In Radcliffe the sun had slipped beneath the horizon, dragging the last streaks of orange with it. The city pulsed with noise... honking cars, laughter spilling from bars and the clatter of shoes on pavement. This was the hour of exhaustion and release... workers heading home, revelers starting their night.
In one narrow alley, two figures staggered. A man reeking of liquor, his arm wrapped around a giggling woman, stumbled over a trash bag. He slurred into her hair, "See, told ya... this shortcut's faster. We'll be home in no time."
He didn't notice the shadow ahead until his shoulder rammed into something that didn't move. He stumbled back, swearing and squinted at the towering figure in the dark.
"Hey, buddy..." the drunk man jeered, puffing his chest. "Wanna mess with me? I'll..."
The shape stepped forward and the streetlamp caught it. The drunkard froze... it was no man.
The thing loomed nearly three meters tall, its body a nightmare of muscle and shifting flesh.
The drunk managed a strangled gasp before the creature's massive hand clamped over his skull. With a single squeeze, bone and brain burst in a wet crunch.
The woman shrieked, her drunken haze vanishing. She stumbled back, heels scraping, then turned.
"Help! Somebody... help!"
She screamed and bolted, ran straight into a pair of men outside the alley. "Something... there's something in there!" she sobbed.
The demon emerged behind her, its arm already reshaping... blade retracting, then extending again, longer and sharper. One of the men rushed forward in bravado, swinging a bottle. The creature didn't even swing back, a single kick sent him flying across the street... he crashed into a car windshield, glass spiderwebbing on impact.
The other man froze, trembling. The demon raised its bladed arm and cleaved him from shoulder to hip. His body collapsed in two halves, steaming on the asphalt.
Then it stepped into the open street.
The crowd saw it... tall, broad, its skin pulsing with strange movement under the surface. Screams erupted as people shoved one another, desperate to flee.
The demon tilted its head, then moved. It lashed both arms wide, blades forming at the last second. The air filled with the wet sound of cutting meat within. Twenty-three people dropped in an instant, torsos split... blood arcing across storefront glass. A child's balloon floated upward, trailing its owner's severed hand still clutching the string.
Survivors tripped over corpses, slipping in the gore. Mothers shrieked for children, dragging them toward alleys. A guitarist dropped his instrument, the final chord still ringing as it cracked on the pavement.
And then the roar came. Deep and animal. It vibrated in their bones.
"KYYYYYLLLLLEEEEEE!"
The sound rattled Radcliffe's windows, carrying through blocks of the city.
Police sirens wailed. Cruisers swerved into the street, lights flashing red and blue against the carnage.
"FIRE!"
Gunfire erupted, muzzle flashes strobing. The monster barely flinched. Its left hand shifted, fingers elongating into a hooked blade and with one swing it tore a car from its frame. The vehicle spun through the air and smashed into two cruisers, detonating them in fireballs. Officers screamed as they burned alive inside, their shadows writhing against the flames.
Another car followed, flung like a child's toy. It landed on a squad of men, flattening them in an instant. Screams became background noise to the chaos.
And then black uniforms appeared at the far end of the street. The West Division had arrived.
Two squads, their weapons glinted under the streetlights as they sprinted forward, boots pounding in rhythm.
"Let's take it down!" their leader barked.
The demon's grin widened, flesh rippling under its skin. And the squads fanned out, blades and chains flashing. One hunter loosed fire rounds, explosions hammering the creature's chest. Another swung a massive hammer, each strike shaking the pavement. The air filled with sparks and smoke as the clash began.
The demon moved like a predator. Its right leg shifted, forming a hooked spike and with a brutal kick it gored through a hunter's thigh. Before the man could scream, the monster's arm morphed into a blade and cut him clean in half, blood spilling across the asphalt.
The others pressed in, fury on their faces. Chains wrapped around the demon's torso, jerking tight.
Suddenly, its ribcage split open. Three jagged spears of bone burst outward, skewering the man holding the chains. Blood sprayed across the others as his body was lifted and flung aside like trash.
Another hunter charged from behind, hammer raised. The demon's back twisted... flesh warping into a spike that jutted out instantly. The hammer-wielder impaled himself mid-swing. His weapon clattered uselessly to the ground.
The last three roared and attacked as one, blades flashing. Steel clashed against reshaping flesh... until the demon laughed, guttural and broken.
Its jaw unhinged, stretching impossibly wide, rows of teeth sliding into place like shark fangs. One hunter's head disappeared inside with a sickening crunch. Blood poured down its chin as it chewed once, twice then spat the body aside.
The remaining two faltered, fear finally breaking their rhythm. The demon pounced, it's knee reshaped into a hammerhead, slamming one man into the pavement so hard the concrete cratered beneath him. The last hunter, gasping and broken, raised his blade in trembling defiance.
"D-do it then!" he screamed, chest heaving.
Suddenly, three jagged teeth tore through it from nowhere... two spearing its chest, the third punching straight through it's face. It stumbled back, blood spraying down the ruined street.
Then, the demon's maw closed with terrifying speed, biting clean through the man's head. A wet snap echoed as it devoured the skull whole.
The body crumpled, lifeless... blood pooling beneath it.
The towering creature straightened, its wounds sealing. It lifted its head high...
...and let out another roar at the two figures standing in front of it.