“Nicola, heads up!”

She turned to look at him as he leapt off the top of the mound. Landing hard, he took off running as Nicola chased him.

“Heads up what? What’s happening?”

Mandla looked back to mouth a word silently, so the others wouldn’t hear.

“Hyenas.”

She paled.

Whoever these new arrivals were, they were leading the hyenas directly towards one of the dumping grounds, where several sleds were approaching.

This is gonna be a problem.

They weren’t done clearing the burrow yet. The last thing they needed was a pack of hungry scavengers discovering the bounty they were leaving.

Luckily, he’d only seen six of the beasts, not the whole clan. Unluckily, that meant he and Nicola had to make sure not a single one of them left.

His boundless energy, now fully beyond human limits, let him tear through the grass towards the screaming figures. He heard Nicola grumbling as he opened up a gap between them.

The sled teams had noticed them now and, as instructed, those pulling the sleds rushed back towards the burrow as the [Heavy Spearmen] and [Defenders] slowly edged backwards, spears pointed at the danger. The Ascendants zoomed past, and the formation started moving forward once more, to give support.

Thanks to the frantic motions of the four strangers running for their lives, Mandla couldn’t get a shot on the beasts with his [Assegai] without risking hitting one of them. Above him, arrows started whistling as Nicola had got into position in one of the trees.

Ooh fuck.

One of the strangers had tripped and two of the hyenas immediately stopped to maul him, giggling through his screams as they tore bloody chunks out of his soft bits.

The other three, two women and a man, didn’t even look back as their comrade’s gut-wrenching shrieks abruptly cut off when one of the hyenas finally ripped his throat out.

The wild-eyed survivors spotted Mandla’s form racing their way and they called out to him in desperation, the hyenas gnashing at their heels.

Trusting Nicola to get the two beasts still defiling the poor man’s corpse, Mandla skidded to a halt. Planting his feet, he summoned his [Assegai] as the strangers found a second wind, now sprinting towards him like he was their salvation.

He was.

Tensing his shoulders, Mandla felt his newfound power flow between him and the weapon, seemingly feeding it from a well deep inside him. A well, he could tell, that stretched infinitely wide and infinitely deep. But as he tried to draw more, drink deeper of the pure energy, he was barred by something. Try as he might, he could only access… a trickle.

Understanding flicked into place as he wound up, the survivors screaming for deliverance, the javelin screaming for freedom and with his muscles flexing like steel cables, Mandla granted both wishes.

Launching like a rocket, his [Assegai] chewed through the intervening space, boring a grisly football-sized hole through one hyena and impaling another. The beasts died with a whine as he turned to face the last two, that were now almost upon him.

The panting refugees ran right past him as he summoned his [Imbemba] for the first time. Aiming the cutting edge at one of the approaching hyenas, he felt the weapon pull more and more energy into the thin strip of dangerously honed metal.

Raising his arms into a massive two-handed strike, Mandla buried the axehead in the face of the crazed beast, bisecting its skull. Just as the weapon lost momentum within the hyena’s neck, its edge unleashed its stored energy in an invisible slash, that fully cleaved the huge animal in two in an explosion of gore.

Dropping the weapon from his now bloody hands, Mandla turned to the last hyena, ready to end the engagement, when a [Bodkin Point] took it straight through the head and it collapsed in front of him.

She did that on purpose.

Glancing at the people they’d saved, all three were looking at him with a mixture of awe and relief. They were all dressed in ragged looking clothes that might have been nice once, but had obviously had a rough week.

Walking up next to him, Nicola looked them over as well.

“So what’s the story?”

----------------------------------------

The story was one of struggle and hardship.

Back in the burrow now, the Ascendants were questioning the grateful refugees. Apparently they’d originally been in a group of twenty, all of them Classless. Everyone else had died.

They’d been in Zimbabwe, in the city of Bulawayo, when the system descended. The rule of law, while stabilising in the wake of the 2017 coup and the hyperinflation that followed, had completely disappeared. They’d survived four full days of utter anarchy, complete societal breakdown before finding a truck with enough petrol in it to take them across the border.

Crossing into South Africa, the group was headed towards Johannesburg before they came across a rhino Mini-Elite that broke their vehicle clean in half, luckily not pursuing them as they scurried away, but two of their number died in the ensuing fire.

Lost in a foreign country without a ride, the group of eighteen wandered south, slipping through Partition after Partition, before they stumbled upon Mandla and Nicola. Their journey had been harrowing, with them losing people to a nest of scorpions the size of dogs, a leopard that could turn invisible, a swarm of mosquitoes that had sucked three people literally dry, all manner of threats until the group of twenty had been whittled down to just these three lucky survivors sat in front of them.

To hear them tell it, the outside world was chaos, with Ascendants and Legends alike fighting in the streets and the government releasing the army into the cities to try stop the violence. The Partitions were much smaller in urban areas, and when an Ascendant became the local Hegemon, he could invade another Partition, subduing the Ascendants there and gaining the [Conqueror] title. This allowed them to start expanding their territory and crucially, start a [Settlement], gaining schematics for projects like a [Primitive Metalworks] or a [Primitive Hospital] that would give the Support Legends a massive boost.

This fact had sparked brutal conflict as the Ascendants fought for dominance, conquering territories, then beginning the process of outfitting their Legends en masse with higher level equipment, treating them with better healers, building better fortifications, even eating more nutritious food. It seemed the system was encouraging this all-out warfare, as neither Legends nor Ascendants could leave their Partitions peacefully. Invading one another was the only way to move around.

The traumatised refugees told stories of betrayal, of senseless violence and heedless butchery in the pursuit of power. They’d decided to leave after a third Rung Ascendant appeared, whose skin couldn’t be pierced at all by mundane weapons unempowered by quintessence. He’d nearly swept the city clean of government forces by simply walking into hails of bullets and slaughtering the poor servicemen.

The two Ascendants shared a glance.

Being in the middle of nowhere might have been a blessing in disguise.

Still, Mandla wanted to hear back from Kaveh and the food group first. He refused to believe that every city would have fallen to chaos. Maybe there was a method of long range communication they’d find.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The burrow had, in one of its lowest tunnels, access to a small underground stream that they used for drinking water, and to clean themselves. It was a risk, but Mandla couldn’t just walk around drenched in blood. Quickly rinsing himself off, he ran back outside to join Nicola atop the mound as she oversaw the last of the departing sled teams under the setting sun. These carried the bodies of the Dominators and the withered Dominatrix.

With these gone, the mound and the tunnel network beneath it was fully theirs. Nicola had a wild grin on her face at the sight.

“What’s with the rictus smile? Thinking about murdering more infants?”

“Fuck off. It’s just… kind of amazing. We’ve been given an opportunity here and hearing about how rough the cities are is making me think. We could really do it. Go all the way.”

Bit premature for that, don’t you think?

“One good battle and you think we’re invincible? Did you forget how the hyenas fucked us up?”

“But look at us now! A week later and you dealt with those hyenas like they were nothing! I bet with all of us at second Rung we could even wipe them all out. We’ve been given the blessing of time, Mandla, time that the unlucky sods in the cities won’t have. They’re too busy surviving, while we can get to planning.”

He regarded her. She stared back at him defiantly.

“You’re right, but can you pay the price?”

She wrinkled her brow, confused.

“Price? Don’t be cryptic, what does that mean?”

How do I even say this?

“Do you… Have you ever killed anyone?”

“Are you asking if I think I can kill someone?”

“Everyone can under the right circumstances, I’m asking if you have the will to. Did Kaveh tell you about his Trial?”

“No, he looked troubled, especially after the pup incident, so I left him alone.”

“Yeah, mine was pretty traumatising too. I accidentally… well, maybe not accidentally, but not completely on purpose… I… I killed someone. Probably two someones actually. I know they probably weren’t even real, just images in my head, but the sensation of being there, seeing the light go out of their eyes as they bleed out… It’s… It gets to you.”

Nicola considered him. She moved to clasp her arm in his, leaning her head on his shoulder. It was... nice. Blatant manipulation, for sure, but he was a red-blooded male. She spoke in a low tone.

“I know. My brother is… was in the army. He came back home after his first deployment against the Islamic insurgents in Mozambique and he looked… colourless. He’d left something behind with the dead jihadis. Something fundamental, I think. But you know what he got in return? A badass scar, multiple medals of bravery, respect among his peers, the whole pot. The biggest thing though? He has fucking steel in his gaze. I know for a fact he’s out there somewhere, doing what needs to be done without hesitation. Let’s face it, none of us are going to be able to keep our innocence in this new world. Most of us already lost it during the hyena attack. But this is a contest. Either we let this system break us, or we win this thing and make whoever did this to us pay for stealing our futures.”

Did I just open up to fucking Nicola? And she responded in kind?

His instinct was to dismiss it all as lies, but he knew she had a brother who was a decorated army man. She was being… sincere?

Stop it Mandla, she was just telling you how she purposefully uses her feminine wiles. Don’t fall for it.

Her words were genuinely helpful however. She was right in that this new world was gonna suck either way. Killing people would be a part of the suck. Either he accepted it or shied away from it. The choice would still come upon him as it had in the Trial. Kill someone or fail your objective. And in the real world, the objective was staying alive.

He just didn’t know if he could do it when the time came.

A silhouette shimmering into view on the horizon drew his attention. A focusing of his eyes resolved the hazy outlines into the food team, dragging behind them a train of supermarket trolleys somehow rigged to slide atop the grass.

“They’re back.”

Squinting her eyes into the setting sun, Nicola blinked before frowning.

“They lost someone.”

----------------------------------------

Kaveh looked out over the town of Hectorspruit. It was built on a tributary of the Crocodile River and would usually have a few lodges, a few large farms around, one small central hub, just your average sleepy SA town. Instead, what he saw was a giant swamp.

Karl walked up next to him, surveying the scene with a whistle.

“This isn’t what this place usually looks like, ja?”

“Yeah, no shit bro.”

It looked like the tributary had flooded and plant life had taken the opportunity to invade the entire area. Thick trees floated above stagnant brackish water, growing right next to shops and buildings that hadn’t collapsed yet. Moss feathered every vaguely flat surface, and vines criss-crossed above what used to be streets. Fat insects lazily buzzed through the foliage, alighting on bright flowers that snapped shut, punishing their curiosity. Even the air was changed, now stale and humid compared to the fresh warmth of the savannah breeze.

Andrew, standing beside the pair, looked around with disbelief.

“We’re supposed to find food here? That’s fucking mal dude, anyone can see this is a deathtrap. There are probably brain-eating leeches in that water.”

Probably worse too.

Kaveh would have preferred to turn back altogether, but he couldn’t let the group down.

“Come on bro, it’ll be super easy. All we need is to pick a path to one of the buildings and climb onto its roof. From there we can hop between roofs and stay out of the water.”

Their squad, ten people only, was composed of fighters and supports. There were the two Ascendants, the four swordsmen, two [Sappers] and two [Doctors]. Kaveh felt it was too risky to have the Support Legends come into the swamp with them but they needed their skills close at hand.

Karl seemed to realise this.

“We probably can but what about the supports? We can’t just leave them here.”

Kaveh, gears turning, spied a three storey office building with a large tree growing next to it. He pointed towards it.

“That spot right there has a roof we can make a base on. It’s near the edge of the water but raised up and closed off, easy to defend. If we park the supports up there and use the roof as like a launching pad for sub-expeditions, we could get this done in no time.”

And as safely as possible.

Gaining enough assent from the group, they started picking their way through the increasingly damp grass towards the swamp.

Reaching the edge of the waterline, they all stood around, nervously glancing at each other before Karl rolled his eyes and waded, uncaring, into the murky water. Bringing back some floating logs, he pushed them ashore.

The [Sappers] got to work constructing what could barely be called a bridge, in order for them all to shuffle along it towards the first floating clump of vegetation. Karl waded alongside them, pulling the bridge from within the chest-deep water so those without Ascendant physiques could hop from island to island. Quickly reaching the office building, Kaveh wrapped a length of the meerkats’ grass rope over his shoulders, before leaping up and scaling the tree growing up the building’s length.

Hopping down from its precarious branches, he landed atop the roof in question and looked around, satisfied. While there was moss growing in cracks and a few flowers, one huge one, in the corners, it had been mostly unaffected by the new climate. There was a door leading downstairs and, failing that, they could bust through the floor if they needed to make a quick escape. Assuming there wasn’t anything already living there.

“We’re still waiting down here!”

A chorus of frantic whispers and shushes followed the outburst, making Kaveh chuckle. It was always Jacob.

Leaning over the edge of the parapet, he unspooled the roughly-spun rope and anchored himself to the inside wall, allowing those below to climb up. The Supports came over first, then Jacob and another [Heavy Swordsman] clambered up before a splashing sound grabbed all their attentions.

He heard Andrew scream from below.

“IT’S A FUCKING CROC!”

Just then, a chest-rattling growl shook the boys. Kaveh scrambled to look over the parapet and saw a behemoth. A gargantuan crocodile the length of a train car and the size of a bear, mouth full of teeth and back full of tough scales, was rapidly slicing through the water, its hungry eyes focused on the group on the ground.

Karl had already manifested his shield while Andrew and the other [Heavy Swordsman] left below raised their own broad, oval shields.

Kaveh nearly panicked before remembering his Trial.

It’s never easy.

Summoning his [Khanjar], he backed away from the wall, took a running stance, and powered off, diving off the roof straight at the crocodile.

Unsheathing the weapon mid-air, the croc glowed with a dull internal light in places it was weak. Covered by the thick, scaly armour, its only critical points were its eyes and the inside of its jagged mouth.

Eyes it is.

In a flash, he’d twisted his body, angling his descent and drawing his arm back to land heavily on the croc’s head, ramming the silver blade nearly wrist-deep into the beast’s left eye. The corrective force of [Janna] meant he could immediately tell he’d messed up as the jellylike organ burst and the knife’s edge ground against bone.

The croc reared up and gave a visceral, reptilian roar as Kaveh tried to keep hold of the dagger still stuck fast in its skull.

Whipping its head around, rolling in the water, even ramming against trees couldn’t dislodge the tenacious assassin. The problem was he’d slightly miscalculated and his blade hadn’t dug into the beast’s brain, and with it splashing around like this, he couldn’t get the leverage needed to fix that mistake.

“Karl! Hit it!”

The big man surged forward, shield first as he swung his [Sverð], the weapon growling to match the massive reptile. It scratched ineffectually at the croc’s supposedly less-armoured underbelly, but served the purpose of drawing the croc’s attention for just a moment.

A moment was all he needed.

Dismissing the dagger, Kaveh brought his other hand back, manifesting it once more as he ripped the sheath off and with a roar of his own, buried its wicked length savagely in the croc’s other eye, this time doing it right.

The crocodile spasmed wildly, nearly bucking him off again, roaring madly, before its efforts weakened, then stilled.

Tearing the bloody dagger out of the floating corpse, Kaveh got a notification in his peripheral vision.

You have slain an adult Lesser Nile Crocodile.

Lesser? The fuck?

As Kaveh was staring in disbelief at the blue screen, shouts of panic from above brought him out of the trance.

“The flower! It’s alive!”

He sighed. Leaping off the now-drifting croc, he began to scale the tree when more splashing drew his attention. There were two more crocs swimming their way.

It’s never fucking easy.