Monti's tail whipped around the creature's body, pulling it back. The creature hissed, twisted, and broke free.
But it was slowed.
Then Monti heard it.
A sound from the alleyways. Wet. Sliding. Like dozens of bodies dragging across concrete.
He turned.
More of them. Slug creatures. Small ones, covered in bumps and pimples. Oozing that same green slime. They crawled out from between buildings, from under cars, from broken windows. Dozens of them. Their bodies shimmered with faint gravity fields. Spaces warping around them.
"Jes..." Monti said. His voice cracked.
Jes looked. Her eyes widened.
"That's... a lot of them."
The creatures moved toward them. Slowly. Deliberately. Like they were waiting for something.
Then the gravity shifted.
Jes felt it first—a pull downward. Stronger than before. Her feet sank into the concrete. The slime on her shoulder was glowing now, pulsing with the same green light.
"What the..." she muttered.
The gravity around her intensified. She was being pulled down. Into the slime. Into the ground. Legs locked in place, body unable to move.
What do I do? she thought. What's making me stuck? Is it just the slime? Is it a paralysis thing? Or is it something else?
She looked around. The slime was everywhere—on the ground, on the walls, on her. But the gravity was only pulling her. Not Monti. Not the creatures.
It's targeting me, she realized. The slime is attracting gravity to me. It's not paralysis. It's weight.
She tried to move her arm. It lifted a few inches, then slammed back down.
"Monti!" she yelled. "Get out of here!"
Monti looked at her. Then at the creatures. Then back at her.
"I'm not leaving you!"
"You have to! Get them in a closed area! Do one-on-one fights! You can't take them all at once!"
Monti's mind raced. She was right. He couldn't fight all of them in the open. They'd overwhelm him. But if he could funnel them—get them into a narrow space—
He looked at the building to his left. A collapsed convenience store. Narrow doorway. Tight aisles.
"Jes, I'll be back!"
He ran. The creatures turned toward him. Their gravity fields flickered. But they followed. All of them.
Monti ducked into the store. The doorway was barely wide enough for two creatures to fit side by side.
He summoned two claws. Floating. Waiting.
"Come on," he whispered.
The first creature entered. Monti swung. The claw caught its head, and it crumpled.
The second one followed. A tail whipped around its body, crushing it against the wall.
One by one. Slow. Controlled.
Behind him, Jes was still stuck. The gravity pressed her deeper into the ground. But she was watching. Watching Monti fight. Watching him learn.
You've got this, she thought. You've got this.
They poured from the back door. One from the window. Quickly he was surrounded. Monti quickly ran upstairs while they stayed hot on his trail. At the top of the stairs, he threw a chair. Then swiped a floating claw at one, connecting. One of its pimples popped as the green slime shot at Monti, nearly missing him.
What the— Monti thought to himself.
He ran into a room. Then the smell hit him—the smell of dead bodies. Corpses laid around, maybe half a dozen. He didn't focus on that. He locked the door, then pushed a shelf to block it. He ran to the window, opening it. Next to the window, a light post.
He backed up as he heard the door being slammed. He tried to catch his breath. Then purple smoke came out of his body, his muscles tightened and grew. He ran full speed, grabbing a chair. He threw it out the window, glass shattering. Then he jumped out the window, grabbing onto the light post and sliding down.
Monti pushed himself up. His legs shook. The creature in front of him oozed closer, its pimples pulsing with green light.
He didn't fight. He ran.
Back down the street. Past the collapsed store. Past the bodies. He needed space. Needed to think.
Then something dropped in front of him.
A creature. Bigger than the others. It landed in the middle of the alley, blocking his path.
Monti spun around. Another one was behind him. Cutting off the exit.
Trapped.
He looked up. A third creature was at the window—the one he'd jumped out of. It dropped. Fast.
Monti dove sideways. The creature missed him by inches. It hit the ground, rolled, then stopped.
Then it exploded.
Green slime burst outward. Monti threw his arms up. The slime splattered his arms, his chest, his face. It burned. Not like acid—like pressure. Like weight.
He stumbled back. His legs gave out.
Jes's head snapped toward the left. An alleyway. She heard the explosion.
"Monti!" she yelled.
No answer.
She tried to move. Still stuck. The gravity pressed her down.
Come on, she thought. Find him. Find his energy.
She closed her eyes. Focused. Paradox energy—she could sense it. Monti's purple smoke. His crocodile parts. It was faint. Flickering.
Then it dropped. Like a candle snuffed out.
"No," she whispered.
She pulled against the gravity. Her arm lifted an inch. Then two.
"Monti!"
Monti opened his eyes.
Water. Dark. Cold. He was floating.
He pushed himself up. His body ached. His arms were covered in green slime, but it was thin now—diluted by the water. Half of a crocodile body lay on top of him. Just the torso. No head.
He blinked. What happened?
Then he remembered.
He was in the alley. The creature exploded. He felt something under his feet—a sewer drain. Old. Rusted. He kicked it. Hard. The metal cracked. Gave way.
He dropped into the darkness just as the explosion hit.
But the crocodile head—the one he'd been using—it was still in the drain. He summoned it. Covered the hole. Blocked the slime from following him down.
And then he summoned the other half on top of him. The torso. To shield him from the blast.
It worked. The explosion hit the croc head above, not him. The slime was blocked. He was alive.
He unsummoned the croc pieces. They dissolved into purple smoke.
Monti stood in the sewer water. It was up to his knees. Dark. Smelled like rot and metal.
He started walking. Limping. One arm was burned. His ribs ached. But he was alive.
Jes, he thought. I have to get back to Jes.
He kept walking. Then he threw his shirt on the ground. Anything covered in slime.
"For now I'm gonna stick to the sewers. There's water—it can dilute the slime. And my crocs work better down here," Monti spoke out loud.
But danger awaited him. A battle of life and death.