Herald of death

With a determined breath, Ethan pushes forward, his amplified senses focused on any signs of approaching threats. Russ pads silently beside him, his eyes gleaming with ferocity as he grows. The narrow tunnel stretches ahead, its walls coated with a slimy residue.

A rumble reverberates through the passage. The sound grows louder, accompanied by the scrape of claws against stone. With a guttural growl, a Huskstalker emerges from the darkness. Russ crouches low, avoiding a blow from the beast's scorpion tail.

Ethan dodges to the side, avoiding its claws. He retaliates with several strikes, each piercing the monster from front to back. As Ethan pulls back his blade, the beast lies dead.

'How many of them are in there? Should I just wait for the flames to die down and escape from the sewer?' Ethan doesn't have the time to answer his own question when another Huskstalker appears. Its claws grab Ethan at the shoulder, hurling him into a wall, unable to pierce his coat.

Russ bites the monster's tail and pulls. The beast falls to the ground, giving Ethan the opportunity to pierce its skull. Ethan struggles to find his footing on the corpses and advances in the tunnel to find better ground.

'If I burn them down, I'll suffocate,' he realizes as he hears two others approaching. He dashes forward to surprise them and impales the first of the two. 'Strengthening,' he thinks, lifting the monster on his sword and hurling it at its comrade. The second tumbles forward, and Ethan uses the occasion to cleave its head.

Ethan's heart pounds in his chest as he stands amidst the carnage, the acrid stench of their black blood thick in the air. Smoke forms behind them, unable to find an easy way out. With a quick glance at Russ, who pants heavily beside him, he knows they must press on.

The narrow tunnel stretches before them, its twisting path leading deeper under the city. They arrive in a large cavern sheltering multilayer shacks. A monster springs from above the entrance, hitting Ethan on the shoulder. Its claws do not pierce the armor, but Ethan feels his shoulder's bones breaking under the force of the impact.

Ethan casts debilitating hex, and the Huskstalker falls to the ground, unable to move. Russ bites it in the throat, pulling and tearing it until its head separates from its torso. Ethan stands up, pulling out a light Ether crystal and casting Heal. His bones defragment, reforming into a healthy joint.

Ethan pauses, scanning the entire cavern with predator's sight. Eight humans dangle from the ceiling, caught in spider-like cocoons. Three Huskstalkers hide among them, their gazes locked on Ethan and Russ. 'Might as well reward them for staying so nicely still,' Ethan thinks.

He draws his KS23 from his haversack. 'Piercing shot,' he thinks as he shoots the first shell. The Huskstalker bursts open, his blood raining down as his body falls to the ground. The two others rush along the walls. 'Piercing shot.' The second shot tears off its target's left arm. It falls from the wall on its face in a sickening crack.

The last Huskstalker leaps on Ethan. 'Strengthening.' He dashes under the creature, avoiding the blow. As the Huskstalker turns around, Ethan blows its head off. "Russ leveled up. Piercing shot ranked up."

"I'm so glad I took you with me," he whispers to his gun before loading his last three shells. 'Only four shots left,' he mentally notes.

Ethan slings the shotgun behind his shoulder and descends into the cavern. Human bodies lie scattered on the ground, parts of their skin torn from the inside. Dead parasites rest among them. 'They lay their eggs in people,' Ethan realizes, bile burning his stomach. 'They must use their stinger. Wait no, the wounds I found do not correspond; they must do it with something else,' he analyzes.

A squirming parasite jumps on Russ fur. Russ rolls over, jumps as if trying to unhorse a rider, and spins around. "Stop!" Ethan orders, drawing his Glock. Russ freezes at the command, and Ethan blows away the creature before it digs in. "Ok," he says to free Russ from his previous command.

Russ whines, unhappy about this unknown situation. Ethan motion for him to come over and pets him as he scans the surroundings. He feels a tremor and jumps backward, dragging Russ by the collar.

A geyser of dust erupts where they stood moments ago. A massive Huskstalker bearing a crimson shell rises from the pit. With a shriek that shakes the cavern, the colossal monster charges forward. Ethan grabs Russ and throws him into a shack. "Hide!" he orders as he sidesteps to avoid the creature's massive claws.

With a furious swipe of its tail, it sends Ethan flying across the cavern, his body slamming into the rocky walls with bone-jarring force. Gasping for breath, Ethan struggles to his feet, his vision blurred by pain.

The Huskstalker charges at Ethan, each of its steps a leap that shakes the ground. Still unable to stand, Ethan shoulders his shotgun and shoots at its knee using piercing shot. The projectiles crater into its shell, but the last one goes through, exiting by the side.

The massive creature falls to the ground, its body rolling as it scrapes the rocky floor. It slides across the room through inertia alone and ends its course a meter away from Ethan. It bites the air, moving its arms and clawing at the ground to cross the last meter.

Ethan gathers Ether in his palm and summons a beam of fire directly into the Huskstalker maw. The beast shrieks in agony, trying to move away. The flames grow along his body, and his head suddenly burst, raining warm, goo-like blood on Ethan.

"Russ leveled up," the voice announces, confirming its death.

After drinking his health potion, Ethan finally stands up. 'Come,' he thinks, and Russ joins him. He pets his dog, who tries to lick his blood-covered face. "I think that was the last one. Now we just need to find proof that Viktor hired them to transport them here," he says to Russ.

Russ whines happily and turns his attention to the center of the cavern. A gunshot shatters the calm, and Russ falls to his side. From the center of the cavern emerges a new Huskstalker. It stands as tall as the standard Huskstalker but with a bulkier frame, its white shell shimmering in Ethan's predator's sight. Its left arm is not a claw like the others, but a grotesque bio-gun; composed of fleshy tubes and sphincters.

Its eyes, glowing with an otherworldly intensity, fixate on Ethan with an eerie intelligence. Thick tendrils of mucus drip from her mandibles as she emits a guttural hiss, warning Ethan not to approach her.

As Ethan sees Russ lying on the ground, howling in pain, a wave of fear crashes over him. Every one of his anguished cries pierces Ethan's heart like a dagger.