The tear in reality pulsed like an infected wound, spitting monsters onto the bridge in irregular spurts. I watched from our position as the wave of goblins scrambled through—runty green things with bulbous eyes and sharp yellow teeth.

  "Get into position," Kaz called, his voice was calm but carried enough force that nobody considered disobeying.

  A rumble vibrated through the bridge, and the tear stretched wider, its edges fraying like torn fabric. Something bigger forced its way through.

  "Troll," Sophie murmured beside me, her eyes narrowing.

  The air around the rupture felt dense and thin simultaneously, pressing against my skin while making my ears pop from the sudden drops in pressure.

  I swallowed hard, trying to focus on the tactical situation rather than the hunger gnawing at my gut. The bridge was wide but not infinite; it was a bottleneck we could use to our advantage. The tear had opened near the center, giving the creatures room to spread out but not enough to flank us completely.

  The troll finally pushed through, a twelve-foot monstrosity with a grayish hide that looked like weathered stone. Its arrival widened the tear further, and more goblins poured through the gap, their numbers multiplying from dozens to what would soon be hundreds.

  This was going to be a complete shitshow.

  "Three-meter spacing, staggered formation. Second line, prepare range support." Kaz's voice cut through the chaos, all easy confidence and natural authority.

  Nobody hesitated. Bodies moved with practiced precision, taking positions that suggested they'd done this many times before. Sadie and three others with close-combat Origins formed the front line with Kaz, creating a barrier of flesh and power between the tear and the rest of us. The ranged fighters positioned themselves slightly behind, ready to provide covering fire.

  I found myself slotting into place between Sophie and another prisoner whose name I hadn't caught yet, he was a wiry man with bark-like skin and eyes that leaked green sap. He nodded at me once, then turned his attention back to the approaching horde.

  "Fish," Kaz called without looking back, "stay mobile but don't break formation until I give the word. We fight as a unit."

  "Copy that," I replied, trying to sound more confident than I felt.

  The goblins surged forward in a gibbering wave, brandishing crude weapons—sharpened sticks, rusty blades, hooks and what appeared to be the decaying remains of human limbs. The troll lumbered behind them, swinging a massive club made from what looked like a street lamp.

  Kaz's lips curved in a small smile. "Control your sections. Call your targets. Conserve power for when it matters." He paused, golden light beginning to shimmer across his skin

  The first goblins reached our line, and everything exploded into motion and violence.

  Kaz moved like a force of nature, each strike precise and devastating. Where his fists and axe made contact, goblins were shredded , their bodies rupturing into bursts of ichor and bone fragments.

  Sadie was all fluid grace and momentum. Her body generated hard-light blades that carved through multiple enemies with each swing, leaving clean, cauterized cuts behind. Her expression never changed, as though this slaughter was just another day at the office.

  I didn't have time to admire their technique for long. As goblins spilled through gaps in our formation, forcing the second line into direct combat. I swung the makeshift club I'd picked up from one of the dead goblins, feeling it connect with a goblin skull. The creature dropped, but three more rushed forward to take its place.

  The worms writhed more urgently beneath my skin, hunger becoming a physical pain in my chest. Every dead goblin hit the ground with a wet sound that made my mouth water involuntarily. My eyes kept following the fallen rather than focusing on the next threat.

  A goblin leaped at my face, and I barely managed to swat it aside. Hunger was making me sloppy. I needed to concentrate on the fight, not on the meal the fight promised.

  "Watch your left!" Sophie snapped, sending a light-blade through two goblins trying to flank me.

  I nodded thanks, forcing myself to focus. My next few strikes were cleaner, more controlled. I settled into a rhythm block, strike, dodge, repeat.

  The goblins fell steadily, but the flow never stopped. For every one we put down, two more squirmed through the tear.

  The troll finally reached our line, and Kaz stepped forward to meet it alone, golden light now blazing from his skin. Their collision sent shockwaves through the bridge, concrete cracking beneath our feet.

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  I crushed another goblin's skull, and as it dropped, something in me shifted. The hunger that had been gnawing at my insides suddenly sharpened, cutting through restraint like they were nothing but cobwebs.

  It happened without warning.

  One moment I was fighting as part of the unit, and the next I was something else entirely, something feral and single-minded.

  My vision tunneled, the world reducing to a predatory focus. The club slipped from my fingers as the worms pushed against my skin from within, stretching it to its limits.

  Someone shouted my name, but it sounded distant, underwater.

  All I could hear clearly was the pounding of blood in my ears and the silent screaming of the worms demanding to be fed.

  I broke formation in a dead sprint, charging directly into the thickest concentration of goblins. Hands reached for me, our side or theirs, I couldn't tell and didn't give a shit. My body moved with aggressive force, ripping through grasping claws and swinging weapons like they weren’t even there.

  More shouts followed, but distance was already forming between me and the unit. The hunger carried me forward, deeper into the enemy ranks, toward the promise of sustenance. The worms knew what they needed.

  Inside the goblin swarm, I fought like a demonic god of destruction, which wasn't far from the truth. My fists connected with goblin flesh, and where they touched, worms extended from my body, penetrating skin and beginning to feed.

  I grabbed a goblin by its throat, squeezing until something cracked beneath my fingers. As it died, worms burrowed through my palm and into its flesh, consuming it, fueling my body. The relief was immediate and intoxicating.

  More goblins surrounded me, scratching and stabbing with their crude weapons. The pain barely registered compared to the hunger that was rampaging inside of me.

  I caught one by its arm and swung it into three others, then jumped on the tangled mass of limbs. The worms stretched from my mouth and eyes now, no longer content with the subtle approach.

  They latched onto the dead and dying goblins, devouring them with frightening speed. Flesh tearing beneath the worms' touch, collapsing into dried husks that crumbled when I moved to the next target.

  The feeding was fast, indiscriminate, and horrifying to watch. I knew this distantly, the human part of me still present enough to recognize the monstrosity of what was happening. But that part was drowned out by the raw pleasure of the feast.

  Goblin blood splashed my face, and I licked my lips without thinking, the worms extending to catch every drop. My strikes became more savage, messy, visceral, inefficient but overwhelming.

  Even the troll hesitated, its eyes watching my movement with what might have been primitive fear. Predators recognized predators, and something in its limited brain understood I wasn't normal.

  I tore through another cluster of goblins, my hands now extended into claws. They punctured goblin bodies with ease, allowing the smaller worms inside me direct access to the feast.

  .

  Like coming up for air after nearly drowning, awareness flooded back to me all at once.

  I found myself standing in a circle of corpses, their bodies shriveled and partially liquefied. The worms retreated beneath my skin, gorged and temporarily satisfied.

  The battlefield sharpened into focus again. Our unit had pushed forward, engaging what remained of the goblin force while Kaz wrestled the troll to the ground. Even from this distance, I could see the surprise on their faces when they glanced my way—surprise and something that might have been fear.

  I wiped blood from my face with the back of my hand, breathing hard.

  Zo caught my eye from where she fought, a blue-white nimbus of energy surrounding her fists. Her expression wasn't fearful or disgusted, it was fascinated, almost hungry in its own way. The violence had affected her, just not in the way most people would react. She grinned at me, sharp and feral, before turning back to the goblin she was pummeling.

  "Regroup and advance," Kaz ordered, his voice carrying over the diminishing sounds of combat. The troll lay motionless at his feet, its chest caved in from what must have been a devastating blow.

  I wiped my hands on my pants, trying to remove the worst of the gore, and rejoined the formation. This time nobody questioned my place in the line. If anything, they made space for me.

  The goblin waves had thinned considerably.

  Those that remained were retreating toward the tear, their courage broken by our resistance and the feeding frenzy they'd witnessed. The bridge was littered with corpses, the concrete stained dark with blood.

  Kaz led the advance at a quick pace, his body still radiating golden light but at a lower intensity now.

  Team members knelt beside fallen creatures, extracting small crystals from their bodies. These were the real objective, more valuable than the kills themselves.

  I approached a goblin I'd drained earlier, noting with detached interest how the worms had left the core untouched while consuming everything around it.

  I pocketed it and moved to the next body, then the next. By the time we reached the tear, my pockets were heavy with cores.

  The tear itself was already shrinking, the connection to the beast dimension weakening now that its forces had been repelled.

  Then it winked out of existence, leaving nothing but a faint ripple in the air where it had been.

  As the unit spread out to establish a perimeter, I caught Zo watching me again. She approached with the direct confidence of someone who didn't believe in personal space.

  "That was something else, worm-boy," she said, close enough that I could smell the essence that clung to her after using her Origin.

  She laughed.

  Before I could respond, she rejoined the team.

  We spent the next few hours securing the bridge and collecting cores. The tear didn't reopen, but nobody relaxed, experience had taught them that complacency got people killed out here.

  I kept to myself, processing what had happened.

  I'd shown my hand today, revealing what I was capable of.

  As we prepared to return to the fortress, Kaz approached me directly for the first time since the battle began.

  "You broke formation," he said, his voice neutral.

  "I did," I admitted, seeing no point in denying the obvious.

  He studied me for a moment, golden eyes unreadable. "Next time, give warning. If you're going to rampage, do it in a way that doesn't leave our flanks exposed."

  It wasn't the reprimand I'd expected. It was almost... practical. He wasn't condemning my nature, just how I'd deployed it.

  "I'll try," I said, surprised by his approach.

  Kaz nodded once. "You're effective. God damn messy, but effective."

  As he walked away, I realized what had just happened. I'd been evaluated, and conditionally accepted… all in a single conversation. In Kaz's economy of violence, I'd proven my worth through blood and bone.