The robotic guard lunged at Lloyd with surprising speed, despite its heavy, metallic body.
Its massive arm shot out like a hammer, striking the ground and leaving a deep crater.
Lloyd backed away, but the impact shook the entire area.
"His strength…is greater than he looks," he thought to himself.
The guard didn't give him time to think. It spun around and unleashed a sideways blow that nearly hit Lloyd directly.
Lloyd leaped backward, slid to the ground, then quickly got back up.
At that moment, the marks on his left arm burned more intensely than ever.
He began to feel a strange heat coursing through his veins…not the heat of pain, but an energy that drove him to move.
He gritted his teeth and said, "Not now…I don't want to lose control."
But his body wasn't fully responding.
His breathing changed.
His senses sharpened.
Sounds became clearer…even the clanging of the guard's joints sounded like a creaking in his head.
The guard lunged again.
This time, Lloyd didn't back down.
He raised his arm to block the attack—
And at the moment of impact…
His hand partially transformed.
Dark claws appeared, longer and tougher than before, streaked with glowing blue and white.
The metal arm slammed into the transformed edge, and the attack abruptly stopped.
Even the guard himself froze for a split second…
As if his systems hadn't anticipated this change.
Lloyd slowly raised his head.
The transformation wasn't complete, but it wasn't random either.
This time… he was conscious.
He whispered, a low voice a mixture of human and predatory instinct:
"I… am in control."
The guard yanked his arm forward, trying to attack again, but Lloyd was faster now.
He moved with a sharp step, spun around, and delivered a pinpoint blow to the back joint.
The metal cracked.
Sparks flew, and the guard's body jerked. Lloyd realized something important:
He was no longer just fighting with the beast's power…
He was now using it consciously.
As he prepared for his next strike, other doors in the facility began to slowly open…
It was as if the fighting had awakened more systems.
The ground began to shake violently.
From the depths of the side corridors, the sound of mechanisms activating one after another echoed.
Red lights flashed, and the abandoned facility transformed into something resembling a metallic monster awakened from a long slumber.
Two more robotic guards emerged from opposite gates.
Their bodies were smaller than the first, but they moved faster, and their weapons were integrated into their arms.
The combined robotic voice said coldly, "Status Update…
Objective: Elimination."
Lloyd exhaled slowly and stood in the middle of the hall.
The glowing marks on his arm extended slightly to his shoulder, but his expression remained unchanged.
"Three against one…" He smiled faintly.
"Better than run."
The first guard lunged forward, launching a metal blade from its arm.
Lloyd dodged at the last second, and the blade passed centimeters from his neck, slicing through the wall.
The second guard leaped from behind, but Lloyd sensed him before he saw him.
He spun around with a swift strike of his mutated claws, hitting the guard directly in the chest.
The metal shattered, sparks flew, and the guard slumped to the ground, writhing.
But the third didn't wait.
He unleashed a short burst of energy that slammed into Lloyd's chest, sending him crashing against the wall.
Lloyd coughed a little, but quickly rose, his eyes blazing with an unnatural intensity.
"I won't let you..."
"bury the truth again."
This time, he charged forward with all his might, using his newfound speed.
He leaped over the first guard, landed behind him, and sank his claws into the head-body junction.
The guard stopped abruptly.
His eyes went dark.
Only one remained.
The last guard looked up, as if his system was trying to reassess... but it was too late.
Lloyd leaped high, delivering a powerful, deliberate blow.
A blow born not of instinct alone… but of rage and awareness combined.
The metal body shattered, and silence fell.
Lloyd dropped to one knee, breathing deeply.
The marks on his body began to fade.
He looked around.
The facility was silent now… but it no longer kept its secrets.
"This is just the beginning," he said in a low voice.
And somewhere far away… other, older systems were picking up an unexpected signal.
A signal that the predator… had awakened.
In the west…
Mizuno Kaino had ventured deeper into the facility he had discovered.
The corridors there weren't as badly damaged as the one in the north; in fact, they were in better condition… which made him uneasy.
"Strange…" he muttered, running his hand along the metal wall.
"It's like this place… hadn't been completely abandoned."
The lights flickered on and off, but the systems seemed almost active, as if someone had switched them on recently.
He cautiously advanced until he reached a vast hall filled with enormous glass cylinders.
Some were empty…
Some were broken…
But inside a few of them lay remnants of a dark, frozen substance.
Mizuno's eyes widened.
"This… is the same substance Seiko talked about."
He moved closer and noticed old screens still displaying distorted data.
Numbers… genetic graphics… and a word that repeated itself in every file:
"Reactivation."
He froze.
"Again…? Don't tell me they tried to run the project again!"
Suddenly—
The ground shook beneath him.
The lights went out for a second…
Then they came back on, but a different color.
A pale yellow.
A new line appeared on one of the screens, a line that hadn't been there moments before:
"A compatible sample detected."
The pipes began to hum slowly, as if something were being pulled from deep within the facility.
Then a heavy crack of a door opened from the far end of the hall.
Mizuno spun around.
A huge door was slowly opening…
And behind it, thick darkness from which nothing was visible.
Mizuno clenched his fist, his expression shifting slightly, that predatory chill that precedes his transformation.
"Well…" he said in a low voice.
"Looks like I'm not alone here."
And from within the darkness…
There was a sound of breathing.
Slow.
Heavy.
Alive.
The atmosphere intensified in the western part of the ancient facility.
The deformed monster, known as the Kain, moved slowly at first, but suddenly charged at Mizuno with incredible speed.
Mizuno raised his hands to try and block the attack, but he hadn't anticipated the force of the blow unleashed by the monstrous mass.
He received a direct punch to the face, slamming into the facility's wall with a thud, screaming in agony as the ancient metal echoed terrifyingly with each impact.
At that moment, from above, Ryorno suddenly entered the fray.
He delivered a powerful punch from behind to the Kain, piercing its deformed back, and the monster let out a searing scream.
Flames suddenly erupted from the Kain's body… The burning was caused by the fusion of Ryorno's power with the flames he controlled, accompanied by the eerie effect of the glowing tattoos on his hand.
The monster retreated, its screams gradually fading, as the walls around it cracked from the heat of the flames.
Mizuno stared at Ryorno in astonishment:
"What… just happened?! You…?"
But Ryorno didn't answer. He was completely focused, his blue eyes blazing with anger and control, watching the kain fade beneath the flames of his grip.
The failed project monster wasn't the last they would face… but this blow was the beginning of Ryorno's gradual return to his true power.