Chapter 27 — True Predator

  The world turned upside down in a burst of light and pressure.

  Adam crashed through the slope, body tumbling into a lake clearing far below.

  The impact cracked ribs, forced the air from his lungs — and when he hit the water, the cold drove knives into his chest.

  He sank.

  Vision dimming.

  Blood mixing with the rippling dark.

  Then — a hand seized his collar and yanked him out.

  Before Adam could even gasp, he was hurled like trash across the shore, smashing spine-first into a rocky hill.

  The impact blacked him out for a heartbeat. He woke vomiting blood and lake water, gasping, lungs half-collapsed.

  “What are you doing?!”

  A woman’s voice. Sharp, irritated, almost playful beneath the venom.

  “Doing my job,” came the reply — cold, gruff, bored. A man’s.

  Adam blinked through the haze, and the shadows of his assailants came into focus.

  Zack — tall, scarred, dead eyes behind a permanent scowl.(Homo-balloter: Warrior of motion)

  Lysa — lean, tail flicking lazily behind her, scales glinting faintly through torn combat fabric. Her grin was almost beautiful — almost.(Homo-chimera; Komodo dragon).

  “Yeah, I know that, dumbass,” she hissed, coiling her tail around Adam’s throat and pinning him against the wall. “But why go for the instant kill?”

  The tail tightened — not enough to crush, just enough to make him choke.

  “You gotta ease into it,” she whispered, eyes gleaming red, “like a true predator.”

  Zack grunted, unimpressed. “We’ve got a mission to accomplish…this is hardly the time and place!!.”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t remember, I mean deceiving little rats should be punished before being eaten after all,” Lysa said, bloodlust leaking through her voice like a poison.

  ‘’weren’t those your own words way back then?..~…’’ Lysa said sarcastically,

  Zack chuckled — and then his eyes caught Adam’s before he froze in recognition,

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  “Oh… well, isn’t this interesting,” he murmured. “I think I’m starting to understand what you mean…”

  He stepped closer, boots crunching gravel, gaze piercing.

  “Hey,” he said softly, “you look familiar…by any chance are you that little rat from way back when?….”

  Adam said nothing. Couldn’t. The tail around his neck was tightening, stealing the words from him.

  “Well, well… color me impressed,” Zack continued, smiling wide — too wide. “You actually managed to survive. Thrive even.”

  He leaned in close, grin stretching into madness.

  “Long time no see, little rat!!”

  Adam’s vision blurred — his body convulsed from oxygen deprivation fighting for control as he desperately scratched at lysa’s tail,

  (‘’Shit… of all the people on this island… it had to be these two.’’ ) Adam thought to himself as he slowly lost consciousness,

  His limbs slowly going numb— but then crack.

  Lysa snapped his arm.

  The sound split the forest.

  Adam’s scream tore through the mist — raw, guttural, inhuman, bring him back to life once more,

  “Aw, don’t pass out on me now,” she mocked sweetly, twisting the broken limb. “We’re gonna have so much fun tonight…just like we used to back in the old days~.”

  The forest listened as bones shattered and reformed, only to be broken again and again. Screams echoed. Blood spluttered across bark.

  When they were done playing, Adam was crucified against the rock wall — arms spread, ribs exposed, body twitching between life and death.

  Lysa sighed in satisfaction, stretching lazily. “Man, that felt refreshing.” She licked the blood off her claws and flicked away a rib bone.

  “How many is that now?”

  Zack sat sharpening another rib on a stone. “Twenty-seven. His regeneration improved since the last time we saw him.”

  “So that’s… what? A hundred different bones pulled, forty-six shattered, guts rearranged, skull cracked like what?… twenty-something times?” Lysa counted to sadistically count.

  “No wonder he was ‘thriving till now,’ huh?”

  Lysa chuckled. “Makes me wanna test him to the absolute limit like we used to….”

  “As much as I like to entertain that thought…,” Zack said, standing up slowly as he tossed the rib-bone he was sharpening aside, “it’s time we wrap this up, it’s becoming embarrassing for elites like us to take shit this long….”

  ‘’Yeah right…just admit…it’s not as fun for you like it used to be…not after that bitch died…wait let me correct myself…not after you killed her with your own hands!!’’ lysa taunted,

  Zack stopped on his tracks for a moment, his expression unreadable, but said nothing before continuing,

  He walked toward Adam, weapon raised intending to finish him himself — but then suddenly he stopped on his tracks,

  Four seconds, four steps,

  That’s all it took and how close he had gotten before—,

  A pulse erupted across the mountain — a wave of killing intent so concentrated and wrong, the air itself screamed.

  Lysa flinched, claws out, tail whipping instinctively behind her.

  “What the hell was that just now?!”

  No answer.

  Zack was frozen in front of her. Completely still.

  Expression locked in on something that wasn’t fear — just acceptance.

  “Hey! You listening? What the hell—” she reached out.

  But as soon as she grasped on his shoulder, Zack just fell over.

  Dead.

  No wounds. No sound. No heartbeat. Just gone.

  The sudden death sent cold animalistic and instinctual fear down lysa’s spine as the wave of bloodlust poured upon her like the great flood,

  Adam hadn’t moved. Hadn’t lift a finger. He simply let the emotions of his past trauma flood out — every ounce of hatred, agony, and humiliation for 2 years, condensed into one impossible thing: a wave of bloodlust incarnate.

  Zack had been the closest when adam erupted .

  His heart had stopped mid-beat.

  And in his final second, Zack felt it — that overwhelming, primal truth:

  Death had already claimed him before he realised what had happened,

  Lysa’s breath hitched in fear and realisation.

  Her instincts screamed.

  Then slowly she turned her head to look back at adam, hoping he was still pinned to the wall, but that’s when she saw him.

  Adam wasn’t on the wall anymore.

  He was standing next to her, face to face, eyes cold and almost dead.

  She didn’t hear any footsteps. No sound. Just presence as though he was always standing there to begin with— massive, suffocating. His eyes started glowing faintly, dark veins threading his skin. Steam curled off his bloody shoulders.

  Every living thing within a hundred meters went silent.

  Lysa trembled.

  Every predator knows when it stops being the hunter and becomes the prey.

  Every animal knows when death is looking back at them.

  So she did the only thing left for a truly cornered animal could do— she bowed.

  Dropped to her knees, pressed her head to the dirt, tail limp behind her.

  Absolute submission.

  Her voice cracked, barely a whisper.

  “P-please… s..spare me..I’m sorry…”

  Adam stared down at her — unblinking, thoughts unreadable.

  Then, in a voice colder than the water he’d almost drowned in moments ago, he spoke once.

  “Run.”

  ?

  [END OF CHAPTER]