Blood and Ruin

The night was eerily silent, save for the distant howls of mutated beasts roaming the outskirts of the ruined city. Leon moved like a shadow through the remnants of a once-thriving metropolis, his eyes scanning every corner for movement. The survivors he had rescued were hidden in a makeshift shelter beneath a collapsed overpass, too weak to fight, too scared to hope.

He knelt beside a dying fire, checking his weapons. His black-bladed sword, the Abyss Fang, hummed softly in his grasp, as if thirsting for blood. The energy coursing through his body was stabilizing, but the hunger—the need to devour and evolve—was always present.

A rustling noise. Leon turned, blade ready, as a familiar figure emerged from the shadows.

"You're not as quiet as you think, Jade," he said, recognizing the young woman who had become his unexpected ally.

"I wasn't trying to be," she replied, arms crossed. "We need to talk. That thing we fought earlier… it wasn't normal."

Leon nodded, recalling the grotesque creature they had barely managed to defeat. Its regenerative abilities had been beyond anything he had seen, and its aura… it had felt wrong.

"It was evolving mid-battle," he muttered. "Something's accelerating their mutations."

Jade's expression darkened. "Then we need to move fast. If more of those things show up, this city is finished."

Leon exhaled, standing. "Then let's end them before they become unstoppable."

With that, they vanished into the night, the hunt beginning anew.