"Huh," John scratched his head, staring at the old wooden clock. It was twenty-eight minutes past seven, leaving him only a little bit of time before the next attack.

Now, sitting on his favorite comfortable couch, he was able to calm down and think more clearly but back there, he was very close to telling him off and leaving. He never was good with confrontations, always preferring simple or logical arguments over perceived slights and veiled problems. That was the reason his last relationship fell apart two years ago, and ever since then, he kept telling himself that he wasn't ready to commit again and rather stayed on his own.

He wasn't blindly thinking that the fault lay solely on everyone else, but on the other hand, he couldn't just fit in, try his best, and be a happy and healthy member of the new budding community.

Perhaps… Yeah, after finishing the bounties up north, I will explore the northern part of the city.

John was about to pull his favorite book out of the hotel's library but remembered that he wanted to look through his Apocalypse deck first and see what cards he was actually using. After two days of constant action, he kept adding anything that fit, and by now created a complicated mix of cards in the shape of a solar system.

Apocalypse deck!

[John Miles

Increased Focus

Identify monster

Disease and poison resistance

Unbreakable mind

Nightstalker's awareness]

[Animate blessed stiletto

Increase melee penetration

Increased minion movement speed

Increased minion combat distance]

[Storm wisp

Increased minion attack speed]

[Wave of Force

Cooldown reduction]

Seeing his deck almost halfway filled up with useful cards brought a small smile on his face, and a bout of eagerness to test the changes as soon as possible. Unfortunately, having nothing better to do, he decided to spend the remaining time reading the descriptions of his cards and admiring the alien artistic style of the pictures vaguely representative of the bonuses each would provide.

[Attention Valiant's stand!

The third wave of relentless assault is about to begin. You have ten minutes to prepare.]

Finally!

Strapping the shield on his back and the club onto his belt, he made his way to the top of the wall and waited for the siege to begin.

"John," the deep voice of Marcus spoke up from behind, making him turn and face the massive man as he was slowly coming up the stairs leading up to his position. "I've taken your advice to the council, and managed to convince them to let you fight the Deathfiend with us."

Let me fight it… huh.

It wouldn't usually matter, but when his trust was already frayed thin, these little things like wordplays made him annoyed, and this time wasn't any different.

"I could… but I have the bounty on Rothounds, and I am leaving the moment the siege ends. If you have a problem with that…" John left the rest unsaid, but his tone and expression made the meaning clear, making Marcus frown.

"We are not your enemies, John. I can…"

"I know, but you are not my friends either and I am done letting you make a fool out of me. Besides, the siege is about to begin." John cut him off and finished his speech with a nod toward the slowly forming crack at the other end of the street.

Cursing, Marcus ran down, forced to join his fellow defenders and leave John to do his part from up there.

By now, the Restless Assault was more of a stream of free currency than a regular challenge, but one thing immediately stood out. His dagger was killing the zombies in just under five seconds, showing a significant increase in potency, and making him think about what might have been the cause as he tore through their ranks..

The flow thinned out after the usual twenty minutes, and the defenders immediately opened up the line, letting the artillery team through and into the forward positions.

I bet they practiced this shit between the waves, John joked as he watched them form into a formation and fire the first volley.

The pack ate the incoming barrage just as they passed through, making them abandon any strategy and blindly rush forward, and that was the perfect moment to start the bounty.

[Wiping out the packs

Rothound: 0/30

Rothound Alpha: 0/1

Killing blows: 0/6

Time remaining 02:59:57]

The game is on, he thought while getting ready himself. His last-minute change to his previous plan was a full focus on the Alpha, and hope of his increased damage netting him the finishing blow.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Out of the thirteen Rothounds, seven got critically wounded—or worse—and luck was on his side because the second to last blow was fired in a wrong arc, making it impact with a two-second delay right next to the pack's leader. The Ability was probably of an earth affinity, because the boulder hit the pavement with a bang and exploded in shrapnel, peppering the beast with wickedly sharp fragments, making it yelp and veer off course.

Its left side was now riddled with bits of stones sticking out of its mangy fur, and some of the shrapnel must have hit something vital. It clawed it's way forward, dragging its crippled hind leg behind it.

This is my chance!

The monster entered the stiletto's range three seconds later and John immediately willed it to deliver three stabs into the neck followed by an attempt to carve out both of its eyes.

Last time, even in the middle of battle, the Alpha was able to react and earn only small scrapes on its tough skull, but the heavy wounds and its unsteady legs made it an easier target. The first eye was cut almost immediately, and after another couple of seconds, the beast was panicking in the middle of the street under the unrelenting assault of the long-range strikes from the defenders and with a shining golden stiletto lodged deep into its eye socket.

"C'mon, be mine." John kept mumbling as he watched it struggle thirty meters away from the line of defenders. The remaining Rothounds were already all killed off, but the close-combat fighters were reluctant to break their formation and rush into the rain of Abilities from all the strikers manning the wall.

C'mon! He screamed in his mind, watching the beast slowly collapse in the pool of its tar-like blood, and something deep inside him clicked.

The following events happened so fast, anyone else would have missed the bigger picture, but John—with his heightened senses—was able to observe each link of the strange chain.

The first was a collision of an arrow with a heavy steel object flying from one of the defenders, resulting in a slight shift in its trajectory. Next, seemingly with no connection to the first, a bolt of purple lightning slammed into the Alpha's right foreleg leg, making it spasm and push itself half a meter to the side, resulting in four other Abilities missing. Thirdly, the Alpha slipped on the blood-soaked pavement, leading to a faster fall at just the right time to avoid a bright beam of angry-red light, and finally, a loud explosion to its right made it jerk its head away and into a perfect angle for the steel object to hit the handle of the stiletto and drive it into the alpha's skull like a nail into a wall.

[Wiping out the packs

Rothound: 2/30

Rothound Alpha: 1/1

Killing blows: 1/6

Time remaining 02:59:21]

Yes! Wait, what the fuck just happened?

His celebration was cut short by a weak bout of weakness spreading through his body, but leaving just as fast, followed by a dull blue ball of ash hitting the center of his chest.

"Oh fuck, my stiletto!" It was stuck in the Alpha's skull, and he had only a minute to lodge it out before the Deathfiend made its entrance.

Pushing through the line was easier than expected, and he was free and running to the corpse after only a few angry shouts behind him and inspecting the situation it was currently in.

The stiletto was… stuck. Pulling it out was beyond even his augmented strength, and as the time slowly ticked by, he abandoned that strategy, pulled out his club, and started smashing the Alpha's head with full over-head swings.

"What are you doing?" Someone asked behind him, but there was no time to explain and he kept beating it into the ground until finally, he heard a loud crack of splintering bones.

The golden stiletto—now freed—was covered in black blood and rotten brain juice, but otherwise in perfect condition, making him sigh in relief and get ready with seven seconds to spare.

The telltale pulse announced the last arrival, but John was in position and ready to meet its challenge head-on and the resulting fight turned out very anticlimactic. His increased damage combined with the early start turned the whole thing into a joke, because after the freezing wave and the first seconds of the golden chains, the monster already fell apart, giving him the typical drop of two yellow piles and leaving the majority of defenders with an extremely low amount of contribution.

[Congratulations! You have successfully survived the third wave of the Restless assault.

Points:

Zombie: 1

Rothound: 25

Rothound Alpha: 100

Deathfiend fatebreaker: 1250

Your contributions:

Zombie: 178.86

Rothound: 0.08

Rothound Alpha: 0.31

Deathfiend fatebreaker: 0.91

Total points 1349.36]

Because he never retreated back behind the formation, he was able to immediately move out and be gone before the cheers even died down, leaving the Valiant's stand for the unforeseen future behind him.

Rounding up the corner, he was met with a sight of a street overrun with the undead coupled with Rothounds patrolling around the intersections, and to save time he simply rushed through.

Keeping to the left sidewalk, he was able to avoid some of the zombies while leaving the rest to his two minions, and less than a minute later was already closing in on the first pack.

"A perfect opportunity to test your power up," he pointed at his wisp and willed both minions to engage.

The bolt of lightning took the first hound into the snout, making it whine and angrily sniff around, but as the stiletto joined the fray, the battle quickly ended in a crushing defeat to the Rothounds.

"Hah, a crushing defeat," John chuckled while cleaning his club from the new bits of brain matter. The wisp now fired roughly once every nine seconds, but the paralyzing electricity was noticeably more powerful, letting him to safely engage in melee combat and bash their skulls.

His new body was also a true marvel though, and he was only now beginning to get used to all the changes. By his estimate, his strength roughly doubled, his reactions got significantly faster, and most importantly, his weight increased by a noticeable margin as well, giving him an additional heft to every swing of the club he made. This additional heft was the difference between having to slowly beat them to death and having enough momentum to crack their skull open in a few powerful hits.

The following streets passed in a blur and the only time he actually turned around and picked a different path was when he ran into a pack of five and before he knew it, he was already standing near the northern bridge and observing the zone guardian blocking the way across.

Huh, hard to believe that it's been only two days.

Standing there, he was actually getting giddy with excitement. The bullshit politics and mind games he was forced to play at the Valiant's stand were wearing his patience thin, and funnily enough, he'd rather face this abomination than spend another minute listening to the fucking council meeting.

Be patient and focused, he chided himself and got moving. He was still at the time limit and the easily accessible packs were up north.

Another twenty minutes later, he was leaving the last blocks of houses behind and looking at the endless hordes of undead in front of him.

All the zombies he cleared yesterday were now respawned, offering a near-endless source of ash.

[Wiping out the packs

Rothound: 13/30

Rothound Alpha: 1/1

Killing blows: 12/6

Time remaining 02:07:54]

"Ready or not, here I come!" He shouted out and smacked his club on the front of his shield for emphasis as he rushed in.