The ruins trembled.
Dust spiraled into the dying light, and from beneath the rubble, the monster rose again.
Executor was no longer a precise killing machine.
It was a wounded beast — desperate, mindless, far more dangerous.
Its remaining claw sparked wildly. Its armor hung in ragged strips. Wires and fluid oozed from its broken frame.
But its eye — that burning, hateful eye — locked onto Reo with a terrible, single-minded hunger.
Target Acquired. Kill Confirmed.
The words pulsed silently across its remaining systems.
Executor screamed — a sound like a thousand knives scraping against bone.
And it charged.
---
Run for Your Lives
"Move!" Reo barked, dragging Yua by the wrist.
Doraemon squealed and stumbled after them, fumbling desperately through his pocket for something — anything — that could help.
But they were out of options.
They had used their best trick already.
The Arsenal Fragments hidden on Reo were giving off a scent, like blood in the water, driving Executor into a frenzy.
He won't stop, Reo thought grimly. Not until one of us is dead.
The dead city blurred around them as they sprinted through alleys and collapsed streets.
Behind them, Executor howled and smashed through obstacles like a demon made of broken metal and rage.
Reo gritted his teeth.
They couldn't keep running forever.
---
Trapped
The trio turned a corner —
And froze.
Ahead of them loomed a massive chasm where the street had collapsed into the subway system far below.
A black, yawning pit.
Too wide to jump.
Too deep to survive a fall.
Reo spun around.
Executor burst into view, less than thirty meters away and closing fast, metal legs pounding the ground like war drums.
"We're out of time!" Yua gasped.
Reo's mind raced.
Fight here? Impossible. We'll die.
Jump? Instant death.
There had to be another way—
Then he saw it.
A broken crane, tilting precariously over the chasm, its rusted arm hanging like a bridge.
It wasn't much.
It was suicide.
But it was the only chance they had.
---
The Leap of Faith
"Follow me!" Reo shouted.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a running start and sprinted toward the crane.
Yua cursed but chased after him.
Doraemon wailed but followed.
Behind them, Executor shrieked again — a sound that shattered windows.
Reo hit the crane's base and scrambled up the slanted beam, boots slipping on the rusted metal.
One wrong step, and he would fall into the abyss.
Focus!
He reached the halfway point — the beam shaking dangerously under his weight — when Executor struck the base of the crane.
The whole structure groaned, tipping further.
Reo didn't think.
He jumped.
For a breathless moment, he flew.
Wind roared in his ears.
Then — impact.
He landed hard on the far side, rolling to absorb the force.
Pain lanced through his ribs, but he was alive.
He staggered to his feet just in time to see Yua land beside him, panting, eyes wide with terror.
Doraemon tumbled after them, a bundle of panicked squeaks and flailing limbs.
They had made it.
But Executor wasn't far behind.
The monster hurled itself onto the crane arm, the already weakened structure groaning under its massive weight.
Halfway across—
The crane finally snapped.
With a final, tortured shriek of metal, the beam twisted and collapsed, sending Executor plunging into the darkness below.
Its shriek echoed all the way down until it was swallowed by silence.
---
No Time to Celebrate
For a moment, none of them moved.
Then Doraemon collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. "I...I thought I was going to die!"
Yua laughed shakily. "We almost did."
Reo wiped blood from his lip, watching the pit.
"No," he said grimly. "It's not over."
He could feel it.
The way the air buzzed with unnatural energy.
Executor hadn't died from a simple fall.
It had activated its final protocol.
Deep underground, hidden in the dark tunnels of the ruined subway, Executor's broken systems churned.
It was becoming something worse.
A ticking bomb.
A Hunter's Blood.
A beast that would tear through the world until its target was obliterated — or until it self-destructed in a massive annihilation blast.
Reo clenched his fists.
They had delayed the inevitable.
But the real fight was only beginning.
---