The Chief rushed forward, her fists a flurry as they smashed the creature's mouth, ribs, and temple, giving it little chance to fight itself. Its claws swung frantically, but she stepped in to give it a devastating kick to the gut while dancing around them. Before it could stumble back, she slammed an elbow into its face and kicked it in the air, sending it flying to the ground.

A left hook. A right. She closed the gap. Her punches drove the creature back each time it tried to rise. When it swung wildly, she ducked low and swept its legs out from under it, sending it crashing down again.

The creature lashed out from the ground. Its claws raked across the Chief’s leg, drawing blood and forcing her to retreat a step. The pause was all it needed. It leaped to its feet and charged for her in an instant.

One claw caught her shoulder, tearing through the fabric and leaving deep gashes. She gritted her teeth against the pain and countered with a swift uppercut to its jaw. The creature staggered but retaliated immediately, delivering a thunderous punch to her side.

The Chief stumbled, her ribs screaming in protest, but she caught herself and twisted away from its follow-up strike. She spun and delivered a kick to its knee, forcing it down for a moment.

But the creature wasn’t done. It charged forward with feral speed, its claws slamming into her midsection and knocking her off her feet. She crashed to the ground. Gasping, she rolled just in time to avoid a claw aimed for her throat.

Kicking out hard, she caught it in the chest, but it didn’t budge. It raised its claws to strike again. But before it could it, Khael came out of nowhere and slammed into the creature’s side with all his strength. They both hit the ground hard. It was enough time for her to get back onto her feet.

Khael groaned in pain beside the creature, clutching his side as blood dripped steadily from his wounds. He tried to move, but every breath felt like fire. The creature lifted one enormous claw, aiming for Khael's face, but the Chief charged into it like a hurricane before it could make contact. With a roar of struggle, she lifted it clean off the ground after grabbing it by the legs. Then smashed it down with a bone-jarring blow.

The creature trembled, its weird form twisting, trying to regain its balance, but the Chief pressed her foot into its knee and drove it downward with a painful crunch. Before it could recover, she stopped its guttural scream with an intentional strike to the throat. The crushing force she applied to its skull caused it to stop as she stamped her foot. It lay there, dazed.

“How bad is your injury?” she asked, glancing at Khael.

“I’ll live,” he managed to say it out loudly.

The creature struggled under the Chief’s weight, but she stomped down harder, grinding it deeper into the dirt. “Stay down,”

Out of nowhere, Finn appeared beside Khael and slapped him on the back. “Are you alright?” Finn asked, completely unaware of the sharp stab of pain his slap had caused.

“Right, sorry… here.” He handed over some painkillers. Khael accepted them with a mumbled thanks, putting a couple in his mouth and swallowing them dry.

Finn crouched next him, still panting for air. "So," he started, "did you really believe that I would leave you behind?"

“Yeah, you sleep with the lights on–”

“STOP! Why do you always bring that up?… At least now we’ve got three against one.”

Their eyes turned back to the creature as they approached. Up close, Khael finally got a good look. With its blackened and burned body and hideously stretched limbs that ended in long, clawed fingers, it was almost like a human. rather than a face, there was a smooth, featureless vacuum, and its limbs were abnormally long, nearly dragging on the ground.

“What the hell is this thing?” The Chief mumbled, her tone tinged with disgust and caution. The thing wiggled a little as she poked it with the tip of her boot.

“It’s kind of fascinating. I’ve never seen a monster shaped like a human before,” Finn replied as he bent down. He touched its rough skin, then pulled back its mouth to examine it closely. They’d been mistaken; it did have sharp, paper-white teeth that gleamed against the dark skin. Its eyes were concealed beneath tightly fused eyelids, giving it the eerie appearance of having no eyes at all.

“I think they’re evolving…”

“What?”

“It’s possible,” Finn replied. “This thing’s alive, and everything alive adapts over time. It’s just nature.”

“What if this one escaped from somewhere else? We’ve only been fighting in one region; we don’t know what’s happening in other areas,” Khael suggested.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Sorry to break it to you,” the Chief cut in, “but we have intel from all regions. They’re the same everywhere.”

“Then this one has evolved.” Finn said again.

Silence.

“Should we take it with us?” Finn asked, glancing at the Chief.

She shrugged. “You’re a scientist. If you think there’s something to learn here, do what you want.”

“Alright then…” Finn pulled a wire from his pocket, wrapped it tightly around the creature’s arm. Then he moved to its leg to secure them too.

“That… makes sense,” Khael murmured, looking down at the creature. “It even opened its eyes.”

“What do you mean?” Finn glanced down, and his breath hitched. The creature was staring back with dark eyes, each holding a single, intense yellow pupil that glowed like flame.

Suddenly, its mouth opened, and a bright light flickered between its teeth, illuminating their faces for an instant. The light grew, spreading across its body like cracks in stone, as if molten lava was seeping through from within. The glow intensified, filling every break and seam, until its mouth opened wide, releasing a blinding burst of light.

“Uh-oh…”

BOOM!

It detonated with a deafening blast. Finn barely managed to leap back. Meanwhile, the Chief grabbed Khael by the front of his shirt and yanked him down. But the shockwave hit them like a train. They were hurled back as if weightless, limbs flailing as they soared through the air. Each of them skidded over the ground as they fell hard, the air swirling with dust and destroy fragments.

The scene was almost unreal as Khael coughed and struggled to raise his head. Flames erupted in places across the ground, and pieces of dry material scattered everywhere had been ignited by the explosion. A flickering, almost unearthly brilliance filled everything as bright yellow tongues of fire raised and twisted.

All he saw was fire, an unending sea of flames roaring and consuming everything in their path as he gazed around in a desperate attempt to find the others. The air grew dense with smoke and ash, and the heat suffocated him. Then he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Only a shadow behind the flames, a flicker.

He froze, trying to see the figure through the haze. As the shadow got closer and bigger, his heart skipped a beat. Khael's blood went cold when it finally came out, walking across the flames with a creepy ease.

It was a different monster. It had changed from the thin, charred skin they had been fighting to an immense, threatening beast with a hideously muscular body. The skin stretched tightly across its tough body, causing its arms to extend abnormally. Its face, or what ought to have been a face, remained smooth, featureless, and blank. However, Khael's entire body screamed to flee as its eyes—those blazing eyes were focused with a fierce, predatory intent.

Khael lay there, watching as it scanned the area, searching for something. He breathed slowly and began to crawl backward, but the creature’s gaze locked onto him. Its head turned sharply in his direction, and it began to walk toward him, each heavy step sending vibrations through the ground. Khael sighed deeply and closed his eyes.

“I guess fighting is the only option…”

With a determined resolve, he stood up and brushed the debris from his sleeves. The creature drew closer, now only a few meters away. Khael cracked his fingers and clenched his fist, feeling a sense of calm wash over him as he accepted the reality of the situation. With broken ribs, his chances of victory were slim, but the painkillers coursing through him allowed for more freedom of movement. There was a glimmer of hope, even in a one-on-one fight.

He dropped his arms, fists loose for a moment. Then, with a sharp breath, he snapped them back up, reloaded and ready.

“Come at me,”

The creature continued its advance, and it was only moments away from a deadly clash. Just then, something struck the creature's back, triggering an explosion bigger than the previous blast. Khael instinctively raised his arms to shield himself from the shockwave, which pushed him backward but failed to knock him to the ground.

He peered through the spaces between his arms. The fire again obscured the creature. Khael scanned the surroundings for any sign of movement, but there was nothing. Was it finally over? Doubt began to creep into his mind.

“–UNNNNN…” Finn’s distant voice echoed through the chaos.

Khael couldn’t tell which direction the sound came from. Suddenly, his instincts kicked in, and his eyes darted to the left. Something massive, cloaked in flames, was hurtling toward him at an unimaginable speed. Khael’s body felt frozen, unable to react as the figure closed the distance in mere moments.

Finally, he shifted just enough to get a clearer view. He caught sight of a colossal hand rushing straight at him. It clamped down around his face, and everything went dark.

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Am I dead?

As though he were floating away from everything he knew, he felt weightless. His worries and anxieties were swept away by the comfortable embrace of quietness that enveloped him. He felt an intense feeling of calm, a relief from the chaos and pain.

Is this the afterlife?

A muffled sound broke the silence, pulling him back to reality. He cracked his eyes open, but everything around him was a hazy blur. He felt completely helpless, with each sound distant and muted. Something was dragging him across the ground, away from the flames. Straining to look up, he saw a familiar figure.

Oh…Its Finn…

He closed his eyes again.

“You’ll live,” Finn murmured.

Khael simply listened to the muffled sound.

“You have to live,” Finn’s voice trembled, “You have a family still waiting for you, remember?”

Khael's thoughts were full with doubt. Why was Finn talking a totally irrelevant topic? Although he didn't think he would survive, he didn't want to consider the possibility.

“Sorry… I won’t get to taste your mom’s cooking”

What?

Khael forced his eyes open, struggling to focus on Finn's face, which looked blurred. Finn held Khael’s shoulder tightly.

“Trust me.”

The ground quickly started to slide away from Khael after he felt a powerful shove. With every second that went by, Finn's face drew farther away. Khael was unable to think straight as a thousand thoughts rushed through his head. As his eyelids grew heavy again, everything faded to black once more.