A Reconnaissance Drone trains its eye on a faint disruption moving fast. Running are we? Can’t have that, my precious target.

  A missile, shot from another heavily modified drone, hits where it thinks the Evolved is. What looks to be a bone spike, flying faster than the missile, swats the offending machine out of the sky.

  Soldiers lying in wait open fire. Bullets ripple the air like tiny droplets on still waters. The Evolved unleashes a burst of spikes, disabling them all in one attack. It drops its stealth. A bulbous head is lifted up. Bulging eyes, like someone stuck them on, ogle the sky through smoke and ash. It tries to take out a Reconnaissance Drone with an extruded projectile, but the high altitude proves tricky, allowing the drone ample time to evade.

  Artillery, normally reserved for defending the city, turns its guns inward. With no alive friendlies close, it opens up. The Evolved tries its best to evade too, also taking advantage of the distance between. But due to extenuating circumstances, there is very little to hide behind, so its only option is to not be where a shell is. Swarms of One-way Attack Drones make it harder.

  Meanwhile, more Soldiers converge on the Evolved’s location, stuffed in repurposed haulers, repelling down from hurriedly-built troop transport helicopters, or by just booking it.

  As the fighting stretches, the combined firepower of my stolen arsenal proving insufficient, black rain begins to fall. The Evolved has switched from an undulating appearance to black and gray, same as the rain. It weathers the precipitation as well as everything else. A minor inconvenience.

  I digitally press a big red button that reads ‘Deploy Secret Weapon’.

  The shutters of a hanger, untouched by the destruction, shudder and start to slowly roll up. Enforcers have lined up on both sides of the opening, awaiting the entrance. When a small crack forms close to the ground, smoke starts pouring out of the mysterious building. When the shutter is halfway up, lights turn on inside. A figure is silhouetted by the illumination. The white light splits up into multiple colors, beamed by erratically moving sources. When the shutter fully opens, the lights cut off, and the figure steps out.

  It’s a Soldier Drone. The Enforcers start mutely cheering for their fellow. The Soldier beckons for more energy from the crowd. It receives the ask. The Soldier repositions its makeshift backpack, the heavy weight evident, and starts walking forward while shadowboxing for the audience. On his back, securely affixed with cargo straps, is a nuclear warhead. As it reaches the last of the lined Enforcers, it turns back and cockily nods its head up. Then it turns around again and starts running. Only to stumble at the first stride. The Enforcers instantly panic, bracing for a blast that never comes, as the Soldier recovers unexpectedly fast. One by one, the Enforcers figure out they just got punked. The Soldier condescendingly shakes its head at them and starts running for real this time.

  The unsuspecting Evolved is still reducing drones to scrap. A swipe of its elongated limb separates a mechanical head from a mechanical body and launches it at another Soldier hard enough to crumple armor and compromise batteries.

  Explosive shells rain around the monster. It weaves around the impacts, sustaining no visible damage at all.

  A wheeled transport attempts a hit and run. The Evolved splatters along the ground as if made of liquid. The vehicle harmlessly passes over, but the harm it intended to cause is reciprocated. My target reforms as the transport bursts into flames and veers off, shortly crashing.

  Nuclear-capable Soldier hastens its pace.

  The Evolved is now a pitch-black, contaminated rain glistening on its tough, rubbery skin. It kills a few more drones while effortlessly dodging the incessant bombardment. A lucky Enforcer manages to get a hit in. The Evolved simply turns to look at its feeble attacker. I imagine it’s an entirely unimpressed look. The Enforcer flips the monster off with one hand and slaps it with the other. For its troubles, the drone gets torn in two.

  Excessively-armed Soldier looks behind its shoulder. A motorized vehicle—which is pretty much two wheels bolted to a frame—is quickly catching up. Operating the simplified motorbike is one of drones missing a level. The weaker version extends a hand to its better. In a rapid pull, the bike gains a passenger.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  I stop concealing the full extent of my capabilities and change the staggered shots of long-range artillery into a constant rumbling. The Evolved stands inside a crater in the process of being deepened. Forces that rend the bedrock apart hardly jostle it side to side. Flames lick at its form, feeling barely toasty compared to the ones it recently experienced, which too were inadequate. Shrapnel bounces off and away.

  After seemingly showcasing its dominance, the Evolved starts moving. First a run, then a hurtle, a straight line for my exact location.

  My secret weapon hops off. The two drones exchange tacit nods. Back wheel kicks up rocks and dust as the bike spins one hundred and eighty degrees and peels off.

  Through the caved-in reservoir, the Evolved travels. Up a sheer slope. Between husks of buildings, more what they were by the second, but always under threat from my forces.

  Just as the Evolved glimpses intact structures, a lone Soldier leaps at it. With no effort made to stop it, the Evolved receives a warm hug.

  It takes less than a minute for the Reconnaissance Drones to get a clear image through their System-enhanced sensors, and when they do, what’s captured is a black chrysalis. It sticks up, stuck to the melted ground by a thin pad.

  I hop up to a standing position in one fluid motion and walk to the elevator. It takes me up and away from presumed safety. The thick doors open to a warehouse stocked full of awaiting Soldiers. My body ripples and changes, another drone lost among the many same.

  Black chrysalis cracks. Fractures run along the surface. Pieces break off and fall to the ground, shattering like sharp obsidian. From within, the Evolved crawls out. Smaller than it was. More compact. Vibrancy has returned, shifting and flowing from one color to the next, the softest transition between. Bulging eyes are a tiny pinprick, only one way forward seen.

  The Evolved moves, going faster than before, reaching the warehouse in minutes.

  It bursts through the closed shutters. Waves of soldiers throw themselves at it. Pummeling is ignored, no drone strong enough to hurt. My arm slips between metal bodies, deliberately repositioned, and my knife pierces rubbery skin. Compounding Strike recognizes my indirect damage, reflected in the feeling I get from the usage, and the monster’s reaction.

  The Evolved flinches back, and at the same, swipes both arms. Drones are torn and crushed. Including my right arm.

  Camouflage thinks a little bit before fulfilling my request, but I am once again back to factory spec.

  My target pushes its way further into the mass of Soldiers, trying to find the one who could hurt it. My dropped knife is slid back to me with a short kick, going between aligned legs. I grab the weapon, and slide myself, pulled into position by hands that might as well be my own.

  Two quick stabs. Pushed and tugged away. Drones fall, replaced by more, like the onslaught of metal is a single living organism. And it is.

  Vibrant colors slowly fade, faster by the millisecond. The Evolved continues to flail aimlessly.

  I reposition again and strike. My knife goes in easier, inflicted damage compounding. But when I try to pull it out and retreat, I find the blade stuck in flexed muscles, harder than steel.

  There’s only enough time for me to let go and pull my arm back. Soldiers in the path of the counterattack are useless. A low sweep of the Evolved’s leg, sweeps one of mine with it.

  More Soldiers rotate to replace the defeated, bringing me further back. Camouflage is primed to carry out my similar ask. I feel the gained proficiency settle into place, making progress toward the next stage. The fake can’t replace the original, but the illusion of it never doing so is all I am after, after all.

  The surrounded Evolved appears to weigh its options, glancing toward the opening through which it entered. It sees nothing but a solid wall of enemies. Using every drone at my disposal, I’ve made a wriggling dome around the warehouse, keeping true to the collective noun used to describe them.

  With no easy way out, my target redoubles its efforts, now dull and gray, only a hint of the past vibrancy left. It scrambles inside a liquid made out of coordinated appendages. Where it strikes, more drones pour into the empty space, those disabled quietly extracted to make room for those not. Where it doesn’t see, I move like a shadow, always a part of the whole, hidden in plain sight.

  Living fluid opens up, creating a tunnel. I slither through. Two Soldiers grab on each side and compensate for my missing leg, launching me forward. Knife in hand, I stab the Evolved’s head, bursting an eye. The monster flounders. Soldiers grab and bring it down. I wrench my knife out and stab an intact eyeball, lain on top of it.

  The Evolved’s arm moves in a flash, drones too weak to restrain. My head flies away. Blade finds flesh again, tip digging into concrete beneath. Popped eyes show no emotion.

  Legs coil below my midsection and launch me through the piled drones and at the ceiling. Before I’ve hit metal beams or corrugated steel roof, an electromagnetic pulse is released from the Evolved. I slam against something hard and start to fall down as all my drones fall, impacting the ground seconds later.

  The Evolved recovers before me, lunging at the latest sound.

  Two hands enter my chest, disregarding armor. Long fingers wrap around my core. Pressure.

  I activate Compounding Strike. The Skill asks more of me. I don’t give it. It doesn’t care, taking what is required. My knife stabs one last time. The pressure disappears. Four glowing windows is all which remains.

  [You have defeated: The Evolved (Lv. 50)]

  [You have received: Heart of the Evolved (Common). Please claim or discard.]

  [You have (1) Class Skill upgrade available. Please accept or decline.]

  [Tutorial complete.]