Mathew

"What's with the shades," Ben asked.

"I hope the new addition can protect me from lasers," it's only half a lie, Mathew thought.

Ben raised his hand over the table and a diagram of the complex spread out in wireframe.

"Inside the complex, there are anywhere from dozens to maybe one hundred bio-forms. Some Alphas are able to recall their minions when they are under attack. So we have to include that in our plan. Over here-" Ben highlighted the quarter of the compound across from the residential section. "is the warehouse area. The materials they used for research will be closer to the compound's center. I'd expect poison to fall into that category but we'll have to look to know for sure."

Dozens to a hundred, with that strong Knight monster among them and a time limit. Mathew didn't like those odds.

"How much time do we have?" Mathew asked.

"Until sundown," Grant answered. "We have plenty of time. Somewhere around ten monsters an hour should clean them out with time leftover. With our depleted resources, I'm not sure we can accomplish that. But I also don't propose we fight them any more than we have to. I postulate that the weakness inherent in the Alpha is passed down to the underlings. If we can find a suitable killswitch poison in the warehouse, we may also be able to destroy the bio-forms. In fact, using the minions as test subjects could help us identify an effective killswitch solution."

Mathew nodded. So they did have the means to end the local Alpha.

"I'm not exactly the cloak and daggers sort. What do you want me to do?" Mathew asked.

"Honestly, I'd like to use you as either a distraction so we can better search the warehouse or as bait so we can mass poison the lot of them," Grant said. "Both would be better but that would be difficult to coordinate well, wouldn't it. Plus, with your lack of stealth, it'd be serious trouble to get from one place to another."

"Huh, I kinda see the problem with the whole survival thing." Mathew glowered. "You do realize that after we find the secret to mass survival, no one will be disposable anymore?"

Grant paused. "Regardless, we need an effective plan to get there."

"Y'all have snooped around these buildings a bit any of 'em we can write off as a loss?" Amber asked.

"Maybe. Why do you ask?" Grant responded.

"Just that we could bait them in and shut the door behind 'em. We are trusting the defensive magic to hold them back right now. Why not trust it to hold them in?" Amber pointed out.

"The cafeteria," Ben offered. "Big front doors, open spaces for them to stack up in, side exits to escape through, it's also unnecessary for us. Unlikely to hold much value."

Grant sighed. "Very well, a unified approach is better than the best fragmented approach. Any volunteers for the position of bait?"

"I'll do it," Mathew said.

"Excellent, we'll also need someone to shut the door behind the flow of monsters." Grant pointed to the glowing wireframe of said building.

"I'll do it," Ben said. "From the roof, I can probably get my net down to the door. We need someone who can stay hidden."

"Wonderful, now we just need to get from here to there safely." Grant and Ben started talking about paths.

"Not a whole lot for me to do, huh?" Amber asked.

"No dear, not if everything goes well," Grant said. "But you could post up in a good position to respond in the event things don't go as planned."

They worked over the plan for about half an hour. Limitations like moving quickly to avoid being surrounded trimmed down all the more creative options like going roof to roof. Some monsters could ascend the heights, while others could lob attacks from range.

Mathew focused on his part. Following Grant through a maze of buildings until arriving at the cafeteria. Then survive long enough to draw a bunch of monsters in. Finally, make an opening and get out the door.

It was on Ben to ensure Amber was safe from here to her high tower. After a gut check, Mathew let it go. This was something he could trust them with. Honestly, he wanted to get to it already.

Eventually, they'd covered everything worth planning.

"Spend what you can and let's move out." Grant commanded.

[Digestion ~perk tier two

Parasitic touch - Consume the reserves of another creature by physical contact

Liquid hunger - Compress digestion points into drops of liquid hunger

~perk tier three

Living hunger - Willpower component of magic in enhanced]

Given his current opponents would have a weakness to liquids, he selected liquid hunger.

Other than that he found his progress to have an outsized growth for the few hours of travel.

[Mathew Gains Starling ~ Fate Breaker

Otherworld Human/Carrion Beast Hybrid

Carrion Solider 22% to level 4

Alpha ascension 12%]

Damn! At this rate, I'll complete ascension within a day.

Amber gave Mathew a hug. "Be careful. It'd be a shame for you to kick the bucket before I can make fun of you to a batch of newcomers."

"I'll try not to disappoint," Mathew said.

Following Grant through sub-lab one, he got the feeling Grant was pretty familiar with the place. How much time had Grant been able to spend here? How many did he sacrifice for more time to explore?

Shaking off the unhelpful thoughts, Mathew jogged behind the flapping hide of the mountain man's garb. As they moved down the tunnels, he caught snippets of other red tinted words written in the air.

"Project bunker failed."

"Project duck and run untenable."

Behind each banner was a wall of smaller text with codenames for contributors. Mathew wished he had time to read and analyze what looked to be communications from an underground organization. Honestly, knowing why this place failed was pretty high on his list.

If it fell apart from internal factions, that was all the better to the viability of their own long term plans... but if they failed for a reason that couldn't be avoided, then what they could gain here would be of limited value anyway.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Arriving at the first door, Grant paused. "Not here."

Judging by the information he received from his mental attack skill, he'd have to agree. A group of monsters was waiting in ambush. Backtracking the main hallway and finding another exit on the right side of the building, Mathew got a sinking feeling. This one also had several monsters. Fewer than the last door but likely enough to slow them down. Moving slow would let other catch up.

Grant paused at the end of the hallway.

"Give me a second," Mathew said.

Reaching out with his mental attack skill, he tried to utilize it in a new way. The ability to compel the will of another. There were worlds of possibilities here, that was really why Mathew shied away from it. But he wasn't stubborn enough to not use it against an enemy he'd willingly kill.

So he crafted a thought. From his memory of their hunting sounds. That alerting meep sound, mixing this with the location of the other side of the building. Inserting the thought into the simple mess of a mind the salamander possessed wasn't too tricky. The skill guided what he was uncertain about.

MEEP

The call was taken up and their door cleared of monsters.

"Shall we?" Mathew asked.

"Yes," Grant said. "When there is time, we need to share more about our capabilities."

"If you were trustworthy, I already would have," Mathew replied.

Leaving without another word, Mathew followed Grant's lead. Dodging down the alley, he picked up another group of monsters from the first door they'd tried, looking right at him.

Fuck me! He'd hoped to at least be a tiny bit sneaky.

Grant stopped at the door on the next building and worked the silver key to gain entry. Watching a wall of glass monsters descend on them made him start thinking about his options. Climb the wall, maybe. No outrunning the Field Cat bio-forms.

Drawing Ripper effortlessly from its holder, Mathew felt the influence of the Alpha spectrum spreading through his veins. He pressed down the new part of him that wanted to drive these monsters from his space. Grant slid through the door and Mathew broke free from his conflict and followed. Shutting the door securely behind himself, a muted banging started up.

"That was the hard one," Grant said. "The rest of our skulking around should be clear."

He led the way again. This building had some workrooms off to the side of the hallways. From woodworking tables of drills and saws to forges and anvils with hammers hanging on leather loops, room after room showed signs of specialized crafts. This only took them a matter of months. How many people had been here before these halls became empty shells?

The next alley they slipped through didn't have any apparent threats. That almost made Mathew worry more. Entering the next building he got the distinct impression of a barn. Stalls, troughs and a few cages on the outside of the oversized hallway. One open door on the inside of the hallway looked like a veterinarians exam room.

A few more buildings down, then they were across a main road from the cafeteria.

"Are you ready, Mathew?" Grant asked, voice dripping with genuine concern. Mathew could feel it. Digging his skill deeper underneath, it was concern about the mission. Figures.

"Yeah, let's go," Mathew growled.

With a nod, Grant breached the door. Like a blurring rocket, he displayed the capability of high agility, and a window into how much he usually held back.

Mathew raced after him. Bone feet clinking across the stone road, he felt like he was ringing a dinner bell. Going to the cafeteria, he kind of was.

The door opened quickly, with Grant only touching the door with his key. He had it propped open with a wooden wedge before Mathew even caught up.

Racing through the door, Mathew didn't stop. Scanning the area it fell within his expectations. Tables, chairs, and a lunch line counter for serving food. Vaulting the counter, he kept his balance with sure foot. Looking around the kitchen he found himself in, he zeroed in on the first target. A row of sinks. Rushing to them, they showed the first sign of life he'd seen so far.

Dirty dishes of rotten vegetables and rancid meat. Long past their awful stink phase, they were almost simple dirt now. Unlike Harper's magical plumbing, these silver pipes and taps were turned open rather than willed into operation. All the better for what he had in mind. Throwing all the faucets open, the sound of flowing water took over the space. Laying a cookie sheet across each sink, the water began to flood the floor.

Quickstepping to the back of the kitchen, Mathew opened the heavy metal latch to the freezer door. Inside was just what he'd hoped for. Cuts of meat wrapped into square bricks of wax paper and bins of vegetables stacking shelves to the back of the room.

In the frozen cold with an excess of food, Mathew tried something he'd theory crafted. Channeling digestion magic through Ripper, he began to consume. Then conducting a trickle of power into conversion, he enhanced the generation of digestion magic to match the usage.

Grant was hooting and hollering inside the door to the cafeteria behind a poor barricade he'd placed in front of the open door. Clever old man. Make them build up in numbers before breaking in. Mathew thanked his creativity as he worked to convert all the foodstuff into his own reserves.

Heat was building up within him faster than the chill of the freezer could counter it. When his chest became uncomfortable, he stopped.

No matter how much a boon this might be, he had to stay ready for what would come next. Including the very real possibility of monsters trying to cook him alive.

Slamming noises started up from the front of the building. Regretfully Mathew backed out and shut the door behind himself. Turning to face the threat, he double checked his exit. Grant was propping open a door with a wedge.

"Tell me when!" Mathew yelled to Grant.

Grant gave him a thumbs up before becoming invisible.

Hold his ground, that was what Mathew had to do right now. Hold his ground without getting trapped. The first of the beasts broke through the wooden tables. A lumbering great ape of glass. Wielding his mental attack skill and conditional ambush, Mathew prepared Ripper for a killer strike.

Predicting the initial engagement of a beast with such a limited mind was blessedly easy. The power of his ambush weaved itself into his whole body and for the first time, into Ripper itself. Driving forward through the water, a spray of liquid kicked up obscured his attack.

Making contact, the force reverberated through his bones. Ripper tore into the great ape's face and out the back of its monstrous glass skull. Its mass plowed into him but he gave ground, sliding back across the kitchen. One down six more pairs of eyes centered on him.

Not enough. They needed to trap more for this to work.

A surge of frustration grasped his heart before a vicious acceptance took over. Glaring at the cats and salamanders, the Alpha energy that had infused him began to awaken.

Cats, with their grace and speed, made it to him first. Defiant of their sword arms, Mathew ignored them to instead focus on crippling blows of his own. His strength was more than 60% stronger than the first time he'd tried his power against the glass flesh. This time he wasn't fighting defensively either. The results spoke for themselves.

A sword arm crashed into his arms and only empowered the swing that removed the cat's front leg. Following up with a stab into the cat's skull, Mathew was already moving on to the conditional ambush of the next attacker.

Through his view from the mind of the Field Cat bio-form, Mathew watched himself tear Ripper from the head of the first cat with supernatural speed. Skewering the pouncing form of the second, Mathew felt his Alpha energy overflowing.

Usurping the authority of the local Alpha accelerated the draw of power into himself. As the relatively slow salamanders encroached into his cafeteria, more victims funneled through the door. Dozens now with spiders climbing over top the rest to get in faster.

Channeling his magic into condensed liquid drops, the Carrion Soldier infused the liquid ball with red energy. Driven by instinct, he burned reserves to grow it larger. Lacing his willpower into the ball of liquid he channeled tension into the formation. Like a tense muscle or pulling back on a branch until the wood creaked with strain.

Releasing the attack, Mathew felt his sense of self returning for a moment. The liquid hunger split into smaller balls that struck in precise attacks against the front line. As he rushed to the propped open door, Mathew watched the effect. Dark lines rushed out from the point of contact before blooming into black clouds captured within the falling monsters.

A surge of Alpha energy almost drove Mathew to turn and fight. Grant's beckoning gesture helped him remember his purpose. These minions were not his target, they were not his goal.

Breaking across the threshold, Grant slammed the door.

"How many did we get?" Mathew snarled. Taking a breath he calmed down. "Sorry, how many did we capture?"

"Enough. We never did have a starting count and I don't see any more on the main road. Likely only the collection sniffing around sub lab one are left." Grant clapped him on the back.

Support? The animal side of his brain asked, at being clapped on the back. Yeah, support.

He needed to get himself together. After 4-2 is resolved, Mathew thought. Just hold out until then. When no one needs me, then I can fall apart.

Mathew looked up at the sniper post, speaking of people who needed him. He spotted her backlit by the open window behind them. Amber waved. Mathew waved back.

As he watched, a glass body with an emerald cloak pulled itself atop the lookout tower Amber was in.