Jim slowly regained his vision as a feeling of déjà vu struck him. He saw an all too familiar ceiling, a window to his right. where the sun shined through, and the cabinet to his left with a small lamp standing on it.

Jim was back at the church, in the room where he first woke up after fighting against the raven. He really lost his consciousness often these last few days, didn’t he?

A rare feeling of exhaustion ran over Jim as he dwelled on memories of the past, a boring but peaceful time, a time that he missed a lot in these hard times. Thinking about the past emotion welled in him, as he remembered the death of his parents.

A small tear fell from the corner of his eye before he shook his head to clear his mind. There was still much to do and no time to rest. Not before he found a way to cure his sister.

Sitting upright Jim felt a sharp pain coming from the left side of his chest. His bones were definitely fractured if not broken. He acted recklessly this time, but it wasn’t like he really risked his life, he was just testing the limits.

If not for his strong body Jim would have sustained way more serious injuries than some fractures. If he was still a normal human his bones would have been shattered to bits and his arm ripped apart.

Their method of healing was a problem that was becoming more and more apartment the more days passed. Their ability to heal someone if they are injured was very limited and apart from hoping the body would heal by itself there wasn’t much they could do.

They could prevent bleeding, had some medication for some illnesses, but no real doctor to appraise someone and their strongest tool of healing was the transformation that each rank provided.

They long found out that the transformation was using this new energy to break the body down and rebuild it stronger, in this process most injuries are healed even if they are severe.

They first noticed this when Clay transformed after the spider slashed deep into his arm, while undergoing the transformation the wound closed at a speed visible to the eye. Afterwards, only a faint scar remained.

Sadly it was hard to use this beneficial effect. Not only had each transformation a certain risk of failure - that can lead to severe injuries or even death - but was also hard to time. You can somewhat feel how far you are to the next rank, but the moment you have enough energy you lose control over the transformation.

It happens automatically and is often connected to losing consciousness. Jim heard of some people that could delay the transformation for some time, but they could neither prevent it completely nor stay awake until the end.

Apart from the realization that their ability to heal was lacking, Jim knew thanks to this battle that with the help of his ability to strengthen his body and sixth sense he should be able to overpower most mutants of the same rank.

Unfonratly Jim was the exception and not the norm when it came to fighting mutants of the same rank. It was a fact that humans were innately a lot weaker compared to the average mutant and this difference became only more apparent as the ranks increased.

The only thing that gave humans an advantage was their superior intelligence and equipment, without those every current survivor would have died long ago.

In this fight, Jim not only learned a lot but nationally regained about half of his energy that he lost on the trip to Mia. He wasn’t sure how far the next rank was, but that didn’t matter, the city had more than enough mutants for him to kill.

Heaving himself out of the bed Jim looked around the room before remembering that there was a bathroom beside his own room. Opening the door he saw a bathroom like any other, with a toilet, shower, some closets, and a sink.

The only remarkable thing was the aesthetic of the room which was built in the style of the Medieval Ages. Coming before the sink Jim mindlessly turned the tap on, before noticing that apart from a single drop of water nothing came out.

A frustrated sigh escaped his lips, as he remembered that like the electricity their water system stopped working long ago. Supporting himself on the sink Jim looked at the mirror and the reflection it showed.

Jim was startled, as he noticed his own reflection, there was so much happening around him that he never took the time to look at himself in the mirror. He couldn’t even remember the last time he saw his own reflection.

Standing before him was a boy, with dark blue eyes that had a furious glint to them, disheveled short brown hair, his upper body was covered in bandages from old and new wounds, and on his left cheek two deep cuts stretched across his face - overlapping and forming a stretched cross.

With everything going on Jim never realized or cared how he looked. He even forgot the countless wounds that accumulated over the last month. Especially the cuts on his cheek made it apparent that things really changed quickly.

He got both of these cuts not too long ago. The first came from a throwing knife from Troy that he barely avoided and the second from Ray’s rapier. Looking at the rest of his body Jim found more and more wounds.

Most of them were cuts from various mutants and some of these wounds remained as faint scars that would never vanish from his body. He also noticed that his muscles were a lot more developed, compared to the past.

They weren’t bulkier, just a lot more apparent, and tensing them he could feel the strong force they could produce. Jim’s muscles were the thing that had to suffer the most in his survival over the last month.

Every time he was using his ability, he essentially overused his muscles to the limit, breaking them in the process. Now that he thought about it, how could his muscles regenerate so fast? No, not only his muscles, his whole body was regenerating at a speed not comparable to before.

The wound on his cheek was already mostly healed and in another few days would turn into faint scars. It seems like his third transformation changed his body more than he initially thought.

Looking beside the sink Jim found a self-made bucket with some water that he could use to wash himself. After he was done he returned to his room and threw some simple clothes on.

Going down to the ground floor, and entering the kitchen Jim saw a set table for one person. The food consisted of some bread and grilled meat; a lot of grilled meat. That was after all their food for the foreseeable future.

Most vegetables and fruits were by now either eaten or rotten. There were still some fruits in cans that could be eaten, but there was a limit to how many cans a single city can have and after another one or two months there would be only scraps left.

They started to grow fields long ago but decided only to plant wheat and potatoes. Other plants would decay too quickly or give too few nutrients.

The only thing they didn’t lack was meat. With the countless mutants running around that all increased in size compared to the past they now had a lot more meat than they could ask for. Some meat was preserved by smoking it or drying it, while the rest was grilled or cooked and directly eaten.

With proper seasoning the meat didn’t taste a lot different compared to the past, but there were a few mutants where the meat tasted rather unique but until now they could consume the meat without suffering any sort of illnesses or side effects.

This of course didn’t change the fact that many missed some good fruits, but there was nothing they could do for now, meat was their only reliable source of food.

Jim really didn’t care much how his food tasted, as long as it would fill him up and give him the energy to keep fighting. With this in mind, he quickly gobbled up the food on the table before setting off to search for Solaire.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

After asking around he soon found him and after some talking another meeting was called. After another discussion, they decided to continue their conquest of the city and on the same day broke off to kill their next target.

***

A whole month passed since Jim and the others began their conquest of the city and many things changed in this time. They continued their plan of killing one mutant after the other and the plan was working wonders.

By now the Vanguard - a name given by the people to everyone brave enough to risk their life - was venturing into the north, as the east was completely cleared of every strong mutant, and apart from two people from Dave’s group everyone survived.

Not only did they survive they grew in strength, as each member of the Vanguard was of the third rank, while their leader reached not long ago the fourth.

It took longer than expected, as Jim visited Mia once at the end of each week, but eventually, he was able to reach the fourth rank after much hardship and bloodshed. He lost count of how many mutants he killed over the last month, at some point, he stopped caring, focusing only on his goal; saving his sister.

Fortunately, the fourth rank lived up to their expectations and was a huge difference from the third rank. It seemed like that from her onwards every rank would only increase the effects it provided.

The differences began with the transformation alone, as it took almost a whole day. A complete day where Jim’s body was constantly destroyed and rebuilt, a transformation so taxing that he needed days to recover and completely adapt to his new body.

Apart from the general improvement of physical strength, speed, endurance, regeneration, and senses, Jim was finally able to activate his ability at will. Before Jim was only able to boost his strength if he was in a life-threatening situation and there was more than one occasion where he wanted to use his ability but couldn’t.

Now after reaching the fourth rank he was finally able to better feel his energy and use it to activate his ability and was able to observe what was happening while he used his energy.

Jim knew that similar to blood vessels, this energy too rushed through his body in similar vessels, and the moment he activates his ability this energy burns itself, generating energy that allows him to push his body beyond its normal limits.

Overcoming these limits results in new peaks of strength and allows him to do things that would be impossible otherwise, but breaking these limits comes not without its costs. There was a reason why this limit existed and the moment Jim overcomes this limit he essentially destroys his own body, burning it from the inside out.

If he used this ability for too long he could seriously injure or even kill himself. For that reason, he had to be careful when and for how long he used this ability. Thankfully most fights never lasted long enough for Jim to use this ability excessively.

With each member of the Vanguard being of the third rank they were not fighting for survival but to slaughter every mutant, purging them from this world, as they left a scene of carnage wherever they fought.

Most mutants of the third rank stayed for themself and rarely allied with each other which made fights laughably easy and a lot of the pressure they had in the past vanished. The only threat came from the north as many more mutants of the third rank stayed there and often formed groups because they couldn’t survive alone.

Compared to the mutants Jim was more concerned about Troy, or to be more specific his absence. They lost a lot of people when he ambushed them and he didn’t want to lose more.

Jim wanted to believe he died from the maws of another random mutant but he knew better that Troy wouldn’t die so easily. This fact made it that more concerning that they didn’t see a single sign from either him or his group for over a month.

Deep inside Jim knew that he was planning something and he wasn’t too keen to find out what it was.

Apart from this looming threat, they had some results from their research institution. It was hard in the beginning but Jake eventually found enough people with acceptable talent and did some experiments with them.

Together with Jake's keen senses and Jim's newfound knowledge, they were able to replicate Jim's strengthening ability. The effect wasn't entirely the same but very similar, unfortunately, their happiness from this discovery was short-lived. After using the ability Jake broke not long after together, coughing blood.

They continued their experiments and found that the effect of this ability varied greatly between each user. Some could withstand this activation fine, while others broke down not long after, coughing blood, or having spasms.

But these side effects didn't matter. They needed a trump card that could preserve their lives in a dangerous situation, who cared for some injuries if they could preserve their life? That this ability doesn't come without its cost was clear from the beginning.

For now, the plan was to teach others this ability to use it in emergencies. The only thing that really seemed to be special to Jim alone was his sixth sense which experienced the greatest change after reaching the fourth rank. If he was before using his reflexes to avoid things he couldn’t see, now he was able to sense them clearly and decide what to do himself.

More important to Jim than his sixth sense was the fact that he was now able to withstand the poison from Mia way better compared to before. The amount of energy he lost was negligible compared to before and he could now more regularly visit her and try to teach her how to sense this energy in the hope it will lead her to learn how to control her ability.

After a full month, the range Mia’s poison spread to increased by a lot, and now almost the complete west was fully covered in this deadly poison that killed everything that dared come to close.

Even with all the good things happening there were still many things they had to work on, including their equipment. Apart from the weapons from the museum and some modern knives from the houses in the city they had no other weapons.

Using a sword to rip, tear and pierce through thick flesh not only dulled the blade but damaged it. After using their weapons for two months straight the damage was starting to accumulate, not to mention armor.

By now most of their armor was so often patched and flicked, that it was easier to use the thick skin of the mutants, to make leather and use that as armor. Leather was easier to make, easier to move around in, more comfortable, and didn’t produce as much sound when you moved in it.

Many people in the church were focusing just on producing this leather armor and trying to somehow maintain their few weapons and attempt to make new ones. Sadly they did not have a proper smith and progress was slow when it came to making new weapons.

For now, the weapons would hold on but they had to find a solution to this problem at some point. Apart from this, not much has happened and by now everyone adapted to this new lifestyle and were trying their best every day to improve the living condition of everyone.

Having the constant threat of death looming over your head really fused the people together and it almost felt like they were forming a big family. They were building a new home atop the ruins of the old.

They only had to clear the north of any mutants, find a way to stop Mia’s ability from spreading and kill Troy to finally recapture the city and claim it as their own. To rebuild it and form it into a stronghold that could survive in this new world.

With this plan in mind, everyone was eager to continue their conquest of the north. They were easily empowering every mutant they encountered and were confident that they could defend themself against any threat.

At least that was what they thought, everything changed when they saw a fully mutated mantis that stood at the fourth rank. Insects were the animals that survived the least mutations and were the rarest of mutants they faced but were often the strongest.

The spider on their first day proved how dangerous insects are and looking at the mantis the group had for the first time the urge to flee. A mantis was a natural predator, equipped with weapons that could snap a body easily in half and had senses far superior to humans.

With their compound eyes they could see far better than any human, together with their quick movement Jim wasn’t confident to be faster even if he strengthened his body. He knew best how big of a difference the fourth rank made.

He could only guess how far stronger mutants are compared to humans. Not speaking about a mantis that was close to two meters tall. Surrounding the mantis was a sea of corpses and its head was down ripping with its beak-like snout and mandibles the flesh from its prey.

At first, Jim hoped that it didn’t notice them, its back was turned to them and they slowly retreated back, before the head of the mantis sprang up, tuning almost 180 degrees, looking directly at Jim and the rest of the group.

Slowly turning its body its eyes never left its prey as its mandibles repeatedly opened and closed. They were tense, as they prepared for the mantis to attack, forming a tight circle with Jim at the front.

To their confusion, the mantis was suddenly distracted by something else, as it looked to its left, in a side street. Slowly walking out of it with a drawn long sword came a boy, with blond shoulder-length hair that was at the top, tied to a bun.

His eyes were deep dark green and had a ruthless gaze behind them, while his clothes were sewed together from various skins of mutants. Seeing the person Jim was flabbergasted and unable to speak.

He just watched as the boy got closer and closer to the mantis, he could feel that he too was of the fourth rank. His eyes were almost not able to react as the mantis suddenly snapped with its right claw the moment the boy came into range.

Seeming like a calm river the boy avoided the attack by shifting his body to the left, immediately after the left claw followed, which too was avoided by ducking under it and with the same pace continued to get closer to the mantis.

Shocked by the boy coming closer the mantis retreated while it continued attacking, but not a single attack landed on its target, grabbing nothing but air. This went on for seemingly hours when the mantis finally showed signs of fatigue and out of nowhere a shadow appeared behind the mantis.

With one skillful motion a dagger drilled between the exoskeleton of the mantis below its head and soon its small head flew through the air, it didn’t even realize what hit it before its body broke into itself like a card house.

Seeing this scene Jim asked in shock, “Clay!?"