Jelo looked at the monsters, his breath catching in his throat as he took in every horrifying detail.

The first monster stood at about six and a half feet tall, but it was its build that made Jelo's stomach turn. Its shoulders were unnaturally wide, almost disproportionate to its legs, giving it the silhouette of something that had been stretched and compressed in all the wrong places. The upper body seemed to belong to something twice its size, while the legs looked barely capable of supporting all that mass.

The skin was mottled gray and cracked like baked clay left too long in the sun. Thick scars and open seams ran across its limbs, as if the flesh had been torn apart and stitched back together carelessly, without any regard for aesthetics or function.

Its forearms were massive, almost as wide as its head, ending in twisted, thick fingers tipped with blunt, jagged nails that looked capable of crushing bone and metal alike. Jelo could see remnants of what might have been lab equipment scattered near its feet, twisted and broken, evidence of what those hands could do.

The head was almost fused into the shoulders with no visible neck, making it look like the skull had simply been pressed down into the torso. Its mouth sat low on its face, filled with uneven, jagged teeth that jutted out at odd angles, some pointing inward, some outward. Its eyes were tiny and beady, constantly scanning the room with an unsettling awareness, set beneath pronounced brow ridges that gave it a permanent scowl.

When it shifted its weight, the floor beneath it groaned audibly, and Jelo could already imagine how loud and destructive its charges would be. The creature walked with a slight shuffle, dragging one foot slightly as if the leg had been damaged or improperly healed at some point.

It looked like a walking boulder with arms. Horrifying didn't even begin to describe it.

The second monster was a stark contrast in every possible way. It stood at about six feet, but it was extremely thin, almost skeletal in build. Its arms were unnaturally long, hands dangling past its knees like a gorilla's, and its fingers bent backward at strange angles that made Jelo's skin crawl. The joints seemed to bend in ways that defied anatomy, twisting and flexing in directions that shouldn't have been possible.

The skin was matte black with faint ridges running along its surface, and it seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it, making its edges blur and warp in the dim lab lighting. It was like looking at a hole in reality shaped like a person. Its head was narrow and elongated, tilting unnaturally to one side as it focused on Jelo with disturbing intensity.

Huge, reflective eyes dominated its face, glowing faintly like twin moons in the darkness, unblinking and fixed. Its mouth split partially across the jaw, revealing rows of tiny needle-like teeth that looked designed not to bite and tear, but to hold and grip. The creature moved in sudden, jerky bursts, almost slithering rather than walking, its movements unsettling and deeply alien.

It looked like a shadow that had somehow grown legs and learned to hunt. Fast, predatory, and deeply unnerving in ways Jelo couldn't fully articulate.

The third monster stood at six foot three, upright but with a torso that was thick and irregular, covered in bony growths that jutted out in jagged spikes of varying lengths. Some of the spikes looked smooth and polished, while others were rough and unfinished, as if the creature's body was still trying to figure out what it was supposed to be.

Its limbs were mostly normal in length, but the muscles were corded and slightly off-kilter, giving it a lurching, puppet-like gait that made every movement seem deliberate and wrong.

Its face was a blank mask of hardened flesh, the jaw fused in a near-permanent grimace that exposed the lower teeth. The eyes were hollow but glowing faintly in the dim light, like embers buried in ash. The creature moved slowly, deliberately, with jerky precision, like a predator conserving energy for the moment it would strike.

The bony protrusions across its body made it look part armor, part corpse, and Jelo knew instinctively that it would use its weight and those spikes to pin or block rather than strike hard and fast.

It was terrifying in a confined space like this bunker.

Jelo and the monsters stared at each other, and for a moment, Jelo wondered if there was intelligence in their gazes. They seemed to stare and respond blankly, their eyes tracking him but with no emotion, no recognition, no humanity left. Just… existence. Cold, empty existence. Were they aware of what they'd become? Did they remember being human? Or had that part of them been stripped away along with their bodies?

"What the hell did you do?" Jelo demanded, his voice tight with barely controlled rage.

The scientist laughed gleefully, spreading his arms wide like a showman presenting his masterpiece to an audience. "What did I do? I created perfection, my boy! Absolute perfection! I've been working on transmitting the superior characteristics of the Dabba onto humans so they can be better suited to battle the ihe in the future! This is evolution accelerated! This is humanity's salvation wrapped in flesh and bone!"

He spun in place, gesturing toward the monsters with pride. "Look at them! Strength beyond measure! Resilience that defies injury! Capabilities that ordinary humans could never dream of achieving! This is the future, boy! This is what we need to survive!"

"They're not superior, you bastard!" Jelo shouted, his fists clenching at his sides so hard his knuckles turned white.

The scientist's smile didn't waver. If anything, it grew wider, more manic, his eyes gleaming with obsessive conviction. "You're too small-minded to comprehend greatness and sacrifice. These creatures are the future! They are stronger, faster, more resilient than any ordinary human could ever hope to be. Yes, yes, they look… unpleasant now, but that's just the first stage. With refinement, with proper testing—" He gestured toward Jelo dramatically, pointing with both hands like a prophet delivering divine truth. "With subjects like you, I can perfect the process! Imagine it! An entire army of enhanced soldiers, unstoppable, unbreakable!"

Jelo's eyes flicked toward Mira, who was watching helplessly from where she lay tangled in the dampening net. She looked tense, her jaw tight, her eyes locked on him with worry and frustration. She wanted to help, but she couldn't.

Jelo gulped and wondered if he could rush to her and untie her quickly before the monsters came at him. But he hesitated, his mind racing through the problems with that plan.

One: he didn't know exactly how to remove the net from her. The dampening field was built into the material itself, and there had to be some kind of release mechanism, but he had no idea where it was or how it worked.

If he rushed over there, he'd still have to spend time trying different things until it opened, fumbling in the dark while three monsters bore down on him. Every second counted, and he couldn't afford to waste them.

Two: right now, there was a pause in time. Jelo, the scientist, and the three monsters all stood unmoving, staring at each other in tense silence. It was fragile, this moment. A spell that would shatter the instant anyone moved. Jelo knew if he broke it first, if he turned his back on the monsters to run toward Mira, he'd be in serious trouble. They'd be on him before he made it halfway.

He started to wonder how he could fight the monsters. There were three of them, and he didn't know how strong or powerful they were. Their stats, their abilities, their weaknesses—all of it was unknown. He couldn't depend on his abilities alone. Not against three unknowns at once. He had to create space between them, isolate them, and fight them off one by one. That was the only way he'd survive this.

But how? The bunker was cramped. There wasn't much room to maneuver, and the monsters blocked most of the available space.

Just then, the mad scientist threw his hands up in exasperation, his patience finally snapping. "Oh, I'm bored already! This is taking far too long!" He turned toward the monsters and shouted, his voice echoing through the bunker with manic intensity. "Attack him! Show me what you're capable of! Demonstrate your power!"

The spell broke.

The monsters rushed at Jelo.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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