The Void-Hounds didn't charge. They *flowed*.
Four sets of compound eyes, cold and insectile, reflected the city's dying fires as they emerged from the gloom of the alleyways. Their chitinous forms moved with unnerving silence, low to the ground, bladed legs scraping faintly on the debris-strewn asphalt. The air thickened with the scent of ozone and something metallic, like old blood left in the sun. Kael's new **Void-Sense** screamed – a discordant chime in his mind, painting pulsing red outlines around each creature. **\[Void-Hound Beta. Level 2.\] x3. \[Void-Hound Alpha. Level 3.\]**
The Alpha, slightly larger than the one he'd just consumed, took the lead, its lamprey-maw dripping viscous saliva that sizzled where it hit the ground. The Engine's crimson interface pulsed, overlaying his vision:
**[COMBAT IMMINENT]**
**[TARGET PRIORITY: Alpha (Lvl.3) - High Biomass Yield]**
**[ADVISORY: Utilize Terrain. Exploit Pack Fragmentation.]**
**[WARNING: ENGINE STABILITY DROPPING (39%)]**
**[ANOMALY SIGNATURE: DETECTABLE (Range: 490m)]**
Terrain? Kael stood exposed in the middle of the ruined street. Pack Fragmentation? They moved with chilling coordination, flanking him, cutting off retreat. The Engine's cold logic was useless against primal hunting instincts.
*Survive. Assimilate.* The directive thrummed in his bones, louder than his own pounding heart. The hunger was a physical ache, a void inside him demanding to be filled. The obsidian claws on his right hand flexed instinctively.
The Beta on his left darted in first, a blur of black chitin and bladed fury. Kael reacted without thought, driven by the Engine's stolen **Hyper-Adrenal Burst**. Time seemed to stretch. He saw the trajectory of the bladed leg aimed at his ribs. His body moved *faster* than his mind could process. He twisted, the blade whistling past his side, tearing fabric but missing flesh. The momentum carried the Beta slightly past him.
*Now!*
Kael's obsidian-armored fist lashed out, not at the tough chitin body, but at the thinner joint where the bladed leg met the torso. There was a sickening *crack* like snapping bone, amplified by the Engine's enhanced senses. The Beta shrieked, a sound of pure agony and shock.
**[CONTACT]**
**[ANALYZING TARGET: Void-Hound Beta (Lvl.2)]**
**[ASSIMILATION INITIATED: Void-Chitin Structure (Joint Integrity - Minor)]**
The vortex of hungry darkness bloomed instantly around Kael's fist where it impacted the joint. It wasn't as violent as the first time, more focused, more *efficient*. The chitin around the joint flaked, dissolved, sucked into the vortex. Tendrils of darkness snaked into the wound, dissolving muscle and sinew. The Beta's shriek cut off abruptly as its leg simply… detached, consumed. The creature collapsed, writhing, ichor spurting from the stump.
**[ASSIMILATING: Void-Chitin Structural Integrity (Lvl.2 Fragment)... Integration Partial. Reinforcing Host Plating...]**
Kael felt the obsidian scales on his forearm ripple, thickening slightly, spreading a centimeter up his bicep. A minor upgrade, but tangible. A rush of cold energy, thin but potent, flowed into him. The Engine's stability bar flickered: **[STABILITY: 41%]**.
It wasn't enough. The other Betas lunged, driven into a frenzy by their packmate's fate. The Alpha roared, a sound that vibrated Kael's teeth, and charged head-on, its massive maw gaping wide enough to swallow his head.
Panic warred with the Engine's cold hunger. Three directions. He couldn't dodge them all. The Hyper-Adrenal Burst was still cooling down. **\[Cooldown: 47 sec.\]**
*Fragmentation.* The Engine's earlier, useless advice echoed. He couldn't fragment them. But maybe he could make them fragment *themselves*.
Kael didn't retreat. He charged *towards* the Alpha, directly into the path of its gaping maw. He saw the rows of needle-sharp teeth, smelled the rancid breath. At the last possible millisecond, fueled by raw terror and the Engine's demand to *consume*, he threw himself *down* and *left*, sliding across the gritty asphalt beneath the Alpha's lunge.
The Alpha's momentum carried it past him, directly into the path of the two converging Betas. One Beta managed to twist aside. The other wasn't so lucky. The Alpha's massive jaws snapped shut on the Beta's flank with bone-crushing force. A horrific crunch echoed. The Beta shrieked, impaled and crushed.
**[OPPORTUNITY DETECTED: WEAKENED TARGET (Void-Hound Beta - Lvl.2)]**
Kael was already rolling to his feet behind the Alpha. The remaining uninjured Beta, momentarily confused by the chaos, hesitated. Kael ignored it. His target was the Beta caught in the Alpha's jaws, thrashing weakly. He slammed his obsidian fist, claws first, into the Beta's exposed underbelly, the softest part of its chitin.
**[CONTACT: CRITICAL WEAK POINT]**
**[ASSIMILATION INITIATED: MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY]**
The vortex erupted, larger this time. It consumed the impaled Beta in seconds, dissolving chitin, flesh, and void-essence into raw power. The Alpha roared in fury as its meal vanished, ichor dripping from its empty jaws.
**[ASSIMILATING: Void-Chitin Structural Integrity (Lvl.2 Fragment)... Integration Complete.]**
**[ASSIMILATING: Essence of the Void (Lvl.2 Core)...]**
**[ASSIMILATING: Pack Tactics Instinct (Lvl.2 Fragment)... ERROR! Instinct incompatible with Host cognitive baseline? FORCING INTEGRATION...]**
A wave of alien sensation crashed over Kael. It wasn't pain, but disorientation. He suddenly *felt* the remaining Beta's position, sensed its fear and confusion as clearly as his own. He felt the Alpha's towering rage, a physical pressure. It was overwhelming, like hearing three radios blaring different stations at once inside his skull.
**[SYNERGY DETECTED: Pack Tactics Instinct + Hyper-Adrenal Reflexes]**
**[TEMPORARY EFFECT: Combat Prediction Matrix (Lvl.1) - Duration: 10 sec.]**
The world snapped into terrifying clarity. He saw the uninjured Beta tensing to leap at his exposed back. He saw the Alpha, recovering from its surprise, coiling its powerful hind legs to pounce. He saw their trajectories superimposed on his vision, glowing red lines predicting their paths half a second before they moved.
He didn't think. He *reacted*.
As the Beta leaped, Kael dropped into a crouch and spun, his obsidian-armored forearm rising like a shield. The Beta's bladed legs slammed into the reinforced chitin plating. **\[Void-Chitin Plating (Lvl.1) - Damage Absorbed: Minor.\]** The impact jarred him, but the plating held. Simultaneously, he lashed out with his left foot – still human, still vulnerable – but guided by the Prediction Matrix. It wasn't a powerful kick, but it was perfectly timed, catching the Beta under its jaw as it recoiled from hitting the shield.
The creature's head snapped back. Off-balance.
**[EXPLOIT OPENING]**
Kael surged upwards, ignoring the strain in his muscles. His right hand, claws gleaming wetly under the firelight, shot forward like a piston. Not a punch. A *stab*. The obsidian points punched through the thinner chitin of the Beta's throat.
**[CRITICAL HIT]**
**[ASSIMILATION INITIATED]**
The vortex was swift and brutal. The Beta dissolved into dark mist and essence before it could even cry out. Kael felt the rush – stronger this time. His Void-Chitin Plating thickened further, crawling up to his shoulder. His senses sharpened; he could now hear individual heartbeats blocks away. **\[Void-Sense Range Increased: 55m.\]** The Pack Tactics Instinct faded, leaving behind a faint, unsettling echo of alien thought patterns. **\[Stability: 48%.\]**
**[WARNING: PRIMARY TARGET ENRAGED]**
The Alpha roared, a sound that shook the surrounding rubble. It had watched its pack decimated in seconds. Its compound eyes burned with pure, mindless hatred. It lowered its head, bladed legs digging furrows in the asphalt. This wasn't a hunt anymore. This was annihilation.
Kael faced it, breathing hard. His human left side throbbed from the kick. His right side, encased in cold, alien chitin, hummed with stolen power. The Engine pulsed, satisfied but still demanding. **\[STABILITY: 48% - SUBOPTIMAL. BIOMASS REQUIRED.\]** The Alpha was bigger. Stronger. Pack leader. High yield.
The Alpha charged. No finesse. Pure, devastating momentum. A living battering ram of chitin and rage. The Combat Prediction Matrix was gone. Kael had seconds.
He remembered the dying Beta crushed in the Alpha's jaws. He remembered the Engine's directive: *Exploit*.
Instead of dodging, Kael braced himself. He focused everything into his armored right arm, raising it like a buckler. He couldn't outrun it. He had to *use* it.
The Alpha hit him like a freight train made of knives.
The impact drove the air from Kael's lungs. He felt ribs creak protestingly. He skidded backwards, boots scraping sparks on the asphalt, his armored arm taking the brunt of the bladed forelegs. Pain lanced through his shoulder. **\[Void-Chitin Plating (Lvl.1) - Damage: Moderate. Integrity: 87%.\]**
But he held. Barely. The Alpha's massive head, driven by its charge, slammed forward, jaws snapping shut mere inches from Kael's face. Rancid breath washed over him.
*Now!*
Kael didn't try to push the monster away. He *pulled*. Using the Alpha's own forward momentum against it, he twisted his body violently, yanking his armored arm down and to the side. The Alpha, committed to its bite and off-balance from the unexpected resistance, stumbled sideways. Its massive head dipped, exposing the vulnerable junction where its armored skull met its thicker neck plating.
Kael's left hand, still human flesh, shot out. Not to punch. To *grab*. He seized a jagged spur of chitin near the Alpha's neck, ignoring the way the sharp edge bit into his palm. Blood welled, hot and slick.
He didn't need flesh to initiate assimilation. Only contact. And intent.
**[CONTACT: TARGET ACQUIRED - VOID-HOUND ALPHA (Lvl.3)]**
**[ASSIMILATION INITIATED: MAXIMUM OUTPUT]**
The vortex exploded from Kael's bleeding left hand. Not the small, focused points from before. This was a maw of pure, ravenous darkness, engulfing the Alpha's head and neck. The Alpha's roar became a gurgling scream of purest terror. It thrashed wildly, bladed legs flailing, gouging deep rents in the street and Kael's unprotected left leg. Agony seared through him, but he held on, gritting his teeth, pouring every ounce of will into the Engine's hunger.
**ASSIMILATING: Void-Chitin Plating (Lvl.3 - Superior)...**
**ASSIMILATING: Enhanced Musculature (Lvl.3)...**
**ASSIMILATING: Alpha Command Aura (Lvl.3 Fragment)...**
**ASSIMILATING: Essence of the Void (Lvl.3 Core - Major Yield)...**
Power. Raw, overwhelming *power* flooded Kael. It was like being struck by lightning and drowning in ice simultaneously. His shattered ribs knitted instantly, stronger than before. The gashes on his left leg sealed, skin reforming over denser muscle fibers. The obsidian chitin surged from his right shoulder, flowing across his chest like living armor, plates clicking into place. It crawled down his left arm, encasing it in midnight scales, claws erupting from his left fingertips. His vision sharpened impossibly further; he could see the heat signatures of insects crawling in the rubble. His Void-Sense range exploded outward: **[Void-Sense Range: 100m].** A faint, predatory aura radiated from him – the ghostly echo of the Alpha's command.
The vortex vanished. Where the mighty Alpha had been, only a dissipating cloud of dark ash remained. Kael stood panting, bathed in the eerie glow of distant fires and his own crimson interface. His entire upper body was now encased in jagged, obsidian Void-Chitin. It felt heavier, denser, but also *right*. A second skin of stolen power.
**[APOTHEOSIS ENGINE STABILITY: 65%]**
**[ANOMALY SIGNATURE: DETECTABLE (Range: 750m - INCREASING)]**
**[ASSIMILATED TRAITS UPDATED:]**
* **Void-Chitin Plating (Lvl.2):** Upper body reinforced. Moderate physical damage resistance. (Synergy: Enhanced Musculature)
* **Enhanced Musculature (Lvl.1):** +30% Base Strength, +20% Stamina.
* **Void-Sense (Lvl.2):** Detect nearby spatial distortions/void entities (100m range). Faint threat assessment.
* **Hyper-Adrenal Burst (Lvl.1):** Cooldown reduced to 50 sec.
* **Alpha Command Aura (Lvl.1 Fragment):** Minor intimidation effect against weaker void-beasts. (Unstable)
The hunger had subsided, replaced by a terrifying sense of *fullness* and vibrating power. The Engine hummed contentedly, a dark star momentarily sated. He looked down at his hands, both now sheathed in deadly claws. He felt… monstrous. Powerful. Alien.
A whimper cut through the silence.
Kael spun, claws raised. Huddled behind the burnt-out shell of a car was a young woman. She hadn't been there before. She must have been hiding. Her eyes were wide with absolute terror, fixed not on the street, but on *him*. On the obsidian armor, the claws, the faint predatory aura radiating from him. She saw the monster now, not the victim.
**\[Void-Sense: Human Female. Baseline. No Threat.\]**
The Engine offered cold analysis. But Kael saw the raw human fear. He saw himself reflected in her eyes – not a survivor, but the thing that had just torn apart a pack of horrors with terrifying efficiency. The thing radiating an unnatural signal that screamed *Danger*.
He took a step towards her, not threateningly, but instinctively. "Hey… it's okay…" His voice was rough, deeper than he remembered, edged with the same alien resonance as the Void-Hound's growl.
She scrambled backwards, a choked sob escaping her. "S-stay away! Monster!"
The word hit him harder than the Alpha's charge. *Monster.* The Apotheosis Engine pulsed. It didn't care. She was biomass. Insignificant biomass. **\[DIRECTIVE: STABILIZATION MAINTAINED. NO IMMEDIATE BIOMASS REQUIRED.\]** It dismissed her.
But Kael cared. Or a part of him did, buried under the chitin and the cold power. He stopped, lowering his claws slightly. The movement made the obsidian plates scrape together with a sound like grinding bones. She flinched violently.
Before he could say anything else, his upgraded **Void-Sense** pinged violently. Not void-creatures. Something else. Sharper. Cleaner. Metallic. Moving fast. Multiple signatures. Cutting through the ruined cityscape directly towards his position. And they were *loud* on his Anomaly detection. **\[WARNING: MULTIPLE ANOMALY SIGNATURES DETECTED. PROFILE: HUNTER-KILLER. ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 90 SECONDS.\]**
Liam's warning echoed: *"They're coming... the Purifiers..."*
The woman saw the shift in his posture, the way his head snapped towards the approaching threat. Her eyes darted between him and the direction of the new danger. Survival instinct warred with terror.
Kael made a decision. He couldn't help her. He *was* the reason they were coming. He pointed a clawed finger towards the distant, still-pulsing blue light of the safe zone marker, barely visible over the rooftops. "Run," he growled, the command laced with the faint, unstable echo of the Alpha's aura. "Now. That way. Don't stop."
He didn't wait to see if she obeyed. He turned away from the safe zone light, away from the terrified human, and faced the approaching hunters. The Apotheosis Engine hummed, not with hunger, but with anticipation. A new threat. New biomass. New power to steal.
His obsidian claws flexed. The grind had just leveled up.