How would one expect a horde of furious trolls to sound like?

Well, my answer would surely as hell not be like a bunch of hoarse mating turtles that tried to over shout each other. Heavy breathing and furious smashing of keyboard buttons was not the correct answer by the way.

A single man moved flawlessly through the open streets. His movements smooth and fluid and his face relaxed. One would almost forget looking at him those dangerous magical beasts chasing only few short meters behind him.

Padres long white beard and hair fluttered behind him. He even managed to somehow not get it all fly in his face.

Only few steps behind him, a gut wrenching sight of those massive gray hairy monsters storm towards him. Every time one of them stretched his enormous three fingered hand out to get him, it would always miss by only a bit.

The old man ran away from them but he always kept as close as possible so that those 15 would not get too far behind. They needed to not get lost but follow him exactly, which might sound insane to most but was actually suggested by him himself.

All of this, like I told before with a casual smile on his face. He made it look so very easy, but I knew for a fact that a single mistake would mean your immediate death.

I guess the saying is true. That if true masters do something right, it will always look easy and nonchalant. No, not a master at the art of running away, but a master with his own body. With the control and precision to make everything look like a martial art.

Those massive bags of muscles and fat chased him, their simple egos threatened by him stepping so easily and without any fear into their home. One of the gray haired beasts flung its body forwards and opened its enormous mouth as it jumped with all of its power from the ground and flew towards him.

Padre of course had no chance to see that, his eyes directed in front of him this would normally mean his end. But I came to understand that he is not exactly normal not long ago.

Its rotten and smelling mouth widely opened, it was about to bite his head off but in the last moments Padre stepped to the left in the middle of his casual jog. The beast missed him and crashed into an abandoned car. With a loud crash it turned around and looked more furious than ever and returned to his chase.

Padre in turn ignored this all and even slowed down so the beast would catch up. He did not look smug about it or anything, just relaxed and in his element, peaceful even. Surrounded by enemies that could overpower him with their raw strength quite easily, don't even mention their numbers.

Leading the pack behind him, we could all watch him come closer and closer to us.

A building that surrounded a small playground in the middle and conveniently had only a 5 meter wide entrance but was otherwise surrounded by the said building. Once inside, there was only that one way out.

He came running inside and was followed by them. The beast ignored the out of the ordinary cold temperature and traces of ice on the entrance just like the strong smell of burned flesh and blood. They also ignored the bloodstains on the black remains of a lawn and tens of burned ogre corpses in a corner not far away.

As the last troll crossed the line inside, Beth quickly used her powers to seal the exit with a wall of ice. At the same time Padre picked up his speed to run as quickly as possible forwards and jumped up into the first window to hide from what would come now.

As the clueless trolls roared in anger and wanted to somehow follow him, above them and in a window on the third floor stood all of our magic and ranged attackers. All of them prepared their strongest spells but none could reach that which Asuka did on her own. The red haired beauty held an unstable looking sphere of highly explosive red mass.

Only a single troll notices that something was amiss and turned around. Still clueless but suspicious it came to the wall of ice that cut of their path to retreat and stared at it, oblivious to its doom.

Everyone who hid on the ground hid our ears.

“NOW!” All at the same time, they released their spells which fell down onto the monsters. Wind spells released under high pressure that were able to damage even steel, earth spells that flew forwards like cannonballs made out of hardened stone and various others.

All crashed into the trolls together with the arrows, this actually managed to injure must of them despite those beings having some of the best defenses and one of the best regenerative ability overall. At least at that level from what I have heard.

Then, only half a second behind the spell of Asuke hit one of them. Like a miniature warhead, it exploded upon contact with a ferocity that shook the ground we stood on. Behind my closed ears, I could still hear a deafening explosion.

The wall Beth build to keep them inside, just to be sure, was broken in pieces.

The moment I regained my senses just like everyone else, we stormed inside of from our hiding spots very closely in of the buildings.

All of us ground troops had massive, three meter long spears in our hands. Already bloodied as this was the second time we did the same with the ogres not long ago.

One might have expected that the earth shattering sound would attract unwanted attention, but it was quite the opposite actually. The area around here was emptier than ever, aside from the usual mindless zombies and the trolls that had simpleminded arrogance and thought their home was safe thanks to their own power, every other monster ran away for the sake of preservation.

As I stepped in, I saw the ground get even darker and bloodier. Dust stood in the air and obstructed my view slightly, which did not stop me from watching the group of trolls lie on the ground and howl in pain from their fatal wounds.

None were dead, but none came out healthy either. Blown of limbs and partially burned of fur, those beings were in a state which was akin to being presented to us on a silver platter.

Together all of us started to stab at the closest beasts. Our stabs aimed at their most obvious fatal zones like their heads and hearts.

They tried to resist, but their near death struggle could do nothing to us. Three meter long spears and all. Bravo to the one who thought of this idea by the way.

I stepped forwards to a troll that looked far smaller than the rest. A child.

That one was damaged far harsher than the rest. It could barely breath its last breaths, its body already devoid of all its strength and its eye barely focused. From its pitiful position on the ground, it looked up to me with its only remaining eye.

Its face was not that much different from a humans, only hairier and with a far bigger nose. I guess because of that it was so very easy to read its face.

Hate and anger, but also fear and despair. Its eye leaked bloody tears and it grit its teeth with its last power.

I did not linger long on it and stabbed the monster in between the eyes, dirtying my spear with its brain mass.

We continued for few minutes. The ranged fighters fired of their spells and arrows from above, only Beth remained on the ground and precisely fired of her ice arrows into their bodies.

And soon we were done.

Name: Andrew Feng Title: Vengeful Level: 17 Exp: 16% Class: Martyr HP: 610 Soul PHY: 50,25 MEN:46,25 VIT: 51  LUK: 5 + 66,5 SPIRIT: 133 Unused point: 0

Damn, this speed is really to slow. All the experience had to be divided, I guess so I barely got anything.

“I don't know what I have expected.” Someone complained. A grumpy looking guy that had a beastman evolution. “I feel kinda dirty doing it like that.”

“Yes, because it would have been so much fairer to fight them head on, in an area where they are superior to us. We got dem brains, so let us use them. Its our advantage after all.” Somebody else answer, a woman whose name I did not know and also did not go out of my way to learn.

I head to agree, but then also asked myself: So what if we have to fight equal or even superior opponents?

More, is this world really build up to be a simple rpg without any consequences? Will our enemies always be of the “monster” kind? The nameless creatures without a voice to kill and grow stronger?

I even asked myself for a second if the ones I killed before were truly that which I automatically assumed them to be.

Well, shall the Andrew of tomorrow deal with that. Irresponsibility 101, amen.

As for now, I walked to Beth and pat her head. “Honestly, that was quite amazing. Are you sure you had no secret bow training before this all started?” She really is. I would bet her accuracy was at a level that was abnormal, not only that but she was also an amazing part of any group.

Inside of my own little mind, I asked myself the question of what would happen if I was to face her in a stand of. My chances did not look all that great.

To understand why, it was important to understand what exactly magic and this fantasy scenario signified.

In your favorite anime of fantasy movie, magic is always depicted as this flashy cool stuff. But quite honestly, Gandalf's shining staff of light or Harry's red magic spell are not all that great. Cool looks, sure, but would not a simple gun be thousands times if not even more effective? A simple gun could have solved all Harry's struggles in the last movie. One of the few reasons why I am not such a big fan of the series, but I digress.

If anything, those spells and magics always seemed to me like the authors poor attempt to “nerf” his own in place set system, to balance something out that is supposed to be unbalanced for the sake of storytelling, such so the magic would not be too overpowered and the fights would not be over with a head shot of a good placed spell. You know, the realistic way, how it would make more sense. (There is no better example of this than Fairy Tail.)

Take me for example. Right now I am 5 times stronger than an average human a month ago. I could easily crush the heads of those same humans with my hands. Well, probably. I would not really like to try it out at least, unless I am forced to. Would be messy, you know.

Where was I? Yes, I am a mofokin superhuman, so how would mages survive here if their “weapons” were not equally destructive?

The answer is that spells are far more dangerous than guns. Depending on your point of view at least.

The intent behind a gun is to treat the human body like a thin plastic bag that has lots of blood inside and some few important organs that hold all of this together. All kept under a thin plastic bag, like I already said.

The bullet of a gun is only intended to pluck a hole trough that bag, destroy one of the important components at best or just make a hole through which the blood will run out at worst, even better if it sticks inside and makes it even more complicated. On themselves, guns are not that great. Only effective because humans are so frail. Were at least. No idea how it would compare now.

Well, back to my metaphor. Magic would blast that fucking bag away and leave a crater in the place it laid on. No, not comparable to a rocket launcher. More like a Swiss rocket launcher that could very precisely do just anything within its own element. From a lighter to a heat seeking flying mother-load of c4.

It was very, very dangerous. There was no one to nerf it here. There was no time to think about nerfing the others but to seek power yourself in any to you available way possible.

 Only the thought that I could also increase my defenses in a magical rpg kind of way, to counter that put me somewhat at rest. Not to forget my aura. But also the thought of myself growing to such heights, so that I would be able to accomplish the goals I set myself...

Also, in my understanding that did not mean that I would be able to shrug of powerful energy blasts like it was nothing but more of able to survive normally deadly attacks and be able to continue with deep wounds.

Or wait, now that I think about it, my aura should be able to make me do just that.

Neat.

Her face did not show any reaction as she lowered her head and replied in a matter of fact. “No, this was just the superhuman level attributes of mine. It would actually be hard to not be good with such improvement towards ones body. I am not that good actually. My firing speed is too slow, I can only shoot one enemy and then need to reload which means I can not fight many enemies at once. I also deal not as much damage as some others, I can only at most be used for my crowd control and help others. On my own I would be lost and could only be stuck in a supporting position for the rest of my life.”

Once more I pat her head. She wasn't wrong, she was just too negative about it. “Well, don't think I am able to fend of an army on my own too. Yet at least.” I smirked at her.

Having gotten rid of that which obstructed our path, we could enter the warehouse.

* * *

On the rooftop, me, Gem, Beth and Padre sat next to each other.

While the others looked for whatever might be useful inside there and noted down what might be useful in the future, we had volunteered to be on the lookout for possible trouble. Since I was the good old lazy me, this was very welcomed.

Beth even went out of her way and told us that she could do it herself jut fine. Her eyesight was great even before all of this, but now it was enchanted even further and became something amazing. Her race or a hidden attribute, no idea.

Having nothing better to do, Gem found a “nice” way to entertain himself.

“Okay, but this time you have to close your eyes before I throw it.” He told her with an exited and playful smile after they had done that a few times before, with each time being harder and more impossible than before. Well, impossible for my understanding.

Beth only nodded and closed her eyes. Her empty bow was in her hands, ready to use her magic and fire it of when needed.

A stone in his hand, he threw it once slightly in the air and then immediately used all of his retard strength to throw that stone into a land it had never seen before.

My sis turned her head to the sound of air being cut apart and created an arrow made of ice as quickly as it was possible to her. Narrowing her eye, she took only a fourth of a second to fire it of.

I could only notice the reflection of light somewhere far far away as both long disappeared from my ability to see them.

Neither me nor Gem could actually see whether it hit or not, but Beth quickly nodded her head after 10 or so seconds and put her bow away. “Got it.”

Gem only scowled at her, either not believing it or challenging her. “Proof or didn't happen.”

She only looked coldly at him. I could swear I even saw mild annoyance in her face normally icily face. “You saw the direction... Please, go ahead.” She did not stay any longer on that and continued to surveil the area.

I guess my giant grin must have been showing because Gem looked like he wanted to punch me in the face.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

All of this went down while I myself trained my control over aura. To constantly draw as much of it as I could sustain and try to hold it as long as I can while also trying to envelope specific body parts more than usually. Very slowly I could feel small improvement. This was definitely not something that would show results in just a day, but it was also not something I should not do.

As I already opened my eyes to watch those two, I also glanced towards Padre.

Sting in a lotus position, he meditated silently and did not let anyone disturb his concentration. I somehow knew that was something to happen, he would immediately know.

Enchanting my eyes with aura, I once more watched his own aura. Still the same as before, like barely visible smoke it went out of his body and slightly enveloped it. Though it also floated away in thin streams above his body like the smoke of burning, living flames.

From my limited understanding of aura I knew that it was a waste. A waste of energy and potential.

“Old man.” I called out to him. Though he did not show any reaction, I still continued. “Are you cultivating Qi or your soul?”

“Is there really a difference?” He answered with his eyes still closed.

Damn old men, speaking in their cryptic pretentious language, I complained in my head.

With his own blade lying in his lap, sheathed, he opened his eyes and looked at me for a moment silently. “Say, if isn't to much trouble for you, may I please take a look at your blade?”

Having no real reason to refuse him, I complied. Taking it out of my inventory, I tossed the sheathed blade over to him.

The moment he caught it midair, the blade was turned around and laid in both of his hands like a pedestal. Very carefully he started to study it.

The dark sheath with white symbols of wings on it. Oddly enough, the symbols always depict the right wing and never the other. A dark hilt that is a pleasure to hold in your hand with a round guard that has strange runes on it, if looked from the side of the blade.

Slowly he took the blade out and also held it before his eyes. I could see clear amazement in his eyes as he looked upon the flawless dark main body of the blade and the white and shiny edge of it. He studied it, maybe looking for flaws or anything else, but just like me he would find none. I do not know where the blade comes from or just what the heck it is made of, but it is simply perfect.

His finger traced the edge of the blade and immediately drew few drops of blood upon contact.

I watched his clear amazement and almost feared his possible greed. Almost ready to ask him to have it back, he looked upwards with a knowing smile on his old and wrinkly face.

“Do not worry, the only time one has to look inside the bowl of another is to is if there is enough in there.” He threw the weapon gently at me. “Also, I am very happy with my own good old friend over here.”

That blade which laid on his lap was picked up. It was not much different from design than my own, only that it had a black and white theme going on.

Slowly he pulled it out of his sheath and for the first time I could actually see his blade from up close.

With astonishment I watched the, without exaggeration ancient blade. Rusty in many places and filled with scratches or worse, the blade had many imperfections. Even some places on the edge itself were obviously dull and needed repair, even some cracks that made it look like the blade would break any moment apart appeared in some places.

The old man looked gently at the blade, lovingly almost. He took a handkerchief and cleaned it carefully.

I almost laughed out loud from the bizarre sight. “I do not think that will do the job old man.”

He did not respond to that comment, but voiced his opinion instead. “You got one excellent blade over there. I do not even have a clue of what heavenly material it is made, but you should pay good attention to it. Such a weapon, if anyone saw its true worth... Just warning you.”

I put the blade into my inventory and asked something I have been wondering for a while now. “You must have trained with the blade at least half of your life if not more. Just.. why exactly would you do that in this day and age? Blades aren't exactly the most efficient weapons anymore, or at least were. Even if, it wasn't an era where such skills were needed at all.”

His hand stopped for a moment and he looked thoughtful. “It was the perfect solution. I was still young and thirsty for challenge but did not want to go back to fight for the sake of others, for ideals that were not mine and against people I had no reason to kill. So simple and foolish by all norms and reasons, yet that which changed my life forever. A homeless man in his mid thirties who does nothing but swing his sword all day and goes around Asia, challenging all sekts and dojos haha, on his small journey without any direction.” A small chuckle escaped him while he lost himself in old memories. “Best decision of my god damn life.”

“Then please, teach me the blade.” I blurted out after he was done. To learn from the best was always the best way to better oneself.

His eye met mine. “No, you don't know me and what kind of person I am. Your assumptions are wrong. I am no teacher and that which I have to teach.. my ways aren't exactly suitable for anyone but me.”

“but--”

“Your are starting to get annoying. Knock it off, brat.” Once more he closed his eyes and went back to his mediation.

This old..

“Hey, old man, are you even aware that you are surrounded by the pure energy of your soul?”

Instantly his eyes flew opened once more and he stared directly at me, his attention fully mine.

With my lips jerking upwards, I made my aura visible and showed him the full extent of it. His eyes widened even further upon seeing that.

“Yours however is much smaller and also used poorly, if used at all. Like a stream that flows nowhere, that aura is leaking out of you. Get your shit together and do it properly at least, it is painful to watch.”

For a couple of seconds he watched the aura of mine and closed his eyes once again. In the next few minutes his face went trough a range of different emotions. Concentration, wonder, anticipation and finally a big grin that the old man desperately tried to hold back. At the same time the aura surrounding him started to get thicker and “awakened” from its sleeping state. It no longer was leaking out and instead behaved like a newly born small speck of flame.

Opening his eyes, he did not look at me but looked towards his hands. With an almost childish happiness, he started to experiment with his new power and his control over it improved right before my very eyes.

“Damn old monster.” I whispered and went back to my own exercises.

* * *

Time passed and we still sat on the top of the roof.

Suddenly Beth awakened me from it and pointed in a direction not far away from us. A lone dark figure was moving in our direction.

Me, Beth and Gem left Padre be for now and cautiously walked towards that being, be it friendly or not.

Relatively quickly we came closer to the strange dark humanoid creature. What we did see when coming closer was that it was clearly a female. Very, very clearly female.

It was me in the middle and Beth and Gem to each of my sides.

I did not really know how to start and as such just called out to “her”. “Ahm, hello.”

The figure that at first did not necessarily walk in our direction now turned to walk to us. Her dark red curves swung from side to side, with a slow rhythm she walked our way in a fashion that would make your typical man excited.

The female humanoid had a thin dark tail behind her with a tip similar to a black pointy heart while her body itself was a very dark red tone. If anything, I was not sure if she was wearing any clothing. She was very.. revealing with only something like hot pants covering her lower region while everything else was open for the enjoyment of others. Also on her back, two demonic wings spread out. Looking like they needed to stretch out, those wings came to rest under her breasts, acting like corset and push up bra at the same time.

A lewdly curious smile on her beautiful face, she finally talked. “Well, hello there.”

My eyes did not stay long on her and I glanced to each of my sides. Beth watched her curiously but prepared to retaliate in case of anything, while the other one, well..

Gem devoured her with his gaze alone. Hungrily and not subtly at all, he glanced at every centimeter of her open skin. Like a hungry dog, he was almost drolling.

Oh, now I get it. She is one of those fantasy creatures that I had heard about, succubi. Her obvious sexualization and ability to charm any idiot with a single movement of her eyelash.

Aida Heolush lvl 28 Succubus

“What are you doing here, if you don't mind my question.” I got straight to the point and asked cautiously.

At the same time, Beth made sure to be on the lookout for potential hidden enemies.

She did not answer immediately and closed the distance between us. With her index finger, she started to trace my chest area while our eyes met each other. Even underneath my shirt, I could feel her touch clearly.

Biting her lip gently and smiling gently, she answered playfully. “Don't worry, not everyone is after your life. You never left this place, no? We are very civilized, mind you. Well, far more than I have heard of you anyway. And then there are people like me, who just like to have some fun. Hopeful to find like minded people to enjoy it with.”

I stared her down coldly, my eyes not leaving her hands and tail as she spoke, I was ready for anything she might throw my way. My concentration was fully on her to such a degree that I fell a foreign energy enter me.

Immediately I felt the intent behind it and did not kill her on the spot, or at least did not try it. Let's just say this energy did not wish to harm me but “influence” me in certain ways.

The succubus left me and stepped to stand right before gem. With the same she did to me, she stood before Gem and playfully seduced him. That fool ate it all up and ordered some seconds. With literal drool leaking out of his mouth, he was ready to jump into action on the spot.

“Some just want to have some fun hehe.” She stood up on her toes and whispered in his ears, but loud enough for us to hear. “I did not have any human yet, such exotic one at that.. Want to be my first?”

Gem swallowed hard and was about to answer positively, but I could no longer watch it. Quickly taking my blade out, it was put next to her neck. “You better leave that be. I don't appreciate... it.”

“What a buzz kill.” Her face did not show any fear towards my blade on her neck. If anything, she showed curiosity. I guess because her magic did not work on me.

She backed of Gem, to which he showed anger towards me but still continued to eye her with his animalistic gaze.

With her eyes on me, she moved to my other side. Her hips moving from side to side in an inviting manner. Her lip lightly bit, she managed to brush her hardened nipple on my arm as she walked past.

This whole time, I still held my blade pointed at her.

Call me gay, you will anyway, but I am not much attracted to her obvious attempts. I did not even look at her more than it was necessary and my eyes stayed glued to her hands. Unlike certain other idiots.

Very closely she walked towards Beth and unlike before, this time made no attempts to use her magic. “Or what about you? I have no certain preferences and like it either way. To be penetrated or to penetrate, I can do it just the way you like.” She smirked.

My eyebrow jumped once I heard that. Did she juts say that which I think she just said?

Beth's eyes jumped opened and she looked curiously towards the succubus.

“Beth, are you.. into women?” I asked, now curious myself. Now that I think about it, she is obviously still a virgin and has no experience there whatsoever.

“I guess not.” She just shrugged it of. “But on the other hand, I haven't tried, so I wouldn't know, would I?”

That is one somber way to look at things. Good for you, sis.

Just for the sake of it, I turned my head slightly and watched Gem's lewd smirk turn stony and into a face of disgust in a matter of seconds. His face, ashamed of the thoughts and fantasies he had only seconds before almost made me laugh out loud.

His disgust and shame grew with each passing second as he could no longer deal with the desires he so openly expressed and their implications. As if those emotions were made physical and filled his mouth, he spit out in her direction.

The succubus looked up and unsure towards him.

“Bitch.” He whispered angrily. “God fucking damn ladyboy. Piece of fake ass tits almost tricked me.”

“Excuse me?” Taken aback by his insults, she placed her hand on her chest and asked offended.

Gem no longer wanted to look her way and continued to whisper insults.

“I think he is disturbed that you just told us you had.. you know, the ability to do that which he thought doing to you, to shove your coc--”

“You shut your fucking whore mouth!” Angrily and ready to shut me up in any to him possible way, he almost snapped at me on the spot.

“What?” She asked dumbfounded. “You. Wow. That was low.” She palmed her face in a seemingly universal sign of “you fucking idiot.” Grabbing her tail, she showed it us closer. “This is what I was talking about!” We were not given time to respond as she continued. “How rude and offensive! I know beings just like that, you know? But have you ever thought what they might think about what you just said?” She stomped her feet and angrily distanced herself from us. “I guess all rumors are based on something, hmm. Fuck you all!” With those words she threw us an ugly glare and added that we would be missing on some quality fun.

“Well, that was weird.”

* * *

“Dude...”

“Look, I am not saying that I am into it or even like it very much. But I do have an understanding why it is popular to such an extent.”

“Duude...”

“Just imagine, if you watch a normal video where two people do it, probably a faceless guy and a charming young lady that does all the work, most of the time you ignore the guy or are forced to listen to that fucktards moans or even get a good look at what his hairy... Like who even hires such actors...

Well, shemales are just the solution to that! Instead to a hairy chest and a fuck ugly face, there is a nice body and some pair of tits to additionally look at. This is not about wanting to be fucked by the chicks huge cohonis, or even wanting to do her, no, it is just about having something better to look at.

Against, not saying that I am into that, but those few times where random videos that I found have turned into such pieces of art and I was far in the middle of it. Well, I did not necessarily close it immediately.”

“Why in the name of god are we having that conversation?”

“Well, you asked me why this genre even exists and I...”

“Shut up! I don't wanna talk about it! Like what even the fuck Andrew?” Gem looked with a new light at me. “I might want to reassess our friendship.”

“Oh, come on.”

Returning back to where Padre sat, our oh so important conversation gave me much entertainment.

“By the way, Beth sorry that you were witness to such a talk.”

“It's okay. Nothing I have not heard or seen before.”

“Wait, what?”

Before I could get an answer, Gem stormed towards the old man and shook him awake. “That filthy son of a bitch over there is turned on by girls with dicks, is that normal in your opinion?”

“There are no girls with dicks, only slim guys with boobs.” My sister corrected him nonchalant. I was not even given a chance to refute that claim.

“Yes, that. So?”

I could barely contain my laughter as Padres round eyes looked oddly at me. He quickly looked away, unable to look meet my eyes anymore and coughed awkwardly. “Well, none of us are perfect and have wishes and desires that are not necessarily.. normal. As long as it does not harm anyone...” He scratched his head even more awkwardly. “It is important to accept ones true self. With all... imperfections and all.” Towards the end he barely whispered, to uncomfortable to speak normally.

“None of you are any normal!” The big friend of mine complained. “You all are weird and don't make any sense.”

“Its more fun that way.”

“One of the few good things in life is to not have to pretend to be normal just to fit in.” Beth added.

“See, she gets me.” As I knew that she would not comply, I forcefully took her fist and raised it into the air so we could fist bump each other.

After some more of such talks we were all called down. The others were done and almost ready to set of.

* * *

Broken shelves and filth everywhere. Those monsters did not exactly take good care of their home. The only good things about it was that they only “made a path” for themselves and did not destroy everything inside.

Some figured out that the metallic conserves had something edible inside of them and those smashed things littered the ground. There were still thousands unopened of them though, which was nice.

But not only cans of food, some of the things Gem listed me not long ago were also found here. Spices, salt, wheat and lots of bullion for example. Another essential product that we took with plenty inside of our inventories was toilet paper and other necessities.

Oh and duck tape. Because that shit can fix anything or you are simply not using enough of it.

Other than that I am sure there was much more, but I did not go out of my way to look into every item.

I was given a whole lot of items that I put in my inventory and even given a backpack that was filled to the brim. As far as all of us were concerned, we could go back now.

Just as I was standing around and doing nothing, I became witness to something unusual.

A man that stood not far away from me and looked trough some rubble suddenly called out in confusion. “Huhh?” If not for my lack of task, I would not have noticed it, but at that moment I happened to look towards him.

His face a mixture of uncertainty and confusion, his eyes were tracking something on the ground. An odd and almost abstract entity, something like a moving dark slime that used tiny tentacles to drag its body across the floor. Very slowly and almost helplessly it dragged its body across the rubble. It almost looked like its body was far to heavy for the being, far to weak to even move around. The man saw that and pulled a knife but must have came to the same conclusion because his body relaxed itself and he treated it with more curiosity than anything.

I myself was unsure what to do at that and used my identify as the both of them closed the distance between each other and got dangerously close.

Symbiot lvl 0

“Haha, look at that.” The man in question took a stick started to pick the being with it. “The fuck is a Symbiot supposed to be haha?” With a massive grin and an widely open mouth he laughed heartily.

“Quick, kill it!” Remembering something Gem said, I called out to the idiot in questions and hastily moved towards him.

“What, why? Its not like that thing can even..” Before he could finish his sentence, the small living piece of dark goo shot hundreds tiny tentacles inside of his mouth. In front of me and far to quick for me to do anything, it shot more and more of its tentacles inside and attached itself to his body. Far quicker than any of its movements before, it pulled itself up and slipped inside of his mouth.

The man started to cough violently as the symbiot disappeared inside of him. His hands went towards his throat as he tried to vomit it out or just do anything to get rid of it. His face changing from amusement to terror in just under a second, he looked towards me for my help.

Me myself, I had no idea where to even begin.

Before I did anything however, he calmed down. “Wait.” He raised a hand, covered in sweat, he bent his upper body and took all the air inside of his lungs that he missed previously. “I think... I am fine now. What the fuck even..”

Still clueless as to how to react, I simply watched ready for that which I was sure would happen next.

“Is it still inside of me? Ohh, fuck. How do I..” He could not finish and screamed in a sudden burst of pain. His hands went towards his stomach. His whole body shuddered and fell to the ground. Screaming in pain the man twitched and turned unnaturally. “No, stop! What?” I watched as his right hand started to act odd out of nowhere. As if it was cut of from the rest of the body, it just went limp and started to act on its own shortly after. “No, please!” He called out pleadingly and in agony.

After one final scream, his whole body twitched and went limp.

As the body laid on the ground, I pulled out my blade and got ready.

Its jaw twitched. Very unnaturally its body started to move like it was the first time. In twitching motions that were not able to measure force or direction yet, it tried to stand up but failed at first. Only in seconds, the whole body relaxed and looked directly towards me.

Aware that the man I talked to was already gone, I started to move forwards. Better end this quickly. Decisively I stepped forwards.

The controlled body of the human kept its eyes on me. It did not move and just stared at me which made me to be even more on guard.

One meter away from it, almost instantly a dark goo spread out from underneath its clothing and swallowed its right arm. Far more natural than before and with a loud nonhuman screech, it lunged forwards at me with that arm.

I almost saw that coming and cut that arm that was aimed at my face. Without much resistance, it fell to the ground.

It jumped back away from me and once more gave of an ear piercing screech. The black substance once more came out and enveloped the cut of limb and stopped the furious bleeding.

“What is going on here?” Behind me quite a few people were attracted by that beings loud noises.

Noticing itself being helplessly outnumbered, the being snarled at me and turned around to flee.

“What is wrong? Where is Brad” Only shortly after as the others arrived, a worried young man asked.

How do I even begin to explain that?