Warning: The following scene contains graphic violence, including descriptions of injuries, blood, and death. Please proceed with caution.

Lev moved like a shadow through the ruined city, each step deliberate, silent. His eyes cut through smoke and rubble, searching for any trace of the metallic object that had descended from the portal. Colossal bugs prowled the streets, their jointed legs clicking against stone and steel, but Lev slipped past them, hugging the broken walls and melted cars, his presence unnoticed.

A sharp screech of metal against debris carried through the air. Lev’s head tilted, instincts sharpening. He followed the sound, weaving through rubble until his gaze locked on a lone figure.

A human man. Standing at ease amidst devastation, cigarette smoldering between his lips as though the end of the world was a casual spectacle.

A hunter? No. This one’s too calm. Too comfortable to this place.

Lev’s eyes narrowed. He closed the distance in a blink. His fist slammed into the man’s chest with monstrous force. The ribcage buckled inward, bones snapping like brittle wood. The man’s scream curdled into a wet gurgle as blood frothed from his mouth. His body convulsed, gasping desperately for air that would never come.

Lev’s hand clamped over his face, muffling the sound. His other hand twisted downward with surgical cruelty. Fingers dug into flesh, pried into bone. A sharp wrench and the man’s femur tore free in a spray of gore. His eyes bulged in mute horror as his own skeleton betrayed him.

Lev didn’t hesitate. He drove the jagged bone back into the man’s abdomen, the crude weapon sinking deep with a dull thud. Blood bubbled from the wound, spilling in hot rivulets over Lev’s arm. The man spasmed once, then collapsed to the ground, lifeless, his blood spreading in a dark, widening pool across the cracked pavement.

Lev stood over the body, calm, steady. He wiped his hand against his clothes but kept the femur, gripping it like a blade.

Not far ahead, he finally saw the metallic object, doors ajar. Inside, Chichi lay slumped unconscious with three other children.

But what froze him wasn’t the sight of them.

Humans stood opposite a colossal bug, speaking to it with unnatural familiarity. The monster’s mandibles clacked rhythmically, as though bargaining. Lev’s brows furrowed. Monsters could understand speech, that much he knew. But humans parleying so casually with them? 

The colossal bug’s head tilted toward him, antennae twitching. “One of your own?” it asked, voice scraping the air like rusted blades.

The humans turned. Their faces drained pale at the sight of his blood-soaked clothes with a dripping femur in hand. His eyes were cold and unreadable. His lips curled into a thin, humorless smile.

“N-no,” one stammered, trembling. “He’s not with us. We don’t know him.”

The colossal bug studied Lev in silence. Then its mandibles parted with a sound like grinding stone. “Interesting. Then he’s not a friend but an intruder.”

It shrieked.

Zralox gix kraax kal z’xal tal.

The ground quaked as four colossal bugs thundered forward, surrounding him in a wall of chitin and shadow.

Lev’s grin sharpened, eyes flickering with predatory light. His vessel tensed, coiled. Excitement rippled through him. It had been far too long since he’d hunted.

The fight was over before it began.

One bug lunged. Lev sidestepped, driving the femur straight into its eye. The jagged bone tore through its brain with a wet crunch, ichor erupting across his face. He ripped the femur free, pivoted, and rammed it into the joint of another bug’s leg. With a violent twist, he tore the limb away, using the dripping appendage as a club to shatter its thorax.

Another’s mandibles clamped down toward him. Lev caught them in both hands, muscles straining, then split them apart at the hinge with a savage wrench. The creature shrieked, body spasming as its head tore in two. The last bug tried to crush him beneath its weight, but Lev ducked low, slashing its underbelly open with the jagged bone. Its insides spilled in steaming ropes, splattering the ground in a stinking pool.

When the carnage stilled, Lev stood alone, drenched in black ichor and crimson spray. His vessel heaved a single steady breath. His smile widened, slow and menacing.

The colossal bug leader recoiled, mandibles quivering. “A… hunter?” it hissed.

Lev dragged his tongue across his cheek, licking a streak of blood that wasn’t his. His laugh rolled out low and cruel.

“Worse.”

——————————-

Red warning lights pulsed through the halls of the Hunter Association, painting everything in an ominous red glow.

⚠ Attention ⚠

All Rank A Hunters and above are required in City B. Proceed with extreme caution.

Threat Level: Level A Cataclysmic Threat

Every monitor, every display screen, flashed the same message. The command center was a frenzy of voices and motion. The employees with headsets barked into comms. Their fingers were flying across keyboards, contacting guilds and rerouting patrols. Trying to bring order to a city descending into chaos.

“How many casualties so far?” McIntosh, the head of HA, demanded, his voice grim but steady.

“55 confirmed… and rising.” His secretary, Annacia, reported quickly, her fingers gripping a tablet as fresh numbers updated in real time. “Deadeye Guild and Firebounty Guild have already been deployed. They’re in the area now.”

McIntosh dragged a hand across his forehead, massaging the stress buried deep in his temple. This wasn’t the first dungeon outbreak he’d overseen. But each one… each one felt like a nightmare he could never wake from.

“As long as Uno is there, we’ll hold.” He exhaled slowly, though the weight in his chest didn’t ease.

It wasn’t that he doubted the other hunters. But Uno was different. He’s efficient, ruthless, and unshakably reliable. When Uno was on the field, McIntosh could almost convince himself everything would turn out alright.  

Uno wasn’t just a hunter to him. He was the closest thing to a son he’d ever had.

He clenched his fists behind his desk, his eyes narrowing at the pulsing red screens. 

“Yes, sir,” Annacia said quietly, though her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the tablet.

————————–

Meanwhile, as the colossal bugs rampaged through City B, hunters swarmed the battlefield to intercept them. The monsters loomed over buildings, armored in thick, chitinous shells and driven by feral aggression.

Each one towered above the hunters and their weapons, charging with reckless confidence. Their natural armor made them nearly impervious to ordinary strikes, and the ground trembled under every movement.

Believing they held the upper hand, the colossal bugs attacked with blind arrogance.

But then, a silver-haired hunter with crimson streaks in his hair smirked. He tugged off his leather gauntlet and pressed his bare hand against the bug’s armored shell.

“!”

Its body began to sizzle, then melt, collapsing like molten metal using his ability. The bug shrieked as its own flesh disintegrated, until it was nothing but steaming remains.

“See that, lady?” Matthew grinned, tossing a glance at Junha, clearly fishing for approval.

“Tch. Show off much?” Junha snorted, wiping bug ichor from her blade after finishing off three of her own kills.

Matthew arched a brow. “Of course I….”

He didn’t get to finish.

A shadow fell over them as Uno arrived, dragging a monstrous colossal bug in one hand. He carried it as though it weighed nothing, though the beast was easily four times the size of the ones they had just killed.

“Finish this one and the rest,” Uno said coldly, tossing the creature to the ground with a heavy thud. “I’ll handle the dungeon portal.”

Matthew and Junha exchanged looks, stunned by the sheer size of the unconscious bug at their feet.

But before Uno could step into the dungeon, the battlefield shifted.

One by one, every colossal bug still fighting collapsed with thunderous crashes, their hulking bodies hitting the ground as if life had been snuffed out of them in an instant.

“…What’s happening?” Matthew muttered, unsettled.

Uno’s eyes narrowed. He turned his gaze skyward, straight to the dungeon portal above. It was shrinking, closing unnaturally fast. And there was only one reason it would vanish so suddenly.

Someone had already cleared the dungeon floor.

He scanned the field. All of Deadeye and Firebounty Guild hunters were still present.

“Did Blackfang Guild or Wolfbane Guild come here?” Uno demanded.

“No,” Junha replied firmly. “Blackfang is raiding in City E. Wolfbane’s still in training at City Z.”

Uno’s voice dropped lower. “Any other guilds?”

Junha shook her head. “We both know none of the lower guilds could handle this. This was a Level A Cataclysmic Threat.”

Uno clenched his jaw. He knew that too. Which only left one unsettling question….

If not them, then who cleared it?