Shore stared at the sewer grate for several more seconds before finally making his decision. Slowly, he crouched down and slid his fingers beneath the edge of the metal cover.
The grate was far heavier than something a normal civilian would be able to casually move on a regular basis—which meant that it was likely that the mystery man was doping on Aetherion.
Shore tightened his grip and lifted carefully. The metal shifted upward with a low scrape.
He paused immediately and listened.
No movement.
Only the distant rush of water echoing from below. Shore lifted the grate fully and peered into the darkness beneath.
A vertical ladder disappeared downward into a large sewer tunnel illuminated only by sparse maintenance lights mounted far apart along the walls.
The smell rising upward was awful.
Rotting waste, chemicals and flowing sewage water. Without hesitation, Shore dropped down into the tunnel below.
His boots landed silently against damp concrete.
Immediately afterward, he reached upward and carefully repositioned the sewer grate above him until it settled back into place.
Darkness swallowed the tunnel. Shore remained still for a moment while listening carefully.
Nothing.
The sewer tunnel itself was surprisingly large enough for maintenance vehicles in certain sections judging from the width of the channels and pathways built alongside the flowing wastewater.
The city above suddenly felt much farther away. Shore adjusted the filter settings on his mask slightly.
A soft mechanical hum followed. Almost immediately, the foul stench dullened into something distant and manageable.
One of the benefits of LUCID equipment.
The mask's filtration systems were specifically designed to protect operatives from airborne toxins, spores, chemical agents, and aerosol based attacks.
Sewer air barely registered as an inconvenience.
Shore reached toward one of the pouches at his hip and removed a folded optical device. He hesitated briefly before putting it on.
The visor sealed lightly over his eyes. Instantly, his entire vision shifted into shades of green. A transparent HUD flickered to life across his vision.
Environmental readings, temperature markers and movement tracking. A structural layout generated in real time through integrated scanning systems.
A small AI assistant quietly began indexing nearby details.
Shore resisted the urge to sigh.
He rarely used the optics. Partially because he generally did not need them and mostly because he hated how they felt.
The digital interpretation always made his vision feel subtly wrong. Like looking through somebody else's eyes.
Still...
Its effectiveness was undeniable.
Shore activated footprint enhancement filters and lowered his gaze toward the sewer bench running alongside the wastewater channel.
Fresh footprints highlighted themselves faintly against the concrete.
The supplier's trail.
Shore silently moved forward to follow.
The sewer stretched onward through branching tunnels and reinforced maintenance corridors far larger than Shore had initially expected. Metal grates crossed sections of the wastewater stream while old pipes ran along the ceiling overhead.
Water dripped rhythmically in the distance.
Occasionally rats darted across the pathways before vanishing into cracks and drainage holes the moment Shore approached.
The optics occasionally tagged motion signatures in the darkness, but every one of them turned out to be small animals.
Still, Shore remained alert.
This entire situation had stopped feeling like ordinary trafficking the moment the supplier disappeared underground. And the deeper he traveled into the sewer system...
The worse his instincts became. Shore rounded another corner carefully while following the highlighted footprints.
Then his body reacted instantly, twisting sideways.
A large fist exploded through the space where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
BOOM.
Concrete cracked violently beneath the impact. Tiny fragments scattered across the tunnel wall.
Shore's eyes narrowed immediately.
The supplier.
The man stood several meters away partially hidden within the darkness of the tunnel intersection.
Waiting.
He had known someone was following him. Shore rolled backward across the sewer bench while raising his gauntlet.
A targeting reticle flashed across his HUD.
Taser rounds loaded and Shore fired twice.
Bzzt. Bzzt.
The specialized bullets slammed into the man's abdomen and upper right chest before hooked barbs embedded themselves into flesh.
A split second later, thousands of volts discharged simultaneously.
CRACK.
Electricity surged violently across the man's body. His muscles convulsed hard enough to jerk his frame sideways.
For a moment, Shore expected collapse.
Instead...
The man ripped both taser rounds out of his flesh with his bare hands and he gave Shore a chilling grin.
Shore internally grimaced.
He fired again immediately and three more taser rounds shot forward. The man crossed his forearms protectively over his torso and tanked the shots directly.
Electricity burst across his body once more.
Again, he simply tore the embedded rounds free.
Then he charged towards him.
In Shore's mind, an idle thought surfaced. 'This guy has been doping on Aetherion. And is halfway to manifesting side effects.'
It simply hadn't fully burst out yet.
'This is problematic.'
"HAH!"
The man swung a brutal punch toward Shore's head but Shore was able to duck beneath it instantly.
The fist smashed into the sewer wall and the concrete shattered outward.
The supplier laughed loudly.
"I suspected something was off today!" he shouted as another punch exploded forward.
Shore twisted aside again and fragments of shattered concrete blasted across the tunnel.
"Who would've thought my instincts were right?!" the man roared.
His voice echoed through the sewer system.
"There really was a mole skulking about in the shadows!"
Another strike, followed by another dodge.
Shore's boots slid across broken concrete while his optics continuously recalculated movement predictions across his vision.
The man's attacks were becoming stronger.
"What organization are you from, huh?!"
BOOM.
The next punch outright obliterated part of the sewer bench. Chunks of concrete crashed into the wastewater channel below.
Shore's eyes sharpened.
The physical enhancement was escalating in real time. The man's skin had subtly shifted into a reddish hue while veins bulged visibly beneath swelling muscle mass.
His frame looked larger than before.
Denser and more distorted.
If earlier he merely resembled a tall athletic man...
Now he looked closer to a steroid-fueled bodybuilder midway through a violent psychotic break. His baseball cap finally flew off during one of the swings.
Short cropped brown hair became visible beneath the sewer lights.
The supplier grinned wildly and his gums looked slightly darker than normal. Shore immediately launched his grappling hook upward.
Thwip.
The cable latched onto an overhead pipe. The gauntlet reeled instantly and Shore's body shot upward over the charging man's head.
Midair, Shore twisted sharply and drove his boot downward into the back of the supplier's skull.
THUD.
The man stumbled forward violently before crashing onto the sewer bench shoulder first. Shore landed lightly several meters away and immediately raised his gauntlet.
Targeting reticles flashed across his HUD and lethal rounds were ready. His finger hovered near the trigger.
One clean shot.
The fight would end immediately before the transformation progressed any further. But Shore hesitated.
His jaw tightened beneath the mask. This was the biggest lead he had gotten after nearly a month of investigation.
Every previous trail involving Aetherion had eventually collapsed into dead ends.
If he killed this man now... there was no guarantee another lead would appear anytime soon. Shore lowered the muzzle slightly. The supplier pushed himself upright with a low laugh.
"Hahaha..."
The sound echoed strangely through the sewer tunnel.
"Titanblood is amazing..."
The man stared down at his own arms almost reverently.
"This is my power?"
Shore said nothing but his eyes narrowed. The transformation was continuing.
Slowly and subtly.
The man's height had increased another inch or two already while muscle mass continued thickening unevenly beneath reddening skin. Veins bulged grotesquely across his neck and shoulders.
His proportions were becoming wrong.
Not dramatically yet but just enough for instinct to recognize something unnatural. The supplier suddenly lunged forward again.
Fast.
Shore pivoted sideways immediately. Massive hands swiped through empty air inches from his chest.
The supplier twisted aggressively and tried to grab him again but Shore slipped backward before driving a sharp kick into the man's knee.
The supplier staggered.
Shore followed with a quick elbow strike across the jaw before retreating again.
No wasted movements or attempts to overpower him.
Just precision and distance.
The supplier roared angrily and charged again. His increased size was starting to work against him now. The growing muscle density added raw force but reduced fluidity.
That tiny reduction in speed was the only reason Shore remained untouched.
Another grab which Shore ducked under and another punch in which Shore sidestepped narrowly. The fist obliterated a concrete support edge beside him.
The supplier spun clumsily from the overextension and Shore swept his leg. The larger man crashed hard onto the sewer bench again.
The man wasn't a trained fighter, which was why Shore was able to remain untouched. However, he knew perfectly well that if the man managed to catch him even once...
Things would become extremely unpleasant.
The supplier pushed himself halfway upright while laughing again. The sound was becoming rougher now.
More sepulchral.
"Hahaha...! I feel incredible!" He flexed his swollen hands.
Then suddenly...
He froze and his body jerked violently. The laughter stopped instantly. The supplier stumbled backward and collapsed onto one knee while clutching at his chest.
"W... what's happening to me...?"
His voice cracked badly midway through the sentence. Shore internally cursed. The side effects were surfacing.
He exhaled slowly through the mask. Part of him had hoped the transformation threshold would take longer but there was no such luck.
The supplier convulsed hard enough that bone audibly cracked somewhere inside his torso.
CRUNCH.
The man screamed. Shore remained still while watching carefully. This part was always horrific. No matter how many times he had seen it.
The supplier's skin suddenly split open along sections of his arms and shoulders. Chunks of outer skin to begin sloughing away like wet paper.
Underneath...
Black fur.
Short strands at first. Then, thicker patches rapidly spreading beneath the tearing skin. Another violent crack echoed through the sewer tunnel.
The man's spine elongated visibly and his height increased further as bones shifted beneath flesh with nauseating movement.
The supplier clawed desperately at himself while screaming in panic.
"What the hell is happening?!"
Bone plating erupted outward across his forearms. Jagged black growths pushed through flesh before hardening into armor-like protrusions.
More growths spread along parts of his shoulders and ribcage.
Shore watched grimly.
Every transformation followed slightly different mutation paths, but the end result was always the same.
Loss of humanity.
The supplier's screams became distorted suddenly.
His eyes bulged outward.
Then—
POP.
Both eyeballs tore free from their sockets and splattered wetly against the sewer floor. For one horrifying second, empty bleeding sockets stared blindly into nothing.
Then red light emerged deep within the holes.
New eyes formed rapidly. Pure crimson without pupils. Just glowing predatory red.
The supplier convulsed harder than before.
His teeth began falling out next, one after another. Clattering wetly across the concrete. He gagged violently while blood spilled from his mouth.
Then fresh bone pushed outward from his gums.
Long, sharp and predatory.
Fangs.
The transformation was nearing completion now. From a purely scientific standpoint, the process itself was still not fully understood.
What exactly was this transformation?
The simplest explanation was that this was the side effect of prolonged Aetherion exposure. Or Titanblood, as it was known among users and distributors.
The compound itself acted as far more than a simple performance enhancer.
At first, subjects merely experienced accelerated muscle growth, improved stamina, increased aggression, and heightened recovery rates.
The changes seemed beneficial and desirable, even. That was how the drug spread so effectively. People saw miraculous results and wanted to try it.
But once sufficient amounts accumulated inside the body...
The real process began. Under heightened adrenaline and epinephrine levels, the body entered a violent adaptive state.
Users grew physically stronger, larger and denser. Then, biological instability followed. Organs altered and hormonal systems collapsed.
Foreign cellular structures activated throughout the nervous system.
And finally...
Transformation.
Into a Grimm.
Or at the very least, something that resembled a grimm.
Something in between.
A hybrid.
In some ways, the phenomenon resembled cases involving Amalgamation Grimm bleeding into reality.
Except instead of direct external corruption...
The mutation originated from within the human body itself. Like a grotesque werebeast transformation driven by synthetic Grimm adaptation.
LUCID had discovered the existence of Aetherion three months earlier.
Since then, entire investigative branches had quietly formed around identifying its manufacturers and distribution chains.
Unfortunately...
Many investigations ended exactly like this. Middlemen transforming before they could reveal meaningful information and witnesses slaughtered or dropped—evidence contaminated.
Entire operations collapsing into blood and monster corpses. Which was why Shore had desperately tried to delay lethal force.
Alive targets had become increasingly rare.
But it was too late.
The supplier's transformation finally stabilized.
Or rather...
Completed.
The creature slowly lifted its head.
The remaining scraps of human skin and blood stretched grotesquely across a massive furred frame now easily over seven feet tall. Bone plating armored parts of its limbs while elongated claws scraped against concrete.
Its breathing sounded wet and hungry.
Animalistic.
The crimson eyes locked onto Shore instantly and recognition was gone. There was no intelligence left behind those eyes anymore.
Only predatory instinct.
Shore internally cringed.
Then the Hybrid growled. The sound vibrated through the sewer tunnel like an enraged animal dragging nails across steel.
Finally—
It roared.
The noise exploded through the underground corridor violently enough to shake dust loose from the ceiling.
And then it pounced directly toward Shore with ravenous hunger.