The pack of mutant cats consisted of eight beasts, as large as leopards, their neon-green eyes burning with murderous intent. The alpha let out a guttural roar, and the entire pack lunged like a volley of obsidian arrows.
"Go!" Thien Anh barked. Ki roared in response, his 'Magma-Skin' armor clanking with ominous power. He charged directly into the alpha, acting as a relentless tank to draw all aggro.
Meanwhile, perched firmly on Ki's back, Thien Anh's submachine gun began to spit lead.
RAT-TAT-TAT!
His evolved hearing and vision allowed him to capture every twitch of the cats' movements. In his eyes, their speed seemed to have slowed by a full beat.
One beast attempted to pounce at Ki's left flank. BANG! A bullet detonated its skull mid-air. Another tried a rear ambush. BANG! It collapsed in a spray of blood and brain matter. Every bullet claimed a carcass. No wasted motion.
Up front, Ki and the alpha cat collided. CRASH! The alpha lashed out, claws raking across Ki's neck, but it only produced a piercing CLINK against the hardened armor. Unfazed, Ki delivered a bone-shattering swat that sent the cat flying ten meters, slamming into a brick wall with the sound of splintering ribs.
Before the enemy could even attempt to rise, Ki lunged, his razor-sharp fangs locking onto its throat. CRUNCH! The head was torn clean from the neck.
Thien Anh vaulted down, expertly using his knife to carve into the cats' chests to harvest the spoils.
"Only the alpha has a glowing silver heart. The commons have nothing," he muttered, stowing the silver heart into the cooling box mounted on Ki's side before signaling a move. The heavy stench of blood would only invite more trouble.
...
Sure enough, ten minutes later, the ground vibrated with a heavy thud-thud-thud.
A sound of five mutant pigs emerged. Leading them were two 'Bone-Plated Boars,' their tusks as long as scythes, their skin covered in overlapping bone scales like reinforced plate mail. The other three were smaller but still as bulky as fighting bulls.
Seeing Ki, they showed no fear. Instead, they erupted into a frenzied chorus of squeals and charged like runaway bulldozers.
Thien Anh smirked, swapping to his heavy-caliber sniper rifle. He took cover behind a ruined wall, letting Ki act as the provocateur.
"Let's go big."
He locked his sights onto the right eye of the largest Bone-Plated Boar.
BANG!
The heavy armor-piercing round shrieked through the air, burying itself deep into the beast's eye socket.
"REEEEEEE!"
It let out a harrowing shriek, thrashing on the ground and plowing through the asphalt. The vitality of these high-tier monsters was truly terrifying; even with a shattered skull, it refused to die instantly.
The remaining Bone-Plated Boar, seeing its kin fallen, charged Ki in a blind rage.
But Ki was no longer the house dog of the past. With his superior armor and reinforced strength, he stood as solid as a mountain, countering with a shoulder ram.
THUD!
The boar was flipped onto its back. Seizing the opening, Ki lunged, sinking his teeth into the soft, vulnerable throat. Blood geysered out. The three smaller boars were systematically picked off by Thien Anh, one by one.
The battle ended swiftly. Now, it was time for the "Feast."
Ki began to eat. The sight made even Thien Anh—a cold-blooded assassin—furrow his brows.
He didn't eat politely. He ripped away massive slabs of meat, devouring bone and hide alike. Ki's body at that moment was like a nuclear furnace, radiating an intense, scorching heat. The meat was digested as soon as it hit his stomach, converted instantly into energy to fuel his evolving form.
Five pigs, totaling nearly a ton in weight, were reduced to nothing but hollow skulls in a matter of moments. Ki let out a massive belch, then trotted back to Thien Anh, carrying five pig hearts in his maw, his tail wagging frantically.
"Are you... a bottomless pit?" Thien Anh stared in disbelief at Ki's still-flat stomach. "Are you full yet?"
Ki shook his head, his crimson eyes still flickering with a restless hunger.
Thien Anh sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Fine. Let's keep moving. Keeping you fed is going to be expensive."
...
They ventured deeper into the derelict city center. The landscape was desolate, skyscrapers now nothing more than hollowed-out concrete husks.
Ahead, a group of humanoid creatures moved with a staggering, jerky gait. They retained human forms, but their flesh was a bloated, water-logged grey, their nails elongated into jagged talons, and their eyes glowed red like smoldering coals.
Deviants (Zombies).
Thien Anh didn't hesitate. To him, they were no longer human.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Twenty-six bullets, thirty-seven corpses. Thien Anh fired like a machine—precise and void of emotion.
But the most horrific sight followed.
Ki lunged at the pile of Deviant corpses. Unlike when he ate beasts, this time, he didn't even spare the bones.
CRUNCH... SNAP...
The sound of human bones shattering within Ki's jaws echoed crisply through the dead silence. Thien Anh, sitting on his back, could clearly hear the grinding of skulls and femurs. He shivered, turning his face away.
"Eat fast. Don't make me nauseous."
In just ten minutes, thirty-seven corpses had completely vanished. Not a trace remained.
Ki licked his jowls, his eyes glowing brighter than ever, his fur shimmering as if coated in oil. It seemed the flesh of these Deviants provided a unique kind of energy for him.
Suddenly, a gargantuan shadow swept across the ground, blotting out the weak light from the celestial orb above.
The wind began to shriek in powerful, gale-force gusts.
"KIEEEEE...!"
A piercing, high-pitched screech—sharp as metal scraping against glass—echoed from above, making Thien Anh's eardrums throb with pain.
He looked up. His pupils constricted sharply. In the sky, a colossal creature was circling. Its wingspan reached twenty meters, its skin as sleek and leathery as a bat's, but it possessed a long, elongated head with a beak as sharp as a spear.
The Night-Terror (Dreadwing).
"What the hell is this? A Jurassic rebirth?" Thien Anh gasped in horror. This world was going mad far beyond his imagination.
The monster seemed to have spotted the 'ant' and the 'dog' on the ground. It banked its wings, its golden eyes locking onto the target.
WHOOSH...
It folded its wings and dived like a cruise missile, razor-sharp talons unfurled and ready to shred its prey.
The downward air pressure was so heavy it made it hard for Thien Anh to breathe. This thing was too massive; standard firearms wouldn't even graze it.
"Run! Ki! Into that building! Now!"
Thien Anh shouted, slapping Ki's shoulder hard.
Ki roared, his four paws clawing into the asphalt as he bolted toward the nearest commercial tower.
BOOM!
Just as Ki's tail cleared the shattered glass of the lobby entrance, the monster slammed down. Its talons plowed through the asphalt where they had stood just a second ago, carving a deep, jagged trench. The resulting vortex of wind hurled debris in every direction.
The hunt had been flipped. Now, they were the prey.