Renji Kuroda watched from the rooftop, arms folded, gaze steady through the shifting Pink Fog.
For days, the Kuroda family had been preparing to take the Okada Safe Zone. It was the perfect prize—secure walls, stable supplies, and a strong foothold in the region. But just as they were ready to strike, the Broodmother arrived.
The Caller's sudden appearance ruined everything. Her web-choked territory settled right between Kuroda and Okada, making a clean attack impossible. Any direct assault would leave them torn apart before they even reached Okada's gates.
So Renji found another way.
Push the Broodmother into Okada's territory. Let her wipe them out. Then, when both sides were exhausted, Kuroda would step over the bodies and claim the Safe Zone for themselves.
And it was working.
Okada's fighters were breaking.
The streets were filled with Glints, each transformed into their own fantasy forms—werebeasts, drakes, ogres, and banshees. They fought together, back-to-back, blades and claws clashing against the Broodmother's relentless swarm.
But they were losing ground.
Broodlings swarmed over them in waves, shredding armor and dragging fighters down. Webcrawlers dropped from the rooftops, tearing through the ranks. Sticky webs stretched between buildings, cutting off every escape.
Okada's line was buckling.
Something stirred in the distance.
A low rumble echoed from beyond the battlefield.
Through the mist came the cart. Its wooden wheels creaked as it rolled forward, pulled steadily by Gabe, fully transformed in his Griffin form. His wings stayed half-spread, prepared for sudden flight. Feathers rustled as his sharp gaze scanned the chaos ahead, calculating the movements of the horde.
Beside the cart moved Iris, already in her Valkyrie form, long feathers draped across her arms and shoulders. Her blade rested at her side as she jogged alongside the cart, eyes locked on the battlefield.
On the other side, Sly kept pace, his Spectre form giving his body a faint, ghostlike blur. His hands hovered near his weapons, ready to strike.
And in the back of the cart, resting like none of it mattered, lay Bob. He hadn't even sat up yet, one arm behind his head, eyes barely open as the battlefield came into view.
Okada's defenders caught sight of them. For a moment, no one knew what to think. Help? Strangers? Another enemy?
Then the cart stopped.
The Broodmother's eight glowing eyes shifted from Okada's fighters to the new arrivals. Her swollen body twitched, and her swarm hissed, as if sensing the change.
Iris moved first.
Without a word, she darted ahead. Her wings snapped open as her blade flashed into her hand. She collided with the first group of Webcrawlers, cutting through legs and bodies in wide, clean arcs. One lashed out, slicing across her shoulder. She hissed through gritted teeth but finished the fight, stepping over its body without pause. Blood dripped down her arm as she moved to the next target.
Gabe veered off to the left, scanning the field. He didn't charge recklessly. He watched, waited, spotted the weak points.
A pair of Broodlings tried to flank a group of tired Okada fighters. Gabe struck fast, slamming into the first with his claws, tearing it apart before it could reach them. The second managed to land a slash across his ribs before he turned and ended it with a snap of his beak.
"Watch your sides," Gabe called out, shoving debris into a narrow path to block any more surprises.
Sly disappeared into the fog before the first blade was swung. He moved between shadows, picking off stragglers. A Broodling tried to run—Sly was already there, driving a knife through its back. He vanished again, but not before a Webcrawler caught him with a lucky swipe, leaving a shallow cut across his forearm.
Together with Okada's Glints, they formed a new front line. The battlefield shifted as the defenders finally had breathing room.
But the swarm kept coming.
And the Broodmother was still watching.
Bob finally sat up in the cart, rubbing his eyes.
He stood, stepping off the cart, landing quietly in the fog. The moment his foot hit the ground, his body shifted. His Goliath form surged to life, muscle and mass expanding as stone-like skin crawled across his arms and shoulders.
He looked around the street, then grabbed a rusted street sign from the sidewalk, giving it a lazy spin over his shoulder.
"Guess it's my turn," he muttered.
The Broodmother responded instantly. One of her long, needle-like legs shot forward, stabbing at him. Bob managed to deflect the strike with the sign, but the impact still knocked him back a few steps, leaving a gash across his side.
He glanced down at the blood, then smirked.
"Alright," he said. "Let's see what you've got."
---
From the rooftop, Renji's smile faded.
Bob wasn't supposed to be helping Okada.
This was supposed to be over already.
"Send the signal," Renji ordered. "Get the rest moving. Full force. We're taking the Safe Zone now. Kill anyone in the way."
Only a handful of Kuroda scouts were near enough to watch the fight unfold. The main force was still moving through the fog, closing in on Okada's Safe Zone.
They thought they were walking into an easy win.
But the fight took another sudden turn.
A sharp hiss pierced through the battlefield, cutting through the clash of steel and dying screams like a warning. The ground trembled. From the far side of the ruins, something massive slithered into view, its long, scaled body weaving through the wreckage.
Then—she appeared.
The Serpent Caller had arrived! Her enormous form wound through the shattered streets, her glowing yellow eyes locking onto the chaos ahead. Her tongue flicked at the air, tasting the blood-soaked battlefield, sensing her next prey.
The battle wasn't over.
And it's about to get worse.
Because she wasn't alone.
Nearly forty Serpentkin spread out around her, each one shaped by the fog:
Fangkin darted ahead, their thin, wiry bodies built for speed, hooked claws scraping against stone as they weaved through the ruins.
Behind them, the Scalebinders moved with slow, crushing power, their thick coils dragging across the ground.
Above, Venomspitters perched on broken walls, their jaws stretching wide as pink-tinged venom dripped from their fangs.
The battlefield tensed.
The Serpent Caller lifted her head, coils tightening, but her gaze wasn't on Okada.
It wasn't on Bob.
Her target was Kuroda's main force.
With a sudden lunge, she struck forward, and her swarm followed.
In an instant, the hunters became the hunted.
And the chaos continued.
The Broodmother's hiss filled the street, sharp and shrill. Her massive, bloated form pressed forward, stabbing her needle-like legs into the pavement. Bob met her charge head-on, the rusted street sign swinging like a club, metal bending from the force of his strikes.
She was stronger than he expected.
Every hit against her thick shell sent vibrations down his arms. When her leg caught him across the side, it left a deep gash along his ribs, tearing through the stone-like skin of his Goliath form. He winced but didn't slow down, dragging the sign through the ground before hurling it like a spear into one of her eyes.
Okada's fighters held the front beside them. Their own Glints—centaurs, harpies, werewolves, and more—fought with what strength they had left. Without Bob's crew, they would've fallen hours ago.
But the Broodmother refused to die.
She slammed her weight into Bob, sending him skidding back across the street. He gritted his teeth, wiped the blood from his mouth, and rolled his shoulders.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let's end this."
One last charge.
Bob ducked under her next strike, grabbed a length of broken rebar from the ground, and drove it upward through the soft underbelly beneath her swollen sacs. She shrieked, legs flailing, but Bob didn't stop. He kept pushing until the Broodmother collapsed, her body twitching before finally going still.
In an instant, the battlefield shifted.
The Broodmother's swarm froze. With no Caller to guide them, they broke apart. Their attacks lost all coordination, and they scattered in confusion.
Iris, Gabe, Sly, and the remaining Okada Glints cut them down quickly.
What had been chaos just moments ago became silent wreckage.
Okada's fighters took a breath. For now, they had survived.
---
But on the other side of the battlefield, the fight was only getting worse.
The Serpent Caller tore into Kuroda's forces.
Renji's fighters were the first to fall. The Serpentkin moved fast, slipping through the fog and pulling Glints down before they could even react.
Fangkin tore through armor.
Scalebinders crushed anyone they caught.
Venomspitters rained acid from above, melting through weapons and skin alike.
Renji tried to rally his family, joining the fight himself, but it was too late. Half their forces were already dead. The ambush had torn them apart before they could even form a proper line.
Renji fought hard, cutting through several of the Serpentkin with his own Glint form—a towering, stone-armored brute—but the damage was done. The Serpent Caller coiled around a nearby building, watching calmly as the Kuroda family fell apart.
Renji's blade struck her scales once, leaving a shallow cut that barely slowed her down.
That was all the strength Kuroda had left.
And when Renji fell, the rest broke.
---
With the Broodmother dead and her swarm collapsing, the battlefield finally went quiet.
But only for a moment.
Bob wiped the blood from his mouth and glanced toward the horizon, where another Caller had struck Kuroda's forces.
"Guess we're not finished," he muttered.
Noah Okada stepped forward, his armor cracked and streaked with dirt, exhaustion plain on his face.
"I'm Noah Okada, leader of this Safe Zone," he said, giving Bob a quick nod. "Appreciate the help back there."
He glanced toward the fog, where the faint sounds of distant fighting still echoed.
"According to our scouts, Kuroda's forces ran into another Caller while trying to regroup. Big one. Serpent-type. It's been tearing through them since the moment they moved."
Bob gave a lazy shrug. "Lead the way."
They didn't wait. What was left of Okada's fighters gathered, many still limping from the Broodmother's assault, but determined. Bob's crew fell in beside them. The short march toward Kuroda's former position was silent except for the dragging of boots and the occasional groan from half-healed wounds.
Stage 1 transformations were doing their work. Cuts sealed. Bruises faded. Even Sly, though still paler than usual, was slowly regaining his footing.
"Feeling better?" Iris asked as they moved.
Sly flexed his fingers. "Good enough to not die. Probably."
Gabe's sharp eyes stayed fixed on the distant shadows. "Let's just not make this a habit."
By the time they reached the ruins of Kuroda's last stand, the Serpent Caller was still there.
She coiled around the broken walls, her long, scaled body winding through the fog. Glowing yellow eyes watched them from a distance.
Her remaining Serpentkin circled nearby, fewer now after their slaughter of Kuroda's forces but still dangerous.
Bob rolled his shoulders and stepped forward, cracking his neck.
"Well," he said, "I guess round two starts now."
The Serpentkin attacked first. Fangkin darted from the fog, claws flashing as they tore into the front line. The Okada Glint warriors met them head-on, slashing with talons, striking with hardened limbs, and using their armored bodies to push back—but exhaustion had made them slower.
Bob's crew filled the gaps.
Iris took the left, clashing with a Scalebinder. Its thick coils wrapped around her leg, but she drove her blade down into its neck before it could tighten. She stumbled free, panting, blood trickling down her arm from another reopened wound.
Gabe launched upward, ripping a Venomspitter off a rooftop before it could rain acid down on the group. It clawed his shoulder on the way down, leaving deep scratches across his back.
Sly flashed through the chaos, slipping between the Fangkin. He landed a clean strike through one's spine, but another clipped his side with its tail, nearly knocking him off his feet.
And Bob?
Bob aimed straight for the Serpent Caller herself.
She lunged at him, fangs snapping. He ducked under the first strike and slammed his fist into her jaw, sending a shockwave through her coils. But she wasn't weak. Her tail whipped around, striking Bob square in the chest and sending him crashing into the side of a broken wall.
He coughed, shaking the dust off as he stood.
"Yeah... definitely stronger than the last one."
The fight dragged on. Okada's forces held as best they could, Noah leading them through the chaos, but the Serpentkin weren't giving up easily. Every time they cut one down, another slid from the shadows.
Finally, after a brutal exchange, Bob found his opening.
As the Serpent Caller reared back to strike, he drove a jagged steel beam straight through her throat. The creature hissed, body twisting in violent spasms before finally falling still, coils unraveling across the ground.
The remaining Serpentkin scattered, aimless without her control.
The battlefield fell silent again.
Noah didn't wait. With the Serpent threat gone and Kuroda's survivors weak and scattered, he turned his forces on them without hesitation.
"For everything you did to us," Noah said, his voice cold and final, "this ends tonight."
The Kuroda family never stood a chance. Renji, barely alive, his body torn open from deep wounds, dragged himself forward in a last, desperate attempt to escape. His once-mighty Glint form—hulking, armored in jagged stone—was breaking apart. Blood dripped from his claws as he stumbled. He made it three steps. On the fourth, a taloned hand crushed him into the dirt. Claws tore through his side, ending him where he fell.
The rest of Kuroda's warriors quickly saw the truth—they were finished.
Some threw down their weapons—crude spears, rusted blades—while others, still in monstrous Glint forms, raised their clawed hands, spiked limbs, or wings in surrender. Their resolve shattered, their glowing eyes dimmed.
But hesitation was fatal.
Those who lingered, still thinking of resistance, were cut down instantly—pierced, crushed, or torn apart. The battlefield became a graveyard of fallen warriors and broken creatures.
When the last scream faded, only Okada's warriors stood.
The battle was over. Their control over the region was absolute.