A woman stood at the city square. Her black hair was cut too short to soften her sharp features, her voice carrying the kind of authority that cracked through noise like a whip.
Black silk trousers and a long-sleeved gray coat clung to her frame, the fabric shifting in the restless wind. Her chocolate-brown eyes scanned the surroundings, hard and unwavering.
This was Ms. Reyna Colt – a kavai blessed and cursed with two bloodlines, the rare fusion of fifth and sixth generation. She was a master of sound and light, and a first-grade Exo-hunter whose very presence carried weight.
"Year twos and year threes, form squads of four!" Her voice was sharp, slicing through the rising panic like broken glass. "Stand back-to-back. Any extras, fill them in and hold your positions. Once everyone is here, I will teleport you back to the academy!"
But her words were only a brittle shield against the chaos that loomed over the square.
The cries of the crowd clawed at her eardrums, a chorus of panic so loud it made her skull ring as if her bones themselves were vibrating.
She steadied her breath, but the air was thick with the stench of fear, sweat, smoke, and something metallic, and coppery… 'blood.'
At the corner of the square, a young boy let out a shriek that split the night. His feet lifted off the cobblestones, his body writhing as unseen hands snatched him into the air. His fingers clawed at nothing, leaving bloody trails on his skin, before he was yanked into emptiness with a hollow snap.
Nearby, a woman's sprint turned into a desperate tumble. Her leg twisted as she hit the ground, but before anyone could reach her, the cobblestones rippled like black water beneath her body. She screamed once, and then the ground swallowed her whole, leaving behind only a faint wet hiss.
At the far edge of the square, three men bolted together, their boots slapping against stone. A woman lagged behind, panting, reaching for them. But they all vanished mid-step, their bodies dissolving into thin air as if they'd passed through an invisible door. One second they were there, the next gone.
And through it all, the city square itself seemed to groan, every shadow stretched too long, every flicker of light bending into shapes that didn't belong.
The fallen lay scattered across the stone like broken dolls. Some had no heads, others no hands, legs, or stomachs – pieces carved out as if gnawed away.
For a few, nothing remained at all; only dark pools of blood soaking into the cracks of the square, steaming faintly as if the earth itself rejected it.
Reyna's breath hissed between her teeth. "What on earth is this…" The curse slipped out, low and sharp. Damn it. I summoned the students to the wrong place.
Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her weapon. The long sword in her grasp thrummed, its blade glowing faintly purple, humming with restrained energy. She swung hard to the left, steel cutting through air with a shriek, then swept low across the stones in a brutal arc.
SHRRRCK!
Something unseen tore open. Then a spray of thick black liquid splattered across her coat, its stench sour and metallic, burning her nostrils.
Drops clung to her skin and hair like oil. The rest of it hit the ground with a squelch, the sound wet and raw like butchered meat slapping against stone.
She lowered her gaze. What slithered into view from the air itself made her jaw tighten.
It was no man, no beast, only a silhouette cloaked in black hue, its form shifting like smoke struggling to hold flesh. Limbs stretched unnaturally long, fingers tapering into claws. Its ears jutted upward, jagged and torn, twitching like broken antennae. Rows of teeth protruded outward, sharp enough to pierce its own lips, glistening with spit and tar.
Another one lunged at her, its form a blur of shifting black hue so dense it devoured light. Its presence was a void, its body half-visible only in the places where the air bent around it.
From its throat spilled a low, rasping murmur; a song that didn't belong to the living. It was the kind of sound one might hear seeping from tombstones at midnight, layered with whispers that scratched the edges of the mind.
Its limbs stretched tall over her, grotesquely long, joints cracking like broken wood. Fingers warped and fused, twisting into a single spear-point, which it thrust straight toward her chest.
Reyna's sword flared violet. She slashed upward in a brutal arc, severing the creature's forearm mid-thrust. Black ichor hissed as it sprayed, coating the stones in oily streaks. Before the thing could recoil, she slid low under its mass, her blade carving three quick lines across its abdomen.
SHRRK! SHRRK! SHRRK!
The creature spasmed, its body collapsing forward with a grotesque shudder. Black blood poured out like tar, spreading in wide pools that steamed against the ground. The stench was rot and acid, enough to burn the back of her throat.
Another presence stirred.
Behind her, a third figure surged from the dark. Its fingers lashed forward like spears, the motion fast enough to cut the air with a whistling shriek. Reyna twisted, her boots skidding across slick stone as she slid to the side. The spear-hand missed her heart by inches.
She retaliated without pause. Her blade sang as it bit into the creature's knuckles, severing digits like snapping twigs, then cleaved clean through its arm to the shoulder. Her final swing was merciless, steel sweeping across its neck.
THWIP!
The head tore free. The body collapsed a moment later, twitching, folding into itself like it had no bones to hold it up. Its face, still half-formed in shadow, froze in a grin even as it hit the ground.
"Disgusting," Reyna muttered, shaking droplets of black gore off her blade. The corpse twitched once more before settling into the filth like it had never been whole.
But as she stood there feeling disgusted. A scream tore through the haze, so sharp it split the night like shattered glass. The sound was not human, it was too jagged, and too raw, reverberating like metal grinding against bone.
Reyna spun toward the source and froze.
It wasn't a figure. It wasn't even a creature. It was a colossus made of bones, the remains of countless humans lashed together in a grotesque imitation of a body. Its skulls gnashed where a chest should have been. Spines jutted outward like jagged wings.
The thing towered higher than any building in the city square, its skeletal frame scraping the clouds themselves. Each step made the cobblestones quake, dust raining down from nearby ruins.
It screamed again.
The sound was a shriek of triumph, a celebration of freedom, echoing through every hollow ribcage in its body. The cry warped the air itself, leaving a ringing pain in the skulls of everyone who heard it.
"What on earth is that thing?" one student gasped, their voice breaking into panic.
"Fold back from it!" Reyna's command cracked like thunder, directed at the squads standing too close. Her heart thumped like war drums, but her words were steady, and absolute.
*How is it making that sound?* she thought, her legs already moving, sprinting toward the clustered students. The vibration of its shriek clung to her bones, making her teeth ache as though the sound was burrowing inside her.
But fear was already tightening its grip on the young hunters. Some students stood locked in place, eyes wide and unblinking, their bodies trembling as if rooted by invisible chains.
The skeletal colossus bent, its towering spine curving down with impossible speed, joints cracking like thunderclaps. In the space of a heartbeat, it was upon them.
Its fingers – giant bone spears – swept forward. In one merciless motion, it grabbed every student within reach, its digits snapping shut like a cage. Screams flared and then were cut short with a sound like dry twigs breaking.
CRUNCH.
The monster lifted its hand and gave a casual shake. What remained of the students; blood, cloth, and fragments rained down onto the square in a hideous spray, painting the stones red. Their bodies weren't just killed, they were erased, crushed into nothing by bones that shouldn't have moved at all.
Ms. Reyna staggered to a halt, her boots skidding across blood-slick stone. "What…?" The word left her lips in a thin, fractured breath.
Chunks of flesh; wet, and unrecognizable meat rained down, splattering against the armor and coats of students who stood further back, still locked in battle with the smaller horrors. The sound of it was obscene: splish, splat, thud like buckets of butcher's waste hurled from the sky. Some students flinched, their grips faltering as gore slid down their cheeks, dripping from their weapons.
There was no time to wonder whose remains had just rained over them.
Because more were waiting.
The Malgeds prowled the square; human-sized abominations, their skin the gray-white of cold ash, their eyes sunken but burning with feverish hunger. Their faces were twisted mockeries of human expressions, mouths pulled too wide, lips peeling back to bare crooked teeth. They shambled forward, limbs jerking unnaturally, but when they lunged, their speed was monstrous.
"Someone tell me what's going on?!" Reyna's voice tore through the air, more a demand than a plea, but desperation cracked at the edges. "Why are both Malgeds and Netherkins attacking the city?!"
The only answer was more screaming. Who among them could explain the impossible?
Her gaze swept the square again, and dread hollowed her chest. Four entire squads had been erased in the single minute she'd hesitated. Their weapons lay abandoned on the stones, blood still steaming beside them.
And worse, she had just summoned more students into this slaughterhouse.
Her eyes lifted to the towering bone colossus that still loomed over the square. Its hollow sockets glowed faintly with some malign light, and every groan of its frame sent echoes down her spine. That thing alone could end them all, yet the Malgeds and Netherkins kept pouring in, as if the city itself had become a hunting ground.
The bone colossus rampaged without pause, every step a catastrophe. Buildings cracked and toppled under its weight, reduced to splintered rubble and choking dust.
People vanished beneath its massive feet, their bodies crushed into paste before their screams could even leave their throats.
Students were no different. Dozens were erased in seconds, entire squads ground into the cobblestones, their blood spreading like rivers through the cracks.
Around them, the Netherkins swarmed. They tore into human flesh like rabid dogs, their jaws gnashing, their claws carving. Some devoured bodies whole, others ripped away only half and discarded the rest into the streets like spoiled meat. Corpses littered the ground, twitching remnants left as offerings to the chaos.
The Malgeds clashed with them, snarling, clawing for dominance, their pale, ash-like skin slick with gore. The city itself had become a battlefield of predators.
Cars were hurled through the flames; one ripped into the air by a Netherkin, only to be caught mid-flight by a Malged who bellowed and flung it back with shattering force.
Children's cries rang through the firelit haze, high and thin, cutting through the roar of destruction. Flames devoured the streets, black smoke curling upward until the stars themselves were swallowed.
Reyna's throat tightened. "Fold back… I asked you guys to fold back…" Her voice cracked, not from fear, but from rage at the futility of it.
But the students who tried… the ones who ducked their heads and turned to retreat… found their last step was their end. Shadows darted faster than their eyes could follow. Fingers like spears skewered them from behind. Some were snatched into the air by invisible hands, their screams cut short in choking gurgles before their bodies hit the ground, mangled beyond recognition.
The order had become a death sentence.