Darkness clung to the alley like rot.
The night was dead silent, but Kai could hear everything. The distant drip of water. The scuttling of something too fast and too many-legged. The wet crunch of something being devoured.
He opened his eyes.
The air was cold — unnaturally cold — and thick with the smell of old blood and sewage. The moonlight barely touched this place, hidden between collapsed buildings, broken fences, and overturned dumpsters. Shadows moved with a will of their own.
Kai's fingers twitched against the asphalt. Blood slicked the ground beneath him. Not his. Not all of it, anyway.
His last memory was fire. Screaming. And a voice — not his own — whispering: "Adapt or die."
He rose slowly.
[Deadbound Integration: Stable at 72%]
Loss of Self: 3.2%
Status: Evolved — Stage One Complete
His bones cracked with each movement, not from pain, but from growth. His muscles felt heavier, denser. His heartbeat no longer panicked. It moved like a metronome. Calm. Measured. Unbothered.
He stepped forward.
A body lay near the alley wall. Half-eaten. The spine had been ripped out through the stomach. Flies buzzed in clouds, landing on shredded intestines that coiled like pink snakes.
He didn't look away.
The end of the alley opened into a street — and hell.
Corpses were everywhere. But they didn't stay still.
A man with his lower jaw missing gurgled as he crawled on all fours, dragging his shattered legs. A woman with her skull caved in twitched spasmodically, her arms slamming into the pavement as if trying to remember how to walk. One creature — once a dog, maybe — had grown human fingers from its mouth.
Kai's eyes scanned them.
They were watching him.
Then they came.
Dozens of them.
[System Alert: Mutant Horde Approaching]
Threat Level: Severe
Time to Death: 4 Minutes (if unchanged)
Kai exhaled once.
Then charged.
The first zombie exploded as his clawed hand punched through its chest. Ribs cracked, organs ruptured. A second tried to bite him — he caught its head and crushed it like wet clay. Blood sprayed across his face.
A bloated mutant lunged. Its belly burst mid-air from old pressure — spraying acidic bile that sizzled on the pavement. Kai rolled forward and ripped out its spine, spinning and hurling it like a whip to decapitate another.
The street became a symphony of violence.
Gore splattered across glass. Brains slid down walls like paint. Flesh and bone tore and crunched and screamed.
One creature — a malformed child with knives for fingers — rushed from behind. Kai pivoted, caught its arm, and snapped it backward, driving its own blade through its eye socket.
He didn't blink.
Level Up: 8 → 9
Skill Gained: "Reaper's Pulse" — Increased lethality when outnumbered
Loss of Self: 3.5%
Then the ground rumbled.
From a collapsed tunnel nearby, something massive crawled out. It dragged three corpses still fused to its back. Its skin was yellowed like wax, veins pulsing with black fluid. Four arms. No jaw. Dozens of eyes.
It roared — a sound like wet metal grinding against bone.
Aira's voice called from somewhere nearby.
"Kai! They're swarming the clinic! We need you!"
He didn't hesitate.
He leapt over a burning car, landing hard in the middle of another pack. He spun mid-air and tore through necks, blood spurting in geysers. Screams turned into gurgles. Limbs flew.
He reached the clinic door.
Aira was holding it shut from the inside. Behind her: children. Civilians. Terrified.
She opened it just enough.
His hands were covered in blood. Not his. Not anymore.
She didn't flinch.
He stepped in.
"Upstairs," she said. "We need to buy them time."
They moved in sync.
The horde crashed against the doors. Windows shattered. Hands with too many fingers reached through cracks. One dragged a woman halfway through a wall. Her screams were short-lived.
Aira stabbed a spike through a crawler's skull. Kai flung a severed leg like a club, knocking two back.
Then he screamed.
Not from pain.
From change.
[Deadbound Trait Awakened: Phase 1 Mutation Unlocked]
Passive Skill: "Iron Reflex" — Body reacts before mind.
New Mutation: Subdermal Bone Layer
Effect: Temporary invulnerability to piercing attacks
He felt his skin ripple.
A bite tore into his shoulder — and bounced off. The creature's teeth shattered.
Kai turned slowly.
"Wrong prey," he said.
Then he bit it back, tearing its throat out with inhuman force.
Blood filled his mouth.
He didn't stop.
The Final Minutes
They fought like demons.
The floor of the clinic became slick with red. Bodies piled at the entrance. The smell of burned hair, rotted lungs, and iron filled the space.
Kai's claws glowed faintly now. Heat radiated from his body. Steam rose from his back.
The monsters stopped coming.
They retreated.
Silence fell.
Aira collapsed into a corner, gasping.
Kai stood in the center of it all. Heart calm. Breath steady.
He looked at his hands.
Not shaking.
Still covered in blood.
Still his.
For now.
Loss of Self: 2.9%
[Aira Presence: Stabilizing Anchor Detected]
She looked at him with blood in her eyes. Not hers. Others'.
"You're still you," she whispered. "Even now."
He closed his eyes.
"Then let's hope I stay that way."