Reborn as an SSS-Rank Guide in the Sentinel Academy [BL]

The scream tore through the whole battlefield, high and wrong, nothing like the low guttural groaning the other zombies had been making. Julian’s head snapped up, hands still pressed against the wounded Sentinel’s shoulder, light still pouring out of his palms, and what he saw climbing up out of that crack in the ground made his stomach drop clean through the floor.

It was bigger than the others. Way bigger, hunched over, skin split in places showing something dark and pulsing underneath instead of normal rot. Its head twitched side to side too fast, too sharp, nothing like the slow lumbering movement of the other eight.

[Threat detected. Classification: unknown. Power reading exceeds all previous Aberration data by significant margin]

’Mm that’s not a normal one’ Julian thought, and underneath his hands the Sentinel he was healing let out a strangled gasp, and Julian looked back down just in time to see the gray creeping up the man’s neck slow to a stop, then start receding, color flooding back into his skin bit by bit.

’it’s working, it’s actually working...’

The corrupted energy that had been fighting back against his light gave one last violent shudder, and then it just broke, snapping like something inside the wound finally gave up the fight, and the Sentinel underneath him sucked in a huge gasping breath, eyes clearing, color rushing back into his face like he’d just been pulled up from underwater.

"what," the Sentinel rasped, staring up at Julian like he didn’t understand what just happened to him. "what did you just..."

Julian didn’t have time to answer. That screaming thing had reached the top of the crack now, dragging itself up onto the field, and every Sentinel nearby had gone dead still, staring at it, weapons half-raised like nobody quite knew what to do with something that didn’t look like anything they’d trained for.

"fall back," somebody was screaming, "everybody fall back, that’s not a normal breach type..."

Reid’s voice cut through the chaos from somewhere off to the side, sharp and commanding. "Julian, get out of there, now..."

But Julian wasn’t moving, because something about the way that thing was standing, the way its head kept twitching toward him specifically, past every other Sentinel on that field, past every easier target...

’Huh why Is it looking at me’ he thought, cold settling into his spine. ’What the hell that thing is actually looking at me’

[Host. This creature’s power signature is reacting to host’s guiding energy. Recommend immediate retreat]

’reacting how, does that even have something to do with me’

[Unknown. But it is no longer looking at the Sentinels. It is looking directly at host.]

The creature let out another scream, higher this time, and its whole body twisted unnaturally before it turned fully toward Julian, ignoring every Sentinel standing between them like they weren’t even there, and took one lurching, impossibly fast step forward.

"MOVE!" Reid roared, already sprinting across the field, but he was too far, everybody was too far, and Julian barely had time to shove himself backward off his knees before the thing closed the distance in a blur of gray and screaming.

Julian threw his hands up on pure instinct, that same light flaring out of his palms even though he had no idea what it would even do against something like this, no idea if it would help or make it worse, no time left to find out...

And right as the creature’s claws came down toward him, a wall of gold light slammed into it from the side, sending it flying twenty feet across the field, and Jayden landed in front of Julian in a low crouch, blade already drawn, eyes blazing.

"you," Jayden said, not even looking back at him, voice tight with something Julian had never heard from him before, "were supposed to stay behind the line."

"yeah well," Julian managed, still catching his breath, "But I’m very bad at listening."

Jayden almost laughed, except the creature was already dragging itself back up off the ground, screaming again, and this time when it locked eyes on Julian, something about its twisted, broken face made Julian’s blood run absolutely cold, because underneath all that gray corrupted skin, underneath everything wrong about it...

He recognized it. "that’s not possible, no way that is not possible," Julian whispered, staring at a face he buried with his own hands three years ago, a face that belonged to someone who died protecting the west wall long before Julian ever did. "that’s not... that can’t be..."

And the creature, twisted and wrong and screaming, opened its mouth and said one word that shouldn’t have been possible for anything like it to say at all.

"Julian."