Andie took a deep breath. Adrenaline coursed through her, washing away everything but a cold calm and leaving her senses clear. It was a feeling unique to humanity, the feeling of prey readying itself to hunt its own predator. There was a certain thrill in that moment when the power dynamic changed, when a beast driven by hunger shifted to being driven by fear.

A near-silent, muffled gurgle came from behind Andie. Slowly, she turned around - not out of caution or fear, but out of a desire not to alert her prey.

She saw it first out of the corner of her eye, then with a single leap, it was on top of the bunker directly in front of her. It was a disgusting creature, every inch of its blackened flesh charred and dry. It had no legs, instead walking on four of its six arms - the other two sprouting off its back. Each limb had a gnarled four-fingered hand at the end, each finger sharpened to a jagged point like talons.

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One of the front hands it walked on held a combat knife made of rusted bone, the arms sprouting from its back carried an assault rifle made of bloodstained cast iron. Finally, there was its face - or at least, its head. Its mouth and jaw were tightly wrapped in soot-stained bandages, it wore a torn and frayed noose like a necktie, and its eyes and nose were covered by a loose-fitting marble army helmet. Judging by the cracks and jagged edges, the creature had stolen this helmet from the broken statue.

So this was Dyllan’s Nightmare.

The beast let out another muffled gurgle as it struggled to remove its bandages - unleashing a horrid screech-roar and revealing teeth made of burnt, jagged bone as soon as it managed to tear the soot-stained cloth.

Andie readied her sword and braced herself for battle, but found herself swiftly driven into cover when the Nightmare unleashed a hail of fire from its rifle. She needed to approach this fight more strategically. She needed Cedric.