Outpost 17 wasn't a city anymore.
It was a fortress built from the bones of civilization—shattered highways, melted steel beams, and entire train cars stacked like barricades. Feral lights flickered between the ruins, casting long, distorted shadows. Echoes of gunfire and howling wind sang through the empty streets.
Marcus stepped out of the transport, every muscle tense. Danny followed close behind, clutching a modified shock rifle scavenged from a dead outpost.
"This place looks worse than the Spiral zones," Danny muttered. "Are we sure Lucien's still... human?"
Marcus didn't answer. In a place like this, human was a sliding scale.
They moved through the crumbling streets, weaving past rusted vehicles and half-toppled buildings. The System inside Marcus hummed softly, attuned to the radiation of twisted evolution that clung to the air like mist.
Then, from the rooftop above, a low voice rumbled.
"Visitors. That's rare."
Marcus glanced up—and there he was.
Lucien Vale.
The man was enormous, standing nearly seven feet tall, his body a fortress of cracked, stone-like flesh. His arms were layered in plates of living concrete, pulsing faintly with System energy. Deep scars crisscrossed what remained of his human features.
Lucien dropped from the rooftop without a sound, landing with a seismic thud that rattled the broken street.
"You brought a toy," Lucien said, nodding at Danny with a cruel smirk. "Cute."
Danny raised his rifle instinctively. Marcus pushed it down.
"We're not here to fight," Marcus said. "We're here to make a deal."
Lucien laughed, a low, grinding sound like boulders shifting.
"You don't make deals in Outpost 17, Marcus Chen. You survive."
Without warning, Lucien charged.
Marcus barely sidestepped in time, concrete fists slamming into the ground where he'd stood, cracking the asphalt like an egg.
The System flared to life.
[Emergency Combat Mode Engaged][Tactical Options: Predator Speed – Active / Bone Blade Generation – Available / Reflex Enhancement – Queued]
Marcus activated Predator Speed instantly, feeling the surge in his legs.
Lucien came at him again, faster this time—unnaturally fast for something so massive. Marcus ducked, twisted, and retaliated with a sharp elbow to Lucien's side. His strike landed—and it felt like hitting a steel wall.
Lucien grinned.
"My turn."
Before Marcus could retreat, Lucien grabbed a chunk of broken pavement and hurled it like a cannonball. Marcus leapt aside, the debris whistling past his ear.
Danny scrambled for cover, shouting, "Marcus, if this is recruiting, remind me not to join your next team!"
Marcus smiled grimly.
This wasn't about diplomacy.
It was about dominance.
And to win, he had to evolve faster than Lucien could crush him.
Marcus triggered the queued Reflex Enhancement.
[Evolution: Reflex Enhancement – Activated]
Time slowed. Every muscle and tendon tuned itself to a sharper rhythm.
Lucien swung again, but this time, Marcus saw it—the slight telegraph of a shoulder shift, the twist of Lucien's spine a millisecond before impact.
Marcus slipped inside the arc of the punch, slamming an open palm against Lucien's ribs and firing a concentrated shockwave from his kinetic reserves.
Lucien stumbled.
Only for a second.
But it was enough.
Marcus drew a shattered pipe from the wreckage and drove it with all his strength into a seam in Lucien's stone armor—one of the old scar lines.
Lucien roared in pain and fury, swinging blindly.
Marcus danced back, chest heaving.
"You evolve," Marcus said between breaths. "Or you die."
Lucien panted heavily, then—unexpectedly—grinned wide enough to show broken teeth.
"Good," Lucien said. "You're not soft."
He extended a massive, cracked hand.
"You've got my attention, Marcus Chen."
Danny peeked out from behind a wrecked sedan, incredulous. "That's it? You just had to beat him bloody?"
Marcus wiped blood from his lip, feeling the System hum with growing potential.
"No," Marcus said. "Now we have to convince him there's something worth fighting for."
Lucien's eyes gleamed under the dying sun.
And somewhere in the ruins of Outpost 17, the first piece of Marcus's army began to fall into place.