The wind had stopped.
The trek back to Concord was not a march of victory. It was a retreat...bruised, limping, and quiet. Umbra-07 moved with the pace of those who had glimpsed something they were not meant to see.
But before that retreat… there had been the moment of chaos.
---
Moments Earlier – Forest's edge
The trees trembled before the advancing abomination.
The mutated Riftbeast lumbered into view, steam hissing from every joint, its obsidian flesh broken by jagged, glowing veins of green corruption. It moved with unnatural grace for a creature so large,twelve feet of hunched muscle and sinew, hungrily sniffing the air with nostrils that flared like furnace vents. Its teeth were too many, irregular, serrated like shards of shattered obsidian. Its eyes pitiless, animalistic, twitching with erratic pulses of unstable Rift energy.
Zira stepped forward, her stance braced. "Brace yourselves! This thing is anything but normal!"
It locked eyes with Ethan. Its upper lip curled as it started to grwol menacingly at him.
Zira turned to shout "ETHAN, MOVE!"
But she didn't wait. She launched into him, both tumbling to the side as the beast's spiked tail crashed down with an earthshaking boom, leaving a crater where they'd stood.
"Keir! Liora! Ruuun now!" Zira bellowed.
The forest exploded with motion.
They sprinted. Under branches, over roots, pushing harder than their legs wanted to.
Keir cast frost slicks to slow the beast's path. Liora's drones fanned out, launching pulses of interference and light bursts. Ethan ran beside Zira, his breathing erratic.
A burning itch crawled across his skin.
Then...his vision tinted blue for a second.
He glanced down. Stripes. Flickering. Blinking in and out of existence like a failing light.
"Shit! Shit! Shiiiit! Not now!"
The beast was catching up. It shouldn't have. It was too big to be so fast.
But it moved like a predator.
It smashed through Keir's ice and bounded forward, claws dragging through tree bark as if it were paper.
Liora shouted, "It's gaining! It's ignoring my drones! What do we do!?"
Zira grunted. "We're not gonna outrun it!"
They exploded into a clearing and then the horror struck.
A cliffside.
Jagged rocks. A sheer drop.
Dead end.
"Fan out and try to evade it!" Zira commanded.
The Riftbeast emerged like a nightmare.
Zira launched herself first. Flames wrapped around her fists as she surged forward, punching up into the beast's jaw. Her knuckles cracked bone. Her second blow sent a spray of blood and tooth into the air.
It roared. Not in pain. In rage.
It snatched her by the shoulder and swung her like a club, slamming her into the cliff wall. She covered her head with her hands to protect it but the force was too great,She dropped.
Keir followed. One hand casting ice lances, the other barely moving. He managed to stab its thigh not deep but enough to stagger it but to his surprise,it was already retaliating tail sweep that smashed into his chest, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the earth.
Then the beast lunged forward, claws extending.
Keir tried to dodge, but it was too fast. A massive paw crashed into him, raking down his side. The force sent him skidding across the ground, his arm snapping audibly under the impact. Then it slammed a hind leg down on his knee shattering it with a sickening crunch.
"KEIR!!" Liora screamed.
His cry of pain echoed into the trees.
Liora's drones peppered the creature with microblasts, scorching its flanks. One drone flew directly into its mouth and detonated, causing it to shriek violently but it retaliated by leaping through the smoke and landing amidst the team.
Right in front of Ethan.
He stood his ground.
He couldn't think. He could barely move.
The beast charged him.
He ducked beneath its swipe, rolling forward. Came up to strike.
The stripes flickered again.
Blue crackle.
He hesitated. Confused.
The beast hit him like a truck.
Ethan was hurled through the air. His back collided with a trunk so hard that bark exploded outward. He dropped to the ground and lay still.
"ETHAN!" Liora screamed.
He rolled onto his stomach. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth. His ribs were definitely broken.
The beast stomped toward him.
He forced himself up, breathing ragged.
The stripes surged again l,this time across his entire left arm.
He raised his fist and punched it as hard as he could....BOOM,right into the creature's foreleg.
It staggered, just barely.
Then it roared and grabbed him, lifting him like a doll and crushing him with its clawed grip. Bones creaked. Ribs fractured.
He screamed.
The stripes blinked back. Heat surged. But the pressure,the beast was squeezing the life out of him.
His vision faded.
Then suddenly,deep within his chest something ignited.
A roaring flame tore through his arm.
He extended his hand just as the beast opened its jaws to bite him.
A violent burst of flame erupted from his palm, slamming into the beast's face, then its neck, then spilling across its shoulder.
It didn't kill it.
But it was enough to keep it distracted for abit.
The beast screamed and clawed at itself, flames refusing to go out. It thrashed in confusion, forcing it to let go of it's death grip.
Ethan dropped from its grasp, bloodied and gasping for air.
"MOVE!" Zira shouted, appearing beside him. She slung his arm over her shoulder.
Liora arrived with Keir,barely breathing, arm broken, leg torn, side gouged deep enough to expose bone. Blood soaked her uniform as she hoisted him up.
"No time!" she shouted.
Zira nodded. "Run now or die here!"
Together, the two girls carried the others.
They sprinted through the trees, dodging branches, leaping roots all while carrying the two that were heavily injured.
Behind them, the Riftbeast howled, still clawing at its face.
Every meter away from it was a miracle.
Their lungs burned. Their muscles crying out of exhaustion.
And just as they stumbled through the final line of trees...
Figures in black armor descended from the sky.
"Umbra-07?" one asked, scanning them. "Get them out...NOW!."
"Four of you,on the Riftbeast! Go go go!"
The senior Breachers surged past them.
Three others grabbed the students.
Zira collapsed, unconscious.
Liora wept silently.
Ethan slipped into darkness.
And above them, the transport ship descended.
A retreat that should have been impossible made real only by raw instinct, desperation, and the smallest flicker of hope.
They were alive.
Barely.