This daily quest thing was seriously fucking me over.

I glanced down at my phone, staring at the map as if refusing to blink would somehow force the little yellow arrow to move somewhere else. It didn’t work. And no amount searching for mistakes or excuses could change the fact that I was at the right building.

Well, I wasn’t actually at the building. I wasn’t about to go anywhere near that place voluntarily. No, I was in a tree—I’d become quite accustomed to sitting in trees—about a hundred yards away from the place with a street intersection in between. That was as close as I dared to get, and even then, I was probably pushing it.

The building itself was hardly the problem. Nothing wrong with a Papa Rico’s Pizza—not that I’d ever been to the place, or even heard of the chain for that matter, but I’m sure it was a fine establishment. No, the problem lied squarely with the gigantic undead monstrosity that was currently prowling in circles around the building.

Creature: Grand Abomination Type: Undead (Tier II) Description: Not available (Intelligence too low)

After facing the voracious devourer, my mind had made the unconscious assumption that it had become desensitized to the point where no other creature would ever be capable of inspiring such awful horror in me again. That assumption turned out to be incredibly naïve. Grand abomination was certainly a fitting title for this, well... grand fucking abomination. Hell, that label was probably underselling it. 50 XP? That quest reward could go shove itself right up its own ass. Even triple that amount wasn’t anywhere near enough to convince me that picking a fight with that thing would be a good idea.

The creature in question was massive. It stood on two feet, like a human, and the tops of its heads came roughly even-height with the roof of the pizzeria. That made it around fifteen feet tall by my estimate, and its egg-shaped upper body was about two-thirds of that in diameter around the base. Its flesh was discolored and covered in scars and what looked like giant stitches, as if it were some amalgamation of tens of desecrated and not-entirely-human corpses sewn together. Along its gargantuan stomach was a large, gaping wound that sagged with the weight of its contents. Inside, I could see what looked like coils of pinkish intestines that wriggled and slithered about. Maybe it wasn’t even a wound, but a stitch that had come undone. Either way, it didn’t seem to trouble the creature, which didn’t bother using either of its massive arms to alleviate the issue. The two appendages came down to its waist, and were bulky enough that each one probably weighed twice as much as my entire body. Its right hand was wrapped in a chain that dragged maybe fifty-plus feet behind it and tapered off like a whip, and its left hand held a meat cleaver built to split a buffalo in half. The creature’s legs were even thicker than its arms, but also shorter, looking almost comically stubby on its mammoth frame. Up close, they were probably as tall as I was, and each of its feet would likely match my entire upper body in size.

Finally, there were the heads. The grand abomination had three of them, spaced apart and positioned in a triangular formation at the top of its torso. None of them had anything that could quite be called a neck, but the top of the creature’s torso would occasionally twist around, moving all three heads at once. The heads were vaguely humanish in appearance, but so grotesque even the zombies were comely by comparison. The first head was bug-eyed, the bulging eyeballs constantly swerving about as they barely held themselves inside their sockets. It had a mouth that gaped from ear to ear—or would have, if it had had any ears—that occasionally stretched open wide, revealing the gaping tunnel of its throat and a complete lack of teeth or tongue. The second one had a single eye at the center of its forehead. Its mouth was nearly as large as the first’s, but with a serious underbite and jagged yellow teeth that protruded like tusks. The final head looked almost sunken in. Its enlarged eye sockets held nothing but darkness, and its lipless mouth hung loose and open.

All in all, the creature was as hideous a sight as I could’ve imagined in my worst nightmares. I was only was sticking around due to a mix of horrific fascination and sense of obligation to my fellow man to at least try to come up with some way to help whoever it was trapped inside the pizzeria. The abomination hadn’t made any moves to attack the building in the ten or so minutes I’d now been watching it, but neither had it shown any interest in moving away from the area.

I swallowed, trying to imagine the situation from the perspective of the person trapped inside the building. The cold dread of watching that terrifying creature circling around, every second deliberating whether or not it was worth the risk of making a run for it, knowing that at any moment the undead giant could decide it was done playing hide-and-seek and start tearing the building apart. It could be anyone trapped in there; a person too old or sick to flee wherever everyone else had gone, a child separated or abandoned by their parents, or just someone like me, an ordinary guy caught and confused in the chaos of this strange and horrific new reality. Or a girl. Doesn’t have to be an ordinary girl. Like, maybe a former supermodel who’d be endlessly thankful to the dashing young hero who had just come to her rescue?

Hey, a guy can dream, alright?

I shook myself out of it before I starting falling into delusions of running around the city, saving beautiful damsels in distress and forming a kickass post-apocalyptic harem. That would just be so... horrible. Absolutely horrendous, if such a thing were to happen.

Anyway...

Back to matter at hand, I had to wonder why the abomination hadn’t already attacked the building. Did it not know someone was inside? Well in that case, why was it still lurking around here? Did it not have anything better to do? Actually, what did any of these monsters have to do? What was their purpose for being here? What was my purpose? And had I been given this stupid fucking quest...

I blinked, a sudden possibility dawning on me. What if it was here because of the quest? Such an egotistical thought, and yet, I couldn’t shake it out of my head. I mean, it made some sense, didn’t it? The quest had to have had come from somewhere, have some purpose. And it was clear by the substantial 50 XP reward that it was supposed to be fairly difficult. Without this monster here, it’d be a cinch to just waltz into the pizzeria and come out with my rescued charge, and that would just be way too easy...

The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was. Or at least, to the point where I started feeling a level of responsibility for the situation, even if it wasn't really my fault. I couldn’t just leave this person do die in there. But what could I actually do? Go kill some zombies, come back to fight it later? But how long would it take to become strong enough to fight that thing, if it was even possible at all? Besides, even though the daily quest wouldn’t expire until midnight, I couldn’t take that to mean all the other conditions would remain static for the rest of the day. The quest description had stated to rescue a survivor, not this person in particular, so while my quest marker was pointing here, that might just be because this person was the only one within my map area, and not because this was the only person that would satisfy the quest requirements. That meant it was entirely possible something could happen here after I left, and I’d have to find someone else if I wanted to complete the quest. Maybe. The truth was I didn’t have any way to know whatsoever—it was possible this entire line of thought was entirely bogus and the creature’s presence here was just an unfortunate coincidence and had absolutely nothing to do with the quest at all.

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I was still contemplating all of this when I noticed the abomination was now looking right in my direction. I froze, unsure how to react as it began trudging toward me. Did it see me? No way... not from that distance, and with the leaves and branches covering me. But maybe it just had incredible eyesight. Unsure how to react, I shifted nervously as it started walking in my direction, and a glint o flight from below caught my eye. I glanced down, then nearly slapped my palm on my face.

The fucking pants! They were practically glowing with the way sunlight reflected off the fabric.

I had to bail. Thankfully, the abomination didn’t seem to have much in the way of speed. I jumped down from the branch, and as I landed, I noticed the creature had come to a stop, its heads swiveling until the eyeless one was facing me. Before I could make a move to run, my eyeballs moved on their own, locking on to the black sockets of the abomination’s empty face.

That was a mistake, and one I recognized far too late. Something pulsed in the air—no, in the very reality—around me. Darkness swept out in waves, encompassing my senses, depriving them of everything save for the vision of that horrid face, enlarged and looming over me like a specter. I couldn’t move my eyes away. I couldn’t move at all. My limbs froze and trembled, my teeth clattered. At some point, I’d forgotten how to breathe. I felt like I was submerged in Arctic waters, sinking deeper, deeper into an empty abyss.

And then it was gone. The darkness receded in an instant, like a switch had been flipped off. I wasn’t so quick to recover, however, still on my knees and heaving for breath like I hadn’t taken one in hours. Whatever time had passed couldn’t have been anywhere near that long, but it was enough that the abomination was now more than halfway to me. I struggled back up to my feet. My legs were shaking, but I could probably still outrun the thing...

The heads turned again, shifting to the one-eyed face. I flicked my gaze away, but the effect was entirely different. The abomination roared, and I felt something wrap around my body, holding me in place. No, it wasn’t just holding me, it was trying to pull me in. I managed to stand my ground well enough, but taking even a single step back required more strength than I could muster. The abomination stomped closer; the pull grew stronger. I felt like I’d been tied up by a rope that was slowly reeling me in and came to the abrupt realization that there was absolutely no way I could escape.

Forcing my mind to remain calm, I made a split-second decision and abandoned resistance to instead go with the pull. My body lurched forward, but I kept my feet under me, using the effect to supplement my speed as I ran. The abomination raised its enormous cleaver as I came in range; a completely unnecessary action, given that even a glancing blow from the thing would have been fatal. The arm began to drop; I activated Quick-Roll. The cleaver came down with startling speed, but I managed to roll past it and between the abomination’s legs as I came back to my feet.

I kept running. Didn’t make it very far before I heard the roar again and the pull stopped me in my tracks, nearly giving me whiplash. I’d hoped the ability would have a long cooldown like the screamers’, but no such luck. I turned back to see the one-eyed head was already facing me; the rest of its body followed in a slow turn. I risked a glance over to the pizzeria. If nothing else, maybe this whole debacle could provide the person trapped inside an opportunity to escape.

“Run!” I shouted at the building. “Get away while it’s on me!”

If anyone heard my shouts, there sure wasn’t any sign of it. I didn’t keep looking; I didn’t have the attention to spare as the abomination lumbered closer, the pulling becoming more intense as it closed the distance.

Once again, I ran with the effect, timing my Quick-Roll between its legs just well enough to avoid being cleaved in half. I only missed the knife by a hair this time, and I wasn’t loving my chances of surviving a third attempt. But what could I do about it? I tried running again—even did a Quick-Roll in the hopes that it might be enough to escape the hold—but I couldn’t even move an inch away once the pull was on me again.

The abomination finished turning, and I readied myself for another scrape by death. Then the pull suddenly vanished, nearly causing me to trip over, and the heads rotated again. Just before they could settle on the eyeless face, I realized what was happening and flicked my gaze down to the creature’s feet. When I felt my eyes being forced back up again, I used my hand like a visor, keeping my line of sight away from the creature’s face. That seemed to do the trick; the eyeless face could re-direct my eyes, but had no such control over my head or any other part of my body.

I let my hand drop when I felt the pull again. Perhaps realizing that its previous strategy wasn’t working, the abomination opted not to use its cleaver this time, and instead drew back its right arm, swinging the chain it held forth like a whip. It came too quickly for me to determine the height of the attack, but I wasn’t going to risk ducking under it. I jumped, then Double-Jumped as the chain-whip cracked and blazed underneath me with blinding speed. It struck a utility pole, sliced clean through the wood, then finally came to a stop against a metal traffic pole with a clang as loud as a gunshot.

Unfortunately, dodging that ridiculous attack didn’t put me in the clear. With no ground underneath, I had no friction with which to stop the abomination’s pull from dragging me into its body.

Thinking quickly, I activated Quick-Roll, but to the side. I knew ability could move me in any direction, and that still worked when I had nothing to push off of, but I’d never actually tried those aspects in unison before. Lo and behold, it worked, though instead of moving fully horizontally, I found myself curving around the abomination’s body and hitting the asphalt behind it. Not a pleasant experience, but at least I managed to survive the ordeal without injury.

Scrambling back up to my feet, I backpedaled from the creature. The pull would render running useless, but keeping distance would still minimize the effect. The heads began shifting and I quickly glanced away, using my hand to block out the abomination’s face when I felt my eyes start to wander. With it still in the process of turning, I risked a moment to quickly pull out my phone, which was still on the map. The yellow arrow hadn’t moved at all. Why hadn’t the person inside taken the chance to run? Even if they hadn’t heard me, they should’ve realized this was as good an escape opportunity as they’d get. Or maybe they couldn’t run. They might be injured, or even in hiding, if there were any other creatures already inside.

Shit.

I refocused on the abomination as I heard the roar, the pull hitting a split-second after. What could I do now? It was simple—either try to escape the pull somehow, or...

I almost laughed. Just a minute ago I was scared shitless, but now I was actually considering fighting this absolute monstrosity. No, not just fighting it, I had to kill it.

I licked my lips. My already pounding heart turned into a jackhammer, pumping blood into my muscles and filling them with an almost palpable energy. My hands trembled. I felt something like a switch flip inside me, and the decision was locked in stone. Make no mistake, this wasn’t courage. Nor was it any sense of heroism to save whoever was trapped inside the building. No, this feeling was something more fundamental to myself, more true to who I really was, or who I could be.

The world around me seemed to slow as my vision tunneled onto the creature slowly making its way toward me. The dread and horror I should have experienced in its presence was gone, left without a trace, and in its place I began to see the monster for what it truly was—a collection of individual characteristics that combined to form a unique challenge. A challenge I knew I could conquer. I just had to separate the pieces from each other, take advantage of their individual vulnerabilities and pick them apart. The abomination’s body was massive and incredibly strong, but equally slow to move or adjust to angles. Its attacks were fast, but blatantly telegraphed with unnecessary windups, to the point where I knew where they would go, could dodge them before they even began. The heads added a complication, but they were no different. The eyeless face was easy enough to counter so long as I remained vigilant to the shift. The one-eyed one’s pull effect was a hindrance, but I already had an idea for how I might work around it.

Of course, all of this was running along a razor’s edge. I could be perfect ninety-nine percent of the time and a single mistake would still be the end of me, especially with the abilities of the third head still a wild card. But maybe that was just what I needed.

After all, where’s the fun if it’s all too easy?