The alien tried finding him but to scour the entire building...that would take too much time so out of frustration from losing its prey, the alien began blasting the building apart from the outside with its alien cannon in hopes of being able to flush out Alex from his hiding spot.

Inside the room near the middle level of the building, Alex could hear the alien rampaging outside as the building shook and quaked at every fire it shot. He could only pray that none of its random shots reached where he was hiding.

A few moments later, he heard an angry roar before the building shook one last time as the alien fired a charged shot. It struck the top levels of the building which then caused it to start crumbling down.

[The building has lost its structural integrity. The higher floors will start crumbling down. I suggest we move from this place.]

‘How?! If I move, it’ll know where I am!’

[If we stay here, we will die.]

‘Dammit.’

Alex tried thinking about what he could do in this situation and out of desperation, a crazy idea formed in his mind.

‘Scourge, if my heart stops beating, then I’m practically invisible to them even if I move around, right?!”

[As long as your heart, the primary core, isn’t functioning like normal, then yes.]

‘Okay...I have an idea.’

[I do not understand the structure of you humans just yet so I do not know what you are trying to do but if you think this will help cloak our presence, then, by all means, try it. I will monitor our body’s condition and inform you if something is out of place.]

‘Let’s do this before this building crumbles down on us!’

The crazy idea Alex had was to modify his arteries, veins, and capillaries so instead of his heart pumping his blood through his body, his blood vessels would do it themselves. If he could make it work, then he could remain undetected from the aliens’ internal radar system for good because they wouldn’t be able to detect his life signature.

Naturally, it didn’t work at first and he ruptured his heart but thankfully, Scourge took action and used their superhuman regenerative capabilities to heal him up so although it did hurt like hell, he didn’t die from the failure.

He didn’t know how long it took him, but he was able to succeed in the end. Now, his heart didn’t need to beat but his blood still pumped normally through his body thanks to his modified circulation system.

However, this change didn’t come at a cost. Alex had nearly killed himself who knows how many times during this one sitting and the entire process was painful but he kept his mouth shut and weathered through the pain because what he was doing was necessary for his survival.

Unbeknownst to him, however, the alien that was hunting him down had long since left and the building had also crumbled down but luckily, it didn’t crumble down on top of him.

[We are safe now, but I applaud you for the successful body modification.]

“Successful my ass...just how many times did I nearly kill myself?”

[None, because even if one of our cores is destroyed, we can still live and regenerate it as long as our other core is still intact.]

“Goddammit, you could’ve told me that earlier! I would’ve just ruptured our heart and ran away!” Alex cursed. 

After saying that, reality began sinking in and he mumbled to himself, “Heh… I really am not human anymore…”

He had a self-deprecating look on his face but just like Scourge said, Alex’s body wasn’t like a normal human’s anymore as he had two ‘cores’ that could keep him alive. The first one is his primary core, his heart, and the secondary core was his brain. As long as one of them was still intact, he could still live no matter how damaged the other one was as he could just regenerate it.

[Huhuhuh, you’ll have to slowly get used to that fact, Alex.]

“Tch. Anyway, with this new modification, I’ll be completely invisible to our enemies, right?”

[Yes, most definitely.]

“Good...Well, from this failure, I now know where I have to improve.”

Alex walked over to the door and kicked it down. He was stronger than a normal human being but his strength paled in comparison to one of those combat-type aliens. His speed, however, was one of his advantages.

He needed to improve his strength but for now, he had to work around his one and only advantage, his speed, and agility.

“On top of being fast...I should probably find a weapon I can use to hunt those aliens down...my own self-made weapons won’t work since my strength is lower than theirs. Melee combat would just be suicide.”

[If that’s the case, then long-range combat will be our forte for now and since we’re ‘invisible’ to our enemies, we can hunt them down from a distance without worrying about getting caught. I must say, this is a rather ingenious use of our shapeshifting ability.]

“Shapeshifting? It’s more like body modification...I can do so much with this now that I know it can be permanent.”

Alex returned to the park and began heading towards the field hospital from earlier. He needed to take away the military weapons cache since he wanted to test something out. While on the move, he scanned the area around him and noticed that there were more and more aliens in the park now.

“So many have gathered…”

[Stay out of their line of sight and we should be safe.]

“Mhm.”

He arrived at the field hospital and quickly found the weapons cache. He couldn’t take it all so he only brought along the ones he thought would be useful to him. The M67 grenades, the smoke grenades, a few flashbangs, a Milkor 40mm Grenade Launcher along with its ammunition, and finally, something very special, the Barrett M107 anti-material rifle.

He didn’t know how to use a grenade launcher but he figured it was better to have it on him and he could learn how to use it later on. The Barrett M107, however, he was hoping to make it into his primary weapon after modifying it a little bit.

He stored as many grenades, flashbangs, and explosive ammunition as he could inside a large military storage box and packed a bag with a few essentials like clothing, food, and other stuff before he made his way out of the park without being detected by any of the aliens.

Alex went into the city and ran as far away as he could from the park before entering an abandoned building.

“Alright, this should be a good place to stay for a bit…”

[Are you planning on modifying that weapon, Alex?]

“Yes. I’ll change it into a weapon that will suit our needs.”

Crude weapons like axes, swords, and the like were impractical in his situation since his strength was feeble compared to his enemies. Alex wanted to see if he could use his modification ability to enhance the Barrett M107 and turn it into a lethal weapon against the aliens.

He experimented for a while and found that his organic matter was really great. It had so many uses and it could be permanently detached from his body without any adverse effects.

Of course, Scourge did tell him that if he used too much of it, only then would some adverse effects manifest on his body so he had to be careful with what he did.

With that in mind, Alex decided to create a gun using the M107 as a base. He analyzed the structure of the rifle by engulfing the entirety of it with his organic matter and after that, he began taking the rifle apart and replicating each individual part. 

By the end of it, there was a replica of the weapon lying right next to the original made by Alex’s organic matter.

Maybe because he had just recently absorbed the biomaterial of the medic-type alien, Alex had an excess of organic matter so his body didn’t experience any adverse effects even after creating the weapon along with a few dozen bullets for it.

Although the Barrett M107 he created was a replica of the original one, Alex made a few adjustments to it. The organic bullets he created naturally weren't going to be propelled by gunpowder so he needed to make a few customizations to his rifle. 

Thanks to the knowledge that Scourge was able to provide regarding ‘alien tech and science, Alex modified his rifle so that his bullets would be propelled by a mixture of hyper-compressed gasses taken from the atmosphere that was funneled into the gun by the vents located all across the rifle.

He didn’t understand how to do this so he let Scourge take over and do these specific modifications in his stead. This resulted in the crazy, alien-looking gun that was in the shape of the Barrett M107.

This alien-modified gun worked in a way that it would ‘inhale’ the gases from the air using the vents that ran along the gun’s structure and compress it in a chamber located at the rifle’s stock. 

The original gun’s design where it had springs in the stock to compensate for the recoil was replaced with this ‘storage’ chamber instead because Scourge modified the gun’s barrel so it would disperse the force from the recoil.

This chamber would constantly funnel the hyper-compressed gasses into the firing chamber so when he pulled the trigger, the modified hammer would release this compressed mixture of gasses to create an explosion that would propel his bullet forward at a speed that was, theoretically, 5 times faster than the speed of a normal bullet fired from a regular Barrett M107.

Alex hadn’t tested it out because the number of ammunition he had was limited but Scourge wouldn’t lie to him since there was no merit in doing so. He only created 2 dozen bullets so he needed to be frugal with them.

With his weapon finally created, Alex tossed the original away since it probably didn’t work anymore after he had taken it apart and haphazardly put it back together. He found a piece of cloth in the building and wrapped his replica M107 in it, before strapping it on his back. The weapon’s appearance was rather peculiar and it practically screamed ‘I’m an alien gun’ so he thought it was best he wrapped it up when carrying it around.

Even if it was wrapped up, the gun’s gas intake function wasn’t going to be impeded in any way so it was alright.

“Okay, my preparations are ready...let’s start hunting?”

[Target only the aliens that are alone. When you fire the weapon, it will inevitably give away our location so after one shot, we have to relocate immediately.]

“Hopefully, this will be effective against those monsters...I’ll try and aim for a one-shot one kill,” Alex said with determination.

He moved from the abandoned building and jumped onto the adjacent building before scaling the wall using his transformed hands.

When he got to the rooftop of the building, he had a better vantage point and saw the destruction and havoc the invaders brought upon his world.

“...Everything’s burning…”

Alex gripped his rifle tightly as he felt quite angered at the scene of fire and destruction in front of him.

[I sense prey ahead of us, 2 to 3 of them. One of them just broke away from the group. We can hunt it down.]

Alex closed his eyes and activated his internal radar. He found the prey that Scourge was referring to so he quickly made his way over to intercept the alien.

He found a safe spot that was a few hundred meters away from the alien and set up his rifle. The alien seemed to be patrolling the area in search of humans and stopped in place for some reason.

Since it was stationary, Alex saw this as the perfect opportunity to take it down so as he lined his sights up to the monster’s heart, he took a deep breath and was about to pull the trigger before Scourge immediately stopped him.

[Wait. I detect the presence of other humans in the area.]

“It’s stopping in place, isn’t this the perfect time to fire?”

[Have you ever used a firearm before?]

“N-No...but…”

[At this range, I doubt you’ll be able to hit our enemy. Since it’s preoccupied right now, we can try and move closer for a better shot that’s guaranteed to hit.]

“...So we’re using the humans it found as bait?”

[It’s better than us missing. Instead of debating with me, move now and get closer. The faster we move and set up, the quicker we can save those precious humans of yours.]

“...Tsk.”

Alex had to agree with Scourge’s words since it was right, he had never used a gun before in his life, let alone a rifle. He was eager to save the people the alien had found but if he missed his shot, he might not get another shot and waste his opportunity. Not only that but if he missed, the humans that the aliens had found would definitely be killed.

He did as Scourge suggested and tried getting a closer vantage point. He jumped from building to building as stealthily as he could while avoiding the alien’s line of sight.

It couldn’t detect him using its internal radar due to his modified body. Alex was pretty much invisible to them as long as they didn’t have any visual contact with him but it was quite funny that such an advanced species had such a major flaw though it didn’t matter to him since it was a flaw he could exploit. 

Thankfully, the humans that were trying to hide from the alien weren’t too far from its current location so Alex was able to set up on a nearby rooftop that was within 100 meters of his target.

The alien was currently chasing after the humans inside of the building adjacent to his and it looked like it was hunting them slowly. 

“He’s toying with them…”

[Good for us. With our prey distracted, we’ll have a clear shot once it turns the corner.]

“...At this distance...I won’t miss, right?”

[With the bullet’s speed at this distance, as long as you don’t falter and aim at your target, there’s no chance of missing.]

“Got it.”

Alex aimed down his sight and calmly inhaled as he patiently waited. It was his first time holding a rifle but, the one he held in his hands was the anti-material alien tech Barrett M107 sniper rifle that was made from his organic material so there was an odd sense of familiarity.

He waited and waited for the alien to come out into the open where he could get a clear shot so he felt a little bad for the people running through the building that was acting as his involuntary bait.

Alex saw that the people were desperately trying to get away so he only hoped that nothing happened to them. The opportunity came not a moment later when the group being chased by the alien finally opened a door that led to the broken part of the building.

“2 men, a woman...and a child?”

He didn’t have enough time to think about them because it wasn’t long before his target appeared. It rushed straight through the hallway as if it had grown bored of playing around and broke down the door. Without anywhere else to go, the scared group of people that Alex used as bait resigned to their fate and waited for the alien to kill them.

One of the men stepped forward and shielded the others behind him as he yelled and taunted the alien. Its focus was entirely on the human that had just taunted it and this caused Alex to smile. He seized the opportunity where the alien was completely wide open...and squeezed the trigger of his gun.