BOOM!!
The courtyard exploded beneath Parker’s feet.
He became a black blur.
Lucas’s instincts screamed.
Move.
Without thinking, he squeezed the handle of the fire extinguisher.
FSSSHHHHHH!!
A violent stream of white suppressant erupted from the nozzle.
The thick cloud swallowed the space between them.
Parker crashed straight into it.
Blue lightning flashed inside the smoke.
The entire cloud ignited with blinding light.
BOOOOOOM!!
The shockwave threw Lucas backward several steps.
His ears rang.
The extinguisher nearly slipped from his grasp.
“RUN!!”
Lucas’s voice echoed across the deserted campus.
The surviving basketball players didn’t hesitate.
They grabbed their injured teammate beneath the shoulders and dragged him away.
Billy stumbled after them, clutching his broken ribs.
The remaining upperclassmen stood frozen.
Lucas turned and roared,
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!”
That finally broke them.
They fled.
None of them looked back.
Within seconds…
The courtyard belonged to only two people.
Lucas.
And Parker.
The smoke slowly drifted apart.
Heavy footsteps echoed through it.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Blue lightning illuminated the white cloud.
Then…
Two endless black eyes appeared.
Lucas tightened his grip around the extinguisher.
“…Come on.”
Parker growled.
“Grrrrrrrr…”
Then—
BOOM!!
The smoke burst apart.
Lucas barely reacted in time.
Parker slammed into him like a speeding truck.
Both of them crashed across the pavement.
The extinguisher rolled several meters away.
Lucas gasped.
The impact drove every bit of air from his lungs.
Before he could recover—
Parker was already on top of him.
One clawed hand pinned Lucas by the shoulder.
His other hand gripped Lucas’s shirt.
The corrupted creature slowly lowered its head.
Its jaw stretched wider.
Wider.
Rows of jagged teeth glistened beneath drifting black mist.
Lucas’s heart nearly stopped.
“No—!”
Instinct took over.
He grabbed the extinguisher lying beside him.
With every ounce of strength left—
He shoved it horizontally between Parker’s jaws.
CLANG!!
The monster’s teeth crashed against solid steel.
The metal instantly dented inward.
Lucas’s entire body shook.
Parker pushed harder.
His monstrous strength forced the extinguisher closer.
Lucas’s arms trembled violently.
His muscles screamed.
“…Move…”
“…MOVE!”
The steel groaned.
CRRRRKKKK…
Lucas’s elbows slowly bent.
Another second…
And those teeth would reach his throat.
Then—
“GET OFF HIM!!”
WHAM!!
A baseball bat smashed into the side of Parker’s face.
The impact echoed across the courtyard.
Parker’s head snapped sideways.
Lucas looked up.
One of Parker’s followers stood there.
His entire body trembled.
The aluminum bat shook violently inside his hands.
His face was pale.
“I…”
“I-I can’t…”
“…He’s not human anymore!”
Parker slowly turned his head.
The boy’s courage disappeared instantly.
His pupils shrank.
“…RUN!!”
He threw the bat aside and sprinted after the others without looking back.
Lucas didn’t waste the opportunity.
“GET OFF!!”
He drove both feet into Parker’s chest.
BOOM!!
The corrupted student slid backward several meters, carving two long trenches through the concrete before stopping.
Lucas scrambled to his feet.
His breathing was ragged.
His shirt hung in tatters.
The first extinguisher was completely empty.
Without hesitation, he grabbed the second one.
Parker slowly stood.
His head tilted unnaturally.
CRACK.
CRACK.
Bones shifted beneath his skin.
As though resetting themselves.
Then—
He charged again.
Lucas raised the extinguisher like a shield.
The distance vanished instantly.
Parker’s claw swept forward.
SHRRRKK!!
Lucas felt almost no resistance.
His eyes widened.
The extinguisher…
Split cleanly into two pieces.
Steel fell apart like cardboard.
“…Impossible…”
Lucas stumbled backward.
His heartbeat thundered inside his chest.
How…
How do claws cut through steel?
Parker kept walking.
One slow step after another.
Like a predator enjoying the hunt.
Lucas turned.
The exit.
If he could reach the hallway—
His footsteps stopped.
Two figures stood there.
Motionless.
Their heads hung unnaturally low.
Blood dripped steadily onto the floor.
Lucas stared.
“…No…”
One finger twitched.
Then another.
CRACK.
The first student’s head slowly lifted.
Pitch-black eyes opened.
Dark mist seeped from between his lips.
A wet growl escaped his throat.
“Grrrr…”
The second body shuddered.
CRACK.
It slowly rose to its feet.
Its movements were stiff.
Broken.
Like a puppet learning how to walk.
Lucas felt cold spread through his body.
“…They’re…”
“…alive?”
No. They weren’t.
They had become something else.
His breathing suddenly became uneven.
His legs felt strangely heavy.
“…?”
Lucas instinctively touched his neck.
His fingertips brushed against something warm.
He pulled his hand away.
Black blood.
Not red.
Black.
His heartbeat skipped.
The bite.
He had been bitten.
Tiny black veins slowly spread beneath the skin around the wound.
Each heartbeat pushed them farther.
His vision wavered.
“…What’s…”
“…happening…”
The courtyard tilted.
His breathing became shallow.
His arms refused to obey him.
Parker stood ahead.
The two newly Corrupted students blocked the exit behind him.
Lucas was trapped.
His knees buckled.
“No…”
He forced himself back up.
One step.
Then another.
The world blurred.
Not because his glasses were gone.
Something inside him was breaking.
His heartbeat became slower.
He could no longer hear the crackling lightning.
Only a dull ringing remained.
Parker growled.
The Corrupted students answered with growls of their own.
Three monsters.
Closing in.
Lucas tried to raise his fists.
His arms fell limply to his sides.
“…I…”
His legs finally gave out.
He collapsed onto the shattered pavement.
The last thing he saw…
Three blurry silhouettes standing over him.
Then…
Darkness swallowed everything.