Neopolitan: Beyond Ever After (The Girl From Another World) - Part 1

by Calavera de Comala

After failing to ascend, Neo finds herself trapped in Zenith, a world obliterating other forsaken planets. Confronted by a mysterious organization called The Zodiac, she will embark on an incredible odyssey that tests the limits of her imagination. However, she may discover new friends who help her face the adversities ahead. Spin-off and spiritual successor to the RWBY series.

11. The Star of the Night

The Star of the Night

It was a rainy night at Bright Island and Copper Suburb.

•

Once the rain calms down, I will take the train to Bright Island's pier area.

"Cannot say I will miss this shithole." Roman, watching me pack the last of my stuff, dissed for the last time my current living place.

Dressed as Liz in her skating attire, I headed to the apartment's entrance wearing my backpack. I grabbed my suitcase with one hand and Sakura with the other one.

I had taken too long to leave this area. Phoebe, Ed, and now that second odd pair I ran away from yesterday. People were starting to figure out that I lived in this region.

"If you are traveling as a stowaway in a cargo ship, at least wait for a day with nice weather." My imaginary partner suggested I stand by a bit more, before fleeing to Avalae.

I cannot hesitate anymore, Roman. Another week or a couple of days, and someone will track me down to Copper Suburb. It's better to leave today, for the sake of everyo-

My holodial started ringing. I stopped myself from opening the door, and after seconds of hesitation, I took out my phone.

"Aren't you going to answer?" Roman asked while I was petrified, looking at the holodial's screen.

"Oh, I get it. You fear it will be something that keeps you from leavin-" I raised my open palm to stop him from speaking.

It's a phone call... From Debbie.

My heart began to race, sensing that something was off.

"Well, answer the call to tell her goodby- Wait..." Roman also figured it out and ceased talking.

Debbie never calls me. She only sends me texts.

She was aware of my physical disability... Unlike the person on the other side of the phone. But there was no mistake. The call came from Debbie's phone number.

…

The phone stopped making noise until a second attempt to reach me restarted its ringing.

My heart was pounding. The hand holding the phone was trembling.

"Neo..." Roman tried to hug me from behind to give me courage, only for his arm to go through my body.

I need to make sure that she's okay.

[A noble lady saying goodbye.]

I need to hear Debbie's voice once more.

[A wounded blacksmith.]

I need her to tell me that everything is fine.

[A black hat surrounded by wreckage.]

So that I can peacefully leave with a calm mind.

With increasing concern, I clicked the green button to accept the call and raised the holodial to my ear.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

…

It took seconds for the caller to break the silence.

"Is this Neopolitan?" It was a male voice.

An excited man holding back his laughter.

I dropped my holodial to the floor, as I struggled standing. I had to use the wall next to me for support.

"Not answering back?" The man laughed and mocked me. He could tell that I was in shock.

"Ey, Neopolitan... Have you figured out the situation?" I kept myself from hyperventilating but being unable to hear anything on the other side of the phone, besides the man's voice, made me assume the worst.

I began to scratch the wall with my nails, gripping Sakura harder with my other hand. My eyes were burning with tears, as I bit in extreme frustration. The more he talked, the sicker I felt.

"They are still alive. Not all of them, but enough so that you cannot ignore me." The joyous man kept taunting me.

THEY!? THEM!? It's not just Debbie!?

I kept myself from breaking the holodial in fury.

"I will be waiting for you, here at Bianchi's. Don't call for help or flee somewhere far away... Otherwise, I will kill them all." The voice switched from sounding enthusiastic to ominous when saying the last statement.

He was using hostages against me. I felt like I could throw up the contents of my stomach at any moment.

"Come out and play with me, Neopolitan." The man went back to sounding joyful. It was clear that whoever this person was, he was a psycho.

The call ended, making my furious weeping the only thing breaking the room's silence.

"This is a trap. A hideous trap!" An angry Roman manifested.

My mind was made a mess. I couldn't think of any reply to his words and at last fell to my knees.

"Neo, get a hold of yourself! We need to come up with a plan!" Seeing me in a pathetic state, Roman tried to put in order my emotions.

Not bothering to hear his words anymore. I picked up my holodial, before heading straight to the balcony's glass door and opening it briskly.

"WAIT, NEO!" I jumped down into the streets, opening Sakura to slow down my fall.

Persons screamed and others stared with awe as I fell. Since it was an early weekend night, despite the rain, Copper Suburb's streets were still busy. After landing, I pushed them around and activated the dust shards within my skates to make it fast to the nearest train station.

I don't care who you are! Zodiac or not, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!

A few minutes later, I made it to the station and subway line that took people to Bright Island. Skipping the process of buying a ticket, and jumping over civilians, machines, and security checkpoints, I reached the express train's platform. It was already leaving, but not giving a damn about blowing my cover or attracting attention, I manifested a hook in Sakura's handle and used it to grab a handle on the train's last wagon.

It didn't matter to me if I had to travel hanging outside of the train for the entire duration of the journey. I was only relieved that I managed to catch the train that didn't make stops between Copper Suburb and Bright Island.

I couldn't afford to lose time.

•

Around 20 minutes had passed since the call.

I kept skating furiously and as fast as I could across Bright Island. The rain, along with the glances of curious bystanders, kept falling on me, but I didn't care.

I finally reached the block in which Lumini Tower was located and head-

"NEOOOOOOO!" Roman shouted at me. He was standing at the entrance of the construction site next to Lumini Tower.

Forcing myself to brake, I glared at him with intense anger.

WHAT!?

If I had a voice, that probably would have been a scream.

"Finally, you listen to me. I've been trying to talk with you since the call ended." Relieved and irritated he complained to me.

FOR WHAT!? TO STOP ME!?

Luckily for us, there weren't many civilians on this block's sidewalk. It was eerily alone. I could look intensely at the empty space he was standing on without concern.

"Yeah, from doing something stupid or getting yourself killed in a dumb way... LIKE I DID!" Roman dropped his cane as he got angry with me.

I couldn't come up with a counterargument.

"Don't get me wrong. I won't try to stop you, because I know precisely the kind of person you are!" Roman passionately shouted, getting closer to me.

"If you want to save Debbie, Bianchi, and others FINE! But don't throw away your life so foolishly!" He bent his body to look me straight in the eyes.

"We need to evaluate everything together and come up with a plan, before jumping straight into his trap. Control yourself and start thinking!" He pointed to his head with his index finger.

…

I took several deep breaths and wiped off my tears, before regaining some composure.

I thought you were supposed to be the dum-dum between us.

"And I still am. That's why you are the alive one." We tenderly smiled at each other.

… Any idea?

"I'm still thinking. We should take a quick look around, before entering the tower. That could help us come up with something." He glanced all over the place, then looked at me again. "But I'm sure of one thing."

"Whoever is behind this doesn't play by the rules. This enemy is no Little Red. He probably is more twisted than Cinder. Since he doesn't cheat fair and square, neither shall we." I noticed something behind him as he spoke to me.

"Neo, are you listening?" Roman asked with confusion, as I walked past him.

I turned around to show him my face. He happily complained, pointing to me.

"Oh, I know that look. Better share whatever big idea is inside that little head of yours, partner."

•

I took the elevator to the rotating restaurant. The moment it reached its destination, a rain of bullets pierced the doors and riddled its interior.

Of course, I wasn't foolish enough to not anticipate this. I had removed part of the elevator's ceiling panels to exit through the emergency trap door and step on the car ceiling.

Roman was right. This guy is a dirty cheater.

I was now disguised as Beryl in her working outfit, with only Sakura in my hand. I assumed that doing this would let me approach and rescue the hostages, rather than going as Liz, and of course, Neopolitan.

From a safe position, I manifested a construct of a deceased Beryl, bleeding inside of the elevator, then I started removing some screws to enter an air duct that led into the restaurant.

As the elevator's doors opened, my holodial began to ring again. The assailant was calling to confirm from afar that the phone was in the elevator. After some seconds, I saw something being dropped into its interior.

It was a dust grenade.

In a hurry, I removed the grille and jumped into the air duct.

The elevator exploded and fell.

He didn't check if Beryl was still alive!? What is going on!? There's no bounty for me dead!

I turned off my holodial, thinking that I had managed to fool the assailant for the time being. Crawling silently inside the air ducts, I made it to another grille that allowed me to look at the restaurant from above.

Good thing that I am small and a good climber.

I couldn't see much. The lights were turned off and the rainclouds didn't allow the moonlight to freely illuminate the place, but I could at least hear people crying and groaning in pain.

When the elevator got attacked, I also heard screaming, so this confirmed that some hostages were still alive.

Being careful, I summoned two little butterflies and made them fly down into the restaurant to act as my eyes. Thanks to them, I surveyed the area and determined the hostages' locations but couldn't find the assailant himself.

He's hiding somewhere. Probably in a blind spot.

There was another problem. The hostages were all wounded and scattered all over the restaurant. Most of Bianchi's employees, customers, and my former boss showed signs of being alive. Sadly, a waitress, one client, and two guards had passed away.

11 hostages. I need to gather them in a safe place before things get ugly.

I didn't like the situation. It seemed that everything was up to me.

Against the assailant's rules, I had sent a text to the police calling for help against a dangerous criminal at Bianchi's, back when I was hanging to the train. I didn't care if they got in my way or attempted to arrest me while fighting whoever was behind this crime. What mattered was that they helped to save the hostages.

But the police hadn't arrived yet and I still couldn't detect any signs of their presence anywhere.

They are taking too long... Unless... No, it cannot be!

I now understood well my predicament. I wasn't dealing with an ordinary criminal. This was probably all staged to capture me.

In that case, I will be the decoy. I leave Debbie and the others to you.

Hoping that I was going up against only one Zodiac member or bounty hunter, I loudly and violently jumped down approximately 8 meters through a grille, to fall in a place where there were no wounded hostages nearby.

I couldn't hear much outside of the raindrops falling on the windows, occasional thunders, and the hostages' groans and pleas for help.

He must be here. No way he fled while I was inside the air duct.

Approaching one of the deceased guards who had dropped a gun, I faked lowering my defenses to check for his pulse. In that instant, bullets flew from underneath a close by tablecloth. I narrowly opened Sakura in time to shield me.

The table was sent flying up in the air by a mysterious force, as the figure hidden below it launched in my direction. It was wearing a livid-colored, tattered cloak.

The assailant kicked Sakura's canopy up and tried to punch me in the throat, but I dodged the fierce attack by jumping backward. Closing my weapon, I defended myself with Bartitsu stances from multiple blows. Barely being able to read the trajectories of the assailant's hits, I tried to discern his fighting style to no avail.

He's fast, really fast! He gives me no room to counterattack!

The figure tried to strike me several times in the windpipe, groin, eyes, diaphragm, and collarbone using his knees, fists, and elbows.

He's no amateur. He aims quickly at vital spots!

It was the first time someone tried so aggressively to take me down. Parrying and dodging his fast hits, I kept my defenses up. The mysterious enemy also strove to grab my head and neck, probably to pin me down on the floor, but I ducked or jumped away to escape from his lock attempts.

After some blow exchanges, the figure's right hand started glowing black and launched a quick strike at my jaw.

Intercepting it with Sakura, I avoided taking direct damage, but the impact was still strong enough to send me 4 meters back.

I didn't understand at first why the enemy spun to kick the air. Luckily for me, a lightning bolt happened to illuminate the room, allowing me to see the projectile approaching my right eye. Moving my head aside it flew past me and landed on a pillar with enough force to destroy part of it.

It was a table knife. Probably one that was placed on the table that he flew away earlier. It had been charged with aura through his kick.

The strength of General Ironwood. The reflexes of Maria Calavera. The speed of Professor Oobleck. And a lethal precision I haven't seen since I fought that bunny girl. Who the hell is this guy?

The cloaked figure straightened itself as the table finally crashed down behind him. The assailant started to laugh, while I consciously avoided shaking in fear.

In less than 5 seconds, I had determined that my adversary outclassed me when it came to hand-to-hand combat. He was more skilled than anyone I met back in Remnant.

His method of fighting was far different from anything I had faced before. Through his attacks, I had perceived his intention to take away my life. The last technique could have killed a person without an awakened aura or with a low aura level. He wasn't trained at all like a huntsman to fight Grimm. He was trained to dispatch people as fast and efficiently as possible.

A professional assassin.

Under normal circumstances, I would have chosen to flee by now, but doing that would mean letting Debbie and the others die. I was going against Roman's most valuable principle and lesson that he taught me:

Choosing the best route to survive.

"You are more skilled than I thought. I shouldn't have judged you based on your viral fights against weaklings." The figure couldn't hold back its excitement. His voice and twisted attitude made it clear that he was the person who called me earlier.

I raised Sakura for its tip to aim at him. Taking notice of my desire to keep fighting, he stopped laughing.

"Ahlan, Neopolitan. As they say in this country, nice to meet you." The figure greeted me with a mocking tone, as he lowered the hood of his cloak.

"My name is Araknim."

•

The rainclouds were starting to subside, allowing the moonlight to illumine a little more the restaurant and for me to distinguish the assailant's features.

Araknim had a height of 1.87 meters. He was wearing a grayish-blue hooded cloak that looked worn by battles. Slices from blades and bullet holes were discernable all over it. The assassin was wearing some kind of black leather body-armor that had several straps and belts with silver buckles. His baggy midnight blue trousers and shirt were barely visible under his leather shin guards and armor.

He had long, messy silver hair. His face had multiple scars, but the ones that called my attention the most, were the incisions at the edges of his lips, giving him a disturbing big grin. With the help of two piercings in the corners of his mouth, the slits over his cheeks were kept closed for the most part. His eyebags complemented the twisted look from his steel blue-gray eyes. Araknim's tanned skin made me think that he was a desert inhabitant. He likely was around his late twenties.

"Finally, The Star of The Night is here. Or should I call you instead Neopolitan, The Trillion-Bounty Girl?" Araknim's grin grew wider.

I kept giving him an intense look filled with hatred in return.

"I've been dying to meet you for months. You really made it difficult to track you around the globe." As he extended his arm in the direction of the restaurant's window, I noticed that he was wearing a cream-colored trek backpack and had two swords tied to his waist, which reminded me of scimitars.

"But thanks to a vision granted to me by God, The Highest in the Heavens and Lord of all Worlds, I was able to locate you." Euphoric, Araknim began to talk faster and louder. "His blessed wind brought me to Bright Island with the promise of clashing with you!"

A vision and wind brought him here? What is he talking about?

"Alhamdulithelb! Praise be to the Fox Rabb!" Araknim raised his arms and faced toward the 'skies', experimenting religious ecstasy.

It was evident that he had an altered perception of reality. He was crazier than even Tyrian and me. But I let him continue talking, to use his euphoria to my advantage.

I need to place them somewhere safe, where they don't get in the way of our attacks.

"I could tell from those silly videos that there was something off about Beryl." Araknim lowered the speed of his talking, trying to contain his exhilaration as he looked back at me. "The way she fought was out of the ordinary."

Says the guy who is more 'out of the ordinary'.

"And once I got closer to you, I was able to smell all that delicious blood..." Araknim awkwardly paused. He was able to perceive the confusion in my face. "Not yours. The blood of those you have killed. I could smell it from blocks away."

I haven't killed anyone in Zeni- No, does he mean... He must be bluffing. There's no way he could tell that. He's lying!

"Monster of Sally Island, provide me with an answer!" Araknim started twisting his neck and tilting his head at an unnatural angle, his eyes widening and his voice becoming deeper.

Soon the rest of his body followed and began to warp in a way that would lethally injure any ordinary person.

There's plenty of wrong with this guy. He's twisted in every sense of the word.

Ignoring my nausea, I saw his body eventually untwist itself and return to a normal straightened body position. To think he would be even more flexible if he wasn't wearing his leather armor.

"By fighting you I can get to experience ultimate pain (pleasure) and confirm if my way of life is right or wrong. That's why I needed for you to come here, to obtain guidance from you." His erratic speech went back to sounding excited and fast.

This guy is talking nonsense! He hurt everyone at Bianchi's for such a stupid reason!? Is that how badly he wanted to meet me!?

"You are the only one that can understand me." The assailant looked tenderly at me.

Araknim...

"We are the same, Neopolitan." He pointed with one hand to his chest and with the other one to me.

YOU ARE FUCKING INSANE!

Back in Remnant, I was far from being the perfect normal girl that made her parents proud. I was a thief, a terrorist, and even a murderess at certain points of my life. Unlike Ruby Rose, my heart was never pure, not even when I was a kid. Outside of Roman, I understood well enough why everybody in Remnant preferred to ignore my existence and never liked me.

But I wanted to believe that despite my physical disability, weird appearance, and 'freaky' semblance, even I had some pride as a criminal. That no matter how many people perceived me as an undesirable flaw, I never had aimed, and probably never will, to become the monster that The Zodiac and Araknim claimed I was.

To me, there wasn't any thrill or satisfaction in committing random murder sprees. Instead of torturing and killing the beloved ones of those I hated the most, I always used my semblance to create clones and psychologically torture my victims.

In honor of Roman, I had pledged never to rely on the same tactics The Zodiac used against me.

"Those shiny pink shards surrounding your body... Are you activating your semblance?" Araknim, surprised and happy by my resolution to fight him, grinned widely again.

The aura shards I was producing with Overactive Imagination began to light up the restaurant and fend off the darkness spread by Araknim.

I do not think of myself as a huntsman.

My body and Sakura were engulfed with my crystalized aura, which began to shapeshift me into a form I considered more appropriate to fight. My life as Beryl was over.

I do not desire to be seen as a paladin of justice.

It had been a year since I fought seriously as myself. If I wanted to save everyone tonight, then there was no choice but to go all out versus the vicious enemy in front of me.

I do not want others to mistake me for a superhero.

Gone were my black hair, green eyes, and waitress outfit. The shards over my arms, legs, torso, and head were replacing them with the new attire of my choice: A Lolita-inspired dress.

This is why I can allow myself to think the following.

My skirt was of color pastel fuchsia. An opening in the front of the outer skirt exposed its white, bell-shaped petticoat. The dress's edge reached my mid-thigh area. On my chest, I wore a white ruffled blouse, with short puffy sleeves and pink bands on its cuffs, that left bare my collarbone.

If someone dares to hurt those who are nice and precious to me...

A small, dark chocolate corset wrapped my torso. My pink and brown hair with vanilla streaks was back, but this time styled in fluffy pigtails that reached my shoulders. A small hair clip themed after a pumpkin held in shape my right pink pigtail. A small tree-themed hair clip held in shape my brown left pigtail.

Then, I will never forgive them.

My legs were covered by tights of light umber color. They were patterned with shapes of leaves and vines. My new footwear consisted of white and high-heeled Lolita ankle boots with pink laces. I wore brown gloves with complementary pink lines. I had a white lace choker with a pink band, on which a silver pendant with my emblem was hanging.

No matter in which world.

In my hand, I was now holding Hush.

"Neopolitan, it's really you! You are real!" Araknim started to clap and laugh with utter excitement.

"The moment I've been waiting for is finally here!"

•

The atmosphere in the restaurant grew tense. Araknim bent forward and raised his arms with fists clenched. He began to scream.

Aura boost.

Predicting my opponent's intention, I began to boost my own. An intense black aura surrounded Araknim's body, while a pink one surrounded mine.

Nearby tables and the floor began to shake. Soon, both of us started to produce wind gusts that pushed away tables and even chandeliers in the ceiling. The entire rotating restaurant was trembling and getting illuminated by our two increasing auras.

"This is child's play. Let's raise furthermore our aura level, Neopolitan!" But Araknim grew impatient, complaining about how long it was taking me to boost my aura.

This is no good. I can barely achieve a 15% boost. If Araknim is above the average Zenithean, he can probably attain a 50% boost. He will outclass me in another category. The power gap between us is going to get worse!

Araknim shrieked, unleashing strong gusts that pushed me to the back. Our auras were clashing and he had the upper hand over mine. Araknim's aura boost was already comparable to Yang's Burn and Milady's aura level. He wasn't as powerful as the Zodiac's bunny girl, but it seemed he could further increase his aura level.

Roman. Blacksmith. Milady.

Recalling memories of the last time I saw Roman alive, the day the Ever After got destroyed, and my farewell with Milady, I tried to boost more my aura.

Come on, Neopolitan! Otherwise, everyone at Bianchi's will perish!

I wasn't fighting only for myself this time. If I wanted to rescue Debbie, Bianchi, and others, then I needed more power. Unlike the rabbit girl, I was sure that Araknim would enjoy torturing and killing everyone here. I had no choice.

I will not let another person I hold dear die because of my mistakes!

The floor beneath both of us began to break. My aura began to produce gusts that stopped Araknim from pushing me away. We were almost on even ground.

"A 40% increase!?" Araknim exclaimed with surprise.

That's a new record! It's probably slightly higher than what I achieved at the amusement park!

"Disappointing..." Araknim stopped his aura boost with a bored and frustrated voice. "Neopolitan, do not tell me that's all you got."

What did he say!?

My shock at his actions made me lose my concentration and stop boosting my aura.

"You are the trillion-bounty girl and got to work with Milady. I expected you to push me into a corner. To force me into relying on at least a 100% boost." Araknim straightened himself, scratching his head with vicarious embarrassment.

He can double his aura level!

Not even Yang and Hazel could multiply their aura level times two, without first absorbing attacks or dust shards into their bodies. Even Adam needed to satisfy certain conditions to boost his attacks. The only person in Remnant that maybe could perform such an incredible feat was Jaune, but it came at the expense of Aura Amp being his semblance.

Yet Araknim here claimed that he could accomplish that with the aura boost technique alone.

Milady and the bunny girl. I never figured out by how much they could increase their aura level, so maybe he isn't lying.

"Even a teenager training to become an assassin can pull off a 40% aura boost." Araknim put his hand over his hips and tapped the floor with disappointment. "I could attain a boost of 80% blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back."

Vision has nothing to do with aura boost. Neither moving your arms.

From what I researched on the interweb, there were even Zenitheans who found it easier to boost their aura with their eyes closed.

"Or perhaps... Are you holding back?" Araknim smiled.

"Of course, why it took me so long to figure it out!?" His speech once more becoming fast and energetic, declared a mistaken assumption. "You don't want to destroy this restaurant or hurt the hostages. That's why you are restraining yourself!"

I wish.

"Well, I will have to force you to take me seriously. Min fadlik, Neopolitan. Do not hold back, because I will not hesitate to kill you." An elated Araknim grabbed one of his scimitars and launched himself a second time towards me. "Show me your real power!"

Araknim closed the 5-meter gap between both of us in less than the blink of an eye. If he had not made so obvious his trajectory and intentions, I wouldn't have been able to shield with Hush from his descending vertical slash.

Please, someone, tell me that he's this fast because of a speed semblance. There's no way he's comparable to Oobleck and Harriet without using one of those.

The black colored scimitar in his right hand was 90 centimeters long. While it had a sharp cutting edge, the back of the sword had some weird-looking ornaments that resembled teeth. I also noted a trigger on its handle.

Let me guess...

While our weapons were in a bind, Araknim adjusted his scimitar's cross-guard to point at my chest. After he pressed the trigger on the handle, multiple shots came out of it.

It's also a gun.

Predicting his lack of originality when it came to weapon design, I opened Hush's canopy to divert his shots and weapon's cross-guard away from my chest.

"Ha, you have experience against weapons that conceal guns!" Araknim released a short laugh and jumped backward to prepare the stance for his next attack.

You have no idea. Also, the trigger is hard to miss.

Despite fighting in the past huntsmen with weapons that combined blades with guns, this was the first time I faced someone who used such a cheap trick to attack me. He had purposely gone for a bind to shoot at my chest. If it weren't for Hush's canopy, I would have been wounded.

From now on, I had to watch out for the trajectory of his cross-guard. At least I now knew where those shots from earlier came from. And I also realized that he had turned off the restaurant's lights to make it more difficult for my eyes to keep track of his black sword.

This guy has no honor.

Araknim closed the distance once more, trying to slice my neck and knees with his scimitar. Despite my boosted aura, Araknim's attacks constantly made me slide backward once I stopped or deflected them. Moving our weapons faster than the speed of sound, their constant strong clashing made the place shake. Our boosted auras intercepting each other also released gusts that pushed around objects close to us, such as tableware that fell off from their respective tables.

So uncivilized. Like Phoebe, you lack silverware etiquette.

This time, it was me who aimed for a bind. Making sure that his cross-guard couldn't shoot at any part of my body. I used both hands to hold our weapons in a firm position.

"Another bind?" Araknim tried again to adjust his weapon's handle and aim at me, but I made my move before he could do that.

Using my left hand, I aimed properly the concealed weapon at Araknim's face and pressed the trigger to unload its magazine. The enemy stepped back after the barrage of fire was done.

Earlier, when I faked checking the deceased guard's pulse and opened Hush to shield myself from Araknim's bullets, I took the opportunity to grab the victim's gun. Using Overactive Imagination, I turned it invisible and concealed it within my clothes. I kept waiting for the perfect moment to shoot at Araknim, till I noticed that I could use his dirty tactic against him.

I usually did not take pride in using guns, but considering the circumstances and the kind of opponent I was facing, if someone deserved to get attacked cheaply, then it was him. Noticing that the gun was empty, I dispelled its invisibility and dropped it to the ground.

"Iu ha a giden gan!?" Araknim awkwardly talked, but I couldn't understand what he said.

Something is wrong. His aura did not flicker. No way he sto-

Araknim started spitting the bullets that he had bitten with his teeth. He looked happy despite my murder attempt on him.

"Ah, you stole it from that dead guard. Clever." My adversary cracked his neck with a smile.

Damn it! He's a monster!

"But can tell that you are still holding back. Let's amp up this fight!" Araknim restarted his sword assault, swinging his weapon faster than before. I could barely keep track of his moves. Multiple times he tried to shoot me with his cross-guard barrel, but I deflected his shots with Hush and its canopy. It was during another bind that he changed his tactic.

As our weapons were locked in a position, Araknim used his free left hand to grab the handle-gun from the other sword tied to his waist and fire at me.

This time I stopped his bullets by pulling out Hush's hidden blade. With my left hand I held Hush in 'shield mode' and with my right one its 'misericorde'. We distanced ourselves from each other.

"Are you going dual mode? Then, so will I." The crazy assailant pulled out his second sword while laughing.

He could have started the fight with both of his swords. He complains about me holding back, but he's the one doing that.

Not bothering to close the distance, Araknim unleashed a series of aura slashes with his scimitars. Switching between shielding and dodging them, I took cover behind one of the restaurant's pillars. Becoming desperate, my opponent jumped towards the pillar and used both swords charged with his aura to destroy it.

"That won't do." Araknim taunted me with a maniacal smile.

I ran to the window-side of the restaurant with Hush still shielding me, but Araknim chased after me and unleashed a series of fast slices with his scimitars. Cornering me against a window, he continued slashing till I dropped Hush trying to deflect another one of his strong slices.

"Wadaeaan, Neopolitan." Looking at my frightened face, my rival used both of his swords as if they were scissors blades to mercilessly decapitate me.

Of course, if he had killed for real, I wouldn't still be narrating.

Before my clone completely broke down, I ran towards Araknim to stab his back with Hush's blade. Despite turning myself invisible with my aura, Araknim probably heard one of my footsteps, because he turned around and tried to stop my attack, but his attempt was in vain. Dodging one of his blades, I managed to stab his chest and pushed him with force towards the window. It was now he who was cornered.

I tried boosting my aura, undoing my invisibility, and pushing him with more force against the reinforced window. It started to crack.

"You built a decoy and turned invisible behind the pillar!?" Despite the dangerous position he was in, Araknim smiled and dropped his scimitars to grab my misericorde's blade.

Shut up, I'm trying to defenestrate you!

Sensing that I was using an aura boost, Araknim began again to boost his own. The window behind him cracked further, but the strong aura gusts he produced made me lose balance and pushed me back. The assassin removed my blade from his chest, and while grabbing it, continued pushing me to the center of the restaurant.

My plan to stab Araknim and throw him out the window had failed.

"That's enough!" With a burst of power, a serious Araknim pushed away my blade entirely with one hand and attempted to hit me with the other one.

Using Hush, I shielded myself from his attack, but the impact still sent me some meters away.

I was so close. That attack could have easily broken Yang's aura, but he was able to repel it without taking much damage.

"Were you planning to kill me in cold blood by throwing me off a window?" My opponent said pissed off.

Um... Yeah?

I shamelessly nodded.

"Silly Neopolitan. This fight is only starting!" Araknim laughed and once more abruptly changed his attitude into an ecstatic one.

I had a bad feeling about this.

•

"It's time for round 2!" Standing 4 meters away from me, Araknim shouted with joy. He raised both of his arms and turned his palms back.

"Since you are going through the trouble of using your semblance, I will show you another one of my fighting styles." Araknim called his scimitars from the place he had dropped them. Their handles flew straight into his palms.

He can use telekinesis like Glyn- Oh, I forgot. This is Zenith. He probably has AAIS bracelets under his sleeves.

Managing to stop my astonishment in time, I saw Araknim spinning his swords.

"One of the advantages of the Advanced Aura Interlink System is that you can move around your weapons without touching them. But many often forget about another one of its functions." The scimitars lit in fire, as my foe nonchalantly delivered his explanation.

He installed fire and heat dust within his swords!? So that's what those weird metallic pieces on the back of the scimitars were for.

Sensing the heat, I subconsciously stepped back a bit.

"They make it easier to keep dust crystals activated, even when you do this!" Araknim threw one of his swords. Spinning in the air, his scimitar resembled a fire disk approaching me.

I dodged his 'projectile' by jumping on top of a table located to my right, but while I did this, my adversary threw his second sword at my current standing location.

Jumping into the next one, I saw the previous table get cut in two and Araknim's first sword fly back to his palm.

It's like dodging giant fire yoyos!

The assailant called back his second sword and with a maniacal grin on his face, threw both of his burning scimitars simultaneously.

I know this tactic!

Both fire disks were flying vertically in the direction of the table I was standing on. I couldn't jump to the sides and there was only a very narrow space between both, so I decided to close Hush's canopy to jump between them and off the table.

Anticipating this, my opponent ran into my falling direction and tried to kick me, but I summoned Yatsuhashi Daichi with his big sword to intercept his attack.

"But how!?" Surprised by my response, Araknim proceeded to call back his scimitars. I managed to roll to one side to dodge them, but my construct was destroyed from the back by both fire 'boomerangs' as it tried to slice my opponent.

It's Team Scarlet's!

It wasn't very useful versus opponents who could summon shields or huntsmen out of nowhere.

"Amazing... But let's try this faster!" Araknim jumped back and threw again one of his swords as if it were a big fire chakram.

This time not only it flew faster, but even changed its angle and trajectory midway through its flying path. Two tables behind me were cut down after I made a side flip to dodge it. My foe, taking advantage of this opening, shot at me with the gun of the sword in his hand, but I opened Hush to shield me. I continued running with the canopy opened to avoid the fire scimitar flying back to his owner.

Did he tamper with the fire sprinkler system beforehand? It should be working by now.

Araknim continued trying to cut me down with his fire disks until he eventually started spinning and rotating his scimitars as they flew toward me, creating the optical illusion that he was throwing fireballs. Tables and seats were reduced into burning shreds, while I continued doing cartwheels and other kinds of flips.

He doesn't stop! What kind of fighting style is this!?

I kept running, till I took cover behind another support pillar.

"Going to create another decoy? I won't fall twice for the same trick." Araknim's said annoyed, spinning his scimitars in preparation to throw them.

AH! That's the eleventh one! It's time to use more my imagination!

Being able now to create two Neo clones and make myself invisible, I used the former to distract Araknim while I ran towards the bar counter at the center of the restaurant.

Araknim broke easily both clones with his fire scimitars in less than 3 seconds.

"Two fakes now? Where's the real one?" The confused assassin continued looking for me, while I prepared behind the bar my next move.

"Are you thinking of running away? You know what will happen if you do that." Araknim threatened and mocked me at the same time.

You are going to regret challenging me. I can also play dirty.

I created an invisible clone that jumped over the counter. I also made another flying invisible construct that carried a bag, which I had stored on the counter weeks ago.

"I can hear you!" Araknim playfully said, turning in the direction of the clone next to the bar counter.

I made my Neo clone visible and ordered her to charge at maximum speed in the direction of my assailant.

"Real or not, I will break you!" Araknim excitedly slashed my clone as it jumped, trying to land a hit on him.

Hey, Araknim...

The clone broke, along with the bottles of alcohol concealed within it. One of those was a bottle bomb that I prepared behind the counter. The broken bottles spilled their contents over Araknim's body, as his fire scimitar made the situation worse.

Grab a drink!

Araknim lit himself in fire, the flames spreading all over his cloak and face.

"AH! I shouldn't have turned off the sprinklers!" Araknim shouted. He ran, spun, and rolled on the ground desperately to turn off the fire.

The moment I noticed that he was managing to extinguish the flames, I positioned the Seer Grimm construct above him and made it break the thing it was carrying.

A bag of flour.

"What's going on!?" Araknim shrieked, as the flames surrounding his body reignited. He once more tried to turn off the fire, before it burned away his aura.

I am not a good person... Sorry, Blacksmith. But he deserves this.

Not hiding anymore, I grabbed a couple of bottles from the bar.

These rounds are on the house!

Aiming at my burning rival, I threw more alcohol bottles to keep the fire going. As I observed Araknim engulfed in flames, he dropped his swords and grabbed something hidden underneath his clothes.

Dust grenades!

I opened Hush's canopy and hid behind the counter, predicting what was about to happen next.

An explosion covered the entire portion of the restaurant we were fighting in, destroying all the tables, seats, and part of the bar with its bottles.

Araknim's screams were no more.

•

Back when I worked here as Beryl, I had hidden stuff and come up with countermeasures in case a vulture attack got out of hand. Noticing that a considerable number of people that I had faced in my life used fire as a weapon, I came up with tactics against them.

Still, I never thought it would work so effectively thanks to the enemy carrying grenades underneath his clothes.

Is he dead?

I slowly took a glance over the destroyed bar counter, trying to see what remained of my opponent. Before the smoke cleared up, I confirmed that the reinforced windows on this side of the restaurant had been broken and part of the second floor collapsed.

Forgive me, Bianchi. I made a mess, but at least it was for a good cause... This time.

I heard something stepping over broken shards of glass and wood.

No! I cannot believe this!

A tall figure stepped out from the smoke, coughing to clear up his throat.

"You blew me away, Neopolitan." Araknim, wearing now a burned and more tattered cloak, started to laugh uncontrollably. He grabbed his head with one hand and his stomach with the other one.

Most Remnant huntsmen would have had their aura broken by now. Possibly, even died.

I estimated that the explosion had been strong enough to kill Salem (of course, not permanently) or land significant damage to an elite huntsman. Yet Araknim stood in front of me, laughing.

"Neopolitan, you should look at your face. Your eyes turned white." Araknim pointed at me, as he continued cackling.

My anger for him turned into fear, realizing that the gap between us was bigger than I had anticipated. After some seconds, my opponent regained some of his composure.

"My apologies." Holding his laugh, he said a perplexing statement. "I shouldn't have looked down on you. For good reasons, you are the trillion-bounty girl."

"While I was running in flames, I discovered that the bodies of the wounded hostages were gone. You removed them from the battlefield with your clones, am I right?" With a faked curious face, Araknim turned his head to look around the restaurant. I didn't bother doing the same, because he was right. "You used two aura constructs to carry them to a safe place."

"That's why you were holding back earlier and scarcely used your semblance. Once you secured all of them, you used an explosive plan to take me down with two constructs." Araknim made an explosion gesture with his hands.

He hasn't realized yet my real limit. Good!

"Tahani, Neopolitan! I'm impressed." My opponent congratulated me and clapped, smiling tenderly.

"Must admit that I was also not giving it my all. Because of my stupid mistakes, I lost almost 20% of my aura reserves." With disappointment in himself, Araknim rolled his eyes and stopped clapping, before again rapidly changing his attitude into an ecstatic one.

"But I know! As an apology, I will fight you in my peak form!" Grinning widely, he bent his body and took his usual stance to boost his aura.

Peak form?

I gulped in fear, seeing his black aura grow into an intense big flame that reached the ceiling of the restaurant. While Araknim shrieked like a wild beast, whatever he was carrying in his burnt backpack began to move.

"I'm boosting my remaining aura by 200% so that I can fight you properly!" The already broken ground beneath him cracked even more the moment he restarted his ferocious screaming.

This aura level...

The entire restaurant and the floors below it shook, as if an earthquake were taking place.

It's close to Salem or a maiden in terms of raw power! He was already above the level of Ironwood or Qrow when the fight started!

Araknim's gusts and shockwaves were fiercer than before. I struggled not to be flown away, as the remaining smoke in the restaurant and rain behind him was violently dispersed.

How is it possible that a random Zenithean bounty hunter is this powerful!?

I sensed that the rotation mechanism of the restaurant stopped working. All the shaking had probably jammed it.

[The members of The Zodiac are far above anyone from Remnant. Their aura levels and semblances are abnormal.]

Blacksmith, Araknim doesn't appear to be a Zodiac member, yet his aura level is abnormal.

I had wrongly assumed that I only needed to watch out for the masked warriors when I fell to Zenith.

"You better attack me with all you have, because playtime is over." The things inside the backpack broke it into pieces.

From its remains, 6 spider legs came out into full display. They were 2.3 meters long each.

A SPIDER FAUNUS!

"NEOPOLITAN!" Araknim shouted in pure ecstasy.

•

"Beryl... Is that you?" Debbie weakly asked with fear, as she opened her eyes. I gently laid her down in a hallway, 2 floors below the rotating restaurant. She was covered in her blood.

My fight with Araknim was about to start and she was one of the first two hostages that I bothered saving with constructs shaped after Beryl.

"Why did that psychopath attack us?" With teary eyes and a trembling chin, Debbie looked at me.

"I don't know, but rest here, please. Avoid moving around to don't lose more blood." Through my construct, I lied to her.

I was very scared of earning her hate. Once again, because of me, someone close to me was in peril. And as selfish as my wish was, I only wanted to part ways with everyone still alive, before they discovered that I was Neopolitan.

Before my Beryl construct could leave to secure the next hostage, she grabbed its arm to prevent it from leaving.

"You are not The Monster of Sally Island. It cannot be you." Debbie said with a weak and low voice. She was forcing herself to speak.

"That man was lying. Neopolitan would have never bothered saving me that night. And here you are, rescuing us again..." Debbie stopped, grabbing in pain the wounds on her stomach.

"Debbie, do not talk more. Rest, please. I will handle this." I put my index finger over my mouth to gently silence her.

Damn it, why is the police not coming! Are they really in cahoots with Araknim!?

"I will be fine. Save the others. And Beryl..." Getting dizzy due to her blood loss, she tried to focus and looked me in the eyes.

With a smile, she spoke once more before my construct left.

"Kick his ass."

•

"What's the matter? Never seen a Faunus before? You grew up under a rock or what?" Araknim got annoyed by my dumbfounded expression, using his spider limbs to slice off his cloak.

Not precisely under a rock. Very isolated from society, in my bedroom.

I was aware that Faunus and Grimm also existed in this world thanks to Zenith's interweb, but this was the first time I met an individual like Araknim. Not even Lil' Miss Malachite's Spiders were actual spiders. Compared to Blake Belladonna, Tyrian Callows, and all the other Faunus I saw back when I helped to organize White Fang meetings, he was on a whole other level.

It was also the first time I fought a Faunus. The closest I got to that was Blake, but honestly, her ears weren't a big deal. I even found them cute, but Araknim was the opposite case. It was obvious that he was planning to use his threatening animal features to attack me.

"I can finally stretch. No matter if the old snake of the mountain insisted for me to conceal my spider legs to carry out assassinations and undercover missions, it's a pain in the back to contract them for so long." The Faunus assassin calmly did warm-up exercises he came up with for his specific body type, such as doing push-ups using two of his spider extensions instead of his human hands.

I heard several cracking noises coming from him, especially when he contortioned in unnatural ways that would have hurt a normal human body.

"That's why I decided to desert the order after gaining enough experience, to become an assassin and travel around the world, going after the most dangerous criminals out there." Araknim looked at me, likely to insinuate that having the biggest bounty on my head was the main reason I caught his attention.

You probably are a more dangerous and twisted criminal than most persons you go after, including myself. How the hell you don't have a bounty on your head?

"As an independent bounty hunter, with the title of The Desert Spider, I live by my own rules." Araknim bragged with a smile.

Spider? Don't those usually have 8 legs?

I see only 6 of them!

Or do the human legs also count? But if that's the case, shouldn't one also count his human arms?

That would make 10 limbs in total!

"Besides, nothing beats the pleasure of tearing flesh and bone with these." The Faunus used one of his legs to slice the air, while gently touching the sharp end of another one. "It's better to live, fight, and kill as yourself. Don't you agree, Neopolitan?"

How should I know!? Stop thinking that we are similar!

As he goofed around with his spider legs, I discerned that the top leg of his right side and the middle one of his left side were gray cybernetic prosthetics. The 4 organic ones were brown with yellowish ends. Noticing my curiosity, Araknim smiled and moved his two prosthetics 'legs' in front of him.

"Lost one during my childhood and the other one during a fight against the Tiger King. No hard feelings against the latter, he crushed me fairly. Recently, they were upgraded by Dr. Lo-" Before Araknim enthusiastically finished his explanation, his left prosthetic stabbed one of his human feet. He released a small scream of pain.

"Forget what I said! You heard nothing!" Araknim panicked, before covering his mouth with both hands. He talked too much.

Tiger. Snake. Spider. Wolf. Rabbit. What's going on here? And who is the doctor he was about to mention? Are they all connected to The Zodiac?

"Neopolitan, give me all the possible pain you can, I will take it all! Unleash all your built-up hate!" Doing a bear crawl, Araknim positioned his spider limbs in a battle stance.

…

How did I end up in this situation? I'm starting to miss Team RWBY and Cinder. I would fight them any day over this homicidal maniac.

Playing it safe before our fight resumed, I decided to make myself invisi-

"That won't work!" Araknim swiftly launched himself forward and landed two hits on me despite being invisible and behind the bar counter. I managed to defend myself with Hush from one hit, but his other strike landed on my abdomen with enough force to dispel my illusion and make me visible again. I held back my pain, to hold a defensive position and not lose my balance.

What happened!?

"Don't bother turning invisible. My spider legs are good at detecting changes in the air currents or vibrations in the ground." Araknim continued his attacks, pulverizing with 4 of his legs the ruined bar counter between us. "Now that they are out of my backpack, I can read your movements better than before."

I SERIOUSLY MISS TEAM RWBY AND CINDER!

With opened Hush, I barely defended from a fast and wild barrage of spider stings, running to my left.

Araknim started climbing the bar wall, which was also the central wall of the rotating restaurant, chasing after me and trying to stab my body with his spider extensions.

His attack speed is ridiculous! Each of his legs moves faster than a bullet!

"Already giving up? Come on, this is only 5 times the speed of sound!" Araknim excitedly laughed and taunted me.

Compared to my running speed, my reaction speed wasn't bad by Remnant's standards. I dared to say that I was probably above the average, even among individuals with an awakened aura. While I could never run as fast as Ruby Rose with Petal Burst, at least I could follow her movements and counterattack her tactics if I concentrated well.

But Araknim's attack speed wasn't the only problem. The Desert Spider knew that if he attacked from one side with two of his legs, that would leave my other side vulnerable, even with Hush's assistance. No matter how hard I tried to defend myself with its opened canopy, the length of his legs allowed his 'stings' to go around my weapon as it dealt with another set of spider legs.

Whenever I managed to stop two spider legs attacking my right side with Hush, I had to dodge legs attacking my left side. Even if I had Maria's amazing reflexes, it was straight up impossible to stop 6 strikes coming from different directions using her cane weapon or one closed Hush.

He fights better without his weapons!

Leaving me no option, I proceeded to undo Sakura's disguise and summon another fake Hush, so that I held an umbrella in my right hand and parasol in my left one.

"Doubling your defenses? Wonder how much you will last." Araknim made me go back to the restaurant's space between the bar and the windows, despite now using Sakura and Hush's opened canopies to avoid his stabs.

Not counting the Zodiac members, this is the first time someone's strikes give me this much trouble!

After my crushing defeat against the rabbit girl, I came up with the idea of using Hush and Sakura (or two defensive weapons) simultaneously to help me deal with opponents that overpowered me easily. The disadvantage of this move was that since the original Hush had been destroyed, I needed to constantly inject aura into my construct for every hit it received if I didn't want it to break.

Back in Remnant I never thought about this tactic, because I usually eluded fighting opponents on the level of Salem and Maidens. But in Zenith things were different. I knew that one day a Zodiac member or another powerful adversary would challenge me to a fight. One I would likely be unable to escape from.

"Time to dance!" Approaching me, Araknim began to twist and spin his body extremely fast, as if he were breakdancing.

The spider limbs followed his spinning motion, slashing tables and seats into bits that were close to us. He had turned himself into a demonic spinning top with blades. Because he often readjusted the angle of his legs, I constantly had to change the position of Sakura and Hush while I backed away.

Keeping his momentum, Araknim enhanced his attack by charging with spider limbs with aura, firing occasionally pressurized slashes all over the restaurant. Another pillar and part of the second floor collapsed, while windows that still had not been broken in the current section we were standing on shattered.

What crazy fighting style is this!? Battling Araknim is like going against all members of the Ace Ops or 3 Tyrians at once! He's like a tornado made of swords!

Changing a bit of my strategy, I turned Hush into one of Ironwood's pistols and shot at him... To no avail. My enemy's spider organs were so fast, they could stop my fake bullets with ease. Araknim could predict the trajectory of the shots even while spinning. More aura slices reached my position, but fortunately, I still had Sakura to protect me from them.

I need to make him stop spinning!

Summoning Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie with their respective weapons behind me I began my next 'team' attack.

"No matter who they are, your constructs are useless, Neopolitan. I will stop their projectiles or slice them when they approach me!" The spinning spider confidently declared.

Approaching Araknim's 'tornado' with Ironwood's white Due Process in my left hand, I aimed at him again, only for one of his spider legs to hit the barrel of the gun. As the weapon was breaking, I pointed it upwards and restored it with my aura to shoot at my real target.

The big chandelier above Araknim.

With its tubing destroyed by my shot, the chandelier fell on top of Araknim... Or at least that's what would have happened against most of my opponents.

Araknim contorted 4 of his spider limbs upwards to catch the chandelier, using his human limbs to direct the impact of its fall to the floor. My foe had been clever enough to keep free his 2 frontal spider limbs to stop me from approaching him, but not enough to figure out the next part of my plan.

REN, YOUR TURN!

"I will deflect his bulle-" The spider made a mistake. Instead of bullets, my green construct shot the wires of his two guns at his last spider legs. Using all his force, he managed to immobilize them.

NORA, YOU'RE NEXT!

Without any spider legs to stop her, Nora jumped toward the enemy and swung down her hammer with her maximum strength, to crash it into the chandelier and Araknim's body.

My enemy's aura flickered as he took damage, the floor below him cracked, and the restaurant shook once more.

Not giving him a chance to recover, I shot at the visible parts of his body several times... But with a shriek, Araknim forcefully reactivated his aura boost after receiving some shots.

Not again.

The chandelier and Nora construct on top of his body were torn apart by his 4 spider legs, and furiously he swung up his two trapped frontal limbs to pull my Ren construct towards him. In a flash, Araknim sliced wildly with a double x-shaped strike fake Ren, laughing maniacally.

Still a less dead ship than Arkos... And Gelato.

"Let's see how you deal with this!" Araknim shouted with thrill, putting his human body in a position resembling a crouching start and his 4 inferior spider legs in the ground behind him.

Boosting momentarily his human legs and 4 spider limbs, he shot himself in my direction, bending quickly his 6 animal legs forward.

He turned himself into a projectile!?

I jumped to my right side, but as if his entire body were a javelin, Araknim hit my left arm and part of my torso. Due Process was destroyed, while I landed using a three-point stance.

It's like a faster Petal Burst... If it turned its user into a spear bullet.

Araknim stopped himself in time from crashing into the windows and falling out of the restaurant, but he quickly prepared himself for another attempt to hit me.

I could not stop that strong attack even with the aid of Sakura. Crashing head-on against him was a bad idea. It would have only lowered my aura level.

I don't think I can summon fast something durable enough to face that strong technique of his.

In the following seconds, Araknim tried to 'spear' me more times, but I kept dodging sideways. Not giving me a chance to flee or summon a powerful construct, I was left with no option but to improvise another plan.

It's a good thing I memorized the layout of Bianchi's.

I jumped backward to the central wall of the restaurant and waited for the spider assassin. I only need to jump out of the way...

NOW!

Timing correctly, I jumped sideways once more to dodge 'Lance' Araknim. He prevented his human body from hitting the wall, by stabbing with his spider legs the wall my back was using as a support earlier.

My idea worked.

The spider began to get electrocuted because he pierced the panels of electrical installations behind the wall. He screamed as his aura did its best to protect him from what would usually be a lethal amount of electricity.

What a shoc- AGH! I need to stop with the stupid wordplay! Roman's sense of humor is rubbing on me!

Summoning another copy of Hush, I hit Araknim as many times as I could with the umbrella and parasol's canopies to not get electrocuted. Before he could unstick himself from the electrical panels, I charged both weapons with aura to land a strong double attack on his head, replicating his 'scissor swords' technique that he previously used to decapitate one of my clones.

I made some distance to dodge the crazy slashes of his spider legs.

"Khalas! That's enough!" Araknim violently shook and slapped himself to force his body to respond well.

Using all 6 of his spider legs reinforced with aura, Araknim positioned himself behind me at a very high speed. For a moment I thought that he had teleported.

His ludicrous speed increased even more!

Araknim used his upper two left spider legs to try slicing me but with some luck on my side, I ducked and rolled out of harm's way.

It's a good thing he didn't use his inferior le-

[A teacher with a fire sword scolding me so that I can improve.]

Something burning hit me fast in my right arm and torso. I took considerable damage, having lost already 10% of my boosted aura level.

Avoiding losing the weapon in my right hand and rolling several times on the floor, I regained a defensive position to evaluate my situation as I opened Sakura's canopy.

Merde! I dropped my Hush construct and my right arm hurts. What happ-

A glance at Araknim's human right hand revealed the answer. He had called his scimitar back to him.

He never intended to hit me with his spider legs. He fooled me into escaping in the direction of his spinning weapon's trajectory!

"You learn fast..." Araknim rapidly slid and spun on his knees across the floor, turning himself and his Faunus limbs into a spinning top again.

I opened Sakura's canopy to defend from his legs, but as I was stopping his spider attacks, something hit the right side of my body again. I landed on the floor with a three-point stance and Sakura's canopy still pointing at Araknim.

"But not fast enough." Araknim's second fire scimitar landed on his left hand.

Damn it. I forgot about his weapons. I must watch out now for 8 blades!

I had lost around 20% of my total boosted aura.

"Neopolitan... Your legs and hand are shaking." Araknim cackled, as I struggled to stand up straight.

I am scared. I won't deny it.

Araknim was without a doubt the most powerful opponent I had ever faced after that annoying rabbit girl, but the difference between both was that the former was aiming to kill me, probably along with Debbie, Bianchi, and any other hostage inside the tower.

[I speak for most of us, if not everyone at Bianchi's when I say that you will always be welcome in our place.]

I'm scared of dying, but I'm even more scared of someone nice to me dying because of my fault. I don't want to ever feel that pain again.

Even if I was scared, I couldn't run away from this fight. I had no option but to beat him. Doing my best, I boosted my aura and concentrated it on my legs.

[I wanted to thank you again for that night. Wish I could have repaid you better, but all I did was get you into trouble.]

I cannot achieve a 50% increase, but at least I can use this technique to concentrate my aura in certain parts of my body or...

Closing Sakura's canopy, I shifted into a crouching start while smiling.

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

"Taking me head-on with only an umbrella? You are more suicidal than I thought." Araknim prepared his 8 blades, pointing them at me.

I only need a distraction.

I tilted my head a bit to try to see something behind Araknim.

"What are you lookin'- Ah, do not think I will fall for such an obvious tri-" Araknim's spider organs detected something flying towards his back. Not taking chances, he contorted 4 of his spider limbs to stab the target.

"A pink parasol!?" Araknim turned his head and got distracted for only a fraction of a second.

I had made my Hush construct from earlier fly in his direction.

Araknim, this night I realized that I'm far from being a professional assassin. I do not specialize in killing people for a living. But I'm very efficient at something. Probably way better at it than you.

I manifested 6 pink crystal spider legs on my back, placing 4 of them on the ground to launch myself forward with their aid.

I'm pretty good at stealing. Even other people's techniques.

Copying Araknim's tactic, with my aura-charged spider legs I protected my body and turned myself into a flying lance.

Araknim's two remaining spider legs detected and attacked me, but it was too late. With only 2 of his spider limbs stabbing mine by instinct, Araknim failed to fully stop my charge against his torso.

"Wha-" With his body receiving most of the impact just when he was turning around again, he ran out of oxygen and was sent flying away against another one of the restaurant's pillars. The portion of the second level that it was supporting fell on the desert spider, along with multiple chairs and tables.

So, this is how it feels to be a Faunus.

My shorter spider legs broke due to the reaction force of the attack.

Never mind. I must start summoning a strong construct before he recovers.

"THIEF!" The psychopath assassin complained about my lack of honor and respect for intellectual property, as he angrily shouted and came out of the rubble with the help of an aura boost. The authentic Faunus jumped with the intention of landing and stabbing me simultaneously with his two frontal spider blades.

He barely gave me 8 seconds! I will have to limit myself to one construct!

Aiming for quality over quantity, I shaped the aura shards at my feet into a Hound Grimm with a saddle for me to sit, commanding it to dodge backward. Missing me by a whisker, Araknim's attack broke the floor where I used to stand.

"A Grimm construct!?" Araknim went from shock to smiling with arrogance. "Now we are talking!"

I'm not.

With reinvigorated excitement, he did a forward front flip extending once more two of his spider legs charged with aura to attack me. This time, I made my construct dodge sidesways, as the Faunus limbs and aura slashes cut everything in front of them, including the reinforced windows and part of the second level. The attack continued flying out of the restaurant before losing force.

He grew stronger again!

For the next seconds, Araknim constantly switched techniques, slicing diagonally, horizontally, or vertically with his spider legs, throwing also his scimitars for variety. I kept relying on The Hound to run away from his attacks, jumping to the second level at one point of the confrontation.

"It's useless!" Araknim also jumped with ease and kept chasing me as my mount ran across what remained of the second level. He wildly chased us, cutting down into bits every table and seat that got in his way with either his weapons or legs.

Taking advantage of the remaining windows and walls, Araknim launched himself with the assistance of his legs, but this time wrapped himself with his limbs and shrunk himself as if he were a spinning ball.

How many techniques this guy has!?

I ordered in time for my hound to jump away, as Araknim broke through the second level's floor, only to remerge some seconds later.

"Screw this!" Pissed off Araknim began to jump several times while chasing us.

On each occasion he performed his 'spinning top' technique in the middle of the air, his aura-boosted swords and legs unleashed energy slashes all over the place. The reach of his destructive attacks was so long, it cut down part of the ceiling, second level, and even the floor of the restaurant. Bianchi's started to lose its rounded shape.

If I survive this night, Bianchi definitely will not welcome me here again!

With almost no second level left to run, I ordered my construct to jump down. Araknim followed us.

What's taking him so long!? It's been over 10 minutes!

"You aren't bothering to fight me anymore." Out of nowhere, Araknim stopped chasing after me and spoke with tranquility, looking disappointed.

•

"Why are you stalling? Giving up already due to a lack of strategies? Or do you still believe that the police are coming to help the hostages?" My opponent ceased his hostility. Despite lowering his guard, I didn't proceed to attack him.

He outclasses me in almost every category. If I restart the fight and rush everything, my aura will be depleted before his.

Like the Maidens and the rabbit girl, Araknim was a powerful foe that I couldn't beat under normal circumstances. It was no exaggeration to say that it would be easier for me to bring down a level 3 Grimm than this enemy.

"I am acting under special orders. No one is coming to save them. Not until I'm done with my mission." Getting playful again, he mocked my efforts to fix my mistake and help everyone.

"I was tasked with tracking and capturing you at any cost. The police and PMCs in this area have been ordered to not get in my way." Araknim shook one of his spider legs, to simulate a 'no' gesture.

Damn it. As I suspected, the authorities of Bright Island are in cahoots with him.

"Do not misunderstand me. I haven't reported my latest findings to them. I'm here for the thrill of fighting you. To see if The Monster of Sally Island can provide me with the answer I seek."

Answer, what does he mean by that?

"Neopolitan, you better continue attacking me with all you got, if you don't want the hostages and everyone else in this tower to die." Araknim removed the piercings on his lips, to open his mouth wide.

What I saw terrified me. Out of his mouth, two pincers with small insect teeth came out. Each one was carnelian beige and 10 centimeters long. With both now in full display, he closed his mouth and smiled at me.

"Sahraa aljahim." His pincers made a rattling noise, as he mentioned words in what I assumed was his mother language.

A large energy pulse came out from Araknim's body and spread across the entire restaurant. For a second it felt as if time had been frozen. I began to feel dizzy and nauseous, as my construct cracked a bit.

What is happening? Something is wro-

As I tried to comprehend the phenomenon affecting the restaurant's atmosphere and making me feel ill, I took note of webs hanging in all directions.

Black threads? Could they be... Spiderwebs!

"Before you arrived, I spread my aura webs not only inside this restaurant but all over this tower's façade. They are a byproduct of my semblance." He explained as he pretended to touch one of his webs. "They are invisible to the naked eye, as long as they aren't activated."

"With them, I made this skyscraper part of my aura field!" Araknim raised all his spider limbs and human hands in ecstasy.

An aura field? What the hell is that?

I began to hear screams of pain in the distance. Images of Debbie, Bianchi, and persons I used to see in this tower popped up in my head.

...

Araknim, what have you done?

"Ah, that's the sweet melody of agony I wanted to hear." Putting his hands close to his ears, Araknim continued sinking in euphoria.

"Neopolitan, at this very moment I'm devouring every person inside this tower." Araknim put his hand under his chin, looking up and raising his 'pincers'.

…

What did you say?

"My semblance, Hell Desert, grants my chelicerae the ability to drain and absorb the energy of every individual caught up in my spiderwebs, replenishing my aura reserves." In a frenzy, Araknim opened and closed the pincers in his mouth, which were now shining with what I assumed was the drained energy of the persons in Lumini Tower.

"It's not very effective against combatants with strong aura defenses, takes me over 5 minutes to completely drain someone powerful, but it is very effective against individuals with weak aura defenses." Araknim looked down with a grin, likely referring with the latter statement to the persons on the floors below the restaurant.

"Low-level fighters, those who barely have awakened their aura or persons that cannot use it well at all. Inside my expanded aura field, they become snacks for me. I can fully drain the average person in less than 3 minutes. And under my activated semblance they can hardly move to escape from my aura field." Lifting his human body with his spider limbs, Araknim did a number 3 gesture with one of his human hands. "Even Grimm cannot avoid becoming my prey. I have let myself be swallowed whole by level 3 and 4 Grimm so that I can eat them from their insides."

"As long as my aura webs can catch a prey, my semblance can provide me with an endless supply of energy, so that my aura reserves never run out." The Desert Spider madly spun with his Faunus limbs, as he laughed. "Attack me all you want. I will simply replenish my aura by eating the people in this tower!"

A semblance that could counter Monstra and Salem!? How is it possible that some random enemy in this world attained such a broken power!?

Not wasting more time, I jumped off The Hound and commanded it to launch itself violently at Araknim. Since it was a sturdy Grimm construct made with my aura shards, Araknim's semblance could not drain it easily, by his admission. But before it could bite off his head, my opponent used his swords and 4 of his Faunus legs to stop its charge.

"Don't bite more than you can chew, dog." Araknim arrogantly spoke, as his last 2 free spider limbs stabbed and sliced my construct several times, further cracking its body.

"Neo, I'm done over here!" I heard Roman's satisfied voice inside my head.

WHAT TOOK YOU LONG!? I've been fighting Araknim, an assassin on par with a Maiden, for over 10 minutes and now he's EATING all the persons inside Lumini Tower!

"SOMEONE IS EATING PERSONS!?" Roman screamed with panic.

Even if he had been fully aware of the context, his reaction would have been probably the same. Not even both of us were twisted enough to commit the crimes Araknim was capable of.

"... Well, the more reason to rely on our last resort. I will be waiting for the signal. Remember that it's about surviving. You cannot afford to lose this time." Regaining his composure, he sent me an encouraging message. "Be careful, Neo."

… Dum-dum.

I ordered my Grimm construct to make distance and try attacking Araknim with several different approaches, as I forced another aura boost out of my body.

If I want to save everyone... Then, I cannot be stingy.

Not caring about aura expenses, I tied Sakura to my waist and began concentrating over half of my remaining energy on the palm of my raised right hand. Aura gusts and a pink light filled what remained of the restaurant as if trying to get rid of Araknim's dark spiderweb.

Blacksmith, you weren't exaggerating when you said that Zenitheans have abnormal powers.

A whirling sphere of shiny shards charged with my pink aura manifested over my right hand. Its pressure, volume, and density were so much, that I had to use my left arm to support the right one, as I kept pouring more aura into it. Forcing my concentrated mass of aura shards to levitate, cracked the floor beneath me and the walls nearby.

But by Remnant's standards, I'm also abnormal.

"What are you trying to do now? You want me to devour your aura in one gulp?" Araknim asked gleefully, tearing apart The Hound construct with a series of spider slashes.

Predicting his next move, I threw up the twirling, pink aura sphere. As it began to fall, I grabbed Sakura and spun to gain momentum.

"Then so be it!" With absolute excitement, Araknim shot himself at me with incredible speed, but by the time he did that, I had already connected the hit to my sphere with Sakura.

Its aura shards spread to shapeshift into the biggest and sturdiest construct I had made since I arrived at Zenith: A Sea Feilong.

Violently biting and trapping Araknim with his mouth, the dragon Grimm continued flying into the trajectory I designated for it. Taking the quickest route outside of the restaurant, the Feilong's head crashed against one of the remaining reinforced windows and continued flying in the direction of its destination. Turning Sakura into Hush again, I used its hook to grab one of my construct's scales before its entire body left Bianchi's.

Roman, I defenestrated Araknim with a Sea Feilong construct and I'm taking him with me to Condor Tower, but I can sense already my creation breaking apart. We will have to use the contingency plan. Wait for my signal!

"Sure... But what's defenestrate?" Roman asked a dumb question, not understanding how precarious my current situation was.

You of all people should know that!

Flying across the space between both towers with my Grimm, I saw the head of my construct viciously getting sliced into bits by Araknim with his tornado technique. The Faunus then proceeded to adjust his body position to land safely on the 40th and current last floor of Condor Tower, the international-styled building next to Lumini Tower. As my construct crumbled, I activated the wind dust crystals stored within Sakura's shaft to continue flying the last stretch to the unfinished tower. Noticing that Araknim was going to shoot at me with the guns in his scimitars, I closed my weapon's canopy in time and fell rolling on the last floor's edge.

"You severed my connection with Lumini Tower! How, how did you know that my semblance wasn't going to work at this distance from my spiderwebs!?" In the middle of the rain, Araknim shouted with frustration while shooting at me from afar.

I didn't! Lucky guess!

I reopened disguised Sakura's canopy and ran to take cover behind a pillar.

"That's Araknim? He seems very dangerous. Makes Tyrian look tamed and less insane by comparison." From his current location, Roman was finally able to see my enemy.

"But too late, I already replenished most of the aura I lost earlier!" The Faunus gloated, shooting more in my direction.

My case was unfortunately the opposite of his. I only had around one-fourth of my total aura reserves when boosted. It was obvious that I didn't stand much of a chance against him in a fair fight. Even if I had 140% of my aura and Ever After's semblance enhancements available, I would have probably still lost versus him in a fair confrontation.

Roman, Araknim has spider legs with extra sensory functions. For the plan to work, I will make some modifications.

Taking cover behind the canopy, I ran towards the mast tie of a buck hoist to go down one floor easily. With each floor having a height close to 3.5 meters and an area of 1,600 meters, there was plenty of space to continue the fight. Outside of several columns for support and some walls, there was not much to destroy.

"Are you trying to escape, Neopolitan?" Using his Faunus limbs, Araknim quickly climbed down and caught up with me. Sticking to the ceiling, he threw his ignited swords, which I managed to dodge by a whisker, taking cover behind a wall that the enemy started pulverizing.

"Should have kept fighting me on the top floor. At least the rain would have weakened my dust crystals." Using his scimitars and spider limbs, Araknim broke through walls and columns while chasing me.

"Although it doesn't matter where you run to. I can produce more aura webs and reactivate my semblance anywhere in Bright Island. Cubic Garden, Principal Park, Shine Crossing, Shiny Game Center. I can eat every person that gets in the way of our fun."

I gathered courage, mentally preparing myself behind a wall to fight him, doing my best to think of new strategies in our current environment and ignoring his happy sinister voice.

"Why even limit us to Bright Island? If you want to, we can even keep going at Copper Suburb and Bronze City. There are plenty of people to devour in this region. It will be a banquet with millions of dishes!" Araknim's voice sped up and became louder.

"With this power granted to me by God, as long there are weak humans around, I can keep fighting on for eternity!" Araknim was suffering another rapture episode, thinking about reactivating Hell Desert. "Isn't my semblance the greatest!?"

...

"But you probably don't care for any innocent civilians outside of Debbie and that blue-haired gorilla. That's why you killed all those innocent persons, Monster." After a short moment of silence, from my hiding place, I heard Araknim's now more relaxed, but still taunting voice.

I haven't killed anyo-

[The stabbed bodies of Atlesians.]

… That was different. I'm not like yo-

[A deceased mouse and a crying girl.]

I... I know I shouldn't have done that.

[Civilians fleeing from a horde of monsters.]

… We were tricked... Used by...

[A destroyed manor.]

…

My heart began to race, while my stomach hurt.

"I am not judging you. I also hate them." The Faunus's voice became angrier, slower, and somber. "Those who look down on us."

"Whether due to mutism or an animal trait. They always find an excuse to discriminate against us. To berate us. To ignore us." I could sense my opponent behind the wall I was using to hide. The frustration carried by his voice reached me.

"Were they also scared of you? Or was it more disgust? Not that it makes much difference." Araknim lowered more his voice, as it expressed pity.

"I can tell by your semblance... The world loved ignoring you."

•

"It's the spider freak, squash him!" A tanned boy wearing a white thawb shouted happily.

Listening to him, his friends grabbed stones from the footpath and threw them at their target, a small boy trying to hide between two one-story, brown houses made of mud and brick.

The Faunus boy out of desperation gave up his disguise by throwing away the broken schoolbag used to conceal his spider limbs. With their help, he climbed on top of one of the houses to escape from the hostile kids.

"Ey, stupid spider! Don't curse my home with your presence!" The adult that lived in the house shouted in fury, as the Faunus got away.

For 8-year-old Alan Kabot, this was just another ordinary day. No matter if he used a bandana, oversized thawb, keffiyeh, taqiyah, or other types of scarves and fabrics, everyone in the small desert village eventually figured out that it was him under disguise.

It had been nearly a month since his parents had passed away in a control war in the town where he was originally born. Alan was among the few to survive and escape from the destruction of his hometown thanks to his Faunus features, which allowed him to climb walls and buildings, and even sense better than anyone else where bombs were going to drop and the presence of hidden enemies.

But his escape from death only brought him more misfortune. Taking refuge in a village located around 100 kilometers away from his destroyed hometown, after surviving the harsh conditions of the desert, Alan had failed to find the hospitality that he desperately craved.

"That boy only brings death with him."

"That's not a Faunus, but a monster. Wahsh!"

"Have you seen its disgusting mouth? That freak is probably the one eating all the farm animals."

Being aware of his place of origin and abnormal physical features, most of the people in the village thought of him as a bad omen. His presence was considered to bring bad luck and was used as an explanation for the drought hitting the region, along with the increase of Grimm appearances.

"There's no way he isn't some sort of mutant."

"The kid is cursed. He will only bring misfortune to this place."

"Why he had to come here?"

"Just ignore him till he goes away."

Stealing from poorly guarded marketplaces and living under a small wooden bridge, the boy had been able to survive after switching improvised shelters a couple of times.

I'm no monster. This is how I was born.

The boy swallowed the stolen piece of chicken meat and his tears, as he struggled to comprehend why such cruel fate followed him everywhere.

It's not my fault.

Alan on multiple occasions tried to win over the people of the village, but his efforts ended up in vain.

Once he tried to catch a fleeing lamb and returned it to his owner.

"You probably stole it in the first place. Do not think you can fool me!"

Only to be accused of stealing the animal.

He tried lowering fruits from trees to compensate for stolen food.

"Qaraf! Keep it to yourself, I don't want it anymore."

But whatever he touched was considered filthy.

Many times, he tried reaching for others of his age.

"My umm says not to play with you. Your legs are dangerous."

But kids constantly fled from Alan or treated him badly, based on spreading rumors.

At best, girls told him words of disgust and toddlers ran away from him, at worst he suffered pranks and got bullied by those close to his age.

Why is everyone in this place so stupid!?

Alan thought after an incident in which one of the many rocks that others threw at him managed to hit his head and make him bleed.

But one day the boys of the village took things too far.

During an afternoon, in an open area near the border of the village, Alan was trying again to win over the people by showing other kids how he could use his spider legs to knit wool when a gang of bully teenagers showed up to tear apart his creation.

"You want my little sister to wear cursed clothes made by you?" The leader of the gang punched him to which one of Alan's spider legs subconsciously reacted by slashing one of the bully's arms.

"AH! He cut me!" While the wound was superficial, it was enough to make him bleed and scream in fear.

It wasn't my intention. I'm so-

Before the Faunus could apologize, a rock hit him close to the eye.

The rest of the gang responded by throwing more rocks at the spider Faunus. While climbing against a nearby house's wall to flee the scene, a stone hit him in the head and made him drop to the ground.

The teenagers and younger kids decided to gang on him, kicking and punching his body. After minutes of cruel punishment, Alan was spitting blood and close to losing consciousness. His body was filled with bruises, broken bones, and bleeding cuts.

"Let's break his legs. Maybe that will stop him from spreading his curse."

"Start with the one that cut my arm."

"We will hold him in place. Grab that rock. Quickly!"

Please, God... Make them stop.

Unable to speak, nobody listened to the prayer inside his broken head. The kids restraining his body allowed one of the teenagers to pick a sharp and heavy rock.

"Aim well, don't hit my feet!"

I only wanted a new home.

The next thing Alan felt was an intense pain coming from the left side of his back.

"One leg off!"

It hurts! God, it hurts!

"Go on, break another... What's that noise?"

The kids stopped, looking for the source of a rattling sound.

"Look! His jaws are moving weir-"

Unable to see the scene behind him, Alan began to feel well again as his wounds healed.

What's happening? Why do I feel so... good? My head no longer hurts.

Not feeling any force pinning him to the floor, he stood up energetically.

This sensation is new. I've never felt this great in my life!

I no longer feel hungry! And most of my wounds are healing! It's a miracle! A miracle from Go-

But as the Faunus boy turned around, he only saw the convulsing bodies of the teenagers and younger kids that were attacking him earlier. Their bodies were marked with strange black webs, akin to those of a spider.

Even kids that were standing a dozen meters away and didn't participate in the dismemberment, were violently shaking on the ground, screaming and crying.

Why is everyone... dying?

"MONSTER!" A woman, who Alan recognized as one of the kid's mothers, shouted from far away.

From a safe distance, other kids and adults witnessed the horrific scene of Alan smiling while surrounded by persons in agony.

When the mother ran to grab and rescue her daughter, she collapsed to the ground and started convulsing with intense pain. The marks of spiderwebs also manifested over her body.

"It's the curse! He's killing them with his curse!" A man in his thirties shouted, going inside his house to grab his hunting bow and arrows.

"Don't approach him. Call for help!" Other adults picked up on the situation and reacted in several ways.

Some tried to rock throws at him from a safe distance, others accidentally stepped within his aura field while trying to attack Alan or rescue their kids, while the most unforgiving ones aimed spears and arrows at the spider Faunus.

"Wait! Why are you attacking me!? It's not my fault!" Panicking, Alan raised his arms in defense, but being unable to dodge multiple arrows, he was wounded in his torso by one of them.

Thinking that the increasing mob was eventually going to find a way to kill him, he decided to flee to the desert. In his escape path, people who attempted to stab or catch him also collapsed to the ground.

Even men with horses and swords that chased after Alan to kill him, fainted or suffered convulsions, along their mounts.

After running away kilometers at superhuman speed, thanks to his remaining 5 spider legs, Araknim finally let himself rest in the middle of the desert valley. Under the moonlight and a shadowy star, he complained about his unfair treatment.

That wasn't me. I'm not a cursed monster. Stupid idiots!

Feeling strange vibrations coming from the ground with his Faunus limbs, Alan dodged by instinct a surprise attack coming underground from a Grimm.

A Centinel.

As he was preparing to run away, other Grimm emerged from the ground. Centinels, Creeps, and one Cenitaur closed all the paths for him to escape. He had fallen in the middle of a Grimm Nest.

Around 4 of them dropped on him. Soon the rest followed, attempting to devour him alive.

God! God! Please, protect me!

Alan's chelicerae trembled with fear, producing once more an eerie sound. The spider Faunus going ecstatic and feeling stronger, stabbed with his special extensions the Grimm that were trying to eat him. Feeling an intense amount of pleasure, he began to bite and chew on the Grimm's unprotected parts using his pincers.

Ah, so exquisite! This tastes so delicious!

Aura webs spread out of the boy's body, covering the Grimm and making their bodies twitch and bubble up. In less than a minute, the creatures of darkness melted into their primordial forms, puddles of Grimm Liquid that dried without energy left, leaving the rejoicing boy alone.

God, thank you for this dinner!

After a couple of days lost in the deepest part of the desert, with no animal or Grimm to devour, Alan's aura broke. Suffering from heatstroke, he lost his balance and fell.

I'm hungry and thirsty. I need to eat something... Someone.

Losing his vision and almost falling into a slumber, the spider prayed again under the scorching sun.

Save me, God.

...

"What's such a young child doing over here?" The gentle voice, of what he assumed was an old man, spoke to him.

He made an effort to look at the source of the sound, but due to his condition, his eyes failed to satisfy his curiosity.

•

"Neopolitan... Did something similar happen to you?" Araknim maintained a happy tone through the whole explanation of how he got his semblance.

...

"It's okay to curse a world that hates you." He knew I was behind the wall next to him.

Araknim, you made a grave mistake.

Giving up on the idea of running, I gained enough determination to put an end to this fight and proceed with my last resort.

"I know because that's the reason I was born."

You were aware of my friendship with Debbie and Phoebe.

I reactivated my semblance for another summon, not caring if the enemy on the other side was way more powerful than me.

"It's the mission that God, The Highest in the Heavens, granted me." The Faunus was starting to sound delusional.

And of my physical disability.

If I summoned something that didn't touch the ground, then his extra sensory organs wouldn't detect the incoming attack thanks to the wall getting in the way.

"To spread curses in his name."

That means you were spying on me all this time.

Once my new construct was done, I aimed at the source of the irritating voice.

"Let us be monsters together!" An ecstatic shout filled the empty floor.

Despite being fully aware that she was nice to me, you attacked Debbie.

And punched Araknim directly in his face with the arm of an Arma Gigas, sending him flying across a wall and a column.

Deep down we aren't that similar, and you attacked her because she made you realize that!

"That ferocity... It does seem that you are the one who holds the answer." Coming out of the rubble unscathed with delight rather than fury, Araknim prepared for another clash against me.

The sounds of rain, thunder, and lightning in the distance announced the start of our last round.

Letting my rival get close, I briskly summoned two clones of myself with Sakura and Hush in their hands. Giving myself another construct of Hush and once more spider legs made of pink crystallized aura, I tried to intercept all Araknim's slashes.

You two, attack any opening I create for you!

Using my spider legs to deflect or bind his, and the weapons in my hands to deal with his scimitars, I gave plenty of chances for the other two 'mes' to land stabs and slashes on my opponent's body.

"Wonderful! You really are wonderful, NEOPOLITAN!" Losing his composure, yet not his amazing reflexes and fight coordination, Araknim increased the speed of his attacks. He was aiming for a speed 7 times faster than sound.

"You are adapting to my fighting style and improving your defensive tactics..." Araknim broke two of my spider legs. "But it's a shame that you still lack technique and speed."

"As much as I enjoy fighting you, it's obvious that unlike me, you will run out of aura. You cannot keep this fight going on forever." I used more aura to rebuild the broken spider limbs.

But Araknim's velocity and greater experience when it came to using his spider features increased again the gap between us. My clones rarely were able to hurt him.

I can keep going! I can overcome him! I will surpass him before crushing him! I can do this!

Giving my two clones their own 6 spider limbs, I instructed them to place themselves at 4 and 8 o'clock behind Araknim, while I focused on fighting him upfront and boosting my remaining aura. A formation based on back three.

Concentrate. Keep aiming for binds or parries. Leave the offensive to the clones.

"Impressive! I couldn't have imagined that you were capable of this!" Araknim began to laugh, not caring about getting attacked now and then by my clones.

Despite his spider legs being able to detect incoming attacks, it was difficult even with extra sensory functions for them to contort in time to stop slashes from behind as I was giving them already plenty of trouble with a frontal assault.

The intense barrage of aura-charged slashes created a vacuum that cut even the air within the range of our attacks.

"But attacking me with this many limbs won't be enough, Neopolitan. I have fought over a hundred weaklings at the same time. Quality over quantity can determine the winner." Araknim getting serious, increased further his speed.

I cannot even calculate how fast is he attacking anymore.

The replicas of spider legs and weapons in my hands started to break, along those of my clones. I kept injecting more aura into myself and my creations to compensate for the difference in speed with my enemy, but it was futile. The longer the clash kept going, the more my aura was drained and Araknim adapted to my attack patterns, instead of the other way around. I could hardly perceive his movements anymore. All I saw in my enemy's direction were blurs of what was supposed to be his human body and Faunus's extensions moving at ridiculously high speeds.

"15 times the speed of sound! More than double your attack speed!" Araknim somehow could talk while defending and attacking at such an incredible velocity.

The speed he claimed to attack me with was comparable to that of anti-ballistic missiles that U.N.N.M, and other Zenithean nations, had developed to intercept hypersonic, intercontinental ballistic missiles. Faster than any transport back in Remnant. Something I found out when researching Zenithean weaponry on the interweb.

Impossible! No one should be able to move that fast! He's bluf-

[A falling violet meteorite.]

No... I have seen someone move faster than him. 10 times faster. A girl that can move as fast as a meteor and destroy a whole kingdom with a single blow.

"What's wrong, too fas- Uh, wait... Why is your pink eye shin-" Araknim was cut off by another forced aura boost that covered my body in a violent pink light, along the bodies of my clones. The three pink flames were striving to overcome the big black flame in the middle.

That stupid rabbit was really holding back! She was way more powerful than Araknim, yet she kept toying with me! I never stood a chance against her!

"Is your speed increasing? I knew you were holding back at Bianchi's, but not this badly." My perplexed opponent noticed my conviction.

We were starting to get even. Neither Araknim nor I could land an attack on each other.

If I cannot even defeat the opponent in front of me, then I have no chance against her and the rest of The Zodiac. That's why I must become stronger and faster. I cannot afford to lose this fight!

I could sense my adversary breaking a sweat. The clones behind him were landing again slices on him.

"Well, then... Let's see if you can keep up the rhythm under these conditions." Escaping from his unfavorable position, Araknim decided to use his 'spinning top' technique to turn into a wild tornado that approached one of my constructs.

"Sahraa aljahim!" The rattling noise from my enemy's chelicerae accompanied a series of spiderwebs that the wild tornado shot in all directions. His expanded aura field cracked slightly my constructs.

He's using his semblance to break my formation. He knows he's at a disadvantage when surrounded by 3 enemies using one of his fighting styles.

Detecting that our clash had cracked and was further breaking the floor we were standing on and the ceiling above us, I decided to change my strategy. My clones and I opened our Hushes and Sakuras to defend ourselves from the spider's tornado.

Taking note of this, Araknim escaped from our formation through a gap between my constructs and threw his two fire scimitars at me with impressive force. Reminding me of fire wheels, I decided to intercept the two attacks with my spider crystal legs. The clash resulted in his attacks being deflected but at the cost of my creation.

"They were cheap replicas. Nothing compared to the real deal. Now, then..." Araknim proudly called back his scimitars, aiming next at my two clones.

Placing their spider legs in front of them to defend from his scimitars, and the opened canopies behind them to defend from Araknim's spider legs, my clones also managed to deflect his burning swords, but they were left without Faunus features. I tried to rebuild our spider features; however, sudden dizziness prevented me from doing so. My aura reserves were getting low.

Regroup, now! We need to watch our backs! Neapolitan formation!

Standing back-to-back, the three 'mes' joined our shoulders and left an empty triangular space in the middle.

"Looks like this will be fun, but let's see for how long you can keep that formation as my semblance drains your energy!" Jumping into the ceiling, Araknim attached himself to it with his 2 prosthetic limbs and proceeded to attack me from above with his fire scimitars and remaining aura-charged, Faunus legs.

I prioritized my defenses by having 'us' three protect each other with Hush and Sakura's canopies, spinning now and then to switch the main defender so that I could reinforce my constructs whenever Araknim was close to breaking them.

I do not think I have ever fought this fast and efficiently in my entire life. This is the first time I have faced someone this strong going all out against me. I hate it, but I must admit...

You are an amazing fighter!

"You are an amazing fighter!" We complimented each other, even though we were trying to kill each other.

Rabbit, I wonder how strong you are. Is your semblance even more powerful than Araknim's? Why didn't you simply stomp on me? I would have done that to you if our aura levels were switched.

"Neo, are you okay? If things are going south, give me the signal already!" A worried Roman spoke inside my head. It had been a few minutes since I last communicated with him.

"You are sweating, Neopolitan. Is that your limit?" Araknim jumped back to the floor, getting ready for another clash against the three 'mes'.

Line formation! Neo 3, focus on stopping his left spider legs. Neo 2, you take care of his right spider legs. Neo 1, me... The real one will focus on his human limbs and scimitars.

My clones nodded to my mental instructions. Ignoring my fatigue, I closed Hush and Sakura's canopies to prioritize offense, while my clones kept their canopies open to prioritize defense.

"Yes, yes, yes! This is what I've been seeking! This is the fight I wanted! It's been a while since someone gave this much challenge!" Araknim laughed and went berserk, attacking our formation with great passion. His violent aura grew as mine (x3) gave it our all for the last time.

My strategy worked at first. My three bodies managed to fend off his attacks, while I landed some slices on Araknim's human limbs. But whenever I tried aiming for his chelicerae, the enemy made sure to dodge my attacks, even if that meant getting hit on other parts of his body.

Even if I managed to reach his pincers, I doubt I would do significant damage to them. My rival's aura levels are still high.

The bodies of my two clones cracked furthermore, as they did their best to keep his spider legs busy.

And with that broken semblance of his, the more we fight, the more he drains my aura to replenish his.

"Neo, what's the matter!? Answer me!" With more concern than before, my crime partner demanded my reply.

I cannot win. I cannot beat him. I'm doing my best, yet that's not enough...

I estimated that I had only around one-tenth of my total aura reserves. If we kept the fight going for another minute, Araknim was going to win.

I wanted to surpass him, but I couldn't. If I cannot beat him, then I cannot beat her and therefore The Zodiac.

"Who cares about beating them in fair fights!? Your survival is more important! Remember the motto." Roman scolded me for straying from his beliefs.

I know... But it's still frustrating. I wanted to defeat him with my strength! Because if I cannot do that... then, with what pride could I again challenge her!?

"If you die today, you will fail to save everyone at Bianchi's and will not get to fight that girl once more! Forget about your pride and survive!" Speaking with an urgent tone, Roman gave me another sound advice.

... I'm sorry for not listening to you.

"That spark in your eye is back... Are you cryi-" Araknim for some reason lowered his attack speed, ceasing this chance I increased mine to bind our weapons and pushed him back with my remaining strength.

Being thrown off balance, Araknim contorted his Faunus limbs and stabbed the ground behind him to avoid falling.

Neo 2 and 3, go ahead!

The two constructs shapeshifted into Monsoon Grimm and shot all their tentacles at Araknim's limbs. He cut some of them down, but in doing so he got his weapons, arms, and all 8 of his legs wrapped by the remaining constructs' tentacles. Ordering the two Monsoons to fly around the nearest columns located to Araknim's left and right side, both started to pull apart the Faunus's body.

Roman, from your position, count 4 unfinished columns up. See the cracked sections in the center? That's where Araknim is currently standing.

"I knew that's where you going to immobilize him. I can calculate your location thanks to the AAIS bracelet. Everything is ready. Get over here, now!" With relief, my reliable crime partner confirmed that he had been aware of my intentions.

"You want to tear apart my limbs? You are more sadistic than I thought!" Laughing maniacally, The Desert Spider boosted his aura to increase his physical strength, but I ignored him and ran towards the edge of the floor.

"Where are you going!?" Araknim began to shout with confusion, boosting his aura and further breaking two of the last columns that held in place the ceiling of the floor we were standing on. "NEOPOLITAN! I WILL NOT LET YOU ESCAPE!"

ROMAN, HE'S GOING TO FREE HIMSELF! SHOOT NOW!

"BUT YOU STILL HAVEN-" Ignoring my partner's concern, I interrupted him with my command.

SHOOT!

A shot sounded in the distance, as I was some meters away from reaching the edge of the floor. I could sense my Monsoon constructs and the columns they were latching on about to break, but they had accomplished their task. Another loud sound filled the entire floor, it was the noise of the construction materials crashing over the ceiling above Araknim. The start of a huge crumbling followed this.

The ceiling we were fighting under collapsed over Araknim, and soon the rest of the floor above fell also apart. By the skin of my teeth, I managed to outrun the falling debris and jumped outside Condor Tower. Opening Sakura's canopy to slow down my fall, I saw my construct of Roman shooting the grappling hook of his cane in my direction. Using the handle of Hush in my other hand, I hooked to it and Roman pulled me up to the mast of the tower crane he was hanging on.

"I am not going to let you fly away from me again, partner." Roman greeted merrily me back, while I dispelled Hush to grab better the mast with my free hand.

I turned around my head and looked back to witness how the unfinished last floor was collapsing on the floor I was figh-

An extremely loud thud took me by surprise. The floor I was fighting on also broke down and collapsed on the one below it. And then the floor below the one I was standing on also collapsed...

And then the next one. And another one. 10 floors. 15 floors. 20 floors. In seconds, half of the building was destroyed by a domino effect caused by the debris of each previously destroyed floor falling into the next one below.

25 floors. 30 floors. The tower crane shook. The intense vibrations of the collapse reached Lumini Tower and sounded across the city. A huge cloud of smoke arose despite the rain trying to keep it down.

35 floors. And 40 floors. The temblor died. Lucky for us, the foundations of the tower crane weren't caught up in the destruction.

...

"Whoa! How did you know that the entire tower was going to collapse on Araknim!?" Roman and I looked at each other with amazement.

I didn't. Lucky guess.

•

Minutes earlier.

"Oh, I know that look. Better share whatever big idea is inside that little head of yours, partner." Being familiar with me... Because he was my loneliness coping mechanism, Roman cheerfully demanded for me to explain my plan.

See the seals ahead?

I pointed to the construction and noise barriers that surrounded the unfinished Condor Tower.

"Yeah... Reminds me of the ones placed around evicted buildings in Copper Suburb!" Roman pointed his right index finger at them, shaking it up and down.

They are suspension orders halting the construction of this tower. Most were still intact last weekend. Seems they recently started removing them, but I don't think they had enough time to fix all the construction deficiencies of this tower, such as the weak supporting columns between some floors pointed out here.

"Since when are you into structural engineering?" My partner looked at me with incredulity.

When I was little Trivia, I accidentally discovered that my father received 'extra money' through 'business contracts' to let this kind of 'engineering mistakes' fly under the radar. I didn't understand the implications, till I got older.

"And you think Condor Tower isn't saf-" I nodded my head, interrupting him.

Oh, absolutely. Would bet my life on it. Look at the name of the construction firm over here. It's the same one that has built many of the evicted buildings in Copper Suburb, including the one I live in.

"What's your plan?" Being convinced by my way of thinking, Roman accepted hearing my ideas.

There's a tower crane that you could hijack to drop construction materials over the enemy. In case things go very wrong, I will take the fight to the top floor.

I signaled the tower crane that was so tall, that it not only was visible outside of the construction barriers but even surpassed the current height of the tower.

"How am I supposed to get into the pilot's cabin, turn on the tower crane, and oper-" I raised my hand again so that I could continue explaining the plan.

I will give you a body made with aura shards that contain within it the backpack with my skates' metal frames, soul plates, and other belongings. Using 'my' AAIS bracelet, I will have better control over your body from a long distance when needed. Don't worry about running out of aura, through the skates' parts connected to the AAIS bracelet I will be constantly providing you with it.

"And the tower crane operation?" Roman pointed up, towards the cabin of the tower crane.

It's easier than operating a Paladin or Gigas. I practiced using one of those before piloting a Gigas, back in Brick City. Whenever you get stuck, I will take direct control over your body to help you move the tower crane. You will need keys for certain parts of the plan, but I can reshape the shards that make up your fingers to pick any lock and start-up engines.

"But if we go with this plan, you will be able to summon only 2 constructs with weapons against whoever you fight at Bianchi's." Out of concern for me, Roman mentioned the biggest disadvantage of my plan.

It's a risk worth taking if the opponent turns out to be exceptional.

"Anything else the exploitative little aristocrat wants this mistreated wage-earner to do?" Roman used his bowler hat as a fan to act as if he were tired.

Remember to load the tower crane's hook with heavy things, in case there's not a prepared load. When you lift the load above the top floor but not directly over it, to avoid raising the opponent's suspicions, tell me everything is ready. Once I force the enemy to follow me to Condor Tower, I will keep him distracted and if possible, immobilize him. Then, you will place the load directly over the enemy and shoot with Melodic Cudgel the hook to make the load drop over him.

I needed to provide my Roman construct with enough aura so that he could also shoot fake dust bullets with his weapon.

"How do you come up with this stuff?" Intrigued, Roman finally addressed the elephant in the room.

When I was a construction worker, I frequently imagined dropping loads over my cruel boss.

•

"That's one way to squash a spider." An incorporeal Roman joked in front of Condor Tower's rubble after I climbed down the tower crane's mast.

Roman, a discriminated minority just died.

I was back to being Liz and wearing my skating attire. Suspecting that more people were going to break into the construction site soon, I decided to wear a blue contact lens over my pink eye. With less than 8% of my aura available, I felt too exhausted to keep up my Beryl or Neopolitan appearances.

"Since when you are so politically corre- Oh, right. Sometimes I forget you are mute." He regretted his bluntness, not realizing that I threw that remark only to toy with him.

But it's not like I had many options. Araknim was way too dangerous and powerful for me to stop without relying on such a lethal plan. Breaking his aura with one blow was the only way to stop him from activating his broken semblance to replenish his energy and heal his wounds.

Now, he was buried under several thousand tons of steel and reinforced concrete.

"Are you okay, Neo?" Roman worried for me, taking note that I stood contemplating in front of the destroyed building.

He... Araknim is the first person I have killed in this world. I am not sure how to feel. I wonder if The Blacksmith would be disappointed in me.

The rain was finally calming down, so opening Sakura was no longer necessary.

I was supposed to ascend. To become a better person, yet I could not avoid killing again.

And once more I had caused trouble to someone who treated me well. Everyone at Lumini Tower almost died because of my fault today. Even if I wasn't attached to the 4 persons Araknim killed tonight, their deaths were to blame on me working at Bianchi's.

"You did what you needed to survive and save those you cared for. I'm sure sh- they would have understood... Probably." My partner tried to comfort me, despite not being sure how to interpret what happened.

It was a close one, Roman. I have never faced a more powerful opponent than him, except for The Zodiac's bunny girl. He was an assassin who surpassed the martial skills of anyone I met in Remnant. Beating a Maiden would have been easier than getting rid of Arak-

"What's that noise?" Roman and I turned our attention to the moving debris in the pile of rubble. I could sense vibrations underneath my feet. A strange erupting noise gained force.

Unconceivable. There's no way he's still...

The top of the rubble exploded violently, being pulverized or thrown away by a black column of fire with a height of 15 meters. A feral shriek and a terrifying silhouette came out of the rubble.

ARAKNIM!?

"ARAKNIM!?" Roman and I mentally screamed simultaneously, looking with shock at the threatening figure.

"NEOPOLITAAAAAN!" Araknim screamed at the top of his lungs, unleashing a final boost that pushed apart more rubble and made the entire place shake. The aura flame went out.

Something is off... Ro- And he's gone.

Becoming aware that my imaginary friend had vanished, I gave up 'talking' to him. I concentrated once more on Araknim.

His clothes were a dirty mess. Bruises and cuts covered multiple parts of his body. The Faunus's spider legs were either broken or out of shape, and one of his prosthetic limbs was missing. He had also lost one of his scimitars, along with pieces of his leather armor. I could not see his chelicerae, but that likely was due to him contracting them back into his mouth. I could even see some fractured or exposed bones along one of his legs and broken right arm. His aura continued flickering like crazy.

He's forcing himself to reactivate his aura. That boost drained any potential energy he had left.

I could not believe the tenacity of this man. A Maiden could not have survived the collapse of that tower and even Salem would have taken hours to recover from that. Not to mention that crawling this fast out of tons of rubble with such a wounded body was itself a monumental task.

But even Araknim's aura had a limit that he could not surpass, no matter how much he pushed himself. Using two of his not-so-broken spider legs for support, he slowly walked down in my direction.

"The fight is not over yet... I can continue." Speaking with a tired voice that concealed pain, Araknim took out a broken box from his clothes. It contained a damaged syringe. "Oh, its contents spilled out."

What was that supposed to do?

"Let's do it the old-fashioned way." He dropped the syringe and held up his scimitar with his left arm. Smiling, he continued walking towards me.

What's wrong with him? I cannot believe he still wants to fight me in that condition.

Running very slow by his standards, he attempted to attack me with his sword and not-so-broken limbs, but I casually dodged his moves and struck him with Sakura. Araknim desperately tried to activate whatever dust remained in his weapon, to no avail.

Shrieking and screaming, my enemy swung his sword and legs at me, but by now he was fighting with the speed of a normal human without aura. Turning Sakura into Hush's misericorde, I slashed at his torso and limbs, further shattering the few aura protection he had left and making blood drop everywhere.

Araknim stumbled, the black energy finally dissipated, along any chance of him reactivating his aura field.

"I can continue. I can still fight." The agonizing Faunus exerted himself to keep standing. He swung once more his scimitar and broken spider legs, but for every hit he missed, I coldly slashed him.

After a total of 12 slashes, his body decided to give up for him and he fell on his knees. I kicked him to the ground, stepping strongly with one foot over his chest, which made him cough blood. I estimated that his limbs had suffered enough damage for them to be rendered useless.

The fallen assassin laughed with a smile.

"I... I suppose that this is it... God, I failed you. I could not take her down, as you ordered me." Araknim was getting psychotic once more, looking up into the far sky.

I held the misericorde over his face, pointing down. My opponent remembering my existence turned to me.

"Neopolitan, before you kill me... Can you at least... Provide me with your answer?" With his smile gone and no longer hiding his agony, Araknim pleaded.

"Do... Do you hate the world?" Araknim asked in pain.

...

"I wanted to know... Why did you kill all those people... And how, despite everything, you were able to get along with those girls..." Sensing his big effort to speak, I stopped putting pressure on his chest.

He must be referring to Debbie and Phoebe.

Without moving, we continued staring at each other.

"After what you did in Sally Island, I thought that for sure you hated it. That's why I went for the blonde girl, unable to track the other one."

Thank goodness, Phoebe wasn't involved in this madness.

"I thought your relationship with that blonde girl was a façade, to conceal your real identity before committing another terrorist attack..." Araknim twitched in pain, but he forced himself to continue talking

"I honestly was surprised when you showed up... By your stubbornness to save everyone. You risked it all for them."

...

"I do hate the world. Even the old snake is gone now. I've got nothing to look forward to... Except for my death..." Araknim pointed to the sky with his gaze. "So that I can, at last, reunite God."

"But what about you, Neopolitan? Do you have any attachment to it? Anything to look forward to?"

[She has no attachments to your world. Nothing to return to.]

I...

The misericorde in my hand was shaking.

Why am I hesitating? Don't listen to his words. Just stab him already. He's too dangerous and almost killed my comrades at Bianchi's.

[A girl with a red hood drinking a cup of tea.]

Roman, Blacksmith, what should I do? I am lost without you.

After this night, I will have to run away to another place. Again, I've got nothing left.

I am alone in this world, just like in Remnant.

[You are free to choose your next path.]

Then, I will...

"Are you struggling with your answer?" Araknim's grieving voice broke my trance.

My arm was ready to stab him, but I couldn't lower the misericorde to do the job.

"You don't have to verbally answer me. Use that blade of yours to deliver the answer I seek."

Then, I will...

I had decided what to do next. The weapon in my hand stopped shaking.

"Is there anything left for us in this world?"

I will k-

I heard a harsh noise. It came from the direction of the construction site's entrance gate. Several footsteps followed it.

I got too distracted by Araknim's questions, I failed to notice the changes in my surroundings.

"Hold it right there! Hands up where we can see them!" Several policemen with dust-enhanced armor entered the place, aiming their guns at me.

These are no ordinary street cops.

While they belonged to the police department of Bright Island, this special unit was equipped with black armor plates over their chest, shoulders, and parts of their knee-high boots. They wore white uniforms and a special helmet with a black visor that covered most of their face, but not their mouths. Their armors counted with tubes across their bodies, which glowed according to the color of dust they equipped to their armors. On their waist and thigh bags, there were hanging vials of dust and ammo magazines. Some of them were equipped with handguns, while others had machine guns.

About time you showed up, this guy here tried to kill everyone at Lumini Tower.

I crossed my arms in annoyance. 10 policemen had arrived, but the increasing number of sirens in the distance suggested that more were about to reach this place.

"Idiots, what are you doing? You interrupted my conversation with N-" I stepped with force on Araknim's chest once more, putting an end to his angry complaint.

"Lady, I told you hands up where we can see them!" The policeman, who I assumed was the unit leader, ordered fiercely.

Wait, you also want to arrest me? But I saved everyone!

I pointed to my face with a puzzled and annoyed look.

"Sergeant, her body doesn't display any signs of aura." One of the subordinates noticed that I had turned off my aura with his special visor.

"Do not be fooled. For all we know this was another terrorist act by Neopolitan." The sergeant ignored his subordinate's statement.

What!? That's not... Entirely true... If you had not arrived so late, I wouldn't have dropped that tower on 7 legs over here.

"Her gender and height coincide. Restrain and transport her to headquarters for questioning." The unit's sergeant ordered the men closest to him.

Wait, Wait, Wait! You must be kidding me! This is the first time in my life I saved someone who isn't a criminal, and you are arresting me!?

I stepped back, doing a bit of distance with the armored policemen, but I was surrounded and one of them approached me from behind.

"Lady, you have the right to remain silent." One of them pointed his handgun at me, while another one prepared his handcuffs.

No shit! Ableist!

"Anything you say can be and will be used against you in a court." The offensive policeman continued insulting me.

Rubbing salt on the wound, eh?

I carefully dodge the policeman with the handcuffs to not trigger their alarms.

I do not have much aura left. I better play it safe, if I want to avoid a shooting and blowing my cover.

"Mam, do not resist the arrest!" The policemen readjusted their aims on me. They were getting nervous and angrier.

Damn it! There will be no easy way out of this one.

"Drop that umbrella and put your hands u-" The sergeant turned around too late to see the menacing figure standing next to him.

To be fair, what followed took me by surprise.

The policemen aiming at me looked back in the direction of the sergeant to witness their leader screaming with horror, as Araknim opened his wide mouth and buried his chelicerae on the prey's neck.

His subordinates tried to shoot The Desert Spider, only for him to turn around with his victim and use him as a human shield. Restraining the sergeant's body with his chelicerae and two of his kinda functional spider legs, he used his left arm to grab the policeman's gun and shoot back.

Black spiderwebs showed up on the policemen's lower face, as Araknim continued sucking his energy via his pincers.

"Thanks for the appetizer!" Araknim stopped biting the deceased policeman's body. He was back to smiling and sounding sadistic.

"Sahraa aljahim." Still taking cover behind the armored corpse, his chelicerae began to rattle.

Oh, no.

Multiple policemen lost their balance and fell to the ground, while others did their best to hold their positions and keep shooting at Araknim.

"We are running out of time, so it's better to get rid of the resilient ones first." Using the AAIS bracelet in his left hand, Araknim made the scimitar he had dropped on the ground earlier start spinning. With it, he took off the head of two policemen who were still shooting.

More policemen crossed the entrance gate, unaffected by Hell Desert thanks to being far away from the black aura field. Sensing the big chaotic battle that was about to start, I ran away from the shooting scene.

I shouldn't have hesitated. I should have killed him right away. He's back to draining and killing. And it's all my fault!

"Who cares about the policemen!? It's their fault for prioritizing your arrest over his. Neo, we better escape while Araknim is keeping them busy!" Speaking inside my head, Roman hurried me.

Right.

I put on my skates' soul plates and metal frames to surround the big pile of rubble. Seeing debris that could act as a ramp in front of the tower crane's mast, I activated the wind dust shards for a boost of speed that allowed me to jump high into the air. Once I got close enough to the mast, I kicked it and opened Sakura to fall at the other side of the construction and noise barriers.

"Stop! Hands up in the air!" Even in the dark alley between Condor and Lumini Towers, policemen were already establishing the perimeter.

Great. Now how am I go-

Someone broke through the noise barrier to my side and charged against 3 of the 5 policemen ahead of me. It was Araknim. His bloodlust and overexcited attitude were back. I prepared Sakura, but my fear ended up being unfounded, as Araknim instead focused on attacking the policemen with his spider legs and sword.

"You still owe me an answer. Next time we will fight to the death." Disarming the last armored police officer, Araknim immobilized him with his spider extremities and smiled at me before I skated out of the perimeter.

"Tisbahy 'ala khair, Star of the Night!" Araknim shouted to me, before burying his chelicerae deep into the policeman's neck.

I am definitely to blame for this mess.

•

More armored policemen ran after me through the streets of Bright Island. Since they were also running faster thanks to the dust crystals equipped in their armor, it wasn't easy to elude them only with my skating skills.

Because the rain had already ceased, more pedestrians were beginning to fill the streets in the usual weekend night numbers. It was troublesome dodging civilians, but thankfully this also meant that the policemen behind me couldn't use their guns to shoot me.

They already consider me a suspect. Screw it! I will use my semblance!

After crossing a street that had its pedestrian light turned green, I touched the traffic light's pole for vehicles and used Overactive Imagination to turn its light green. Innocent pedestrians had already finished crossing the street, so the cars didn't hesitate in accelerating.

"What the fu-" 2 armored policemen crashed straight into the cars, breaking the doors of the vehicles and their armor.

Another armored policeman in the next block gave me chase, but I touched the corner of a building next to an alleyway. The moment he made it to the alleyway, the leg of a hidden Roman construct made him trip. The policeman's wind dust backfired on him, making it hard to recover his balance and crashing his body against a civilian's car that was driving next to the sidewalk. Unfortunately, due to the sheer force of the impact, my Roman construct lost its foot in the process.

"AH! That's not what people meant by break your leg!" The pissed-off construct rubbed his wound before getting dispelled.

In the block where Shiny Game Center was located, I encountered another armored officer. Skating next to the arcade's entrance, I touched its closed doors. As the police officer reached the entrance, another Roman construct abruptly opened outwards the arcade's glass and steel doors. The officer broke through the glass and fell to the ground, along with the doors' frames.

"Wow, you literally went through the door." Roman taunted the officer, before getting dispelled.

Because the armor protected him from the damage of crashing against the glass, the officer recovered quickly but just when he was about to resume his chasing, the arcade owner and employees began to hit him with mops and brooms.

"What are you doing, idiot? You better pay for that! As if I didn't have enough with the wall expenses!" The arcade owner complained.

As I made it to a busy street, three more armored law enforcers went after me, but I took advantage of the pedestrians, by constructing a bunch of fake krowna bills and throwing them up into the air. The pedestrians went crazy and started throwing themselves over the money, blocking the policemen and making them lose track of me.

I must reach Principal Park or a place without cameras. My Liz cover is no longer useful. She's being targeted by this island's police forces.

While I skated to reach a safe location to disguise, I started to hear weird noises all over the city. The sounds of motorcycles, jetpacks, mechs, sirens, armored vehicles, and more were beginning to spread across Bright Island.

This isn't normal. Many armed forces are being mobilized. The destruction of Condor Tower likely made authorities raise the alert level. A lockdown may be imminent.

Arriving at one of the usual alleyways I used to shapeshift, I covered myself in aura shards to turn into-

"Neopolitan!" Something said my name with a ghastly and robotic voice that sent chills down my spine.

A scary figure with a big dark blue hat and wearing a cloak flew into the alleyway. Descending in my direction, I was able to discern the metallic skull that it had for its face.

No... That's impossible! What's the legendary huntress from Remnant doing in this world!?

CALAVERA!