Alex breathed out. Whoever was behind the wall was not a threat. The unmistakable sound of human breathing echoed behind the building, with the heightened rhythm of a fear and caution. Then, he heard a woman whisper.
The tone and diction were those of someone trying to be cautious and not threatening.
"Hey," he said out loud. "It's alright. Don't be afraid."
Slowly, a figure stepped into the light from the corner. It was a woman with dark blonde hair, maybe in her late twenties, fresh wounds across her lips and face, soot covering her cheeks. She held a baseball bat like a weapon. Behind her, two more people emerged: a bearded man in his forties with a Remington 870 strapped to his shoulders, trigger discipline showing. Next to him stood a teenage boy around sixteen.
"Please," the woman said, lowering the bat, her frightened eyes watching for Fenrir. Her voice shook. "We need help!"
Alexander looked at Samantha. She remained expressionless.
"Please help us," the woman continued. "There are others. In an apartment building three blocks east. We're around twenty people. They're trapped. Those things are everywhere. We're out of food. Out of water. People are dying."
"Alex, wait—" Samantha started.
"Please." The woman begged, dropping the bat, tears flowing freely. "There are children there. Little kids. They're terrified."
Alexander gritted his teeth and stared at Samantha.
"Why not help them?" he asked sharply.
"Even with these provisions," Samantha said. "They won't last long. We can help them get to the hospital."
This woman was speaking about others. Innocents trapped in another building.
Dark scenes flashed through his mind. Horrible things he'd seen, bodies being devoured by demons. Killed in terror. He couldn't look at this family and let it happen to them.
If he could stop that, he would.
"Where exactly?" he asked.
The woman swallowed, a tiny bit of relief in her mind. "Do you know The Cascade Apartments? We're locked on the seventh floor. The others are barricaded in. All the other people in the building were killed, as far as we know."
"We killed creatures on the way out," the man said in a rough voice. "Barely made it out, and it's still packed with monsters. Now... I'm out of ammunition... How..." His eyes turned toward Fenrir and the Tyger. "How... could you control those things?"
"No one is certainly controlling me," Tyger responded. The man's eyes widened at the Tyger's voice.
Alex sighed. "Yes, the tiger talks. It's hard to explain, but we'll get to that." Then he looked at Samantha, breathing in, trying to be patient. "Listen, we can't just leave them."
Samantha's eyes narrowed on him. "I would definitely help, Alex, but we're in survival mode. Perhaps, if we talk it over with Marion..."
Alex sighed. "Or what, is she gonna kick them out? People who need her? Isn't she supposed to be out there helping and protecting people?" He turned back to the woman. He took out his phone, confirming that there was no signal at all. "We're close anyway. Wait here. I'll be right back. I'll go talk to her."
He sprinted into the gym, his chest tight from running, and dropped the provisions at the door. He slid the key through the half-broken door and crossed through the gym.
"It's me," Alexander shouted.
"Did something go wrong?" Thomas asked, walking down the stairs to meet him. "Is Samantha alright?"
"We're all fine," he replied. "But there are survivors trapped nearby. Twenty people, including children. They've been fending off demons and a three came out to find help."
Thomas stepped forward. "How far?"
"The place is called Cascade Apartments. It's really not far. Less than a mile away."
Thomas set his jaw and narrowed his eyes. "After dark, this city belongs to the entities. That path will be crawling. They won't survive for long. And the hospital is not easy to reach on foot, nor safe."
"I know. That's why we have to help them. We cleared Pike Place. I can handle the rest of the route. Samantha insisted I talk to you guys."
Thomas nodded. "Definitely. Sandra and I can go with you. They might need healing. And thank God we found survivors. We can escort the civilians back here and keep things quiet. I think we should avoid combat unless it's a choice between fighting and dying."
"Works for me."
"Is Chris gone?" Alexander asked, entering the apartment proper.
"He is," Thomas said from behind him. "The hospital is well-guarded, for what it's worth. He met his family, and they're safe for now."
"Good to hear," Alexander replied, pushing the door. Marion sat on his sofa, a cup of coffee on her lap. Sean was still working on his computer, and Sandra was watching something on her phone. He explained the situation as quickly as he could.
"Very good," Marion replied, standing up, shadows growing under her eyes. She seemed exhausted, as if she'd been suffering from a terrible cold. He could really believe that she was growing weaker. "Be very careful, though. Did you find any supplies?"
"We gathered them," Alex replied. "Good enough for a few days, but if we bring these people in, we might have to run again."
"I can see that," she said. "Bring them in. We'll have to do more runs for supplies after we're done."
"We'll do that," Alex said.
"What's that?" Sandra asked, putting her phone away. "Are we going to help those people? Did you happen to hear what kind of injuries they have?" Suddenly, she stopped, her eyes fixing on Alex. "My, you got hit pretty bad."
Alex remembered the wound across his ribs and the fact that she could probably read his stats too.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He couldn't let that distract him from what really mattered at the moment.
"It's not that bad."
The Tylenol had worked wonders.
"It is that bad, young man," she said, reaching out and stopping herself a few inches from him. "Turn. Slowly."
Alex did, grit showing in his jaw despite the attempt to look fine.
"If you weren't involuntarily using your mana," Sandra explained, "to keep yourself together..." She crouched and pressed two fingers lightly against his lower back. "You took a deep hit. Muscle trauma, connective strain. If you were a normal civilian, you'd be flat on your face right now."
Alex summoned his own mana counter. He hadn't realized how he was down to [23/300].
She sighed slowly. "To remain injured for so long can be a bad thing. If your mana remains weak, it can threaten your bindings. Let me help you a bit." She withdrew her hand and reached into her bag, pulled out a small tin and a vial. She rubbed the salve between her palms and pressed it into his back through the fabric of his shirt. Heat spread outward from the contact.
She offered him the can. It smelled herbal and not quite bad. He pressed his lips against it, and then the bitter taste hit him. It wasn't terrible, but not pleasant either.
"All of it?"
"In your case, yes."
[MP: 31 / 300 → 94 / 300]
"Stop bracing," Sandra said. "You're fighting the repair."
"Oh, sorry."
Alex forced himself to relax. The pressure in his back eased enough that his shoulders dropped.
"Alright, so that was for the mana. What about my injury?"
"Patience, boy."
Her hand pressed against his lower back. Alex felt mana flowing through contact. The pain faded with every blink, and he felt muscle being pulled back into alignment.
His HUD flickered.
[ALEXANDER HP: 65 / 92 → 92 / 92]
"Alright," Thomas said. "You seem good to go. Let's save those people."
They grabbed the gym's first-aid kit and filled a backpack with bottled water and tuna cans. Thomas slung the sword across his back, the hilt jutting over his shoulder.
***
Samantha and the group awaited at the junction next to a laundry store, Tyger Tyger perched on her shoulder. Fenrir was steps away, sniffing the air. The woman stood close to the man, one hand locked around the teenage boy's sleeve as if afraid he might vanish if she let go; all of them had their eyes out.
As soon as they heard them coming, they froze, then relaxed.
"A priest," the woman said, almost to herself.
Thomas gave a small nod. "Yes, I am," he replied.
"Thank God," the man said. He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I mean—sorry. It's just—"
"I understand," Thomas said. "What are your names?"
"Claire," the woman said. "This is Mark. That's my son, Evan."
Samantha didn't let the pause stretch. "We don't have time. Shoggoths are moving around the block."
"Lead the way," Thomas said to the group.
Alex and the group followed Mark and Claire, the sun coming dangerously low. Fenrir paced along the edge, tense, with red eyes tracking the edges of the street.
At the next intersection, Alex felt something, as if beyond himself. Fenrir was tense.
Samantha raised a fist.
Movement echoed ahead.
A group of figures crossed the far end of the street, limbs clicking against the pavement, bodies folding and unfolding as they moved. The sound scraped along the walls. They were definitely shoggoths. The sight of the formless figure made Claire reach out and find shelter behind Mark. The man held his gun forward.
The demon, however, didn't approach; it seemed to assess the situation and pull back.
Claire exhaled slowly and glanced back at Samantha. "This way," she said again, quieter now, but steady. "We're close."
They soon reached the building. It had been a luxurious complex, and now, after a single day, it looked grim. Many of the walls had been torn, smeared with blood and fluids; windows had been broken, and bodies slumped, a few still lingering near the parking lot. Alex averted his gaze from the disturbing view.
They reached the entrance, blood smeared across the tile and concrete chunks scattered through the lobby. Fenrir stopped short, muscles tense. Alexander felt tension in the back of his morph's mind. There were demons nearby. The more he listened, the more he could track movement above him.
The group stood in silence, then Thomas stepped forward, unsheathing his sword and holding it forward.
With an ominous roar, a shoggoth dragged itself out from behind the concierge desk, pushing forward on uneven limbs, cartilage plates grinding together like a centipede. Was it even a shoggoth or an oversized insect morph?
An HP bar appeared on the edges of Alex's vision.
[SHOGGOTH
HP: 1180 / 1180]
Two rat-like morphs the size of dogs followed, stretched muscle over animal frames, eyes red and fixed, claws clicking against the floor, and long hairless tails.
[MORPH (RAT)]
HP: 210 / 210
[MORPH (RAT)]
HP: 195 / 195
"Stand back," Thomas hissed.
Claire pulled Evan behind her, Mark brought the Remington up out of habit, and then froze when the empty chamber clicked uselessly. Alex broke left and sprinted, Fenrir launching with him.
The morph leapt, and Tyger met it in the air, jaws closing around its torso as his weight drove it into the wall, bones cracking as he shook and dropped it in a heap that stopped moving.
The centipede-like shoggoth surged, and Thomas stepped into its path, blade flashing as he cut deep and fast, black liquid leaking from it.
[SHOGGOTH
HP: 1180 → 820]
Then, it angled toward Alex. He knew what was coming.
It leapt toward him. Alex shifted and buried the axe into it.
Fenrir attacked it from behind, biting into its carapace, thrashing as its form began to lose cohesion.
[SHOGGOTH
HP: 820 → 640]
The second rat morph went for Samantha, and she pivoted into it. The rat's jaws opened, trying to bite into her, knives crossing and then separating as she split shoulder and spine in a single swing, the body hitting the tile and skidding to a stop.
MORPH (RAT)
HP: 195 → 0
The centipede tried to rise, and Thomas drove his sword down again, pinning part of it as Alex wrenched his axe free and struck twice more, each impact tearing chunks away until the HP bar went down.
[EXP + 34]
[EXP: 34/300]
The entire group caught their breath.
Not for long.
A stairwell door above burst open, and another shoggoth forced its way down, tearing chunks from the frame as two more morphs scrambled ahead of it, dog-like jaws distended and snapping as they dropped into the lobby.
Tyger Tyger leapt with a roar, biting the nearest morph before it landed, slamming it into the wall and raking until it stopped twitching. It moaned like a lost puppy.
Fenrir took the second by the throat and dragged it backward. Then, Thomas stepped in and cut clean through the neck. The creature dissolved immediately.
The new shoggoth surged, and Samantha hurled a knife, the blade burying deep as Alex followed and drove his axe in beside it. The creature reeled in agony long enough for Thomas to carve through its limbs.
They ran for the stairs. The climb burned, boots pounding, breaths ragged, distant impacts echoing up the shaft, Claire, Mark, and Evan gasping for breath.
Once they had reached the door to floor 7, they pushed it open. What they saw was not pretty.
Shapes peeled out of doorways and ceiling corners, shoggoths pressing down from above while morphs poured in from the landings below, bodies colliding and clawing in the narrow space.
"Hold," Thomas said, breath already strained, sword angled low as he turned to face the crush below them. "I can call help, but it will cost me."
"How much?" Samantha asked, knives wet, stance squared to the stairs.
"Enough," Thomas said, and drove the sword point-first into the concrete step.
His free hand lifted, and symbols tore themselves into the air around him, harsh and angular, and Alex felt the pressure change as something forced its way through.
Suddenly, a bright shape formed in Alex's vision, dressed in white robes, with gleaming bronze armor and massive wings unfolding in the cramped stairwell.
[ANGEL RAFIEL: HP 2405]
Claire and Mark fell to their knees.
The figure stretched a hand. A wave of energy surged outward, cutting through mass and limb, shoggoths rupturing, while morphs were torn free and flung back down the stairs.
The angel had disappeared; the bright light faded as if it had all been but a dream. Thomas was on his knees, head down, hands pressing against the ground as if drained of all light.
The angel had done half of the work. Shoggoths unraveled and dissolved into blobs of ichor, while morphs agonized before collapsing as well.
It had killed a handful of them. And yet, they had work to do. Around them, half a dozen shoggoths remained, some crawling in silent pain, others enraged and ready to attack.
Tyger Tyger lunged forward, claws ripping through one before another caught him across the flank and opened him from shoulder to hip. Tyger snarled and launched back in any way, blood streaking the steps as he crushed the attacker under the weight of his jaws.
Claire stepped forward and swung the bat down into a morph's head, the impact folding it to the floor, where Fenrir finished it with a bite that tore straight through the neck.
Bodies collapsed and slid down the stairs in pieces, the last shoggoth breaking apart under combined strikes.
Thomas pulled his hand back and leaned hard on the sword, breathing roughly, face pale.
"They're on door 159," Mark said. "God... I hope they're still alive."
