Chapter 52: The Bloodclaws

The command center had become a controlled storm.

Hunters and civilians moved through the space with disciplined urgency, boots whispering against marble as they passed between towering holographic displays. The Rolex store, once a shrine to polished luxury, now pulsed with life and tension. Cables snaked across the floor and walls, feeding power into flickering monitors and hovering projections. The air buzzed with overlapping sounds: quiet commands, rapid footsteps, the soft hum of generators, and the relentless tapping of keys.

Leo sat hunched over a semicircle of terminals, his glasses slipping slightly down his nose as his fingers flew across the keyboard. Lines of code streamed endlessly down multiple screens, surveillance feeds blinking in and out as drones adjusted their angles across the city. His jaw was set, lips pressed thin in concentration.

Shin Lu strode into the center of the room without slowing. He stopped before the massive holographic map of Singapore, its surface alive with shifting markers and pulsing threat indicators. Jane, Jagger, Lynis, Porpo, and Hector spread out behind him instinctively, forming a loose arc. Kade entered moments later, his presence immediately warping the atmosphere. Two hunters followed him in and took up positions near the walls, their silence deliberate, their eyes sharp.

The moment Shin Lu came to a halt, the room obeyed him.

Conversations died mid-sentence. Movements slowed, then stopped. Even the civilians pressed near the edges of the command center seemed to hold their breath. Every gaze turned toward the man standing beneath the hovering map.

“We have a crisis,” Shin Lu said.

His voice was calm, steady, but there was an edge beneath it now, a tightness that betrayed the weight of what pressed down on him. His mismatched eyes moved slowly across the room, meeting faces one by one. He did not rush. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to.

“The Great Filter will not wait for us to recover,” he continued. “We have less than twenty-four hours to locate and eliminate as many Heralds of Collapse. As of this moment, we do not fully understand what they are, nor how to track them reliably.”

A low ripple of unease spread through the room.

Before he could continue, the doors to the command center burst open.

A man staggered inside, drenched in rain and sweat, chest heaving as he pushed through the threshold. His boots left wet prints across the marble as he stumbled forward.

“Move!” he shouted. “Ben Lim, sir. Sorry to interrupt, but it’s urgent!”

Shin Lu turned sharply. “Report.”

“The Bloodclaws from Lucky Plaza are in the plaza outside,” the scout said, breath coming in ragged gasps. “Twenty of them. Heavily armed. And they don’t look friendly.”

The room stiffened instantly.

Weapons were checked without conscious thought. Shoulders tightened. Hunters exchanged grim looks.

Then he swallowed and forced the rest out. “But that’s not all. There are pillars of light in the sky. Massive ones. Floating. All of them are within the location of the Elite threat monster or higher.”

A murmur rippled through the command center, louder this time.

The scout continued. “They are scattered across the city. Sir… they might be the Heralds the system warned us about.”

The implications hit like a physical blow.

Shin Lu turned back toward the map. “Get me eyes outside.”

“Yes, sir,” Leo replied immediately.

His fingers danced across the keys. The holographic city map dissolved, reforming into a live drone feed. The view stabilized above the mall’s main entrance, rain still falling but no longer torrential. The plaza below glistened with pooled water and fractured stone.

Figures moved across it.

They walked with a predatory ease, armored and armed, their posture relaxed, suggesting confidence rather than caution. At their head was a woman who demanded attention the moment she appeared on-screen.

She wore a black cropped bomber jacket over a black sports bra, her midriff bare despite the rain. A black thigh-high skirt clung to her legs, paired with heavy combat boots that splashed through shallow water without slowing her stride. In one hand, she lazily swung a black cleaver, its edge nicked and darkened with old stains. In the other, she dragged a cutlass along the ground, the blade leaving faint sparks as it scraped stone.

Her body was a canvas of tattoos, ink crawling across exposed skin in intricate, violent patterns. Short blue hair framed her face in a sharp pixie cut, rain plastering it slightly to her scalp. She smiled as she walked, a cruel, delighted curve of her lips that never reached her eyes.

Those eyes were brown, sharp, and focused.

They lifted, locking directly onto the drone’s lens.

For a heartbeat, it felt as though she was staring straight into the command center itself.

She raised her middle finger, stuck out her tongue, and struck an exaggerated pose beneath the falling rain.

“Bitch,” Shin Lu muttered.

“Who is she?” Jane asked, her voice tight.

She leaned closer to the display, studying the woman’s movements, her stance, the casual way she held her weapons. There was something unmistakably dangerous about her. Something playful in the worst possible way.

“That,” Shin Lu said, “is Reika. Leader of the Bloodclaws.”

His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

“She’s sadistic. Cunning. Strong. And she definitely didn’t come here to negotiate.”

Lynis cracked his neck, eyes still fixed on the feed. “We handle them, right?” he asked. “Twenty hunters could still be useful if we force them to cooperate.”

Shin Lu shook his head once.

“That’s not happening,” he said flatly. “They may be fewer than us, but every single one of them is close to becoming or is an Awakened-ranked hunter with the gear to match. Most were criminals or sociopaths even before the system arrived.”

He gestured subtly toward the screen. “And Reika herself is the problem. She’s a Blood Berserker,” Shin Lu continued. “Her class grows stronger the more blood is spilled. Every kill feeds her. Every death sharpens her. She’s a walking meat grinder.”

Jane’s brows drew together. “Level?”

“At least forty,” Shin Lu said. “I’m only level thirty-five.”

The silence that followed was absolute.

The casual bravado that had lingered after surviving the plaza evaporated. This was not an abstract threat. This was not something they could outrun or delay.

This was a force standing directly outside their walls.

“And her people are no pushovers either,” Shin Lu added quietly. “If they attack now, while we’re still organizing for the Great Filter… we’ll bleed badly.”

Jagger stood near the back of the group, shoulders drawn tight, the faint sting at his throat lingering beneath the damp collar of his shirt. The command center lights reflected across the holographic feed, but his attention stayed fixed on the woman standing in the rain outside. Reika moved with careless confidence, blades loose in her hands, her smile sharp enough to feel like a threat even through a screen.

Something heavy settled in his chest.

Weak.

The word surfaced without mercy.

He swallowed, jaw tightening as he shifted his weight. The room around him felt distant for a moment. Voices blurred. The hum of machinery faded beneath the low thrum of his own pulse.

“Hey, Ophilia,” he whispered under his breath. “You’ve been quiet.”

The answer did not come as sound. It slithered into his awareness like cold smoke, sharp and intrusive. A presence unfurled at the back of his mind, patient and dangerous.

’I am observing.’

Her voice carried an edge that scraped against his thoughts. There was no warmth in it, no comfort. Only calculation.

’This Reika radiates a resonance akin to mine. Twisted. Gluttonous. She devours conflict and calls it strength. A crude imitation.’

Jagger’s brow creased faintly. “I had a question…”

The interruption came instantly.

’No.’

The word struck like a blade laid flat against his throat.

’I will not cooperate with you. You said it yourself. If you die, I fall into internal slumber. I have no desire to gamble my existence on your reckless curiosity.’

A faint pressure coiled tighter around his thoughts, cold and possessive.

’And stop thinking about that dream.’

The warning sharpened, her presence pressing deeper, darker.

’Do it again, and I will kill Jane for you.’

Jagger’s gaze snapped toward Jane without meaning to.

She stood a few steps ahead, posture straight, eyes fixed on Shin Lu as he studied the holographic map. Her expression gave nothing away, but a faint hardness lingered at the edges of her mouth. Seeing her there, solid and alive, sent a surge of heat through his chest that he struggled to contain.

“You…” he started, anger and disbelief tangling in his throat.

’Silence,’ Ophilia said, her tone turning colder. ’Listen. Observe. Survive. That is all you are required to do.’

The pressure withdrew slightly, leaving behind the echo of her presence like a shadow that refused to fade.

Jagger exhaled slowly, forcing his attention back to the room. “Whatever,” he muttered under his breath. “Asshole.”

Outside, on the holographic feed, Reika continued to smile up at the drone, rain sliding over inked skin and gleaming steel. She looked like she belonged to the chaos waiting beyond the walls, like someone who welcomed the coming violence with open arms.

Inside the command center, a heavy silence settled over the gathered hunters.

No one needed to say it aloud.

The Great Filter had only just begun, and already, the line between ally and enemy had blurred into something far more dangerous.

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