Danny leaned his head and upper body backwards, dodging a swipe from the last zombie that came forward to challenge him. Its elongated and irregular nails chipped against the plastic visor of his helmet, which saved him from having his eyes gouged out.

Even after death, human nails and hair continued to grow for some time, becoming undead changed nothing about it. That gave most of his enemies a disheveled look and sharpened long nails to match which would cut Danny’s skin and flesh if he was not careful enough.

Counter attacking the overreaching zombie, Danny returned a strong blow to its head with his hammer, killing his foe at once.

Danny was panting as he watched the corpse of his slain enemy fall down and join the many others covering the floor. It seemed that his stamina was not endless after all.

He was not sure how much time had passed since he felled that first zombie that came rushing him up the stairs. It felt like ages ago.

At one point, Danny risked a look at his wristwatch in order to see for how long he had been fighting. However, he almost paid with his life for the distraction as one of the many zombies he had killed that day took advantage of his lapse in attention and tackled him.

Danny almost lost his footing at the time, the mindless creature nearly succeeding in knocking him down to the ground. Fortunately, however, he managed to recover his balance at the last second and salvage the situation stepping back and retreating further up the stairs.

It would have been disastrous if he suddenly found himself with his back to the floor. Truthfully, it would have been a death sentence since he doubted that he would have enough time to get the zombie off of him before more came from behind it and piled on top of the both them.

The close call put Danny’s nerves on edge and sobered up his tired mind. No matter how much he wanted to, after an hour of intense fighting, Danny was having trouble keeping his mind sharp and his thoughts focused.

Soon after the near-death experience, he begun to feel short of breath.

It had been quite some time ever since he felt spent like this. After he started making use of the soul gems, Danny hardly ever needed to worry about conserving his strength and energy. He felt tireless most of the time and could run incredible distances without feeling fatigued.

Even so, it seemed that the clash against the horde had really strained his abilities to the limit. He was really feeling the exhaustion now.

However, the horde did not care. They did not stop and did not relent. While they tirelessly moved forward, unencumbered, Danny became more and more aware of his physical limitations as time moved on.

The crystals had done much for him. Regardless, he was still human in the end.

Danny’s arms were heavy from the weariness and his legs ached from the constant dodges and movement. His shoulders were tense and his whole body was covered in bruises, scratches, and cuts despite his protective gear’s best efforts. Some of his equipment was showing signs of wear and tear and of giving under the unending assault it was subjected to, but it still held on against the advances of the undead creatures. For now, at least.

He didn’t know how much more punishment it could take. Much like Danny himself.

Danny had already backed into the third floor’s hallway by now. He did his very best to hold his ground whenever possible to avoid the scenario of having to abandon the building and run away, which was becoming more and more likely by the second.

Nonetheless, against his body’s protests, he kept swinging. He kept fighting as if he was not constrained by exhaustion or concerned about the ever-diminishing space he had available for him to retreat to. Danny merely gritted his teeth and fought on, unwilling to let the fog of weariness that grew denser in his mind or the fear of failure dictate the result of his battle. He refused to buckle.

Alas, despite his wishes and bravery, a wise man submits to the circumstances as they say. One cannot ignore the realities of their surroundings.

After killing yet another zombie that tried to reach him, Danny tried to step back, intending to get himself a brief moment of respite, like he had done so many times already during the course of his face-off against the horde. However, his heel bumped against something this time.

A quick look over his shoulder told him that the door to the emergency stairwell was directly behind him. His rope had come to an end.

Danny had no more ground to retreat to and therefore had to flee to the roof. No matter how unwilling he felt, insisting on staying at this point would only be a matter of pride, not of strategy. Bravery and foolishness had a very thin line separating the both of them.

Considering the state his body was in and that he had no more cards under his sleeves to pull out and play, fleeing was the only sensible choice.

All of those thoughts had crossed Danny’s mind in but an instant. Knowing that his time was up, Danny turned his head back and faced forward once more. He would kill a few more zombies to create an opening to go through the door and close it behind him.

Though he doubted it would hold the unthinking creatures for very long, given its simplistic and easily handled opening mechanism, Danny still hoped that closing the door would buy him a few seconds at least.

However, as the seconds went by, no new zombies came forward to challenge him and impede his retreat. While he stood there, arm raised with his covered-in-blood hammer waiting to descend on any creature foolish enough to come within striking range, Danny’s weary mind found itself confused by the unexpected lull in the battlefield.

Danny’s plastic visor which protected his face and eyes was covered in blood and full of scratches. A result of the long-drawn battle. The fluids that stuck to it and the white lines scarring its surface made it so that Danny had trouble seeing anything other than what was immediately in front of him. Therefore, he didn’t expect the sudden calm that took over the once boisterous hallway of the factory’s building.

Even if he could not see that well, he didn’t think of flipping the front of his helmet open during the course of the battle for even a single second. Throughout the fight, the protection saved him many times from being blinded or having nasty scars sculpted on his face, as the many scratches on the plastic screen and its overall poor state attested to.

He could still hear growls from zombies nearby, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly where they were coming from. As the seconds went by, and Danny’s breath and heartbeat slowly but surely calmed down, he took the risk of pulling his visor up.

The protection refused to budge however, no matter how much or how he tried to pull it up. ‘Fuck. I think something broke during the fight.’ Danny thought with mounting frustration, before doing away with the helmet entirely, giving up on simply raising his visor.

Once he was free from his helmet straps, Danny became suddenly aware of his own sweaty hair that uncomfortably stuck to his forehead and neck. He didn’t care about it though, as his entire focus had been snatched by the scene in front of him.

The whole horde lied defeated at his feet.

A carpet of bodies extended along the hallway and down the staircase opposite to him, covering the ground and painting the whole floor red.

The objects he had placed along the walls to narrow the passage had served their purpose well. Some of them, much like the ground itself, were also covered by bodies that spilled from the main path at stretches of the main hallway where the concentration of dead enemies was higher.

Looking further ahead, Danny could spot a few zombies that were still trying to reach him, fumbling and tumbling over the limbs of their predecessors as they struggled to maintain their balance atop the blood red carpet of bodies. By the looks of it, they would not be reaching him anytime soon if the number of times they kept falling down was any indicative of how well they could traverse the tricky path.

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Those clumsy stragglers were the source of the growls Danny was still hearing even now. Added by the poor visibility he had when wearing his bloodied helmet, the sounds coming from the remaining zombies prevented Danny from realizing that he had actually won the fight.

…He had actually bested the horde. And he had done it all by himself.

Sure, he had thought that he could win against the horde before enacting his plan, otherwise he would never have gone with it or suggested to Hank that he took care of the settlement’s problem all by his lonesome. Even so, planning something, making deductions, guessing the possible outcomes and overall reasoning with himself about his chances and the challenges up ahead was something entirely different of going through with it. It was entirely different of actually doing it.

The fight had been beyond tough.

There had been many things he had overlooked. Miscalculations here and there. There wasn’t much he could do about his mistakes other than reflect on them and do better next time. His battered body would appreciate it undoubtedly.

Fortunately, however, at the end of the day… his preparations had been enough. His efforts had been enough and he…well, he had been enough. That was all that mattered.

Danny felt a surge of relief and something else rise up his chest. A sigh escaped from his lips as he closed his eyes while looking up. What was this feeling?

Was it pride for achieving the unbelievable? For making the humanly impossible, actually possible?

Danny did not think so.

He knew he could never have achieved any of this if not for the exclusive knowledge he held about the crystals. He was glad nonetheless for doing something noteworthy, but he didn’t feel particularly proud of it.

Was it excitement over witnessing what his newfound power could achieve?

He did not think that was it either.

Sure, there was some of that as well, he could not deny it. The feeling of growing in strength and becoming ever more capable day by day was addicting. It was more than mere satisfaction over his own improvement as well.

After using the crystals for some time, Danny could tell that there was something irresistible about the soul gems. He felt some form of incredible attraction towards improving himself by making use of them.

He didn’t think the compulsion was anything malicious though. Danny felt that the addictive aspect of the shiny stones was something more in the lines of how the human body craved sugar. It was just a matter of how our bodies perceived something as positive or negative to ourselves. And from what he experienced so far, the soul crystals were most definitely a positive thing.

Anyway, even if there was indeed some aspect of marvel at his increasingly superhuman abilities, Danny did not think that was it either. The feeling that welled in his chest was something else entirely. After all, even before the Apocalypse, Danny was never one to obsess over his personal prowess and body strength.

Danny was not one of those people who were fanatical about going to the gym and attaining the perfect physique or the highest muscle mass possible. To him, strength had always been a means to an end. It was just one tool he made use of to ensure his own self-preservation against the threat that hounded him every night. In the past, Danny could never hope to best the demon with his own mortal strength. Thus, his physical fitness remained forever relegated to a support role.

It was then that it finally hit him. Once he thought about his personal nightmare turned blood-bribed information dealer, it became clear what this growing feeling was.

It was hope. Actually, hope was not a good enough word. It was audacity. It was defiance. It was a desire for freedom, for a life he didn’t have to bow down and adapt. A life where he didn’t have to compromise with his past tormentor to secure a better path.

A life where he could truly say he had attained the control he so desperately craved his whole life.

When Tutu offered him that deal weeks ago, despite his misgivings, Danny had decided to take a leap of faith. Ever since his childhood and ever since the start of his haunting, this was the only real and tangible chance he ever had available to him.

No matter how hard he looked for a way out, for a way of making his life less miserable, the deal he was offered was the only path he came across that actually had a chance of working out, regardless of how dubious the source had been at the time and - if we are being perfectly honest - still is.

Janice was right at the time when she said he shouldn’t let his pride or past cloud his judgment. Once he realized the wisdom of her words, he grasped the opportunity with both hands, which, thankfully, worked out for him.

Janice had been right at the time. Of that he had no doubt. It was a fact. However, times change and so do people.

Danny already knew in his mind for quite some time how magical the astral gems, soul crystals or whatever else one decided to call the precious stones were. He knew for a while now why they were considered valuable by both the invading forces alike and intellectually understood the benefits the little things could offer him. What they could offer anyone really, be it humans or aliens.

The fact that by consuming the soul gems, one could reach new heights previously thought impossible for the human body was old news to him.

However, it was only now, at this very moment, when he stood there, battered but undefeated, towering above the river of corpses that ran through the floors of the building, that he truly, truly, understood what those mystical crystals represented to him.

What opportunity they offered.

Sometimes, one needs to personally experience something for he or she to really comprehend what that something means. Sometimes, a single look with one’s eyes is enough. Sometimes, it takes killing an entire horde of undead.

This wasn’t just a formless desire for revenge and independence that every now and then occupied his thoughts, but had no possibility of actually coming to fruition. No. This time, he truly believed that there was something he could actually do to change things.

Danny knew now that the crystals were his ticket for turning the tables on the demon.

Obviously, he had no chance against the demon as he currently was. His personal power and Tutu’s were of different magnitudes entirely. They could not be spoken in the same breath. There was simply no comparison to be made.

Danny still remembered when he connected with the demon. He could clearly recall the feeling he had when linking with the shadowy monster. The sheer vastness he thought he ‘saw’. At the time, he did not understand what that feeling of grandness was. Now however, Danny was fairly confident that he gazed at some form, at some measure of Tutu’s power.

Whether that huge thing he perceived was Tutu’s soul or something else, he didn’t think the distinction mattered. What mattered was that it had the marked flavor - for the lack of a better world - of the soul gems. Of soul power or astral power, whichever you prefer. Danny was still very much confused at the metaphysical implications and intricacies involved in this, but he tried not to think too hard about it and take things in stride and as they came.

Long story short, there was no way he would be able to one-up Tutu in terms of power in the near future.

Besides that, there was also the deal between them to consider, and given the soul-rending pain he felt that one time he got ‘late’ to pay his blood tribute, Danny did not want to find out what the consequences would be if he took direct action against the demon.

He didn’t need to however. There was no need for him to go against the demon right now. He didn’t have to solve all his problems at once. Though the shadow of the demon still hovered over him - figuratively and sometimes literally as well - Danny did not think he was under any time constraint or immediate threat. At least, not from Tutu. He could afford to take his sweet time and think things over and carefully.

Like Janice said, he couldn’t let his past and pride get in his way of moving forward, but bowing his head now did not mean bowing his head forever. He was not any less of a person for recognizing the reality of his situation and working with what he had and around the obstacles in his path.

Nothing prevented him from planning ahead and taking steps to prepare for that fateful day when he would be able to free himself, even if he should still be careful around the demon and even control his thoughts somewhat when he was near Tutu – just in case the shadowy monster had a way to peek into his mind. However, the more he learned about the soul gems and the more he experimented with them, the more he thought that it was unlikely that the demon could do such a thing without him at least noticing the intrusion.

Danny could not and would not underestimate the demon. However, that did not mean that he should overestimate him either.

All this time, he thought he would never be able to use the crystals to overcome Tutu. After all, why would the demon show them to him and explain their effects if that was the case? It would not make any sense, right?

However, it was only now that he triumphed over the challenge that was the horde that Danny realized he was letting his past cloud his mind. The demon had casted a shadow in his heart for so long that Danny had subconsciously painted Tutu as an unsurmountable and unfathomable obstacle.

Was Tutu strong? Incredibly so. Way stronger than Danny himself.

Was Tutu clever? Undoubtedly. Danny knew the demon to be insidious and cunning. He often fell for the demon’s ruses and never managed to trick him. The creature was probably many times older than Danny himself as well, so it was most surely wiser and wilier than him by many degrees.

However, Tutu was not flawless and that… that was a key distinction of utmost relevance.

The demon could make mistakes, he could overlook things, and most important of all perhaps, was that he could underestimate others. Others like Danny.

Until now, Danny was never in a position or had enough strength to be considered a threat to the demon, or to even be taken seriously. To be frank, Danny did not think this was bound to change anytime soon. The gulf between both their powers was just that large.

However, now that he had access to the crystals, he could finally glimpse a future where things didn’t have to be this way. A future where he could choose or even make his own path instead of treading the one that was presented to him simply because there was no other one available.

A future where his opinions and wishes actually mattered.

For now, he would play his part dutifully. He would fulfil his agreement with the demon as best as he could. He would take and learn as much as possible from Tutu and be his docile little blood donor.

And one day… one day he would bleed for the demon no more.