slow down, so they vaulted over broken walls and piles of debris and scrambled under cracked beams. Cats or hounds would come leaping down from rooftops in pairs or threes, only to get crushed under Nika’s fists or paralyzed by Dario’s spliced fruits before his staff cracked their necks. All the while Uso was closing in from above with all the inevitability of a rumbling thunderstorm.

  Dario turned yet another corner, lungs burning and legs aching from the constant running, coming out into an open space to face a small swarm of beasts. Bright eyes scanned alleys and doorways as he came to a stop, looking for the best way out, but the fight would slow them down and-

  “Submit, children, and join our beautiful swarm! No more distant parents or haunted dreams. Only hunger, endless hunger.”

  “This isn’t going to work,” Nika said, giving him a hard look. “We need to split up.”

  “What? That’s a terrible-”

  “Dario! Just think - at this rate, even if we succeed in leading them out of the city, how will we manage to set up traps?”

  His head swiveled to the left, growling and yelping beasts closing in, then back, where Uso’s dark shape was quickly approaching.

  “We’ll just get caught fighting in an open field. There’s no time. We split, you draw the beasts off, I lead Uso on a chase. You set up the traps. Then we take him down.”

  He turned back to meet her eyes which were full of angry determination.

  “Fuck!” he shouted. “You better make it, Nika! Don’t be late!”

  With one last nod, she was off, kicking a beetle out of the way and breaking a dog’s neck with a single chop of her hand before diving through a window.

  “There is nowhere to run. The time has come to leave your old life behind. Come, my seed!”

  Dario was left with an angry horde of snarling beasts. But as he faced them down, it wasn’t just fear that coursed through his body, but a jittery, excited feeling. Now was the time to display his strongest talent, his most valuable and precious skill which he’d been honing for most of his life.

  Running away.

  “It’s been a true pleasure, ladies and gentlemen,” he said to the hissing cats and yelping hounds, even taking a short bow. “But I believe the time has come for me to take my leave.”

  With plenty of light aura around, he was once again free to let loose. Light gathered around him until he was shining like a beacon, some of the beasts flinching back from the blinding glare. It grew larger and brighter still, even as he snuck to the side while veiling himself in shadows. For his final trick, the flare exploded with a flash, after which three crude images of a man dashed away in different directions.

  Meanwhile, Dario crept quietly into the nearest building that did not have the telltale red Ki of lurking cats. He moved slowly through it, his silent footsteps covered by the incessant yelping and howling, until he popped out into an alley.

  He moved like a shadow through the old streets, away from the noise and in the direction of their agreed meeting point, pausing only near some clusters of plants that grew through the old ruins to refill his Ki. Most of the beasts were still caught up in the chaos, but he came across a single dog that was moving slowly while sniffing the air.

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  There wasn’t even the slightest breeze, so he crept silently up a low roof, took a moment to gather the Ki of bravery, then dropped down on top of the hound, gripping its muzzle and smothering it with the bluish Ki as he cut its throat.

  After wiping his hands on its white fur, he picked up into a jog as the chaos continued behind him.

  “Heh, still got it,” he grinned as he ran down the street. He was coming up on the outskirts when he noticed a flash of Ki through a building on his left and skidded to a stop. It was only just in time to avoid getting crushed by the large shape that burst through the wall. Dario stumbled back, eyes widening as he took in the beast in front of him.

  “I knew I’d seen a damn bear!”

  Though now that he was looking at it up close, it would be more accurate to say that it used to be a bear. The other beasts could pass for living ones, but this massive thing looked more like a walking corpse. He pushed a hand to his nose to cover against the intense stink of rot mixed in with the musky smell of wet dog. Its body was covered in patches of missing fur and skin, some of the gaps revealing flashes of yellow bone while others were an outlet for thin, whip-like violet tentacles. Its dead eyes were darkened, filled with a deep purple hue, but its long teeth and wicked claws where still sharp enough to be dangerous.

  It moved as if to roar, but instead a silent fog came leaking out of its maw and a few holes in its fur, the same deep violet of its eyes. Dario backed away.

  “I think you may be looking for my partner, Nika. She’s back that way,” Dario said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

  The beast charged.

  “Balls.”

  ***

  Despite knowing better, Nika had still held some meager hope that a single strike with the green Ki of truth would be enough, if not to destroy the parasite, then at least to weaken it.

  But that Ki, or rather, the way she wielded it had a critical weakness: she could not shape it to her will. It had taken every effort just to establish a measure of crude control over the new energy. All she could manage was to send it out in a cloud

  In that form, all it did was to counteract Uso’s own stubborn shroud of lies, which served to obscure its movements. Her usual fighting tactic was to land a single decisive, crippling strike, but without being able to focus the Ki of truth into an effective weapon, that would not work. Instead, she would have to whittle the monster down piece by piece as she drew it away to a more favourable battleground.

  But now, as she watched Uso approaching with yet unseen speed and agility, she came to a sobering realization: the parasite had been holding back. An alternative explanation might be that the vermin had simply grown that much stronger from feeding on their dreams, but she doubted that.

  More likely, it had simply been waiting.

  “My seed!”

  Its distorted laughter reverberated through the stones around her. She leapt into yet another building, preparing to collapse the roof, but an elongated claw stabbed down right where her hand was about to touch.

  “No more games, young Houjo. No more hiding.”

  Nika clenched her teeth. It seemed that drawing it out further would not be easily done. Most of the beasts had been drawn away by Dario’s diversion, so now, the optimal scenario would be to wound the parasite before joining up with Dario, after he’d had time to lay the trap.

  So she gathered her Ki and dove out the window into a roll before dashing around the corner into an open square ringed by old buildings. Uso followed, long insectile legs gouging the ancient stone as it moved.

  As she spread her Ki into the stone around her, Nika watched as the parasite crept down the side of a building, slowing down as it approached.

  “Aahh, have you come to your senses? Seen the error in your ways? The pain will be only brief. After that, there will be bliss.”

  “You intend to use me as a host. To cross into the floor above?”

  Her Ki returned, having taken hardness and tiny specks of heft from the surrounding stone. Her eyes flicked between its claws - ten in total - looking for a missing piece from their previous fight. Instead, she found them all intact, though there was something like a scab, which she noted as a potential weak point.

  “Oh yes. So many people, with their little hopes and dreams and ever so many delicious lies. I’ve waited for centuries, but finally, the time has come. With a freshly ascended seed, the crystal will reject me no longer.”

  It had been the most likely explanation, but still, having it confirmed felt like the weight of a mountain settling on her shoulders. For her to fail and be lost down here, at the first step of her journey would have been a cruel fate indeed. But to be subsumed by a parasite and become responsible for what would doubtless be a plague of terrible proportions was far worse.

  Failure was not an option. It would be better to perish than to let this demon take control of her.

  Uso had been creeping steadily closer, but Nika held still, watching closely, noting the position of its tentacles and estimating their maximum range. Ten claws and six tentacles total, but they were all attached to the central body’s back, limiting their total range of motion. Attacks would come only from the front or the sides, both high and low, but never from her back.

  “What would happen to me? The old man you took seems long gone from this world,” she said, hoping to stall and…

  “This old seed? He was-”

  When Uso opened its claws to reveal the inner host body, Nika exploded forward.

  I desire my father’s love, she thought, a fresh cloud of green Ki rising from her chest, which she moved around her fist in a loose cloud. Uso’s shroud surged up to block, but her own Ki streamed out to meet it, both dispersing into the air. A fist covered in thick layers of obsidian Ki struck at a claw, but a tentacle flashed up to intercept. Right before impact, she used her improved control to sharpen the blunt shape of her Ki, piercing through the softer flesh.

  Uso hissed and struck with claws from both sides, but Nika stepped closer and punched with the other fist, aiming for the host body. The parasite aborted its strikes and slithered back to narrowly avoid the blow. That confirmed her suspicion that its host body was a weak point.

  Uso rushed forward once more and Nika retreated, dancing away from flashing claws and sweeping tentacles, deflecting the blows she couldn’t avoid on her hardened skin. Uso moved faster and struck even harder than before - there was no doubt he’d been holding back in their earlier fight.

  But she was stronger, too. Her Ki moved faster and covered her in thicker layers. Also, she was beginning to see patterns in Uso’s attacks.

  A claw scraped across her right arm as she hopped over a tentacle, another cutting through her hair as she ducked. She just barely got her elbow down in time to block a tentacle to the side, but still the impact sent her skidding sideways and then a claw was flashing to her neck.

  Nika pivoted and struck, meeting the point of the claw with a fist covered in green and black Ki. It splintered with a wet crack, spraying black ichor, but the punch had left her side open and another tentacle slammed into her ribs. She was sent skidding over the stones, moving Ki to her back right before crashing through the wall of a house. It knocked the air out of her for a moment, but her ribs were intact. No lasting damage.

  One claw down. That exchange had been hers, though not by a large margin. Still, it would not yet be enough to impede its movement.

  She hid behind the wall as Uso approached, sending a wave of her Ki out in a pattern to reshape the stone’s matrix into an unstable structure. With another Ki-infused strike, the wall exploded outwards, shards flying as she leapt through the gap.

  Uso’s claws flashed, catching most of the projectiles, so Nika once again called on her truth.

  I desire my father’s approval.

  The green Ki flowed once more, but just a touch weaker than before. Nika had wondered already before if the volume of green smoke had been less, but now she was sure. Still, it was enough to blast away Uso’s shroud and then she was again dancing on the knife’s edge, claws and tentacles whipping right past her skin, trying to avoid lasting wounds while landing a crushing strike.

  Her Ki flowed through her limbs faster than ever before, strengthening her muscles and speeding up her movements. Without that boost, she wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the blinding pace of over a dozen limbs constantly assaulting her.

  But each fighter had a pattern, and so did this monster.

  She took a scrape on her arm, then hopped as she kicked another claw out of the way. As expected, a tentacle flashed underneath her feet. She landed, pivoting, then crushed another striking claw with an unyielding fist. This time, she paid with a thin line of blood across her shoulder before a tentacle slammed into her stomach and she was once again tumbling across the ground.

  Two claws down, she thought as she got to her feet, Ki sweeping out and bringing back more hardness and a few white specks of heft. But it wasn’t yet time to reveal that trick - she needed to collect more of the bits of force. Far more.

  But Uso laughed like a rolling boulder, dark-brown Ki surging once more.

  “Foolish youngster. You’ve only just been given these weapons. I’ve fought such battles centuries ago.”

  She watched in horror as the brown Ki rushed into the monster’s claws, gathering around the two damaged parts, then flowing in and healing them. The shroud was diminished as it filled the gaps in carapace, but contrary to her green Ki, she’d yet to see a limit to how much of it the parasite could conjure up.

  She had been the one to start this battle of attrition, but now she had to wonder, who was truly wearing the other down?