The next day the party of four continued on to clear out the next floor which had stronger monsters then the ones before and there were more of them. They ran into lvl 8-9 Undead and a dozen or so Mana beasts inside classrooms that were lvl’s 12-14.
It seemed the more time passed the stronger these things got. Aiden wondered if there was a limit of some kind, like if he left an Undead in a classroom for a few months if it would reach lvl 100. It was a disquieting thought, one that he pushed to the back of his mind.
They found two more survivors both freshmen that were holed up in the library. James and Dean, Dean was a chosen at level 1. He tried fighting the Mana beasts in the room with his friend helping out, and they even managed to kill a few of them with a knife on the first day. However a few more spawned in forcing them to climb the bookshelves or they would have been overwhelmed. The book shelves were 8 feet tall and the beasts couldn’t get them, not that they didn’t try constantly.
Neither of them were able to sleep in the past 6 days, nor did they have much food, only a sandwich and 1 bottle of water and a carton of orange juice between them. With the beasts growing stronger every day any chance they had of making a break for it or taking out the beasts evaporated.
They were lucky to survive. When Aidens party found them they were barely hanging on to life, Victoria used her Healing Wind ability on both of them which helped a little, then they fed them what they had on them and gave them water to drink, while Dean told their tale.
They helped the pair back to what they started to call their ‘headquarters’ They sat them both on the floor and asked one of the women to look after them till they could regain their strength. They told the group of survivors an abridged version of their tale. Every one seemed mostly fine with them even sympathetic so they left to continue clearing the main building.
The third floor was the hardest by far, going so far that Aiden told Cassandra and Maggie to leave, but they managed to convince him that they could handle it. The reason for the difficulty was that this floor contained mainly Mana beasts with even two Elites among them.
It felt like there was a running battle going on in this building where people kept going higher with the beasts chasing them down and killing them all the way up to the third floor. Then when the Undead started to rise from the dead people on this floor the Mana beasts far outnumbered them and killed them all effortlessly gaining more levels. The Mana beasts here were all above lvl 15 with the two Elites at lvl 18.
They took almost 8 hours clearing out this floor, going as carefully as possible. In the last corridor where Aiden was taking on an Elite by himself, with Victoria behind him fighting three of the regular ones and Cassandra and Maggie firing from the doorway as support, another two survivors came out of one of the doors and started firing guns at the Elite.
Aiden noticed that none of the bullets even penetrated the things carapace. He checked quickly, and sure enough each shot was doing less then 15 damage. ‘Huh I’m stronger then a gun apparently’ he thought bemusedly, when one of the bullets whizzed by his ear distracting him from the fight however, he started to get annoyed.
“Hey can you stop shooting!? You're not hurting it much and you're just distracting me so please stop!” A few seconds later the shooting stopped and Aiden got back into the fight with full fervor. He rolled under a swipe of its claw getting grazed slightly in his unprotected upper arm taking 25 damage. Back on his feet he slashed deep into the things leg and rolled again dodging another swipe of the claw.
The thing was already down to half health and since this was the last corridor and probably the last enemy, Aiden didn’t hesitate and used all three of his skills. Battle Aura, Rush Aura, and Frost Wave simultaneous.
The frost wave hit taking out another chunk of the things health and slowing it down. Aiden then ran around it slashing at various extremities till the thing stopped moving. He looked back and noticed Victoria was still dealing with one of the smaller ones and she looked pretty cut up, so he ran up and helped finish it off.
Finally done with this floor Aiden let out a tired, relieved breath. Then he heard a shout of ‘Mom! Dad!’ ‘Cassie!’ It seemed that Cassandra found her parents based on the hugging and crying. Aiden checked to make sure Vicky was alright, then walked over to say hi.
“Cassandra what are you doing here! Why were you fighting these things! You should be safe hiding in the basement with your uncle!” The man said. “Uncle Ted is dead.” Cassandra replied with a hint of sadness. “What? Damn it those things got him? But why are you here?” Cassie seemed to shrink in on herself a little.
“No dad those things didn’t get him. One of the other men there killed him.” The father seemed to be getting angrier by the second it seemed. “What other men? What are you talking about?”
Aiden sighed and spoke up. “This really isn’t the time or place for this, we need to get you guys out of here. Is there anyone else here other then the two of you?” Cassie’s parents were both police officers apparently since they were both in uniform. They were also not Mana awakened. Aiden received two responses simultaneously. ‘There a few others’ and ‘Who are you’ from the woman (Samantha) and the man (Alex) respectively.
“Dad your being rude. This is Aiden, he and his girlfriend saved us yesterday.” Alex calmed down slightly but still looked troubled and angry. He came up to Aiden and asked “Why is my daughter here fighting these monsters! Explain!” “Dad shut up! You're being an idiot!” “Quiet sweetheart let daddy talk now.”
Aiden was starting to get slightly angry himself. It was a tiring and frustrating day and this man getting up in his face really irked him. Trying to calm down he replied. “Look. Like I said before this is not the time and place for this conversation, and if you don’t ease up out of my face we're going to have a problem.”
Alex’s features turned thunderous and he took a swing at Aiden. He caught the (to him) slow moving punch and squeezed, breaking bones and eliciting a pained yelp from the man. “Mom stop! Don’t shoot!” Aiden looked over at the woman who was pointing a gun at him, giving her a cold stare he said “You can try it if you want, it’s not like it's going to hurt me. Now put that thing away, calm your idiot husband down and wait here while I go talk to everyone else.” Aiden motioned to Victoria and Maggie who both nodded and followed him into the open room, which turned out to be another teachers lounge.
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He took a few calming breaths while he took a look around. Inside there were eight more people; four men, three women, and one kid. A boy probably 13 years old or so. One of the men was a chosen. A lvl 2 burly looking guy who Aiden recognized as one of the janitors he was friendly with.
He gave him a small wave and a relieved smile at finally seeing a familiar face that wasn’t half chewed off, or trying to to bite him and received a relieved nod in return. “Hey Bret got any smokes left?” Aiden asked him. He received a chuckle in response. “Sure and I might even give you one if you get me out of this place.”
Bret got up shakily and they clasped hands. “It’s good to see someone I know still alive. It’s not looking too great out there man. Out of the five hundred student's and faculty plus all the extra people that came here to take shelter we found around 50 alive so far, including your group here... Anyway what are you doing cooped up in here. A strong guy like you, I figured you would be out there killing these things.”
Bret shrugged “The cop guy wouldn’t let anyone leave, said it was ‘for our own safety’ damn idiot." “Yeah I’ve had the pleasure.” Aiden drawled, “You would think he would have tried to come and find his own daughter at least. Then he goes and tries to punch me, guy is lucky I only broke his hand.”
“Anyway, you think you can get these folks organized? We're going to get you guys someplace safe and get you fed and watered.” “Sure” Bret nodded and helped people to stand. They headed down five minutes later, stopping once in a while as some of the people were throwing up at the sight of all the gore. Cassandra came up to him when they were on the ground floor, holding the hand of the boy from the room.
“Hey, sorry about my dad. He’s not usually like that, he’s just stressed.” Aiden gave her a disbelieving look. She huffed and rolled her eyes “Ok fine so my dad is an asshole alright?” Aiden chuckled and nodded.
“So whose the kid, is he yours?” Cassandra rolled her eyes with a little smile. “No, this is my brother Charlie. Say hi Charlie.” “Hi” Aiden chuckled “Hey Charlie, bit of a crappy weak huh” He nodded shyly. “Well don’t worry, it's about to get a little better. For one, you wont have to sleep in the same room as 10 people anymore so the smell will improve somewhat.” Charlie laughed a little at that. Cassie gave him an appreciative smile, as did Victoria who was behind them.
Once they got outside Aiden waved everyone on to follow after Maggie and held back Samantha and Alex. He made sure Victoria was talking to Cassie so she wouldn’t notice. “Alright you two we need to talk.” Alex looked at him angrily holding his broken hand to his chest but was more subdued then before, Samantha just nodded hesitantly.
“First of all, sorry about the hand I’ll get Vicky to fix it up once she comes back. It’s been a long and exhausting day and your attitude didn’t help. Second of all you need to understand something. Your daughter right now is stronger then the both of you combined. If you treat her like a child and try and order her around, you’ll just alienate her and she wont listen to anything you say. I’m not sure if you know about the system since I know you don’t have it, but it can exponentially increase a person's strengths and abilities.”
“Because your daughter has been fighting monsters the last two days she is much much stronger then she was before. If you took a swing at her like you did at me she would be able to stop your punch just as easily as I did. Spend the night thinking about that before you say anything to her you might regret later.”
They both nodded Alex looking less angry but still frustrated and Samantha thoughtful. By this time Victoria came up to them. Aiden gave her a quick kiss and hug. “Vicky can you take Alex here by the steps and show him how healing magic works by fixing up his hand? Thank you.”
Victoria walked off with Alex but Aiden stopped Samantha from following them. “There’s more you need to know about your daughter. I didn’t want to mention it in front of your husband since he seems a bit unstable right now.” Samantha nodded, slightly wary. “Your daughter along with a bunch of other women and kids was being held prisoner by four men for the past five days.” Samantha gasped looking towards where her daughter last was.
“She said she was fine and the worst they did was grope her a little, but that’s a traumatic event in and of itself. What's worse is she watched other women being raped, and she feels guilty for not being able to do anything. You both being police officers probably makes it worse for her, do you understand?” Samantha nodded looking ready to cry and run after her daughter.
“Please don’t tell her I told you this. She needs someone to trust right now and she latched onto me for some reason, and she might see me telling you this as a betrayal. Comfort her like a mother should and ask what happened to her just don’t mention that I told you already."
"For what its worth she seems fine, or as fine as anyone can be in these circumstances. She’s a strong kid. And we're going to need people like her if we're going to survive in this new world. Especially since she is a chosen. Hell in a years time she would probably be strong enough to give a dragon a good fight.” Aiden chuckled and Samantha gave a watery one back.
“She’s my angel. When we got separated I was so worried about her. I wanted to go back downstairs but Alex wouldn’t let me. I’d almost given up hope of seeing her again. Then you came along and there she was looking ferocious and shooting arrows at the monsters, I almost didn’t recognize her. Thank you for saving us.” She said and then laughed.
“That’s kind of Ironic for me to say isn’t it, me being the one that’s supposed to be doing the saving. So much has changed... She’s going to continue to fight with you isn’t she.” Aiden looked pained. “It’s ok you don’t have to say it. I know. Please keep her safe out there. I’ll try and keep my husband in line. I’m sorry about him by the way. He’s not usually this bad, the loss of control has him acting out.”
“Its fine I think he’s learned his lesson, and if not I’ll sick Cassie on him.” The both shared a laugh at that. “Come on, lets get you guys situated. Victoria already finished healing your husband.” Samantha nodded and they headed towards the steps. “You guys make a cute couple. Is it a recent thing?” she asked as they were walking “Yeah just yesterday if you can believe it. End of the world romance at its finest.” They all met up at the stairs and headed inside.
Thirty minutes later Aiden was talking to Maggie and Cassie leaning against a wall while enjoying his first cigarette in over two weeks that he bummed off Bret. “You guys are done for today, Victoria and I will be heading to the fourth floor. From what we know there’s a lvl 20 Elite monster there that’s supposed to be really dangerous, so we’ll be going alone. Thanks for your help the last two day’s. And Cassie stop pouting it wont work. Go spend time with your family.”
Once the two walked off Aiden and Victoria headed back towards the hell hole of gore that was the main building. He really wished all the blood and guts would dissapear along with the bodies, it would make things more bearable. Aiden looked up to see if Alicia or Benjamin were watching. Benjamin was there so Aiden let him know they were coming up to the fourth floor.
Benjamin turned and walked over to Alicia. “Their on their way up.” Alicia turned around with an apprehensive expression and said “Lets go help out, we should be strong enough to at least distract the thing a little.” Benjamin sighed. “Your right, but let's not rush in there unless we have to, I don’t want to get in their way and mess this up.” They each picked up the makeshift spears they made in the wood workshop and Benjamin picked up a shield he fashioned with a desk face and some rope. They let everyone in the room know what was happening and headed out.