Colossal

Rendrik's breathing was slow and measured, but his muscles were coiled tight as steel cables. His sharp gaze flickered across the bloodied bodies of the fallen MP's, then back to the old man standing among them eerily calm in the carnage.

Arvin.

Rendrik didn't know much about him—only that he was just some washed-up city worker from the slums of Ash Canyon. 

Or at least, that's what he was supposed to be.

Now? 

Rendrik wasn't sure what the hell he was looking at. 

"You're telling me Kael's alive?" His voice came out disturbingly hoarse.

Arvin wiped his hands clean on one of the fallen soldiers' uniforms before meeting Redriks stare.

"Alive, yeah. Safe? Absolutely not." His tone was flat almost too steady. "They took him. Hauled him off like a damn common criminal. Called him a fucking murder." 

Rendrik's jaw tightened in anger. The words managed to hit harder than they should have. Harder than a bag of rocks. He had tried his absolute best to save Kael, back in the canyon—when they'd fought against Hollowed Drevan—he had tried, but failed. Miserably.

The memory gnawed at him, and even now, it was deep and raw.

"Damn it." He dragged a hand down his face, his fingers still covered with dried blood. This was utterly on him.

"Get it together, kid" Arvin's voice cut through his thoughts. "All of your obvious over-thinking is not helping him."

Rendrik looked up, scowling.

"You think I don't know that?" 

"I think it doesn't matter now", Arvin shot back, stepping over a corpse. "What matters is getting out of here before those bastards outside realizes their squad isn't responding."

Rendrik exhaled sharply, attempting to wrestle his frustration back down. He had to hit something. Someone. But he wanted to fix this more. He didn't trust that bastard Arvin. Not yet. Maybe not ever. But for now?

He'd have to fight beside that bastard.

"Fine." Rendrik said, then cracked his knuckles, flicking his eyes toward the entrance. The MPs outside would be breaking in any minute, and he knew exactly what that meant. "Got a plan, old man?"

Before Arvin could even start to reply, the pounding at the bunker doors came to a halt—

And then came the screams.

Arvin stiffened. But Rendrik didn't. He already knew. 

Arvin turned his head toward the bunker doors, and a frown formed betweenhis brows.

"The hell was—"

A gut-wrenching wail echoed from the other side, cutting him off, and sending a sharp chill down both of their spines. 

Then—a second later—nothing.

No more pounding. No more shouting. Only the low, wet sound of something... chewing.

Intrinsically, Arvin's grip tightened on his belt knife before he spoke.

"Tell me you know what's going on," he said, his voice was low, almost a whisper.

Rendrik barley breathed.

"Yeah." 

Arvin's fingers flexed.

"And?"

Arvin expected an explanation, but all he got was—

"We need to leave... Now!" 

Then, the door swung opened unexpectedly. The twisted slab of reinforced steel flew across the room like a missle, nearly taking their heads off of their bodies. It crashed against the far wall, leaving a dent in the bunker's concrete foundation. And standing in its place- 

The Hunter.

The creature slunk into the dim bunker light—now visible—its elongated limbs dripping with fresh blood.

Its pupil-less eyes pulsed, burning with the strange eerie glow of the Hollow Sun. It wasn't in a hurry. It wasn't even hunting. It was feasting. The Hunter lowered its grotesque, sinewy frame and sank its fangs into the closest corpse, one of Arvin's kills.

Rendrik and Arvin didn't move. Not yet. The beast ripped away a chunk flesh, its jaw clicking with a grotesque snap.

Arvin's voice was barely above a whisper when he said, "What the hell is it doing?"

Rendrik didn't answer. Hew already knew, at least had an educated guess. And the thought made him warry. He simply watched while the Hunter finished its meal.

Then... its body began to shift.

At the same time, a terrible cracking noise filled the air. And Rendrik's breath stalled.

"Oh, shit..."

In the next moment, the Hunter convulsed, beginning to bulge and contort. The usual glow in its eyes began to burn hotter and fiercer. They're faces were in shock as he watched its skeletal frame expanded and its muscles stretching as they grew. And it continued.

Bones snapped outward in monstrous spirals. It's spine was elongated to a horrifying length while its vertebrae shifted beneath its stretched skin. It's body ballooned outward, swelling to a height that barely fit within the bunker's cramped space.

The Hollow Core System was doing its work, though Rendrik and Arvin had no clue. Still, they was sure of what they were seeing.

The Hunter was evolving. It was becoming a Colossal.

Arvin stepped back, his eyes wide with something close to fear.

"That's... new."

Rendrik's entire body was coiled like a spring, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"This is not good. We need to move... now."

Suddenly, a beep, guttural roar rattled the very air around them. Then, as the Colossal Hollow's transformation forced the bunker's inner walls outward, a strange sound filled the air, almost like concrete groaning under impossible pressure.

Chunks of reinforced metals and stone came loose from above. One look and they knew. 

The bunk was coming down.

"Move!" Rendrik roared, but Arvin was already shoving him toward the exit.

The two burst into a sprint, narrowly dodging a massive slab of concrete as it smashed into the ground behind them. They both were aware, by it size, that the massive creature wasn't even fully formed yet. So, if they'd have waited a second longer, they'd be buried alive. The exit was too far. Not to mention, the Colossal block the way. And they'd never make it before the transformation finished. So, they didn't run for the exit. Instead Rendrik did the only thing he could he could think of.

"This way!" He said, veering off toward the weakened section of the wall.

Arvin didn't question it or hesitate. He followed as if it had been his plan all along. But as the Colossal let out an earth-shaking bellow, its enormous, half-formed arm stretched and swung toward them, but only to no avail as Rendrik lit the wall on fire at the last second.

The flames roared hotter than the sun, a testament to his strength as an under classed B rank. The heat weakened the already fractured section of the bunker's out wall. Still, Rendrik pushed his flames harder, feeling the last reserves of his strength rain into the inferno.

"Now!" he said, simultaneously grabbing Arvin's forearm and throwing his weight against the burning structure.

The weakened wall of metal and stone caved in, and the two of them crashed through the wreckage, tumbling into the open wasteland beyond. Then, the bunker behind them collapsed, entirely. They barely had time to react before the ground trembled beneath them, but one thing caught their attention: a massive shadow looming over the wreckage.

The Colossal Hollow had fully emerged.

Its towering frame blocked out the rising Hollow Sun. And its strange, shifting flesh was still sizzling from its evolution. This was clearly beyond what had been possible, or at least, what they had known possible, which made Rendrik's swallow catch in the middle of his throat.

"We're dead."

Arvin looked at Rendrik with unease, then back at the Colossal, but his expression never changed.

"Not yet."

But, as if the thing had heard Arvin's declaration, it turned its massive head part way and locked its flaming eyes onto its prey.

"Maybe I spoke too soon."

"You think?!"