The window at the end of the hall opened without resistance.

He slipped through it and climbed the cracked stone wall hand over hand until he pulled himself onto the rooftop.

The city spread out from there.

Helicopter cut paths across the skyline. Military units moved in coordinated grids between districts, their patterns tightening like a net slowly being drawn closed.

Francis crouched and watched.

Three days of doing nothing but training had done more damage to his patience than any fight.

He came back ready to hunt, and the city had answered with checkpoints, curfews, and paranoid military presence.

The Defense Force was busy while Dark Chain stayed silent. Even the beasts stopped showing themselves.

’If there’s no beast, then I’ll make one.’

A smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

His skin began to change.

It started at the hands. Grey spread beneath the skin like ink soaking through wet paper.

His fingers lengthened first, joints popping one after another as the bones stretched too far.

The nails darkened into hooked points that looked more suited for tearing flesh than gripping anything.

His legs followed soon after, the structure bending backward until they resembled the hind legs of a predator ready to pounce.

crack!

crack!

A snap echoed as his jaw split apart and pushed outward into something closer to a mouse muzzle, only wider.

Jagged teeth overlapped in rows like shards of broken glass shoved into bleeding gums.

Next, his spine curved. Not hunching, but thickening—each vertebra enlarging and locking.

By the time the transformation ended, he no longer resembled anything born human.

Then the eyes opened.

A second pair unfolded along his brow ridge, smaller and narrower, spider-like in the way they moved independently from the main set.

All of them locked onto the nearest helicopter.

For one second, the muscles in the legs swelled as they compressed tighter and tighter.

Then the rooftop exploded beneath him.

The jump carried him in a flat, rising arc, just a body moving through air like a cannon ball. Wind exploded around his body as the ground vanished beneath him in a blink.

The helicopter rushed into view.

Then both arms crashed into the nose of the aircraft with enough force to cave it inward.

BOOM!

The rotors screamed as the aircraft lurched sideways, spinning off its axis.

Inside, the pilot wrestled with controls that no longer responded.

Francis lunged forward, smashing through the glass and biting into the pilot’s abdomen before forcing himself deeper inside.

The interior was tight. Four soldiers. One co-pilot. All of them reaching for weapons they would not get the chance to use.

The helicopter tilted. The rotors gave one final shriek before the whole machine dropped from the sky.

BOOOOOM!

It slammed into the street below, shredding anyone unlucky enough to be there, before coming apart in a rolling wall of fire.

Windows on both sides of the block shattered into pieces.

BOOOOOM!

A secondary explosion followed as the fuel tank gave way, sending a column of black smoke straight up into the sky.

Francis landed on the roof across the street and waited.

Below, the first military vehicles were already turning into the block.

They arrived fast, which was their biggest mistake.

He dropped from the roof and landed in the middle of the road.

The lead vehicle braked hard.

"GRRRRR!" He hit it before it stopped moving.

The front end crumpled. Both soldiers in the cab were thrown forward and did not get up.

He pulled the roof off the second vehicle with both hands, peeled it back like foil, and cleared it in three seconds.

The men behind them opened fire.

RATATATATAT—

He let it hit him.

The rounds struck his darkened skin and sank in slightly.

Parashift activated. His muscle tightened and forced the bullet back out.

CRACK!

He bit into one of the soldier’s abdomen, then immediately turned toward the next.

A command came through somewhere in the chaos.

Then the sound changed.

BRRRRRRRT—

Heavier guns. A second helicopter had come around from the north and opened up , stitching a line of impacts across the street that tore chunks out of the road surface.

He ran directly toward it.

The gunner adjusted, walking the stream of fire ahead to cut him off—

He jumped.

The burst passed beneath him as he caught the helicopter’s landing skid, swung his body up, and drove both elongated fists through the fuselage in two rapid strokes.

The aircraft convulsed and began to spin.

He dropped and watched it spiral into the far end of the block.

BOOOOOM!

The explosion swallowed the intersection whole.

’They just kept coming. Good.’

More vehicles poured in from the south. He counted four armored carriers and two battle tanks, their turrets already rotating to track him.

CRACK—CRACK—CRACK!

Tank rounds.

They never touched him.

He shifted at the last instant, slipping out of the line of fire.

’Interesting.’

He covered the distance to the nearest tank in less than a second, drove both hands through the barrel, and bent it ninety degrees.

The pressure that had nowhere to go vented backward through the mechanism with a sound like a grenade going off inside a steel drum.

The second tank fired.

He was already beside it.

His fist went through the armored plating like it was layered cardboard, found the engine block, and pulled.

CRUNCH.

The tank lurched and died, its rear end lifting off the ground for a moment before settling at a broken angle.

"FIRE!"

Rifles, grenades, RPGs — all of it came at him in overlapping series, turning the block into a battle field.

He moved through all of it, making sure to bite through the abdomens of his targets.

More tanks and military vehicles arrived in waves, engines rumbling through the streets as the formation tightened around the block.

He did not panic.

Instead, he slipped into the alley, letting the narrow space cut their vision down.

From there, he struck . In and out. Fast enough that their reactions came late. He never stayed in front of them long enough to become a target.

Every hit came from an angle they did not expect, turning their numbers and heavy machinery against their own advantage.

In the first place, it was dumb to bring tanks into an urban area unless it was a full-scale war.

Helicopters moved in tighter after the ground units stalled.

At first they fired in bursts, then paused whenever civilian buildings came into their line of fire. The hesitation gave him space.

He pushed off the ground and rose through broken streets, using walls and rooftops as stepping points.

The airspace turned unstable.

Helicopters began spreading out, rising higher just to stay safe, but that only allowed him to do what he wanted on the ground.

Military and civilians alike all became his prey. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

[Human Liver Consumed +1]

[Human Liver Consumed +1]

[Human Liver Consumed +1]

The notifications stacked in rapid succession while everyone around him kept leaking blood.

The street had become a slaughterhouse—twisted metal, burning fuel, mangled bodies, and the distant wail of sirens—but it still wasn’t enough.

Not nearly enough.

Then the entire battlefield slowed for a split second.

Every radio channel cracked at once.

—Containment unit has arrived.—