The air reeked of blood and burning flesh.

  Ren ran, his boots slamming against the uneven ground as screams echoed behind him. He didn’t turn back. He couldn’t. He already knew what he would see.

  The abyssals weren’t just killing anymore.

  They were feeding.

  He could hear it—the wet, grotesque sounds of flesh being torn, bones snapping like brittle twigs.

  They weren’t hunting for survival.

  They were reveling in the slaughter.

  A soldier beside him tripped. Ren saw it in his peripheral vision—the sheer, animalistic terror in the man's eyes.

  Ren had a choice.

  Save him.

  Or live.

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  His body moved before his mind could make the decision.

  He grabbed the soldier by the collar and yanked him forward, hard.

  A fraction of a second later, black claws raked through the air where the man had been.

  "Move! Don’t stop moving!" Ren barked, dragging him forward.

  The soldier, still pale, nodded shakily and stumbled to his feet.

  They ran.

  More abyssals dropped from the cliffs like living nightmares. Their hollow eyes gleamed in the darkness, their teeth bared in unnatural grins.

  They were playing with their prey.

  Another scream. Then another. More men falling.

  Ren gritted his teeth. They wouldn’t make it. Not like this.

  He glanced ahead—there was a clearing just past the broken ruins of an old outpost.

  If they could make it there, they had a chance.

  He turned to the remaining soldiers. "To the ruins! We make our stand there!"

  Some didn’t listen. Some were too far gone, lost to panic.

  They broke formation, sprinting wildly into the darkness.

  Ren didn’t watch them die.

  But he heard it.

  The abyssals descended upon them like shadows given form.

  Wet crunches. Choking screams. The sound of a body being ripped apart.

  He clenched his jaw. Survivors. Focus on the survivors.

  "Keep moving!"

  The ones who remained followed him. The ruins were close now—just a little farther.

  Then, from the darkness—

  A new figure emerged.

  Taller than the others.

  Stronger.

  And it was waiting for them.