Standing taller than all the other buildings, at least those that hadn't crumbled yet, the thin building resembled a pine tree. Blocking most of the view at this side of town many, badly damaged small houses surrounded it. According to what he had learned, Solus was sure it was called a church. Surrounding the church was a plethora of little roads and alleyways, many that were blocked by rubble. Trying his best to circle around a small building without falling, and keeping his attention focused on his target, Solus counted in his head...

“Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven… and he is back. It takes him exactly forty-seven seconds to complete his round” he thought to himself.

Solus had been looking for a target for a few days now, but his inability to stand still made things fairly difficult. He needed a skeleton that would walk a set path. One that would give him an opportunity to either trip it or drop it from a height and still be within two meters. Then he had to do it without standing still. Eventually, he had located his current target, a skeleton that kept walking in circles around the big church. There weren't any open manholes or other places to fall in, and most of the streets where still walkable. Now the only difficult part was, how to trip the skeleton without tripping himself.

At first, Solus had thought he could pick up a stick and put it between the skeletons legs. Then he found out there wasn't anything resembling a stick anywhere in town. There wasn't anything in town for that matter, except for broken buildings and rubble. He had searched for the remains of another skeleton, but those had either fallen somewhere he couldn't reach, or worse, walked out of town. Even going back to the center building, where the sphere still lay inert, had rendered nothing useful. In the end, he had decided to try forcing the other skeleton to walk into a wall. A dead end wouldn't work, because he wouldn't be able to stop himself from hitting the wall right after his target had. And trying to use his own limbs would be impossible. He had a hard enough time walking at any speed without falling as it was.

Walking towards his target, Solus kept his eyes switching between the skeleton and a small wall that split two of the roads. The wall was next to the alleyway his target would enter in less than ten seconds. If he managed to reach in front of his target, the skeleton would have to go left or right but it would still hit a wall either way. If the skeleton went left, Solus would have to move around the wall to the right and hope he would stay within the two-meter radius. If the skeleton took the right wall, success was guaranteed as the distance around the wall was definitely less than two meters.

Managing to be one step ahead of the other skeleton, Solus blocked the path and moved as slow as he could. Incapable of stopping the other Skeleton swerved to the right. Solus, having kept track of his target, sped up and turned around the wall at the same moment the other skeleton hit it. Crashing into the wall, the other skeleton immediately crumbled to the ground.

Small, bright arcs of blue energy flickered in the air around Solus. Right away he could feel the change occurring. Where first there was nothing, now he felt something bubbling inside of his bones. It lasted for only a second or shorter, but it made him feel… alive? Solus only knew about life from his gifted memories but as far as he could determine it should be similar to what he had felt. Before he could ponder about it longer something changed in front of him

> Increase in manafield detected

> Changing status information to reflect changes

> Would you like to hide these messages and only show them when status is called?

YES / NO

Deciding he had enough of the screens blocking his vision without any warning, Solus accepted the suggestion. Then, chanting status, the window sprang into view. Of course, it was blocking part of his vision again. Right away he noticed the increase in his manafield. The first step was done, now he needed to find nine more targets to dispatch against willing walls.

A few days passed like a blur.

At the end of another day of hunting, Solus was walking around one of his favorite hunting spots. The site he was at, looked like it had been a skyscraper long ago. Now all that remained of it was a large region of cluttered rubble. Looking around, he found another skeleton weaving its way through the remainders of the skyscraper.

Why so many of the skeletons were at this particular area was unclear, but two had already fallen at his hand, close to his current location. Well, they actually got crushed by rocks, but he had had a hand in it. Following the skeleton, and making sure to pay attention to his surroundings, solus saw his victim, getting closer to the natural trap. Had he a face he might have laughed in anticipation, remembering what had happened before.

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The previous day he had found the last of the easy targets. After that, the only things left were skeletons that walked around dangerous areas or areas with no places to corner them. Walking around town, he had been wondering about this problem when near him a skeleton got too close to the side of a building. Barely knocking against the wall, a large rock had fallen off the side of the building almost crushing the skeleton. A light-bulb had gone off in his head as he remembered he had seen this before. Due to everything that had happened, he had somehow forgotten all about it. If he could find more places with rocks like that, he could hit the wall and crush an unwitting skeleton as it moved underneath. He would need good timing but it should be possible. And that's how he got to his current position.

Speeding up, he walked passed the other skeleton and headed towards the wall with the rock. Five meters further he reached it and stopped counting. He used his right hand to knock against the wall, as hard as he could. Staggering a little to the left, he managed to keep his balance and slowed his pace down to a crawl. Behind him, a loud crashing noise could be heard. Small blue energy bolts surged around him as his manafield increased in size yet again. He picked up his speed and headed towards the edge of the area, noticing a weird sensation in his mind. Perceiving the sensation more closely he recognized it as an emotion. He was feeling a slight elation!

"How is this possible?" he thought.

According to his limited knowledge, skeletons had zero emotions. He would first have to channel his manafield into an evolution. The evolution also needed to be something with a brain to actually have feelings. This was so far in the future though, that he had not thought it a feasible goal yet. What was going on? Should he ask the help function his last question? No, he still needed to know why he couldn't leave this town.

Remembering that he only needed one more skeleton, Solus decided he would focus on this first. And if he had any more feelings, he wouldn't mind a lot. He had noticed a slight pleasurable sensation at merely the thought of more emotions.

Moving around the area in search of another skeleton, a slight tremor reverberated through the town and almost made him fall. All around him stones started jumping and hopping up and down. Buildings started collapsing with rumbling sounds. Looking at the swaying walls around him he made a turn and bolted towards a more open area. What was happening? It looked like an earthquake, but that would be weird. The region the town belonged to had no history of earthquakes.

Loud scraping noises came from the edge of the town. It sounded like something was being dragged across the ground. Taking a second to think things through, Solus headed in a direction away from the sound. Whatever the sound was, this much force could easily end his short existence. Still moving at the greatest speed he could muster, he headed towards the church area. For some reason, that building seemed more sturdy then the others, and sturdy seemed like a great idea right now. Feeling another slight emotion troubling his mind, he ignored it as he managed to reach the dark tall building. Using it as a cover, he walked along the wall. He could hear the scraping sound passing through the center of town, and it seemed to be drawing away, hopefully out of town again.

Almost reaching the end of the church wall, Solus saw another skeleton moving towards him. Where did that come from? He had cleared all skeletons from this area. It seemed to come from the center of town. Was it avoiding the source of the loud noise? Before he could wonder more about this, the other skeletons head swirled on its bony neck, and the empty eye sockets looked straight into his own. Another emotion stirred in Solus mind, one he didn't like one bit.

The other skeleton immediately changed course, targeting Solus' immediate location. What was going on, was this skeleton like him? Did it gain awareness? Solus mentally shook himself and started picking up speed, moving away from the church. He didn't know the other skeletons intention, but with all the trembling going on, it was better to find out later.

Racing, well… stumbling forwards at an uneven pace, both skeletons moved in a similar direction away from the noise. According to his hearing, Solus expected the source of the noise to leave the town area within a few minutes.

Reaching the shopping center close to the church, Solus noticed a large broken brick. Half of it was lying on the corner of a building and could fall at any moment. The other skeleton should be twenty meters behind him, but without the ability to look behind whilst walking he couldn't be sure. Deciding against gambling on the distance, he kept moving towards the building and when he had almost reached it, he slowed down and made a U-turn. Behind him, he saw the skeleton, its eye sockets locked right onto his, heading towards him. It was walking in a much more deliberate pace compared to the others skeletons he had seen. Counting, to estimate the skeletons speed, he thought it should reach his current position in less than five seconds. Making another U-turn he started counting again. At four he used his arm to hit the wall he had reached that exact moment. He picked up speed again. A second later he heard a knocking sound, but no blue lightning appeared. Speeding up a bit he made another large U-turn and looked to the side. Walking along the wall, he saw the skeleton had slowed down and managed to avoid the large brick.

"Missed... "

The brick was stuck in the ground a few steps behind the skeleton, either it had dodged the brick or Solus had made a mistake with the distance.

The other skeleton kept moving along the wall. After a while, Solus came to the realization that it was moving away from him. Had he scared it away? Thinking back to his own state of mind before meeting the sphere it was possible. The skeleton might think, Solus could end it. He decided it was better to wait until he had one more point in his manafield and was able to stand still, before handling this sentient skeleton. With his new goal firm in his mind, he headed back towards the fallen skyscraper region.