Reckoning

Liam's POV

The group reassembled near the gallery ruins, just north of the map's edge.

It looked like something sacred had been broken—columns fractured, murals scorched, reinforced glass shattered into teeth. Beautiful, and tragic. A fitting place for an ending.

Most of them were already arguing.

The girl with the gravity tricks stood like she owned the simulation. Arms crossed. Boots squared. Her gaze locked on Tobias like she was trying to drill holes into his skull.

"Glad you decided to rejoin us," she said.

He didn't flinch. Just shrugged. "I never left."

The air between them went electric—one of those friction fields where someone snaps, and it's never who you expect.

"We could've coordinated," she pressed. "Covered more ground."

"We did."

There was a beat.

"What was that noise? Did a meteor strike something?" she asked, exasperated. "It collapsed the tunnel. A few of us got separated."

"The Eiffel Tower fell," he said casually. "Because of the herd."

He wasn't lying. It had fallen because of the beasts.

But the part he left out—that they were the ones who made it fall—stuck with me.

And the way he said it, flat as a coin toss, like it was just another fact… was unnerving.

"How many did you kill?"

Tobias didn't answer.

She stared like she wanted to rip the truth from him molecule by molecule.

But in the end, she turned—sharp, dismissive.

The big guy from earlier hurled rubble off the barricade like it had insulted his mother.

"We're all here, aren't we? Doesn't matter how we got it done."

The girl spun on him. "This isn't done. We're past the halfway mark, but there are civilians inside. We can't keep running and getting picked off. We're about to make a last stand. You want to talk tough when people are going to die?"

He stepped toward her, like he might try intimidation.

Didn't work.

Nearby, a girl perched on a collapsed drone—short, purple bob with streaks of yellow, chewing gum like the world was a mid-season rerun—swung her legs lazily.

"So, Alice…" she said. "Are we doing this now? Or saving the friendly fire for after the mutant hogs show up again?"

I leaned near Tobias. "You want to lead?"

"No," he muttered. "I just want to live."

Fair.

The HUD lit up.

> Final Objective Active

Defend civilians inside the art gallery for 10 minutes

Threat Level: Maximum

No Evac. No Retreat.

The civilians we'd pulled from the commercial zone had followed us here. Some limped. Some clung to each other. Twenty-seven in total, all looking at us like we were the last wall standing between them and the abyss.

Someone asked how many were coming.

Alice checked the map. For the first time, she hesitated.

"…All of them," she said.

Then the screaming started.

The first to die didn't even fight.

He wandered too close to the mist, maybe thinking he'd peek ahead. The sound of him being dragged off wasn't loud—but it was final.

One second.

Gone.

Then the horde came.

Boars. Dozens. Different shapes now. Bigger, faster. Smarter. Augmented. Some with steel plates melted into bone. Some already bleeding from old wounds. All of them pissed off.

The group collapsed fast.

One guy panicked and blew the barricade early. Bad aim.

The earth shifted as a girl tried to reinforce it. Too late.

A boar crashed through both.

Casualties confirmed: 3

Time remaining: 09:43

The gravity girl reacted fast. Concrete slabs levitating mid-air, redirecting impact with scary control. But not enough. She was holding a corner. Not a line.

Tobias moved with brutal efficiency. No flash. Just results.

Still didn't use his ability.

Didn't need to.

He was a blade pretending to be a spoon.

One cocky knife guy thought he could solo a flank. He spun into the middle of them like this was his final anime arc.

It wasn't.

They tore him apart.

Casualty confirmed: 4

I kept moving. Ash blooming across my arm as I shifted into form—hot, quiet, ready.

I didn't speak. Never needed to. When the boars came, I didn't think—I just unmade them.

Swing.

Gone.

Dash.

Dissolve.

Reform.

Everything in its place.

Tobias killed two before I finished blinking. Knife work that should've come with music. Nothing wasted.

A boy got separated—tried to regroup.

Too slow.

A scream. Then silence.

Casualty confirmed: 5

Time remaining: 08:46

Merit points: 5,100

We weren't halfway done.

And already we were bleeding.

It wasn't chaos.

It was a reckoning.