ㅤㅤ•° her heart thumped like the core of an engine, flowing both blood and magic that warmed her body up. That alone made her trudge to find Suho easier than most, though perhaps excluding the Son of Odin himself. But the coat was a gift from a dear friend, and she wouldn't let her go without it —&—

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ--—𝘣𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘱, 𝘣𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘱 ㅤㅤ•° her route was based on a faint trickling of mana that she could felt. A darkness similar to his father's, yet different in that it surely belonged to the young man, similar to how her own darkness is separate from the one Sung Jin-woo commanded. —&—

ㅤㅤ‘ Young Suho, I hope you're alive and well. ’ ㅤㅤ•° she thought to herself, sharing and understanding her leader's worry. There was nothing stronger to her than a parent's worry for their child. —&—

ㅤㅤ•° as she walked further and further from the rest of the group, she slowly felt a sense of ... something. Dread, perhaps, crawled up her spine, almost making her stop in her track. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ--—𝘣𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘱, 𝘣𝘢-𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘱 ㅤㅤ•° footsteps that sounded heavier than herself was heard. —&—

ㅤㅤ•° the 𝐋eft 𝐄ye shone, and darkness wrapped around her mind like another layer of protection ㅤㅤ•° she wasn't alone, she knew that, but someone—no, more than one—had followed her here. —&—

ㅤㅤ•° her cape billowed in the wind as she turned around, pulling out her Dead End Express from the void she kept it in. ㅤㅤ“Come out, whoever you are.ᐟ” —&—

ㅤㅤ•° her strong voice cut through the dead frozen air, tired of the constant stalking of unknown predators around her. They have been watching her, she knew that too. Perhaps they were assessing her strength, or waiting to catch her off-guard. #𝗔𝗛𝗝𝗜𝗡 / #𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ㅤㅤ

One Lieutenant was to her left seasoned and measured, but even his jaw tightened as the silence deepened. To her right, another, fresh and eager, was trying to mask the tremor in his hands. Yingzi warned them to remain composed, they won’t get second chances.

Branches overhead were still. But not calm-still, ambush-stagnant. The pressure shifted, that slight pull across her collarbone as though the atmosphere itself had pivoted around an invisible presence. A drop in wind and the sudden vacuum where her breath used to go.

Hurtling through the air like a thrown spear. The snow above Yingzi exploded, tossed upward by sheer displacement as something descended. She barely pivoted left. The impact cratered where she’d been standing—dirt split, frost blooming up in a frozen bloom of white fire.

The Predator’s height dwarfed hers, nearly three meters of plated sinew and simmering aggression. His bio-mask reflected Yingzi’s silhouette in full, as though it were already carving her memory into its helmet, that death-sculpted visor — didn’t betray anything.

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ•° she wasn't phased when the snow above fell on her, or when a towering figure, taller than a normal human would be, landed in front of her, looming over her and the two men behind her, taller than an Affinity, slightly shorter than a Hideous. —&—

ㅤㅤ•° ‘ 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲 ’ , the 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐄𝐲𝐞 whispered, words ringing in her ears. The darkness reached out to each and every shadow cast by the trees around the trio, and to the shadow cast by the first one in front of her, and the second one in the woods. ㅤㅤ—-- ‘ 𝘑𝘪𝘯-𝘞𝘰𝘰 𝘴𝘴𝘪 ’ —&—