The road ahead was a mess—narrow, cracked, never meant for convoys or crowds.

  General Daka Halveth stood at the front of the long procession, his gaze fixed on the broken pavement winding toward the capital’s northern exit. The column stretched far behind him, a slow river of soldiers and civilians threading through ruined streets.

  They couldn’t move as one. The group was simply too large. Wounded soldiers limped between vehicles, children clung to their parents, and fear hung over the crowd like a fog that slowed every step.

  So Daka broke them apart.

  Thirty-six smaller units, each adjusted to the terrain and the condition of the people inside it. Soldiers spread between the groups, reinforcing the weaker ones, while the remaining men stayed with the medics and the injured.

  It wasn’t ideal.

  But it was all they had.

  The city around them had fallen into an uneasy silence. Streets that once carried millions now lay choked with wreckage—crashed vehicles, shattered storefronts, and bodies left where they had fallen. Smoke blurred the skyline, turning the towers of the capital into dark silhouettes.

  From a distance, the city looked abandoned.

  Hollow.

  But Daka knew better.

  The monsters were still here.

  Waiting.

  Two scouts suddenly broke from the formation and sprinted toward him, boots striking the pavement in frantic rhythm.

  Before either scout could speak, a sound rolled through the street behind them.

  Low at first.

  Then rising.

  A wave of howls spread across the ruined blocks; dozens layered over one another until the noise swallowed the empty city. The ground beneath Daka’s boots trembled faintly.

  He turned.

  Shapes were moving inside the smoke.

  At first only shadows—long, uneven silhouettes slipping between collapsed buildings. Then the creatures broke through the haze.

  Twisted bodies. Distorted limbs. Animals warped into something larger and dangerous.

  They came at a full run, claws tearing across asphalt and broken concrete as they poured down the ruined streets.

  Daka’s voice cut through the noise.

  “Take cover! Protect the civilians! Defensive line—hold your ground!”

  The scouts hadn’t even stopped moving before the monsters were within the attacking range.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  They burst through the smoke from both sides of the road, snarling jaws and slashing limbs crashing into the outer perimeter of soldiers. The impact came like a hammer strike.

  TCF troops reacted instantly.

  Rifles snapped up. Soldiers shifted position, forming tight defensive rings around each civilian group while the outer line braced for impact.

  Gunfire erupted in sharp, disciplined bursts.

  The first creatures dropped under the barrage, bodies tumbling across the road. But more rushed in behind them, scrambling over wrecked cars and broken pavement.

  The line wavered.

  There were too many directions to cover.

  The defensive groups had been spread out for movement. Now those same gaps left them thin—too thin to hold a full assault.

  They were exposed.

  “SOLDIERS!” Daka’s voice thundered over the gunfire.

  “You stand! You fight! For Cifad!”

  The answer came back instantly, shouted from a hundred smoke-choked throats.

  “Hail Father Cifad!”

  For a moment the cry steadied the line.

  Rifles roared louder. Bayonets flashed as soldiers stepped forward to meet the charging beasts.

  And the formation held.

  But the monsters came faster with every second, leaping over the bodies of the fallen. Some cleared the outer line entirely, vaulting straight into the civilian groups behind it.

  Screams erupted across the convoy.

  The battle had already broken through.

  Panic rippled through the civilians.

  Screams tore across the road as the defensive line buckled under the impact. Soldiers shouted orders, dragging people behind overturned cars and shattered barricades.

  Then something moved above them.

  A cat-like creature landed on the roof of a wrecked vehicle with a metallic clang. Its body was lean and twisted, muscles coiled beneath patchy fur. Yellow eyes swept across the crowd.

  It chose the smallest target.

  With a snarl, it leapt.

  “Mommy!”

  A girl—no older than nine—stood frozen in the middle of the road.

  Her small hands trembled. Her legs refused to move. The monster’s shadow swallowed her as it descended.

  And then—

  A blur struck the creature midair.

  Steel flashed.

  The dagger punched through the beast’s throat and the two crashed onto the asphalt in a tangle of claws and limbs.

  “Eat this, eat this, your ugly bastard!” the man snarled.

  Juan Corven rolled away as the creature thrashed violently, black blood spilling across the road. A second later the body went still.

  Juan pushed himself up, breathing hard.

  He wiped blood from his cheek and looked down at the girl.

  “You, okay?”

  She didn’t answer. She just stared at him; eyes wide with shock.

  A woman rushed forward, pulling the child into her arms.

  “Thank you—thank you!” she cried, gripping Juan’s arm with shaking hands.

  Juan gave a short nod.

  “Get her out of the open. Stay low.”

  The woman hurried away.

  Juan climbed onto the roof of the wrecked car, scanning the battlefield.

  Gunfire thundered around him. Soldiers fought in tight clusters, trying to hold the defensive rings around the civilians. Monsters crashed against the lines like waves against a crumbling wall.

  His muscles burned.

  His pulse hammered in his ears.

  But he didn’t step back.

  Now it was his turn. For the first time in years, Juan wasn’t running.

  He was standing his ground.

  Across the road, General Daka Halveth watched the battle unravel.

  Ammunition was running low. Every monster that fell seemed to be replaced by two more. The defensive rings were collapsing one by one.

  They could not hold this line.

  “Push forward!” Daka roared.

  “We’re three hundred meters from the exit! Break through now—civilians in the center!”

  The soldiers obeyed instantly.

  RPGs roared, blowing apart the densest clusters of creatures. Heavy machine guns turned the road ahead into a grinding storm of steel and fire.

  Bodies piled up.

  Monster corpses.

  Human corpses.

  Still the column moved.

  Some soldiers sprinted straight into the swarm with grenades clutched in their hands, their final act for a country that had already on the blink of destruction.

  And slowly—

  The northern gate appeared through the smoke, paved by blood and flesh.

  The survivors staggered through the ruined checkpoint and onto the highway beyond the city.

  Daka stopped at the threshold.

  He turned back.

  Behind them, the capital wrapped in the choking smoke.

  Somewhere inside those ruins were the soldiers who had stayed behind so the rest could escape.

  Distant flashes of gunfire flickered in the smoke.

  The muffled thump of grenades echoed through the dead streets.

  The sounds were faint now.

  But they struck Daka harder than any bullet.

  He raised his hand in silent salute.

  Then he turned and walked away.