All eyes in the shop were fixed on Arya.
A heavy silence blanketed the place—so thick that the sound of people's tense breathing was audible. Cam was still standing in front of her, his body leaning slightly forward, his eyes never leaving her face, waiting for the word that would come from her lips. His glowing baton cast strange blue shadows across the faces of everyone, sharpening the tension.
In that moment, Arya was fighting a silent battle inside her own mind.
Should I reveal my power? she thought, watching the doubt in the eyes of those present. Or should I lie and claim some worthless skill?
She knew that revealing the Shadow's growth now would mean losing her only advantage. It would put her under everyone's scrutiny, every moment. And as she gathered her scattered thoughts and opened her mouth to give the answer she had carefully chosen—
BAM!
The words froze in Arya's throat.
A brutal strike slammed into the wooden planks covering the door. The entrance shook violently. Everything inside the shop went rigid for a heartbeat.
Candle flames shuddered with the impact, their trembling light flickering across the tense faces around her.
In a single second, every head turned—Cam's included, stumbling back a step—toward the shaking door. The question vanished. The introductions vanished. In their place came a fresh horror that seized every breath once more. But this time, it wasn't the fear of waiting for an answer.
It was the fear of what stood behind that door.
The silence hadn't even returned after the first blow when the second came—closer now, and harder. The wood groaned under the pressure, the joints of the planks shifting slightly in their frames. And then came a sound that wasn't strange to Arya's ears: the scratch of sharp claws dragging across the wood's surface. A long, taunting screech.
Samer tightened his grip on the iron pipe without thinking. Hussam raised his axe a fraction, his eyes locked on the trembling planks. Samer stepped back, his eyes wide as they tracked the shaking door. He spoke, his voice unsteady with fear.
"There's something outside..."
In the back, no one said a word. But the tension that had been filling the shop moments before doubled in an instant.
As for Cam—he was no longer looking at Arya. His eyes were pinned to the door. The interrogating look he had aimed at her was gone. He raised his glowing metal baton high in both hands, bracing to respond with physical force—pushing forward to fight.
Uncle Jad stepped forward, shouting in a steady, commanding voice that cut through the tension and filled the dark shop.
"Everyone—away from the door! Get back!"
A silent panic began to spread. People scrambled backward into the deeper parts of the shop, behind the tool shelves and the crates of heavy equipment. The mother retreated into the farthest corner, clutching her child to her chest, pressing her hand over his eyes. The thin young man moved fast along the side wall. The terrified whispers stopped entirely. In their place came a crushing weight of tension—as if the air inside the shop had become something ready to explode.
In that moment, the whispers stopped. Every eye was nailed to those planks—the only barrier between them and death. Everyone waited to see what would come next, while the wooden gate shook again under the rising drumbeat of blows from outside.
While confusion held sway, Uncle Jad advanced with steady steps despite the pallor of his face. He began issuing orders, distributing roles in a firm voice.
Jad raised his voice after the briefest pause.
"We are not waiting for death like this."
He looked at Samer and Hussam and gestured them forward to reinforce the front line. Samer moved, gripping his iron pipe, and Hussam followed, tightening his hold on the axe.
The two moved fast, their eyes tracking every shift in the splintered wood. Jad pointed a finger at the door and continued with absolute seriousness.
"If something gets in—strike the head. Don't think. Don't hesitate. Just hit. Hard."
While Uncle Jad gave orders, the metal around the door began to shift in precise patterns under his control. Small bars along the wall realigned. Scattered screws locked into place. Even the metal plates on the floor began to fuse together, forming an additional barrier.
This wasn't about showing off power. It was about protecting everyone. Any sudden attack would collide with these metal layers Jad had arranged with careful intent—buying Samer, Hussam, and Malek time to act.
As for Cam—he stood at the center, raising his metal baton, blue glow pulsing from its length. His body was visibly coiled, his eyes locked on the weakest point in the wooden planks, ready to be the first to strike thanks to his advanced weapon.
The way he stood, the way he held his distance—it radiated confidence. Maybe a trace of arrogance. It was clear it bothered him that he wasn't the one calling the shots here. But Jad was giving the orders. And Cam knew this wasn't the time for argument.
So he exchanged quick glances with Samer and Hussam, trying to maintain his composure as a leader of the group, while his hand clenched around the baton so tight his knuckles went white.
Arya stood at a safe distance, watching the scene with calm eyes. It didn't take her long to read the truth: the visible strength was in Cam's hands—but the mind running this situation was Jad. His precise command over the metal wasn't a performance. It was preparation for whatever catastrophe might come.
She thought fast. They know how to face an attack. But I'll need to move carefully if a strong monster gets in and they can't handle it.
The silence grew heavier. Every breath was audible. Every shift on the wooden floor caught Arya's ear.
Then came a new scratch at the planks—stronger and faster—as if something was trying to tear through the door.
Uncle Jad raised his voice once more.
"Get ready... NOW!"
Samer, Hussam, and Cam stood poised at the door, while Jad stayed positioned in front of the people, watching the situation, ready to strike anything that came near.
They didn't have to wait long.
A violent impact struck—louder than everything before it. It thundered through the shop like a shell. One of the upper wooden planks shattered and dropped to the floor with a muffled crash, revealing a narrow black opening behind it. Instantly, a gray, deformed hand with long claws thrust through the gap, thrashing wildly, trying to snag anything it could reach.
"They broke through the door!" someone screamed from the back, and the level of terror in the room shot higher.
Samer didn't hesitate. He surged forward and smashed the hand with all his strength, swinging the iron pipe. The sound of bones cracking split the air. The hand jerked back with a sharp shriek—but the relief lasted only a second.
The remaining planks began to collapse one after another under the pressure of heavy bodies from outside.
The upper section of the door gave way entirely. Half of a grotesque monster's body shoved through the opening. It was Rank E, its eyes bloodshot, its jaw dripping black saliva.
In that moment, Cam moved.
He shot forward and brought his metal baton down with everything he had. The blue glow erupted on impact, turning his strike into a blinding energy detonation that obliterated the monster's skull on contact. The creature dropped dead—but it was only the beginning.
Behind the fallen corpse, two more Rank E monsters and three Rank F monsters crashed into the shop in a coordinated group assault.
The fighting exploded.
Samer and Hussam engaged the smaller monsters—the Rank F—to stall their advance, while Cam faced the larger ones. But the momentum was overwhelming. The monsters shoved Samer and Hussam back hard, and the front line looked ready to collapse.
That was when Uncle Jad stepped in.
He didn't just watch the barrier. He stretched his hand toward a pile of long nails and equipment crates. With a rapid motion of his fingers, the nails rose into the air like guided missiles and drove precisely into the legs of the advancing monsters, disrupting their movement and giving the defenders a moment to catch their breath.
Jad wasn't alone. Some of the survivors who had useful abilities began to move. One released a short burst of wind that amplified the force behind Samer's strikes. Another used a "Skin Hardening" power, standing as a human shield behind Hussam and keeping him from collapsing under the monsters' blows.
The shop rang with the sounds of metal, human cries, and the roars of monsters. Amid all this chaos, Arya still stood in place. Her cold eyes tracked every movement. She studied how these powers consumed their users' energy so fast, waiting for the moment she would need to intervene with the Shadow—or step in herself.
The room shattered with a scream of pain that tore through the noise of battle.
One of the Rank F monsters had driven its claws into Samer's shoulder. Samer staggered backward, his blood soaking through his torn shirt. But he didn't let go of the iron pipe.
"Samer!" Hussam shouted, trying to fight his way to him—but two Rank E monsters had boxed him in, shoving him toward the collapsing shelves. Hussam's axe was heavy, and every swing was draining what little Mana remained in his exhausted body.
Cam was in no better state. Despite the glow of his baton, his movements had grown heavy. He took a powerful kick from a massive monster that sent him flying into a metal crate. Cam spat blood from his mouth. His eyes were wide with shock—real combat wasn't like the street brawls he was used to.
Meanwhile, Uncle Jad was grinding his teeth so hard they threatened to crack. His forehead was drenched in sweat, his eyes bloodshot from the extreme focus. The metals he controlled began to tremble and fall. He had reached his limit.
With a desperate cry, Jad gathered every last shred of energy he possessed and hurled the nails and metal fragments into a small metal cyclone, driving it through the bodies of the remaining monsters all at once.
The last monster fell dead. A thick silence settled over the shop, broken only by ragged, overlapping breaths and soft groans.
Cam collapsed to the ground, panting. Jad dropped to his knees, clutching his chest, while others rushed to dress Samer's bleeding wound. Faces were pale. Clothes were smeared with dark blood and grime.
"Is... is it over?" one of the survivors whispered, his voice trembling as he stared at the remains around them.
Hussam managed a tired smile, wiping his face. "We did it... we're alive."
A moment of false relief spread through the room. People started to steady their breathing. Cam recovered a fraction of his arrogance as he looked at the monster corpses under his feet, assuming the worst was already behind them.
But Arya wasn't looking at them.
She was standing in the darkness, her eyes fixed upward—toward the shop's wooden ceiling.
Her ears caught a faint sound the exhausted couldn't hear: the sound of friction... a slow, deliberate crawl across the planks overhead.
Then—
CRACK!
A wooden board in the ceiling split open without warning, and a gray, twisted body dropped straight into the center of the crowd.
A sharp scream tore the silence apart.
The monster was a crawler—its long limbs bent like a spider's, its claws longer than knives. It gave no one time to react.
One thrust.
Its claws sank into the chest of the bald man—Fouad—before he even understood what was happening. Blood spilled across the floor as his body collapsed, lifeless.
"Monster—from above!" someone shouted in pure terror.
Before they could absorb the shock— Another section of the ceiling shattered.
A second monster dropped.
But this one was different.
Its body was larger. Its muscles twisted beneath a dark gray hide. Its eyes glowed with a sick, purple light. When it hit the floor, the wooden planks shuddered under its weight.
A system panel flared for a brief moment before the eyes of those nearest to it.
[Crawler Monster — Rank D]
Faces turned to stone.
Cam, who had barely managed to get to his feet, stared in disbelief.
Jad, drained and barely upright, lifted his head slowly—and his face went truly pale.
"Rank... D?" Hussam breathed.
In the next instant, chaos erupted.
People screamed. Some scrambled backward. Others tripped over corpses and crates. The mother shrieked, clutching her child as the first Crawler Monster surged through the crowd like a killer shadow.
The massive Rank D monster turned its head slowly... and its deformed jaw curved into something like a grin.
And in the middle of that chaos—
Arya was the only one who hadn't moved.
Her eyes were locked onto the creature.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hnwawu8jf
Inside her... the Shadow stirred.
She raised her hand. Slowly.
—44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGvYtflEax
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