Chapter 5 – “Rising Currents”

  “Yuri, anything?” I called out, slamming a fresh mag into my M4.

  We stood shoulder to shoulder, snow grinding under our boots. Across the battlefield, the W.M.B.

  reared back, its misshapen limbs slithering like smoke and sinew.

  Yuri’s eyes tracked its movements, sharp and calm.

  “Left flank—rear. There’s give in the hide. Not much, but enough for a clean cut.”

  I nodded once, raised my rifle, and fired a tight three-round burst. Controlled. Center mass. Most rounds bounced off, but one caught soft tissue near the neck, causing the creature to stagger for half a heartbeat.

  Still not enough.

  “Your blade’s our best shot,” I said. “Modern ammo’s barely scratching it.”

  Yuri didn’t respond. Her posture shifted—fluid, light—then she vanished into the snow with a blur of motion.

  Light Step.

  A movement so fast and clean, I almost missed it.

  She’d discovered something new. Something I hadn’t.

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  And I was still just pulling a trigger.

  Chris stared at the flickering screen, jaw clenched. Yuri’s silhouette zipped around the creature with surgical grace, while I fought like a blunt instrument beside her.

  Jake hovered at his side, hands flexing unconsciously. A layer of frost had formed around his palms, his water bottle frozen solid a few feet away. But he hadn’t tried anything yet.

  “If I freeze the ground… it might slow it,” he muttered. “But what if I hit them too?”

  Jasmine leaned against the wall, arms folded tightly. Illusion wisps curled at her feet—faint, flickering images of herself out of sync by milliseconds. Echoes, not enough for deception.

  “If I could just control the shimmer,” she said softly. “Give it a double… a fake target.”

  Chris stood slowly.

  “We have to try.”

  But his eyes weren’t on the battlefield.

  They were locked on Greg, who stood by the inactive portal pad, fists clenched.

  “Let me in,” Greg said.

  Chris hesitated. “I don’t know if the portal will hold—last time I nearly collapsed holding it open for Yuri.”

  Greg didn’t move. “If they fall, we fall next. I’m not waiting.”

  Chris took a deep breath. “Alright. But if this collapses while you’re halfway through—”

  “I’ll make it through.”

  Chris’s fingers flew across the glyph console. Static shimmered in the air, blue-white arcs stabilizing into a swirling oval.

  “Go.” Chris said.

  Greg launched forward, the portal flaring behind him.

  Yuri’s katana sliced through the creature’s flank, black ichor spraying into the snow. It shrieked, a grating noise like twisted metal and shriveled lungs.

  Before it could retaliate—

  BOOM.

  Greg exploded through the portal with a thunderous stomp, the ground trembling beneath his arrival.

  The W.M.B. turned—too slow.

  I opened fire again.

  Yuri struck from the right. Greg slammed in from the left. I rained bullets from the center. The creature reared back, overwhelmed for the first time.

  We were syncing. Not perfectly, but enough to push it on the defensive.

  Inside, Chris fell to his knees, blood running from his nose. The portal flickered shut behind Greg.

  Jake helped steady him.

  “You did it.”

  Jasmine placed a hand on the screen.

  “Now it’s our turn.”

  Far away—on a frozen ridge overlooking a different stretch of wilderness...

  Saya stirred.

  Her golden eyes narrowed, ears twitching.

  For four days, she’d been chasing rumors—traces of something alien in this world. Not just human.

  Not just prey.

  Magic.

  “Spatial interference,” she murmured, crouching low to the icy ground. “Not here… but close.”

  Her tail flicked once. Her eyes locked on the horizon.

  “Shelter 2…”

  A cruel smile curled across her lips.

  “I’ve found another den.”