April 12, 10:19 pm, Beijing, China

Irade grit her teeth, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

Finally, the woman stopped shocking her with the taser. She stood up, looked down at the still body, and gave it a kick for good measure.

No reaction.

"That thing isn't human," said one of the men, slowly getting up. "Weren't the cuffs supposed to make her weaker or something?"

"Guess it didn't work," said the woman, putting away her taser. Still in the elevator, she turned away from Irade, and spoke into her walkie-talkie.

"Dragon squad, we apprehended the Invader," she said. "She was on the third floor."

"Roger," said a voice from the other side. "We're just going through her room. Any casualties?"

The woman relayed what happened while the men all got up, groaning.

"Sounds like you got lucky," said the man on the other line. "Be careful. We'll group up on fourteen, then head for the Boss after."

"Roger," said the woman, turning back to Irade.

Who was no longer on the floor.

Before she could realize what was going on, Irade swung down from the elevator escape hatch and kicked the woman square in the chest, pus.h.i.+ng her out of the elevator. The woman stumbled into the men, knocking them all over again.

"I'm fifteen you b*tch," she snarled, mas.h.i.+ng the 'close door' b.u.t.ton furiously.

The doors slowly slid close, as the woman glared hatefully, trying to get up. Unfortunately for her, she was entangled with the men, making it harder to get up.

"We'll get you," she swore. "We'll find you, you little Uyghur cu-"

Ting!

The doors closed.

Irade let out a sigh of relief, and leaned back. Her entire body was still sore from the taser shock. The only reason she wasn't blacked out now, was because her HP stat had absorbed most of the damage. She wanted nothing more than to lie back and sleep for an entire year.

But she couldn't. Not yet.

The elevator was moving up. To the thirteenth floor. Probably where all the other SWAT members were. How did they know which floor she was on?

It didn't matter. All she had to do was avoid them for now. Just for a while, until she got her strength back. She didn't have enough HP to absorb another taser shock.

Weakly, she pushed the b.u.t.ton for twelve. That should give her some time.

Time to think.

From what these people were saying, it looked like they were aware of the monsters. That actually explained why the building had been clear; they had been cleared out by the government. The answer to a question Irade never asked. She wondered if there were any other questions she should have been asking.

No. Focus.

Besides that, it looked like the government was after her.

Why? To experiment on her? To kill her?

Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't friendly. Given the methods they used to try and take her, they probably saw her as an enemy of some sort.

Speaking of methods used against her…

Irade looked down at the cuff placed on her. She realized when she jumped up to the elevator fire escape, that it was blocking her use of Mana, meaning she couldn't use [Flight] to escape up the elevator shaft like she had originally planned. How had they made this? Did this mean that the Chinese government knew about Mana, and her HUD?

Too many questions. Not enough solutions.

Well, maybe one solution.

Irade snapped the cuff off with her fingers. Thank G.o.d it didn't block her increased strength.

Plus, this also revealed that her stat increases had nothing to do with Mana. She wasn't sure how that was supposed to work, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

As soon as if was off, Irade felt her body lighten, and the stuffy feeling disappeared completely. She was still bone-tired, but it was a little better.

Ting!

Alright. Twelfth floor. Time to find a room and rest for a little.

Then escape.

However, as the doors opened, Irade realized that she might need to b.u.mp up her plans a little.

Because outside the door, were a bunch of seven SWAT members, all pointing guns at her.

Time seemed to move slowly. As she stared down the barrels of so...so many guns, Irade realized that the SWAT team hadn't realized where she was staying. They had sent members to every level to check. She just had the bad luck to meet up with the team that was going to level thirteen.

That realization wouldn't save her from bullets though.

"Fire!"

BBRRRRRRATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The inside of the elevator was suddenly riddled with holes. Before the men could realize that their bullets weren't hitting their target, Irade was already among them.

Irade started by going low, aiming for their legs to catch them off guard. She counted them; seven.

"What the- !"

Too many. They hand guns, and she didn't know if they had another taser. Irade yelled as she swept their legs, their bodies. .h.i.tting the floor in unison.

She ran.

Irade activated ['Dash'] and instantly zipped to the hallway near the elevator landing.

"Shoot her!"

Looks like weren't that concerned with taking her alive.

Irade used ['Dash'] once more, to get to the end of the hallway. There, she kicked down the door to the apartment and went in.

She knew that the SWAT team would follow her, but this wasn't an escape plan. It was a fight strategy. The doorway could only fit one person at a time, so they'd have to both face her one by one, and turn a corner. The turning corner part was important; it meant that they couldn't just shoot her.

Irade grit her teeth and forced herself to turn and face the doorway, away from the comfortable bed that was calling her her. Her muscles were taught with tension. They weren't screaming at her to stop like before, but they sure as h.e.l.l weren't doing as they were told nicely.

A man poked his head through the doorway.

CRACK!

Irade immediate kicked his head, her leg a blur. The man instantly fell to the floor, knocked out cold.

[Critical Hit!]

"Get her!"

Seven people. She could deal with seven, if they came one at a time.

Probably.

CRACK!

Focus. Irade couldn't lose focus. The moment she missed, was the moment her opponent had a chance to shoot.

Irade did not want to know how much that would damage her. Or what would happen if her HP got to zero.

Crack!

[Critical Hit!]

Five. That was five of them. The bodies were all blocking up the doorway now, making it difficult for numbers six to come through.

Perfect. That made it easier for Irade to-

BAM!

Something hit the wall, startling Irade, just as Mister Six came through the doorway. Irade ducked, kicking out his legs from under him and-

BAM!

The wall beside the door fell, revealing two more SWAT members, both pointing guns at where Irade would've been, if not for her timely duck.

Focus.

Immediately, Irade got close to one of the new men, turned around, and kicked straight up.

CRUNCH!

The impact of her heel against his jaw felt clean. The new man fell backwards. Without pausing, Irade then flipped her body, coming down with an axe kick on the man she had felled before she was interrupted.

"HCK!"

She hit him square between the legs, and felt something crunch. He went cross-eyed and fell to the floor. He didn't get up again.

Focus. One more.

Before the last man could react, Irade used ['Dash'] to zip up to the ceiling, then came down with another kick, straight on his head.

It was then she noticed the crowd of SWAT members coming out of the elevators.

No time for that. Focus on the task at hand.

CRACK!

[Critical Hit!]

Irade landed on all fours before the man could even fall, and held his body up. Immediately, his body became riddled with bullet holes.

"Shoot through him, just get her!"

Irade thought she recognized the voice of the woman, but she may have been mistaken.

Again, no time for that. Focus.

Focus, focus, focus.

She pushed forward with the body in front of her, making sure all the bullets. .h.i.t the man instead. He was still alive, Irade could feel his heart beating. Once close enough, she threw him at the men, and slid under their legs at the same time.

You're here. Focus.

From there, she caused havoc.

She kicked and danced like she had never before, doing her best to cut any excess from her movements. Every kick, punch, and dodge was filled with intent; to confuse, to disrupt, to inflict pain. Irade felt her body was one single nerve, moving exactly as she thought, her previous tiredness forgotten.

This wasn't like fighting with monsters; these were actual people. No matter what they wanted, no matter how scary the eyes that were aimed at her were, Irade could not bring herself to use lethal methods. That meant she had to aim to maim, to weaken, to confuse.

Plus, these people had all sorts of tricks and weapons. They didn't use guns, cause they were too close, and nightsticks were less scary than claws and teeth. Tasers, on the other hand, would be a death sentence.

BXXZZZZZZZZZ!!

Luckily, they came with a handy sound affect that alerted Irade to when they were being used. She immediately leaned forward and kicked straight up, feeling the static pa.s.s over her back and her foot crunch nicely against her a.s.sailant's jaw.

She spun around, grabbed the taser, and loosened the entire voltage into the man who swung a nightstick where she had just been.

Or she would have, if she didn't notice the person raising a handgun. Irade twisted her body, sending a kick to him that had him drop his gun. Then, she ducked into a position called 'negativa,' dodging the two men who had come at her from behind, and moving forward towards the end of the hallway, near a large window.

She was finding that it was getting quite difficult to constantly fight these people. As soon as she found a small rhythm, her opponents would start reading her moves and start disrupting her. Irade had to constantly change up her attack patterns, using [Flight] to stop or add momentum at irregular intervals to catch everyone off guard.

It was getting annoying. And tiring. Fast.

Ting!

And as more SWAT members left the elevators, it didn't look like her opponents were letting up.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Irade let out a roar, catching her opponents off guard and venting a little steam at the same time. She couldn't win this fight. She needed to escape.

But to where?

Where could she go?

Even if she somehow left, where would she go?

Why not just give up?

For a moment, everything stopped. Irade watched all the new SWAT members raise their guns, at her. Never did she think that anyone would ever raise a gun at her. Why would they? She was just n.o.body.

Wasn't she?

Apparently, these people didn't think so.

But who cared what they thought?

They didn't actually want her, not really. If they did, they'd approach her like a person, do like, negotiations or something.

Clearly, these people didn't care about her as a person. They saw her as an object.

An object they wanted to hurt.

Irade ducked behind a person just as the guns started blazing.

BBRRRRRRATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT!!!

Bullets whizzed past, hitting the wall and window behind Irade, as well as the man in front. She knew that if this kept up, the man she was holding up was going to die.

Irade grit her teeth. She had nowhere to go. If she stayed here, she was basically killing this man.

She eyes the window behind her, cracking with every bullet punching through it. The cityscape lay out in front of her, static and unchanging.

She wondered what she could find there.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she was running towards the window.

CRAs.h.!.+

Bullets flew past as the window shattered, gla.s.s cutting Irade's arms and legs. The cool air smelled vaguely moist, as if it were going to rain later.

"GET HER!"

That was definitely the woman. Irade looked back as she fell, and saw a face twisted with rage. Instinctively, she twisted around, and gave her the double finger, falling.

She fell like that, picking up speed, wind in her air. It felt good; it felt right.

Once she couldn't see the woman's face anymore, Irade activated [Flight], and flew away once more.