A Tempestuous volley of rifle fire struck the pavement. The air slammed into the nearby sinners and blasted them backwards. Those closest to the blast howled fiercely. They clawed at ringing, pierced eardrums.The leader stood atop the ramshackle shelter of the building. He did not snarl, he did not roar, he simply smiled like he was heading off to a job he enjoyed.Men screamed out in desperation, officers tried to hold them together with hasty orders. The beast raised a massive leg skyward. The clawed end of his foot pointed straight out towards the glistening light of the sun.He stomped, an instant crack formed along the building like a shattered eggshell. The force carried out through the sidewalk and sent tiles flying out like comets. One of the soldiers, who had run out through the door, was caught by a stone slab. His head was caved in much the same way as the building.A vile smirk formed as he witnessed his handiwork. Twin fists came down. The impossible force imploded what was left of the roof.A hail of spalled stone drilled through a line of men who had moved to intercept him. Their bravery was only exchanged with the mercy of a quick death.An officer, who had survived the stone projectiles, lifted his Gauss cannon.The beast leaned to the side as the faint ionized trail of the weapon fell behind the impossibly fast projectile.This thing was fast, yes, but that shot should be too fast. He dodged the pull of the trigger rather than the projectile. His senses were like the edge of a scimitar.He dove headfirst into the gash he created. Blood exploded across the dusty surfaces of windows. One by one he carved through each floor.A man's corpse fell through the glass. A hole was punched right through his chest, intestines trailed behind him along with a shattered storm of glass.Then he reached the bottom floor. Each window suddenly detonated. Massive plumes of brown, dust-filled air spilled out the instant the leader made his way down.The building's foundation groaned in complaint at the meteoric impact. He gave it no pause.The leader pierced the front wall. His damnable claws ground against the streets. Soft as a cat, his movement halted a half dozen meters away from me.He swiped his head left and right. Bloody droplets flew out along with the all-too-familiar sound of tearing flesh. He turned to face me for a moment. A man's torso sat between his foul jaws.He ripped a chunk from the corpse before ripping his head away from it and regarding the few surviving men who were outside the building. "Your god sees all and yet he sent you here to die… mine has blessed me while yours has brought you your own unmaking. Look at me." He let his statement ripple across the battlefield as his bestial kin rejoiced; they rejoiced for it was no longer a battle.Now it was a feast. He grinned, mania ran deep across his pupils. "I hope you feel nothing as my jaws send your souls to my master."A short, brown-haired soldier raised his Kalashnikov in one hand. "Your foul god will not claim our souls today, monster." Defiance leaked from each word. The leader's grinning face soured slightly.The wind broke. The beast stood beside the man in that same split moment. He wrapped his hand around the lower jaw of the soldier.Panic filled the man—nay, the boy's—eyes. The scowl on the leader's face softened. "You were showing such heart, such spirit. I do not need to be bold, nor brave, to kill you, nor do I need to resort to such desperate declarations."He squeezed. The soldier's jaw was stricken away as if it had never been there. His body hit the ground, yet another sound accompanied it.He had martyred himself. The click of a grenade being armed made the leader's hand recoil.He kicked the corpse away. It went off like a water balloon. The hand grenade exploded tens of meters away from its intended target.Something akin to respect seemed to grow within the leader. He turned towards the survivors. "I admit, that was commendable. Yet you are dying for the wrong cause. You act as if you are doing something heroic. All you're doing is giving away so much for so little in return."A nearby soldier, undeterred by the posturing, sprinted like a bull. He raised a well-kept hatchet above his broad shoulders.With little effort, the leader's palm smashed against his head. Smashed teeth flew away at off angles. The man's neck snapped like a dry leaf trampled over by an elephant. His body spun vertically like the blades of a living helicopter, his center of mass still inhabiting the same position as if he hadn't been budged.When his broken remains finally hit the ground, the leader looked at the remains, sighing somewhat. He looked… uncomfortable.It was a bit like the look he shot me when he was about to eat the… the boy.The soldiers in neighboring buildings had mostly been devoured; however, some had managed to survive.An officer holding his Gauss rifle hobbled forward as one of his men used him for support. Blood dripped across the ground as the claws of a sinner had dug deep, in spite of the armor.Other men followed behind. I could hear the irregular stomps of boots as they attempted to flee. The shadows of sinners stretched across the wall behind them. One of the men turned and opened fire. The stretched shadows recoiled and fell back.His clip ran dry and he tossed his gun aside before drawing out an axe.He will die and he knows this, yet his eyes were steeled. He prepared to take as many foes along with him and give his comrades a chance to flee.I was intrigued but…No, there was more to it. Something about this scene filled me with a sensation that was hard to place or understand. It went beyond mere intrigue.This was respect.I don't want him to die.Just as I bent my knees and lowered my weight, and just as the man's axe chopped through the head of one of the sinners, another had moved past his fallen pack-mate and slid his claws across the soldier's chest.Chainmail blew open, guts followed suit. The soldier's bisected body was shredded. Other sinners tore into it and stuffed their bellies.I couldn't save him… I wanted to save him, how peculiar. A weight seemed to have settled in my chest. I assume this is my mind's way of punishing me.Before I could analyze this feeling further, I heard the firing of a Gauss rifle and quickly snapped my head back.The bat leader had intercepted the fleeing group. His upper lip twitched as if he was trying to hold back a smile. The bat leader had tilted his head just out of the line of fire exactly like last time.He backhanded the officer with all his unholy strength. There was no carcass. The rusted body of a car, the dull sheen of grey within the wind—they all turned bright crimson. The officer's body was nearly vaporized. He was left as red mist within the breeze."Look at this gift… one swipe and you don't even leave a body to collect. Your god asks for subservience and you get nothing… meanwhile, my god is so bountiful I want for nothing. Power—it courses through my veins." His words flew out feverishly. The soldiers surrounding him shook in terror. Almost at once, weapons dropped and around half the group turned to run.They did not make it far, as the other sinners quickly picked them apart. They put up no more of a fight than food on a breakfast table.The others had dropped to their knees in a mix of prayer and surrender. The leader's eyes slowly dragged across the kneeling men. He hummed contemplatively.A soldier lifted his head slightly, his tear-filled eyes looked up to the leader's knees before he asked in a shaking voice, "P… please, let… us go…"The leader's face returned to that uncomfortable limbo he had shown me. Sinners snarled as their wounded bodies dripped trails. They slowly circled soldiers like vultures on land.A soldier knelt down deeper as the warm breath of a beast found his neck. He closed his eyes and his prayer grew more desperate. The sinner's jaws prepared to clamp down, but the sinner quickly closed his mouth and shrunk backwards as the leader narrowed his gaze onto him. This was odd. This thing… he was odd. I did not like this.The sinners got the message and reluctantly scurried back. The leader turned his attention back to the soldier who had spoken. "You may leave… leave the bodies of your allies and the weapons you carry, then tarry along." The leader spoke softly. His men hissed disapprovingly, but none dared voice their concerns."Really… you will—let us live?" The soldier's voice grew slightly more relaxed as he slowly rose to his feet, his tear-filled face consumed by gratitude."You asked nicely… we have plenty of food. With what we have now, the corpses are sure to rot before we can finish it all. Go home. You fought valiantly."The soldier nodded and, without any more hesitation, sprinted around the buildings and vanished out of sight. He laughed maniacally, as one would after avoiding such a close death. The other soldiers, realizing this was no trick, quickly rose to their feet. Their relieved muttering filled the air as—The soldiers were sucked into a cyclone of carnage. The leader swiped his arm and reduced them to a near-liquid state. The gore that was flung through the sky rained back down in a mixture of bloody raindrops and spattering flesh. His face held no glee. He seemed angry—disappointed even.The leader spoke, his fury masked by dreadful calm. "He asked me nicely. It was rude of you to dismiss yourselves without even a goodbye… I can't tolerate those without manners."My infrared sensors showed that there was one soldier left—only one.From under the wreckage of a car, a man lunged at the leader with a spear in hand. The blade whizzed through the air. It grew close—too close—it was now millimeters from the leader's nape.The leader turned around and slapped the spear away. The man did not stop. With a fierce roar, he swung his fist and struck the leader in the chest.Of course, the impact did nothing other than cause the leader to tilt his head in annoyance. The leader grabbed the soldier's side and lifted him off his feet till they were face to face.The soldier gritted his teeth in fury and shot the leader the most venomous glare he could muster. His mouth opened, and his eyes widened as the leader's grip grew more forceful. His plate armor began to fall apart.The man struggled to speak but still managed to throw the words out of his lungs with as much hatred as could be mustered by one man, "You beast… I won't let you kill anyone else." The soldier's eyes narrowed once more as the leader brought him closer.Their eyes met as the leader spoke in a slow and measured tone. "It's rude to call a proper gentleman like myself a beast, wouldn't you say? Mmmhhh… I'll allow it, all things considered… I'll let you go if you ask nicely." The soldier's glare did not soften, and the leader took his defiance as a failure to comply.The leader's maw opened wide. Panic flashed over the man's face for a moment before he steeled his resolve. The man's hand plunged to his waist, and the steel of a dagger drew the leader's blood.Two drops bled out from the leader's cheek. He sighed and closed his mouth. The leader's expression was deadpan, but the man's was still dauntless as he attempted a second slash.The dagger clattered to the floor as the leader squeezed ever so slightly harder. The air was squeezed out of the man's lungs. He went limp, and his ribs cracked.The leader still held his limp frame before turning to his sinners. His face crooked into a smile. He rubbed the man's blood across his finger before using it to draw an X shape over his plate carrier. "A true man… do not lay a finger on him…" he spoke quietly, approvingly.He laid him down behind a car as one would lay a baby in a crib. He regarded his group once more. "One drop of his blood is worth more than all of you… if I find him dead, you will follow him to the grave." The voice was still gentle but carried an element of unhidden warning.What had I done…Something terrible sunk its fangs deep within my insides. There was nothing there. I… what, why… No, that's wrong, this is wrong.Why am I—why did I just watch? I watched because I wanted to see, to discover. I didn't feel this aversion at the thought of my inaction. Just thinking about devouring the boy filled me with hesitation. It's not fair. Not right. I feel guilty now… with no warning.My fingers twitched. My wings shuddered. I felt a smouldering heat deep within my chest. It stretched and pointed like the tip of a pike, till the full force of my… anger directed itself towards the leader.I stepped forward. I would end him. The pavement cracked—I hadn't meant to break it. For whatever reason, my actions felt more forceful.Wrath had taken root within my wires. Wrath at him, and wrath at me.My treacherous mind—it made me regret something I should have held no guilt for.The leader halfway turned to me. Then, my anger faded.My sensors picked up something.A presence washed over me.All of my focus fell away—from myself, from the leader.It was taken.Ripped away by something.Someone.I sensed movement from the collapsed building's entryway.A man stepped out.