The silence after the fight did not last.
In this world, silence was never real. It was only the moment before something worse arrived.
The impact of Brant's battle had travelled far—farther than sound alone. The distortion of Ink, the violent release of corrupted energy, the decapitation of a polluted being… all of it sent ripples through the atmosphere. Not just noise.
A signal.
The air itself had become heavier.
Then Steven froze.
Veronica who was already coming over to heal Brant stopped mid-step.
Brant's blood armor, still dripping, twitched.
Marco's mechanical heart skipped a beat.
From the distance, something answered.
A long, warped screech echoed through the ruins—not animal, not human, not mechanical. A sound produced by twisted and scrapped vocal cords.
Marco's voice dropped instantly.
"It's a Predator."
The word alone changed everything.
Not a monster.
Not a mutated human.
A Predator was something else entirely.
Once human.
Still humanoid.
But with no consciousness left to restrain the Ink.
No thoughts.
No pain.
No survival instinct.
Only the drive to fight.
And grow.
The group had learned the hard way over five years: Predators had no upper limit. As long as polluted air existed, they would continue to absorb it. Their bodies would warp, tear, break, rebuild—stronger each second.
Fighting a Predator was never about winning.
It was about ending it before it evolved.
The ground trembled.
Then it stepped into view.
Three meters tall.
Its body still vaguely human in shape, but stretched and wrong, as if reality had tried and failed to remember how humans were supposed to look. The right arm had completely lost its original form—distorted into a massive organic blade, jagged and asymmetrical, constantly reshaping itself like liquid metal made of flesh.
The left arm was worse.
Long.
Thin.
Too many joints.
Dark claws extended from elongated fingers, each one sharp enough to slice through steel. Black fluid dripped from its limbs, evaporating into mist before touching the ground.
Its head was tilted at an unnatural angle. The face still existed—but the eyes were gone, replaced by swirling black voids that leaked pollution directly into the air.
It did not roar.
It simply started walking forward.
And with each step, its muscles expanded.
Veins thickened.
The air around it darkened.
Steven clenched his fists.
"It's already feeding on pollution."
Brant felt it too. His blood vibrated inside his veins, reacting to the distortion. Even his armor was being subtly pulled toward the thing.
Veronica approached one silently, then gently covered his eyes with thesame stoic expression.
One becomes confused because of the obstruction. He tries to struggle but instantly realises how strong the arm obstructing his view was.
It was like an immovable mountain...not movable no matter how he struggled.
He gives up the meaningless fight and just stood there annoyance. He wanted to see the survival battle about to take place but got disturbed by this weird woman. Very frustrating.
One watched quietly.
He could feel the pollution flowing.
Not into him—but around him.
The Predator was absorbing everything.
Marco exhaled slowly.
This time, he didn't call Brant's name instead he stepped forward.
"We're can't waste more time here, I'll handle it myself"
He stretched both hands toward the massive mechanical vehicle behind them.
The machine responded.
Not with sound.
With movement.
From within the armored transport, plates separated. Hidden compartments opened. Dozens of mechanical components—gears, pistons, rails, segmented metal bones—crawled out like metallic insects.
They didn't fall.
They assembled.
Four massive arms formed in mid-air, each over three meters long, thick as industrial machinery, layered with rotating joints and hydraulic muscles releasing white steam. The parts fused seamlessly, locking together with impossible precision.
The arms attached themselves directly to Marco's back.
Not plugged in.
Integrated.
Marco's nervous system merged with the machinery instantly. To him, the arms were no different from real limbs. He flexed them once.
The ground cracked.
One moment Marco was standing there.
The next—
He wasn't.
The air itself tore.
Marco crossed the distance faster than sound, faster than thought, faster than the Predator's distorted brain could even register movement.
The Predator finally reacted.
It raised its blade-arm.
But it was already too late.
Marco's mechanical arms wrapped around its torso—two gripping the chest, two locking around the shoulders. The force alone created a shockwave that flattened nearby debris.
The Predator screeched.
Not in pain.
In adaptation.
Its body began to swell, muscles thickening, claws elongating, blade growing sharper as it absorbed more pollution—
Marco didn't let it finish.
He pulled.
The mechanical arms contracted with overwhelming force.
The Predator's body was torn apart mid-transformation.
Not sliced.
Not crushed.
Ripped.
Its upper body separated from its lower half. Black blood exploded outward, splattering across the ruins like ink thrown against a wall. The blade-arm shattered into chunks of corrupted flesh. The claws dissolved into smoke.
The Predator never even touched him.
Marco released the remains and vanished again, reappearing inside the vehicle almost instantly. The mechanical arms disassembled and crawled back into the machine like obedient limbs returning to a sleeping body.
Outside, the Predator's remains continued to twitch.
But they did not regenerate.
Without a sustained fight…
It had been denied evolution.
Veronica finally released the already frustrated One with a trace of smile of someone who's achieved victory in a little scheme.
Won ran towards the already scattered remains. He dragged both the abomination and Predator into the mechanically constructed vehicle.
He finally breathes a sigh of relief.
Marco's voice came through the speakers, calm but sharp:
"Get in, we're moving now"
The vehicle engines roared to life.
"That noise already travelled too far. There are things out here that even I don't want to provoke just yet."
Brant looked at the dissolving black blood.
Steven swallowed.
Veronica said nothing. Still glancing at the bust One from time to time.
One already halfway done with the movement of his experimental materials continued his work diligently.
After 30 minutes of struggle, he finally got the materials into his personal research room...
The mechanically constructed bus was very large with a lot of rooms.
Some were large, while others were very small.
The room was composed of materials found in a biological research lab. There were various boxes composed of heads and body parts belonging to other creatures especially abominations.
These boxes and equipment were connected together in a way that completely prevented the escape of anything from the boxes including gas and moisture.
He placed the newly brought over "materials" into other boxes after carfull seperation.
He then extends a pipe connecting to the boxes into a very large jar containing dark green liquid.