Kiel sat atop a rusted Dominion war drone, the night sky casting a silver hue over the wastelands. Below him, the corpses of a raider group lay still, stripped of weapons—and cores. His breathing was steady, predatory.
[Core Consumption: 3/10]
[Bonus Trait Unlocked – Adaptive Predation: Gain 10% resistance to repeated abilities used against you within a short time span.]
Every kill made him stronger. Every core consumed brought him closer to something beyond human… and beyond the system's expectations.
But tonight, Kiel wasn't just hunting to survive.
He was preparing to send a message.
Across the wastes, word had begun to spread. A lone hybrid—half-man, half-monster—was dismantling patrols, silencing surveillance towers, and gutting bio-hounds like fish. The Dominion labeled him a malfunctioning asset.
The Outlanders started calling him something else:
The Apex Reaver.
A symbol. A shadow. A warning.
"You sure about this?" Seris asked, adjusting the trigger on her ion cannon. "Assaulting a Dominion Nexus outpost with just the two of us?"
Kiel cracked his neck. "We won't need two."
She gave him a long look. "You're getting cocky."
"No," he replied, eyes cold. "I'm getting precise."
The Nexus Outpost loomed like a crown of rust and steel, its spires humming with arcane-tech signals. It was a processing hub—where captured Outlanders were reconditioned, turned into weapons… or fuel.
"Place is crawling with sentries and psi-drones," Seris muttered. "We should sneak in, plant a disruptor—"
"No time," Kiel interrupted. "They're transporting prisoners tonight. Including kids."
Seris froze. "Then let's burn it to the ground."
The assault was not subtle.
Kiel launched forward like a meteor, tearing through reinforced gates with his claws, enhanced by kinetic amplification. Alarms blared. Drones deployed. Plasma turrets locked on.
He was already inside.
Each move was calculated savagery. He parried beams with scavenged shields, melted drones with the acid from a recently consumed mutant, and adapted faster with each attack.
[Adaptive Predation in effect: Resistance Level – 30%]
Seris provided cover from the cliffs, sniping sentries and directing suppressive fire toward the bunkers.
Inside the prison block, Kiel kicked down doors.
Children huddled in the corners. Teens with hollow eyes flinched from him. He knelt.
"You're free."
A boy whispered, "Are you... the monster they warned us about?"
Kiel smiled grimly. "No. I'm the monster they should've feared."
He loaded them into an escape skiff while Seris rigged explosives across the outpost's power conduits.
As they retreated, fire began to spread behind them.
Kiel stood at the edge of a cliff, watching as the Dominion symbol melted in flame.
[System Alert: Dominion Command Node Destroyed.] [Core Signature Recognized. Bounty Increased: 12,000,000 credits.] [Designation Updated: Rogue Apex-Class Anomaly]
Seris whistled. "We're going to have the whole damn planet after us."
"Let them come," Kiel growled. "I'll tear their hierarchy down—one predator at a time."
Later that night, they camped beneath a shattered sky dome. The children were asleep. Seris patched her wounds silently.
Kiel stared into the distance.
"I used to dream about escaping," he said. "Just living quietly, somewhere no one could find me."
"And now?"
"I don't want escape anymore," he said, eyes glowing faintly. "I want justice. Real justice. Not the kind the Dominion wrote into their codes."
She looked at him, then nodded. "Then we'll rewrite it together."
Kiel looked at the horizon—the Dominion's fortress arcologies barely visible in the distance.
"No," he whispered. "We'll carve it in blood."