~~~Lee~~~

"You need to watch where you step," Jake said into thin air while Saira was healing Alejandro. "It doesn't do any good to be invisible if anyone or anything can hear you or see your footprints."

Lee followed the pointing finger and saw the twin depressions in the grass, which, now that he'd seen them, looked very much like footprints. Though he doubted it was something he would have noticed without it being pointed out. Then they moved, and he could indeed follow her movement by watching the grass. Once she stepped onto the pavement, though, he lost her. Except, of course, he could still feel the runes she carried.

Jake must have had some kind of super hearing because he tossed a pebble out a few moments later and got a squeak from the invisible girl when it bounced off of thin air. "Don't drag your feet."

Then Saira stopped her magic, and Alejandro stood with a wide smile. Beneath him, a circle of dead plant life marked the aftereffect of her healing. It was an interesting and extremely valuable skill, though with some restrictions, since she apparently needed plants to drain life from. But given how green it was out here, Lee was feeling better about their chances.

Alejandro got everyone into formation after that, with Saira in the middle. Mar volunteered to scout ahead, but her mother shot down that idea. "Absolutely not! They will see you. Just like this young man has shown us."

"But..." Mar tried to protest.

"I will watch for the monsters," Saira stated, and a pulse of magic flashed from her. A second later, she pointed at a tree. "Small life there." Then a different tree. "Life there too." A bush. "Bigger, but still small."

Lee finally understood what he'd been sensing all this time. It wasn't his imagination.

"I forgot to mention that," Alejandro said sheepishly. "One reason I asked her to come with us today was her life sensing. That plus her healing you just saw. She was very helpful last night."

"You saved many lives, Mr. Morales, and I am happy to return that aid as I can." She actually bowed slightly to the man before turning back to the rest of them. "My apologies for earlier, but it is not a constant effect. I must activate it to sense the life, and though the range is quite far, I did not sense that… bird above us."

"How much mana does it cost?" Lee asked. "Like, how often can you cast it?" It sounded like a great skill in his mind, assuming it wasn't expensive.

"I... do not know. This... magic is all very new." There was another pulse from her, and she glanced directly where Lee could feel the runes he'd given Mar.

Of course, she could sense her daughter with the skill. Maybe that was why she'd let the girl come after all?

Then Lee had another thought. "How many skills do you have?" He only had the one...

"I have only the two you have seen."

"I have two as well," Alejandro said. "I can make anything a shield." He held up the van door. "Though I must admit, it is much better with this door than Maria's pot lid." He smiled at Lee. "Also, a skill called 'Get Behind Me' that moves me between someone and whatever's attacking them."

So that was what he'd seen the man using... and it was a great skill for a tank.

"I... only have one..." Mar said softly. She sounded embarrassed and didn't elaborate, but from what Lee had seen... or rather not seen, her one skill sure looked like a good one.

"Only one here as well." Lee didn't elaborate either; they'd all seen it by now. Though Jake was eyeing him doubtfully. He wasn't sure what that was about; he only had one skill.

"I have enough," Jake said, looking away and smiling.

Lee rolled his eyes. He'd guessed the archer was a secretive type, but it wasn't like anyone was giving away secrets here. Or did he have way more than any of them and didn't want to draw attention? If he did... Well, this was all too new for anyone to know what any of it meant. It was possible that class rarity had something to do with it, and Lee had a feeling that he shouldn't mention his class was legendary...

"I got more than enough," Larry obviously lied. He hadn't done shit either when the bird showed up.

Sandra just laughed and twirled her staff. "Let's find something to hit. Ideally smaller than that fucking bird." That seemed to do the trick, and they started out again.

Luckily, they saw no more giant hawks as they headed down the street. Otherwise, the whole expedition might have been called off then and there. As it was, Saira and Larry were the most reluctant to continue, but Saira at least wanted to help Alejandro. She said no more about what happened the night before, but Lee guessed their resident tank had impressed her.

Mar appeared briefly walking amongst them until Jake complimented her on spotting the bird, then she vanished again while blushing bright red. How she could turn so red with her dark skin was a mystery.

Saira frowned at all of them when Jake laughed at the girl.

Lee had to recharge Alejandro's shield after the bird's attack. Not a lot, but enough that he suspected using the thin aluminum wasn't good enough as a shield. Not that they had any better options yet... and it was already heavy as shit.

Of course, he was also kicking himself for freezing up in the face of the hawk's attack. He had an enchanted weapon created just this morning for exactly this situation, and the moment he needed to use it, he'd curled up behind his shield in fear.

Considering Alejandro had a shield skill while also using an enchanted shield and still broke his arm from the impact of blocking... Well, it made Lee feel better about his fear and less confident about his own chances, but he still should have tried to take a swing. Also… maybe he should make a spear… a really long one…

It wasn't lost on him that Alejandro had possibly saved his life. That beak was just so big that his regeneration might never have had a chance to do anything if it just ate half of his body in one bite. That would actually be the worst case… better to get swallowed whole… as terrible as that was.

Jake had saved him the night before, assuming his trick with the mana wouldn't have worked. Lee owed him for that one regardless, though he had a feeling the archer had only done it to claim the core...

Now Alejandro had saved him, too. Lee was racking up debts he didn't want. Though he had helped the man and his family the night before... and given them weapons and now a shield. Maybe he could consider them even.

Everything he'd seen of Alejandro made him feel a lot better about opening his door to him the night before. His suspicions earlier felt less reasonable after seeing the man literally throw himself between Lee and a deadly threat. Unless it was a long con... though, probably not.

In his experience, most people were selfish assholes that would take any advantage to get ahead, and that was exactly what they did by eating all his food...

Lee had Stanley, the one person he could truly trust, and it was them against the world. That was enough. Only... now Stanley was gone, out of reach, and probably dealing with his own shitshow wherever he was. Lee was alone in a world gone mad. A world that had just become far more dangerous.

Then somehow, on a hellish night, he'd found one of the rare humans that weren't bastards. A good one... someone willing to put himself in danger to protect others.

In other words, an idiot. One who would get himself killed for random strangers. Except... that idiot had saved his life.

Damn it.

Lee pulled his thoughts from Alejandro and back to the current situation. This was a terrible time to be ruminating on other people's life choices.

Besides, it was a beautiful day out here. Blue skies, sunshine, fresh breezes that smelled of nature, and even the occasional bird chirping. Small birds, not like the monster from before. It was great weather for a walk, and Lee wasn't enjoying any of it as he trudged down the street behind Alejandro.

His shield was heavy as fuck. The breezes kept rustling the trees and bushes in a very threatening manner that never yielded a target, and Larry kept complaining about... well, everything.

Lee didn't know this neighborhood, having only just moved in, so he didn't know where they were going but had been assured there was a large store for them to loot... er, shop at. They passed more than a few cars sitting in the middle of the street, some with their doors still open and suspicious bloodstains not far away.

The route to the store required passing through a few more residential areas, and there was another apartment complex down the street, but mostly it was single-family homes, all crammed right next to each other. Which, from the looks of them, showed the violent events of the night before had not been confined to only their own complex.

Plenty of homes stood untouched, but far too many had been damaged, from holes in the roof and walls all the way to the scorched ashes of buildings burned down to the foundations. Every time there was blood but no bodies, and given the frogs' eagerness to eat him, Lee thought he knew why.

A few people emerged from their homes when they saw the group passing, all with the same questions and demands. "What's happening? Where are the police? You have to help us!"

Alejandro wasn't as bad as Lee feared he would be, his bleeding heart not dragging them to help every whiny person refusing to embrace reality. Instead, he invited them to join the shopping trip, which no one seemed willing to do. Or he told them to go back up the street to the complex to find strength in numbers.

Lee wasn't sure if that was smart. Sure, that was usually the go-to winning strategy for humans throughout history. But if a bunch of weaklings gathered and something like that humongous frog or hawk showed up, wouldn't that just become an all-you-can-eat buffet? For the frog, that is.

At least they kept moving at a decent pace. Though it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, there was nothing to kill, so no way to get cores that might make his shield lighter, but they also weren't attacked by any crazy huge monsters that might kill them all...

The shopping center finally came into view when they reached the bottom of the hill, and it didn't look good.

Something had torn up the gas station at the corner of the shopping center. Something big... and with claws to match. Surprisingly, there was no fire at the destroyed gas station. Instead, it was a store in the back row that had actually burned down and was even now still smoldering and smoking heavily.

Luckily, the fire hadn't spread next door. Especially because that was their destination.

Once again, the huge parking lot held numerous bloodstains and no bodies, but with plenty of that dried blood splashed in and around several destroyed cars. The signs of carnage and death had everyone tense as they approached the store, more so because a lot of the blood ran in trails directly toward the store. As if something had dragged away rather than eaten the dead...

The coppery smell of blood mixed with the acrid smoke didn't help anyone's mood. But Lee was glad for the hungry monsters cleaning up their messes. He didn't think he would have handled it nearly as well if there were dead and mutilated bodies everywhere...

He could still see that woman in the stairwell... and someone would need to clean it up... but that was a problem for later, and hopefully someone else.

The darkness inside the store was no issue. Lee gladly created lights for everyone out of a few signposts they helped him chop down outside. Sticking the rune on the inside of the pipes turned them into somewhat directional flashlights.

He even had them all wait while he pulled his runes from the van doors. Then he replaced them both with double runes of strengthening and light. It worked as he wanted, with the light only shining from the outward-facing side, and it left them with shield flashlights. Something that would have made his adventures the night before much more pleasant.

While he worked, Saira used her ability to see what might be inside. "Life," she said. "Many of them... though small and faint... I do not know what this means."

You have entered a Lair: [Bloodless Den]

That stopped all of them just past the threshold. The name alone stood out because of the bloody scenes they had just passed, but more so because... "What the hell is a Lair?"

"I... have no idea," Alejandro said, his eyes searching the entrance while he aimed his shield light around the area.

"Does this mean we will not find food?" Saira asked, and Lee frowned at that thought. Also weapons. That was what he'd been hoping for even more... though he was hungry, too.

"Maybe it's a monster nest," Mar said quietly while still invisible. "Like in a video... game..." The volume of her voice dropped with every word.

"Don't be an idiot!" Larry spat. "Does this look like a damn video game?"

"I mean, yes?" Lee said while looking through his enchanted window at whatever his light revealed. "This is almost literally like a damn game."

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Jake chuckled as his weird eyes scanned the interior, the only one who had declined a light source of his own. "Like one of those soul games, on hardcore mode, where you are out-matched and only get one life."

"I tried one of those," Lee said. "Hated it."

"You're right," Jake said. "This is way better than any game."

"Idiots," Larry growled, "going to get us all killed."

Lee frowned at the archer. Games were supposed to be fun, and while having actual magic at his fingertips was extremely cool, the stakes felt a bit too high for him to really enjoy it. Maybe once he was stronger... "So, who wants to lead the way?"

He was assuming there would be monsters inside. It just fit too well with the whole end-of-the-world theme they had going on. He also hoped that the relatively smaller size of a building's interior would make said monsters a bit more manageable than giant frogs and hawks.

Alejandro stepped ahead at the same time as Jake. They both stopped and looked at each other. "You can see better in the dark, yes?" Alejandro asked.

Jake nodded.

"If you are confident, then go ahead. I will be ready if you need a shield."

"Sure." Jake took the lead with an arrow on the string as he ventured deeper, while everyone followed behind. It sounded far too quiet in the store... especially when their footsteps echoed ominously with each step. Not Jake though. The guy’s steps were silent as he advanced, his feet avoiding every piece of trash or detritus on the floor.

Lee angled his light higher once they'd passed the registers, trying to figure out the layout of the store. The light, unfortunately, failed to reach far enough for him to read any signs, but from what he could see, felt like he knew which way the sporting goods were. He said as much to Jake. "We get better weapons and then food?"

Jake paused, shrugged, and then headed toward the sporting section. He stopped a few steps later, holding one hand up in a fist.

They all stopped behind him as he looked at something down the aisles.

Lee moved closer, and Jake pointed at his light and then made a slashing motion over his throat. Rather than take the runes off, Lee set the shield face-down on the floor, mostly killing the light.

Jake pointed down the aisle, and Lee strained to see in the dark. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust, and even when they had, he didn't see the humanoid figure until it moved in a slow, plodding step. He almost suspected it to be a human and then saw its arms that reached nearly to the floor. Definitely not human, though about the same height... It moved sluggishly, and what he thought was its back had a weird hump on it.

Alejandro stayed back with the others in the light runes, and he stood ready when Jake pulled back the string of his bow, only with no light gathering on the arrow this time.

Lee moved back to his shield, ready to haul it up as the arrow flew. He didn't hear it hit. Then silence fell, and Jake remained motionless after the shot.

Nothing else happened.

Jake stood still, eyes scanning as he searched the darkness, but nothing emerged. Lee abandoned his shield again to rejoin the archer.

Down the aisle, he could see a lump on the floor where the creature had been standing. "Did you get it?" he whispered.

Jake didn't answer, only drawing another arrow back on the string as he aimed higher up. Lee followed where he was aiming and saw something moving atop the shelves. It was smaller, just a shadowy bulbous shape creeping along. In fact, it was about the size of the lump on the first creature's back...

Jake didn't fire the arrow, though. Instead, he waited as it crawled down the side of the shelves. All the way to the downed monster he had already killed.

The crack of the bowstring releasing was loud in the silence, but Lee couldn't see what he'd hit, and Jake didn't make any further moves. They waited.

When Lee saw a core appear in the darkness, he had to hold himself back from going after it. These were so far Jake's kills. He just needed to get some of his own.

Lee followed when Jake started forward, hands on his makeshift sword and doing his best to imitate the soundless motion the other man made. His best sucked.

They stopped over the downed monster, and it was indeed a monster. The dim light washed out the colors, but Lee could see the obviously bestial face, with fangs on clear display. Its too long arms ended in wicked claws he thought might match some of the torn up cars outside... and it was hairy. Almost completely covered in hair except for a clear patch over its chest.

It was also dead. With an arrow in its back, sticking right through the lump there.

Jake pulled his arrow from the corpse, and the lump fell from the monster. Lee prodded it with his sword and saw the tiny legs as it rolled beneath his prod while leaking something wet onto the floor. Something that smelled like blood...

One thing was clear. They were two separate creatures. Whether they were enemies or allies to each other was not as certain...

"It's a tick," Jake whispered. "Fucking gross!" He shook his arrow soundlessly to the side, and Lee heard the light splatters of something hitting the ground.

Ticks? Lee shivered and poked it again, trying to get a better angle to see if Jake was right. While he did that, Jake took the core and held it close to the... tick. It was definitely a tick. A giant tick, swollen up to the size of a basketball with blood spilling from the hole straight through its abdomen.

Lee eased back. He was thinking he might actually miss the frogs...

Jake spun and impaled a jumping tick on the arrow in his hand. Then he swung the arrow and threw off the tick, sending it flying at another one leaping toward him from atop the shelves. Ticks weren't supposed to be able to jump...

Something stabbed Lee in the back.

Resisted: [Mind Numbing]

That explained why it hurt so much. Lee swiped his blade behind his head and across his back, catching something from the feel of it. Then he was swinging frantically at the next one flying for his face. They really needed to get out from between the shelves...

Jake wasn't using his bow except to bat the ticks aside while he stabbed each one with an arrow. He did it all calmly and smoothly, like the swarming monsters did not bother him in the slightest.

Lee tried to copy him. This wasn't a life-threatening danger like the frog had been. He just needed to keep swinging and the cores would pile up. It was great! But why did it have to be ticks! They were creepy as fuck, and he was pretty sure there was still a piece of one stuck in his back... until Jake reached over and tugged it off for him.

"Thanks," Lee gasped, trying to his voice to a whisper. He didn't know if whispering mattered. His own breathing and clumsy steps sounded loud in here, not to mention the few times he cut a shelf by accident. The bugs were probably drawn to the blood rather than sound. Something Jake must have agreed with because he stopped whispering.

"Back outside!" he yelled.

It wasn't that bad. Sure, Lee got a few more bites, none as bad as the first, along with more of the resisted messages, but they were weak and easy to kill. He still backed up with Jake as the man headed for the others. He'd almost gotten himself killed last night by being an idiot. No need to repeat himself today.

"Check that out," Jake said, his calm voice sounding very at odds with the situation as he gazed upward.

Lee followed his gaze but couldn't see what he was staring at. At least, not at first. Then the ceiling moved.

Lee froze.

The ticks crawling over the top of the shelves were also crawling over their heads. Only it was hundreds or thousands of them... all crawling and squirming like a living carpet across the high ceiling.

On the one hand... Shit! But on the other... that was a lot of cores!

A single one of the dark shapes fell toward him, and Lee took a swing. He felt a tug from his weapon, and then something sprinkled over his face. The smell of blood sharply intensified. Gross...

"Keep moving," Jake said and pulled him back the way they'd come.

Lee swung at the next... and missed thanks to the other man yanking on him. He couldn't believe Jake would be afraid of the monsters after what he'd seen. Luckily, Jake's bow flicked out and knocked away the next falling bug.

More of the squirming shapes descended, and Jake continued to drag him backward through the store. Lee swung wildly as he went, his blade connecting repeatedly as he stumbled back.

Then someone had the bright idea of seeing where the bugs were coming from, and a light swung up to illuminate the ceiling.

Unfortunately, the ticks didn't like that, and they started dropping like rain.

"Run!" Jake shouted.

Lee kept backing up, but raised his blade and took another swing at the first falling creature to reach him. He only swung once, a complete miss, and then felt a tug on his collar that dragged him away again. Only this time, he went nearly airborne under the pull, his collar choking the shit out of him as he flew back.

The store blurred past, and the only reference he had for his speed was how fast his shield fell away behind. Damn it! I just got that!

Things didn't slow down until he was back in daylight and squinting against the glare. While gratified to have kept his sword, Lee had lost his shield so turned his squint on Jake. "Why'd you run? You should be able to..." The gushing wound on the man's leg halted his tirade. It looked terrible, and it wasn't healing…

Lee had recovered from worse than that the night before. He was also fairly certain Jake must be F-grade already, with the way he'd run through the store while practically carrying him. Yet apparently that didn't mean he could regenerate.

"Saira," Jake said, while hobbling over to one of the many trees in the parking lot.

She had noticed the blood already and joined him quickly, her green light springing up immediately. "What did this?"

As she spoke, Lee felt her mana pulse again, and her gaze jumped to an empty patch of air nearby. Lee could feel his runes in that spot, so knew what she was looking for and could see her visibly relax when she detected Mar.

Lee also noticed a familiar lump on her back when she turned around. He shivered at her seemingly unbothered attitude despite having a giant tick chilling on her back... The debuff, he realized. She didn't even know it was there... Jake noticed though, and he pulled it off while the woman healed him.

Saira took the sight of it better than Lee expected.

Alejandro was facing the doorway, watching for more ticks, and he also didn't notice a giant tick sitting on his back...

"Sandra," Jake said, "come over here."

She had two of them... one on her upper back and one on her thigh. Lee assumed Jake had noticed her and went to help Alejandro.

"Fuck me!" Sandra's yelp brought Alejandro's attention back around and his eyes widened at whatever he saw happening behind Lee.

"You too," Lee said, hefting his sword, and Alejandro started frantically looking over himself. "Just hold still," Lee said, and carefully cut it off. He didn't know how much Saira could heal... or how much mana it cost, and she had enough work already. No need to add more with his sword.

He got most of the tick cut off, then used his hand to drag the rest away. Blood ran in a stream from the wound when he did, but at least there was no worry about the head getting left inside with these. They were just too big for that.

"Mar, show yourself," Jake said.

"Oh, god! Are they on me!?" The girl flickered in and out of sight as she spun in place, trying to find one. It was hard to see with her frantic movement and intermittent invisibility, but Lee thought there was at least one.

"Hold still and stop flickering!" Lee said, and then just resorted to grabbing her. Which was harder to do than he'd anticipated, but he managed to snag an arm. She still struggled with panicked squeaking, and he didn't want to risk the blade near her flailing form. So instead, Lee stuck his sword into the cement, feeling the runes drain slightly from doing so, and grabbed the tick with his hand.

It squirmed, and the legs scratched at his skin as he got a grip near the head. Lee grit his teeth and pulled. It was nasty, creepy, and disgusting, but no worse than being dissolved in a giant frog's stomach. Hell, it was way better than that! Nothing to it. Just a big bug waiting to get squashed.

He ripped it off, and Mar screamed louder at the similar stream of blood running from her side where it had latched on. The oddest part was how even some of the leaking blood disappeared from her skill. It didn't stay invisible once it hit the ground, but it was strange to watch the blood seemingly appear out of nowhere.

Lee dragged the bleeding and still panicked girl to her mother, who stopped healing Alejandro and focused on her. Alejandro didn't mind his own still bleeding wound, and wrapped arms around Mar. "It's okay. You're okay! Just relax. We got you."

Meanwhile, Lee glared at the giant flailing tick in his hand, fighting the revulsion it gave him to do so. It was heavy. Bugs should never be this heavy... It tried to bite at his hand with long horrifying jaws, and Lee resisted the urge to drop it. He was stronger than this, and he couldn't let anything as petty as squeamishness stop him, not in this new world.

Besides, it didn't matter if it bit him, he would heal. The previous bite on his back already felt fine. A fear of pain was fine and all, but he couldn't let it paralyze him. His regeneration was an incredible tool, one that he wouldn't let go to waste.

Dropping the tick on the ground, Lee stomped on it as it tried to run away.

That was a mistake. It popped in a wash of blood that soaked clear through his shoe and up to his knee. Being squeamish was one thing, but he should have just stabbed it. Which he had to do anyway when it kept squirming away in a trail of blood...

Jake was watching him when Lee glanced over, but he wasn't laughing at the mess. Instead, he looked serious as his gaze jumped between the members of the team. "So, that didn't go very well."

"You're F-grade," Lee said, leaning down to grab the core from the dead tick and then going to get the previous one Alejandro hadn't picked up.

"Yes, and you're not..." Jake said, eyes returning to study him.

Lee looked from the cores to where he could feel Mar next to Alejandro, and then at Jake.

"Your kills," Jake said.

Lee nodded slowly. He had technically killed them... but they had brought them out. Lee didn't want this trip to end just yet, and he wasn't sure how the others were taking the whole experience. Maybe getting some cores would encourage them to carry on. Lee also needed a lot more than this if he was going to get to F-grade.

"Please come this way, Larry," Saira's healing magic had killed the tree, and she led the last wounded man to another. Alejandro had the honor of removing Larry's tick on the way.

Jake kept watch, but talked to Lee as they strolled after the healer. "You should have hit F-grade last night, but you are obviously not there... I doubt you are hoarding the cores... no, I saw you absorbing them."

"So?" Lee said, not liking where this was going. "I need more."

"You must have an interesting class." Jake gestured at his leg where the wound had healed but the blood and torn pants remained. "That cut was from your... sword."

"Um... Sorry? You were kinda dragging me all over the place... not that I don't appreciate the help!"

Jake pulled a knife from his belt. A big one like Mar's. Why does everyone have a fucking knife and I don't!?

He dragged the blade across his arm and it left a thin line of blood welling up behind it. "This is a normal knife. It can barely cut me." Jake pointed at Lee's sword. "Yours is something else. Though, to be fair, we don't really have any comparisons for enchanted weapons... There is also how much mana you use for each so-called enchant?"

"How do you know how much mana I use?"

Jake smiled, and Lee felt a chill. The guy could sense his mana... did that mean he might know about the Liquid Mana Well? Was he planning to... but no, Jake had just dragged him out of danger. That would have been a prime opportunity if he wanted Lee dead. Though him standing there smiling with a big knife in his hand... Lee wasn't sure how to respond. "I... want me to enchant that?"

Jake chuckled. "Relax. I was just curious. If you don't want to say, then don't. It's your class."

"I... don't want to say."

"Like I said, it's your class. Just be careful with waving those... enchants around." He proffered the knife, hilt first. "But I won't say no to one of my own.

"Fine." Lee took it, drawing the runes quickly and then taking the sheath that followed and doing the same. "So… ready to go back in?"