Her helmet and armor and shield rattled against the floor as the Wretched Angel dragged Jenny out of the teacher's lounge. Her eyes rolled toward the back of her head. She struggled to stay conscious, but her vision blurred and faded and came back. She couldn't swallow; her teeth were stuck in the back of her throat, each one piercing her in a different place, sending shooting pains into her ears from inside her mouth.

She was too terrified to swallow the pooling saliva and blood. It took tremendous effort to part her lips. Her lower jaw felt bent out of shape, as if it hung at an angle, as if her skull had been reshaped by the impact. But she managed to open her mouth, and blood flowed out, leaving behind a slimy trail as the angel dragged her passed room 223, where Miriam and the boy and possibly some others were hiding.

Please save me, she thought, wondering if anyone of them would even stand a chance against this angel. She spotted the light from the flashlight, and, for a moment, hope flickered through her head. It had rolled so far away from where Miriam initially dropped it, but maybe this was a stroke of luck. Maybe the light would freak the angel out, giving her a chance to escape.

But the Wretched Angel just hissed. Its foot came down on the flashlight with a decisive thud, extinguishing the brightness in an instant. All that remained was the deep rolling gloom of the darkened hallway.

Jenny wasn't sure if she could've grabbed it anyway. She blinked sadly at its crushed remains, thinking about how Susan had carefully taped it to the helmet. She was glad Susan wasn't here. Glad Susan wouldn't have to suffer this. She was safe in the library, and Jenny wouldn’t get to keep her promise.

Her nose gurgled and whistled with every breath. She wanted to touch it. To make sure it was still on her face, but she couldn't move her arms. They trailed behind her, limp and lifeless as she struggled to stay conscious. Her eyelids felt heavier and heavier. At one point, her body bounced on the torn-up tiles from earlier in the fight, and a violent fit of coughing overtook her, shocking her fully awake.

The teeth cutting into her throat shot out of her mouth and scattered like little stones. There was still one left, stuck to the soft bit behind the roof of her mouth. She touched her gums with the tip of her tongue, finding a few jagged bits of teeth sticking out like shards of broken glass.

> 60 seconds remaining.

The notification hovered in her mind for a moment before fading away. What did it matter now? All she was doing was counting down till the boosted durability wore off and... Then she'd be completely powerless.

She tried to use her shield as a brake, digging into the floor. The resistance only lasted a second before the angel yanked hard on her leg. She cried out as her entire body bounced again, as though she were a ragdoll. She tried kicking with her other leg, but it was futile. The angel’s legs were too thickly covered, and she couldn’t get any leverage. Her boot bounced off harmlessly.

They were nearly to the blue double doors. She glanced down the other hallway, the one that she'd come through with Miriam. Nothing stirred. No bodies. No other angels. A part of her had hoped someone else would’ve shown up. Maybe the people who'd been fighting here before. But if the boy was hiding back in that classroom, then there wasn’t much hope.

What am I supposed to do now? Her face throbbed with pain. Jenny tried to summon her hatchet, but no warm light filled her hand. Nothing flashed. She couldn't activate it. She couldn't recall it. Her head was a vast pulsating darkness where the only thoughts left were hurt and self-pity.

Maybe she could use Ignite somehow. The flames melted and softened the angel's covering before... She looked at her raised leg, the angel's large claw crushing the scales of her armor and holding her firmly. Even if she managed to use the skill, she'd burn herself, and she didn’t think she could hurt the angel enough for the sacrifice to be worth it.

Licking the jagged edges of her ruined teeth, Jenny had another idea. She inhaled slowly, tearing up at the pain, but she sucked in as much air as she could before exhaling, bracing herself. Then, she wriggled the tooth stuck to her throat free with her tongue and swallowed.

She had to swallow several times as it scratched and cut and tore her insides before the tooth stopped resisting and went down.

"C'mon...." she thought miserably, her eyes shut as she concentrated, trying to will the skill into existence. She wanted to regrow her missing fingers, and restore her bones and teeth, the way the Wretched Angel had after eating itself. But would a tooth be enough? She remembered not to force it, but to mold it carefully from her imagination, the same way she’d learned Instant Acceleration.

But a moment later, the angel slammed into the double doors with a grunt, turning its large body and dragging Jenny through. The door swung to bounce off her helmet, and her concentration faltered.

No new skill appeared in her head. She blinked several times, trying to keep the tears at bay as her head rang. It was warmer in this hall. Much warmer. Humid and thickened air threatened to suffocate her, as if her breathing wasn't enough of a struggle. The angel seemed to have an easier time dragging her now too. Her body slid along the floor; it was slick with blood.

There were piles of bodies against the walls and doors. She saw a girl lying on her side, staring blankly with her eyeballs bulging from their sockets. She had no lips. No cheeks. The rest of her body was a torn mess of intestines, and it was impossible to tell what she'd been wearing. The other bodies looked similarly unrecognizable, faces and flesh torn apart, limbs missing. Most of them were humans. Some of them were Tarnished Angels. A few of them were Wretched Angels, their colorful coverings sticking out brightly.

The stench clogged her nose. Even with the cartilage smushed inwards, and her nostrils bleeding profusely, she could still smell the unbearable miasma of rot and blood and exposed innards.

Jenny's right arm twitched, wanting to summon her hatchet again as her mind twisted with rage. But again, it didn't work. But even if she had managed it, as soon as the light flashed, the angel would notice and... If it attacked her again in this state, she knew she was done for.

Her shield bounced off the doorframe as the Wretched Angel dragged into one of the labs. It dropped her foot unceremoniously at the front of the room, beside the whiteboard and the storage closets. The angel blocked her view of the tables, but a cold, bluish light emanated from something large behind it. The light shone vibrantly before fading then glowing again, in a steady, almost calming rhythm. She looked up to see the angel finally eating its arm.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

It chewed the exposed muscle first, its fingers dangling over Jenny's face. Its teeth ripped and tore, blood raining down. Looking past the sickening meal, she saw the sacs. Too many to count, each one of them wriggling all over the ceiling, bunched together like glistening grapes.

As the angel snorted and slobbered, Jenny heard a gasp from her right. She turned her head, the movement making the room spin as though the entire building decided to rotate suddenly. Her eyes seemed to move slower than her head, and pain shot through her neck and shoulders, and she was still trying very hard not to swallow again. But finally, she saw who'd gasped.

A boy with a shock of red hair covered by a green military helmet. Glasses, one of the lenses cracked. Freckles. Leaning against the closet that housed all the beakers and test tubes. His leg was bent the wrong way, a glistening white bone sticking out of his thigh. His arms were wrapped around a girl who wasn't moving, and the two of them were covered in dry blood. His eyes were wide, filling with tears as he whispered Jenny's name.

> Human (stage ii) (Level 14)

Jenny's mouth opened and closed. Spittle and blood gushed out every time she exhaled. She blinked slowly, trying to gather her thoughts as the Wretched Angel stomped away. It was Oliver. He was alive. Hurt, but strong... He was a stage ii human just like she was. A strange sense of pride filled her chest, even though she'd never let herself grow close to him, never accepted him as her younger sibling.

Throughout this entire ordeal, she'd only thought of him as her responsibility. Her duty. Had to save him for her parent's sake. But seeing him now... seeing that he'd struggled and fought and survived so far... Tears rolled down the side of her face. It felt cheap to finally feel something familial for him. All it took was a hellish nightmare... she almost wanted to laugh.

Almost.

Oliver wore dark green armor. It looked similar to the Wretched Angel's covering; except he wore it like a jacket. The girl in his arms had her head resting on Oliver's uninjured thigh. Their faces looked ghostly in the eerie blue glow.

> Human (stage ii) (level 13)

She'd been wearing some kind of armor too, shiny and metallic. It looked like something a knight would wear. But her helmet was shattered so that it revealed her mousy face. Her cheek was sliced open. Jenny could see loose flesh moving every time the girl inhaled and exhaled.

Beside them, in a crude row underneath the whiteboard, lay more bodies. Three more girls and two more boys, none of whom Jenny recognized, but all wore some kind of armor similar to that of Oliver and the girl's. They ranged in level from 9 to 16, but Oliver seemed to be the only one who was awake. A few were dead; their bodies didn't trigger a notification.

> 15 seconds remaining.

Jenny squeezed her eyes shut. Tears streamed continuously, and no matter how hard she tried to stop them, her breath caught in her throat, and her heart kept beating in a frantic panic as the remaining seconds whittled away. She'd found Oliver. But now what? Had she come all this way just to watch him die?

Eve? Are we going to die?

> Your fate is your own to create.

A vision shimmered in her head: the three-headed figure, glowing golden and surrounded by liquid darkness. The faces flickered, but each one was stern. The lips moved. The eyes glowered. But Jenny couldn't understand any of it. She couldn't make sense of it. The middle face became her mother’s again, scowling... crying.

Are you just going to let me die? I thought you wanted me to give birth to you? Angry, she forced herself to inhale through her nose, trying to summon strength. The muscles in her right arm trembled as she strained, lifting herself off the floor. Golden light flashed between her fingers. She was breathing hard and sweating so much... but if she could just hit the angel with another Ignite... If she could just land one more blow with her hatchet... She glanced at Oliver who stared back, eyes wide with concern. It'll be okay, she wanted to whisper.

But just as she managed to sit up, the light flickered out in her hand. Her hatchet didn't appear. Instead, she collapsed, her helmet clanging loudly as she stared up at the sacs wriggling on the ceiling.

> The potion is no longer in effect.

She choked on her breath. Pain ignited first on her face, and she was excruciatingly aware of how the tip of her nose was smushed inwards. The scratches in her throat flared up so suddenly, she wanted to scream at the top of her voice, but all she could muster was a weak cry.

Her neck throbbed. It felt as though someone had tried furiously to yank her head off her body. Her leg was crushed where the angel had grabbed her with its claws. Every single one of her bones felt broken, her muscles torn.

Agony stained her vision dark red. Oliver and the others blurred away, and she writhed uncontrollably, trapped in her ruined body, unable to summon the strength to even scream. A part of her wanted the angel to come back and put her out of her misery. Crush her head like the flashlight and just end this.

Oliver whispered something to her. She saw his lips move but couldn't hear anything. Pain filled her head like wet gravel and cement rotating in a heavy mixer.

Her mind raced, trying desperately to figure out a solution, something, anything, to quell the searing pain. She just wanted it to stop. It made even her worst period cramps feel like a minor stomachache. It was as though someone had taken a sheet of printer paper and tried to see through her, one paper cut at a time.

Light burst behind her eyes. White and so bright that it felt like her mind was collapsing. She blinked over and over, shaking violently. She didn't have enough energy to get out of this one, but maybe... maybe if she could just eat something more significant than a tooth... She might be able to copy the Wretched Angel’s skill. She’d have to eat flesh.

She cut her tongue on her ruined teeth, causing a fresh wave of pain, like electricity surging through her gums. Could she even bite anything in this state?

Her lips were busted pretty badly. Swollen and bleeding. Maybe... maybe she could bite off a piece. Saw through the flesh with the jagged bits of tooth sticking out of her gums. Or could she bite through the inside of her cheek?

But what if the skill didn't manifest? What if it was only something angels could do?

Frustrated, she bit down as hard as she could on her bottom lip. But without whole teeth, all she managed was to get her lips stuck to her gums, caught on the sharp edges of her broken teeth. She pushed her lip off with her tongue and was about to try again when the floor shook.

Heavy footsteps approached. She saw Oliver's eyes go up, full of fear as his arms tightened around the girl protectively. Jenny turned her head toward the ceiling, expecting to see the black-covered Wretched Angel. Instead, it was yellow with dark stripes, almost like a tiger.

> Wretched Angel (Level 23)

She saw the bottom of its foot. It was massive, and instead of toes, it had massive claws that extended forward like talons. It stepped over her, sniffed several times, then reached for Oliver.

No, she wanted to scream, trying to will her body off the floor. But then she heard Oliver shouting. The angel hissed, smacked Oliver hard, and his helmet bounced off the closet. The angel picked up the girl by her arm as Oliver lay still, an ugly red mark on one side of his face. It grabbed another girl, then dragged them both away.

Her heart twisting at the sight of Oliver, Jenny forced her head to turn, trying to ignore the wave of dizziness. But she had to see what the angel was doing. And how many other angels there were.

The lab was a series of tables bolted into the ground. Each table had several sinks, gas dials, and ventilation hoods. Bodies lay in piles between every table. In the centermost table, attached to the ceiling and floor by what looked like enormous blue cobwebs, was a giant blue sac.

This sac was upright and oblong, resembling a cocoon. Its blue insides shone brilliantly, and something floated inside of it in a fetal position as the light bloomed and faded rhythmically. The figure resembled an adult woman, long hair drifting. Jenny squinted, straining to see, and she recognized the female Wretched Angel, the one that had bitten off her fingers. She recognized it by the two antennae sticking out of its head.

The notification made her stomach turn.

> Desecrated Angel (Level 30)