Parasyte System

*Crash!*

Deep in the forest surrounding the bronze city, the sound of branches breaking and trees being pierced could be heard.

It had been a while since the sun had set, which added to the lush trees of this forest, prevented any clear view of what was happening.

*Swoosh!*

However, from time to time, illuminating the surroundings, beams of light would shoot forward, chasing a target that was moving in the shadows, but thanks to the latter's agility, the beams often ended up hitting the trees.

Another thing that aided in visibility was another source of red light, which, although much dimmer, outlasted the lightning bolts in duration, being on and moving at all times.

Even so, the beams of light were the most helpful, and lasted long enough to let one see more clearly those responsible for these strange occurrences in the forest.

Starting with the origin of these lightning bolts, the person who was casting them was none other than Nico, the light mage, who was running at the same time as his wand lit up every so often to cast the spells.

"T-try to... corner him! I-I can't hit him with my spells when he's... moving so fast!" shouted Nico, somewhat out of breath.

As for why he was out of breath, it was simple, one had to remember that despite being a super, he was part of the class with the weakest physique, added to that the fact that he was in terrain that was difficult to traverse, he couldn't help but tire easily.

"What do you think I'm trying to do, idiot?!" Replied the person in front, the walking source of red light, the esper Kai.

Demonstrating his physical superiority, he was far ahead of Nico, nimbly avoiding trees to avoid losing speed, making it clear that rather than relying entirely on his skill, he also had some merit himself.

However, that did not mean that he was not using his ability, but quite the opposite, by complementing it with his physical movements, he was achieving a stronger effect than the average esper.

But even with this, he was unable to catch up with the figure that was his target and was currently leading the chase.

"Damn it, how come... how come he's so fast if he's carrying weight!?" Kai shouted as his face turned red, whether it was from skill or anger, only he knew.

Finally, the person who not only moved with much greater agility than Kai, but while dodging Nico's attacks, just as Kai had said, was carrying weight.

Specifically, some 52 kilos of esper, which combined, made up the person known as Vilda, who was no longer gagged and currently being carried on Jay's shoulder.

Thanks to his strong rank (D+) pugilist physique and the energy of his little ones, it was almost as if he didn't feel the weight, Jay simply continuing to move through the forest, keeping a large distance between them and the pursuing pair.

As for the reason of this, although he had managed to knock one of them unconscious thanks to a surprise attack, making things easier for a while, he knew that the essential thing was not to defeat them, but to get Vilda out of there.

After all, if either of those two managed to catch Vilda and decided to use him as a hostage, things could really get complicated.

'Hm, as much as I'd like to take them on, the priority is Vilda, so I'd better head to the city, if I hurry, I might still catch up with them in the forest...' Jay thought, without hiding his desire to take on the duo.

Without waiting long, the esper then took a sudden turn of direction before creating a platform of air on his feet, leaping towards a nearby tree.

Of course, this caused a surprised reaction from his pursuers.

"Come here, you coward!!" Shouted Kai, the first to see this, also changing direction so he could continue chasing Jay.

"...Right, he could also move in the air...you know what, I give up, you chase after him, I'll rest for a moment..." Nico said as he leaned back against a tree.

With one eyebrow twitching due to anger, Kai then said, "...I'm surrounded by useless people!"

That exchange of words being the last between them, the esper then quickly walked away from the area, away from Nico.

Turning back to Jay, the latter was jumping from tree to tree, and while it was somewhat difficult to do so while carrying another person, thanks to his previous training with the Aqugas snake, he was able to maintain his previous speed.

If he kept it up, there would be no problem getting out of the forest in a few minutes.

"...O-ouch..."

"Oh, you woke up already?"

At that moment, however, Vilda stirred slightly, causing Jay to turn to look at him.

With his little ones, he had already checked Vilda's status window, which while it indicated that he had taken a great deal of damage, it was not life-threatening.

Therefore, he only had his little ones share some energy with Vilda and let him rest a while longer, and as he had just seen, it had been enough.

Grabbing his head with both hands, Vilda could see the person who was carrying him... and was quickly shocked by the bandaged person next to him.

"Who...!?" Vilda shouted as he started to move to free himself.

"Ah, wait, don't move, it's me, me!" Jay said hurriedly, almost losing his balance.

Still trying to move his body to free himself, Vilda replied, "I don't know anyone with such horrifying and weird fashion sense...wait.... Jay?!"

"...Yes, it's me..."

Without giving him a chance to say anything else, Vilda spoke up again urgently, "What are you doing here and where are those guys?!"

"I came to rescue you, and I think it's better if-

"I FOUND YOU!!!"

However, before Jay could answer, another person appeared from another tree, and at the same time he shouted, he threw a punch straight at Jay's face.

*BAM!*

The sound of the collision was heard loudly in the surrounding area, making it clear that the blow had made contact.

"This is for earlier, *sshole!" Shouted Tom, who had recovered from Jay's blow and had wasted no time in joining the chase.

Even though he had started with a disadvantage, thanks to his esper skill, which gave him a great increase to his physical abilities, he was able to reach them with relative ease.

It was also thanks to this that Tom at this moment had a confident smile on his face, because he knew the strength he possessed and what it meant for such a direct hit to reach its target.

Although he had been worried at first because of Jay having given him a strong hit, even if this person was a pugilist, he would not come out of this unscathed!

*Pam*

"!"

However, just as he was about to move, his wrist was gripped tightly by what appeared to be an arm of a completely dark color.

What was more, his fist, which was supposedly still making contact with Jay's face, was now being sucked in.

Not understanding what was going on, Tom hurriedly tried to pull his arm, but despite putting all his strength into it, he couldn't free himself from the grip.

"You're the one that... had fun with me earlier, aren't you?" Vilda then said, glaring at Tom, "You're pretty brave when you have your friends, but now that you're alone... it's my turn."

As he finished saying that, the shadows all around trembled slightly, starting with those that were wrapping around Tom's arm.

Sensing this, Tom realized what was happening.

The moment his fist made contact with Jay's "face", it struck him as odd that not only had Jay not been blown away by the impact, but he hadn't even made a sound.

The reason for this had been that although he thought he had attacked by surprise, Vilda had already noticed, and using his shadow control ability, had covered Jay's face to protect him.

Which meant... that his surprise attack had been a total failure!

*Tap*

With a small hop, Vilda lowered himself off Jay's shoulder, his figure barely being able to be visible due to the vast amount of shadows that seemed to be superimposed on top of each other above him.

However, even in this patch of shadows, one thing could be clearly seen, and that was that Vilda was connected, by a strip of shadows, to Tom.

"Jay, maybe it's a lot considering you came to help me, but I'm asking you as a favor to take care of the other two...I'll take care of this one." Vilda said, his voice full of determination.

"Sure, take your time." Jay replied, with a faint smile under his bandage mask.

Hearing his confirmation, Vilda then took a step forward, the shadows surrounding his body condensing to form the same hammer he had used to face off against Vedran.

Though of course, there was one distinct difference, and that was that the surfaces of the hammer's head were not flat, but filled with spikes.

"H-hey, wait, you can't hit me with that!" said Tom, looking worried, "You know what, let's just leave it at that, what's more, I'll tell the others to stand down, come on, let's avoid-"

*BAM!*

"GAH!"

Not wanting to let him finish, Vilda had already struck with his huge hammer, sending Tom flying through the air several meters into the forest.

"See you in a bit."

Saying that, Vilda then jumped down from the top of the tree and started running in the direction he had sent Tom.

It had all happened in just a few seconds, but that alone was enough to completely change Jay's plan, which was not complicated at all, consisting simply rescuing Vilda.

However, with this, it had been proven that Vilda didn't actually need to be rescued, just a little help.

'Although this is unexpected... it's not a bad outcome at all~' Jay thought, hearing the sound of Kai running through the forest coming from behind.

Ducking his body as the wind in the surroundings gathered around him, Jay prepared to launch an attack similar to the one he had used against Tom.

As for Vilda's badly injured state, since he had taken a few of his little ones with him, Jay wasn't worried.

Thus, it seemed that tonight's business would come to an end sooner than expected.

***

"It's windier than usual today..."

On the outskirts of the bronze city, a young woman was walking despite being nighttime, her direction being none other than the nearby forest.

Wearing tight black pants that allowed for great mobility, along with a gray hoodie, this attire was not flashy at all, quite the contrary, thanks to its dark colors, the young woman even seemed to camouflage herself in the surroundings.

However, there was one part of this young woman's appearance that could not be described as anything other than striking, and that was her eyes, which gave off a very slight golden glow.

Fortunately, the latter feature was only observable if one got close enough, so even if she ran into someone, as long as there was a bit of distance, there would be no problem.

Of course, it's not like she was going to run into anyone either, after all, one of the many features of her ability allowed her to camouflage herself in broad daylight, not to mention what she could get up to at night.

And it was also thanks to this that she was able to get out of the city without any problems.

Because she had been walking for a few minutes now, the forest was quite close, being able to be seen even from where she was.

Perhaps some people might think twice before entering a place so dark and where there might be more than a couple of monsters, but for this young woman, that really wasn't a concern.

Instead, what occupied her mind was that she had to hurry, as she had someone to rescue.

Thinking about that, the young woman took a step forward.

"!"

Suddenly, a shiver ran through her entire body, causing her to instinctively step back and activate her ability, completely erasing her figure from anyone's view.

"..."

Waiting for a few seconds without moving, the young woman searched with her eyes for some indication of that which had caused her to shiver, but her efforts yielded no results.

Therefore, her reasoning led her to think of another cause of the sudden shivering.

'...It seems that I haven't completely overcome my fear of the dark... but I can't go back, so now is the time I overcome it!' Thought the young woman.

Full of determination, the young woman continued to move forward, although it had to be mentioned, that her ability was active at all times.