Riku's first burst hit the pack leader center mass. The rounds thudded into its chest and shoulder, black fluid spraying, but the creature barely flinched. It dropped to all fours, claws digging into the pavement, and sprinted straight at him.
Riku moved left and kept firing in short, controlled bursts. The leader zigzagged like it had seen bullets before. It juked right, then left, then suddenly leapt high. Riku tracked it up, took the shot, and clipped its thigh. It crashed down off-balance, rolled, and came up again with a roar that rattled his ribs.
"Stay in the car!" he shouted without looking back.
The leader charged again. Riku didn't retreat. He closed the distance two steps, then slid to a stop and dropped to one knee. He aimed low and hammered the knee joint. Bone cracked. The creature stumbled and planted a claw to catch itself. Riku rose and kicked that planted wrist sideways. The leader went down on its side. He stepped in to finish it—
A second hunter blitzed in from the blind side.
Riku spun and fired point-blank into its face. The first round took an eye; the next two broke its jaw. It still grabbed his vest and dragged him a half-step. Riku jammed the muzzle up under its chin and emptied the rest of the mag. The body sagged. He ripped free and swapped mags on the run.
The leader used the opening. It lunged from the ground like a spring trap, both claws slashing. Riku threw his forearm up to shield his throat and took a shallow rake across the plate carrier instead of his neck. The impact knocked him back. He rolled with it, hit the ground, and snapped the M4 up again. The leader was already mid-pounce for his chest.
Riku fired a staccato burst into its open mouth. Teeth shattered. The head snapped back. It landed on him anyway. Weight crushed his chest. The rifle jammed between them. The leader shoved down, claws scraping for purchase on his armor.
Riku let go of the rifle with one hand and reached down to his belt. He pulled the combat knife and rammed it up into the creature's ribs. The blade met hard cartilage. He twisted hard. The leader screamed and flinched. Riku kicked up with both knees, bridging his hips and heaving the monster off to the side. It hit concrete, rolled, and came back with hate in its eyes.
He scrambled up, knife in left hand, rifle in right. He didn't have time to reload to full; the mag was half. He accepted it. He set his feet and faced the leader head-on.
Behind him, the Rezvani's engine idled. Inside, the girls were shouting, but he tuned it out. This fight was simple: if the leader died, the others would break; if it lived, they were dead.
The leader circled him now, keeping low, head cocking left and right like it was judging his reach. It was injured—knee slow, jaw bleeding—but it was still strong. It bared its ruined teeth and hissed.
"Come on," Riku said. "Let's finish it."
It came in a blur. He went sideways again, but it adjusted mid-stride and swiped for his legs. He jumped, barely clearing the claws, and landed rough. The leader pivoted faster than he liked and came again. Riku met it with steel: he drove the knife into the inside of its forearm as it reached, then ripped down to the wrist. Tendons snapped. That hand went slack.
Riku shoved the useless arm away and stepped in close, barrel under its chin, ready to fire. The leader was faster. It slammed its good hand into his shoulder and pushed. He slid across the pavement, boots scraping for traction. It pressed the attack, claws hammering his plate. He fired up into its throat—short bursts, not panic. Blood sprayed. It roared and punched him again. He hit the ground hard and rolled.
"Riku!" Suzune shouted from the car.
"I'm good!" he yelled back, not looking.
Two more hunters appeared on the warehouse roof, peering down. They didn't jump. They were waiting on the leader. Smart. Annoying.
Riku needed to break the leader's charge pattern. He ran, not away, but toward the broken lamp posts at the lot's edge. The leader chased, claws throwing sparks on the pavement. Riku ducked around the post at full speed, then cut back. The leader turned wide to follow, lost a step, and Riku took it. He pivoted, planted, and fired into its damaged knee again. The joint finally gave. The creature crashed to the ground, skidding on its chest.
Riku closed the gap in two strides. The leader rolled onto its back and kicked. The heel smashed into his thigh. Pain screamed up his leg. He almost fell. He stabbed downward instead, knife into the side of its neck where the armor of muscle thinned. The blade buried to the hilt. The leader thrashed and caught his wrist. Its grip crushed. Riku ripped the knife sideways; the blade snapped. He stumbled back with the broken handle in his fist.
The leader ripped the rest of the blade out of itself with a snarl and threw it at him. It clinked off his plate and fell.
"Fine," Riku said, jaw tight. "Gun only."
He reloaded while jogging backward—mag out, mag in, bolt tugged, muscle memory clean. He set the sight on the leader's skull. It started to rise.
He squeezed the trigger. The M4 hammered a straight line into its head. Bone splintered. The leader reared but didn't drop. He shifted a half-step and kept firing, walking the rounds into the ear canal. The creature jerked, flailed, and then lunged blind.
Riku sidestepped and it sailed past, crashing into a stack of pallets and exploding them into splinters. He pivoted and aimed at the base of its skull where spine met brain.
"Stay down," he said, and fired four more times.
The leader convulsed and slumped. It didn't get up.
Riku held aim for two more seconds, breathing hard. He didn't trust "dead" with these things. He took a step closer and put two insurance rounds into the spine. The body twitched once more and then went still for good.
Silence hit the lot like a lid dropping.
On the roof, the two hunters that had been watching shifted their weight, uncertain. They hissed, then backed away a step. Their heads lifted and swung toward the dark—toward escape. The pack had just lost its brain.
Riku exhaled, lowered the rifle a fraction, then brought it back up. "Not yet."
One hunter chose to run. He let it. The other made the wrong choice. It screamed and jumped down to avenge the leader. Riku shot it mid-air, three rounds into the chest and one into the head. It hit the ground limp and didn't move again.
He scanned the roofline. No more shapes. Claws scraped in the distance as the survivors retreated over tin and brick. The lot went quiet except for the Rezvani's idle and Riku's pulse in his ears.
He kept the muzzle up and walked back toward the SUV, checking the bodies in a slow circle. The first two he'd dropped were still dead. The leader's ichor pooled black around its head and steamed in the cold air. He skirted it, circled, checked again, then finally let the rifle dip.
He stood next to the driver's door and knocked twice with his knuckles. "It's me."
The door cracked. Suzune's face showed through the gap, pale and scared and angry all at once. "You idiot," she said, voice shaking.
"I'm fine," Riku said. "Stay inside. I'll clear the perimeter."
He turned and forced his legs to move. He did one full loop of the warehouse lot, checked behind trucks and in the gaps between dumpsters, checked the low roof of the guard shack, checked every shadow that could hide a body. Nothing. The night beyond the buildings still carried distant sirens and the far echo of the city, but here, for the moment, it was clean.
He returned to the Rezvani and opened the driver's door. The girls stared at him like he'd crawled out of a grave. Hana launched forward and hugged him as far as her belt would allow. He patted her head and eased her back.
"It's over," he said. "For now."
Ichika pointed at his thigh. "You're bleeding."
"Scratch," he said. He checked—deep bruise, a shallow slice. Plate had taken the worst of the chest hits. He'd be sore. He'd live.
Miko wiped her eyes. "Was that the… leader?"
"Yeah," he said. "Pack won't try again here. They'll reform somewhere else."