"It's time for humans to stand up and fight. Not just to survive, but to truly live!" Lucien announced.
The words hit the room like a splash.
One person started it — someone near the bar, a man who had been sitting alone and silent for the past ten minutes, just staring at nothing. He stood up, knocked his stool back, and screamed it at the television.
"KILL ALL THE BEASTS!"
It took less than two seconds for the rest of the room to follow.
"KILL ALL THE BEASTS!"
"KILL ALL THE BEASTS!"
"KILL ALL THE BEASTS!"
The noise that erupted was not like anything Francis had heard from a crowd before. Not sports. Not celebration. Not even panic.
This was something simpler than all of that — raw, collective fury from people who had been terrified for so long and had just been handed a direction to point it.
The walls of the pub seemed to compress under the sound.
