The world is blood, and I am rage.

There’s no more pain. No more doubt. No more hesitation. Just me, and death, and the rage that burns through every fiber of my being.

I run. I fight. I rip and I tear and I kill. Kill them all.

My vision narrows, a distant pinprick of light in a sea of darkness. My body moves, driven by the rage. I’m just a bystander, a faint concept tucked away in the deep recesses of my mind. But that’s not true, and on some level, I know it.

Those are my legs doing the running. My hands doing the ripping. My body paying the price.

I run from one monster to the next. The whole scene comes in waves, short flashes of red and black like the stuttering of an old television screen.

Something bites into my hip. Teeth tear through skin and flesh. I reach down, grab the head, and I squeeze. Bone creaks and the monster’s skull deforms. Eyes pop out. The head turns to paste in my hands.

The mouth comes off, and I toss the lifeless monster aside.

I run to the next two, swaying. They jump me, and a flash of the screen later, they’re dead. More blood. More red. More rage.

Kill them! Kill them all!

It burns. Consumes me. Incinerates me from the inside out until nothing is left.

People scream all around me, but I can’t understand them. The whirlwind drowns them out. I run to the next monster, grab a leg, and I pull. Bones leave their sockets. Muscles come undone. The monster howls. I smash its own leg into its chest and cave it in.

Things explode around me. Holes appear in some of the monsters. They die, and the rage churns. I waver, but I don’t fall. Can’t fall.

A notification flashes before me, but I don’t pay it any mind. My health plummets and soars and plummets again, teetering on the edge of depletion. The system fights to keep me here. Mana clashes life into death and my body scrambles for the pieces.

I can’t fall because the system won’t let me. It wants me to kill.

More screams. More shouting. Arrows fly through the air. They bend and curl, dancing around me. Another notification appears, but I send it away. I run into the next monster, triggering a short dash and body slamming it. The creature thrashes, scraping its claws over me, but there’s no pain. I ram it into a tree and the trunk buckles. It’s pinned, yelping, struggling for purchase. I shove a hand into it, breaking fingers and ribs.

But it dies, and that’s all that matters. I pull back and it falls limply to the ground. The still beating heart is clenched in my hand, and I close my fingers around it, squeezing until it bursts.

I turn, and the world turns with me. Something gives. The ground tilts and rushes up to meet me, but I don’t fall. Can’t fall. Not yet. I right myself and lunge again.

Only a handful of monsters are left. I slam into the next one. There’s another scream just as the world explodes with flames. They singe fur and hair, and I smash the monster into the burning ground. The fire chars my body, but the rage burns hotter.

A hand grabs me and yanks me out of the inferno. Derek. His mouth moves, but the words don’t reach me. I pull free from his grip. The arrows still dance around us, not killing.

Such a waste.

Two more people appear. Pops and Clarissa. He shouts something. I look around, my head swimming, and I see the wave boss. It kills Donut and discards the corpse. Jessica cries out. Emily is behind the woman, her hands tracing lines in the air. The wave boss moves towards them.

The rage explodes to new heights. I push past Derek and run at the monster. It turns. Beady eyes regard me. Smart eyes. Fearful. The skunk spins and flees.

“Coward!”

I use dash to catch up and grab its tail. The boss scuttles. My feet dig into the ground as I bring it to a stop. Then I swing and I lift it into the air.

No running. Only death.

I bring it crashing back down. The earth under my feet trembles. I channel a ground pound into my fists as the monster scrambles. It swipes as I punch. Fist meets claw and the shockwave bursts forth. We both fly backwards. The monster skids to a stop, stunned.

Guns bark. Bullets pepper its body, hot droplets of lead arcing around it. Emily makes a move with her hands and the arrows all come crashing into the boss. The health bar over its head plunges into the red.

It hisses. Gets up. Tries to flee again. The rage boils. I plow into it with a final dash that depletes my mana and clamp my hands around its neck. We roll on the ground as my fingers dig into its flesh. The world is an angry ball of fur and blood. We come to a stop with me on top.

“Die!”

Its claws swipe. I lean in closer. They rake my back and I press down. The rage is deafening. The pinprick of light grows smaller.

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More screaming. The skunk tries to buck me off. My fingers draw blood, a fountain of red welling from its neck. It opens its mouth wide, a pit of needle sharp teeth. They snap around my face. I bite back and bones crunch. It squeals. I pull back and rip away its lower jaw.

The monster gurgles and thrashes, but it’s done. My fingers curl tighter, a flesh and blood guillotine, and I decapitate it.

Another notification flashes and vanishes.

Good, the rage cooes. We did good.

I roll off the monster and stop on my back, gasping for breath. The last bits of frenzy decay, and the rage retreats. The pain it held at bay rushes back into me all at once to fill the void. I stare, unmoving, at the bright sky above. Too much, it’s all too damn much. An ocean of pain and exhaustion washes over me, and I feel as if the entire world sits on my chest.

Too damn much, and I pray I’ll pass out.

But I don't. Once again, the system won't let me. It wants me here for the aftermath, it wants me to fester in the consequences. No notification appears to tell me that, but I can feel it in my broken bones. I can't just reap the power, I have to understand the gravity of it.

There's some more shouting, but the monsters are all dead. Emily appears, crashing to her knees next to me. She's crying, her normally pale face a bright shade of pink as tears stream down her cheeks.

Her hands hover over my body, only inches away, but she doesn't touch me. It's like she doesn't dare to, as if she'd be the final push to make me crumble.

Which feels about accurate.

Pops walks over as well, dragging Carter along. They talk, and Carter makes wild gestures, clearly displeased with what he's told. When they reach me, Pops pulls Emily away. Carter takes her place, and he says something to me as his hands start glowing.

I still can't hear worth a damn, but I read the word sorry on his lips. My head spins and my ears ring. I realize that’s the frantic beating of my own heart.

Without warning, Pops grabs my arms and holds them down. Derek does the same to my legs. Carter, his hands radiating heat, touches my chest.

I scream and convulse. Carter presses down harder. He moves his hands from one spot to the next. The pain is impossible. Unreal. A human can't — shouldn't — be able to feel this much pain. Every time I think it will plateau, yet more of it floods my body.

Pops looks down at me, his eyes pleading. He talks, but I can't hear. The ringing gets louder and louder. He shoves something into my mouth, a piece of wood, and I bite down on it.

Carter keeps burning, and I keep screaming. Please, I want to say. Please, give me just a second, just a moment. A short break so I won't go insane.

They keep burning and I keep screaming and there's no release. I can't breathe. I'm suffocating. Please, just a moment. I pray to pass out already, but I don't.

Carter stops and takes a step away. Derek and Pops go to flip me over, but Emily jumps in. She kicks Derek in the head and shoots an arrow at Pops that catches him in the shoulder.

Jessica and Clarissa barge in to subdue her. She struggles, but the two have her on the ground in moments, hands behind her back. They climb on top of her as Pops and Derek flip me over.

Carter gets to work on my back, but I can't take my eyes off Emily. She squirms like a woman possessed, kicking her feet and shooting her head backwards.

More pain surges through me. Jessica grabs Emily's hood, but she bucks again. The hood rips off. Emily looks at me and we lock eyes. I spit the wood out, take a deep breath, and focus.

“Em-mily. Calm…down,” I stutter a few words I myself can't hear. “They're…helping me.”

I know they are. I know what they're doing. I'm covered with deep gashes and cuts, bleeding to death. The healing can't keep up and we don't have a healer, so they cauterize what they can.

“Help…just…hurts sometimes,” I say.

She doesn’t seem convinced, but she calms down. I reach out to her, swallowing another scream. Jessica lets up enough for Emily to slip an arm out from the hold, and she reaches for me as well.

I take her hand into mine. Her fingers are so cold. I’m burning up like a furnace, but she’s freezing. How can she be this cold?

Carter keeps working down my back, and I squeeze Emily’s hand tighter. I focus on it, on her cold fingers locked with mine. The ocean of pain pours down on me, and her hand is the anchor keeping me steady.

I stand there and let it all happen to me. There’s nothing else I can do, I’m spent. Physically, mentally, emotionally, I’m drained to the last drop. I bury my face in the grass, grit my teeth, and let it happen to me. Emily squeezes my hand once in a while, as if to make sure I’m still alive, and I squeeze back.

The ordeal feels like it lasts a lifetime, but it can’t be more than a couple of minutes at most. When it’s done — finally, truly, really done, Pops and Derek let go of me. I turn my head to look at Emily, at her reddened face and tear stained cheeks. She squeezes my hand one last time and I notice how mangled her fingers are.

I did that. I hurt her, but she didn’t pull away.

Pops flips me over again and brings his face close to mine. He’s crying too, his tears falling onto my face.

“Jack?” He asks. I can hear him. Just barely, but I can hear him. “I’m sorry, we had to do it.”

I don’t say anything. Don’t have the strength to. I just close my eyes and nod.

The others all step back. Emily gets up the moment she can, and she’s by my side again in a flash. Pops looks at me, then at her, then back at me. All of a sudden, he looks every day his age. Too old. Too ragged. He takes a deep, raspy breath, and he speaks.

“We have to go. The monsters already breached the safe zone and the inner line is taking a beating. Can you stay here with Jack and keep him safe?”

Emily nods. Pops nods back. He pulls a water bottle and a can of something out of his inventory, tossing them to Emily.

“I’m staying too,” Jessica says.

“We really need you,” Pops says. “Your pets are—”

“I’m. Staying. Too,” Jessica repeats more forcefully.

Pops sighs. “Okay. Anyone else wanna stay?”

Everyone goes to raise their hands, but I don’t let them.

“Go,” I grumble. “I…we will be fine. Go save those people.”

They lower their heads, but they all turn to leave. Jessica’s remaining pets come in, and they all ride off. All except for Luna, who curls up on the ground next to me and starts licking my wounds.