The monster swung around, facing Kim and charging towards her. She ran, dodging backwards.

Why did it react like that? There was no way the monster was in pain. I ran through the fight in my head as I followed the monster around the room, but found myself unable to catch up. I couldn’t catch up with the monster. The monster couldn’t catch up with Kim; she was running circles around it.

I couldn’t even get close enough to get a swing in.

Kim turned, running out of the room of scattered costumes. She crashed through another exhibit, the monster running behind her. She was a realm below me and still faster than me. I pumped my legs to keep up as they crashed around the corner, through an exhibit, and then Kim was running across a sky bridge.

I clicked my mouth. Now it was a straight line between her and the monster.

But it was too big for the sky bridge.

It charged anyway, tearing plaster and drywall down in a noise like thunder, drowning out even the sirens for a moment. The glass walls of the sky bridge exploded as the monster tore through them, shattered glass spinning in the air like a dust storm. The sky bridge shook with every one of the monster’s steps, and I held my hand in front of my eyes to hold back the storm of glass and rubble as I charged towards the fight.

The hallway ended, opening into a circular chamber with glass walls towering feet high. People scattered out of the room, running down the opposite hallway screaming.

I finally caught up with Kim, where the monster stopped. She held her spear up, the glass wall behind her showing the city streets — still busy with people. Chains still hung from around the monster’s torso, dragging along the ground behind it as it approached Kim — slowly this time, like a predator playing with its food.

It raised a clawed hand.

I ran forward, scrambling onto its back, burying my fingers into the segments of its plate armor to climb up. It roared, stumbling backwards. I climbed up to its head.

The hard segments of its arm meant the monster couldn’t reach behind itself, and its legs permanently bent forward, stuck near a 45-degree angle. It swiped ineffectively before standing as high as it could, walking backwards to get me off its back. I climbed up to its face, raised my knife, and stabbed its eye.

It was like trying to chip stone.

The monster staggered around while I brought the knife downward over and over, enhancing my strength with every bit of Qi I could get.

The eyes were supposed to be soft! What monstrous fucking realm had it reached that it refused to give at all!

The monster staggered back into the wall, crushing me between it. I felt the air force itself out of my lungs as the drywall cracked. I fell free from its neck, my knife clattering to the ground. The monster turned to face me, roaring, and then the world spun.

The world spun and the sound of my own screaming filled the air, before the shattering glass interrupted it. The wall gave way to my body. Glass exploded and the sky and the ground switched places above me as I spun. I bounced against the concrete, cracking the stone, my head spinning still.

Each breath that came to me was a struggle. I had to get the potion in my pocket.

Struggling, I reached down into my pants, flopping over onto my stomach. I felt something wet and warm seeping down my hair. Scraps of metal and broken glass covered the street, but it was silent. No, it wasn’t silent. I couldn’t hear anything.

Reaching into my pocket, I only found broken, wet glass.

I pushed myself up, then to my feet, staring blankly. A man stared back, only a few feet away from me. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. I touched the wet spot on my head and pulled it back. Blood coated my fingers.

The man’s car lights were flashing. Two cars had flashing lights, actually. Bent, mutilated metal showed where they had impacted each other. He had been in an accident. Sound found its way back to me, the roaring siren of the city contesting for my attention against the alarm of the man’s car. I staggered in place, leaning backwards.

The man asked me if I was okay again.

I had to get back up there to where Kim was. To where the monster was.

The monster flew out of the window, falling to the ground and cracking the concrete.

I staggered forwards, towards the monster. Then I stopped.

Something was wrong.

The monster had landed on its face, limbs spread. It hadn’t chased after me or jumped. One of the last chains attached to the monster snapped. Something sparked underneath. The image of the monster’s body seemed to almost flicker, silver light passing over it like crashing waves.

A man followed the monster out of the circular pavilion, leaping through the glass he had shattered while knocking the monster free. He was dressed in a uniform. Armor adorned his chest, sure, but it looked more like kevlar than something fit for fighting monsters, and underneath it he was wearing a polo, collar buttoned to the top, colored in bright red with black slacks and dress shoes.

“Please evacuate the area.” The man spoke, his voice booming through the street. Around us, people watched timidly from across the street or inside of cars. He sighed loudly.

The man pulled a radio from his belt and talked into it.

“Contact with Iron gatebreak.” The man looked directly at me. “At least one needing medical attention. Situation under control.” He shoved the radio away, walking up to the edge of the monster.

“It’s — “I coughed, hacking into my fist before recovering. “It’s dangerous!” I shouted. “Don’t go near it!”

“While I appreciate your concern, I am a platinum Awoken. An Iron monster doesn’t pose any — “

“It’s not Iron!” I yelled. “It doesn’t have a rank! It’s unranked!”

The man gave me a look like I was stupid, raising an eyebrow.

Then he went flying into the side of the building as the monster snapped upwards. There was a distant thud and explosion of dust as the man went through the side of the art museum.

The monster groaned as it rose back to its full height. One chain remained on the monster, rattling on its body as it shifted.

The monster lumbered forward, content to ignore me as it headed back towards the building.

The corporate Awoken charged back out, slamming into the monster and forcing it to the ground.

“You son of a bitch!” The Awoken screamed as he slammed the monster down into the ground, fists falling in a rain of violence. He was almost a blur as he slammed the monster into the cement over and over, cracking the road apart. His forearms glowed with malevolent purple light, some Awoken technique enhancing him as he beat the monster into the ground.

Then he stopped. The monster caught an arm in its mouth, its teeth stopping dead against the ephemeral purple armor coating the man’s forearms. His expression switched from shock to rage.

Then he forced his other arm into the monster’s mouth, pulling it wide, and started stomping.

Maybe the man had control of the situation after all. I started backing away. He could handle it. I needed to go check on Kim. The time the monster spent in the seal had weakened it; if it hadn’t I wouldn’t have lived for the precious seconds I needed to distract it for. Weakening the speed and strength of a cultivator did nothing to stop the invulnerability of their bodies, which was why the man was taking his sweet time to break the creature’s spine.

I turned, looking to the museum, and started walking towards it, limping.

I had to get up to the pavilion and see if Kim was okay.

I heard a chain snap behind me. A spike of panic shot through my chest and I turned.

The man held the chain above his head, having broken it in half himself.

“Why won’t you die?” He said.

The monster’s Domain expanded outwards, sucking me and everything on the street into it, and I had the answer to a question I didn’t want to ask: it was a monster in the Sixth Realm.