Marcus/Rocco
The rain hadn't stopped in three days.
Not completely.
The city sat beneath permanent Gray skies now, the streets slick with water and the air heavy with that cold dampness that crawled into your clothes and stayed there.
Normally, people would complain about weather like this. Now?
People were just relieved the screams had stopped for a while.
I stood near the window of Seraphina's house, staring out at the fog-covered streets below while absentmindedly rolling one of my short swords in my hand.
The blade moved naturally now. Like my body remembered things before my mind caught up.
Behind me, Noah groaned dramatically from the couch.
"I'm starving."
"You ate twenty minutes ago," Riley replied without looking up from the book she'd been pretending to read for the last hour.
"That was emotionally unsatisfying."
"That sentence irritated me physically."
Normally, I would've tuned them out.
But lately, the silence in my own head had become worse. Because every time things got quiet- I though about the realm, the chains, my parents and whatever the hell was trapped inside that place with me.
"You're thinking too loudly again."
I glance toward Callie. She leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed, watching me carefully.
"…Thinking loudly?"
"You make that face."
"What face?"
"The brooding one."
Noah immediately pointed at me from the couch. "YES. Thank you. He's been doing that constantly."
"I'm literally just standing here."
"Broodingly."
Before I could respond, Seraphina entered the room. And instantly the atmosphere changed.
Everyone sat up straighter without meaning to.
"We have movement."
The joking stopped immediately.
Noah sat forward. "Where?"
"Outer east district."
My chest tightened slightly.
Another attack.
"Multiple signatures," Seraphina continued. "At least five."
Five? That was new.
Callie's expression sharpened instantly. "Lesser demons?"
"We don't know yet."
Not comforting.
Seraphina walked toward the table in the centre of the room before spreading out a rough map of the district.
"The attacks have changed pattern again," she said.
I stepped closer.
"So, they're adapting."
"Yes."
Her gaze lifted toward me briefly.
"They're testing responses."
Meaning us.
She pointed toward several marked area near the district's edge.
"Three confirmed sightings within the last hour. Civilian casualties already reported."
The room went quiet.
Noah's joking expression disappeared completely now.
"How many?"
Seraphina paused briefly.
"Four."
Damn.
"We move immediately," she continued. "Marcus leads intercept."
I looked up slightly.
Again? But before I could say anything.
Callie nodded once like the decision already made sense to her.
Riley too. Even Noah.
Trust.
That realization sat strangely in my chest.
Thirty minutes later-
We were moving through the outer district streets beneath pouring rain.
Sirens echoed faintly in the distance.
People hurried indoors the moment they saw weapons.
Not from fear exactly, but from recognition.
This town understood what demons meant.
"There," Riley said suddenly.
She pointed toward a narrow alley between two apartment buildings.
I felt it too. The pressure and wrongness were close. Then screaming erupted somewhere ahead. My heartbeat spiked instantly.
"Move!"
We broke into a sprint.
The alley opened into a wider residential street and chaos hit us immediately.
Three demons. Already attacking.
One body lay motionless near the sidewalk. Another person screamed from behind an overturned car.
And worse, more movement approached from the rooftops above.
"Five?!" Noah shouted.
"Six!" Riley corrected.
Right. Definitely worse.
The nearest demon noticed us instantly. Then smiled. Actually smiled.
My stomach turned.
"Protect civilians first!" I shouted.
Everyone moved immediately.
Callie's chain blade snapped through the rain like lightning, wrapping around one demon before violently slamming it through a concrete wall.
Riley rushed toward the injured civilians near the car while Noah stayed beside her, tonfas raised defensively.
The bracelet pulsed faintly against my wrist. The realm energy again. Reacting.
The first demon lunged toward me-
I met it head-on. Steel crashed against claws as I slipped inside its reach immediately. Low thigh kick impact. The creature staggered slightly.
I followed with an elbow toward its jaw before spinning into a body roundhouse kick that launched it sideways into a parked car hard enough to dent metal.
No pause. Another demon rushed from my left. I pivoted sharply, blades crossing to intercept before driving a knee into its ribs with a crack.
The thing snarled violently, still standing.
"Marcus!"
Riley's voice.
I turned instantly, and saw a demon diving straight toward a terrified woman trapped beside the sidewalk.
Too far.
Damn it.
Noah moved first.
He sprinted forward without hesitation, tonfas rotating into defensive position as he intercepted the demon mid-lunge.
The impact threw him backward several feet across wet pavement but he stayed on his feet.
"Okay!" he shouted breathlessly. "That one actually sucked!"
The demon attacked again immediately. Noah blocked one claw strike with his tonfa before twisting sideways and slamming the second weapon into its throat.
Not enough to kill it, but enough to stall and survive.
I moved instantly. The bracelet surged through my body as I crossed the distance in an instant.
One blade slashed across the demon's chest, the second severed cleanly through its neck.
Black blood splattered across the rain-soaked pavement.
The body collapsed.
"You, okay?" I asked quickly.
Noah exhaled sharply. "Never better."
"You're bleeding."
He glanced at his shoulder. "Minor inconvenience."
Definitely bleeding.
A scream echoed from above.
I looked up and my chest tightened instantly. Two demons on the rooftops. One preparing to leap directly toward civilians below.
"Callie!"
"I see them!"
She launched upward using her chain, pulling herself onto the fire escape with terrifying speed.
The first demon met her instantly and the rooftop exploded into motion.
Meanwhile, the remaining demons turned toward me together.
That wasn't good.
The first attacked high. The second low. I blocked one, dodged the other but the third appeared from my blind side entirely.
Claws tore across my side before I could fully evade. Pain exploded through my ribs.
Damn it.
The demons pressed immediately. No wasted movement. They were learning.
I forced myself backward, breathing harder now as rain mixed with blood down my side. Focus. Read them.
One rushed first. Feint. The second moved half a second later. An actual attack.
I saw it this time.
I stepped forward instead of back. Closed distance. Clinch, knee, elbow, low kick.
The sequence flowed naturally now, forcing the first demon off balance before I redirected its body directly into the second one.
I spun instantly into a roundhouse kick. Impact exploded against the second demon's skull.
It crashed into the pavement.
But the third one, the wounded one, ignored me completely. Its gaze locked past me. Towards the civilians and Riley.
"No!"
I moved immediately, but I was too far. Again.
The demon lunged toward Riley at full speed and she saw it too late. Time slowed then-
Noah stepped between them. Not because he could win or because he was stronger but because there wasn't time.
The demon's claws slammed into his crossed tonfas hard enough to send him crashing backward into Riley.
Pain flashed across his face instantly but he held. For one second, then second.
Enough.
The bracelet exploded with energy. Chains burst outward violently from the wrist.
Not one. But three.
The dark metal shot through the rain with explosive force before wrapping around the demon's torso and limbs completely.
The creature roared violently. I pulled hard.
The chains yanked it toward me across the flooded street.
Straight into range. I stepped forward the second it reached me. One blade pierced through its chest.
The second followed instantly then my heel crashed downward onto its skull with enough force to crack the pavement beneath us.
The demon stopped moving completely.
Silence hit the street. Only rain remained and heavy breathing, distant sirens.
Then Noah groaned from the ground.
"…Okay," he wheezed painfully, "that officially counts as saving your life."
Riley immediately knelt beside him. "You idiot."
"You're welcome."
I laughed once. Breathless and relieved. Because he was alive.
Then Seraphina appeared beside us. And one look at her face told me everything.
This wasn't over. Not even close. Because if six demons attacked together today-
Next time?
There would be more.