Standing before the grotesque, writhing mess that had once been a child, Kai remained calm.
Disgust twisted in his gut, mingling with an unexpected pang of pity, but both emotions vanished the instant the creature lashed out.
A tentacle shot toward his face extremely quickly. So fast that Kai barely managed to twist out of the way. But the strike clipped his sunglasses, sending them flying.
He landed lightly, eyes narrowing as he saw them hit the bloodstained ground.
"Hey, I just bought those," Kai groaned as another set of tendrils whipped toward him.
He pushed off the ground, flipping back, his body already buzzing with adrenaline and power. Every heartbeat sent fresh energy surging through him, sharpening his movements.
'What rank is this thing?' The thought flashed through his mind as he sidestepped another wild strike.
He had spent half the night digesting Isaac's information dump, learning about many things. Among them was the Association's ranking system.
'For someone who couldn't remember anything before a few months ago, I have a damn good memory,' he couldn't help but comment as he began reciting what he could recall.
-
The Association had its own classification system that was widely accepted. Monsters and beasts were straightforward to rank based on their threat level.
Mutants, though? Not so much.
Some could heal. Others could read minds. Some weren't combat-oriented at all - but try telling that to the Association, which still insisted on ranking everyone.
For monsters and beasts, it went like this:
Stirring (D-rank): Dangerous, but can be neutralised with standard weapons.
Raging (C-rank): Capable of killing squads and wrecking vehicles.
Howling (B-rank): Could overrun districts and tear through infrastructure.
Calamity (A-rank): City-wide threats that didn't go down easily, if at all.
Cataclysm (S-rank): Nearly unstoppable, requiring elite mutants or entire forces to deal with.
Calamity-level threats had only appeared a handful of times across the globe - each one leaving devastation in its wake. As for Cataclysm-class threats... not a single one had emerged yet. But when it did, it could kill millions.
Meanwhile, Mutants followed a similar scale - but with more nuance.
Low-Tier (D-rank): Minor enhancements, barely a combat threat.
Mid-Tier (C-rank): Powers beyond human limits - super strength, minor elemental control, that kind of thing.
High-Tier (B-rank): The battlefield shifters - rapid regeneration, telepathy, energy manipulation.
Elite-Tier (A-rank): Capable of large-scale destruction if left unchecked.
Apex-Tier (S-rank): The rarest. Uncontainable, city-wrecking monsters in human form - which had yet to be reached.
There was only one officially recognised Apex-Tier Mutant, and even then, it was a stretch to classify them as such. But who knows, with Mutant Maturity and the world changing more and more by the day, it was only a matter of time.
It was a daunting thought, especially since monsters and beasts would likely advance just as quickly, if not more so...
-
Kai slipped a tentacle that aimed to pierce through him, letting the ranking structure click into place in his mind.
'Essentially, monsters and beasts have threat levels, while mutants have tiers - but the ranks align for comparison. Still, these ratings are just guidelines based on what the Association thinks. Real danger doesn't always care about labels. Some low-ranked monsters can be deadlier than they look… and some mutants are just plain unpredictable.'
He then took a moment to evaluate the monster before him, that was rampantly flinging attacks his way, but to no avail.
'It's probably only a Stirring Threat, so a D-rank monster… If this is a low-tier monster, I'd rather not find out what an S-Class would be like.' His eyes flicked over the writhing mass before him. The creature's body pulsed unnaturally, shifting and convulsing as if something even worse was waiting to emerge.
Kai exhaled sharply. No hesitation. No fear. Just another fight.
The monster lunged, its tendrils slicing through the air in a frenzied blur. Kai's body moved on instinct - ducking, sidestepping, weaving between the strikes with precise, fluid motions. A whip of muscle barely missed his head; another struck where he'd been a moment ago, cracking the pavement. The sheer force sent a gust of wind against his skin.
He barely had time to plant his foot before another tendril speared toward him. Kai twisted mid-air, landing low with a hand bracing the ground. The monster shrieked, its tentacles retracting before striking out again.
'It's fast.'
But so was he.
Kai burst forward, closing the gap in an instant. The monster's tendrils lashed toward him, but he smirked.
"You think you're the only one that can do that?"
The blood soaking the ground trembled. Thick, dark tendrils snapped out like whips, formed from the massacred children's blood. It stirred a discomfort that coiled in his gut.
Wielding the blood of the dead, especially children, made the darkness in him shift, restless. But his own blood was too valuable to waste. And the blood was there, waiting to be wielded.
So he used it.
His tendrils were thinner, sharper than the creature's, guided by his will rather than wild instinct. He split his focus between wielding them and evading the monster's attacks. A single flick of his fingers sent his tendrils slashing through the writhing mass of limbs. The monster screeched as severed flesh hit the ground, its limbs falling apart like rotting vines.
But, just as quickly, they regrew.
Kai's eyes narrowed. 'They can regenerate. Annoying.'
The monster lunged, its new tentacles snapping toward him like spears. He moved, twisting around the strikes, his tendrils dancing through the air in perfect sync with his body. He didn't just dodge - he controlled the space around him, cutting through every limb that tried to reach him.
But the monster wasn't slowing down. It was adapting. Its movements sharpened, and its attacks became more unpredictable. A tendril slammed down like a hammer, shattering the pavement, forcing Kai to leap back. Another came at him sideways, nearly catching his ribs. He barely managed to slip away before countering with a barrage of blood lances.
The monster howled as the projectiles skewered it. But even as it screamed, it kept pushing forward.
Then he heard it. A voice buried beneath the screeches.
"Red… Eyes…"
Kai's chest tightened.
His moniker in the underground fight club. The kids had talked about him. The new mutant. The one with blood abilities.
'He's still in there.'
For a brief moment, Kai hesitated.
His blood tendrils faltered. His control over the surrounding blood loosened.
The monster didn't waste the opportunity.
A tentacle shot out at blinding speed, striking Kai square in the chest. The impact sent him flying, crashing into the side of a ruined vehicle beside the playground. Metal crumpled on impact, dust and debris filling the air.
Kai groaned, rolling onto one knee. A warm trickle of blood ran down his lip. He wiped it away, exhaling through his nose.
The monster loomed over him, its form still shifting, still growing.
Kai pushed himself up, rolling his shoulders. His muscles ached, but his mind was steady.
"All I can do for you," he murmured, voice quiet but firm, "is put you out of your misery as quickly as I can, kid."
And this time, he wouldn't hesitate.