—We are a great team!— celebrated Joaquin, as he, Erica and the rest headed for the mall.

Joaquin raised a fist at Erica for her to bump, but she let it go.

—I'm the only good part of the "team"— she complained in her mind, but said nothing, because those kinds of comments led to arguments, which in turn led to strong emotions and loss of judgment, which usually ended in her punching someone. No, she was not to go down that road.

The group had barely gone a few kilometers away from the shelter. They were about to turn a corner, when they saw a platoon of nonis standing in the middle of the street they were about to cross.

—They haven't seen us— observed Joaquin —let's look for another route. We can still make it.

—Isn't it a bit dangerous?— Clara observed — Maybe we should turn back.

Everyone was silent for a moment, even Joaquin, who really thought about that comment.

—Let's try another route. If it doesn't work out that way, we'll turn back.

Everyone agreed, except Erica, who didn't care what they decided. She was going to be fine anyway. What they didn't expect was that as they tried to turn back, they encountered another platoon of nonis, approaching from the same path they had come.

They quickly looked for a hiding place. After a few tense seconds, Joaquin pointed with his long arm in one direction.

—There, to the hotel!— he exclaimed in a low voice, so that the nonis would not hear him.

The group followed him, confused. No one understood how two platoons of nonis could close their way by coincidence, just when so many refugees had decided to leave.

Until one of them pointed the answer.

—It's a trap!

But it was too late. Most of the people had entered the hotel. Suddenly, a dozen nonis appeared from the sides of the reception and the entrance, and pointed their guns directly at them. There was no way they could miss at such close range.

For a tense moment, the humans stood still. Some looked for a way out, a shield, something to help them escape from the predicament, while others looked down, aware that there was nothing they could do to save themselves. They were finished.

Erica also searched for a way out with her eyes, but unlike the others, when she realized there was none, she stopped looking and focused on the nonis. How much time had passed? Five, six seconds, and still no lasers were flying through the hotel lobby.

Soon they heard the heavy feet of the rest of the soldiers occupying the street behind them. Erica turned toward the door with slow movements, just to see one of the nonis, an exceptionally tall, long-horned one, break away from the ranks of his comrades and head toward the broken hotel door. He ducked his head to pass through the door frame, and as it stood in front of them, Erica and her companions felt their necks bending in the back. He was at least three meters tall, so large that he needed to be careful not to tangle its horns with the remaining hanging lamps.

The giant noni examined the humans closely. He raised an eyebrow in surprise and then looked at one of the soldiers.

—Who is it, captain? — he asked in perfect English.

The supposed captain shrugged his shoulders. Then the giant noni turned his gaze to the humans.

—Which one of you is the brika?

The humans looked at each other's faces, confused.

—None?— he continued — Very well, then I guess we captured the wrong humans, don't you think, Captain?

The captain narrowed his eyes, not quite understanding what the giant noni meant. He ignored the captain's expression and moved even closer to the people, raising one of his huge hands.

—I guess we can kill them all if there isn't a brika around.

The giant noni brought his hand up to the neck of the smallest girl in the group in an attempt to choke her, but Erica stepped in and held his hand tightly. She knew that the noni could start shooting at any moment, but she wasn't going to let that big guy do whatever he wanted just because he had a few hostages.

—Ah, so you're the brika— he exclaimed, excited.

—What the hell do you mean?!— she pleaded.

The noni stood still for a moment, his face scrunched up in confusion.

—I mean a brika, are you or are you not?

—I'm telling you, I don't know what the hell it means, and I don't care!

The giant noni burst out laughing, followed by his subordinates.

—Yes, I can tell you are. Precisely the brika we were looking for.

Erica was dumbfounded, confused by the noni speaking in words she didn't understand, and disliked being called a name without being told what it meant.

—Now there is only one problem left to solve— said the noni in command.

—What is it?— asked Erica, although it seemed to her that he was going to continue without caring if anyone asked the obvious.

—I have many hostages, all young and vigorous humans that we can sell for a good price. We just have to take them and bring them to the bridge. The bad news is that there's a brika right in front of me, looking at me like she's going to bite my nose off. Tell me, child, if I ordered my boys to take all the humans but you, would you try to stop us?

—My name is Erica— she said — and yes, that's my job.

—Ah, very good, a brika with manners. My name is Cromo, I am the commander of the noni forces here in this world. Tell me, Erica the brika, how many of us do you think you would kill?

Erica had to think really hard about that question, partly because she had never been asked, partly because she had no way of calculating something like that. She looked at the guns, at the soldiers inside and outside the hotel, the latter ready to move in to help if things got ugly.

—I think I could take half of you guys... or I could tear off and save myself, if I'm lucky— she replied calmly.

The other humans looked at Erica in dismay. Everyone's life was at stake, she could not speak so lightly.

—Aha— Cromo pondered for a moment, he believed her, he imagined a similar outcome.

So he took a moment to meditate. He had a tense situation in front of him and he had to handle it carefully.

But suddenly, he grabbed the girl by the arm and threw her backwards with all his might. The girl flew through the broken glass doors into the street and rolled down the pavement for several meters. After stopping, she stood up and prepared to counterattack. Calmly, Cromo jumped up and crossed almost the same distance to stand in front of her. Grinning, he raised his arms and adopted a combat stance, ready to fight.

Erica kept her muscles tensed, her torso bent and her arms forward. She waited for the noni to try something, but he too stayed in place, grinning with the excitement of a child about to receive a new toy. It didn't surprise him, she was the only threat and, strategically, eliminating her would grant him victory. However, as she looked around, she was surprised that no other soldiers were preparing to attack her. They had no intention of even pointing their rifles at her.

—It's just you and me?— she asked.

—Everyone wants a piece of you— explained Cromo —But I'm the one in charge here, and I'm the one who has the right to fight you. If you defeat me, I promise we'll leave your friends alone... for today.

Erica frowned.

—What do you want?

Cromo raised his hands in defiance.

—Nonis are neither weak nor cowards like other species. Arguments and negotiations are fine, but we prefer muscles and blows. The strongest is respected, the weakest has no worth.

Erica was taken aback by his words, she simply wasn't used to someone being so eager to fight with her. However, as she looked around and saw all the red soldiers excited to see her against the commander, she found it hard to remain skeptical of Cromo’s reasons.

—Wow— she said, disgruntled. Then she smiled, also excited —Sounds good to me.

Strangely, she was not interested in the prize, but in the opportunity to test herself against someone so big and strong. She wanted to feel the Cromo's muscles pressing against her skin, wanted to brush against his arms, press against his bed-sized chest and hold him in places she shouldn’t. She surprised herself with the same boyish grin.

No sooner had he assumed a fighting stance than Cromo lunged at her like a giant cannonball. It was intimidating for something so big to move so fast, but Erica saw it coming, him and his kick from the side. She quickly jumped up, the noni's leg went under her feet, used his hips for support and as she reached his chest she kneed him full-force in the chin.

Cromo's huge body fell backwards, collapsing on the flat sidewalk. Erica climbed off him to an ovation she had not expected; the nonis applauded and cheered her on, while her people, the group of humans, remained silent.

Cromo stood behind her.

—Heh... very good— he rubbed his chin as he assumed a battle stance again— Now it's my turn.

The noni launched a punch with his huge fist, which Erica had no trouble deflecting: she simply intercepted Cromo’s hand with her own at the exact moment and swung it the other way. It was something she had done hundreds of times against delinquents and thieves, she perfectly saw her opponent's fist take another direction, and yet, something hit her so hard that her face went against the ground, bounced off, spun around and fell backwards.

Dismayed, she stood up, rubbing her cheek. She was sure she had deflected that last punch. How had he managed to connect the blow?

And it was then that she saw it for the first time. It was only for an instant, but she caught a glimpse of a second arm rooted at Cromo's elbow. It was black and much skinnier than the real arm, but it was there. In the blink of an eye, it was gone.

She wanted to ask what that was. It was scary to lunge at something so unfamiliar, but Cromo immediately attacked her again. This time the girl jumped back to get distance from his fist, but from the noni's knuckles the black substance emerged again, grew like a stream of oil and hit her in the face like a solid battering ram.

Erica landed on her back, rolled backwards and got back on her feet. Then she shook her head, she didn't usually take blows that hurt, nor stronger adversaries. She didn’t usually had to fear anything other than killing her opponent. But Cromo was an exception to all that; he was an exciting new experience.

With a slimy grin on her face, the girl shot towards the tremendous noni, ducking to lessen the resistance of the air. Cromo tried to intercept her with a swipe, but Erica jumped to elude him. The noni then grew the black substance from its head to strike her, but the girl grabbed it, leaned on it and propelled herself against Cromo. Without giving him time to react, she kicked him between the eyebrows and sent him like a ball to the ground.

The noni collapsed, but Erica didn't wait for him to stand up again: she got off his head to grab him by the horns. There she planted her feet firmly on the ground, turned her torso and forced the huge body of Cromo to turn with her. Thus she spun around and separated the commander from the ground. Erica spun him a second and a third time, and when he gained enough speed, she threw him against the fourth floor of the hotel.

—OOOOOOOOOOOooooooh!— exclaimed the nonis around, seemingly thrilled by the move.

Cromo streaked through the air, crashed into the building and then fell straight to the ground. His heavy body impacted again and produced a dense cloud of debris dust.

The nonis burst into cheers, bewildered. Erica looked around, unable to believe the way they were reacting.

—If they were human, they'd be shooting and at me— she thought.

She turned to Cromo. Despite the tremendous blows, he picked himself up off the ground with the strength of his arms. Slowly he managed to plant his feet and, with some effort, pulled himself up to stand. His knees were shaking from the effort, blood was running down the side of his face, thick yellow blood. He had some shards of glass embedded in his shoulders, but he didn't seem to mind. At that moment he only had eyes for Erica. He wanted to crush her under his hands, he wanted to feel her bones crunch, and he wanted it desperately.

So he started running towards her, faster than before. He splattered blood with every movement of his arms, broke shards of glass under his feet with every footfall, and still, he could only see Erica.

The girl, meanwhile, felt she could understand Cromo perfectly, and wanted to reciprocate. A brutal fight to the end, until one of them could not move anymore, that was what he wanted, and she knew it, because she wanted the same. Without waiting for him, she lunged towards Cromo with everything she had. They both came at each other like two lightning bolts in a storm. Cromo leaped forward to catch the little girl with his whole body. Erica saw him coming, excited, and knew what to do.

She swung her hands sideways to push his arms away. Immediately afterwards a third fist emerged from Cromo’s forehead to strike her by surprise, but she ducked to evade it and slid under the noni's chest. At that moment, just as it was below his sternum, she clenched a fist as she had never clenched it before and leapt with a powerful upward punch. Her knuckles sank into the noni's skin, ran into a few bones, and broke them to continue much further. Erica leapt nearly two meters into the air, until her fingers separated from Cromo’s torso. She sent him so high upward that it made everyone's necks stretch backwards, until his body stopped for an instant. Then he fell straight to the ground, shattering the pavement. He bounced off, flew a couple more meters and landed heavily again.

A huge silence fell over those present. Erica looked at Cromo as he gasped: he was badly wounded, had many broken bones and would not walk again for a long time, but he was alive.

The girl then raised her arms in victory and received a standing ovation from the nonis. They applauded her as if she were a celebrity and chanted her name with their low, powerful voices.

But suddenly she realized they were doing something else: some nonis were trying to tell her something, they were pointing at Cromo with exasperation. Did they want her to take care of him? Did they want her to finish him off?

Erica looked at him again, and to her surprise, something black came out of him and rose into the air, up to her face’s height. The girl approached the black substance to examine it: it was a sphere about the size of a melon, black as the blackest petrol.

—What is this?— she asked.

But she didn't have to think long to remember that it was just that black substance that had caused her so much trouble; Cromo’s third arm. Curious, she took it in her hands, guessing that that was what the nonis were trying to tell her.

As soon as she touched it, all lights around faded. She was left alone in infinite darkness. Perhaps somewhat belatedly she realized that it had not been a good idea to listen to the nonis.

Her breathing stopped, as if her lungs disappeared. Her blood froze, her mouth went dry, and in the distance she heard a scream, something terrifying, something bigger than her. Erica screamed in response, horrified. Her reasoning disappeared, giving way only to the instinctive impulse of a desperate prey. She screamed with everything she had, certain of her death and something more horrible.

Then, the darkness faded.

The street and the nonis returned to where they had been until a moment ago, her mouth, her temperature and her lungs returned to their normal state, and the voice disappeared, though Erica was still screaming. Embarrassed, she closed her mouth and calmed down. It had seemed like a bad dream, only in the middle of the day, with everyone watching.

—Could it have been this black thing?— she wondered.

But the black sphere was gone, nowhere to be found. She put a hand to her head, very confused.

But she soon forgot about it. She had won, and more importantly, she had had a very nice fight.

She broke away from the unconscious Cromo so that his subordinates could put him on a stretcher, where he could barely fit, and carry him away in retreat. As promised, all the soldiers left for the day.