Chorong heard screams.

Her eyes opened wide in response. She stood up and looked in the direction of the shouts. It was coming from the other side of the cement wall, from Bulan.

“What’s wrong?” James asked.

“I hear screams,” Chorong said. The screams were too far for human ears to pick up, but her sensitive auditory sensors could hear them well. Lots of people were screaming and yelling.

She turned around, facing the concrete wall with a window at the top. It was too high for Chorong to simply see through.

Then, she heard another scream; it came close enough for even James to hear it. It was from inside the prison.

“How the hell did an Alpha get in here?!” a male voice shouted.

“There was a gun, there was a gun! In the—” another voice yelled, but then it was interrupted by a scream.

Chorong and James stood up and moved away from the bars instinctively.

A scream echoed from the staircase, along with footsteps. A Yue guard appeared, his face stricken with fear. He held James’s backpack with his gun as he ran down.

He slid to a stop. He pulled out the magazine from the gun and started loading it with ammunition. However, his hands trembled so hard that he kept dropping the bullets.

“Where—where’s the…” the man whimpered.

Then, something heavy came down the stairs.

It was a wolf. An Alpha. Two meters long.

Chorong’s logic module froze.

The guard raised the gun. However, before he could fire it, the wolf lunged forward and bit him. Its teeth dug into his belly, and red liquid splattered in the hallway. The guard screamed in horror and pain. The wolf swung him around and threw him against a wall. His body fell to the floor, and didn’t move again.

The rifle cluttered on the floor and slid until it was stopped by one of the bars forming Chorong’s cell.

The sound made the wolf turn its head to the gun and then to its next target: Chorong.

The wolf dashed toward her cell. Chorong stumbled backward and fell. She crawled backwards until she hit her head against the wall.

The wolf charged into the bars. The impact was strong enough to bend them. However, the bars didn’t bend enough, and its shoulders got stuck between them. The wolf’s snout stopped just in front of Chorong. Grunting, the wolf backed up slightly and then smashed into the bars again. The bars bent further, and its snout got closer to Chorong.

“Chorong!” James called, wondering why she wasn’t attacking back. Then he realized his boss was not looking normal.

Her small body trembled in front of the massive beast. Her face was frozen with fear. The busker felt as if he could hear her thoughts: I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die.

James could see its spit drooling down its massive fangs as the wolf snapped its mouth, trying to bite her head off. Its feet slid on the floor as it pushed itself forward. The bars whined as they went under immense force.

Chorong felt like she was alone with the beast. She was in a separate world full of darkness, and only she and the beast existed. She remembered how she had lost her arm to an Alpha and nearly died. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t think. Only fear filled her chest.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Then, something intruded the world. She could feel warmth on her left shoulder. She turned. James’s hand was gently patting her shoulder.

The dark world shattered, and Chorong returned to reality.

James was reaching his arm through the bars. He seemed oddly calm, even though there was a giant wolf threatening them.

“I need your help,” he said. He pointed his finger somewhere. Chorong turned her head in the pointed direction, spotting his rifle just outside her cell.

Chorong still trembled. However, just a bit of logical consciousness had returned. She forced herself to move. She stretched her leg and caught the rifle between her foot and the ground. She dragged it toward her, grabbed it, and passed it to James.

James smiled and said, “I got this.”

Then, his smile disappeared as he aimed the rifle and fired at the wolf.

The wolf whined as blood splattered from its shoulder. It turned its head to James.

“How the hell did I miss?” he complained.

The wolf backed out from Chorong’s cell and then charged into James’s. The bars bent, but not enough for it to get through. Using this chance, James fired again at the wolf. This time, he nicked its side.

James pressed the trigger again. The gun clicked. He immediately knew he was out of bullets.

The wolf charged at the bars again. This time, its snout stopped just a few centimetres away from his head. Its spit splattered on his face, but James didn’t have the capability to feel disgusted since he was fixated on not getting bitten between its fangs. He desperately swung his rifle like a bat and hit the wolf’s head, but it didn’t do anything.

Chorong watched James struggle. Her body shook.

Then, she remembered what she had told James: her how.

She had moved her leg just now; she could force herself to move again.

She leaned forward and then pushed herself up to stand. Fear felt like a multiplier to the gravitational acceleration, but she fought it. She moved her left foot forward a bit. Then her right. Then left. Then right. The cuffs on her legs restrained her from being able to separate her legs much, but she could move forward bit by bit.

Don’t think, don’t think, she told herself.

The wolf was too fixated on James that it didn’t notice her moving. That also applied to James.

Chorong looked at the cell bars. The wolf had bent them enough for a small girl—like Chorong—to get through. She did so. Bullets the guard had dropped rolled on the floor. She picked a few up and turned to the wolf and James.

She looked at her new arm. It was throwing her balance off, so her attacks weren’t strong enough to do damage to the Alpha. However, just maybe, she could hold it still.

Don’t do it! You will die! Fear screamed at her.

But I will uphold my how, she said back at Fear. That is my decision.

She leapt forward like a frog. In the air, she saw James looking at her. She tossed the bullets in her hand to him, which scattered in his cell.

Before landing on top of the wolf, she grabbed onto the bent bars and pushed her legs through the opening, kind of like a gymnast. Then, her hands slid down the bars. She swung her legs backward while making an O with them. The wolf’s head went through the O. Then, she tightened her legs together, squeezing down the wolf’s neck.

The wolf yelped in surprise. However, it moved violently, trying to shake her off. She strengthened her grip on the bars, holding the Alpha in place.

“Fast, James!” she shouted.

James reloaded the magazine and put it back into the rifle. He aimed it and fired.

The wolf dropped to the floor and did not move again. The shot was a point-blank to its forehead.

James panted. His hands shook from adrenaline, but he knew he and Chorong were safe at least for now.

After calming down a bit, he looked at the bars. They were now bent and had a hole in the middle. It was big enough for him to get through, which he did.

“We must escape now. We have to get out of Bulan,” he said.

He picked up the few bullets from the ground and shot off Chorong’s cuffs. She rubbed her wrists and ankles, as if they throbbed.

They went up the stairs, where James nearly threw up. There were so many dead bodies and blood all over the place, all caused by that one wolf. At least the beast had bashed through all the walls and bars while either killing or chasing off all the guards, which allowed the duo to get to the front gate without resistance. The front gate was blown off, probably by the beast’s tackle.

As the duo walked inside the prison building, James had to block his mouth with his palm, ready to block anything from his stomach coming out from it.

Unlike the busker, Chorong looked straight at the horrifying imagery.

The busker saw her eyes. Her gaze felt solid, as if she had decided something.

“I think there are more Alphas in Bulan, attacking people,” she said. The screams she heard and an Alpha suddenly attacking the jail were the reasons behind her guess.

“…You are not going to leave before helping, are you?” James asked.

“Sorry, James.”

James had expected her answer. He calmly said, “Forest, northeast side of Bulan. Once you are done, meet me there.”

Chorong nodded. Then, she ran off through the open gate at an incredible speed.

James logically knew that he should stop her and try to persuade her to just run away from Bulan. However, he couldn’t stop his heart from cheering Chorong on and wishing her the best of luck in her current mission.