The Predator's Unyielding Gaze
I didn't move. Not even to eat. My body clung tight to the shadows of the massive structure overhead, where no light could reach, as I peered down below. Twisted old metal girders jutted out grotesquely, their rough rust scraping faintly against my scales with every subtle shift. But distractions like that held no sway over me now. What mattered wasn't the tactile press against my form—it was the flow of space, readable only from this vantage.
Height doesn't guarantee safety. If anything, it's the opposite. At this elevation, the moment a gaze locks on, you're marked as prey with no chance to flee. Yet I stayed put because this perch, as perilous as it was, offered the clearest view of everything. I wasn't so dull as to blur the line between risk and reward.
My vision unfolded. It wasn't mere distance; layers built upon forms—flows overlaying shapes, fading heat lingering atop them, echoes of recent motion ghosting the rest. Air currents registered first, then temperature gradients, weaving severed paths and continuous trajectories into a blueprint etched in my mind. Blockages and openings, halted breaths and lingering pulses. The entire space distilled into precise data, imprinting itself effortlessly.
No strain required; it flowed in naturally. This wasn't the forced squeeze of before. At first, it had been—each use left my core throbbing, vision blurring from the alien power taxing my body. But now? Seamless. As if it had always been this way, or as if I'd long accepted this sense as innate. Less adaptation than recovery, unnaturally swift.
I didn't dwell on it. Doubts laced with unease were a luxury I couldn't afford. My gaze dropped back below.
The ravaged spot from the earlier onslaught was a slaughterhouse. Corpses strewn across the floor barely clung to human outlines. Limbs shredded, torsos crushed inward, organs and bones exposed under immense pressure, congealed in blood and filth turned blackish-red. Drag marks from something heavy stretched long across it all. Not mere killing—traces of intent to erase their very existence.
Acrid char of overheated metal mingled with chemical aftertones. My modern memories parsed the compounds; my daoist's senses pierced the unnatural qi. No natural-born monster from some ecosystem. A man-made abomination.
At the heart of the carnage, three remained—fight unfinished. One woman, and two others. The man slumped against the floor clutched his gut, barely breathing through catastrophic damage. The standing one swayed, shoulder exoskeleton torn open, power lines sparking unstably. Neither would last. Physically spent, qi depleted—done.
The woman stood between them. Karin, they called her.
"Hey... Karin..." The downed man rasped, voice trembling on the edge of death.
"This job... fuck... we crossed the line. Too deep in, remember? Like Zone 7. We pushed at first... but in the end..." A wet rattle choked his lungs with blood. "We all got fucked... just like then..."
"Shut it." Karin's reply sliced cold and curt. Her eyes had already shifted sideways, pinning a tiny presence huddled in the cracked concrete debris—maximum concealment attempted.
Komodaa. Suppressed aura to the limit, but not enough to evade yokai eyes honed by dao senses.
"Ha... fuck... that little thing alone would flip our lives..." Greed rasped from the man's dying breaths. Human desire clung tenaciously, even at death's door—base and vile.
"Save your barking for after we get out alive." Karin readjusted her shotgun grip. Her wrist trembled faintly. Her qi flow stuttered, misaligned. She knew she'd pushed past her limits, bone-deep.
Then space compressed, heavy. Pressure hit before form, air shearing one way. I sensed the shift first—anyone would know what came next.
It lunged.
But not some ordinary rat. A grotesque meat amalgam—multiple bodies twisted and fused by force. Shredded flesh and warped bones crushed together, jagged metal struts embedded like bone shards. Each motion grated metal against living tissue in a chilling screech. Dead alloy devouring live meat—a horrific lab failure, an abomination defying heaven's order in a daoist's eyes.
"...That ain't no normal rat pup," the merc man muttered low, voice quaking.
The alpha. Its subtle twitch synchronized the swarm of lesser rats scattered nearby—no call needed, all aligned in perfect unison. Hive mind or neural override from the superior entity.
"Kill it now." Karin launched first. Bold leap, no hesitation. Her shotgun chambered a pristine white mana crystal—rare for low-tier solvers or grunts—grinding fiercely as it armed.
The barrel roared, unleashing compressed high-pressure energy slugs. Matter and mana detonated together, pressure peaking then bursting.
Boom! Air screamed, torn. Invisible shockwave warped space; slugs followed, ripping the beast's flank from inside. A lesser body tore free entirely.
"It's giving ground! Now! Pour it on!"
Shots hammered relentlessly. Energy rounds slashed red through dark. Each recoil vibrated the barrel; air ruptured with blasts, dust whirling like a storm. Shock and heat gnawed the monster's mass.
Karin closed in. Beast-stink stabbed her nose at point-blank. She pulled the trigger again.
Boom! The slug hammered its buried core. Pillars buckled; tissues unraveled like snapped threads.
"It's working! Push harder! Crush it with firepower!"
Seemed like the beast yielded. But I knew better. Not retreating—just tanking the barrage. Detached chunks slithered back, drawn by unseen force. Severed parts knit grotesquely from within. A feint—building vast power behind the facade.
Karin sensed the peril instinctively, redoubling her frenzy. Pausing meant death.
She dove deeper. That instant—peripheral vision caught a tiny hider behind debris. Her gaze flicked, a split-second lapse.
Fatal.
Her poise crumbled. The alpha's pent pressure burst like a dam; structures hummed in nauseous resonance. Invisible waves ballooned out, devouring space.
I saw it. Dongshu flared. Deep-suppressed energy hit critical, rampaging. Bombardment erupted.
Her next shot lagged half a beat. The alpha exploited it, lunging into her guard. Impact warped space first. She twisted, but not fully—flank gashed deep, blood spraying.
"Ngh, fuck...!" Breath ragged, she gritted through, forcing max output. Overload alarms wailed across the ruins.
"Crazy bitch Karin! Stop! Gun's gonna blow!!"
"I know, fuck!!"
Output shattered limits. Barrel glowed cherry-red, metal spiderwebbing cracks. Blinding white lanced from fissures.
Boom! Explosion ripped. Compressed force vaporized the alpha's upper mass. Clinging minors splattered walls.
She didn't stop. One more—to end it utterly, desperate resolve.
The rear merc hauled his crumbling frame up, jamming rounds into his overheated barrel. It screamed; metal twisted. Crunch, screeeee— Controls shattered. Backflow detonated massively.
Kaboom!! Thunderous blast and shockwave scoured the site. The merc erased, formless. Supports buckled; girders bent, concrete split, debris rained.
Karin flew back, slamming debris, then impaled chest-first on rusty rebar jutting from a wall.
Stubborn vitality. Even amid the blast, its remnants twitched, chunks magnetizing to reform.
But all collapsed. Rockfall roared, dust choked; silence reigned, eerie.
Then I moved. Slid soundlessly down through rubble. Scales seared by residual heat; char and coppery blood assaulted my senses.
At center: small frame, pinned under tons of debris, flicker of life clinging.
I halted before it. Pupils slit vertical, cold. Master of this hell moments ago—now stilled. Flows unbound; minions scattered to dark.
No threats left in the zone. Only one remained.
Gaze shifted lower. Tiny form, faint vital signs fading.
End it, withdraw quietly—logic from both modern mind and daoist caution screamed yes.
Yet eyes wouldn't turn. Inner itch clawed relentlessly. Something formless, boundless, yet palpably there.
I tried halting, retreating, reasoning. But judgment flickered brief; body already leaned toward prey.
Miss now, gone forever. Instinct screamed: no second chance.
I moved. Self-control shattered. Vision tunneled, world blurring. Primordial urge surged from depths beyond thought.
Reason's dam crumbled. Only raw, inexplicable hunger commanded.
Finally, contact. Deep within, something hot erupted upward.