Kai's blood attacks continued, but it was clear he was faltering. The recovery speed of the monster he faced had slowed, but his strength was draining much faster. His breaths were ragged, like a wild animal, his bloodlust raging yet unsatisfied, unable to draw blood from his opponent.
"Mutant maturity is real, I see. You're barely scratching the surface of your potential - just like that pathetic Phaser," Nyx remarked, his voice tinged with disappointment. He had seen hundreds of mutant abilities in his time, but this one... This was different.
It was an extraordinary power, capable of unimaginable destruction and more. It was just a matter of who wielded it, and how they were trained.
'Once I've gathered everything I need from him, I'll make him into something special. Then I can...' The thought of what he could achieve with Kai sent a thrill through him. His mind raced with possibilities.
He'd never seen anything like it before. The anticipation of dissecting Kai was almost too much to bear.
Meanwhile, Isaac, the Phaser, struggled against the small monster before him. His breath was laboured, each movement driven by sheer desperation. Every strike he made seemed futile, the creature's unnatural durability mocking his efforts.
'There's no way I can handle this thing. It doesn't seem to be trying. I'm just useless without my abilities.' He cast a glance at Kai, watching the blood manipulator fight. His powers were as horrifying as they were awe-inspiring, drawing every ounce of Nyx's attention.
Although he was hardly at the level of his companions, he was impressive. From what Nyx had said, Kai wasn't just another mutant - he was something entirely new. The thought of Nyx replicating stable mutants like him sent a chill down Isaac's spine. 'If he succeeds, no one will be able to stop him. I can't let that happen.'
Isaac locked eyes with Kai. Those glowing red eyes were wild, untamed, and hard to meet. It felt like staring into the gaze of a predator, a beast that sought nothing but blood. It wasn't exactly reassuring, but he had no choice.
'If either of us has any hope of surviving this, we'll have to work together.'
"My ability lets me phase through anything," Isaac began, his voice low and urgent. "But Nyx is disrupting it somehow. If you can-"
"Hey now! Don't go plotting against me like that," Nyx interrupted, laughing. "I'm starting to feel a little left out!" He smirked, though his eyes betrayed a flicker of calculation.
'They're lasting longer than I expected.' Nyx stole a glance at his wrist, which had a timer with a couple of minutes left, chewing his bottom lip. Despite the chaos, he was thoroughly enjoying himself and began making mental adjustments.
Kai also had many thoughts bouncing around his head.
It was only a matter of time before they gave in to fatigue and became Nyx's playthings again.
But working with Isaac? That was pointless. The guy was struggling even more than Kai - flailing around pathetically. And there was no reason to trust him, either.
Kai sighed.
It wasn't like he had many options.
All he could do was keep fighting, keep drawing from the bottomless pit of power that his newfound ability seemed to offer.
His glare locked onto Nyx - pure loathing, killing intent bleeding from his gaze.
Nyx only smiled. Cheeky. Amused.
'I'd rather die than let that fucker experiment on me again.'
That thought burned in his mind, searing through his resolve. His heart pounded, his blood surging, boiling as it rushed through his veins...
-
Kai had tried - tried to hold onto reason, to keep his mind sharp despite the strain of his mutant ability. But his strength was failing fast. No matter how hard he fought, he wasn't getting anywhere.
Nyx stood there, unbothered, watching the chaos unfold with that ever-present smugness. His so-called wife remained by his side, another living wall between Kai and his target who felt unreachable despite being so close.
Meanwhile, bloodweaving was tearing him apart. His mind burned, his body screamed, and the constant pull of power clawed at him, demanding more. The exhaustion should have slowed him down - should have broken him.
Instead, something else took hold.
A dark rush slithered into his thoughts - a voice without words, whispering, beckoning. It coiled around his mind, tightening its grip with every heartbeat. The more his body withered, the more his fury burned, the louder it became.
The struggle to suppress it was slipping through his fingers.
The weaker he became, the stronger it grew.
"Fuck it... it's not like I have anything to lose. As long as I can kill him."
The moment he gave in, his world shifted.
Everything turned red.
A tsunami of bloodlust crashed through his body, and Kai snapped.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks. The whites of his eyes flooded crimson, blood bursting from his tear ducts. His very veins felt like they were burning, his pulse pounding in his ears like war drums.
Inversely, everything around him seemed to freeze in place.
The air had changed. It was thick - suffocating.
Every instinct in Isaac's body screamed danger, yet he dared not move an inch. He looked down to see the blood dripping from his wounds rippling unnaturally before floating toward Kai.
"Hey, that's my-" The words died in his throat.
A single glance from Kai - a being that no longer seemed human - crushed the air from his lungs. His body locked up. Even breathing felt like a mistake.
The monsters reacted, too.
The one facing Kai hesitated, its claws twitching mid-swing. The other, still poised to kill Isaac, turned its head - toward the bigger threat.
For the first time, they felt something foreign.
Fear.
They stalked closer, their grotesque bodies shifting in sync. A low, guttural snarl rippled through the air.
They weren't following orders or holding back any longer.
Nyx, despite the chill running down his spine, couldn't look away. His heartbeat hammered, and his body recognised the pure predatory menace before him, but his eyes gleamed with fascination.
"Oh, Subject 357..." he breathed. "Now that's more like it."
The creatures made their move.
They attacked as one, a blur of twisted muscle and razor-sharp claws. One lunged from the front, the other from behind, their strikes perfectly synchronised...
But Kai was simply faster.
Unstoppable. Inhuman. A demon in the flesh.
His movement once controlled and efficient dissolved into reckless, berserk abandon. Pure, unrelenting carnage took over. Logic? Strategy? They crumbled beneath something far more primal.
Kill. Kill. Kill.
The creatures barely had time to react before blood-forged tendrils lashed out, cutting through limbs like paper. The first monster shrieked, its severed arm flopping to the ground, twitching. It scrambled to reattach it...
Too slow.
Kai was already upon it.
The second one twisted mid-air, reacting on instinct, but it was useless. The air itself seemed to grow heavy under Kai's monstrous presence. The blood at his command coiled and snapped like living serpents, whipping forward with a deafening crack.
Shlkt!
Both its legs were gone in an instant. The creature collapsed, wailing, its flesh already knitting back together. Kai's next strike ripped through its stomach, carving it open before it could even register pain.
And he didn't stop.
It was butchery.
A relentless, merciless onslaught. For every limb the twin monsters tried to regenerate, he severed it again - twice as fast, twice as brutal. His blood weapons sang through the air, a symphony of slaughter. The creatures screamed, their howls swallowed by the sheer weight of his killing intent.
Kai's red eyes flickered around his surroundings, glossing over Nyx, who caused his blood to boil.
'He doesn't seem to be conscious. It's incredible. He's been overcome with emotion and the desire for blood and destruction. And it seems as though I'm his main target - lucky me.' Nyx was mesmerised, unlike Isaac who watched in horror as Kai finished off his two adversaries...
A spear of hardened blood pierced through the first monster's skull. Its body convulsed, its claws twitching in futile resistance. Then...
BOOM!
Kai detonated the spear from within. A grotesque explosion of blood and bone splattered the lab. The thing that had once seemed immortal slumped into a mound of ruined flesh.
The second turned, overcome with the fear of death that still seemed ingrained within it - but there was no escape.
He swept forward like death itself, a giant blood blade cleaving through its neck in a single, fluid motion. Its severed head hit the ground with a wet thud, rolling to a stop, before being crushed under Kai's foot with a sickening crunch...
Silence.
The air hung thick with the scent of blood, metallic and suffocating. The decimated bodies twitched once, twice, then nothing.
The twin monsters were no more.
But Kai still wasn't done.
His body should've been screaming in agony. His muscles should've failed. But all he could hear was the roar of his bloodlust, the pounding in his skull.
His red-stained gaze locked onto Nyx.
The doctor was grinning. But for the first time, his hands trembled ever so slightly at his sides.
With a beastial snarl, Kai burst forward - a crimson storm, tearing through the air at an impossible speed...