The tunnels beneath the ruined city stretched farther than anyone had mapped. Each step echoed in the darkness, bouncing off metal and stone that had long forgotten the warmth of life. Faint pulses of old machinery throbbed beneath our boots, like the skeleton of a world still stubbornly alive.
Captain Iver led, her violet hair brushing the dim torchlight. She moved with measured grace, rifle resting lightly across her back. There was no overt display of Bloodlust, just the quiet presence of someone whose authority and experience made even the ruins hesitate. Weak creatures recoiled instinctively. Stronger ones paused, wary. That was all.
The squad followed in formation. Reid's gauntlet hummed softly, testing shadows. Sera's prismatic eyes scanned for distortions, creating subtle illusions to detect movement. Barel's living blade pulsed faintly, veins glowing red as it resonated with the ambient tension. Lune's mechanical wolf padded beside her, silent but alert, its sensors flickering across the dark corners.
A faint sound reached our ears first—a scraping, careful and deliberate. Then movement in the walls. Parasite hybrids, stitched with metal and sinew, emerged in small groups. Their motions were deliberate, calculating, testing us as much as we observed them.
Reid reacted first, swinging his gauntlet. Fire arced across the nearest hybrid, scorching the outer plating and leaving a shallow burn across its torso. The creature staggered but remained on its feet, twitching in a way that suggested confusion rather than pain.
Sera moved with subtle grace. Her illusions bent the light around her, forcing another hybrid to misjudge its steps. Its claw scraped the ground uselessly, giving Barel an opening to sever a limb cleanly. The wound was precise and disabling, leaving the creature incapacitated without unnecessary gore.
I stayed back, observing. The walls hummed faintly under my fingers. That thread of resonance I had felt before responded weakly, almost instinctively, to the nearby creatures. Small, imperceptible tremors traced through the concrete.
The hybrids adapted quickly. One lunged at Reid again, and though he twisted, a shallow cut appeared along his shoulder under the armor—a reminder that even the trained could be wounded.
Iver moved smoothly among the squad. She didn't strike recklessly. Her rifle fired deliberately, hitting joints and vital points. The faintest pressure of her presence made the smaller hybrids hesitate, enough for them to be contained or avoided. She didn't dominate the battle—she guided it. That was all her Bloodlust ever did: caution the weak, intimidate the strong.
The mounts moved in concert with the squad. Lune's wolf nudged one hybrid into a predictable path, forcing it into Reid's fire. It didn't bite or crush—its mechanical limbs manipulated the battlefield, creating openings without overkilling.
After several minutes, the hybrids were driven back into the shadows. The chamber fell silent, dust floating in the dim light. Reid rubbed his shoulder, the cut already closing slightly under the nanofiber armor. Barel wiped the edge of his blade, and even the mounts paused, scanning the stillness.
Iver's violet eyes swept the group. "This is what survival requires: observation, awareness, timing. Power alone is not enough."
I clenched my fists, feeling the faint pulse of my resonance again. The city itself seemed alive, whispering beneath my skin. Something in the ruins was attuned to me, even if I barely understood it.
"Tomorrow," Iver said quietly, "we push deeper. You'll begin testing that thread you felt. Not to fight, not to dominate—just to sense."
I nodded. The city's pulse echoed faintly in my chest. This was only the beginning.