C̴͕̋ ̴̻͌O̸͖͒ ̷͉̎N̴̯̞͛ ̷̝͓̌S̸͚̾͠ ̶̱̓̍U̶̹̐ ̸̞̗̄M̶͇͌͌ ̷̺̈́̅E̷̺̍̌

It had been the only way I could see out of the bind, I'd released the transformation and immediately after turned back. I had no AP, no points, using my own emotions as fuel. It had not gone as I'd expected, the anger and fear had been shoved aside in the face of the all-consuming hunger from the post-transformation, now twisted into something that refused to be denied.

I roared, clutching at my head. I was starving, there was a howling chasm in my gut that clawed out and pulled on every muscle and every bone.

The system that was not the system screamed at me. No longer a soft ping or warning rattle but a growing fog that turned the corners of my vision red.

C̴͕̋ ̴̻͌O̸͖͒ ̷͉̎N̴̯̞͛ ̷̝͓̌S̸͚̾͠ ̶̱̓̍U̶̹̐ ̸̞̗̄M̶͇͌͌ ̷̺̈́̅E̷̺̍̌

Every breath I took flooded my nostrils with the scent of dust, rust, and death. The victims of the mercenary's recklessness were just around the corner, I could practically taste the blood in the air.

I roared again, slamming my head against the nearest wall, the pain giving me something sharp to focus on, to grab onto. But it was like trying to hold on to a rope slicked in oil, the instant my focus wavered, my thoughts turned to the smells and tastes in the air and my body moved closer.

I had to get out of here, find food, find anything else. I slammed my head harder, digging claws into my skull.

There were no doors that could fit me, I slammed again, breaking through and out of the air that reeked of bad meat.

I pressed onward, I pushed harder. I told myself there was food outside, that what I craved was outside. Anything but the warm human blood. The walls were in the way to the food, the pain sharpened my focus.

My body responded to that idea.

It was a tingling chill that reached all the way to the gnawing hunger and… deepened it. The promise of satiation deepened the pit, and that deepening became a demand. My bones answered first, feeling my own skull thickening, changing shape, turning into a wedge to make it easier to break through the reinforced concrete, my legs and spine reinforcing with muscle that turned the motion into a battering ram.

THUD

Wedged head, pull back. Again.

THUD

Not enough space, still in the way. My claws sharpened, cutting through the cement and tearing it away at the seams. I had no room to question why I was still changing even though I had no AP, the hunger could not be denied. The more I gave that feeling room to grow, the faster the alterations.

C̴͕̋ ̴̻͌O̸͖͒ ̷͉̎N̴̯̞͛ ̷̝͓̌S̸͚̾͠ ̶̱̓̍U̶̹̐ ̸̞̗̄M̶͇͌͌ ̷̺̈́̅E̷̺̍̌

THUD

Another room, a meaningless space with nothing in it, I rushed towards the next wall at full tilt. Thick plates of obsidian encroached over my body as I rammed with my full might, causing the wall to buckle and crack. Sharper claws turned the cracks into open maws, I wedged my way through.

Screams.

I paused, inhaled.

Meat.

NO.

I pushed my legs towards the wall as the crowd scrambled away, the ground exploding under my claws, not giving myself the chance to take another breath. I slammed harder, and my lungs began to burn as I desperately tore through the thick outer wall. My mind clutched at the one thing it could. Focus ahead, focus ahead, the food is outside. Outside.

Anywhere but here.

C̴͕̋ ̴̻͌O̸͖͒ ̷͉̎N̴̯̞͛ ̷̝͓̌S̸͚̾͠ ̶̱̓̍U̶̹̐ ̸̞̗̄M̶͇͌͌ ̷̺̈́̅E̷̺̍̌

Sunlight blinded me, and I vaguely realized I'd broken through to the outside, a nightmare of claws and wings descending upon me from every angle except from behind. I could scarcely recognize that I was surrounded by the monsters, but my body was already moving before I had the chance to process. My jaws snapped at my attackers, sizzling boiling monster blood pouring down my throat and turning into smoke before it could reach my stomach.

The satisfaction of the bite led to a deeper hunger crying to release. I tore faster, bit harder, ripped them to shreds and shovelled the pieces into my mouth, my stomach barely getting the chance to register its existence before it became empty again.

It tasted horrible. Its texture was like wet plastic bags, the flavor reminiscent of protein shakes that'd been left out in the open for too long. But it made the ache in my fangs sing, it made my mouth water.

It was a fake food that made the hunger confused and angry, and I held on, desperately aiming that singular word at the infinite flock of monsters overhead.

They were food.

C̴͕̋ ̴̻͌O̸͖͒ ̷͉̎N̴̯̞͛ ̷̝͓̌S̸͚̾͠ ̶̱̓̍U̶̹̐ ̸̞̗̄M̶͇͌͌ ̷̺̈́̅E̷̺̍̌

And I did.

Ajax ducked behind a toppled forklift and made the mistake of looking up at the sky. The leathery monsters clogged the air, blotting out the sun. Sunlight slipped through gaps then closed again as the mass thickened. Under the living nightmare that was the sky above, the factory blocks around him looked like stamped concrete coffins. Nothing else moved, save the approaching monsters that blotted out the eastern sky.

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"There's so many…" He couldn't help but mutter with dread, there were thousands if not more.

Each of the flying monsters were as wide as he was tall, devoid of faces or mouths, but their bodies littered with serrated edges. The flying things did not screech or roar or make any sound other than their constant flapping, and it was somehow worse than if they'd been screaming. They were flying directly towards their location, a living angry death cloud.

"Why aren't we shooting!?" Ajax couldn't help but ask, watching as the cyborg dodged and weaved his way through the seemingly random attacks.

"It'll make us a target," Copper replied with a half laugh as they ran. The giant man moved with the agility of a ballerina, barely even winded. "Can't cash bounty if we're dead. Just focus on surviving." Despite the clear levity in his voice, the cyborg still spared glances in the direction of the building their target had been at just a few minutes ago. No one had said anything, but they all knew the monster was somehow related to this, its roar had drawn in the flock.

"Then the sewers?" Ajax offered, gripping the backpack tightly against his chest.

The cyborg visibly shuddered. "No, never go sewers during a monster rush." His head turned to the side. "Found a hole!" He shouted at the others, pointing at a concrete annex sitting against the factory wall. One heavy-set looking metal door, no windows. The cyborg's stride turned into a full-blown charge.

Ajax could not catch up no matter how hard he tried, only able to stare in slight shock at Copper ramming his frame through the door. The other enhanced mercenaries ran past the newest recruit, weapons drawn as they rushed through the opening while Cucumber remained at the door. "Run faster, Wires!"

The moment he crossed the threshold, she closed the door almost the whole way, only leaving a small gap. Inside, the annex was clearly a security building of some sort, the entrance itself having multiple screens and doors. The others had fanned out within, the question of what they were doing rang out with a scream that was cut abruptly short.

"What di-"

"Monsters." Cucumber declared as she stared Ajax down, her green eyes glowing within the dim room, the only light coming from the door.

Through the open doorway, Ajax saw the yard fill with shadows. He swallowed and nodded. "Is this place… safe?"

"Nowhere's safe. But it's better than being outside." She answered, throwing a backpack at him. "We need to set up a perimeter. Snap these drones and hand them over."

They were drone-parts, split into pieces for easier transportation. Ajax used his neuralink to check the manual he'd been given during the briefing, finding the sub-section on drone assembly. The instructions were just one line.

Match the colors, idiot.

Every drone he put together was quickly snatched by Cucumber and she plugged it to a strand of fiber-optic cable before tossing it out the door. Some of them were on wheels, others were closer to the normal sort of drone. A dozen of them were cobbled together and tossed out the door before Cucumber was satisfied, routing the fiber-optic cable under the door as she shut it firmly.

"Interior's clear" Copper asked when they came back with a wide smile, Ajax noticed a blood-stain in his sleeve. "We can blow through the wall if it gets ugly. Cucumber, what do you see?"

"The payload is engaging with the flyers." She hesitated. "They're fighting. The flock's swarming the payload, they're just ignoring everything el-" A roar rang out, and Cucumber's eyes went wide. "Target is changing." She moved further into the room, plugging her machines into the nearby screens so that everyone could see what she did.

The view from the first quad‑rotor showed the yard where the target had first burst from the factory. It stood in a crater of its own making, shoulders hunched, tail thrashing. Sunlight glinted on newly grown plates as if it had put on a suit of armor. The reptilian body had been as big to Copper as Copper was to Ajax. Now it looked like it was half-over that original size, perhaps thrice Ajax's height. Obsidian ridges jutted from head to spine, each edge serrated or hooked, clearly meant to grip and tear anything that came too close. And that was exactly what the flying monsters were trying, and failing, to fight against. The monster's every move would shred anything that was too close, while its claws were far more preoccupied with shoveling every one it caught into a maw that had too many fangs.

Copper muttered under his breath. "Hoooh, this is new." The way he spoke was jovial, yet his gaze was sharp and concerned. "It is still changing."

Ajax watched another plate crackle into place across the monster's chest, black and glossy, edges still glowing faint orange where living tissue fused to bone. The creature shook itself and leaped, catching a particularly large flyer in one fist. The motion had a brutality to it that had not been there in their earlier engagement.

Outside the annex door, the first wave reached them. Something heavy slammed against the steel. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Copper jerked his chin at the metal frame with a frown. "Barricade."

They moved quickly, dragging overturned desks, and a pair of steel lockers into a wedge just behind the door. Steel scraped concrete. The other mercs wedged debris tight, muttering curse‑chains more felt than heard. Orders were hand signals and eye signals. Ajax focused on barrel sets and capacitor packs, stacking them in the corner closest to Copper's kneeling frame. "I thought the monster had the flock's attention."

"Strange things are happening." Copper muttered as he put the railgun to the side in favor of the machine gun that'd been strapped to his back the whole day.

The slab that was the door rattled again.

A second impact rang out. The door buckled inward an inch, hinges groaning. Everyone quickly took positions, weapons drawn and aimed at the door. The slab rattled again and failed. The top hinge snapped. A single flyer thrust itself through the door only to become riddled with holes. The monster flopped dead instantly, its body bubbling and releasing fumes right as others began coming in.

The room erupted in muzzle flashes. The augmented mercenaries fired in disciplined bursts, each volley knocking down another monster as they seemed to be multiplying until there was no physical room for them to push through the door. "Keep it steady."

"Those things can tear through reinforced concrete if they get the time to work it, shit's going to hit the fan soon." Cucumber called out.

"It hasn't already?!" Ajax asked, clutching the gun.

"You'll know it when you see it, Wires." Copper pinched his shirt, pulling him away from the console and behind him. "Stick to the back."

A roar rang out from outside. Ajax felt it through the soles of his feet. On the camera feeds, their target was pinwheeling the flyers as if it were some kind of living blender. Its body was submerged in sizzling bits of monster gore. It had found something to latch onto and crushed it in its jaws. Its skull had changed further, turning into an edge of black armor, almost as if it were a living single carved piece of black glass.

The next roar shook the dust out of the building, and they realized the monster had grown even more. "Is it… winning?" Someone asked in between the deafening roar of burst fire in an enclosed space, staring at the monster as it appeared to be gaining momentum, destroying the flock faster than it could throw bodies at it even as the monster ran straight towards where the flock was at its most dense.

"No." Though Copper was currently blasting the doorway with munitions with perfect aim, his gaze was fixed on the screens, brow furrowed as he saw the monsters in the flock growing in size. He abruptly stopped firing, eyes widening. "We run!"

Everyone around Ajax disengaged instantly, and while the cyborg shoved the door shut while everyone bolted deeper into the building, dragging the newbie along the way. "What's going on!?" He shouted, trying to keep pace as the team closed every door in their way, barricading it with whatever was available for a few seconds before moving in deeper.

"IT'S A SINGLE MONSTER!" Copper shouted, laughing as he shoved the rest of the team out of the way and took point. "It's a C-class!"

Ajax's blood ran cold. "Wait, why does that matter? We're in a residential-" So long as they got away, so long as they escaped…

"FOURTH DISTRICT IS NOT CONSIDERED A POPULATED AREA!" Cucumber screamed in panic.

The dull background static that had been blocking communications ever since entering the district lifted. In its place, every single wireless channel was drowned out with a singular repeating message.

C-CLASS ALARM LIVING SWARM TYPE

PROXIMITY SUMMER-STRIKE APPROVED

ESTIMATED STRIKE-ZONE: 2km from [coordinates] You are currently: "21.7 meters" from [coordinates]

A MESSAGE FROM ELDER SUMMER:

"You have 5 minutes, I cannot delay more. Kill it or pray."

~Mistress of the Green Boot

The City of New Francisco thanks you for your collaboration.

Summer-Strike, or better known to the denizens of New Francisco as "The Green Nuke".

"Well, shit," Cucumber said. "I guess we die now."

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