The charred corpse of the Hollow Eater twitched. Blackened flesh cracked open as something inside it pulsed.
Leon staggered up, blood trickling from his forehead. Evelyn coughed beside him, her hands trembling. The explosion had bought them time, but something was wrong.
The tunnel was changing.
The walls quivered—sickly veins of mutated flesh burrowed into the metal, pulsating with a grotesque life of their own. The air was thick with the scent of decay.
A deep, grotesque chittering.
Leon turned. His heart stopped.
The Hollow Eater wasn't dead.
Its blackened skin peeled away, revealing a fresh layer of sinew beneath, wet and glistening. Its mouth widened, jaw cracking open unnaturally. A new appendage slithered from its throat—a segmented, barbed tongue lined with jagged teeth.
Evelyn's breath hitched. "It's… adapting."
The Hollow Eater moved faster now, unnaturally fluid.
Mia raised her rifle, but before she could fire—
A blur of muscle and hunger, it crashed into them, its claws tearing through steel.
Leon barely rolled away as Evelyn was snatched.
Her scream was cut short as the Hollow Eater pinned her down, its grotesque tongue curling toward her face.
Mia fired, but the bullets barely slowed it down. The creature's new exoskeleton absorbed the damage, the bullets sinking uselessly into its flesh.
Leon grabbed his combat knife and charged.
With a desperate cry, he slammed the blade into its neck.
The Hollow Eater shuddered, black bile spraying onto Leon's arm. It sizzled against his skin—acidic.
Leon bit back a scream.
The creature whipped its massive claw and sent him flying. His back slammed into the tunnel wall. The world spun.
Through blurred vision, he saw Evelyn struggling beneath the monster.
The creature had evolved to resist bullets.
But it was still organic.
He looked up—the ceiling.
"Mia!" he coughed. "The supports! Bring it down!"
She understood immediately.
Raising her rifle, she unloaded an entire clip into the rusted ceiling beams.
The structure groaned—then collapsed.
Tons of steel and debris came crashing down.
The Hollow Eater shrieked as the wreckage buried it, its form disappearing beneath the rubble.
Leon gasped for breath, pulling himself up.
Mia rushed to Evelyn, who was coughing, bruised but alive.
But as the dust settled, a sickening ripple crawled through the tunnel walls.
The Devourer was still watching.
And it was far from finished.