I knew that Matthias was watching me. The Tier 4 Guardian seemed content to clean up the lesser threats nearby while the titan and I destroyed each other, though. Admittedly, it was a bit of a one-sided fight. I was ripping straight through the enormous, Tier 3 scuttler's armored shell and snapping off the giant, unusual spikes sticking out from it. The normal, Tier 1 scuttlers didn't have those.

  Still, the difference in strength wasn't so extreme that I could dismiss the other Anathema entirely. I did make sure to keep myself attached to its back, and I stayed away from all the spikes that I hadn't already snapped off. They kept charging with some kind of violet lightning—a similar color to the effect in the sky, but unlike the lights above, they actually moved like normal electrical arcs. Anyway, it kept trying to charge its spines and blast me, but as long as I stayed in the patch I'd cleared, I was basically safe.

  It wasn't long before I made a hole wide enough to squeeze through.

  The inside of the titan wasn't too different from its weaker brethren. It was just a soft, yellow-black mass of sticky, alien flesh. Diving in with unrestrained glee, I began devouring my way through the interior. It was easier than ever to scarf down massive quantities of food, now that I was a full chamelium. My Jaw was a bit bigger than it was when I partially shifted, and the whole geometry of my face, neck, and everything else optimized the process. Rather than pounds per second, I estimated I was operating on the order of tens of pounds.

  The scuttler was still alive, of course. I was big, but it was way bigger, and Tier 3 Anathema regeneration was nothing to scoff at. What should have already killed a normal animal was still something it could potentially recover from. Comparing it with my memories of the first titan I'd chewed through, this one was definitely stronger. Was the smasher titan really only a Tier 2? I guess it could have been.

  I didn't remember it having any esoteric abilities. This giant scuttler had the lighting spines, though. Well, either way, it's a good bit more powerful. That was good for me, because it meant it was even tastier. Its higher regeneration also meant I could snack on it for longer. It wouldn't die and turn useless as quickly. Also, now that I was well and truly inside of it, there was basically nothing it could do to hurt me. It couldn't attack me with violet lighting, bite me, claw me, or even sit on me. It was completely helpless.

  You know, that's a good thing to keep in mind, actually. If I could seal a titan's doom the moment I burrowed my way inside of it, then I should probably be super wary of any unusually tiny Anathema that was the same tier as me or higher. I really, really don't want to experience what it's like to be on the other end of this.

  About half a minute and several hundred pounds of food later, I made it to an extra tasty bit. The moment I swallowed, though, the whole thing went still and the deliciousness all but evaporated. Ah, damn it! It looked like I'd gone and killed the thing. Did I eat its brain or something? Regardless, I couldn't really complain. It was the best meal I'd had yet—honestly, it probably rivaled everything else I'd eaten over the past week combined. Maybe not fully half, but definitely close to at least a quarter or a third. Damn.

  It seemed like going after the real big boys was a solid strategy. It would have taken me forever to get the same amount of—what, power? Nutrition? I wasn't sure exactly what to call it, or what it even was, but it would have taken me a lot longer to get the same amount by running around snacking on the random Tier 1 fodder. Granted, those would be far from a total waste—a single Tier 1 was worth a hell of a lot of steel bolts. They were just less optimal than the stronger Anathema I could find in a proper incursion.

  Alright, time to get out of here and away from Matthias. I really didn't want to find out what it was like to fight him. Even after chewing my way through the Tier 3 titan and ingesting a massive amount of power, potential, or whatever it was, I doubted I could actually kill him. He was effectively a full two tiers higher than me, and he tasted super dangerous. My instincts told me the only way I could have a chance would be by surprising him—something a chamelium like myself was primed for, that was true, but I'd already used my chance, and he knew I was here.

  So, as I started eating my way back out of the dead scuttler, I kept drilling the plan into my head. Avoid him if you can—best just to slip away—but if you can't, and he notices you, just run for your life and try to make it not worth the effort.

  I was pretty sure Anathema rarely ever fled. We had a significant reputation for aggressively fighting anything to the death, and I hoped turning tail and doing everything I could to just get away would work. Now that we were in the middle of an incursion, it might actually work. The only reason that team kept pursuing me earlier was because I was the only threat around and the reason they were there to begin with.

  Breaking through the shell on the other side, I pulled myself free. Idly, I noted that most of the gunk from the scuttler's corpse slid straight off of me, as if I were some sort of non-stick pan. That was super convenient, because I didn't fancy running around covered in gore at all times. Like, yes, I just tunneled my way straight through it, but that doesn't mean I want to stay filthy.

  I didn't see Matthias, but flicking my tongue out, I knew he was super close by. So, hoping I really could just avoid him, I started slinking my way off into the trees in the miniature park area right across from me. Unfortunately, he walked around the hulking corpse just before I could make a break for it. Damn it!

  He was looking right at me, and he was clearly ready to fight—but in that single second, he hadn't actually moved to attack. I didn't either. I just tiled my head at him, trying to mimic the body language of an inquisitive dog, and then I bounded away into the trees. I ran as fast as I could, not daring to look back until I'd crossed through the entire park and the street on the other side. Looking back, I couldn't tell what he was doing. It didn't seem like he was chasing me, at least. Whew. Talk about a massive relief.

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  Matthias "Crimson Tempest" Asano

  Matthias continued following the chamelium at a distance. It was necessary to avoid alerting the creature to his presence. As a general rule, Anathema had exceptional senses, and their ability to sniff out and identify other presences would be frightening if they were more patient and less unthinkingly aggressive.

  It was something that, while most Guardians were aware of it at a basic level, most didn't really understand or appreciate the true extent of it. For example, Matthias still found it surprising that most Guardians seemed completely unaware that Anathema were all very much aware what tier a Guardian was the moment the two encountered each other. In most cases, they'd just attack anyway, so admittedly, it could be a bit hard to realize it under most circumstances.

  That wasn't always the case, though, and Matthias had personally observed the way some of the more sophisticated, higher tier Anathema would respond differently to different Tier threats. They would often still attack, but there were nuances someone who actually bothered to study the creatures would pick up on. Overall, they weren't completely mindless like many assumed—some varieties, like chameliums, could actually be rather cunning. The problem was that for some reason, they were all locked in a state of complete and violent madness.

  It wasn't surprising, then, that the chamelium fled the moment he got close. Unusual and unexpected, yes, but not truly surprising. Naturally, Matthias decided to follow it.

  Also unusual but not unheard of was the way it continued to hunt down other Anathema. The Tier 3 was a true menace to everything in its path, tearing down every other Anathema in its way as it tore a path of death straight through the incursion. Admittedly, that was a bit surprising to Matthias. While Anathema would often turn cannibalistic, the sheer, ruthless determination in hunting other Anathema was not something he'd ever either seen or even heard of. Fighting with another Tier 3 was one thing, but this? He wasn't quite sure what he was looking at.

  Regardless, he wasn't going to complain about it. It was already a joy to encounter such a rare type, and it was even better to observe it from a distance instead of having to fight and kill it. Hell, it's even doing my job for me. Admittedly, it wasn't nearly as efficient at dispatching other Anathema as Matthias himself would have been—but the Tier 4 Guardian decided to allow himself the luxury this one time. God knows I've earned it.

  Moving from rooftop to rooftop, through alleyways and across the miniature parks and gardens that littered the university grounds, Matthias continued following. It's definitely prioritizing stronger targets—it only ever seeks out Tier 2s, only killing Tier 1s when they're already in the way. Interesting. Continuing the trend, the chamelium also sought out any other Tier 3s, completely diverting course several different times to track down an equal tier threat. None of them were as large or strong as the scuttler had been, though, and the metallic, part lizard like, part insectoid Anathema tore through them all with relative ease.

  Such a beautiful creature—it's really a shame. Given that the creature had only been slaughtering other Anathema, and had even tried to run from him, Matthias felt even worse than usual about the idea of putting it down. So, rather than continuing to follow and observe, the Guardian tore himself away and set off in the opposite direction. Finally unleashing his aura, faint streaks of red and smoky black began twisting around him. He would cut his own path through the incursion, leaving the chamelium for someone else.

  Logically, he knew that he should be the one to handle it—the creature was a high Tier 3, and even if it was only targeting Anathema right now, that would change at some point. The incursion itself would eventually end, and if the chamelium was still alive, someone would have to deal with it. Matthias had a perfect chance to do that now, and he should—but he didn't. It stung his conscience, and he felt the heat of shame—but he left it behind anyway. Someone else can kill it. I don't—I don't have it in me, this time.

  And so the Crimson Tempest continued cutting his own bloody path of destruction in the direction of the nearest breach.

  By my estimate, it took about one to two hours for the various forces involved to shatter the last breaches and thus end the incursion. That didn't magically kill all the Anathema still rampaging around the wider area, though, and cleaning up that whole mess was going to take many hours longer. And that was only the time it would take to kill most of the stragglers—I had a feeling the whole university would be shut down for the rest of the week, at the very least.

  I was super glad I wasn't one of the many students holed up in one of the bunkers. I'd been in that position a couple times before—really, who hadn't? And it wasn't remotely fun. There was almost never any internet, which meant I had to read or play games on my phone until the battery started getting too low. Super boring.

  As it were, I ended up on the very outskirts of the university. Actually, I'd crossed all the way over into another city district. It was one of those inner city places that was neither quite downtown, uptown, or fully residential—I felt like I should know what this area was called, but there were multiple of those around the uni, and I'd mostly lost track of where I actually was. Sure, I would be able to find my way back home with no problem, but nothing immediately around me was super familiar.

  Whatever. Crawling into a literal ditch next to an empty parking lot, I focused on turning back into small, cute, perfectly normal, human Alex. Please tell me I can turn back. I can't be stuck like this forever. There was a moment of pure, almost primal terror where I felt like nothing was happening and almost began to truly panic. It was for naught, though, because slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, my metal body began to shrink and contort. It's working!

  It was slow, very slow. It was almost painfully slow in comparison to how quick shifting my claws back to hands usually was, or even compared to when I 'removed' my supposed 'armor' in the parking area behind the strip mall across from that Uncle Xavier's restaurant. The process accelerated as it continued, though, and it took maybe a minute for me to compress back into something properly humanoid. From there, it was only several seconds before all the metal was gone and I once again looked like I did before any of this had happened.

  The only difference between now and how I looked several hours ago in my bedroom was that I was completely and utterly naked.

  It was super inconvenient, but it made perfect sense. The metal was just my own body, and I'd obviously shredded my pajamas at some point in the intermediary stages. The same thing even happened when I fought the smasher titan back in the first incursion. Somewhere along the way, while I was burrowing inside of it, I'd lost the last scraps of my clothing.

  Granted, I hadn't realized it that time, and so I ended up naked in front of Katherine and my dad. Only one of them had hurried to look away, and it wasn't the one who also cut off my hand. Fortunately, he took like twenty seconds to portal off somewhere and then come back with a passable outfit of sandals, t-shirt, improperly sized underclothes, and shorts. Unfortunately, I had no such luxury this time, and I was now stranded in a literal ditch somewhere in the middle of LA with literally zero clothing.

  At least it wasn't daytime, but—God. This completely sucks.

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