“Wait,” Kael said, completely confused. “You’re seriously asking us to pay you? You just tried to kill us!” “Oh, I’m very serious.” She crossed her arms. The firelight slid across her visor, making her eyes glow like embers. “You want me to save your life again? Then I need compensation. And don’t forget, we did try to warn you about that passenger you rescued before you decided to go all Mad Max on us. You took out half my crew! So yeah, I’m charging extra for damages.” Kael just stared at her with his mouth hung open, unable to process a word of it. She tilted her head at his stunned expression. “What? You think bikes grow on trees?” Kael rubbed the back of his neck. The truth was… they kind of did. In this dead world, you could find abandoned vehicles everywhere if you tried. Her argument made no real sense, and yet somehow, she made it sound perfectly logical. He felt thrown off, completely knocked out of rhythm. But in a strange way, he understood her. She wasn’t some no

Inside the building, everyone slowly drifted into sleep. Kael lay on his back, staring at the dark ceiling above him, but no matter how hard he tried, sleep wouldn’t come. His thoughts raced, refusing to let him rest. After a while, he let out a quiet sigh and sat up. He needed air. In truth, he needed space to think… Careful not to wake anyone, he pushed himself to his feet. The mattress creaked softly under his weight. He froze, glancing around. Everyone seemed asleep. Or so he thought. From the shadows behind him, the scar-jawed girl’s eyes opened just a fraction. She watched him slip away, then she closed them again, as if nothing had happened. --- Cold air washed over him the moment he stepped outside. The district was silent and empty… but somehow, it felt easier to breathe out here. Kael walked a little farther and stopped beside a cracked concrete platform, half-ruined by time. He lowered himself onto it, rubbing the side of his aching head. A long, tired breath e

“Yeah, I’ve heard that word before,” Kael said, thinking back to Thessa’s brutal training sessions and how he’d only unlocked Anima by getting pushed to his limit. “But… why is Anima the only thing that works?”“Because both monsters and Riders generate the stuff—try to keep up,” she replied, sounding irritated that he didn’t already know. “Anima is like lightning running through your body. To use it right, you need emotional control. But like anything powerful, it comes with risks. Think of Anima as an invisible battery that keeps fights balanced. Let me cook…”She lifted the wine bottle so he could follow along.“Everyone, Rider or Monster, has an invisible bucket that holds their Anima,” she said firmly. “Some, like the high-tier monsters, have huge buckets. Others have tiny ones. That mostly comes down to genetics, training, or both.”She tapped the bottle, pointing at the wine inside.“The tap is how much of that energy you can release at once. So someone with a small bucket and