[Five Days Later - The Chase]
Marcus, Isaac, and Thomas had found Major Ryan and what remained of his group three days ago.
The reunion had been brief and horrifying.
Ryan’s defensive strategy had failed catastrophically when two full Giant teams, two hundred warriors total, had converged on their position simultaneously.
The Giants had simply surrounded them and attacked from all sides, their overwhelming numbers and strength making defense impossible.
Many humans had been slaughtered in that single engagent!
Ryan had managed to lead them in a desperate retreat, fighting a running battle that left so of them dead before they could break contact.
Now forty humans total remained alive in this portal world. Forty out of the original seventy-four who’d been pulled through.
And for five days, they’d been running.
The Giants pursued them relentlessly, using their longer legs and superior endurance to herd the humans like prey, cutting off escape routes, driving them toward killing grounds.
Ryan’s military training and Marcus’s tactical thinking had kept them alive through narrow margins and desperate gambles.
"There! That’s the cave Damian is in! Move!"
Marcus’s shout cut through the exhausted group’s despair.
They stumbled toward the cave entrance, so barely able to walk, all of them wounded and running on fus.
Behind them, the thunder of Giant footsteps grew closer.
They poured into the cave desperately, seeking any shelter from the pursuit.
Then stopped.
The sll hit them first. Copper and at and sothing fundantally wrong.
Then... they saw the blood. Everywhere... Coating the walls, pooled on the floor, splattered across the ceiling.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
The sound of sothing being chewed echoed from deeper in the cave.
The survivors moved forward slowly, their minds refusing to process what they were seeing.
Damian sat in the center of what looked like a slaughterhouse, surrounded by partially consud Giant corpses.
His face and hands were covered in blood. His mouth moved chanically, chewing and swallowing flesh that should have been inedible to humans.
Beside him, Kuro had erged from the shadows and was thodically absorbing death energy from the bodies, his form pulsing with dark power as he fed.
The raven had ranked up. C rank now, his presence radiating increased power.
"Oh God–"
One survivor turned and vomited violently against the cave wall.
Others followed, their stomachs rebelling at the scene, unable to reconcile what they were witnessing with anything sane or human.
Damian continued eating, his movents chanical, his Aura cycling through patterns that seed to be actively transforming the Giant flesh into energy his body could integrate.
The survivors backed away from him instinctively, fear mixing with revulsion mixing with sothing that might have been awe.
’No human has ever tried eating sentient Monsters. It’s taboo. Because they’re not mindless beasts – they speak, they think, they have culture and families.
Eating them is fundantally crossing a line into sothing monstrous!’
Hours passed.
Damian continued his chanical consumption, working through every corpse he’d stored, drinking blood, eating flesh, running his newly developed art to transform everything into enhanced physical capabilities.
His body visibly changed. Growing slightly taller, muscles becoming denser and bones thickening. His entire physique restructuring itself as it incorporated Giant genetics through Aura-forced assimilation.
By the ti he finished, nearly a full day had passed.
Twenty-six survivors remained. Fourteen had died during the five-day chase before reaching the cave.
Damian stood slowly, his movents controlled but carrying weight they hadn’t before.
He walked toward the cave entrance, stepping past survivors who instinctively moved away from him.
The night air outside was cool, refreshing after the charnel house atmosphere of the cave.
Ryan erged behind him, his scarred face troubled.
"...You were right. We shouldn’t have tried to wait in one location. The Giants found us and nearly wiped us out in a single engagent."
"...You were right too."
Damian’s voice was quiet, carrying none of his usual edge.
"I led people on a suicide mission. Twenty volunteers who followed into that ambush died."
Ryan stood beside him, both of them staring out at the alien forest.
"...Giants. Neither of us expected it would be them."
A helpless smile crossed Ryan’s face, matched by sothing similar on Damian’s.
’Of all the Monster species, we got the one that’s one of the strongest with just their overwhelming physical superiority.’
"The survivors need food. Send people to gather any edible fruits or plants they can find. I’ll handle the Giants."
Damian started walking toward the forest, Kuro materializing on his shoulder.
"Wait, you can’t go alone–"
"I can and I will. You’d only slow down at this point. Your job is protecting the survivors. My job is eliminating the threat."
Marcus stepped forward, his expression conflicted.
"Damian, you can’t take on hundreds of Giants by yourself. That’s not realistic even with... whatever you just did to yourself."
"I’m not planning to fight them all at once. I’m going to hunt their scattered teams one by one, and reduce their numbers until the odds shift in our favor."
His crimson eyes were cold, empty of anything resembling rcy.
"Stay here and protect each other. I’ll return once enough Giants are dead that you can actually survive."
He walked away into the darkness.
The mont he was out of sight, the entire group collectively exhaled.
"Is it just , or did that kid suddenly beco absolutely terrifying?"
Isaac’s voice was shaking slightly.
"...It’s not just you."
Ryan’s professional assessnt was grim.
"Whatever he did to himself, whatever that art was that let him consu Giant flesh and blood, it changed him. His Aura feels different... heavier and more oppressive. Like he’s radiating sothing that shouldn’t exist in a human body."
Marcus nodded slowly.
"I can feel it too. He’s stronger now... Significantly stronger. Maybe even stronger than the largest Giant we encountered."
"But there’s sothing else."
Thomas spoke quietly.
"...Sothing about him that makes it impossible to accurately gauge his strength. Like he’s hiding his true capabilities even when his Aura is visible."
The group fell silent, watching the direction Damian had disappeared.
Ryan clenched his fists unconsciously.
"That’s a fucking kid! A sixteen-year-old kid has the courage to hunt Giants alone while all we can do is hide and wait for him to save us."
"We’re not hiding."
Marcus’s voice was firm despite his own guilt.
"We’re protecting the survivors. That’s our role. Damian’s role is eliminating threats because he’s the only one capable of it now."
But the rationalization felt hollow even as he said it.
They were once warriors, soldiers and trained fighters. And they were cowering in a cave while a teenager went out to face an army alone.
The sha of that reality burned, but they couldn’t deny the truth: Damian had beco sothing beyond their ability to support in combat.
Whatever he’d transford himself into through that horrifying ritual, he was now at a level they couldn’t reach.
All they could do was survive long enough for him to succeed.
Or... die alongside him when he inevitably failed against impossible odds.
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