I Swear I’m Still the Hero!

It had been far too easy, Luna thought afterward, as she stood in the middle of the street and stared at what remained of the squad they had just ambushed.

She had expected resistance Gunfire. Shouted commands. At least some kind of struggle that would make her feel like they had overcome something meaningful.

Instead, they had fallen upon the soldiers with such speed and violence that the entire encounter had lasted only seconds.

They had leapt from the rooftops before the squad could properly react, and by the time shoes hit pavement and claws scraped concrete, the fight was already over.

Luna still wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened so quickly.

She remembered grabbing one of the men, intending only to disarm him. At least, that was what she had told herself she was doing. But when her hand closed around his arm and she pulled, there had been a sickening tearing sensation, followed by a spray of red that painted the road. His arm had come away in her grip with horrifying ease, as though she had plucked a branch from a brittle tree.

For a split second she had just stared at it, stunned by her own strength.

Then she had reacted on instinct, hurling the man away from her. His body flew much farther than she had anticipated, clearing the width of the street before striking a wall with a wet, final sound that she tried very hard not to think about.

She had grimaced at that. It hadn’t been her intention to kill him, but she reassured herself quickly that it was a necessary casualty. They were at war, whether the world wanted to admit it or not.

Nearby, Sarah had moved like a blur. One moment another soldier had been raising his weapon, and the next he had vanished from sight entirely. Luna had caught only a glimpse of Sarah dragging him into a narrow space between two houses. There had been a brief struggle, a muffled cry, and then silence.

When Sarah returned, her lips were stained red, her expression blissful euphoric.

Luna had no idea where all the blood went. Sarah looked exactly the same as before, no fuller, no change. It was unsettling in a way Luna couldn’t quite articulate.

Emily had lunged straight for their apparent leader, knocking him flat before he could bark a single order. With a savage motion of her claws, she had torn into his throat. Harry, meanwhile, had lowered his head and charged the final man, his horns driving through armor and flesh alike with terrifying force. None of the soldiers had even managed to fire a shot, their rifles lay scattered uselessly across the pavement, some still clutched in lifeless hands.

They had, however, learned something important in the aftermath.

Jason, ever curious, had stooped to pick up one of the fallen rifles, perhaps intending to examine it or even use it. The moment his fingers closed around the metal, he had cried out sharply and dropped it as though it were made of molten iron. Thin trails of smoke rose from his palms, and the scent of burned skin filled the air.

“It burned me,” he complained, shaking his hands as the skin slowly began to regenerate.

Luna frowned thoughtfully. It seemed their forms rejected certain tools of the old world, or perhaps the gift itself resisted the idea of being wielded alongside mundane weapons. It was something to consider.

“Mmm. I’m still hungry,” Sarah said, breaking the brief silence as she glanced down at the bodies.

“We need to spare who we can, Sarah,” Luna replied, forcing her voice to remain calm and leader-like. “While the dead can receive the gift, they lose their minds. They become… lesser. I would prefer more people like us than animals, wouldn’t you?”

Sarah huffed, clearly dissatisfied. “Fine. But if they resist a bit too hard, I’m going to snack.”

Luna hesitated only a fraction of a second before nodding. “Fine. Just try to show restraint.”

She surveyed the street, noting how quickly everything had ended. The ease of it left her with a strange mixture of pride and unease.

“Let’s move,” she said at last. “There’s a swarm pooling nearby. We’ll join them. I can give the gift to some of the families still in the area too. The army wanted to keep their operations quiet, but they didn’t evacuate everyone. That was their mistake.”

“Yes, miss,” the others called in near-perfect unison.

The synchronization sent a pleasant warmth through her chest.

Luna led them toward the nearest swarm, which had gathered inside a one-story shopping mall that had been cleared of civilians earlier in the chaos. The glass storefronts were shattered, and the wide corridors echoed with the unsettling sounds of movement that did not belong to normal shoppers.

Inside, the swarm was busy. Creatures of various shapes moved with purpose, collecting stray animals from pet stores and nearby streets to receive the gift. Unfortunately, there were also a few human bodies laid carefully along the tiled floor, awaiting transformation. Luna reminded herself that death was not the end for them. They would return better, stronger, more loyal.

They reached the center of the mall without interference, the swarm parting instinctively to let Luna and her group pass. It felt natural, almost ceremonial.

“Everyone gather, please!” Luna called out, her voice echoing beneath the high ceiling.

The response was immediate.

Dozens of twisted forms snapped their attention toward her and converged without hesitation. They stood in patient silence, awaiting instruction like devoted servants before their queen.

Luna felt a swell of affection.

“There are enemy forces infesting the area,” she announced clearly. “You are to overwhelm them and, where possible, bring them to me alive so I may grant them the gift. Identify those carrying weapons or firing upon our comrades. They are priority targets.”

She paused, her expression hardening slightly.

“Also, be vigilant for a person with wings and one wearing white armor. They are our arch-enemies. If you encounter them…” Her voice lowered. “Kill on sight.”

Not a single servant made a sound, but she could feel their understanding ripple outward through the connection they shared. They were such attentive listeners. Such beautiful creations.

“Go,” Luna commanded, raising her fist into the air.

At once, the swarm scattered in all directions, flowing out of the mall like a living tide. Luna’s own group attached themselves to a particularly large cluster of over fifty servants, moving together as one growing force.

For the first time that day, Luna felt truly confident.

They were no longer just a handful of friends experimenting with power.

They were becoming an army.

As they ran out, Harry spoke up.

“I smell some people in that petrol station ahead. Want to convert them?”

Luna nodded. “Good—”

She was interrupted by gunfire, and she saw some soldiers ahead firing into the swarm they were with.

“Everyone, go take care of those soldiers. I’ll grant the gift to the people inside.”

“Yes miss!” Everyone called in unison.

---

Darren sat on the cold concrete floor of the petrol station’s storage room, his back pressed awkwardly against a stack of cardboard boxes that smelled faintly of engine oil and stale chips. His phone was clutched tightly in his hand, the screen lighting up his face in the dimness as he refreshed the news feed again and again, as though sheer persistence might force it to update with something reassuring.

Nothing changed.

The same emergency alert banner glared at him from the top of the screen, advising immediate evacuation and instructing residents to remain indoors if escape was not possible. He had seen it hours ago and, in a moment of staggering stupidity, had dismissed it as some overblown precaution. It wasn’t like Hamilton was under attack by a foreign power. There hadn’t been any warnings about a massive storm or flooding or anything dramatic like that.

He had assumed it was nothing important.

Darren was not the brightest tool in the shed, and he was painfully aware of that fact now, because shortly after he had ignored the alert, the monsters had appeared.

They had come out of the shadows in the early morning light, emerging from alleyways and behind buildings as if they had always been there, simply waiting for the right moment to step forward. At first, people had thought it was some kind of elaborate prank or viral marketing stunt. Then the screaming started, followed by the gunfire, then the sheer, unfiltered panic that rippled through the streets like a living thing.

Darren had been at the petrol station when everything went completely and utterly wrong.

It had been quiet because most people had already evacuated after the second, more urgent alert. The streets outside were eerily empty, abandoned cars left at odd angles as if their drivers had fled mid-journey. Inside the station, it had just been him, the clerk behind the counter, and another customer filling out a lottery ticket with bored concentration.

When that same customer suddenly burst back through the automatic doors, pale and wild-eyed, shouting that monsters were approaching, none of them had wasted time arguing. They had rushed together into the small storage room at the back, squeezing between shelves of snacks and cleaning supplies, and pulled the door closed behind them.

They had waited there in suffocating silence for a long while, listening to distant sounds they tried not to identify.

Then the door handle began to turn.

All three of them stared at it as if their combined willpower might hold it shut. The metal latch clicked softly and the door creaked open.

A slender grey hand slid around the edge first, long fingers tipped with delicate black nails. The door opened wider, and what stepped through made Darren’s thoughts grind to a halt.

She was… beautiful.

Not in a way that could be captured by filters or makeup tutorials or even professional photography. Any artistic attempt to recreate her would have been a disservice. Darren felt that instinctively, even as his brain struggled to process what he was seeing.

Her skin was smooth and grey, utterly flawless, without a single blemish or freckle or stray hair to ruin the perfection. Her face was heart-shaped and perfectly proportioned, with full lips that looked sculpted rather than grown. Her eyes were deep, endless black, but within that darkness glowed vivid purple irises that seemed to pulse faintly with their own light.

Thick waves of inky black hair cascaded over her shoulders, and from her forehead curved a pair of elegant horns, sweeping upward in a way that should have been monstrous, yet somehow only added to her terrifying grace.

“Well hello, you three,” she said.

Her voice did not simply travel through the air. It seemed to worm its way into Darren’s head, sliding through his thoughts and coiling around his heart. It was warm and soft and impossibly intimate, as though she were speaking directly to him and him alone.

“Monster,” the clerk breathed, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“Demon!” the other man shouted, stumbling backward and knocking over a box of chocolate bars.

Darren tried to speak, but his throat refused to cooperate. His eyes were locked on her, completely enraptured. He knew he should feel fear. He knew something was deeply, terribly wrong. But all he felt was an overwhelming, paralyzing fascination.

“Don’t worry,” she said, letting out a breathy little giggle that sent a strange shiver down his spine. “I’m not here to hurt you. You’re all very lucky, actually. You get to be the first people outside my circle that I’m giving her gift to.”

The words echoed in Darren’s mind, but they didn’t come with understanding. Who was “her”? What gift? He didn’t know, and part of him wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“Fuck off!” the other customer shouted, his voice cracking with fear. “Go back to hell!”

She tilted her head slightly, as though mildly offended by the accusation.

“I’m not from hell,” she replied lightly. “I was born and raised right here in Hamilton.” She smiled, and the expression was dazzling and dreadful all at once. “Anyway, I don’t have time to chat. So I’m going to give you the gift now. Please don’t resist. It will only make it hurt more.”

She stepped forward, and Darren realized with a jolt that he was closest to her.

Her hand lifted slowly, reaching toward him with deliberate gentleness, as though she were about to brush a stray hair from his face.

He remained frozen where he sat, phone still clutched uselessly in his hand, unable to move, unable to scream, unable to do anything but stare as her grey fingers drew nearer.