Under the overturned delivery truck, Rian watched.
His fingers dug into the cold asphalt without him realizing it. Every breath felt too loud in his chest, like it might give him away. He could feel his pulse in his teeth, in his eyes—everywhere at once.
He was witnessing it climb out.
The hole didn't widen. It didn't need to. The creature adjusted itself to the space instead, its body compressing, unfolding, deciding how much of reality it wanted to occupy. One long limb planted against the street with a wet, dragging scrape. The asphalt groaned in protest.
Then another.
The sound wasn't violent. That was the worst part.
A slow, deliberate shift—as if something massive was getting comfortable.
Rian's vision tunneled. His brain kept trying to label what he was seeing and failing halfway through every attempt. His instincts screamed to look away, to run, to disappear—but he couldn't stop watching.
Its spine rose next, ridged and uneven, like something grown rather than built. The weight of it pressed down on the street, and the ground answered with a dull, strained crack. Dust lifted and slid sideways toward the hole, pulled by a force Rian felt in his chest more than his ears.
It didn't rush.
It didn't need to.
The creature pulled itself fully free and straightened—not upright, not hunched, but at an angle that made Rian's sense of balance revolt. Its claws flexed once against the pavement, testing.
Then its head moved.
Not snapping.
Not searching.
Just a slow, precise turn.
Rian's breath caught.
He knew—without logic, without sight—that it wasn't scanning the street again.
It was narrowing.
And when its gaze finished its arc and settled on the same shadow beneath the truck—
On him—
Rian's body locked up.
The pressure in his head spiked again, sharper than before, like something had reached inside and brushed against the part of him that didn't belong to this moment. The world dimmed at the edges.
If Rian had held onto even a shred of doubt that he was spotted before—
It was gone now.
The creature moved.
Not suddenly.
Not explosively.
It shifted its weight forward, and the street responded like it was being asked a question it couldn't answer. The asphalt groaned. A parked car slid an inch sideways with a shrill scrape of metal. The delivery truck above Rian shuddered, suspension whining softly.
It was coming toward him.
No hesitation.
No searching.
Rian's chest tightened until breathing hurt. This wasn't paranoia. This wasn't instinct misfiring. The direction was unmistakable—every step aligned, every adjustment calculated.
The rest of its body emerged into the open.
Segment by segment, mass revealing itself as if reality was reluctantly allowing it to be seen. Long limbs planted, shoulders rising, a frame that didn't belong on a street meant for people and cars. Its full silhouette finally cleared the edge of the pit, and Rian's mind stalled trying to comprehend the scale.
It was tall.
Not "large."
Not "huge."
Tall enough that Rian's eyes had to tilt upward even from where he hid.
Five floors.
That was the thought that surfaced, uninvited and absolute. As tall as the apartment blocks lining the street. As tall as something that should have required distance to make sense—but stood right there, crushing that distance flat.
Its presence bent the air around it. Light dulled near its outline, like the world had learned to flinch. The creature took another step forward.
THUD.
The impact rolled through the ground and into Rian's bones.
This wasn't something passing through.
It wasn't wandering.
It had chosen.
And every part of Rian—the part that ran convenience store shifts, the part that forgot his phone on the counter, the part that had never believed in monsters—understood one brutal truth all at once
He wasn't hiding anymore.
He was being approached.
Rian moved.
The moment his muscles unlocked, he burst from under the truck, scraping skin and cloth as he rolled out into the open. His feet slipped on gravel and shattered glass, but momentum carried him forward.
Run—
No.
MOVE.
He didn't make it three steps.
The street collapsed behind him.
The delivery truck didn't tip.
Didn't slide.
It was crushed.
A limb came down where Rian had been hiding a heartbeat earlier—too fast, too heavy. Metal screamed as the truck folded in on itself like paper caught under a boot. The chassis buckled. The engine block detonated outward in sparks and steam.
WHAAAM—!!
The impact launched Rian.
The shockwave hit him like a wall, lifting him clean off his feet. He didn't stumble—he flew, body snapping sideways as the air was punched out of his lungs.
"—AH—!"
The scream tore out of him without permission, strangled and broken as he spun. His shoulder smashed into the pavement first, then his back, then his head—each hit stealing another piece of breath, another spark of vision.
The world cartwheeled.
Heat. Noise. Pressure.
Something sharp cut across his forearm. Glass. He felt it tear skin but couldn't feel the pain yet—only the shock, the numb, ringing hollow in his chest where air refused to come back.
Rian skidded across the street and slammed into the side of a parked car with a bone-rattling CRASH, metal denting inward around his ribs. His legs buckled and he collapsed, palms scraping uselessly against asphalt.
He clawed for air.
Nothing.
His mouth opened in a silent gasp, chest convulsing as panic surged hot and fast. Stars burst across his vision. His ears rang so loudly it drowned out the street.
Breathe—
Finally—air forced its way back in, harsh and burning, dragging a raw, animal sound out of his throat.
"H—hh—!"
He rolled onto his side, coughing violently, bile stinging the back of his tongue. His hands shook as he pushed himself up, vision still swimming, limbs heavy and uncooperative.
Behind him—
Something heavy shifted.
The ground answered with another deep, settling groan.
Rian didn't look.
He couldn't afford to.
He coughed instead—hard, wet, chest burning as he rolled onto his back. The sky filled his vision, fractured by flickering streetlights and drifting ash. Snow hung motionless above him, suspended like the world had forgotten how gravity worked.
His ribs screamed when he tried to breathe.
Rian sucked in air and tried to sit up.
Something howled overhead.
Not wind. Not metal.
A blur tore across his vision—
KRRRRAAASH—!!
A car flew past him sideways, spinning end over end like a toy thrown by an angry child. It missed him by meters, slammed into the far side of the street, and exploded into glass, sparks, and shrieking steel.
The impact shook the ground beneath his spine.
Then—
A sound ripped through the chaos.
Deep. Broken. Wrong.
A dragging, torn bellow, like stone grinding against bone—pain forced through a throat that wasn't meant to make noise at all.
Rian froze.
"What—" His voice came out cracked, useless.
His head turned on instinct, eyes wide, trying to make sense of what he'd just seen.
Cars don't fly.
They don't get thrown like that.
And whatever had made that sound—
It had been hurt.
Then—
A voice.
Behind him.
Casual. Too casual.
"Hey, ugly branch," it said. "One of us is going to god's lobby today."
Rian flinched, neck twisting painfully as he tried to look past his shoulder, past the overturned cars and shattered street.
"Guess who."
Another impact shook the road.
The creature reeled, its massive frame staggering sideways as the car embedded in its face finally fell away, crushed flat like a toy. It let out a sound—low, broken, furious—more vibration than noise. The streetlights nearest to it shattered all at once.
Rian's eyes snapped back toward the voice.
A figure stood where the car had come from.
Tall. Lean. Balanced like the chaos around him wasn't happening at all. One foot planted forward, the other half-turned, as if he'd stepped into the street mid-conversation instead of mid-disaster. His posture was relaxed—but not careless. Ready, without trying to look like it.
The air around him felt… steadier. Like the pressure had bent around him instead of through him.
Rian's mouth opened, but nothing came out.
The creature recovered its footing.
Slowly.
Its weight settled again, claws digging into asphalt. The ground groaned in protest as it turned its ruined face toward the figure now standing between it and the rest of the street.
The figure rolled his shoulders once.
"Yeah," he muttered, eyes locked forward.
"Definitely you."
The creature took a step.
The street screamed.
Rian blinked hard.
Ugly branch? God's lobby?
The words didn't line up with anything happening in front of him. His ears were still ringing, his head swimming, but even through the haze one thing stood out-
That guy looked… young.
Not older. Not hardened. Not like someone who should be standing between that thing and the rest of the street. If anything, he looked closer to a high school kid who'd wandered into the wrong place at the worst possible time.
Rian tried to push himself up on one elbow.
"Wh—"
The sentence never finished.
KRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAA—!!
The roar tore out of the creature's chest like the ground itself was screaming through it. Low at first—dragging—then swelling into something vast and crushing, a sound that didn't just hit the ears but pressed into the body. Windows burst outward in a cascading shatter. Metal rattled. Rian's ribs vibrated like struck glass.
It moved.
One step.
DOOOM.
The street dipped beneath its weight, asphalt cracking outward in a spiderweb. Parked cars lurched, alarms choking out half-formed cries before dying.
Second step.
Faster.
DOOOM—DOOOM.
A jog—unnatural for something that size. Its limbs swung wider now, momentum building, each impact landing harder than the last. The air itself seemed to get dragged forward with it, pressure surging ahead of its body.
Rian's instincts shrieked.
MOVE—
The third step hit—
And the creature sprinted.
Not clumsy.
Not charging blindly.
A full, terrifying burst of speed, its massive frame eating distance in heartbeats. The street vanished beneath it as it bore down on the figure ahead—
—and on Rian, still too close.
Rian didn't think.
He rolled.
Gravel tore at his palms as he twisted away, just as a shadow swallowed the space he'd been in. A colossal foot slammed down—
DOOOOM—!!
The impact punched the air out of him as the street cratered where his head had been moments before. Shockwaves tossed him sideways, his shoulder slamming into the curb hard enough to make stars explode across his vision.
Rian gasped, coughing, scrambling on instinct alone.
Behind him, concrete shattered.
Ahead of him, something impossible was about to collide.
And Rian heart hammering in his throat—
The creature moved.
Not fast.
Decisive.
Its body coiled—not like muscle tensing, but like gravity itself drawing inward. The ridges along its spine compressed, plates sliding against each other with a deep, grinding KRRRRNNK— as if the air were being folded and packed.
Then it struck.
One limb drove forward—not a swipe, not a slam—but a straight, brutal thrust. The ground beneath it didn't crack.
It collapsed.
The street imploded outward in a perfect arc as the limb hit, asphalt liquefying into dust and fragments under the force. A pressure wave detonated ahead of the strike, flattening debris before contact even reached it.
The kid didn't run.
He stepped into it.
Rian's breath caught.
What the hell is he—
The kid planted his foot, shoulders square, arms raised like he meant to catch the impact. His jaw clenched, eyes sharp—not brave, not stupid.
Committed.
The limb met him.
DOOOOOOM—!!!
The impact didn't sound like a hit.
It sounded like something ending.
Air detonated. Cars lifted clean off the street, flipping end over end. Windows shattered three blocks down. The shockwave tore past Rian and smashed him flat, scraping skin and breath from his body as he slid across broken pavement.
The kid vanished inside the blast.
Gone.
For half a heartbeat, Rian thought the creature had erased him.
Then—
Something flew out of the dust.
The kid's body was launched like debris, spinning violently. He hit a streetlight midair—KRRRSH—!!—snapping it in half before slamming into the side of a building with a bone-deep WHAAAM—!! Brick exploded outward as he punched into the wall and disappeared inside.
The creature skidded forward from its own momentum, claws digging trenches into asphalt as it slowed. Its limb dragged along the ground, leaving a furrow that smoked faintly.
It straightened.
Slow.
Unbothered.
Rian's ears rang. His vision swam as he pushed himself up on trembling arms.
No way.
From the cratered wall—
Movement.
Dust spilled as a figure staggered out, coughing once, then twice. The kid stepped free from the wreckage, blood running from his temple, one arm hanging stiff at his side.
Still standing.
He looked at the creature.
Then at the destroyed street.
"…Yeah," he muttered hoarsely. "That tracks."
The creature lowered its head.
The ground trembled again.
And Rian understood something with
chilling certainty—
That strike could have killed anyone.That kid isn't normal.
The kid bounced once on his shoes.
Just once.
Like he was loosening up.
He glanced at the cratered street, then at the creature, eyes narrowing—not afraid, not rushed. Measuring.
"…Okay," he said lightly, brushing dust from his sleeve. "Strength checks out."
He rolled his shoulder, bones popping.
"Let's see how tough you actually are."
Then he was gone.
Not ran.
Vanished.
The ground where he'd been standing detonated, asphalt shattering outward as if struck from below. Rian flinched as debris whipped past his face, the shockwave slamming into his chest a split second after the kid had already crossed the street.
Too fast.
Rian's eyes barely tracked the blur as it hit the side of a building—
then the next—
then another—
Each jump cracked concrete and peeled chunks from walls as the kid rebounded upward, crossing impossible distance in heartbeats. Windows exploded outward in his wake.
The creature reacted Fast.
Its tail lashed out in a brutal arc, slicing through the air with a WHIP-CRACK that split the sound barrier. The streetlight it clipped was severed cleanly, the pole spinning away in sparks.
But—
Too late.
The kid collided with the creature's shoulder like a missile.
BAA—DOOOOM—!!!
The impact folded the air inward before it exploded outward. The creature was lifted off its footing—just barely—but enough. Both bodies were hurled sideways, smashing into a nearby building with catastrophic force.
KRRRRAAASH—!!
The facade imploded.
Brick, glass, and steel rained down as the structure caved inward, floors collapsing one after another in a roaring cascade. The street shook violently, throwing people off their feet.
Screams erupted.
Sharp. Panicked. Everywhere.
Rian covered his head as debris skidded across the asphalt, heart hammering as dust swallowed the block. Car alarms tried to scream, failed, and died.
For a moment—
Nothing but settling rubble and echoing destruction.
Then, through the dust—
Movement.
Two shapes pushed free from the wreckage.
The creature dragged itself upright first, shaking off debris with an irritated, grinding sound. Its shoulder was cracked—plating fractured, something dark leaking between the breaks.
The kid landed a few meters away, boots carving trenches into the street as he slid to a stop. He straightened slowly, rolling his neck, breathing steady.
He looked at the damage.
Then at the creature.
A grin tugged at his mouth.
"…Yeah," he said. "You felt that."
The creature answered by lowering its head.
The street trembled.
And Rian stared—distantly, shocked and horrified—
—at the way the thing lowered itself, massive and deliberate, like a siege engine locking into place.
The ground shook harder. Cracks raced through the asphalt, snapping streetlights and buckling doors. Dust burst upward in choking clouds.
Rian's mouth fell open.
"What the fu—"
WWHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—
The word died in his throat.
A roar tore through the street—
deeper, sharper, wrong—
echoing from somewhere else entirely.
Not from the towering creature.
Not from anything Rian could see.
The sound rolled over the buildings, rattled windows, made his bones vibrate.
And whatever made it was getting closer.