Hiro kept his katana at the ready. Blood trickled down his arm, the sting a result of being struck by the bat amalgamation’s razor sharp wing. Across from him, Juan gripped his baseball bat tightly, the big man trembling and poised to attack Hiro.
“You don’t want to do this,” Hiro said. I don’t want to do this, he thought, certain that he would be able to do more damage than Juan, who was enraged at the moment, not seeing straight.
“She’s fucking dead. Mi hermana…” Juan choked back a sob. “Muerta.”
“It wasn’t me, man. It was—”
“The pinche Doom System. I know. But you could have… you could have…” Juan lowered his bat and let out a deep, painful sigh. “Argh!” He kicked the amalgamation’s body, which was already starting to fade away as its soul essence poured into Juan’s body. Juan buried his head in his hand. “I’m sorry. Fuck. I’m sorry, man.”
“I can get Marcello and bring him here. Would that help?”
“No. I need to explain this all to him, especially before he sees her.” Juan dropped to the ground and cradled his dead sister in his arms. “Fuck, Carmen,” he sobbed, “why did it have to be you?”
Hiro stood there dumbfounded. Death was nothing new to him by this point, but he could feel Juan’s utter despair. While he didn’t have a sibling, he had a few close friends growing up that he counted as siblings. Juan’s sister didn’t deserve this. None of them did.
Juan sniffed, let out a deep breath, wiped his face, and stood with Carmen in his arms. He gently placed her on the sleeping mat. Once he grabbed his bat, Juan joined Hiro at the front of the room.
“Let’s get Marcello. I’ll tell him about our sister. And one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“When the gate opens, you can count me there, me and Marcello. I owe you.” He choked back a sudden sob. “I owe you twice for nearly attacking you. Jokes on me because you have a sword, but I owe you. Sorry for that.”
Hiro hesitated. I’m only supposed to bring one person to the gate when it opens. But maybe I can find other people and form a group, and people can choose partners for whatever lies ahead. I’m supposed to meet Valeria about it tomorrow. We’ll figure something out. Maybe she hasn’t found someone yet…
“Where is your gate?” Juan grunted.
“Not far from the Financial District.” Hiro gave him the general location, never revealing the parking garage.
“Yeah? I know where that is. My brother and me, we’ll be there.” Juan looked back at his sister one last time. “Let’s get Marcello. And like I said, let me break the news to him.”
****
Hiro didn’t watch. As soon as he delivered Marcello to his older brother, he took to the roofs, once again aimed at the food bank. He crouched on a rooftop several blocks away and pulled out his phone to check the timer:
02:14:17:39
02:14:17:38
02:14:17:37
Fuck. Hiro squinted up at the gray clouds above and was transported back to Japan, the time he’d spent there with his mother and grandfather. Something his grandfather said came to him, a phrase that had guided him over the last year to the point that Hiro had it poorly tattooed in Japanese on his wrist.
灰色の雲、
霧の中の灯り—
慎重に進め。
Gray clouds hover low. Trust, a lantern in the fog. Choose your path with care. It wasn’t meant to be a haiku, but Hiro liked to translate it this way.
He shook his head, suppressing any memories that were dancing on the periphery of his mind. Both his father and his grandfather had inspired him in their own ways when the gates appeared. But now, Hiro was questioning all of it.
If Hiro had just taken a superpower back when the gates first opened, things would be over now. He wouldn’t have just watched a raging bat amalgamation kill a helpless woman in a wheelchair.
Hiro was alive, but at what cost?
Hiro shifted his backpack around and removed the gauze Carmen had given him. Do I just wrap it around my arm? He examined the wound that the creature had given him, which cut across his left tricep. It stung every time he moved his arm.
There were no instructions provided to him, and it made sense to wrap the gauze around his arm because he had limited quantities. It was magical, enchanted, whatever any of this meant. He wanted to preserve it.
Hiro flexed his arm, wincing at the pain of the fresh wound. Blood had trickled down past his elbow, a trail of it reaching the palm of his hand.
Let’s just try a little.
He started with a small swath of the gauze. Using a bit of his katana, he cut a piece long enough to cover the wound. Hiro placed it over the gash and instantly felt a tingling sensation.
The piece of gauze vanished and Hiro’s wound healed.
“Amazing.” he touched his arm again. Not even a scar.
He thought about relaxing on the roof or just a bit longer and gathering his wits, but decided to move on toward the food bank, out of curiosity. He had found another survivor, but he still wanted to see what happened to the food bank.
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Hiro spotted a steeple ahead. He landed on a building near a church and peered down to the courtyard, assuming that someone might be using the place as a refuge.
What he saw instead was the stone statue of a female religious figure standing outside, the priestess with a pillar-sized sword resting across her shoulders. She wore something that looked like the clothing a priest would wear during mass, the robes cast over angled armor with sharp edges.
A red halo traced around her head.
His phone buzzed.
“How do I know if it has a Zone of Influence?”
“She definitely has one of those types.” Even without the red halo, the priestess was a giant, easily twice Hiro’s height with a stone sword that could crush him.
The mention of Soul Essence reminded him to check how much he needed before he reached the next level.
Soul Essence (SE): 9
[1 SE to next level.]
Just one more…
Hiro considered his options. He knew that his katana could cut through metal. He had already experienced that in the battle against the bronze girl. Would it work the same way for stone? Perhaps, but he would need to test it somewhere else. And to know that he would be stuck in a fight against an enemy of that size, without the ability to shift to his lupine form, would be risky.
Maybe it is best to find another monster to kill, reach the next level, and come back.
Hiro was just turning away, with plans of jumping to the next rooftop and continuing on, when a person landed in front of him.
She was an older woman in a yellow raincoat with a red umbrella at her side. Because of the hood of her raincoat, he couldn’t quite make out her face, but he did see the wrinkles near her lips, the way that she was hunched over.
She had to be in her sixties.
“I’m not the main character,” Hiro whispered to whom he assumed was a Survivor, just in case the priestess Sentry in the courtyard below could actually hear them.
A smile traced across the woman’s face. “That’s too bad for you. I am the main character.”
She opened her red umbrella, and with it came a sudden barrage of blades.
Hiro jumped back to avoid them. He tripped over the edge of the roof and fell over the side, where he hit the ground, and bounced into the courtyard of the church.
The Sentry turned toward him and brought her blade to the ready as a red dome spread over the two, trapping Hiro inside.
Glancing back, Hiro was able to see the woman in the yellow raincoat beyond. It had been her ploy all along.
Hiro was now stuck in the Sentry’s Zone of Influence.
****
Instinct kicked in.
Hiro triggered {Bounce} to test launch himself out of the Sentry’s Zone of Influence, which only resulted in him receiving a jolt when his head hit the top of the red barrier.
Fuck, not going to work!
He landed at the edge and grimaced.
The priestess statue charged forward and brought her sword down, the huge blade cracking into the pavement.
Bouncing left, Hiro collided with the domed barrier and received another jolt.
He dodged the priestess Sentry’s next attack, and noticed something in the process. It took the Sentry all of thirty seconds to lift her huge blade and slam it back down. She didn’t seem to have the same awareness as the horned tigers, and while she presented a formidable opponent, her movements were starting to make sense to him.
Lift blade, slam it down. I need to break her balance!
The first thing to test would be how sharp his blade was compared to hers. Will it cut through her outer form like it did with the bronze statue?
Hiro dodged her next strike and caught a glimpse of the woman in the raincoat still watching him. “Bitch,” he whispered as he tested {Blade Whirlwind} on the priestess’s weapon.
His attack landed, but it didn’t cut through her massive stone blade. Once he bound out of the way, this time avoiding the jolt from the Zone of Influence, Hiro ttried his katana again on the Sentry’s backside.
Success!
The Sentry staggered forward.
Hiro rushed forward to deliver another strike. The priestess whirled around and swept her blade at him.
He jumped over her enormous weapon and managed to nick her with his blade. Much to his delight, his attack landed, the tip of his katana drawing a wound that cut through her stone robes and deep into the rock-hard flesh of her arm.
The priestess Sentry came down hard with a double-footed stomp that sent a shockwave toward Hiro. The shockwave forced him onto his back.
Whumpf!
Her shadow moved over Hiro.
He rolled left as the priestess brought her blade down, sending bits of gravel into the air.
Let’s try this! Hiro jumped up and struck the barrier trapping him in the fight. Rather than drop back to the ground, his trajectory sent him right into the towering Sentry.
He slammed into her before she could bat him down with her sword. “Oof!”
Now bent over her shoulder, still holding his katana, Hiro put everything he had into scrambling to the left. It was a one-in-a-million shot, yet his position allowed him to drive his blade into the side of her head.
She flung him off her shoulder with her spare hand.
Wham!
Hiro struck the barrier and immediately hit the ground. He spit blood, and got to his feet, barely noticing the scrapes now on his face and arms.
He expected the priestess to come for him again. Instead, Hiro paused as the Sentry staggered for a moment, his katana jutting out of the side of her head. She made one more attempt to strike him, but her attempt fell short.
[A Sentry has fallen.]
The Sentry gracefully took a knee and lowered her head, her body still.
Hiro hadn’t put much thought into how he would actually kill her, but seeing her now, it was clear that a blade to the head would do the trick. Will the other Sentries be like this?
Level up!
You have new followers!
Soul Essence poured into him as Hiro received his first level, all of which he ignored.
He glanced back to the rooftop.
The lady in the yellow raincoat was gone.
Or is she? Hiro was certain that she would attack him with her weird red umbrella, yet the woman was nowhere to be found. “Fuck,” he whispered as the red dome started to fizzle away.
He turned back to the priestess, all but expecting her to vanish like his other opponents.
Yet she remained.
This reminded him of the bull and girl statue he had first squared off against, which never disappeared. Were they Sentries too? It would make sense…
Hiro approached the statue and retrieved his katana. It came out smoothly. He was just stepping away, blade still drawn, when his phone buzzed.
After scanning the rooftop again to make sure the lady wasn’t there, Hiro checked his phone to find a message from his Companion.
“Sure,” Hiro said, still looking around.
“Do what?”
“Loot?” Hiro looked at the priestess’s gigantic blade, easily the length of a canoe. The sword was so disproportionately large that it seemed to mock the very concept of a hand-held weapon. “How the hell am I supposed to lift that thing?”