The Black Hawk banked away from the shattered clearing, its rotors cutting through the air as the pilot pushed them toward open ground.
At least, that was the plan.
For a few seconds, everything felt calm.
The kind of calm that made people lower their guard if they did not know better.
The air felt lighter inside the cabin. The strange pressure that had weighed on them earlier was gone. The instruments were stable. The vibration of the helicopter felt normal again, steady and predictable.
Marcus did not relax.
He kept his eyes forward, one hand braced against the frame as he watched the tree line ahead.
"Maintain heading," he said.
"Copy," the pilot replied.
Below them, the remains of the destroyed monster slowly disappeared beneath the canopy. The clearing shrank as distance increased, turning into nothing more than a dark scar swallowed by endless green.
For a moment, it almost looked like they had made it.
Like the fight was over.
