“Smooth lip, buttercup,” Naomi murmured under her breath, and then jerked her hand across her body. The chair he was sitting on instantly levitated in the air before it bitch-smacked him across the head. Reina had ducked just in time, the impact allowing her to grab the screaming girl he’d loosened his grip on when he tipped over. She ran off with the girl, while Naomi and I approached him.

The crowd scattered, the bakery emptying out in seconds. A manic laugh broke out of the flesh eater, until it tapered off into maddening frustration. “Come on, come on, now! Don’t you fucking hunters ever leave well enough alone?! We knew what was up, we played it smart! Why can’t we all mind our own and leave shit be?” he vented.

Well, now I didn’t feel bad for Naomi whacking a complete stranger with a wooden folding chair.

I pressed the com unit in my ear, my system scanning his body. For some reason, it wasn’t processing his category threat level. It was then I remembered Felix saying something about it only working when the shadow walker took on its true monstrous form. Not only that, the system couldn’t detect a monster’s specials like it could hunters, so we were stuck with figuring that out for ourselves.

The flesh eater rolled his shoulders back irritated, giving off a tired sigh. “Why ruin my muse, egh? Dirty good for nothing Organization VII killing all of my fun. And for what? A dirty profit? Shit.” He sucked his teeth as the bruise on his face healed, his regen fast for a cat C monster. “You know, for a long while, we were undetected. Made every kill look like an accident. It was a good life. We nested, we fed, and everyone was happy! And then one crazy motherfucker fucks it up for us all. We did away with him good, gave everyone else a real valuable lesson on disobeying orders. Ever since, we’ve been quiet. Very quiet. But no, they still wanted to shove hunters up our asses!” He growled. “Then everyone decided, fuck it! What’s the point of keeping leftovers when we can have a fresh meal every night?! But not me, I stayed in line. I respected the code! And it was effortless, too. You slap on a sexy face as bait and take to the waters. Heh, you can catch all the fish you want. Sprinkle some hard cash on that too, and man, they’re practically begging to get fucked. They don’t care about anything else… I made a living being a self-made millionaire, a dashing gent pouring words into their hopeless ears like liquid gold. It’s so easy, it feels like I’m cheating the system!” He laughed. “These desperate, lost bitches are practically eating off my hands!”

“Feeding from desperation doesn’t sound too far off the monster playbook. So I have to ask, what made you toss that shape shifter in the dumpster and then phone in a fake tip about yourself to Hunter Corp?”

He grinned ear to ear. “Oh no, that was no demon. She was a meal, and I’m going to do what I did to her to your nosy little friend over there.” His glare shifted to Reina, who was hiding the girl behind her.

I glanced at Naomi. Her face was calm, composed, as if she was listening to a sermon in church and not the raving of a desperate monster. She allowed him to ramble on until she finally spoke, “Hey, I get it. I’m only in this business because monsters out there, like you, make it necessary. I’m not doing this for my health or leisure, as I have better things to do with my time than chase a bunch of greedy assholes who can’t keep their urges in check. Or their legs closed in your case. It’s sad really, because you monsters have the upper advantage, but you’re all too stubborn and arrogant to use it. It’s the same story anywhere you go. From the US to Japan, all of you dumbasses operate the same. That being said, every shadow-walker who ever crossed my path had one thing in common.”

“Oh yeah?” he said mockingly. “And what’s that?”

“They thought they were smarter than me.” Naomi raised her hand, her palm shrouded with a dark purplish glow like before. Without a second to react, the flesh eater caught massive air, being tossed right into a street pole. When he dropped, I ordered Reina to remove the girl out of the vicinity. He snarled, pushing himself off the ground as the dented metal pole creaked and buckled. His eyes flickered with rage, those hazel hues turning sewer green.

“Let me handle this,” Naomi insisted.

The shadow walker fumed, “All right, that’s how we are gonna do it then! Let’s play!” Suddenly, his teeth elongated into sharp canines, the color to his skin dulling. He was taking on his monstrous form, and Naomi allowed him to. She knew as well as I that monsters were stronger in their true skin, so I couldn’t for the life of me wonder why she’d patiently wait there for him to bulk up. Maybe she wanted to see what grade he was? Category C-mid level monster. I didn’t interfere, as I hadn’t since she landed the first attack. Honestly, I’d never seen her fight before, and a part of me wanted to see just how strong she was on her own.

Naomi remained unfazed as he continued to change into some grotesque frog mutant, the type worthy of a TMNT super villain. His skin became thick and lumpy with warts. The clothes on his back tore at the seams, unable to contain his monstrous size. He was enormous now, standing at least ten feet tall with a muscular frame that made me brace myself.

His arms were as thick as tree trunks, veins visibly popping against the surface of his skin. His nose was replaced with two slits, similar to a frog’s nostrils. Wet slimy green skin, big beady eyes, and to complete his transformation, a slick black tongue licking his choppers down left to right.

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“How ironic,” Naomi muttered to herself. “A real prince charming.”

“The three of you made me miss my next meal,” he grunted. “I’ll make you pay in blood, you clowns!”

The frog monster leaped, his jump launching so far in the air that he dropped down to the size of a speck in a matter of two seconds! Naomi’s eyes followed him into the clouds, her gaze steady, her stance firm. The glow around her hand intensified, forming a protective shield around our bodies with the tables she telekinetically surrounded us with. I found myself holding my breath as I continued to watch him through the gaps of the tables, trying to figure out what he was planning. It seemed that Naomi had an idea with her preemptive defense, and before I could open my mouth and suggest a strategy, a loud belching noise forced me to fling my hands over my ears.

The belch erupted from the frog monster like a volcano, an explosion that boomed off everything in its vicinity. Buildings shook, trees danced, and the ground underneath us felt like an earthquake. Sidewalk slabs cracked and split under the sheer power of it, sending chips of concrete ricocheting into the air. The guttural noise was so intense that I couldn’t think straight.

I hunched down from within the table barrier that was breaking into itself. Thin metal legs buckled under the pressure wave, table surfaces splintered and falling over us inch by inch. We wouldn’t have anything left to protect us much longer, but judging by how calm Naomi was, I speculated it wouldn’t matter. It was then I realized what she was probably thinking—the asshole was going to have to take a breath sometime, and when he did, we’d attack.

As the decibels of the monstrous amphibian’s sonic attack lessened, I patiently waited for an opening. I could barely see through the dust and debris that sprayed up in the air, but Naomi’s eyes were glowing like two lighthouses in a storm. She was waiting for that one moment when he’d lower his guard. When he’d gasp for a breath to fuel another sonic belch, we would strike him down.

Except that wasn’t what he did...

The belching stopped abruptly, replaced by an unsettling silence that lasted all of two seconds. And then, a warbling noise. When I pulled my head from under my arm, I saw how fast the fucker was dropping back down!

“Run,” Naomi said, dashing for cover. The words barely left her lips before I tailed her, heading for the nearest wall to duck behind. But we couldn’t make it in time. The flesh eater’s weight slammed into the ground, a shockwave puffing out, and taking us for a ride. The wave tossed Naomi and I, where I was barely able to grab her mid-air from falling hard into the ground. I’d made an observation before when Sophie had swung at me, that I might have had another meta ability. When I landed with Naomi in my arms and slammed into the pavement, I wanted to confirm it, barely feeling anything besides the pressure of falling.

No pain, no problem. That was what invulnerability felt like. The ground beneath us shook, the buildings around us shuddered, and windows shattered like raining crystalline shards around us, but I was okay.

“Hey, you alright?” I said, Naomi peeling back her arms from shielding her face underneath me to reveal the first blush I’d seen on her since I met her. She tried to hide it by shoving me off lightly, trying to get up on her feet on her own. I got on mine too, turning around to witness another form of the shadow-walker.

The dude was humongous!

The frog monster had landed with his huge slimy belly against the ground, with rivers of thick mucus oozing down his bright skin. There was nothing human about this form, his monster perfect form, the prick so goddamn gargantuan that he left an imprint of his ass in the cracked earth where he had landed.

“Okay, he’s committed to the frog look.” I smiled. “Can’t say that I’m not impressed.”

“Fight at a distance,” Naomi ordered. “We watch and assess his skills, and then we plan acco—”

“He’s readying up for another belch attack!” I shouted, noticing that people were still pouring out of buildings. If he broke out in another burp, I didn’t think they’d make it. Without another moment to mull it over, I leaped in, leaving the sound of Naomi warning me behind. My biggest obstacle wasn’t getting within close range of the guy, but dodging the puddles of ooze he’d surrounded himself with. But I found the gaps, and hopscotched my way in with a cocked fist for his pudgy round belly. I lodged my shot deeper than I thought I would, still awed by my new strength. The punch sent ripples down his skin, through his muscles, and right into his guts. The monstrous amphibian gurgled, reeling back as I carved a hole through him.

“Took the wind out of him!” I cheered, watching as his eyes bulged, and his massive form toppled backward. His whopping tail started to slap the ground vigorously, churning rubble and spitting up another cloud of dust. He was making it hard to see his top half, where I felt him move in to strike me.

Without much but the movement of air to go by, I couldn’t tell what was happening. One second I was backing away to distance myself from him, and then the next, I was flying through the air, a huge arm swiping me clean off my feet and into a brick wall across the street.

“Nero!” Naomi cried. The impact rattled me a bit, but that was because I thought my hunter career was over before it began. When I expected starbursts to explode in front of my eyes, I saw nothing but more dust in my face from the masonry. I didn’t even have any dizziness to shake off, and simply peeled myself off the wall like nothing had happened.

“Big mistake,” Naomi growled, her eyes turning a pitch black color. An airy aura around her intensified as she drew out her hand, pointing it toward the beast. Before I could blink, she attacked with the big shard of glass from the bakery storefront b-lining right at the wounded monster. He was too sluggish to escape, taking that direct hit from his shoulder. The glass slashed him so fast that I couldn’t see it, Naomi bringing it back around to give him another. His shoulders went down, the huge gash on him almost making me feel sorry for the guy. His eyes bulged and rolled back, his mouth opening impossibly wide as it cried out in immense pain. Naomi didn’t stop after two slashes, going back at him over and over again until the ground beneath him was an oozing bloody mess.

The monster convulsed as though struck by a tidal wave, thrashing with every cut. At some point the scene was too brutal to stand by and just watch, Naomi going overboard with this kill.

I rushed to her and called out, “Naomi! That’s enough!” and she immediately ended him, taking that same glass blade and slicing his neck clean.

Flesh and parts were all that was left, some flecks on me, most of it on that pile over there with a big head as a cherry on top. My feet stopped right next to Naomi as my eyes couldn’t look away, until people began to slowly flood the streets again. Gossip stirred, and then as if on command, they all cheered.

I was familiar with this kind of noise. It made me feel righteous and heroic. Whistles and cries of thanks flew through my ears, and then I turned to Naomi, chuckling nervously. “I guess we were lucky he wasn’t poisonous.”