The wires were a problem.

Not because they hurt him. But because they were forcing his movements into paths the others could read and punish.

In addition, whoever was using it had good instincts. They pulled their ally out of danger whenever he got too close.

’Change of plan.’

He stopped trying to break them.

Instead, he let the next one wrap around his right arm and kept rolling it until the thin threads stacked over each other. Once it was dense enough, he pulled it tight.

The source finally revealed itself — a figure crouched low on the broken skeleton of an overturned vehicle, both hands extended.

Thin filaments trailed from the tips of her fingers like spider silk, taut and trembling under the force of his pull.

She had no choice but to move with it. But she wasn’t an idiot.

Quickly, she cut the wire at the base of her fingertip and rolled over.

Francis already expected that. He planted his feet firmly and opened his maw.

"RAWWWWR!"

The shockwave hit her. It broke her balance for one second, her footing gone, her body tilting before she could correct it.

That was all he needed.

SWOOOSH!

He crossed the distance when, midway through, a sword dropped, slashing downward to cut him in half.

’You needed to be quicker than that.’

In a split second, Francis’s bones and joints snapped back like a spring, launching him forward at twice the speed, dodging the attack completely.

"I won’t let you get close!" she swung more threads into the air, forming an invisible barrier.

BANG!

Another sniper bullet struck Francis in the shoulder. He pushed through it, focused only on killing the thread user.

The last thing she saw was the world turning upside down. Her body split apart, and everything slowly faded into darkness.

’First ki—’

Francis felt his senses slip again, everything going slightly out of place. It gave the others just enough opening.

Multiple explosions hit him at once, each blast damaging his body. He didn’t resist. He let the force throw him back through the air.

Only after he forced the toxins out of his system did he steady himself again. His eyes locked on the grenade launcher user.

BOOOM!

Ammunition kept raining down, but Francis easily slipped past the explosions using his speed and the delay between the grenade launcher’s shot and its detonation.

Just as the heavily armored agent bent his knee to jump, Francis roared.

The sudden sound made the other party react instinctively and leap too early.

However, Francis had already accounted for it. He angled the shockwave higher before releasing it, catching the opponent midair and slamming him back to the ground.

CRUNCH!

He bit down hard, crushing through the armor. At the same time, he grabbed the corpse and hurled it toward the building where the sniper was hiding.

’That should buy me some time.’ He twisted around and charged toward the sword user.

Instead of running straight back, the sword user circled wide to keep distance.

Smart. Retreating in a straight line and exposing the back would have been suicide against a faster opponent.

Francis pushed forward anyway, closing the gap hard.

CLANG!

The blade caught Francis across the forearm. The strike did not feel particularly strong, yet to his surprise, the blade sliced clean through his arm and severed it completely.

’How?’

Before he could get an answer, three more agents rushed in and launched an all-out attack.

He managed to kill two of them, but it gave the sword user enough time to land several more strikes. Each slash cut through the body as if it were paper.

’This is getting dangerous.’

Francis increased his speed again, but the sniper used the opening to fire at the back of his head.

At the same instance, several small harpoons slammed into his abdomen, and seconds later electricity surged through them.

"ARGGGH!"

This time the roar came from real pain. The electricity was interfering with his connection to body.

Furious, he ripped the harpoons out, grabbed the nearest agent, crushed his head, and ran straight toward the sniper.

’My energy is running low. I’ll deal with that one last and get out.’

He would rather kill the sword user because he was curious about his innate talent, but the man was much harder to deal with since he stayed close to the other agents.

The female sniper’s nerve broke when she saw him launch off the ground.

She watched him fight from a distance. Aways behind cover, always at range.

That distance was the only reason she was still alive.

Now it was quickly vanishing.

She ran, not in a strategic retreat, but as if she were a rabbit being chased by an apex predator.

No training or experience could overpower the fear of death, especially for someone like her who rarely faced danger directly.

"I need to get away. I need to get away. It will kill me. It will eat me!"

She left the rifle behind. It was useless now, and unlike the others, she did not have the physical ability to carry extra weight without slowing down.

Frantically, she cleared the rooftop and dropped onto the fire escape below. Her boots slammed against the metal grating before she pushed herself back into a sprint.

Three flights down. She jumped the last one entirely and landed in the alley behind the building.

She turned the corner and pressed herself against the wall, pulling a short pistol from her hip.

Her training was still working even when her instincts were screaming.

The alley was empty behind her.

She exhaled.

CRACK!

A hand had punched through the brick from the other side, and she threw herself backward just before the whole section gave way.

Francis stepped through the gap.

"NO!!!!" She fired twice without thinking.

BANG!

BANG!

The first round hit him in the chest. The second clipped his shoulder.

None of them mattered.

He closed the remaining distance in less than a second and his hand found her throat. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The pistol fell from her grip and bounced down.

"NO!!!!" She clawed at his wrist with both hands. Her feet found nothing beneath them. "RELEASE ME!"

"Not so tough now, right?"

Her eyes widened. She didn’t expect the monster before her to speak human language.

"Y...You can speak?"

"Of course I can speak."

That realization hit her harder.

She spent the entire night believing she was fighting an animal. Something that killed on instinct and could be outsmarted if she was careful enough.

They were wrong about that from the beginning.

Her mouth opened.

Whatever she intended to say never formed.

His free claw pressed against her abdomen, slowly, which make the whole ordeal more painful.

Her body registered what was happening before her mind fully accepted it.

"AHHHHHHH!" she screamed too late as her intestines were ripped out.

SHLICK.

He pulled his hand back in one motion.

What came with it was everything her body had been keeping carefully contained.

Blood spilled from her lips while her body convulsed violently against his hands before finally going still.

Francis ripped out her liver, devoured it in seconds, then threw the corpse aside like trash. In his eyes, that was all it was.

The other agents rushed toward him. They looked more furious after seeing another casualty.

Unfortunately, they could do nothing against him once he became determined to escape.

"DON’T LET THAT THING ESCAPE!"

"CORNER IT! I’M SURE IT’S TIRED NOW!"

"USE YOUR HIGH-CALIBER GUNS!"

Shouts echoed through the air. Their words carried urgency, but their faces showed extreme annoyance.

Francis moved at a pace that looked like a jog from above but covered multiple city blocks in seconds on the ground.

Behind him, the skate park was a graveyard of bent metal, shattered floodlights, and men who stopped breathing.

He wanted more.

His body said no.

[Energy: 11/70]

Eleven points. That was what stood between him and shutting down.

’I got too greedy. I should have escaped after the forth agent, but it was really tempting,’ he sighed to himself.

The containment team the Defense Force sent was highly trained, so much so that he actually suffered more damage than in his previous fight despite being more prepared.

He made a mental note to internalize this combat experience later to improve his fighting efficiency in his monster form.

As the chase continued, the gap between him and his pursuers widened until they eventually stopped halfway.

This gave him enough time to change direction several times, confusing the helicopters tracking him, before slipping into an old apartment complex.

Once inside a bedroom, Francis exhaled slowly and let the transformation begin.

The grey drained from his skin first, pulling back from the extremities and fading toward the center before disappearing entirely.

His jaw retracted, the rows of jagged teeth folding inward as the bone reshaped itself back into something a person could look at without flinching.

The extra eyes closed one by one, the skin sealing smoothly over each socket until only two remained.

His spine straightened. His legs returned to their standard proportions.

By the time he finished, his face looked back from the dark reflection in a nearby window. Slightly battered. Otherwise unremarkable.

If there was one thing that stood out to him now, it was that he was completely naked.

’I need to find clothes fast.’

He did not have to look for long. A pair of gray pajamas fit his body perfectly.

Looking around, it seemed no one was in the unit. He casually sat on the sofa and checked the piled-up system notifications.