The helicopter wreckage was still burning in the distance, black smoke twisting up into the gray sky. The wind across the rooftop carried the sll of charred tal and blood, and the cold cut straight through.
Nesis stepped out of the shadows. Massive. Covered in wounds that hadn't healed. The muscle on its left shoulder had peeled back and was rotting, black blood dripping steadily from the edge. A deep gouge split its chest where the bullet had gone in back at the apartnt, close enough to bone that it should have killed sothing else. Half its face was burned black. Its movents were stiff from the damage, but none of that had touched the violence in it. No posturing, no hesitation. Just those red eyes, fixed on Ryan.
"Focus fire on the old wounds!" Jill's shotgun roared, pellets hamring the ruined left shoulder. Black blood sprayed. Brad pulled his trigger with shaking hands, the shot grazing the monster's side, barely slowing it.
Nesis surged forward.
It crossed the rooftop like sothing that had been aid rather than moving on its own, legs cracking the concrete, right arm sweeping wide. The air shrieked. The railing exploded into fragnts that scattered like shrapnel.
Ryan dropped low and threw himself sideways. The fist ca down where he'd been standing and punched a crater into the roof. He hit the ground on one knee, raised the Desert Eagle, and put three rounds directly into the chest wound.
Nesis howled. The wound split wide open, black blood pouring out. It didn't stop. Both fists ca down in a hamring frenzy, each impact cracking the concrete further, fractures spreading outward in every direction, dust and debris blasting up with every hit. Jill kept firing. Brad managed to keep pace. The rounds landed, made the thing flinch, bought seconds.
It ignored them both completely.
Nesis grabbed a broken slab of concrete off the roof surface, hoisted it one-handed, and hurled it at Ryan. He rolled clear. The slab exploded against the ground behind him.
Before he could get up, it was already on top of him, one massive hand reaching for his throat. The claws caught the light. Jill fired into the back of its skull in rapid succession and its head jerked sideways from the impact. Ryan ducked under the grab, drove his elbow hard into the unhealed wound, and shoved the Desert Eagle's barrel directly into the center of it before pulling the trigger.
Nesis shuddered. Its arm swung in a wild backhand and the edge of the blow caught Ryan, launching him across the roof. He hit the broken wall hard, the impact knocking the air out of him. He fired again the mont he had a line, the round finding the wound a second ti.
It staggered. Whatever was left of its self-control gave out entirely.
Nesis dropped into a crouch, grabbed the tal frawork bolted to the roof's edge, and tore the whole section free. It swung the steel like a bat. Jill and Brad scattered, too far back to get a shot in.
Ryan ran toward it.
The steel fra ca around in a wide arc. He launched himself off a chunk of broken concrete, got airborne, and put three shots into the old bullet scar on its head at the top of the swing.
Nesis threw its head back, movent stuttering.
Ryan landed and rolled to its flank, pressed the barrel against the wound in its back, and emptied more rounds into it.
Nesis spun and swatted backward. Ryan ducked. The hand cratered the concrete where his head had been.
He looked at the hole and thought, Getting hit by that would be a real bad ti.
It followed up with a stomp. He rolled aside and the roof caved in where its foot landed.
Jill charged in from the side, got close enough to press the shotgun almost against it, and fired. Nesis turned and grabbed at her. She barely got back in ti, and after that there was no getting close again. Brad fired from across the rooftop, rounds landing but doing little.
Nesis was soaked in its own black blood. It lowered its head, coiled its whole body, and sprinted straight at Ryan.
Ryan didn't move.
At the last possible mont he dropped low, slipping under its arm and through the gap beside its body. He jamd the Desert Eagle into the deepest part of the chest wound and fired.
The shot punched through muscle and hit bone. Nesis scread, lost control of its body, and plowed into the wall. The whole building shook. The wall ca down on top of it, burying it to the waist in rubble.
The rubble exploded outward a second later.
It dragged itself free, bleeding from everything, and it was worse now. Arms swinging, clearing whatever was in reach. What was left of the rooftop ca apart under the assault, railing gone, surface cracked and cratered in every direction.
Jill and Brad were backed into a corner, no angle to work from.
Ryan kept moving. He threaded through the swings, each dodge precise and tight, and every shot went into an open wound. The rounds kept tearing through damaged tissue, kept ripping the injuries wider. Black blood went everywhere.
Nesis slowed. Its roaring dropped in volu. The enormous body had started to sway.
One hand reached out, fingers spreading toward Ryan.
He stepped in close, turned so the claws passed by his side, pressed his left hand against the torn shoulder wound to brace it, and pushed the Desert Eagle into the bullet scar on its skull.
He pulled the trigger.
The shot rang out across the whole rooftop.
Nesis went rigid. Held that way for a few seconds, swaying. Then it fell, the full weight of it hitting the concrete and sending a shockwave through the air, dust rolling out in every direction.
The rooftop was gone. Railing destroyed, ground riddled with craters and cracks, spent casings everywhere, black blood soaking into the rubble. Smoke drifted without going anywhere.
Brad collapsed where he stood, drenched in sweat, breathing in loud ragged gulps. All the tension had gone out of him at once.
Jill leaned against what was left of a wall, gun lowering, the coil in her going slack by degrees.
Ryan hadn't moved.
His breathing was uneven, but the Desert Eagle stayed up, trained on the body. He watched it. The chest, the hands, any twitch in the ruined muscle.
He knew what these things could survive.
Until the last movent stopped, until the heart had nothing left, it wasn't over.
Wind moved through the smoke. Dust settled, slow and quiet.
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