Hale raised her weapon, voice cutting clean through the dark.
"Watch each other's backs. Eyes sharp."
Angelo and Ryan stood close, backs pressed together as they scanned the factory. The shadows felt heavier now—alive.
Without warning, the Duskborne dropped from above.
Hale and Angelo dove aside, but Ryan wasn't fast enough. Its claws raked across his left arm.
"You alright?" Angelo called.
Ryan winced. "Just a scratch."
Hale fired twice. The creature hissed and vanished back into the dark.
"It's using the shadows," Hale warned. "It can phase in and out. Stay alert."
From somewhere in the black, the Duskborne's voice slithered out.
"Didn't take you long to figure it out, huh?"
Ryan fired at the sound, but the creature was already gone—its voice echoing from a new direction.
"Hand over the white-haired freak," it rasped. "Do that, and you two can walk away."
"Not happening," Ryan shot back, firing again.
Another voice, another angle.
"Do you humans even know what that thing is?"
Hale unloaded a burst toward the sound. "We don't need to know."
The Duskborne slid into another patch of darkness.
"In that case… I'll make your deaths as painful as possible."
Angelo and Ryan fired at once. Hale snarled, "Yeah? Say that to my face."
The creature obliged—attacking from every direction.
Claws flashing.
Air splitting.
All three barely dodged the strikes, firing back on instinct.
Then it began hurling debris at them from the shadows—boxes, pipes, loose cogs. They ducked, rolled, scrambled to avoid each deadly projectile while firing blindly into the black.
A cog slammed into Hale's right shoulder, staggering her.
And in that instant the Duskborne leapt out—aiming straight for her neck.
Ryan lunged, dragging her to the floor while Angelo covered them with a rapid burst. The creature slipped away again, but not before slicing a line across Hale's left cheek.
Angelo kept firing as Hale and Ryan scrambled up.
"You alright, Lieutenant?" he asked.
Hale slammed in a fresh mag, eyes burning.
"That motherfucker is gonna pay for ruining my face."
Ryan hissed through his teeth as he inspected the cut.
"Yeah… that's gonna leave a scar."
"Shut up and keep firing," she snapped.
Angelo scanned the shifting gloom.
"We can't fight it in here—too many shadows."
"Then we take it outside," Hale said.
But the Duskborne struck again—claws slashing from the darkness before vanishing. Hale and Ryan returned fire, but it was too fast.
Angelo's mind churned. He needed a way to stall it—just long enough for them to escape.
"Buy me twenty seconds," he said.
Hale nodded without looking. "We've got you."
They opened fire again, forcing the creature deeper into the dark.
Angelo moved to the center of the room. He knelt near a broken metal beam, flicking open a lighter. Far enough from the others to work—close enough for them to cover him.
He muttered under his breath, not prayers, but calculations.
"Close your eyes when I say 'now.'"
He emptied bullets with his teeth, spilling out the powder. He mixed it with another substance he produced—a hurried gamble—then packed the mixture into the lighter.
Seconds crawled by.
Then—
"Now!"
Hale and Ryan shut their eyes instantly.
Angelo tossed the lighter upward. The powder scattered as it rose.
The Duskborne burst from the front, claws gleaming—
—but Angelo was faster.
He conjured a small, tight fireball and shot it at the lighter, eyes squeezing shut an instant before impact.
The fireball hit.
A white explosion bloomed—
a concussive flash flooding the factory, burning every shadow out of existence.
The Duskborne screamed, its skin blistering under the sudden blaze.
"Outside! Move!" Angelo shouted.
As they stumbled into the night, Hale asked, "What the hell was that?"
Before Angelo could answer, Ryan snapped, "Homemade flashbang. But I thought you couldn't pull it off in your current state?"
Angelo grinned. "Had to do some engineering to make it work."
Hale cut him off. "Don't celebrate yet. Reload and stay sharp."
They regrouped just outside.
The moon finally broke through the clouds, washing the overgrown yard in pale silver.
Fewer shadows now—but still too many.
Smoke curled from the factory doorway.
The Duskborne stepped out, charred and furious.
"I'll slice you all to ribbons," it rasped.
It launched itself at them—blade-arms flashing, body flickering through pools of darkness. The trio split, trying to pin it down with gunfire, but it was fast. Too fast.
It locked onto Hale.
Ryan fired to cover her, but the creature weaved through the bullets like smoke.
Angelo sprinted to Nomad, grabbed a heavier rifle, and came back firing in controlled bursts, dragging the creature's focus toward him.
It vanished—
—then reappeared right in front of him, claws raised.
Angelo didn't flinch. He yanked the pin from a real flash grenade and hurled it just as the moonlight burst fully through the clouds.
"Burn, you son of a bitch," he yelled, wearing a maniac's grin.
The blast hit—white and brutal.
Both he and the creature reeled. The Duskborne shrieked, skin blistering in the intense light, but it didn't fall. Angelo staggered backward, half-blind, dropping to his knees with a groan.
Hale and Ryan didn't hesitate. They fired together—clean, controlled, relentless—and the creature finally collapsed.
"Nice work," Hale said. "Next time, close your damn eyes when you throw a flashbang."
They laughed, relieved. Angelo blinked hard, trying to focus. "These things are dangerous… almost made me blind."
But the humor died instantly as the moon slipped behind clouds again.
Angelo's vision cleared just enough to catch movement behind them—three more Duskbornes stepping out from between the trees.
His breath froze.
"Behind you—!"
Too late.
One drove its blade straight through Hale's chest. Her eyes widened, a wet cough of blood, then her body jolted and went still.
Another impaled Ryan through the gut, lifting him clean off the ground.
"F… fuck…" Ryan gasped. "There were… more…"
It tossed him aside like dead weight.
Hale hit the ground. Silent.
Angelo screamed—raw, animal. "NOOOO!"
He ripped out his Desert Eagle and charged, firing wildly, rage drowning all thought. A Duskborne slipped behind him and drove its blade into his lower back. Angelo still fought, firing until the gun clicked empty.
The creature raised its claw—
—and slammed him into the ground.
Everything went black.
They took him.