The Rotting King's roar shook the air, a sound of pure, mindless hunger. Its massive jaws gaped wide, and from the depths of its rotting throat, a stream of viscous yellow poison erupted toward Jenny.
She flowed around it like water, the corrosive spray hissing past her, melting everything it touched. Plants wilted. Stone sizzled. Jenny landed in a crouch, already smiling.
Then the Deep Lurker struck.
Its scissor-like jaws closed around her torso, those massive mandibles cutting—deep gouges opening across her stomach, blood spraying. Jenny screamed—not in pain, but in fury. Her fist connected with the Lurker's armored head, a blow that would have shattered concrete.
The Lurker barely flinched, but its grip loosened just enough. Jenny ripped free, stumbling back, her hands already pressing against the wound.
The Forgotten Sentinel moved.
Its massive tail swept through the air like a wrecking ball, catching Jenny from above and slamming her into the ground. The impact cratered the earth. Bones cracked. Blood sprayed.
Jenny was still smiling.
She pushed herself up, spitting red, and charged. A blade of that white saliva formed in her hand—the same substance that had carved through Theo, that had ended countless lives. She swung at the Sentinel's head.
The Sentinel raised its armored forearm. The blade clanged against those ancient scales, leaving barely a scratch.
Then the tail came again.
This time Jenny saw it coming. She tried to dodge, but the Sentinel was faster than something its size had any right to be. The tail caught her full in the chest, sending her flying through three trees before she finally stopped in a heap of broken branches and broken bones.
The Rotting King was already moving.
Its massive jaws closed around her—around her, engulfing her upper body completely. Jenny struggled, her hands pushing against the inside of its mouth, trying to pry those jaws apart. But the King's bite was absolute. It would not release.
Then something moved inside its mouth.
A second set of jaws—smaller, hidden, but just as deadly—snapped forward and bit deep into Jenny's exposed stomach. Venom flooded her system, burning through her veins, turning her blood to fire.
Jenny screamed. For the first time, it was a real scream.
Then—
*BOOM. *
A missile struck the Rotting King square in the side.
The explosion rocked the creature, forcing its jaws open just enough. Jenny launched herself out, landing in a roll, gasping, bleeding, poisoned—but alive.
A helicopter descended from the sky, its rotors chopping the air. A hatch slid open, and a figure reached down, hauling Jenny inside.
The hatch closed. The helicopter banked away, leaving the three creatures and their rider below.
Inside, Jenny collapsed onto a bench, already healing—slower than usual, the poison fighting her regeneration, but still healing. She looked up at the woman across from her.
Superior-2. No—Superior-1 now. Her grey mask was different from her predecessor's, the posture harder, the authority absolute. She'd taken the position after the previous Superior-1 had... what? Disappeared? Defected? No one knew. No one asked.
"Did you find him?" Superior-1 asked, her modulated voice flat, cold.
Jenny's smile returned, wide and bloody. "Do you think?" She laughed—that bright, terrible sound. "They're like shadows. I can't find them when you can't find them."
Superior-1's mask gave nothing away, but her fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on the armrest.
Jenny leaned back, her wounds closing, her color returning. "But I can." Her smile widened. "I always can."
She wasn't taking anything seriously. She never did.
That was what made her so dangerous.