“Holy shit I feel good. I feel freaking excellent. I feel like the god damn stars.” Lev said almost screaming it, Jameson looked at Lev irritated. Jameson sat there in the nook of the tree trying to sleep but obviously struggling. The forest didn’t let out a sound. The darkness sat along with the trees and Lev could see nothing.

It was unnerving to see nothing come out from the forest. Not a peep, not a crickets sound, came to meet his ears. Lev sat staring at the willows. Lev couldn't remember the last time he had seen nature. Maybe on some long walk with his mom that she thought would build character or when he visited his Abuelo's house in the winter.

Jameson's breathing slowed, his sleep had come. In the shadows of the sleep deep tendrils of inky energy seeped into his brain. Jameson frowned and yet said nothing. Away perched on a tree above Lev was a man. He blended with the trees and yet also seemed distinctly separate as if on purpose. He was the most ordinary unordinary man.

His hands tapped the tree, yet did not make a sound. And down below Lev also tapped the tree, thinking something as he watched the trees. Tap, tap, tap, his hands hit the tree and nailed into the bark. He took his hands away from the tree, Lev had strength, his body was stronger, and everything seemed more efficient. And his nails dug into the tree trunk once more.

This world, these powers, everything in it was strange. Cars, and statues and giants and all of this. All of this spun within his head and played a little game. Lev summoned the screens that governed his life. That controlled everything now. So ordinary the language and yet he wondered. Didn't the system seem different? It seemed to measure a different part of life. Creativity? Logic? All of these were not the skills that moderated someone's life but moderated something else. But Lev didn't know.

Above Lev the creature, no, the man, disappeared in the night.

In the forest, something moved, and from the shadows, a stone hand came out and grasped the tree in which they sat. Lev jumped back.

“What the hell is this,” Lev said trying to wake Jameson up. Jameson grumbled something about hamburgers and being to old for this. Another stone hand gripped the tree, they were high up so the statues couldn’t get them, yet. The statues bashed the tree, shaking the very foundations of where they were.

That final shake woke Jameson up. Lev decided to grab his flashlight and attempt to point it into the forest. All around them standing in rows upon rows of rows that statues walked. There each step sounded throughout the forest creating a cacophony of sounds.

“What the hell do we do, we’re so fucking screwed,” Jameson shouted though he didn’t need to. The statues below them started to shake the tree they were in even more. Leaves fell from the rafters and landing on the heads of the statues. One of the statues, a stocky man with huge bulging muscles grabbed onto the edge of the tree and tried to scramble up towards them. It’s hands over it’s legs, it almost got to the part of the tree in which Lev and Jameson were if it weren’t for the bat to the face it received.

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The face of the statue caved in and revealed the juicy insides. Lev had so much power, he could utterly decimate the head of one of these statues. Lev took a breath in and let out a great breath out, he sounded like the engine of a car.

100 XP Gained from the slaying of [Reanimated Statue]

Level Up

A surge of energy went through Lev’s body. Golden pale energy, the color of the sun as it comes up in the morning and when it goes down at night. He basked in its energy and his body got hotter and hotter. Both his mind and his body seemed to start to boil and his heart began to vibrate.

From below another statue’s hands grabbed the body of the tree. It scrambled up like a spider, Lev could barely react when it had already arrived at his little encampment. It stood in front of him for a second, Lev held his bat as he stared unsure of what to do, this statue barely looked human. Its hands were long and elongated and its toes had become talons the size of a man.

Instead of the metal of the previous statues, this statue was made of dark ebony. The ebony shone and glinted in the moonlight, Lev stared at its gloss. Darkness, utter darkness, the statue itself seemed to shine with darkness. Unlike the other statues, it wore a cloak that moved with the wind.

“Ahhhhh yes you humans are a lovely snack, just a little nibbling, maybe even just a crumb for master. He’ll love to eat you.” The statue said and after from its mouth came the strangest creaking noise. Lev looked at the statue, his arms frozen, his whole entire body frozen, he couldn’t move at all. Two twin hands made out of darkness grasped his own hands pulling him down to the Earth. He struggled against them but they wouldn’t budge, they couldn’t budge. Lev looked at the statue again and it was coming down on Lev, it’s arms coming down into a frightful horrible terrifying attack.

Except as its hands rose into the air, a huge metal crowbar landed right on it’s back. It fell to the floor, it’s body deflated, it’s energy gone, just a man it was, in a metal suit. Blood splattered on the crowbar. Jameson huffed, air exiting his lungs as he looked down at the bird creature he had killed.

“We gotta get out of here.” So they ran, and ran through the trees, Jameson was better than Lev, his body’s muscles coming in handy on the jungle terrain. From below a sea of statues grasped at their feet. Thousands of them standing side by side on the jungle below. And Lev and Jameson's feet could hardly keep them from running faster. Lev’s legs seemed to function differently he noticed, all of the muscles were more efficient, and they all seemed to run on some sort of fuel that not even Lev knew he had.

Four minutes passed and they got more and more tired at the passing. Jameson slipped on a branch, and down, down, down he fell until he hit another branch with a thunk. Lev winced as Jameson’s body collided with it.

Lev helped Jameson up but as he saw Jameson’s body he sighed. His leg was twisted in a most unnatural way, the bone seemed to point directly at Lev accusing him of something.

“Can you run?” Lev asked. All that he received from Jameson was a grunt of affirmation. But his leg couldn’t move. Definitely couldn’t move. All around Lev came the statues. Different colors, different heights, all the same variety of death. They crawled along with the trees inching closer and closer to Lev’s position. Lev took a deep breath, and from his core came a sound. From his real core came a sound, his lungs started to vibrate, his muscles started to vibrate. Much like the engine of a car. And Lev was just starting up