Huga reacted with the instincts of a predator and jerked the steering wheel violently. The rocket hissed past them, a streak of fire and death, before slamming into an innocent sedan further ahead.
A deafening explosion ripped through the air, sending twisted metal and glass showering onto the asphalt. Akos stared at the wreckage in the rearview mirror and cursed under his breath. This wasn't just a chase anymore; it was a war zone.
They kept pace with the van, weaving through oncoming traffic. The gunners in the back of the van turned their heavy machine guns on them, turning the taxi's hood into a block of Swiss cheese.
Akos kicked his door open, balanced himself against the frame, and levelled his custom shotgun, the Dragon Slave. He ignored the bullets zipping past his ears and focused on the van's rear tyres. He fired, a thunderous boom that echoed in the narrow streets, but the van swerved, missing his mark.
Huga drifted around a sharp corner, smashing through a streetlamp and tearing through a bus station. Pedestrians dived for cover, scrambling over each other to get out of the way of the roaring engine.
They tore onto the bridge, the taxi scraping the guardrails as Huga threaded the needle between two massive trucks. The wind whipped at Akos's hair as he struggled to keep his footing, his fingers white-knuckling the shotgun.
The van took a sharp right turn, disappearing from their line of sight. Akos growled in frustration, his jaw tight. Huga just flashed a feral, confident grin.
He spun the wheel in a full three hundred and sixty-degree rotation, the tyres screaming in protest as he floored it. Huga wasn't just chasing them; he was hunting them. He drove straight toward the city park, ignoring the stairs, and launched the taxi up the incline.
Akos stared at him in disbelief. They were headed for the rooftop of the highest building adjacent to the park. Huga didn't hesitate.
He hit the ramp leading to the top floor with everything he had. The taxi defied gravity, soaring through the sky like a metal bird. They flew past the police headquarters, the officers below looking up in sheer horror as a yellow cab drifted over their heads before slamming back onto the bridge below with a bone-jarring thud.
The chase continued, but the van was now weaving through traffic, cornering erratically. A massive semi-truck pulled out of an alleyway, forcing the van to cut through a tunnel.
Huga didn't slow down. He followed them into the dark, damp belly of the road. Akos braced himself, waited for the perfect opening, and fired. The slug shattered the van's tyre.
The van lurched, losing control, careening side to side against the concrete walls. It finally exited the tunnel and swerved into a massive industrial garage. The momentum carried them all inside.
Suddenly, the top floor of the building detonated in a brilliant flash of light. From the falling debris, a giant white snake with glowing red eyes erupted, lashing out at the world before crashing into the floor with the force of an earthquake.
Huga slammed the taxi to a halt. The air was thick with smoke and the smell of ozone.
Akos reached into his pocket and threw a wad of cash onto the dashboard, but Huga didn't even look at it. He looked Akos in the eye, his expression uncharacteristically serious. He only wanted to know one thing, and that was his passenger's name.
Akos looked at him, his gaze hardening into something cold and familiar. "You can call me Akos," he said simply. "Just Akos."
Huga nodded, gave him a final wave, and peeled out of the garage, disappearing back into the city chaos.
Akos stepped out of the cab, his boots crunching on the shattered glass and debris. He stared at the giant snake, which was rapidly dissolving into nothing more than mounds of dark soil.
He moved toward the entrance of the building, his instincts screaming for caution. A sudden movement in the air made him duck, and a bullet hissed right past his ear, missing his skull by mere inches.
He snapped his head around. Standing there in the shadows, her weapon and her eyes cold as ice, was a young woman.
Better turn back to your nest, trash. The performance ends here."
The voice was cold, crisp, and detached, echoing from the high ground of the nearby rooftop.
Through the thermal optics of her sniper rifle, Nata watched Akos with the clinical indifference of a predator observing a dying animal.
Akos didn't flinch. Instead, a slow, predatory grin spread across his face, carving lines of manic amusement into his grime-streaked features.
"What the hell? Are the men all dead? Are my only enemies women now?"
He drew his sidearm, the cold weight of the metal grounding him, and levelled it at the silhouette above. "Funny. I was starting to think I'd have to settle for something less interesting."
A crackle of static broke the silence. A handler's voice bled through Nata's earpiece—the unmistakable, jagged frequency of a long-range encrypted channel.
"Nata, clear the intruder immediately. We cannot afford any complications. If the Japanese authorities or the oversight organisations catch wind of this, the entire project is compromised. Do you understand?"
"Copy that, sir," Nata muttered, her eyes narrowing as the crosshairs tightened on Akos's temple.
Akos, hearing the faint murmur of the radio despite the distance, let out a mocking laugh.
"Ohhh, come on, Nata. Let's make a deal. Let me pass. I'll say it again: I'm not here to play hero, but if you start dragging innocent people into your violent little games, I'm going to make you regret breathing. Step aside."
Nata didn't move, her finger hovering over the trigger.
"You think you're dealing with amateurs? We're the ones who liquidated the Holy Blood faction after they dared to touch one of our secure sites. You slaughtered their allies, Akos. Do you have any idea what that means? They're hunting you. The CIA has authorised a bounty of 150 million on your head. Honestly, it's a good deal for me."
Akos scoffed, the sound dripping with genuine derision. "150 million? That's it? They really have lost their touch. I'm insulted."
"Fool," Nata whispered, the word sharp as a blade.
The rooftop erupted in gunfire.
Akos moved in a blur, his body hitting the pavement behind a rusted industrial dumpster just as the air where he had been standing turned into a swarm of lead.
Sparks showered down as bullets shredded the metal, ringing like a dissonant orchestra. Nata abandoned the sniper nest, dropping from the building with cat-like agility to take cover behind a sedan, her suppressed rifle barking rhythmically.
The crossfire turned the alleyway into a death trap.
"You're an idiot, Nata!" Akos shouted, his voice cutting through the cacophony of whistling projectiles. "Trying to take down a guy like me with conventional firearms? You're better than that, surely!"
"You're right," she snapped, realising the futility of the exchange.
She surged forward, abandoning the cover of the sedan, moving with a supernatural, predatory grace that betrayed her human form.
Akos was ready, his katana sliding into his grip with a metallic hiss, but Nata was a step ahead—she wasn't attacking alone.
From the shadows to his left, a hideous, serpentine form lunged, its scales glistening with a sickly, iridescent sheen. It was Nake, her Devil, a construct of pure malice.
Akos found himself pinned in a vice grip of lethal intent.
Nata lunged from the front with a combat knife, while the serpent whipped around from the flank, fangs dripping with paralytic venom. In a fraction of a second—a heartbeat stretched thin by his heightened senses—Akos realised he couldn't dodge both.
He had to be surgical.
He pivoted, his sword lashing out not at Nata but at the empty air toward the serpent. He shifted his weight at the last possible millisecond, turning his body so the katana's tip was perfectly aligned.
Thunk.
The blade didn't hit the snake; it struck the hidden, pulsing heart of the creature—its core—tucked beneath its scales.
But before Akos could deliver the killing blow to the beast, Nake shrieked and threw its own body directly in the path of the strike to protect Nata, the katana burying itself deep into the serpent's writhing flesh.
Nata stumbled back, her eyes wide with shock as she watched her familiar shield her with its own life.
"The core is the vulnerability," Akos murmured, his eyes glowing with that familiar, terrifying coldness. "And the Devil is shackled to the user. Protect the master, die for the master. How quaint."
He yanked the sword free, the creature's black blood splashing onto the pavement.
"Oh, my apologies for wounding your pet, Nata. You're a 'Devil User', right? Hah! How pathetic. You people are all the same—relying on borrowed strength like a crutch."
Nata gasped, her face twisted in a mask of fury and shame.
With a guttural chant that vibrated in the very foundation of the building, she summoned the Devil Snake back
Akos and Nata locked eyes, their bodies coiled like springs, ready to snap into violence.
Akos tightened his grip on the hilt of his katana, the steel gleaming under the harsh, flickering emergency lights.
Nata stood opposite him, her fists clenched so tight her knuckles turned white.
The garage was no longer just a building; it had become a cage for a nightmare. Nake had expanded, its massive, scaled body crushing parked cars into scrap metal as it wrapped itself around the structural pillars. The serpent's sheer size made the ceiling groan in protest.
Panic had spilt into the streets. Civilians were running for their lives, eyes wide with terror as they scrambled to get away from the unnatural destruction tearing through the facility. The sound of their screams was muffled by the terrifying hiss of the devil snake.
Nata watched the chaos for a fleeting second, her expression devoid of pity, before she refocused her cold, deadly gaze back on Akos.
"You chose this, Little Eagle."