Cleary was running. He lacked the privilege of knowing his destination, but getting away from Krohn was a good enough motivation to help him ignore the pain shooting across his back.

As he ran, Cleary clutched his phone close to his chest, still recording. There was no bus for the next hour so he decided to run towards his closest neighbour, some delivery warehouse that hopefully had someone who could help him escape. He looked back but could not see any pursuers, filling his heart with more fear than comfort. It was like losing sight of a spider but knowing it was still in your house.

It felt like forever until Cleary finally reached the warehouse, approaching its back entrance. He ran to the door and shook the handle, heart dropping when it stayed firm. He slammed his shoulder in an attempt to force the door down, but the only result was more pain for him. He looked around desperately for another entrance. Looking at the window a few meters to the door’s left, Cleary scrambled for anything that could break it. His eyes fell upon a cinder block lying amongst a pile of trash, which he eagerly ran to grab.

He groaned as the weight of the block caught him off guard, but he shuffled over to the window and clumsily threw it at the glass. The sound of the window shattering almost brought Cleary to his knees in happiness, but he had no time to enjoy his success. Punching some of the remaining shards out of the way, he climbed through.

Cleary cursed as he felt his hands slip and he fell forward, instinctively putting his arms out to cushion the fall as he landed on the scattered glass. He groaned in pain as he carefully stood up, examining the new cuts that decorated his forearms. He felt a deep stinging sensation on his cheek but ignored it and limped forward.

No one seemed to be working and the automatic lights slowly clicked on, illuminating the towering rows of shelves as Cleary ran through them. He eventually noticed a small gap between the boxes just big enough for him to fit. He squeezed in and moved the boxes to cover his front. Breathing heavily, he pointed the camera to himself, making sure it had enough memory before speaking.

“My name is Cleary Lethbrooke,” he started, his voice barely a whisper. “I- I think I am about to die. I am being chased by some insane guy. I refuse to disappear without any trace so I’m going to record everything that happens until I cannot anymore.”

—

“Hahaha,” a pink-haired girl was doubling over in laughter as she rolled around on Cleary’s mattress. “Oh Kria, this is too good.”

Krohn looked down at his subordinate in embarrassment. “Can we please move on to complete the retrieval?” he said as he continued searching the apartment.

“I don't know boss, it is pretty funny,” a pale, lanky man came out of Cleary’s office room with a smile. “A regular, unblessed human being dodged your attack and then you let him successfully run away. I’d say Fera is fully in the right to be laughing.”

“Yeah, what happened to the whole ‘oh, you guys sleep in, I can handle this myself,’ speech you gave before leaving?” a red-haired man chuckled as he looked through Cleary’s fridge.

“He has not escaped anywhere, he’s just running to that warehouse we saw when we scouted earlier,” Krohn muttered. “And you all would have had the same reaction. Who can expect the Stars to align for an unblessed to move at the perfect time and at the perfect trajectory to dodge my attack?”

The three laughed some more before noticing the slight shaking that Krohn’s hands were doing. Having worked together long enough to know when their boss’ emotions were in a dangerous area, they quietly lined up and waited for orders. Krohn took some deep breaths before turning to his team with a broad smile. “Fera, Kon, come with me to grab that rat. Kes, give the place another once-over. Remember, Miss Maria’s divination said the full video would be on a memory card.”

The lanky man, Kes, nodded. “Yes sir. It seems like Nightlight sent a virus to his computer to wipe all the contents, so that memory card is our only bet.”

Krohn left the apartment, Fera and Kon following suit. He closed his eyes, spreading his awareness across the area looking for the rat that had embarrassed him. Imagining what he would do when he caught him caused Krohn’s smile to grow to grotesque width, literally reaching the corners of his eyes before he reminded himself to calm down, his smile returning to normal.

The three approached the warehouse, seeing the shattered window and entering through it. Krohn took another breath, closing his eyes and feeling the energies around him. He honed in on a green and red humanoid blob hiding amongst some boxes near the center of the floor. He grinned and opened his eyes. “Found you.”

—

Cleary sat paralyzed as he heard footsteps walk in his direction. Suddenly, the box in front of him was abruptly kicked aside and Cleary felt as exposed as a newborn child when Krohn leaned down and smiled at him. “Mr. Hunta, you left rather abruptly,” he chuckled. “It felt rather embarrassing, I won't lie.”

Cleary instinctively tilted the camera at Krohn before starting to speak. “Look, please ju-” Before he could start begging for his life, Krohn pulled a short green knife and stabbed at Cleary’s left thigh.

Cleary jumped back. It was a strange sensation. He saw the knife but did not register it moving forward. All he felt was an intense need to jump back, and his body complied without needing signals from his mind. Falling back into a pile of boxes, Cleary scrambled up and began running away from Krohn.

“What is going on?” Krohn muttered, looking at his knife in shock before yelling at his subordinates. “Get him!”

Fera and Kon dashed forward in pursuit. It took only a few moments for them to catch up with Cleary, whose speed remained that of an injured, regular human. “Let me show you how this is done!” Kon shouted with a gleeful smile as his eyes began to glow red. Sticking his hands forward, muttering a quick chant as fire spewed out of his palms.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Cleary glanced over his shoulder and screamed when he saw the sea of flame flooding after him. “You imbecile, we can't extract his memories if you fry him!” Fera yelled.

A similar intense need like before filled Cleary, this time to jump through the shelves on his left into the other row to avoid the fire. Again, his body acted on its own, diving into the boxes and rolling through to the other side, quickly getting up and continuing his escape as the flames rushed past him. He panted heavily as he looked around for something to run towards instead of continuing his aimless panic. Noticing the fire exit guide signs hanging low from the high ceiling, he decided that exit was his best bet.

“Woah,” Fera scratched her head. “Hey boss, what the hell is this guy again? Like the first time is pure luck, but this can't be-” Krohn raised his hand to silence her before he spoke. “Clearly our intel was wrong. But a rat is still a rat. Kon, cut off the exit he’s running to. We will capture him alive. I am taking his limbs.” The two nodded before dashing off. Fera took to climbing the shelves, running on the high platform to get a better angle as she formed a triangle with her thumbs and index fingers and pointed it at Cleary. Flowy, white energy began forming within the triangle, collecting into a large ball before small, marble-sized bullets fired off towards Cleary. Kon ran towards the fire exit, as Krohn followed right behind Cleary, quickly gaining ground.

Cleary sensed the danger coming his way. Looking back to see white bullets cutting through the air at him confirmed his suspicions. As the bullets neared, Cleary’s body twisted in sharp, jutting movements and the bullets flew past him, leaving smoking scorch marks on the ground. Cleary reversed his camera to capture the pink-haired demon stalking him from above with a shocked face, as well as the smiling psychopath who was now an arms reach away.

Cleary yelped as Krohn reached forward to grab Cleary, who swiftly leaned down to avoid him. Krohn tried slashing at Cleary with his knife, but again, it was sharply dodged. Krohn felt like a dog chasing his tail, his goal always a few centimetres away from him. Cleary, on the other hand, could barely process what was going on around him. All he felt were these intense urges to move his body- left shoulder back, lean down at an angle, move your right foot two steps forward, tilt your head up- all he could do was follow them and try to keep moving.

—

Krohn’s smile had now disappeared, beads of sweat forming on his forward as his expression became more and more frustrated. He did not fear the human in front of him by any means. However, when the man began dodging Fera’s Piercing Bullets while simultaneously avoiding Krohn’s own attacks, Krohn raised his alertness level to as if he was fighting another Squad Captain. Still, one thing confused him. Why does he not attack? It was now impossible to argue Cleary was an Unblessed, but then why did he not attack? Why only dodge?

“Stop moving, you overgrown fly!” Krohn shouted as he angrily threw a punch at Cleary, who clumsily sidestepped, causing Krohn to hit the ground and crack it. Fera continued her barrage, picking up the fire rate but to no avail. Kon followed his instructions and simply blocked the exit, watching the embarrassing display in front of him without intervening, lest he anger his boss further for failing to follow instructions.

The worst was not that their target was some high-level being, but the opposite. Every attack was avoided in jutting, clumsy movements, not the smooth control of an experienced fighter. Each dodge looked like it was successful only out of pure luck.

Krohn continued clutching at the air while Fera fired various attacks from above. Years of teamwork had conditioned them to fight in sync, but Cleary still evaded it all. Krohn was beginning to build some resentment for that phone which remained just as untouched as the person holding it, jumping between hands as it came out of every attack unscathed. The coordination rivalled his own, no matter how unrefined it was.

“Boss, should I join in?” Kon asked hesitantly, taking a step forward. Krohn shook his head. “Just guard the entrance, we’re coming in your direction anyways.”

Kon sighed, returning to his position and standing still. A moment later, Krohn’s eyes widened as he sensed a new energy encroaching behind Kon. He immediately cursed when he recognized the energy. “Kon! The Nightlight worms are here!” he shouted. Kon immediately jumped away from the fire exit, which was blown apart a second later by a smiling man swinging a large scythe with a long, black handle and shiny red blade.

“Syc? I thought he was overseas!” Kon shouted as he retreated further. Krohn also jumped back, ending the strange game of tag with Cleary to re-examine the new situation.

“I just got back,” the Syc grinned. “Missed me, Krohn?”

—

Cleary panted in relief when Krohn finally disengaged. It had been a relentless barrage of just barely avoiding stabs, grabs, kicks, and bullets. He warily looked at his attackers, trying to figure out what had caused the time-out. It was then that his eyes landed on the scythe-wielding man who had joined them. The red-haired guy had called him Syc? He wore flowy black robes and had piercing red eyes. The scythe’s red blade was almost five feet long and the serrated edge gave it a demonic look. The man looked at Cleary and smiled. “Nice job holding out,” he said. “Why don’t we leave now?”

Krohn frowned at the man's words. “What makes you think we’ll let you take our target?”

“What makes you think I give a flying fuck about what you think?” Syc laughed. He dashed forward and swung his weapon, sending a wave of red energy toward Krohn, who was forced to jump back to avoid it. Syc landed beside Cleary, raising his hand to pat his shoulder but Cleary instinctively jumped back. Syc stared at him for a moment before laughing. “Woah, chill,” he said. “Look, I’m here to help.” He reached into his robe and pulled out a Nightclaw City Police badge.

Cleary’s knees buckled in relief. “Oh thank god,” he sighed, his vision getting blurry with tears. “Please, you need to help. I don’t know what-”

Syc raised his hand to interrupt him. “We’ll talk later,” he assured before turning to Krohn. “Catch me if you can, snake.” Syc held his hand out to Cleary, who immediately took it. He was tossed onto Syc’s shoulder before he dashed back out the way he entered. “Fuck! Get them!” Krohn shouted from behind them as Syc ran away at an inhuman speed.

Then, something strange happened. Krohn and the other two attackers began running in a different direction than Syc and Cleary. “W-what? Why are they going over there?” he asked, confused.

“New trick I picked up,” Syc chuckled. “Didn’t think it would work but whatever you did to tick off that snake so much has blurred his judgement.”

Cleary nodded, not complaining. He did not notice how far they ran, but eventually, they were deep in the woods outside the city. Syc finally slowed down and came to a stop in front of a grey Jeep. “Get in,” he commanded, and Cleary obeyed.

They began driving down a rough trail, each painful bump highlighting a new injury somewhere on Cleary’s body that he did not know he had gained. Although his heart was still rattling away in his chest, he was finally able to relax a bit. “Um, thank you so much,” he said to his saviour. “W-Where are we going now? The Police Station? Do I need to file a report?”

“Hm?” Syc looked confused before a look of realization came upon him. He laughed. “Oh, right. Don’t worry about it, that badge was fake.”