The man in the blood-stained apron didn't see a teenager. He saw a nightmare made flesh. The glowing amber eyes, the sharp black claws, the vicious scar—it was a visage from the old-world myths his grandmother used to whisper about to scare him. The kind the Kings' propaganda said were extinct.
His bravado, built on preying on those weaker than him, evaporated. The knife in his hand trembled.
"A monster…" he breathed, taking a stumbling step back.
Fexl didn't give him time to process. The cold rage that had settled in his chest was absolute, a guiding force more potent than any System prompt. He moved.
Agility: 15. He was a blur in the dim light. He didn't charge; he simply appeared in front of the man, inside his guard. The butcher swung the knife in a wild, panicked arc. It was a pathetic, slow motion to Fexl's heightened perception. He caught the man's wrist with a clawed hand and squeezed.
The sound of cracking bone was a sharp, satisfying pop.
The man screamed, a high-pitched sound of agony and terror. The knife clattered to the floor. Fexl didn't stop. His other hand, fingers curled into a fist, drove into the man's solar plexus with the force of a piston.
Strength: 12. The air exploded from the man's lungs in a choked gasp. He doubled over, his face purpling, eyes bulging. Fexl released the broken wrist and grabbed a handful of his greasy hair, yanking his head up. The man's terrified eyes met Fexl's burning gold gaze.
"Please…" the man wheezed, spittle flying from his lips. "Credits… I have credits…"
Fexl's voice was a low, gravelly rumble, barely human. "You deal in flesh."
He slammed the man's head down onto the metal table where he'd been cleaning his tools. There was a sickening, wet thud. The man went limp, slumping to the floor in an unconscious heap.
It was over in seconds.
The cold, clinical part of Fexl's mind, the part that was now intertwined with the System, noted the efficiency. The lack of wasted movement. The primal part of him thrummed with satisfaction. The threat was neutralized.
A whimper from the cage snapped him back.
The boy inside was pressed against the far bars, shaking uncontrollably, tears cutting clean lines through the grime on his cheeks. He wasn't looking at the unconscious man. He was staring at Fexl, his eyes wide with a fresh, all-consuming terror.
He had just traded one monster for another.
The look hit Fexl like a physical blow. The rage receded, leaving a hollow, cold feeling in its wake. This wasn't the enforcers in the alley. This was a victim. And he had terrified him.
He took a step toward the cage, and the boy flinched back so hard he hit his head on the bars.
"Don't…" the boy sobbed, squeezing his eyes shut. "Don't eat me…"
The words were a knife to Fexl's gut. Is that what I am? He looked down at his claws, at the blood—the butcher's blood—smudged on his hand.
[Quest Complete: Butcher's Work.] [Reward: 200 XP awarded. Reputation with Sector 7-G Undercity has increased.] [Level Up!] [You have reached Level 3.] [+5 Attribute Points to allocate.]
The notifications felt meaningless. Hollow. He ignored them.
He needed to get the boy out. He grabbed the padlock on the cage. It was thick, industrial. The old Fexl would have needed bolt cutters. The new Fexl wrapped his fingers around it, focused his strength, and pulled. The metal groaned, strained, and then shattered with a loud crack. He tossed the ruined lock aside and swung the door open.
The boy didn't move. He just kept shaking.
Fexl took a slow step back, giving him space. He willed his claws to retract. The sharp points slid back into his fingertips. The subtle growl in his chest quieted. He tried to make his voice soft, an echo of the boy he used to be.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, the words feeling foreign. "He's done. You're safe."
The boy cracked one eye open. Seeing Fexl's hands were normal, that he wasn't advancing, the raw edge of his panic seemed to dull slightly. He was still terrified, but now it was mixed with confusion.
"W-what are you?" the boy stammered.
It was the question Fexl had been asking himself all night. He didn't have an answer. Instead, he asked one of his own. "What's your name?"
"...Leo."
"Leo," Fexl repeated. The name felt solid. Real. A anchor in the madness. "I'm Fexl. We need to go. Now. Before anyone else comes."
The urgency in his tone cut through Leo's fear. Survival instinct took over. Nodding shakily, the boy scrambled out of the cage, clutching his injured arm. He kept a wary distance from Fexl.
Fexl led the way out of the butchering room, back into the main cold storage. Leo's eyes went wide at the sight of the vast quantities of real food. Fexl didn't stop. He grabbed a few more packs of the raw meat, stuffing them into a empty sack he found. Rations.
He led Leo to the vent, boosting the lighter boy up into the shaft before pulling himself up with effortless strength. He guided them back through the darkness, his Keen Smell ability effortlessly retracing their path.
They dropped down outside the fence and melted into the shadows of the pre-dawn streets. The sector was still mostly asleep, the only sounds the distant hum of infrastructure and their own footsteps.
Fexl walked Leo to a relatively safe overpass where a community of other street kids sometimes huddled. He handed him the sack of meat. "This will help you heal. Don't tell anyone where you got it."
Leo stared at the food, then back at Fexl, his fear now tempered with something else… awe. "You're… you're one of them, aren't you? The things they make the serum from. A real beast."
Fexl looked at the boy—really looked at him. He saw the intelligence in his eyes, the resilience that had allowed him to survive the cage. He saw not just a victim, but a person.
"No," Fexl said, the truth of it settling into him for the first time. "I'm something they can't control."
He turned to leave.
"Fexl!" Leo called out. Fexl paused, glancing back. The boy stood a little straighter."Thank you."
Fexl gave a single, slow nod. Then he turned and disappeared into the fading darkness, a solitary figure moving toward a home that could never truly be home again.
In his vision, a new notification glowed, its meaning far greater than any before it.
[Reputation Milestone Reached.] [Leo: Loyalty Gained. Status: Companion - Unlocked.] [The Foundation of a Pack has been laid.] [Path to Alpha: 0.1%]
The first silver star of dawn broke over the city's skyline. Fexl kept walking. He was no longer just surviving. He had made a choice. He had protected someone.
The path ahead was drenched in blood and shadow, but for the first time, he wasn't walking it alone.