Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

XVI: something's growing

Ch. 16: Something's Growing

For less than a heartbeat, there was nothing but silence. Then, as if the Sents' batteries had been pushed in at the same time, all of them moved at once.

As if sensing danger, the cockroach pounced on Bernardo with a type of rage Mara hadn't seen before. It landed on his arm, raised two frontal legs, and swiped them down with violence a couple of times, breaking armor and skin as if they were made of paper. Bernardo held back a howl and placed his trembling hand on the crystal, but he couldn't pull the creature off, so Mara jumped forward. With a strength she didn't know she had, she tugged the little thing off.

It would be easy to crack it. To squash it, break it, consume the power inside it—but once the creature was away from Bernardo, it calmed again. Before Mara could even process what was happening, Commander Carlos clutched the creature and tossed it away.

He jumped on one of the benches. "First Ring, begin formation; you answer to me with Solúcia as my second. Second Ring, you follow Pippa. Third Ring, report to Bernardo." His eyes zeroed in on Bernardo. "Go, go, go!"

A muscular woman—Pippa, as it seemed—jumped on another bench. "Second Ring, to me! Begin support formation. Leroy is my second; I want you to—"

A deafening screech filled the square.

"Shit. Hell," Bernardo roared and grimaced, blood dripping from his new wound. "Can't he see that I'm—!" Mara didn't remember hearing him curse like this before. Bernardo looked from Mara to Commander Carlos and growled. "What a shitty, blasted time to...Goddess." He raised his voice. "Squad Leaders in the Third Ring!" he shouted. "To me! Name and count!" As he said those words, Bernardo raised one bloodied hand high in the air and clasped the other around Mara's wrist.

Mara did her best to follow him. "W-what's happening? I thought you said they were easy to kill when they were small!"

"Not at night!" Bernardo shouted back over the growing noise in Sé square. He fought the tide of people running toward the fight, grunting and pulling Mara with him until they both emerged from the crowd of Sents and stood at the entrance of the cathedral.

A blond man with a cowboy hat and a confident smile led the charge of a squad to the far west of the square—and he was the first to be tossed back, falling like a bag of bricks at Mara's feet. She locked a scream in her throat, big eyes watching for movement.

The cowboy groaned, and Bernardo helped him up. Mara sighed in relief.

Nothing but a few meters from them, the cockroach got bigger after each hit it received, sucking in the night and the shadows around it. It was as big as a horse now, screeching and hammering its spidery legs on the floor. The creature bounced and charged against the Sents that got too close, and every time it tried to ram through them and escape, the Sents raced to keep it surrounded.

"Don't let it go into the city!" Commander Carlos shouted.

"I'll have to join them," Bernardo said. He looked over his shoulder, watching as a small group of young Sents formed at his back. "You stay here, Mara."

"Are you sure they need help?" Mara said. "Look at how many Sents are there already."

"Considering how fast it's growing, this one is strong," a young woman said. "Way, way stronger than the others we defeated."

"Plus, it's night," another young Sent added.

"Which means it'll be massive pretty soon...and there are not nearly enough Sents here to fight a big one during the night," Bernardo added. He looked at the young woman. "Call for backup, Vivs. We need people here now. And as for the others...."