The air in the subway station turned heavy, ionized by the humming energy of the Seeker's lance.
Cyrus stood his ground, his feet slightly apart. He didn't reach for a weapon, because he didn't have one. His only tools were the cold mechanical heart in his chest and the memory of a dead assassin's grace.
[Target Identified: Seeker Alpha-7]
[Class: Executioner]
[Active Shield: 100%]
The Seeker didn't waste time with words. It moved with a mechanical precision that rivaled Cyrus's own. The golden lance thrust forward, a bolt of pure electricity arcing toward Cyrus's throat.
Cyrus didn't retreat. He used Ghost-Step.
Instead of a simple dodge, he waited until the very last millisecond—until the heat of the bolt singed the stray hairs on his neck. Then, he blurred. His body didn't move backward; it slid sideways into the long shadow cast by a rusted pillar.
The Seeker's lance hit the pillar, melting the solid iron as if it were wax.
Cyrus appeared three feet to the Seeker's left. He lunged, not with a new power, but with a calculated strike to the Seeker's arm joint.
Clang!
His fist, reinforced by the Void-Skin, hit the golden armor. The shockwave vibrated up Cyrus's arm, but he didn't flinch. The Seeker swung its shield, a massive plate of reinforced alloy, forcing Cyrus to use Ghost-Step again to retreat into the darkness of a collapsed tunnel.
"You are fast, Shifter," the Seeker's voice was a synthesized drone, devoid of gender or soul. "But speed is just a delay of the inevitable. Your clock is leaking."
Cyrus glanced at his chest. The Void-Steel threads were holding, but the internal pressure was rising. The System flickered.
[Ghost-Step: Level 1 - Proficiency: 15%]
[Warning: Stamina Depletion - 30%]
Cyrus realized he couldn't win a war of attrition. He had to use what he had. He looked around the station, his Perception spotting the leaking chemical pipes Wrench had mentioned earlier.
The green fluid was highly flammable.
"I'm not delaying the inevitable," Cyrus said, his voice echoing from the shadows. "I'm just waiting for the check to clear."
The Seeker charged again, its boots cracking the concrete floor. Cyrus stayed in the shadows, moving like a phantom. He used Ghost-Step repeatedly, not to attack, but to lure the Seeker toward the leaking pipes.
Every time the Seeker lunged, Cyrus was gone, leaving only a fading blue afterimage.
"Face me!" the Seeker commanded, its lance glowing brighter. It unleashed an AoE (Area of Effect) burst of electricity, hoping to catch Cyrus in the shadows.
Cyrus felt the sting of the current, his Void-Skin absorbing the brunt of the shock, reducing the damage just enough to keep his heart from seizing. He reached the pipes.
As the Seeker prepared for a final, lethal thrust, Cyrus stopped moving. He stood directly in front of the leaking green chemicals.
"End of the line," the Seeker droned, its lance pulsing with white light.
The lance shot forward.
Cyrus didn't use Ghost-Step to move away this time. He used it to move up.
He vanished into the rafters just as the Seeker's electric lance pierced the chemical pipe.
BOOM!
The explosion was emerald green and deafening. The pressurized chemicals ignited instantly, turning the tunnel into an oven. The Seeker, caught in the center of the blast, was thrown backward, its golden armor blackened and its energy shield shattered by the chemical reaction.
Cyrus dropped from the ceiling, landing silently behind the smoking Seeker.
The Seeker tried to turn, its joints grinding and sparking. Its helmet was cracked, revealing a single, unblinking red sensor.
Cyrus didn't use a new skill. He used the same strike he had used on the Warden—a palm strike to the chest, but this time he poured every remaining ounce of his Stamina into it.
CRACK.
His hand pierced through the weakened golden plate, reaching into the Seeker's mechanical chest. His fingers closed around a glowing, golden cylinder.
The Lifespan Core.
"Deal... closed," Cyrus hissed.
He ripped the core out. The Seeker's red sensor flickered once and went dark. The massive golden warrior slumped forward, becoming nothing more than a heap of expensive scrap metal.
[Target Eliminated: Seeker Alpha-7]
[Reward: Lifespan Core (Rare)]
[Fate Points: +50]
[Ghost-Step: Level 1 -> Level 2]
Cyrus stood over the fallen hunter, holding the glowing core. He felt a surge of warmth as the System began to siphon the energy from the cylinder directly into his hourglass.
[Lifespan Harvested: +7 Days]
[Time Remaining: 189:45:12]
He had won a week. Seven days of borrowed time.
But as he looked at his hands, he noticed they were still shaking. The Ghost-Step had put a massive strain on his nervous system. He wasn't a god yet; he was just a man learning how to use a monster's tools.
Wrench crawled out from behind a pile of scrap, her magnifying lenses wide. "You... you actually killed a Seeker Alpha with nothing but a pipe explosion and your bare hands."
"I used what was available," Cyrus said, his eyes returning to their normal brown, though a hint of blue remained at the edges of his iris.
He looked at the tunnel entrance. He knew more would come. The death of an Alpha would be felt in the Upper Layers.
"I need to leave the Rust Sector," Cyrus said. "Where is the path to the 'Neon District'?"
Wrench pointed toward a dark, vertical shaft. "The old elevator. But be careful, Shifter. In the Neon District, they don't kill you with lances. They kill you with contracts."
Cyrus nodded. He began to walk toward the shaft, his footsteps echoing in the silent station. He had a week to live, a reinforced heart, and a growing proficiency in the art of the ghost.
It was a start.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Cyrus
Lifespan: 7 Days, 21 Hours
Fate Points: 75
Strength: 14
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 14
Perception: 15
Active Skills: Ghost-Step (Lv. 2 - Faster, lower stamina cost)
Passive Skills: Void-Heart (Max), Void-Skin (Lv. 1)