Game Development Reference
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Kila's glowing eyes were fixed on the leader. A moment passed and then she
spoke: “You want it, come and get it.” He looked her up and down, then moved
toward her, still brandishing the knife. Kila was very still, eyes pinned on her ad-
versary, waiting for the right moment.
He was a few feet away when she made her move. In a split second, her left arm
flung out in front of her, and what seemed like ribbons of flesh flew out of the tat-
too, impaling the thug in his chest and throat. There was a gasp from the rest of
his gang as they watched their leader seem to hang in midair, struggling to
breathe, body twitching wildly. Kila smiled coldly; she seemed to enjoy seeing
him suffer. She pulled back, retracting the deadly weapon, and his limp body
dropped lifeless to the ground. The silence was deafening; no one moved or
spoke. Through his fear, one of the others found his voice. “She...she killed
Greg!” And from behind her, she heard “Get her!” There was a mad rush and
they were upon her.
Suddenly a brilliant flash momentarily stunned Kila's attackers. Her arms seemed
to be forced apart by invisible hands, and she felt herself rising slowly from the
ground. As she floated, tendrils spun out of her back and began to wrap around
her body, layer upon layer, enclosing her like a spider wrapping up its prey.
Meanwhile, something began to take shape, a form gradually being created by
the tendrils: a torso, and then arms, legs, and finally a head. What was once Kila
was now a 30-foot beast, a demonic monster. The thugs were horrified. With a
mighty roar, the beast took a huge swipe at the circle, knocking two of them fly-
ing, into the surrounding walls. The rest of the men fumbled for their concealed
weapons and let rip with a hail of bullets.
The bullets entered the beast from several directions, but its body seemed to ab-
sorb them. They had no effect other than provoking it, making it angrier. It lunged
for another thug who managed to dodge the attack, using the opportunity to es-
cape. “I'm getting out of here! We weren't paid to handle this. What the hell is
this thing?” He fled, closely followed by his comrades. The beast, once Kila, was
alone in the alley. It looked around for another victim, its deep, rough breaths
gradually slowing. As it calmed, it began to glow gently, and the wrapped tendrils
began to retract back into Kila. Slowly, eventually, she was back to herself again.
She glanced down and saw the lifeless body of the thug she had killed, dropped to
her knees and began to cry. “What's going on? What was that?” she sobbed. Kila
didn't want to kill anyone. Indeed, Kila hadn't killed anyone—it was that thing in-
side her who had done it.
