I stare up, rooted by uncertainty as the screaming continues from above accompanied by the sound of struggling. Then…. silence, nothing but a low gurgling echoing down the stairwell. Well shit, they're fucking dead I guess. I let out the breath I was holding and start to sneak my way down the stairwell. Above me I hear movement as what I am assuming are new zombies start to get up and move around. I don't encounter any problems on my way down thankfully, and im quiet enough that the ones above me don't hear. Everything seems to be going good, and I'm confident as I reach the bottom of the stairwell. I slowly open the door as quietly as I can, trying to minimize the squeaking of its hinges. I get the door open just a crack and peer through with one eye…. and make eye contact with a zombie that was staring at the door!

I slam the door closed as the zombified business woman from before let out an ear piercing screech and threw itself at the door. Unfortunately, stairwell doors open into the stairwell, so I have to use all my available strength to keep the door closed. Above me I hear the new zombies scream as well, and start scrambling down the stairs.

“Bloody dickhead” I curse aloud, unable to contain my anger.

Of course there was a damn zombie at the bottom of the stairs, staring at the door! Because where else would a zombie be in the entirety of the building!? I continue to hold the door as the group above continues to thundering down the stairs but a weird sound starts to echo off the walls. It sounds like flesh hitting metal? And it's echoing out repeatedly and getting closer. I hear one final loud twang from above before a thud and accompanying splat indicate something landed behind me in the stairwell.

Fearing the worse I spin around, almost letting the door open in the process before I throw my back against it. Laid out before me is the mangled remains of a zombie, the jelly controlling it nothing but a colorful smear on the floor. The stupid demon fell down the staircase! Whatever works for me, problem is that its friends are still thundering down the stairs, and the one at the door won't let up! I need to deal with this one at the door before the others get here or I will definitely be screwed. Ok think, zombies are stupid, as evidenced by the one dead on the floor. I wonder if I can trick it into overshooting then hit it from behind or run through the door. Worth a shot I guess.

I pull the butter knife out of my pocket and start trying to feel when the best time to jump out of the way would be. The zombie is throwing itself against the door but sometimes backs off to slam slam against it with some extra force. I just need to get my timing right. I don't need to wait long, the pressure on the door lets up for just a moment and I jump to the side. The moment I get clear the demented abomination bursts through and stumbles over, clearly not expecting to actually burst through. It doesn't even have time to fully hit the ground before I jump on its back and plunge the knife in as hard as I can.

As I suspected, the demon jellyfish are extremely squishy, and the knife sinks in like a hot knife through butter. I yank the knife back, gutting the damn thing and managing to get even more crap on my jacket in the process. It's not like it's salvageable anyways. The creature shudders for a second along with the body it's connected to, before both flop to the floor lifeless. I don't waste a second, jumping back up and rushing through the door, slamming it closed behind me. And just in time to, as the small horde smashes into the door as it clicks into place. Thankfully they aren't smart enough to know how to use the handle, and the metal fire door seems to be strong enough to hold them for now.

I let out a sigh of relief then walk down the small hallway leading to the lobby proper. When I finally come to the lobby, I almost wish I hadn't. The front windows and remaining doors are completely smeared with blood. The floor of the lobby is no better, with blood kicked about or pooling up under the few half eaten corpses remaining in the lobby. Tiles hang loose or have fallen from the drop down ceiling, a body blocks the elevator from closing, causing them to constantly reopen and try to close.

Repulsed, I turn away in disgust, throwing my hand over my mouth and gagging. Yea, I should have expected that. Something tells me I'm going to be doing a lot of almost throwing up before this is over. I carefully step through the lobby, weaving my way around the corpses and towards the door. I'm wondering if I should take the risk and bring my horns out, maybe my tail too. Being able to sense stuff through walls could be useful, and being able to feel these fuckers might give me more information on them. And the tail, well I'm pretty sure that thing is stronger than my actual arms so yea, deadly weapon in its own right.

I unshift my tail and horns, feeling the detection aura and fifth limb settle over me almost instantly. Three more zombies come barreling from the hallway, instantly giving chase after the first one. I decide to hedge my bets on my remaining mana, and prepare a full power screech to damage them.

Mana: 3128/8162

More than I thought I'd have, given I'd kept everything shifted away until now.

Right when the first one is halfway to me I let loose, sending out a sonic blast that cracks the tile floor, shreds the drop ceiling, and blows plaster off the wall. The zombies don't fair much better, their clothes are ripped into ribbons instantly, with the ribbons then flying away from the force. The skin underneath is ravaged by cuts of varying sizes and an angry shade of red. The jellyfish don't fare much better. The attack causes them a lot of pain apparently, as some of their tentacles actually lose grip and flail about, causing the host bodies to falter. One of the back ones stumbles but keeps going, the other two just straight up trip and fall over each other. The one in front stumbles but tries to lunge for me anyways. It crashes next to me as I scramble back trying to avoid its lunge.

I notice three things the moment it enters into my sensing perception. First, the host and the jellyfish demon have separate essence signatures. Second, both the jellyfish and host feel significantly weaker than me. And third, the jellyfish seems to be stealing essence from the host body somehow.

I don't give it any time to recover as my tail shoots out and tries to smack the jelly directly. It manages to turn the hosts head just in time to take the blow. I end up smashing it in the jaw instead. A sickening crunch comes from its face as the head snaps back and the zombie falls to the ground, my tail left stinging like a mother fucker. Ouch ouch ouch! Feels exactly like when you slap someone too hard. Good news is I'm pretty sure nothing is broken at least.

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I reverse my direction and charge towards the downed zombie, keen to make the most of this opportunity. I get over top of it as it flips over onto its stomach in an attempt to claw at me, then stomp down right on the now exposed jelly. The jellyfish instantly splatters sending guts and blood everywhere as my foot continues down and I feel the neck give way with a nasty crack.

The jellyfish's essence falls apart like a ball of water that's lost cohesion; it spreads and fades into the background, spreading out and becoming more diluted as it goes. Some of the essence makes contact with me, and I feel the smallest of rushes as I absorb it. The same thing happens for the host a moment later, as it seems whatever the jellyfish was doing was the only thing keeping their essence cohesive. That or its because I snapped their neck. Probably a mercy honestly, I can see anyone coming back after what those demons are doing to them.

Unfortunately the other three aren't intimidated by their friend’s execution, as the two that tripped are getting back up and the other one is almost on top of me. But I think I've figured out how to deal with them. From the few I've watched I notice they always lunge at their victims the moment they get close enough. Once you avoid the lunge they are at a disadvantage and exposed. I spin around to face the second zombie, getting my stance ready to evade it when it tries to jump on me. Sure enough the moment it's close enough it launches itself at me, not quite a jump but close enough that it now has poor control over its direction. I scramble to the side to avoid it as it flies past flailing and trying to sink its claws into me. I immediately flick my tail the opposite way, allowing me to rapidly change my momentum and run up on the zombie before it even finishes hitting the ground. This time the angle is better because I got up on it so quickly, so I'm able to give the jellyfish a nasty kick from the side instead of a stomp. I feel its essence dissipate the moment it becomes a splatter flying across the lobby. Unfortunately its victim's essence also dissipates a moment later, confirming that the demon jellyfish are the only thing keeping them alive.

Damn, but probably better than living after what the demon jellyfish have done to them. I gotta remember that tail flicking trick, didn't even know I could do that. Guess it's a part of the whole naturally knowing how to use it bullshit. Well, two done, two to go. I turn my attention back to the final two zombies who have finally gotten back up and started charging across the lobby at me again. This is going to be a bit more complicated, I'm debating on blasting them with another screech. But do I really want to expend the mana necessary? At this point I'm less concerned with keeping myself disguised and more concerned with not getting my face ripped off. In that respect, it's probably better to spend mana before blood, aka, use mana to avoid getting hurt.

So, following that logic it's better to blast them again to improve my odds. I take a deep breath and pour mana into the spell. I wait until they are about to lunge, then blast them at almost point blank range. The few tattered pieces remaining of their clothing are instantly destroyed as a new wave of cuts and blood spreads across their bodies. The jellyfish flail as the blast hits the tentacles wrapped around the heads, causing no small amount of damage and one of the tentacles to even fall off. The zombies tumble to the floor at my feet, barely controlled and having a hard time moving due to the accumulated damage. I think the left one even has a broken arm.

I don't give them any chance to recover, rushing forward and stomping down on the neck of the closer of the two, instantly destroying the jellyfish by making it to a splatter pancake impression. But when I turn to the other one, I find it's detaching from the host body and trying to run. It's not nearly fast enough. As it leaps away from the host body my tail shoots out and slaps it out of the air causing no small amount of gore and blood splatter to be added to the canvas that is me. I wipe the gunk away from my eyes with my one good sleeve and take stock of the carnage. Four more bodies lie among the lobby, fresh blood and bits of demon jellyfish adorn the walls and floor. Plaster has been knocked away, ceiling tiles are missing and broken on the floor, said floor now has no small amount of cracks in it.

The chaos inside now matches the chaos outside, fitting for a breach event where it seems everything that could have, definitely went wrong. My knees give out and exhaustion hits me like a truck as the rush of fighting fades away, leaving me alone and scared in the middle of this carnage filled shithole. OK deep breaths, I made it this far through not super great encounters, I can get through this. I've survived worse, the tail, horns, wings, and eyes are all constant reminders of that. I let out a sigh as I stand back up, determined to keep going and get out of this hell hole.

I take stock of myself to check for any injuries, I think I dodged all their attacks but better safe than sorry. No injuries as far as I can tell, just demon and possibly person blood and guts covering me. Only slight problem I foresee is my shoes are starting to fall apart from all the stomping and kicking. I should probably stick to using the knife or else I'll be walking around barefoot before long. I also need to keep an eye on my mana, running out at the wrong time would probably get me killed. If not by demons then by responding soldiers and defenders trying to purge the city. And after an event like this, it's going to be a HARD purge. They will turn over every stone in this city leaving me with nowhere to hide. So I'll need mana to blend in or get executed, because the ‘oh I'm not actually a demon’ excuse sure as hell won't fly in the middle of a breach event. Speaking of mana, I've killed a lot of shit, what's my mana and power level at.

[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/RLdv5t_c9Srg-mL1mKcPIn73erKf6EllvPXEXHMI4KVHdqUucHkNWQlGXkyeB345nwPNWBuz9raEwzGybMnUIgBezQ9VlvDaXX8fNRB8y6RDBiDA_Kkipv60eJ2H_HGMtRK1xl5It_mF0L6jxCdk4KE]

Well, mana is higher than I expected. And I guess killing all those demons wasn't a waste of time. Those twenty points go into attunement, aaaaand done!

[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/zHcEmOzoKbh4tbLLievJtEvzCQoaEwkUkeBDhuWw36dE4ccJ1aCYzK-G88FgY_PyoSRKkwMNXGwV2ZrBFO5K1snC7mgeQ2-nyhcmPXhrr1XDR5m7chETjR4VQ_q7nhwCTAO5OZQCHPNND-eGCIuBaY8]

Wait, what was the ratio you needed to follow when putting all your points in one stat again? I think it was forty something… right forty two! One point in everything else for every forty two. How many points have I dumped into attunement? Let's see, started off at two hundred something power level, ten for the two sets before five hundred, thirty for the three sets after, so forty points. So my next set should have at least half of them spread across the other stats. Though that ratio is for humans, and I'm not exactly human, biologically at least. So does the ratio even apply to me? Hmm, I'm sure there's some kind of ratio, but it might not be the forty two to one. For now I'll follow that and adjust as necessary.

Dealing with my magic done I turn my attention to looking outside. It's hard to see with the setting sun blaring light straight through the front windows but what I can see is carnage. Once the sun sets the only illumination will be from the….. wait, it's eerily quiet. Is the fucking power out? I do a quick check, finding a light switch in the lobby and flicking it, only for nothing to happen. You gotta be shitting me, when did that happen? It had to have been some time after I left the stairwell, because that had working lights.

Of course, I just now noticed the camera mounted above in the middle of the lobby while inspecting the lights. Shit, I really hope the power died before that thing saw me transform. If it didn't, gah! I'll deal with that when it comes to. I start making my way towards the exit, hoping now to use the cover of darkness to sneak my way south.