The high-end shopping district usually smelled like expensive coffee and the faint, sweet scent of mana-infused perfumes. Now, it tasted like a handful of copper coins and ozone. The sky was still a bright, mocking blue, but the ground was trembling with a low-frequency hum that made my teeth ache.

  People were sprinting past us in a messy, panicked wave. It was a sea of tailored suits and silk dresses, everyone tripping over each other to get away from the center of the block. In a city like this, where S-Rankers were practically local celebrities, you’d think people would be used to a bit of mana flair.

  But this felt different. This felt like the world was holding its breath before a scream.

  A massive steel light pole let out a high-pitched shriek of twisting metal. It snapped at the base, gravity claiming the heavy pillar as it swung down toward the sidewalk. A mother stood there, paralyzed, pulling her daughter into her chest as the shadow of the steel eclipsed them.

  Frost bloomed across the metal in a heartbeat.

  The pole stopped inches from their heads, suspended by a thick, crystalline brace of ice that had erupted from the pavement. It looked like a jagged diamond claw holding the sky in place. Seraphina didn't even look back at the woman she’d just saved. She kept running, her white hair a streak of silver against the chaos.

  "Go! Move! Toward the park!" Elara shouted, her voice cutting through the sounds of the crowd.

  She stayed behind, acting like a human lighthouse. Her heart was a frantic drum against her ribs, but her eyes were darting everywhere, calculating the distance between the falling debris and the fleeing civilians. Up ahead, Seraphina and Hana Ryu were already at the epicenter.

  The intersection looked like a shattered mirror. In the middle of the cratered asphalt stood a man.

  He wore the leather gear of a veteran hunter, but the person who used to be inside was gone. His eyes were milky white, devoid of anything resembling a human gaze. His skin was a map of glowing blue fractures, jagged lines that leaked dimensional energy like smoke from a dying fire.

  Seraphina skidded to a stop, her boots carving lines into the frosted road. She’d seen this look before. It was a sight that usually lived in her nightmares, a vision of the monster she was terrified of becoming.

  A Corrupted Hunter.

  "How did something like this happen in the middle of the city?" Seraphina whispered.

  The man let out a guttural, distorted sound. He raised his hands, and the air in front of him warped. A parked car, a sleek red sports model, was plucked off the ground by an invisible hand and hurled toward them.

  Seraphina slammed her palms together. A massive wall of ice surged up from the ground, the impact of the car shaking the very foundations of the nearby buildings. The hunter’s power was psychic, a telekinetic storm that was lashing out at anything that moved. It was messy, raw, and completely uncontrolled.

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  "Hana! Seraphina! Stop trying to be heroes and listen to me!"

  Elara’s voice was a sharp crack of reality from the rear. She raised her hand, and a spray of glittering ice shards shot into the air. They didn't fall. They hung there, forming a glowing blue guidepost that pointed away from the intersection.

  "Everyone! Follow the lights! Clear the block!" Elara yelled.

  The civilians finally had a direction. They surged toward the path Elara had marked, leaving the three girls alone with the broken man in the crater.

  "Seraphina, keep him boxed! Hana, stay high!" Elara’s commands were punchy and direct. "We can't afford a mana kick-back here. Seraphina, keep your output steady. Don't let the frost claim your core."

  Seraphina nodded, her breath coming in a faint mist. She knew the stakes. If she pushed too hard, the ice at her heart would finish what the corrupted hunter started.

  "Target from the sky! Hana, dive!"

  Elara focused her mana. She couldn't throw a mountain, but she could provide the ammo. She manifested a dozen jagged ice spears in the air, suspended like a crown around the intersection.

  Seraphina caught the cue instantly. She didn't waste words. She swept her arm upward, and a massive, winding ramp of solid ice materialized from the asphalt, reaching toward the rooftops.

  Hana Ryu took off. She sprinted up the crystalline slope, her boots finding purchase on the rough ice. She was a blur of motion, her trench coat flapping like wings. As she reached the peak, she leaped into the air.

  —CRACK.

  Hana grabbed the floating ice spears Elara had left behind. Her [Weaponize] skill flared, and the ice turned into sleek, aerodynamic needles of silver death. She flung them with a snap of her wrist, a barrage of frozen glass aiming for the hunter’s vitals.

  The corrupted man roared, a sound that felt like it was coming from a different dimension. He raised a hand, and the telekinetic pressure in the air spiked. The ice needles stopped mid-air, trembling against an invisible wall.

  "Behind him! Now!" Elara shouted.

  Seraphina slammed her foot down. A thick, reinforced wall of frost erupted behind the man, cutting off his line of retreat. The psychic pressure he was emitting cracked the surface of the ice, but the structure held. He was trapped in a cage of winter.

  Hana was falling now, her descent bringing her right in front of the man’s whitened gaze.

  The hunter’s fingers twitched. The air around Hana solidified, turning into a physical weight that pinned her five feet above the ground. Her bones groaned under the pressure. It was like being squeezed by a giant, invisible snake.

  "Hana!!" Seraphina screamed, her mana surging in a dangerous, jagged rhythm.

  Hana Ryu didn't panic. A small, dark smirk played on her lips even as she struggled for breath.

  "Looking at the wrong girl," Hana whispered.

  The ice wall Seraphina had built cast a long, deep shadow across the crater. From that ink-black stain on the ground, a pair of hands emerged.

  The Yakshi didn't make a sound.

  The shadow lunged out of the earth, a fluid streak of darkness that moved faster than the hunter’s haywire mind could track. It was a clawed, flickering thing that ignored the psychic pressure in the air.

  The shadow’s hand plunged into the hunter’s chest, right through the glowing blue cracks in his skin.

  The telekinetic hold snapped like a brittle thread. Hana dropped to the ground, landing in a silent crouch as the corrupted hunter let out a final, rattling breath. The blue light in his veins flickered once, twice, and then went out, leaving only a quiet, broken man in the middle of a frozen street.

  Silence fell over the district, broken only by the distant sound of sirens and the soft, rhythmic chirping of the crickets from the nearby park.

  Elara exhaled, her knees feeling a little weak.

  "Team building," she muttered, wiping a bit of soot from her forehead. "10/10 experience. Would not recommend."

  Her devices buzzed again. A chill ran down her spine.

  Mana. Intense amounts of mana.