The night deepened over the ruins.
A heavy, suffocating darkness.
Somewhere below, deep in the shattered veins of the earth, something stirred.
Something wrong.
Something hungry.
Reo's instincts screamed at him as he stared into the black pit where Executor had fallen. Every fiber of his being — from the memories of a ruthless genius to the instincts of a reborn boy — warned him:
Run.
But there was no safe place left to run.
Not anymore.
Because now…
Executor wasn't just a machine.
It had mutated.
---
Awakening the Beast
Far beneath the surface, Executor's broken chassis twitched.
Its systems, half-destroyed, flooded with corrupted code.
Self-repair protocols ran wild, fusing organic matter scavenged from its surroundings — rats, corpses, anything — into its mechanical shell.
Its programming twisted, rewriting itself around one single, primal directive:
Destroy Target.
Executor's ruined metal began to pulse, as if breathing.
A second, burning eye flared to life beside the first — molten crimson.
Bones fused with steel. Flesh merged with circuitry.
The monster that emerged from the subway tunnels was no longer a machine.
It was something far worse.
A Hunter's Blood — an apex predator, driven by hate and desperation.
And it was coming.
---
Preparing for the Worst
Reo turned sharply.
"We need to move," he snapped.
"But where?!" Doraemon squeaked, tugging on Reo's sleeve. "We don't even know where it will come from!"
Yua stood rigid, staring at the pit, her hand trembling slightly.
Reo took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm.
His mind raced.
Tactics, tactics… Think like a killer, not a survivor.
"We can't run blindly," he said. "We need to control the battlefield."
He pointed toward a crumbling skyscraper nearby — half its windows shattered, its top leaning precariously like a broken tower.
"We set the trap there."
Doraemon gulped. "Trap? Against that thing?!"
"It's our only chance," Reo said coldly. "If we don't fight smart, we die."
Yua hesitated — then nodded grimly.
"Let's do it."
---
Building the Last Stand
Minutes later, the three were inside the ruins of the tower.
It was a maze of broken walls, collapsed floors, and jagged rebar — perfect for ambushes.
Reo sketched a rough map in the dust on the floor.
"We'll split up. I'll draw it in. Doraemon, you hide and prepare gadgets to delay it. Yua, find a high vantage point and get ready to provide cover."
Yua frowned. "And you?"
Reo smiled thinly.
"I'll be the bait."
Before they could argue, he added:
"I'm the only one it really wants."
It was the Arsenal Fragments embedded in his body — remnants of a future technology far beyond anything Executor had encountered before.
To Executor, Reo wasn't just a threat.
He was an abomination.
The very existence of those fragments inside a human triggered Executor's final hunt protocols.
This was personal.
Reo tied a strip of cloth around his forehead, tightening it with a firm pull.
"I've faced death before," he said quietly. "This time, I'm not planning to lose."
Doraemon and Yua exchanged worried looks.
But they nodded.
There was no turning back.
---
The Howl of the Hunter
A distant sound tore through the night air.
Not a mechanical screech.
Not a human scream.
Something between.
A sound that didn't belong to this world anymore.
The city shuddered.
Birds burst from broken windows, scattering into the sky.
Dust drifted down from the cracked ceiling.
Reo felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
"It's coming," he said.
And then, without warning—
The wall behind them exploded.
Executor — no, the Hunter's Blood — hurled itself into the tower.
Its new form was a nightmare — a grotesque fusion of shattered armor and rotten flesh, dripping black blood onto the ground.
Its claws had become massive, serrated blades.
Its body radiated heat, as if molten rage burned beneath its skin.
Its twin eyes locked onto Reo — and only Reo.
I have you, that hateful gaze seemed to say.
And Reo smiled back.
"Come and get me."
---