The members of the Living Saints had taken a pretty big area ranging over several hundred feet. They had taken over a gas station, an 8 Hotel, and a Walmart. Each location had one of the top dogs of their Clan watching over it. Chris was sent to the gas station while Kuvali went to the Walmart. Damian and Renzo took the Hotel.

At each building there was a blockade with several men holding powerful weaponry.

Kuvali and Blue Amigo stormed at the grocery store. The regular entrances had been completely blocked off by cars and other vehicles stacked on top of each other. The only way in from the front was to enter the garden section. Unfortunately, all the men were stationed here.

One man had pulled out a chainsaw while another pulled out a hunting rifle. There were all sorts of things in a Walmart, huh? Blue Amigo commanded the Skeletons and Undead that they brought with them. He had constructed a sort of metal shield that was bent in half long ways and held vertically like a Spartan. It deflected bullets well and even some Skeletons had them.

These were the Skeleton Guardians. They charged forward and took the brunt of the attacks, letting the weaker Skeletons easily get close. Kuvali took the chance to practice his Skills and such. First, he used his Quick Skill and found himself constantly losing SP. While Quick was activated, however, he found that he could move at almost twice his previous speed!

Earlier, in the siege against Jane’s group, Kuvali had killed a Skill Holder. The Skill he had acquired wasn’t all that good, or so he thought.

Spit. It didn’t do anything. He was told the previous guy used it to spit fire like a dragon, but he didn’t have a flammable fuel nor did he have a mouth! Instead, he had the tattoos. They morphed around his body like a desktop screensaver. Only, he didn’t know what Reese meant by this.

If he focused, he could actually control what the tattoos transformed into. He made eyes, nose, and a mouth. It didn’t look quite right, but it worked. He mimicked the motion of spitting and was surprised to see a glob of black ink exit where the mouth was located.

What if he made the mouth elsewhere?

Yep, it worked. But was this the tattoo? He didn’t feel as if he was losing anything. No, he was losing SP here, too. He rushed around using Quick and Spit into one of the guy’s face. After returning to safety, he looked at his test subject.

“AAAGH! AAAIIEI!!!”

He was being consumed by the ink. His body became corrupted as the color drained into a dreary gray and he collapsed on the ground. His comrades stared on in horror before backing up. That was because the body began to move. The gray began to darken to a pitch black and became wispy. Soon, a Level 0 Shade was standing in front of them.

This must be because of his Race! A Corrupted One. His body was taken over by the mystic and arcane markings on his body. They held a strange, almost Demonic, power, but that was all he knew. Could this Race give him the ability to become a Noble?! No, probably not. Only if the Shade could kill an Ability User, that is. Kuvali wasn’t sure these things had that capability. Maybe later.

He rushed into the throng of confused and scared Living Saints and formed multiple mouths which all spat at all of them. He backed away so as to watch the transformation. He had another Skill, but it was called Swarm of Darkness and he couldn’t activate it for some reason. Maybe it had special conditions that needed to be met.

Kuvali had the normal Skeletons and Undead return so as to let these Shades get some experience. They needed to get stronger.

Now, Kuvali didn’t have orifices or organs to sense the world around him, but he could still do just that. Sort of like a Skeleton. But unlike the Skeletons, Kuvali and even the Shades could feel the darkness and shadows. If anything was touching a shadow that he was in contact with, he could sense them. He himself had no shadow, however.

The small group walked along the aisles, making sure the garden section was blocked off. The monitor stopped working as soon as they walked into the designated Clan Area, so they had to rely on their senses to find out where the Ability User was. They passed empty shelves and broken equipment. There was no sign of anything remaining in here. However, when they walked towards the deli area, they heard the sounds of sharp metal cutting into something.

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They surrounded the possible exits and Kuvali sent some of the Shades to go block off the outside exit. They quietly snuck in and found all sorts of bloodied bodies.

“Cannibals?!”

As they walked, Kuvali sighed in relief upon seeing the bodies being chewed on by zombie dogs chained to a spot on the ground. There were three of them and they seemed to be getting bigger. Suddenly, an alert appeared.

“Oh no! The Butcher has carved up his own Clan mates! He fed them to several Undead Beasts and now those are Level 3! 3 BOSSes! You aren’t supposed to make the Undead stronger, you know?!”

Creepy laughter filled the air as a man with a bloody apron and hairnet walked out of a side room.

“These were my doggies back before all this mess happened. Now that they are stronger, surely they can remember me!”

Sure enough, the dogs started wagging their tails and made barking sounds but it came out as more of an ugly gurgle. Each dog began forming strange lines on their bodies as they fell asleep and rested.

“Hehehe, I don’t care about this stupid Clan! I have my puppies back! Now no one can mess with me!”

“You fed your comrades to your dogs to make them stronger?”

“Hahaha! YES!”

It was no use. The Butcher was out of his mind. Kuvali quickly rushed at the Butcher, swinging the Kukri he got from the Summon. He also had some sort of tribal wear on that looked like Native American pants or something. But that was beside the point. In an instant, the Butcher’s laughs were cut short when his legs fell off and he dropped face first into the ground.

Blue Amigo then used a gun and finished him off, transforming him into another Undead Hero Mid BOSS. But, as if noticing their master was killed, the dogs woke up fully transformed and quite angry. Kuvali took this as a chance to Level Up more Minions and Units. He heard the others talking about raising the Guardians to become Knights or something, so he went to cut the feet off one of the dogs.

Unfortunately, all the dogs rushed towards Blue Amigo. Fortunately, however, he still had his shield. He managed to block the initial attacks which left room for Kuvali to strike. He had a lot of experience in hunting and killing animals, so this was a cinch. He took out the legs of one dog and hurried to disable the others.

Blue kept one busy while one of the Guardians were busy smashing the disabled dog’s head to pieces. Kuvali hacked one leg off another before it sent a tendril of black smoke towards him. He quickly dodged and tried to go back, but the fog was in his way again.

He took the chance to regenerate his SP. Wondering why the Guardian hadn’t become a Mid BOSS, Kuvali pondered the possibilities. So the Guardian was Level 1. The only Level 2 Units were back at base. Now the Guardian was Level 2. It still had one more Level before becoming a Mid BOSS, although it definitely looked much denser than before. It could probably hold the massive shield in one hand now, allowing for a weapon to be held as well.

The smoke slowly dissipated, indicating that the dog couldn’t maintain it for too long. Kuvali rushed back in and finished hacking apart the weakened animal, allowing a Shade to finish it off. Unlike the Guardian, the Shade did not change. Did it need to do something else?

That’s right! It’s only Level 0! It still needs to kill enough Level 0s to become Level 1 before becoming Level 1 and unlocking Level 2.

Blue managed to disorient the last dog that kept trying to merge with the ground. Using that chance, Kuvali trounced the dog and it soon became fodder for another Shade. Lucky, he thought. He now had 5 Shades under his direct control and two of them were already waiting to become Level 2!

He had also Leveled Up a Skeleton Guardian to a Knight and made Blue Amigo become a Mid BOSS. Kuvali exited the Walmart content with his actions when another alert reached his ears. It seemed to have something to do with Chris and Green Amigo!