After some debate, we decided we'd be safer exposed on the cliff than near to the jungle. The jungle was too unsettling for us to go anywhere near. We had to move swiftly and quietly, simultaneously keeping our eyes open for any threat. Needless to say, it was nerve-wracking.

As it turned out, somehow a smattering of buildings that should be nowhere near my house, was in fact, near my house. A grocery store of all things. A few fast food places and a gas station.

We glided across the empty lot in silence, with nothing but questioning glances towards each other. Even Ace, who was notoriously bad with directions stared at us in confusion. This shouldn't have been here. But then again, it shouldn't have been so close to a cliff either.

I quelled my curiosity. Peering over the edge was foolish.

We took cover in a crater. It was no doubt a result of the meteorites from earlier. Or, at least, what I'd thought of as meteorites. My gaze slid upwards, towards the giant floating landmasses along the horizon. Even now I could see pieces separating, affected haphazardly by whatever force was keeping it afloat. They must've been five times as large as my house.

Zych caught my eye, tapping my shoulder and nodding forward.

"Sorry." I whispered.

Ace nudged me. He was still easily the tallest of us, always had been. As such, he was the one who peered from behind our cover. The grocery store was almost deathly silent.

I managed a peek.

Broken windows and shattered glass. It looked like there were even groceries and random goods scattered about the floor. Somehow there were even destroyed shopping carts, though the damage looked as if something dismantled them rather than broke them. The huge sign that usually hung proudly above the entrance was missing letters. I couldn't see them anywhere nearby.

"I can go first." Ace told us without hesitation.

"Hold on." Zych quickly cut in.

His shadow trembled. The sun was still high and so his shadow should've been sharp and defined. There was effort drawn plainly across his face. His shadow curled and contorted slowly until I realized I was somehow looking at something three-dimensional.

It was the least passable form of what was unmistakably a human.

My eyes bulged at the same time a feeling bloomed from within. He was using mana, channeling through his shadow. Causing it to form into something and take shape, become physical. The quickness and sureness that I came up with that conclusion startled me but it nonethless felt correct.

Zych was using magic.

It must've been my [Magical Instinct]. And conversely, he must've been using his [Shadow Magic].

Ace stared at Zych and took a breath after he caught me just as surprised. He got straight to business. "Can we send that ahead first?" He questioned still regarding the shadow. It was hard to pinpoint exactly, my mind refused to see truly focus on it.

"I can walk it a little bit ahead of me." Zych seemed to be placing conscious effort into the task. He didn't seem too put out though. "It's called a shadow clone. Needs more practice though."

"Send it ahead then." I responded. "How far can you keep it?"

Zych closed his eyes, his face the picture of focus. "Up to here."

The clone walked fifteen paces ahead of us. It nearly lost its cohesion in the bright sun. Logic dictated it should've dissipated but I knew otherwise. Zych was keeping its form. The fact my friend was doing actual magic had to simply wait for another time.

We needed food.

The automatic doors didn't slide open for us. Ace stepped up and pushed them aside. The sound of broken glass like a million little chimes upon the floor. 

The inside of the grocery store was no different than the outside. Ruined, ransacked, it looked like a pack of animals had run through the place. They very well might have. 

"Quiet isn't it?" I said aloud. My eyes swept the place. The shelves were fully stocked even if most of the items were strewn about the floor.

The quick sound of a zipper made me turn. Ace had shifted his bag onto his front side. "Let's stock up." He still held his sword at his side but his shield was strapped around his shoulders to free his other hand.

"Non-perishables. Beef jerky. Dried pasta. Canned foods. Granola bards. Trail mix." Zych followed his clone, moving towards the canned food section.

There was a sharp whispering in a language I didn't recognize. Then silence. Garbled whispers, I thought I saw something move through the open shelves.

We all paused. 

Zych's clone rounded the aisle and a flurry of green, clawed limbs burst through the shadow clone dissipating immediately. The body crashed into the cash register opposite the aisle. In a scramble, it got up and bared its teeth.

It was one of the green things from earlier. It hissed at us, red irises and beady pupils. It had two rows of teeth and limped towards us viciously seeming uncaring at its own injuries. 

Ace's sword was up faster than I or Zych could react.

"Careful." Ace cautioned us. 

"Uh, there are two more." Zych hesitated, his bow darting between the first and its friends.

Stolen novel; please report.

I took a breath and stepped in front of him. My smaller swords had come up from their sheathes. I tried my best to copy Ace's grip. The taller man's grip was firm and confident, though his expression and darting eyes betrayed him.

"How do we know they're violent?" I asked nervously. Neither party made a move. "That thing earlier, the forest stalker, killed them before they did anything."

"Hell Jake, do those things look friendly?" Zych nearly hissed at me too. His face was a controlled whisper. He hadn't pulled his bowstring.

"It jumped for your shadow didn't it, Zych?" Ace grimaced. "Don't you-"

The first one caught Ace's gaze drift towards Zych. It lunged forward screaming garble-tongue and hissing violence. I saw a flash of steel.

A line of red-hot pain shot down my leg. "Fuck!" Before I could even tear my eyes off of Ace my leg had automatically retaliated sending the second sprawling across the floor. My eyes tracked it warily before I realized I was missing one.

"Watch out Jake!" An arrow plunged into the side of the monster on my flank, its scream of pain drawing my attention. My left-hand weapon slashed across its chest and my other opened its neck. It hadn't even felt like I moved them. My eyes were wide from adrenaline. "Holy shit man." I heard my friend whisper behind me, but his voice was miles away.

I tried to block the image from my mind. 

The one I had sent sprawling with my kick reared upward in anger yelling and screaming. Suddenly, the tile was blooming red and the store was loud with angry battle. When? Everything was calm only moments ago.

"Jake!" Ace called.

I poked it in the chest as it sprinted at me. The blade sunk deeper than I ever imagined it could go. It was like a hot knife through butter, only easier. I felt a deep queasiness from the depths of my stomach. Its body slipped off my sword like a ragdoll, only this one kept loathful eye contact as it did. This one lived.

"Thank god." I heard someone say.

I threw up. My stomach emptying its contents on painfully white tiles.

I came up gagging and lightheaded. I looked around and found the bodies. I almost ducked back down to throw out the entire stomach. I forced myself to stare. I needed to. It was the second time today something like this happened. I avoided it last time, but now? Now I had to face it.

It was wearing rags. Nothing but a loincloth. They all were. Their faces were all a mess, covered in the remnants of eaten food. Chip dust, sauce, crumbs, even blood. I managed to pry my focus away and stare into the aisle they had been residing in. Everything was ripped open, feasted on. Three bodies, no smaller than a child either. I tried not to think about that last part.

Ace was leaning against the cash register. He was always the calmer one. Collected. Now though, even if he hadn't thrown up, it looked like he'd spent a month being seasick. His face was pale and his breathing was hard. His eyes were locked onto the carnage.

"No, no, no..." He was whispering to himself. 

Zych stared too. He noticed me and grimaced. Shivering. He looked sick too. Afraid. It was Zych who eventually got us moving. "Come on. Like I told you guys. Non-perishables." He stepped over the bodies and into the aisle. "We have to come to terms with this." That was all he said.

It was a painfully long moment before I was ready to move. Zych didn't leave either of us in that time. Not for the first time, I wondered why Zych was always so dependable when things went to shit. There was a story there that neither Ace or I knew.

I found Ace staring at me. "Let's go." I managed. "Food remember? I'm starving." I tried.

Ace gave as much a smile as he could. "Right. Your burrito's all over the floor now."

Zych scoffed, relaxing at seeing us normalize. "Told you I should've had the rest. Would've kept it in my stomach."

"You would have shit your pants instead." I shot back.

We kept up our banter as we moved away from the carnage. Zych wordlessly formed his clone again and I inwardly marveled at what he was doing. Ace followed close behind it both sword and shield in hand. We kept our talk going the entire time, each of us craving some sense of normalcy.

It hit me the second I realized we weren't paying for any of the food we were shoving into our packs. Ace actually chuckled before he said something to me that I didn't catch. My manner changed and both Zych and Ace seemed to notice, our moods dampened but the question was one I had to ask.

"What the hell was that?" The subject in question was no secret. The question wasn't simply me asking, it was all of us.

It was almost as if we all flinched at the question. The question that forced us to stare at reality. To throw away the notion we were simply grocery shopping. That the tile floor was stained blood-red in places we knew but couldn't see. That we had all just killed some creature.

The pressing silence was broken by the sound of Ace stuffing a can of soup into his bag. He zipped up the pocket. "Well, what do we know?" He asked us back. That was Ace for you. Credit to him though, it got my mind working.

I responded first, the screens had stuck in my mind. "It's The Culling. The world is being reborn." The words? What were they again? "New forces will be introduced and your lives will be changed forever." I repeated them.

"If not, you will fail against the creatures that assail you, the horrors that seek your planet." Zych said steadily.

Genesis Begins

In thirty seconds, your world will shatter. Earth as you know it will quadruple in size. Cities, continents, countries, towns, states, powers, will all splinter. Your Earth has reached critical mass. New forces will be introduced and your lives will forever be changed. Landmasses will shift, oceans may rise or fall, natural disasters will befall you. But after the chaos, the suffering, humanity will be born anew. Stronger. Better.

You will need this Genesis. If not, you will fail against the creatures that assail you, the horrors that seek your planet. This is your introductory period, Humans. You are a Genesis Welcomed Race now. See its power, know it, harness it. You will need it.

We begin The Culling.

"Genesis." I said. "I think it's what's showing us these screens."

Ace stared into the air too. "These new forces it talks about. You think those green monsters are part of it?" His breathing remained steady.

"And that forest stalker we killed." Zych reminded us. "I think there's gonna be a lot more than just those trying to kill us."

I frowned. "And these Skills? And that [Sword of the Survior] you have?" I asked. "What are they? Those Skill Tomes gave Zych and I knowledge and power, just like that."

"Whatever they are," Ace began. "we need to be on the lookout for anything like it. It doesn't look like we can get away with just surviving. We might have to fight too."

"Did you sword work?" Zych asked curiously.

"Faster than I could've even thought." He said somberly. "I killed that thing before I could even think about what the motion meant I'd be doing."

I shoved the last thing I could. A packet of beef jerky. "Where should we go now?" 

"We need to get away from here. Find someplace for the night. Food. Water. Shelter. Isn't that what people are usually taught for survival?" Ace suggested. "We can't stay here either. Blood." He reminded us.

"I say we move along the cliff. See if any other buildings show themselves or not. If not we might have to try our chances here in the grocery store." Zych frowned.

"It's worth it. If everything is scrambled there's no telling what we'd find if we just kept walking. We might even run into another group of survivors." I hesitated before adding the next part, "We need to be careful though, we're loaded with supplies and people might have an eye for something like that."

Zych and Ace nodded.

We passed the carnage, the three dead bodies, wordlessly. With Zych's clone in the lead we managed to find out way out of the parking lot without any problems. Switching from the suburban surroundings to jagged cliffside was disorienting, but the terrain was such that we had a lot of cover if not that much visibility.

It turned out we'd have a lot of defensible places to rest even if we couldn't find a building.