Mutation
The thin woman held her still-sobbing child tighter against her chest. Her voice was rough with exhaustion.
"My husband is an addict. When the craving hits him, he takes it out on me and the baby. If we stay home, he'll beat us to death. I had no choice. I had to bring the child outside."
Her voice caught in her throat and went silent.
Looking at the lines carved into her face — wrinkles that had no business being there at her age — Lu Yuan found himself at a loss for words.
She looked up at him. Then she bent her knee and knelt.
"My Lord," she pleaded, "you're a powerful Gene Warrior. Please — could you walk me out of this district? If I'm alone, someone will come for my child again. I have nowhere else to go."
Lu Yuan frowned and pulled her to her feet.
"Fine. I'll walk you out."
The woman's face broke open with relief. She bowed, again and again.
"Thank you, My Lord — thank you so much!"
It was nothing — just a short stretch of road. A few steps for Lu Yuan. He might as well count it as extra exercise.
He walked her across the street.
At the edge of the pavement, crouched in the shadow of a building corner, three hooligans were scanning the area with restless eyes.
One of them spotted Lu Yuan and the thin woman. His gaze drifted to the child in her arms, and his eyes lit up. He nudged his two companions.
"We've got work."
The other two looked over. When they caught sight of the baby, both broke into lazy smirks.
"Someone out this late with a kid in their arms?" one said. "Brothers, let's go show them what the slum rules look like."
"There's a man with her. Looks like he might not be easy. Get ready."
One of them had already slid his hand into his jacket pocket, where something made a telltale bulge.
The three stood and started toward them.
As they drew close, the thin woman was the first to notice. She stiffened, clutching her child tighter, and pressed closer to Lu Yuan.
The burly one was about to open his mouth when one of his companions clamped a hand over it. The third strolled up to Lu Yuan with a broad, easy smile — the kind that could fool someone who didn't know what it was covering for.
"Hey, bro. Mind if we borrow something? We've been out all evening and ran out of lighter fluid — any chance you could spare a light?"
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow, a faint smile on his face.
"Borrow what?"
"Just a light, big bro. Wouldn't take a second."
"I don't smoke. No lighter."
Two of the hooligans had already spotted the Gene Battle Mark on Lu Yuan's wrist. Their pupils contracted.
The friendly one's smile didn't shift a millimeter.
"Right — no problem at all. Sorry for the bother. Take care, big bro."
They grabbed the still-bewildered burly one and walked away without another word.
Lu Yuan watched them go. Honestly, he thought the three of them had been fairly polite — aside from the first one's tone.
Once they'd put enough road between themselves and Lu Yuan, the burly one shook free of his companions' grip.
"What the hell was that?!"
The one who had covered his mouth was still sweating, his face pale with retroactive dread.
"You have absolutely no idea," he said, low and urgent. "That man is a Gene Warrior. Did you not see the mark on his wrist? We just saved your life."
"You're serious?"
"Of course I'm serious. What do I gain from lying to you? Ask Mazi if you don't believe me."
The other companion nodded. "It's true. No wonder they're out this late with a kid — turns out he's a Gene Warrior. Thank god we noticed when we did. If we hadn't, we'd have been finished."
Hearing both of them confirm it, the burly one felt a chill settle into his bones.
"Good thing you guys saw it," he muttered. "Otherwise..."
"Lao Man," one of his companions announced brightly, "you owe us brothers a proper meal for this."
Lao Man's expression curdled immediately.
"What?! You drag me off without saying a single word, and now you want me to buy you dinner?!"
Lu Yuan paid no attention to the three hooligans who had appeared and vanished so abruptly.
Nearby, a dim alley opened off the side of the street.
Inside, two stray dogs were rooting through a heap of garbage.
Just then, from the shadows at the back of the alley, the Shadow slipped out. In an instant it burrowed straight into the body of one of the dogs — the ragged black one with patches of fur worn away all over its coat.
The dog froze.
Black mist began leaking from its body in slow, spreading tendrils.
*Crack. Crack. Crack.*
Every bone in its frame started popping, one after another.
The scrawny body began to swell, expanding as if something was pumping it full from within, ballooning at unnatural speed. The black fur grew long and stiff. Muscles surged up beneath the skin. The body bloated outward. The eyes went solid — perfectly, entirely black.
It grew. And kept growing.
By the time the changes stopped, the dog's shoulder height was a full 1.7 meters.
The creature that now stood in the alley was immense.
The other stray felt the shift immediately. Every hair on its body stood up. It crouched low, bared its teeth at what had been its companion only moments ago, and let out a low, threatening growl.
The mutated dog glanced over at it.
The normal stray whimpered. It tucked its tail and tried to run.
The mutated dog's outline blurred — and in that same instant it was standing directly in front of the fleeing animal.
One massive claw came down on the stray's skull.
*BOOM.*
Brain matter spattered across the alley floor. The dog twitched once and went still.
Outside the alley, the three hooligans heard the sounds from within and all three went still.
Lao Man craned his neck, trying to peer inside.
*What was that noise?*
Then a dark streak exploded from the alley mouth.
Before any of the three could react, Lao Man's body was swatted clean off his feet by a single enormous blow.
*BOOM.*
He slammed into a wall five meters away. Cracks spread through the stone around the impact.
— This was not reinforced alloy. Just ordinary stone. The crater left behind was deep.
The thin woman's legs buckled. She nearly collapsed entirely.
Even Lu Yuan felt a jolt of alarm.
A massive black dog now stood at the alley entrance. Shoulder height: 1.7 meters. Black mist still curled off its body in wisps. It looked like a creature from a nightmare — towering, monstrous.
The two remaining hooligans stared at it, eyes wide, utterly speechless.
The mutated dog felt Lu Yuan's gaze. It turned its head toward him.
Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed. Without looking away from the beast, he spoke quietly.
"Step back."
The woman jolted, clutched her child, and scrambled behind him.
The creature seemed to register the threat he posed. It abandoned the two hooligans standing much closer, lowered its massive frame into a crouch, and let out a slow, deep rumble.
Battle armor materialized around Lu Yuan. The Beetle Claw greatsword appeared in his grip.
*Black Iron Body, activate.*
Darkness bled across his skin. Markings traced themselves along the lines of his face.
The giant dog launched off the ground and charged straight for him.
Lu Yuan planted his feet and drove forward, sword raised.
*BOOM.*
Man and beast collided. The shockwave drove down through their legs and into the earth; the ground beneath the point of impact split in a jagged crack.
Greatsword struck massive claw — a ringing clash of metal against something harder.
The next instant, the beast let out a howl of pain as the force behind Lu Yuan's blow sent its enormous body airborne. Nearly 1.7 meters at the shoulder, and it went into the wall like a battering ram.
*BOOM.*
The impact punched a deep crater into the stone.
Lu Yuan was already moving. The moment the dog left the ground, he'd surged forward. Before it could recover, he drove the blade into its body.
The howling stopped.
Two hooligans and the thin woman stood frozen, faces slack with shock.
One had pressed himself against a corner, staring at the crater in the wall.
"What the hell *is* that thing?!"
Another said, in a voice that had gone very small: "Is this what Gene Warrior power actually looks like? Is he even human?!"
"No wonder Gene Warriors are ranked so far above everyone else. That power — something that size, sent flying with one hit. It's absolutely terrifying."
"A feral beast?! How did a feral beast get *inside* the city?!"
The thin woman stared at the enormous dog now lying motionless on the ground, at the crater gouged into the wall beside it. Her knees went weak.
She turned toward Lu Yuan and started to kneel—
Lu Yuan frowned and caught her arm before she went down. He shook his head.
"Let's go."
"Thank you, My Lord — thank you so much!"