After halfway through, more than the original two hundred kilometers (130 miles), they got to their first stop around 15:14. It was just a tiny village, barely forty buildings, with some of them reaching a height of six meters (twenty feet). The only memorable things were a convenience store and a gas station at each extreme end of the two-hundred-meter town (220 yards). More dust. More ashes laying around. More clothes filled with the grey dust. More dead people. A creepingly terrible feeling coursed through the engineer, stopping nearby the convenience store.

“Make sure to put the bland parts on top of the hard cans; we don't want them crushed. We will put everything on the jeep, then—”

“Master! A human is on that street!” Zippy commented, jumping on my head and stretching my hair to move my head toward that direction of the only street. He almost made me trip backward while his tiny claws took a hold of my skin and snuggle me aggressively, feeling like a ball of hair tried to asphyxiate me.

“Ey ouch! Watch out! Zippy! Dangit!” He caught the bunny and held it in my hands, patting him. “Okay, okay, good job, but not doing that again, alright?” Low and behold, someone was standing in the horizon, moving and showing signs that he was alive. “Someone is alive! Alright, I am not usually a cooperative guy, but if we can gather some people, after some months, society may be rebuilt, and the food supply should be restored.”

“Something ain’t right, Master,” Zippy commented, pulling back his hands. But the engineer ignored the hint.

He slowly approached, waving his hands around to get his attention. “Ey, over here!” He called out. “Thank god or anything that you are alive, are you okay? Nothing broken?! Look, I know this is…” He lowered his voice the more he approached. Something wasn’t right. The figure was holding a large object. “…that’s a sword. A big sword, perhaps a combination of a longsword and a Hamberge. I can’t put my finger on which sword exactly.”

He slowed down studying the figure, even halting from time to time, trying to recognize any aggressive or violent behaviour. “Alright, I know this is an apocalyptic situation. Let’s both calm down, okay? You are the first human I saw in two hundred kilometers; it seems everyone else is—”

“#@|€¬|#-*--185314sdad” spoke the figure in a language never heard before, unnatural and unnerving to the human ear.

He stopped as he heard that. Full stop in place, analyzing the figure who was now around seven to eight blocks away. He had heard many languages, but after hearing that, he didn’t have to think much. The figure laughed in the most creepy way he had ever heard, cracking his voice and tilting his body slightly to the right side where his sword was hanging on his left hand.

Then his right arm snapped backward in a sudden motion, snapped back again, and his hand was growing in size. Thankfully, it was too far away for them to hear the cracking bones and snapping muscles of this sudden transformation.

“Maybe you are right,” Chump commented as he slowly stepped backward. The humanoid spoke something the pair couldn’t comprehend once again, walking slowly but steadily towards them. “Ah hell nah! That ain’t normal. Why is his hand and his arm—? Why is he speaking in bare vocals all the time?! God dammit Zippy, do you know some weird uncle who has powers too?” They looked at each other, and Zippy shook his head.

Afterwards, the floating letters and system appeared in front of the figure. The system appeared once again. But it was too far away to know what was written. But something else was more off. While originally thought they were going at the same speed, the ominous figure was actually going faster, taking small and slower steps. Then it became clear why this inconsistency once he was closer.

The guy's height, his size, was double that of Chump. He was way larger, thicker, in general, bigger than the tallest human or even someone with gigantism. A scaled up humanoid. He literally could react with his head to the windows of the first floor (second floor for the USA) of the nearby buildings, headbutting them if he wanted to and breaking the windows.

His belt was a makeshift crown of silver paper, wood, and stones. Not jewels, just colourful rocks that anyone could pick up in a nearby park. The figure wore makeshift clothes resembling medieval royalty, filled with dirt and blood, to a point that the original clothes were impossible to distinguish. His hands were coated in his own blood from wounds he had inflicted on himself.

“How in the world—E-E-Ey, look! S-Stop, okay? We don’t have to do this! I know this is crazy b-but!” He shouted in a burst, tearing up a bit and clenching his teeth. “Do NOT get nearby! Speak English now! Or Spanish! And drop the weapon! Shit, perhaps I should have gotten a weapon. I…Ugh, I should have just focused on getting back home, damn it!”

“Yeah, obey what my Master says and drop it!” Zippy commented on the backpack Chump carried on his back. Trembling on it, Chump could feel its fear in his voice, whispering like a scared cat. “M-Master, he is using R-Remenant as well!” Excitement and fear showed through trembles.

“I noticed…Wait…You had something called …ehm…Enhanced senses, right? Can you see what the other system says, Zippy?” As he started backpedalling even faster, not wanting to take his eyes off the figure.

“It’s “Amplified senses,” Master, but let me check what it says…Hmm, “Fire Creation and Fire Control activated,” Master!” Zippy announced as the guy raised the giant flaming sword.

Zippy saw this but didn’t understand how a system works, just that it existed.

“Fire Creation” And "Fire Control” Activated Remenant used: 11.000 points. (10.000 and 1.000 respectively) 80.000/571.000 points remaining

The sword caught on fire, covering it in rows of flames in straight lines of pure red.

“OH SHIT!”

He quickly dodgestepped to the side as he saw a giant flaming sword swing through the air with nothing to heat. A giant slash of fire cut through the air at high acceleration but slow starting speed. He felt its immense heat just as the slash passed a few meters away from him, like a giant hot current of air. It cut like a hot knife through butter, slicing the jeep they used to get to the village, and ended in a big explosion crashing against the store, only melting the doors. The car, with all the food, samples, and any other utility, exploded in a flashy yet carbonized way.

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They looked at what happened, shocked by the sheer magnitude and the implications. Then down, synchronized in their movements. The cement floor cracked open in a wide-long foot of pure melting cement and rocks and cracked open the road, making Chump step back a couple more times by reaction.

They couldn’t escape now.

Neither of them needed to understand the language to know that he laughed with his belly, seeing the scene and their faces. That tarnished yet so violent and manically laugh kept increasing as he lowered his sword and charged towards them with his broken, unchanging, cracked smile. Every step he made could perfectly cover three or four meters and was not slower despite being bigger. His sword ignited, and they kn-

“RUUUUUUUN!”

As the engineer bolted through the buildings, holding Zippy with all his strength. His heart and lungs pressured his chest at the sudden burst of energy, hyperventilating every ounce of air he contained. The chest felt like it might explode at any moment, that his veins in his body pumped out everything, and they were going to pop out. His sweat, once hot, was now a mix of both cold and warm. His clothes made him feel heavier than he was, uncomfortable, dead weight. The adrenaline boosted his speed, but not enough. His steps felt like a giant jaguar chased them.

“C’mon Master, we can beat him!” Zippy commented while trying to get off his arms.

“Are you crazy?! That guy is catching up to us, and we can’t defend ourselves!” He thanked god that he was used to his sparks, not wanting to imagine what would have happened if not. To the left: Nothing he could use. To the right, more paths blocked by cars or too many obstacles. Only the narrow street between the houses was the safest path.

“Duck, Master!” As Zippy pulled Chump’s head down, falling halfway but quickly getting up, narrowly avoiding a horizontal slash that melted through an almost perfect horizontal line, like butter, both buildings on their sides. It fully stopped after some meters. It seemed to lose power the more material it went through. The whole chase went to the other side of the village, just as the gas station.

“Zippy! Thunder the backdoor of the gas station! Let’s get through.” He ordered while pointing at the front. “37 seconds. That’s what it got to shoot between two slashes. What can we do in 37 seconds?!” He panicked in his mind. He turned his head around. The guy was now a block away from them, catching up while not providing enough distraction.

Just as Zippy zapped out the safe lock of the door and Chump pushed through the door with his shoulder, just entering the zone where the store was located, the human fell down to the floor, screaming in pain.

Fallen to the ground, his pants and shirt had blood stains. However, he didn’t get hit by any slashes, neither did the humanoid arrive yet. He screamed in pain as he held himself to one of the nearby shelves, trying to get up. He fought and ordered over and over for his arm to get up, but the more he tried, the weaker he felt. “What is happening?! Why do I suddenly feel so weak?!” He looked down at his arm, now visible. The wounds from those weeks were reopening, his skin got paler than before, and his whole body trembled, feeling weaker than it should have.

The enhancing drugs were off. He was returning to the previous state he was in.

“Oh no, what do I do?!” Zippy reacted, seeing his master in tears, fighting against his own arms to get up in any form. He turned to face the humanoid that now entered through the back door as well, crouching like a kid inside a park ball, his grin only widening. “N-No! Please! No!” He shouted and pleaded, but the humanoid didn’t falter. Instead of going for a final fire slash as before, he was going for a finishing blow, holding the steel material-like sword with both hands.

“Thunder Creation” And "Thunder Control” Activated Remenant used: 407 points. (370 and 37 respectively) 50/5100 points remaining Please, be careful on the usage of Remenant

But Zippy had other plans. In a quick thunderbolt, he stunned the giant humanoid with almost every inch of energy he had left, shocking him and making him fault against the wall, the door frames, and ceiling, prolonging his paralyzed condition. Then, pressing against Chump’s chest as this was fading. “Please! Master! Get up! Please! Please! Use everything on you! I trust you! I believe in you!”

“RRrrghh…Zi…ppy…” Those words made the engineer's hands hard lock against the shelf and pushed the half-expressive human upwards, crawling against gravity just to get up on his knees. It felt like hell to stand there even with the adrenaline, yet it felt that the battle could be won. Both could feel it. He started crawling through the shelves with his fragile arms through the dozens of products and shelves to the next door. But something in him told him to stop and look around. Then a wicked smile appeared on the boy’s face. “Zippy,... need... your help.”

"Wind Control” Activated Remenant used: 30 points. 20/5000 points remaining Please, be careful on the usage of Remenant. Reaching critical point.

The humanoid took a couple of minutes to regain his consciousness and chased them all over again. Yet the laughter got worse, seeing that their prey didn’t even left the store, just moved a couple of meters away. He slashed and cut his way through, only to push aside the last obstacle on his way that was greeted by a bitter surprise.

Chump slashed the air, opening a bottle that contained a gallon of yellow and green liquid, not entirely combined. At the same time, with a gust of air Zippy helped to move Chump’s body and face away, running towards the door in that improvised movement.

The humanoid received in his face and upper chest the whole splash of this unconventional liquid. He moved his arms, ready for a giant cut, when he quickly dropped the giant sword. His eyes started boiling wildly as they turned bloodied and red. His skin burned all over the place and even corroding some parts. He quickly tried to get this mysterious liquid off his skin but to no avail. The pain, the violent reactions, the suffocating feeling remained throughout his body. He rolled over the floor, scratching his face hard with the hand and the giant claw, trying to get off this nightmarish sensation.

Two bottles of derivative products of bleach and ammonia were on the floor now. The chemical improvisation made an impact on the chaser, and the wind that the air conditioner blew out created a tiny yet effective dome of air around the bunny and the unprotected parts of Chump.

They left the gas station store. But Chump couldn’t run, and Zippy was out of juice.

The battle was not over.

Error: Unknown interference in combat Administrator(s) had been warned. Please stand by...