The air felt electric. The kind of weight that pressed on your chest right before a thunderstorm hit except there were no clouds, no sky left in this part of town. Just ruined buildings, shattered glass, and the beast.
Ollie stared from above, mouth slightly open as he watched Julian hop down from the crumbling rooftop, katana gleaming in the wan light. "Yo," Ollie muttered to himself, eyes wide, "He's really gonna fight that thing with a katana?"
The beast—part snake, part human nightmare swayed, watching Julian land gracefully in the cracked street below. Her long, serpentine body slithered back and forth, slowly curling into itself. Her upper torso contorted unnaturally, bones clicking, her face-mouth twitching in anticipation. Out of her back, like blooming flowers made from muscle and rage, vines erupted long, veiny, and tipped with thorned barbs. They slapped the concrete, causing cracks to spiderweb outward.
Julian cracked his neck and exhaled. He twirled the katana once, the motion smooth, like a dancer preparing for a performance.
"You ever shut the fuck up and fight?" he muttered, voice dry with just a hint of amusement.
The beast screeched not loud, but piercing. One vine lashed out.
Julian vanished.
The vine hit nothing but air and concrete.
SHING! The sound of steel kissing flesh echoed as Julian reappeared mid-air, blade slicing a clean line across one of the vines. The severed part flopped to the ground, twitching like a dying eel.
The creature flailed in fury. All six vines snapped forward, crisscrossing the sky like whips of death.
Julian backflipped, landing with his feet skidding across the street, blade dragging beside him.
Ollie couldn't believe his eyes. It wasn't just skill. It was art. The way Julian moved, the timing, the confidence like he'd fought gods and got bored halfway through.
The beast roared and then did something unexpected—its head split open. Not in half, but upward like an unfolding flower, revealing a massive jaw beneath the face, filled with enormous, jagged teeth. They glistened with spit, and steam rolled from the pit of its throat.
"That ain't regulation," Julian muttered, gripping his katana tighter.
The beast lunged, its jaw wide enough to swallow a truck. Vines whipped around like tentacles.
Julian rushed in.
He ducked beneath the first vine, parried the second with the flat of his blade, spun sideways past the third, and leapt up, planting one foot on the fourth vine like it was a ramp.
He soared.
In mid-air, time seemed to slow. He raised his blade over his head and brought it down.
CLANG!
The sword met the beast's upper jaw, sparks flying, but didn't break the bone.
"Tough bitch," Julian muttered, flipping backward and landing with grace.
The vines retaliated with a frenzy—like a spider having a seizure. One vine caught Julian across the ribs, another wrapped around his leg.
"Gotcha," the beast hissed.
Julian didn't flinch. He bent his torso back unnaturally and brought his katana up, slicing the vine on his leg clean through.
Ollie could barely track the movements.
"What the hell is he..." he whispered, stepping closer to the edge of the rooftop.
Julian was a blur. Cuts, parries, spins, and slashes—his blade never stopping, his momentum constant. The vines were fast, the beast smarter than it looked, adapting with every strike.
Julian feinted left, slid under the beast's belly, and stabbed up. The blade pierced just below her human torso.
The beast let out a gurgling screech, twisting and slamming her tail into the wall next to her. Debris exploded, bricks falling like rain.
Julian used the momentum to roll, grabbing a chunk of rebar from the rubble and hurling it at the beast's face. She dodged—but that gave Julian the opening he needed.
He ran up a crumbling car, launched off the roof, spun mid-air, and slashed.
The beast reeled, a clean diagonal gash across her humanoid stomach, black ichor oozing out like tar.
But she didn't fall.
Instead, she screamed—a sonic blast that shattered windows for blocks.
Julian dropped to a knee, bleeding from the ears.
Ollie yelled from above, "JULIAN!"
Julian grit his teeth. "Still standing, sweetheart."
The beast rushed.
Julian whispered something, inaudible to Ollie.
Then, in a blur of motion, he disappeared again—appearing on the beast's back. With a brutal scream, he stabbed down—again and again, katana plunging into spine and shoulder and neck.
The beast thrashed. Vines tried to reach him, but he was too fast, too fluid. Each vine that came close lost its tip.
Julian kicked off, did a flip, and landed beside her head.
He raised the blade high.
Final strike.
He plunged the katana straight into the creature's massive mouth.
The beast shrieked and thrashed, smashing buildings, writhing in agony.
Then it went still.
Julian pulled the blade out slowly, flicked the gore from it, and turned to Ollie who stood dumbfounded at the edge of the rooftop.
Julian sheathed his katana with a sharp shing.
"Katana, baby," he said with a grin. "Still got it."
Ollie blinked. "...You're insane."
Julian laughed, already lighting a cigarette. "Nah. That bitch just thought she was tougher than she was."
Ollie climbed down, boots crunching debris. "You alright?"
"Nothing a drink won't fix."
They stared at the beast's corpse—twisted, twitching, slowly melting into the ground.
Julian sighed. "Wasn't even the one we were hunting."
Ollie looked up. "...Then where the hell is the real one?"
Julian took a long drag.
"Hopefully not behind us."