With each shuddering spasm, more gooey red substance shot out of her navel with enough force to make her step back. She swore her belly button had ruptured. Ropes and ropes gushed like geysers that curved in every direction before collapsing against her skin and splashing. Jenny screamed.
Golden light swept across her like a shiver, bright enough to make the undead creatures pause and moan. It seemed to hypnotize them.
The red substance encircled Jenny's waist and dribbled up her sides before enveloping her chest. It rushed down her legs, up her back, and around her neck. As she struggled, as she tried to claw it off her cheeks and her chest, the red stuff attached to her fingers and worked itself over her arms.
She bent over, clutching her knees as it slid through her hair and encased her scalp. It tightened against her thighs and covered the soles of her feet. It left her navel bare, as well as her privates.
She knew what it was. The shell-like casing that every single Wretched Angel she'd fought had been covered in. She looked like one of them. Like the female angels whose bellies were also exposed.
No! she screamed with all her might. She pushed with her thoughts, thrust her consciousness into the substance, felt her racing pulse, felt the heat of her skin as the gelatinous red stuff hardened. She shaped it with her mind, picturing the first armor she'd made.
There was no way in hell she'd resemble these creatures, not when her mind was already crumbling and hunger laced every single heartbeat. She didn't want Susan to worry. Didn't want Mrs. Monique or anyone, and especially not Oliver, to hesitate because of her appearance.
The golden light, all thought it had dimmed, now crackled back to life. Scales blossomed across her covering. The substance receded from her face, rolling back on itself to her neck and down to cover her navel. It thinned slightly, covering everything she wanted to be covered, and then the light finally faded.
Breathing hard, spittle running down her chin, she touched her face with her covered fingers. Her face was still bare, but her scalp was protected. Her dark hair untouched.
With the covering, her arms and legs felt thicker. She felt bigger. And the red darkened to a bloody shade of crimson. The scales shimmered, each one curved like the petal of a flower, and she was happy her navel was fully covered. She couldn’t see her scars or her belly button. The covering was like a body suit, fitting snugly and perfectly conforming to her body. But it wasn’t just a thin layer of cloth; this was hard like a shell and it had a satisfying weight. She felt indestructible.
When her mind finally quieted, she exhaled, and steam escaped her lips. Her exoskeleton bursting into existence seemed to have jolted Susan and Mrs. Monique from their terror, but now their eyes were wide with shock.
"You look... beautiful," whispered Susan. She held her cattle prod with both hands, holding it over her chest as though she was praying. Her legs trembled. Mrs. Monique pressed her lips tight, her eyes twitching from Jenny to the creatures that had faltered around them. She seemed to be wrestling with the urge to attack, but before Jenny could say anything, a violent twitch overcame her.
Something shot out of Jenny's upper back. Two tendrils. Each one bursting out of her shoulder blades like streamers.
Susan stepped forward to help, but Mrs. Monique grabbed her arm. Jenny cried out, hugging herself and stumbling, and two more shot out from her lower on her back. All four tendrils fluttered maddingly, forming an X that curved forward. They were flat and thin, about three feet in length, and made of the same material as her covering.
But as each one twitched and flickered, signals raced from their tips and rushed down into her spine. A tingling sensation climbed up her back, and Jenny sensed her surroundings in a way she’d never sensed anything before.
Her tendrils whisked through the air, picking up on disturbances in the floating dust, the movements of the undead, and even Susan's quickened breathing. She sensed Mrs. Monique's anger, tasted it with her tendrils. It was like licking cold steel, and she shivered as a fresh wave of hunger threatened to rip out of her stomach the same way her exoskeleton had.
The hunger felt even more intense, ravenous now, enough to make her head ache. Through her tendrils, she picked up Susan's body heat. She felt Mrs. Monique holding her breath, and horrid images roped through her mind. Ripping them apart. Drinking their blood. Feasting...She shut all that out. Am I going crazy?
Your body is still adjusting. Your body will never be the same.
Jenny swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth, trying to focus on the tendrils instead of her stomach. This must be similar to that dark Wretched Angel from the hallway fight upstairs. It must’ve used these senses to intuit all of her attacks before she’d even committed to them. She remembered rushing into its swinging arm. Remembered how her face had crumpled. Had she copied it subconsciously?
Susan's lips twitched. She looked like she had a ton of things to say; she looked like she wanted to touch Jenny's new... was it skin? Or more like an outer layer of bone?
But Mrs. Monique spun her spear and held it offensively. The undead were closing in. There wasn't a chance to discuss this.
Jenny turned to face them. Her classmates, their eyes empty and blue, raised their arms, many of them missing chunks of flesh, covered in dried blood. Their bodies were mangled, and they shuffled forward like zombies. The undead angels between them, forming a herd of creatures with glowing eyes.
Jenny glanced down at her babies. Some were sitting. Some standing and sucking on their thumbs. They all stared in awe and admiration. Was it strange that they felt even more like her babies now that she was... She pushed that thought away as well. She pointed at them to catch their attention. Then at Susan. "Protect."
She wasn't sure if they'd understand her. But it was worth a shot. Their brows furrowed. They pressed their lips together then waddled and crawled over to Susan. And even though dried blood stained their cheeks and arms and round bellies, Jenny was starting to find them cute in a way she hadn't expected. It helped that looking at them didn't make her salivate with hunger, and if they could keep Susan safe... then maybe she would have to readjust her decision to never have children. Unless they grew up to be something horrible.
She took a deep breath. The nearest group of undead was comprised of the ones that had tried to drag her into the crater, including the Wretched Angel whose throat she'd bitten through. Torn flesh flapped from its neck with its every step, its head permanently bent without support on one side. Jenny's tendrils whipped through the air, snapping like miniature crackles of thunder.
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With a burst of light, she summoned her hatchet to her hand and, in the same motion, hurled it into the group. Savage Throw.
Three heads erupted in a row, golden light flashing each time. Blood and brain matter splattered her new exoskeleton. A series of three notifications filled her head:
+2 Energy
+2 Energy
+2 Energy
What? The angel's headless bodies collapsed. Light streaked across the lab room as her hatchet snapped back into her hand, and Jenny sprang forward. Slicing through necks and chests, each cut accompanied by a golden shimmer.
+2 Energy
+2 Energy
+2 Energy
+2 Energy
She ended by burying her hatchet in the chest of the last one, the Wretched Angel she felt intimately attached to after having drank its blood. Gold light sparked. Its ribs cracked, blood burst out of the hole in its neck, and the blue light faded from its eyes.
+2 Energy
With that, she inspected her Hatchet, realizing she hadn’t read through the notification of it reaching Tier 3.
Hatchet (Tier 3): Your weapon can now harvest Energy with every attack that invokes pain.
Energy harvested is doubled due to the effects of the Energy Core.
She shuddered remembering the same light shining when she'd cut Oliver's legs off. She'd gotten Energy from that too, hadn't she? But she couldn't deny how helpful this was, and she was going to abuse the hell out of it.
The Wretched Angel beneath her was dead. Well, dead again. Another slice wouldn't invoke pain, so there was no Energy to harvest. She kicked the angel's head, its neck stretched for an instant, the tendons desperate to hold on. But the crunch of her exoskeleton-covered foot connecting with its chin was too satisfying, and she felt even stronger than before. The creature's head jetted forward as though she'd shot a cannon, and it struck one of the undead students in the belly, forcing the boy to crumple forward in agony. The boy screamed, and Jenny flinched.
Are they still in there? Could they feel that?
She stumbled back, her tendrils snapping with agitation. She tried to pick up on anything that might alert her to what the undead might feel, but there was nothing to be felt from them. Their bodies were cold, and although they were breathing and their hearts were beating, they didn’t emanate life the way Susan and Mrs. Monique did.
She sensed Mrs. Monique fighting, thrusting her spear through angels that wandered near her. She slashed through their bellies, shoved her spear through their chests and necks, and punched any that managed to survive that. But the librarian wasn't getting any Experience or Energy from these kills; they were only tiring her out. She was still only Level 3.
The babies surrounded Susan, and split into several groups. It seemed like even more babies had joined them, and each one was completely focused on the task. Any angel or student that approached was set upon by a group, and the babies dragged the person down and bit through anything within teething range. Jenny's stomach twisted with each human scream. Had the Desecrated Angel brought them back somehow? To endure this agony?
Rage built inside her like the charged winds ushering in a storm. More people and angels lumbered in from the lobby, so many that, for a second, it almost seemed like the middle of a normal day. After fifth period, when half the students were rushing to the cafeteria to be first in line for lunch, and the other half were exiting, trying to get to their classes.
Except, almost everyone here was already dead. Jenny dashed away from Susan and Mrs. Monique and the babies, hoping to distract the undead. Bodies rained down from the floor above. She glanced up and saw angels and students drag themselves to the edge then plop forward, leading with their heads. Several of them smashed into the rubble and burst open. Others were skewered on exposed rods. And still, others broke their necks from the fall, landing in a heap of broken limbs, moaning and crying.
But at least those ones weren’t threats. Jenny tried to ignore their screams, tried not to think about the Desecrated Angel reanimating them with another beam of light. She slashed through several more angels, gaining spurts of Energy with each shimmering strike. She didn’t attack the dead students. Their fingernails slipped off her exoskeleton as she bounded deeper into the ruined physics lab, leaping over desks and smashing rubble with her armored feet. She ran away from the crater, away from the others.
Her plan had worked. Every single set of glowing blue eyes turned in unison, seeking her. She’d reached the far end of the rooms and paused, feeling strangely cool. The crimson covering seemed to wick away heat without the need for sweat.
Bodies continued to rain down. Many fell right into the crater, screaming. But the undead on this floor had herded together, moving slowly as a large group in her direction. She noticed that the dead Wretched Angels weren’t moving as they would’ve when alive. Was that another limitation to the Desecrated Angel’s ability to raise the dead? Would that change if the creature grew stronger?
She took the opportunity to pull up her stats.
Jenny Huang
Human (stage ii) (level 24)(blooded)
Stats:
Power: 25
Stamina: 15
Durability: 20 (+30)
Agility: 20
Stat points available: (44)
Energy available: (422)
She'd leveled up eight times while Severed! And her exoskeleton seemed to boost durability immensely. She tapped her chest with her hatchet. This covering stuff really was crazy, wasn't it? Her exoskeleton felt even stronger than the ones the Wretched Angels wore.
Then she remembered the notification she'd gotten with Blooded. It had awarded her 20 bonus stat points, and that was why she had so many available. She exhaled, eyeing the students and angels coming for her. There was no time to worry about what that meant.
She assigned 5 points to Power, 15 to Stamina, and 10 to Agility, bringing them all to 30 and giving her 14 stat points in reserve. She’d save those for an emergency and throw them into whatever she needed to boost quickly. A shudder swept through her as her increased stats resulted in a series of muscle spasms. Her tendrils went taught before relaxing, and then she relaxed. Her limbs ached for use. Heat emanated off her hatchet as though it too ached for violence. If the student undead were gonna get in her way, then she would just have to make their second deaths swift. That way they’d feel no pain, and she’d feel less guilty.
Ready to fight, ready to cut them all down so that Susan and Mrs. Monique could escape, she crouched low and was just about to rush into the herd when a few more notifications appeared.
In the throng of undead, several alive angels pushed their way through the crowd, heading straight for Susan and the others who were trying to cross the hallway. Susan was leaning heavily on Mrs. Monique as the undead ignored them. But the Tarnished and two Wretched Angels were closing in fast.
The Wretched ones were high-level. One was 22. The other, larger one, was 25. It roared, throwing several of the undead students out of its way before bolting forward on all fours. This one was covered in green, male with large bulging muscles.
Like hell, thought Jenny, channeling her strength and drawing upon Instant Acceleration.
The room rippled. Screams and moans curved around her like wind. Her tendrils trailed behind her. She burst through the crowd of undead. Bodies burst open. Flesh and blood turned to mist, and bones turned to shrapnel that bounced off her exoskeleton, and then she slammed into the Wretched Angel with the force of a runaway bullet train.