The word "Harbinger" rippled through the gathered students like a physical force. Some froze. Others stumbled backward. Years of academy training, of building confidence against beasts, crumbled in the face of humanity's greatest nightmare.
"That's impossible," someone whispered. "They can't be here. They can't—"
The Harbinger's head snapped toward the voice with terrible precision. Its movements weren't bestial anymore – they were calculated, almost elegant. The horn on its head caught the filtered sunlight, its komodo-like scales shifting with each breath.
Sienna's voice cut through their comms, stripped of all its usual authority: "Adrian? Adrian, status!"
Twenty meters away, Adrian Albright lay crumpled against a shattered tree trunk, his skin still smoking from his nuclear release. He coughed, blood speckling his lips, and managed to rasp out: "Armor... it's wearing... modified..." before his head lolled to the side.