Jera stood in the middle of the burning street, his hand outstretched. "Give. Me. Your. Weapons."
The three S-Rank Hunters looked at him as if he were insane.
"My daggers?" Velocity shrieked, her voice a pitch higher than normal. "These are S-Rank Artifacts, Walker! They're soul-bound! You can't just... borrow them!"
"Are they made of mana?" Jera's voice was cold, cutting through her panic.
"No, they're... they're forged from a dimensional fragment, but I channel my—"
"Then they are useless in your hands," Jera interrupted. "Your mana will feed the Bleed. It will make them stronger. In my hands... they are just metal. And I am the only one who can make that metal matter. Give them to me. Now."
"He's right," Aegis-7 said, his voice a low, defeated rumble. He had just watched his S-Rank power, his entire life's work, become a liability. He unstrapped his massive S-Rank combat knife from his chest. "He's... horribly, terrifyingly right."
He tossed the two-foot-long blade to Jera.
Jera caught it. And it vanished.
"Store."
Aegis-7 flinched. Velocity and Conduit stared.
"My daggers..." Velocity said, her hands trembling. She looked at Jera, then at the screaming chaos around them, then at the hole in the world he'd punched. Slowly, with a look of utter defeat, she unclipped her two beautiful, silver-blue daggers and held them out. "Don't... don't lose them."
"Store." They vanished.
"Conduit," Jera said.
Conduit, still shaking from the psychic possession, just numbly handed over his high-caliber, mana-infused sidearm.
"Store."
Jera was now, effectively, a walking, interdimensional armory. He was loaded with an S-Rank knife, two S-Rank daggers, and an A-Rank pistol.
"Okay," Jera said, his mind finally locking into a new, cold, combat-focused groove. "Aegis, your shield is still embedded in a wall two miles underground. I'll... get it later."
"Just... fantastic," Aegis-7 grunted, now completely unarmed.
"We are not fighting the city," Jera said, his voice taking on a new, sharp edge of command. "We are creating a path. The airfield is south. We move. Velocity, you're on point. Keep Seraphina safe. Take her." He shoved Seraphina toward the speedster.
"What? Me?" Velocity looked horrified at the prospect of babysitting.
"You're the fastest. No one else matters. Get her to the airfield. Conduit, you watch our backs. Aegis... you're with me. Draw their fire."
"You're giving us orders?" Aegis-7 sputtered, his S-Rank pride flaring.
"Yes," Jera said, not even looking at him. He was looking down the street, where a new wave of Corrupted civilians was pouring out of a burning department store. "Do it."
Aegis-7 looked at Jera, at the man's bleeding, unarmored back. He looked at the monsters. He made a choice.
"...You heard him! Move! Velocity, protect the Oracle! Conduit, watch our six! I'm on... on the big guy!"
The S-Ranks, against all their training, obeyed.
"Jera! Left flank! Heavy!" Aegis-7 yelled, falling into the role of a spotter.
A pack of ten Blood Imps and a massive, corrupted brute of a man charged them.
Jera didn't move. He just raised his hand.
"Eject," he whispered.
[Action: Kinetic Ejection. Agility Multiplier Roll: $\times 912$.]
[Target: Velocity's Dagger (Left).]
FUSSSSS-THOOOOOM!
The S-Rank dagger shot from an invisible point in the air next to Jera. It moved at Mach 10, a silver-blue line of pure, non-magical physics.
It did not hit the first monster.
It lanced through the first monster, the second, the third... it tore through the entire pack, vaporizing them in a single, kinetic, perfectly-straight line of red mist and shattered concrete.
It finally stopped, embedding itself, hilt-deep, in the engine block of a bus a mile down the street.
The S-Ranks stopped. They just... stopped.
Velocity, holding Seraphina, looked at the line of destruction.
"...My... my dagger..."
Before she could finish, Jera's voice cut the air again. "Store."
A mile away, the dagger vanished from the bus. It was back in his Inventory.
He had just invented a teleporting, armor-piercing, reusable railgun.
"He... he reloaded," Conduit stammered. "He reloaded... from a mile away..."
"MOVE!" Jera roared. The momentary awe was broken. The city was still screaming.
This time, the S-Ranks ran.
They ran as a team, but the roles were inverted. The three S-Ranks were the bodyguards... for their weapon.
"Right! Rooftop!" Aegis-7 yelled, pointing.
A new, winged, Corrupted creature was diving at them.
"Eject: Conduit's Pistol."
THOOM.
The pistol, not the bullet, the entire gun, shot into the air at hypersonic speed, obliterating the creature in a puff of black-and-red.
"Store."
Jera reloaded.
"Front! They're swarming!"
"Eject: Velocity's Dagger (Right)."
FUSSS-THOOM.
A C-Rank-equivalent Corrupted... car... was thrown at them by a larger beast.
"Eject: Aegis-7's Combat Knife."
THOOM.
The car was bisected mid-air.
"Store. Store. Store."
It was a symphony of impossible, terrifying violence. Jera was a walking god of physics. He was untouchable. The S-Ranks were no longer fighters; they were a targeting system. They pointed, he shot.
"This is insane!" Velocity yelled, her voice giddy with a mix of terror and awe as she ran, pulling Seraphina. "He's not just a Hunter! He's a one-man artillery battery!"
Seraphina, her face pale, just watched Jera. He was a storm of focused, kinetic death. His back was bleeding, his body was in agony, but he moved. He didn't hesitate.
This was not an Overlord. This was not a victim.
This was a Hunter.
They tore a two-mile path of destruction through the Chicago suburbs, their goal, the Bureau Airfield, finally in sight.
They reached the blast doors of the secure, underground hangar.
"We're here!" Aegis-7 yelled, punching his S-Rank code into the keypad. "Conduit, seal the door behind us!"
The massive, reinforced-steel doors groaned shut, sealing out the sounds of the screaming city and the purple-green light of the Bleed.
They were, for a moment, safe.
The four of them collapsed against the wall, panting. Seraphina immediately slid to the floor, her legs giving out.
Jera remained standing, but he was leaning heavily against the hangar wall, his entire body shaking. The adrenaline was fading, and the agony from his back was returning, ten-fold.
"Gods... Walker... your back," Velocity said, her voice soft, her earlier animosity gone.
Jera's jacket was soaked through with blood. He was in bad shape.
"I'm... fine," he grunted, his teeth clenched.
"You're not," Seraphina said, her voice shaking. She looked at the S-Ranks. "He needs... he needs a medic. He's... he's just a man. He's wounded."
Aegis-7 looked at Jera, then at his own empty knife sheath. The man who had just saved them was bleeding out.
He made his decision.
"Velocity, get the S-Rank emergency kit. Conduit, power up the 'Archangel' transport. We're getting him out of here."
He turned to Jera, his expression grim.
"You're not just an asset, Walker. You're our only asset. You are not allowed to die."
Jera tried to say something defiant, but a wave of black, agonizing pain rolled up his spine. His S-Rank regeneration was fighting his S-Rank wound, and the cost was immense.
He slid down the wall, his legs giving out, and for the first time since his awakening, Jera Murphy passed out.
His last, fading thought was a single, panicked word.
...Seraphina...