The Storm Before the Siege

The fire truck rumbled down the desolate streets, its massive frame casting long shadows against the silent ruins. Kade gripped the overhead rail as he stood on the truck's back platform, his senses sharpened, scanning every corner, every alleyway. Something was wrong.

The city had been alive with horrors just hours ago. They had fought their way through wretches, navigated collapsing structures, and torn through predators lurking in the dark. But now? Nothing.

No twisted shrieks in the distance. No eerie clicks or scraping claws on asphalt. Just an unnatural, suffocating silence.

Kade turned to Julia, who sat near the cab, adjusting the leather straps on her gauntlet. "This doesn't feel right."

She nodded grimly, tightening her grip on the hilt of her sword. "Yeah. We've been lucky before, but this isn't luck. It's avoidance."

The fire station and their new allies had bolstered their numbers. Pauly sat near the water tank, still adjusting his axe, while the other two firemen exchanged wary glances. Miguel kept his hands tight on the wheel, his eyes darting between alleyways. Elliot, already drained from the journey, ran over calculations in his head, whispering theories about resonance energy to himself.

Then, as the truck turned a corner, the skyline opened up.

The radio station.

A towering skyscraper, the building loomed above the city like an ancient sentinel, its silhouette broken only by the jagged metal spire of a radio tower jutting from the rooftop. Its massive glass windows were shattered, streaked with soot and blood. But what stood out the most wasn't the structure itself—it was what surrounded it.

A battlefield.

Machine gun nests were set up around the perimeter, their barrels blackened from extensive use. Sandbags formed makeshift barricades, piled in front of the station's shattered doors and around nearby alleyways. The remnants of a refugee camp sprawled out next to the main building, torn tarps and abandoned supplies scattered through the adjacent lot.

And bodies.

So many bodies.

Wretches, dozens of them, lay in heaps, some still twitching with lingering spasms of unnatural energy. Bullet casings coated the pavement like gravel, fresh blood staining the cracks. The fires still smoldered. The scent of charred flesh clung to the air.

Kade exhaled sharply. "This wasn't a normal fight."

Julia nodded. "No way wretches alone could do this much damage to a trained force. Something else happened here."

Then they saw them.

Eight Rendclaws.

They prowled through the wreckage, their twisted forms moving with unnatural coordination. Their jagged, riftsteel-laced talons scraped against the concrete, their low, predatory growls vibrating through the air.

That was rare.

Rendclaws weren't like wretches. They were territorial, predatory, constantly fighting for dominance over one another. Seeing this many in one place without tearing each other apart meant something worse lurked nearby.

A leader.

A Tier 3 or, even worse, a Tier 4 had to be nearby.

Kade clenched his jaw, gripping his Morningstar tighter. He had read about this in Westler's book. When monsters began organizing instead of attacking each other, it meant something at the top was commanding them.

It also meant that this fight wasn't going to be like the others.

Kade and Julia exchanged a glance. No words were needed.

The truck screeched to a stop, skidding slightly as Miguel killed the engine. The silence was shattered as Kade leapt from the back, landing with a heavy thud before charging forward. Julia followed, her rapier gleaming in the dim light.

They didn't hesitate.

The first few wretches barely reacted before Kade crushed them under the weight of his blows. His new weapon—a Morningstar reinforced with pure riftsteel—moved like an extension of his body. The first strike splattered a wretch's head like an overripe fruit, sending shards of bone and brain matter flying. The second swing caved in the ribcage of another, its broken form collapsing like a ragdoll.

Julia's blade was a razor through flesh, her movements efficient, swift. She danced between her foes, her sword slicing clean through muscle and bone, leaving wretches twitching in their final moments.

Then came the Rendclaws.

Two of them turned toward the commotion, their heads snapping in Kade's direction.

Kade exhaled sharply, adjusting his grip. "Here we go."

The first lunged—jagged claws aiming for his throat. Kade sidestepped, slamming his Morningstar upward in a brutal uppercut. The impact shattered its skull instantly, sending the monster's body flipping through the air before crumpling against the sandbags.

The second moved smarter, dropping low, aiming for his legs while the first had attacked high.

Clever bastard.

But not clever enough.

Kade twisted mid-air, shifting his weight as he spun, slamming his weapon downward just as his boots touched the ground. The Morningstar crashed into the Rendclaw's spine, the beast screeching as it was driven face-first into the pavement with a sickening crunch. It twitched, then fell still.

Julia had no time to admire Kade's work—she had her own fight to deal with.

A third Rendclaw rushed her, moving far faster than the wretches. Its claws slashed through the air, and for a moment, Julia was sure it would catch her. But her instincts kicked in.

She sidestepped, her movement precise, her rapier flashing out in a blur of silver and riftsteel.

The blade met resistance.

Her strike pierced deep, but not enough to kill. The Rendclaw shrieked, turning sharply to retaliate. Julia grit her teeth, shifting her stance, driving her blade deeper until she felt it puncture something vital.

The creature collapsed, writhing for a moment before finally going still.

She exhaled, her muscles burning from the sheer force she had needed to penetrate its hide. Without her new weapon, it would have been nearly impossible.

The battlefield was silent, save for the crunching of Kade's boots over broken pavement and the distant crackle of dying flames. The corpses of wretches and rendclaws littered the ground, their grotesque forms twitching in their final moments of death. The remaining rendclaws, however, did not charge recklessly as their lesser kin had.

They waited.

Then, the air itself shuddered.

A deep, rumbling growl imbued with resonance energy rolled through the streets like distant thunder, shaking Kade to his core.

It stepped into the firelight.

The bear aberrant.

Massive, nearly fourteen feet tall at the shoulder, what looked to be the remnants of grizzly bear...its hulking frame moved with the weight of something that had evolved beyond natural limits. Thick fur, dark as iron with a purple glint, bristled across its body like razor-wire. Its front claws, each nearly a foot long, dug deep grooves into the pavement with every step. Its breath came in slow, powerful huffs, misting the cold night air.

Unlike the tiger aberrant Kade had fought before, this thing didn't need speed. It was power incarnate.

A Tier 3. Maybe worse it was hard to tell from the sheer power it imminated.

Kade exhaled, shifting his stance, Morningstar in hand, feeling the surge of resonance energy coil through his limbs.

"Julia." His voice was low, steady.

"I know."

She was already moving before he could finish. The five remaining rendclaws, sensing an opening, lunged toward her. She didn't retreat—instead, she baited them.

She darted backward, leading them around the wreckage of a collapsed bus, her agility keeping her just out of reach. One of them miscalculated, its oversized claw catching on debris. The second slammed into it full force. That was her opening.

With a calculated step, she pivoted sharply, her rapier slicing through the gap between armored scales, severing the exposed spinal cord. The rendclaw collapsed instantly. That was the easiest kill she would get going forward. The second, adjusting its trajectory from the impact, barely had time to react before her blade found its temple but she had missed the mark. She continued to evade its attacks in desperation while looking for an opening. Another rendclaw approached her from the side... things weren't looking good...

The other rendclaws, however, did not chase.

They watched the bear aberrant instead.

They all did.

The lesser beasts were not competing.

They were waiting for orders.

Kade didn't have time to focus on that.

The bear charged.

Its sheer size made the ground tremble, each step sending vibrations through Kade's bones. The moment it reached him, it swiped.

Kade barely had time to react. He twisted, his instincts screaming at him to move as the paw the size of a car door tore through the air where he had stood a second before. He landed in a crouch, eyes narrowing.

Too slow. It's powerful, but it can't maneuver fast enough.

That was his only advantage.

The bear roared, swinging again—this time, Kade moved in. He rolled under its arm, Morningstar swinging upward. The spiked metal connected but recoiled immediately. Its furr was too thick to do much damage along its back where it was thickest. Kade knew only basic strategies to take down large beasts, targeting its weakpoints was his best bet. It was clear that the hairs on its chest were thinner due to its need for mobility when moving on all fours, but its back was like armor. He could target the eyes maybe? 

On the bears next swing, its claw nearly obliterated Kade face, smashing into the growned around him with such force that it destabalized his footing from the impact, almost toppling him over. But this left one side open, channeling all his strength into his legs and into the rotation of his arc, resonance energy surging through him, kade struck its left eye with the spike of his morning star, rupturing it with a wet pop.

The beast howled in pain, staggering back, thrashing wildly. But even blinded in one eye, it was still dangerously strong and intelligent enough not to let the pain distract it from the fight with a now clearly dangerous opponent. 

The wretches, sensing an opportunity, surged toward Kade's group near the firetruck.

The survivors had been ready.

The firemen, alongside Miguel and Frank, Frank especially was locked and loaded with a shotgun already aimed at the encroaching wretches. They had formed a barricade on the truck's elevated back. Pauly swung his axe with terrifying force, severing limbs and crushing skulls as the wretches fearlessly tried to climb onto the roof of the truck like drones. Miguel now wielding a fireman's axe, impaled one of the charging wretches before kicking it off the platform. The others followed suit, crowbars, axes, and whatever weapons they had scavenged to hold the creatures at bay. Desperation pushing them to the brink of death!

But Kade's battle wasn't over.

The bear charged again.

It was adapting. Anticipating his movements. Faster this time.

Kade barely dodged, his breath ragged. His muscles burned, but he had one clear advantage.

He was circulating his resonance energy better than ever before.

Every movement. Every strike. Every breath.

It all flowed together, a precise control of power through his limbs.

The bear swung again, but this time, Kade was ready.

He rolled to the side, dodging just far enough to keep himself within range. Then, he planted his foot, shifted his weight, and swung the Morningstar in a brutal downward arc.

The impact landed directly on its ribcage.

A crack—a deep one—echoed through the air.

The beast lurched, stumbling, its breathing more labored now.

But it still wasn't dying fast enough.

With a painful roar, the tier 3 monster beckoned the remaining riftcaws to its aid in desperation!

Then, a shot rang out.

A thunderous boom, deafening in the open street.

The bear reared up, roaring in confusion and pain. A gaping wound appeared in its side where it had been hit, a bullet hole the size of a fist had appeared, it was bleeding profusely.

A .50 caliber round.

Someone was shooting from inside the building.

The bear, stunned, staggered back just enough—enough for Kade to make his move.

With every ounce of strength, every bit of resonance energy focused into his muscles, he charged.

He leapt.

His Morningstar swung wide, and this time, he aimed for the kill.

The weapon crashed into the exposed ribs, puncturing deep, shattering through bone, tearing through flesh, and striking its lungs, then he quickly took several paces back

The beast shuddered.

Its breath hitched.

Regardless, it mustered up a final charge at Kade. Every ounce of its strength beamed toward him... but with one final groan, it collapsed.

The ground shook as its massive body hit the pavement, sending up a cloud of dust and blood.

The remaining rendclaws, seeing their leader fall, went into a frenzy.

Julia, now freed from her own battle, joined Kade to dispatch the remnants.

Both of them stood there, breathing hard, sweat and blood dripping from their bodies.

Kade exhaled, placing a foot on the creature's massive chest.

With every battle came a reward, Kade had learned this on day one of this brave new world. Glee filled his eyes as he looked at the heap of mass like a bountiful treasure chest

"Time to crack this thing open."

It took several swings. Each strike sent jarring vibrations up Kade's arms, the sheer density of the aberrant's flesh resisting even in death. His Morningstar, sturdy and reinforced with Riftsteel, barely managed to crack the surface of its hide, which had already begun the slow atrophy that followed a mutant's death. But even as the energy left its body, the fur retained its unnatural toughness—thick as iron threads, layered over muscle so dense it felt like striking stone.

This thing was a tank. Kade had fought fast mutants before—ones that lunged, slashed, and tore with agility that made them nightmares to track. But this was different. If it had been any faster, if its bulk hadn't slowed it down, the fight could have ended much differently. He knew it wouldn't be the last time he faced something like this.

Finally, after relentless strikes, the body gave way. His final swing sent a deep, wet crack through the creature's ribs, splitting the reinforced bones just enough to reveal what he had been looking for. Nestled deep within the aberrant's chest cavity, pulsing faintly with the last remnants of its stolen power, was the Tier 3 core.

It was massive. Larger than the previous cores he'd collected, denser, darker in color. He felt its weight even before touching it, the sheer pressure of the energy inside almost tangible in the air. He crouched, gripping the thick, iron-threaded fur as he reached into the cavity, careful not to make direct contact. Using a strip of cloth, he wrapped it tightly, then pulled it free. The instant it left the body, a faint hum of resonance vibrated through his fingers. This thing was powerful. He wasn't sure exactly what it could do yet, but he knew one thing: if he wanted to keep up with whatever else was coming, he needed more of these.

His eyes drifted back to the beast's hide. If its fur was this tough even after death, he could only imagine how much stronger it had been when the thing was still alive. Armor. That was the first thought that came to mind. Griggs would have a field day with this. If they could find a way to tan and shape it, it could make for some of the best protective gear they had ever seen—something to counteract the sheer strength and brutality of monsters like this.

He looked over at the others, nodding. "Strip what we can use. Riftsteel from the Rendclaws, energy cores from the Wretches, anything that might be valuable." If there was one thing he had learned in the past few days, it was that every scrap of material, every ounce of energy, could mean the difference between surviving and becoming part of the wreckage.

Then, finally, his attention turned to the radio station.

The towering skyscraper loomed over them, its broken windows reflecting the fading light. Someone inside had fired that shot. A .50 caliber rifle, judging by the damage it had done to the aberrant. That wasn't something just anyone carried around—whoever was inside wasn't just another group of survivors scraping by. They had resources, knowledge… and if the radio transmission was to be believed, they had vital information.

Kade glanced up toward the darkened windows, knowing full well that whoever was inside was still watching them. Who were they? What did they know?

More importantly—were they friend or foe?

There was only one way to find out.

"Let's move," Kade muttered, adjusting his grip on his Morningstar as they made their way toward the entrance.