Kevin left Kev to sort himself. Kevin knew he’d pack and go. It was hard to imagine what differences the two would experience. On the one hand Kev still had to go to their mom, but Kevin was already pretty sure he knew about where that bridge was. Besides who better to trust with your mom than … well you. Kevin had no idea how big this city was, let alone which bridge to take. Kevin didn’t know how many bridges he had seen encroaching on the edge of this big city before he had used his Divine Doppelgãnger ability, but it was closer to “a lot” than “a few.”

Kevin didn’t lose his sense of urgency, but he was able to take a sigh of relief knowing his mom would be OK. He activated Soul Tracker to ping her as he continued to climb the skyscraper. He left the shed at the top to the roof of the skyscraper and peered out over the city. He needed to get higher and see if he couldn’t figure something out. There were a few bridges and a particularly tall skyscraper a few skyscrapers away. Kevin ignored the bridges and used the Cloud Step shoes to climb up the fifteen or so stories to get to the top of the locally tallest skyscraper.

As far as Kevin could see, it was just fuckin’ skyscrapers. He had hardly any points at the moment and decided to ping for golden morankai and the black orbs. He didn’t feel any immediately but he switched back to running over the actual bridges and roofs of the city, alternating between them and Katie. He started running. The bridges between the buildings here were much the same as the bridges at his cluster. Some were good, solid construction of metal. Some a combination of metal and wood. Others rickety like rope bridges.

Because many, most even, of the skyscrapers weren’t the same height, the bridges often had an arch or even stairs, some just a gentle slope, while others resembled a free floating staircase. Kevin went through all of them. He only killed morankai that would have slowed him down or hindered him at all. Kevin was pretty excited as he found two golden morankai in line with him and Katie.

Kevin never saw anyone. It was entirely possible that he was the first person in the central city. As he moved through the city, the morankai numbers started getting a little higher and he had found a couple abnormal morankai - something he rarely found on the roofs even at the center of his own cluster.

Kevin took this news to mean that he could be approaching the center of the cluster, which bore out when he saw a skyline within the skyline. Despite the skyscrapers Kevin was running on being fifty or sixty stores tall, the ones he could see now were thirty or fifty stories above that. Massive skyscrapers.

“Those are probably the central buildings.” Kevin said to himself as he continued running. They were several miles to the left of him so he wouldn’t have to pass by too close. Kevin decided to take a break and eat some food. Rather that stopping, he started walking, accessing the Shop and getting himself a good sandwich, pulling out a bottle of water.

Finishing the sandwich Kevin decided to ping for golden morankai again. He did not find one, but he did find a black orb. Kevin waffled between the benefits of going for the orb. On the one hand, the jump in his soul would be nice, on the other hand, it would take time. Kevin decided to climb down as quickly as possible and see if he couldn’t clear it fast and go.

Kevin breathed with relief. Aside from one abnormal morankai and a few in the stairwell Kevin was able to get to the black orb with very little delay. Kevin broke the orb in the same way he had the other. It felt a bit easier than the first time, probably due to the benefits the first orb had delivered him.

Status: Name Kevin Moses

Points: 46,521

Race: Human

Soul Quality: ✪

Age: 35

Stats: Strength: 150

Endurance: 129

Recovery: 88

Soul: 31-34

Abilities: 7/8

Soul Tracker

Ki Cultivator Earth Tier (Middle)

Basic Shield Mastery (5/5)

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Intermediate Axe Mastery (1/5)

Ceaseless Mind

Conqueror's Spoils (Uses Remaining: 1)

Divine Doppelgãnger (1/1)

Kevin climbed the steps to the roof and opened the door of the shed to get back on the roof. He was met with something he’d never seen before. Two abnormal morankais that literally glowed. He could feel the energy coming off them. “Shit.” Kevin said just staring at them.

One was a red color, deep dark blood red. It was packed with muscle so heavily that its head was hunched forward, its visibly powerful arms practically dragging the ground with claw tipped fingers. Its eyeless sockets glowing with an unsettling red light. The other was white, only the contours of its body breaking up the porcelain skin. It’s skin looked hard as stone too, it took a step that sent shockwaves over the roof of the skyscraper.

Kevin was perhaps thirty meters from the creatures when, in a blink, the red one was gone. Kevin didn’t think, he only reacted. He tapped his armor ring, the armor appearing around his body, he tapped his shield ring, the heavy tower shield appearing in his hand. He reinforced both with every ounce of shield energy he could ring from himself.

Kevin wasn’t sure what happened on the opposite side of his shield. One moment, a fraction of a second, he was bracing for impact. The next, he was hitting the lip of the roof of the skyscraper dozens of meters away, his shield shattered to a thousand pieces, his armor held, but he felt like he’d been run over by a truck. His arm was absolutely shattered without question, likely dislocated too. He felt like his scapula had been ripped of his back too.

He shook his head and looked up. The red morankai was already standing over him. Again he reacted without thinking. He couldn’t take the hit, so he dodged it. He activated Light Heavy, made himself as light as a mouse and kicked off the morankai with all his strength. It didn’t move a millimeter, but the kick rocketed Kevin out of the way of the blow.

Kevin looked up to find the white morankai standing over him. It grabbed him by his shield bearing shoulder and lifted him up. Kevin’s vision went white with the pain but he endured. He tapped his ring and brought his axe down into the side of its neck. The blade, reinforced with intermediate axe energy and the weight modified by Light Weight, bit into the neck of the creature … perhaps a single inch. The creature flinched but didn’t let go. "You're a tough one aren't you." Kevin said. Kevin could feel the red one about to move. He tapped his armor ring and his armor vanished, the grip of the white morankai foiled as Kevin dropped to the roof.

He looked up and the red morankai dashed at him. He pulled a chain from storage and threw it. Luck was on his side again and the chain tangled in the creature's legs. He couldn’t even see it as it crashed over him, running directly into the white morankai. For all the speed and power of the red, the white didn’t move at all. The red morankai lay limply on the ground at its feet. Kevin kicked it in the head twice and then dodged a white hand that reached out for him. He stood while donning his armor again and the creature swiped at him again. He didn’t have time to dodge so he used Light Heavy to make himself light again and shield energy to reinforce his armor as best as he could.

The creature collided with Kevin's waiting hand, Kevin using it as a launching point and it threw him bodily into the air. He felt his hands, wrists and forearms break. All the same, he flew through the air like a baseball thrown by a major league outfielder. He tapped to store his armor as he went past the edge of the roof. He let himself fall below the lip of the roof out of the sight of the creatures.

He was tumbling through the air like a rag doll, so he kicked the open air once with his Cloud Step shoes to gain control then caught himself as he fell with the shoes. Kevin started running. Before he made it to the next skyscraper he looked back to see the red morankai jumping at him. He let instinct carry him and he dodged the creature. It fell, hitting the skyscraper next to Kevin and falling down many levels before landing, not hitting, landing on a balcony. It seemed totally unphased. Kevin started to climb with his cloud step shoes as fast as he could. He had to get away from these creatures Now.

Kevin turned back again. He found the white morankai throwing something …throwing a body, a dead morankai body at Kevin. He dodged again, continuing to climb. Higher and higher with the Cloud Step shoes, running at an angle, he decided to do what he had done in his cluster, get high and use the wingsuit. Kevin’s body was tired for days of running and fighting and broken from those monsters, his soul was tired from what felt like constant overuse and the strain of holding back strikes that would shatter normal mountains. He didn’t care immediately. He needed to get away and he needed to get to Katie.

He climbed and climbed, constantly checking to see if he was being followed. The white he had left behind almost immediately. The red, he had not. Kevin tapped his ring as he ran and took a mid-tier healing pill, he felt his bones in his forearms set, his shoulder shifted back into place, the ligaments of the scapula pulling back together in a fit of hot pain. He continued to climb to the cloud layer as he had done the other times he had used the suit. He tapped his ring and donned the gliding suit. Immediately he started moving faster. Kevin ate up the distance, flying over the absolutely, impossibly vast city. He kept an eye out below and finally found himself losing the red monster.

Kevin ate up the miles gliding. With the winds being stable above the city, his Light Heavy making him lighter, Kevin was able to catch some extra distance and height traveling likely well over 70 miles an hour, his speed reduced slightly due to his lighter relative weight. He doubted he could do this even once more today as rung out as he felt but this would give his soul and body a break.

After a time, Kevin couldn’t see any hint of the red morankai, his altitude was getting too low. He tapped his ring, pulled his parachute, tapped his ring and stored his parachute while he used the Cloud Step shoes to get to the nearest skyscraper.

Kevin stopped only long enough to take a recovery potion, one of the last ones he had and an Aura Cleansing pill, which he hoped would help with the soul strain he could feel building up. . He drank some water and then started running again. Several hours later, Kevin finally found the edge of the city. A couple hours after that, he finally found the bridge he was sure would take him to Katie.