~~~Stanley~~~

"Caw!" The crow squawked and flapped its wings as Stanley shot over the wall and inside the stadium.

It was just being dramatic since there were no g-forces or actual wind to deal with, not when Stanley flew this fast. They’d both get torn apart otherwise, or at least fucked up. Caffeine would have been fine, though, since his occasional sprints were about as fast as Stanley could move, if not faster.

Once over the walls, he got a great view of what they'd done to the place.

He assumed this had been a football stadium before, if only going by the shape, and that was pretty much all he had to go on. Because they had turned nearly the entire thing into a massive housing complex, and not a very nice one. Hell, the entire field area looked like a ramshackle shantytown more than anything.

It was also his destination.

He ignored a few shouts coming from the guards stationed atop the stadium's walls, which they’d built at the very top of the bleachers. Not that he could actually see any of the seats. They’d built over all of them with what looked like more housing. Though it was nicer and less makeshift-looking than the lower shantytown where the screaming soul was leading him. Which turned out to be a multi-story shantytown... one absolutely jam-packed full of miserable people.

The entire place probably would have been a deathtrap of collapsing rubble, except they'd turned it into a sapient lair. Which he found out when he tried to rip his way in.

You have attacked a Sapient Lair structure. All residents have been notified.

Not that it stopped him. He was angry enough that it didn't even slow him down. "Stop fucking screaming!"

He found the culprit on the ground floor, or rather, culprits. It was a woman and a child, presumably a mother and daughter. Both of them were obviously F-grade, and both were terrified of the E-grade man in the hovel with them.

They were both scared, but it was the mother's soul that had dragged him in here. Her fear far outweighed the child's. Probably because she had the burden of knowledge and experience.

Which only enraged Stanley further.

The man was yelling something while holding onto the screaming woman's wrist, but Stanley didn't care what they were saying; he only wanted her stupid soul to shut the fuck up!

So he interrupted the tender moment by tearing the roof away from above their heads. After which, he peeled the man's hand from around the woman's broken wrist and pushed him away through a few walls.

Lair walls.

Fortunately for him, the flimsy nature of the construction definitely carried over into the magical reinforcement and saved the idiot's life. Also, he survived because if Stanley had thrown him any harder, he would have killed who knew how many F-grades in the hovels all around them...

The woman only stopped screaming when Stanley yelled at her to, "Shut the fuck up!"

It took forever for her to blink stupidly up at the sky and then at Stanley. Until, finally, her soul calmed down. A little. "Thank y..."

"No!" Stanley screamed in her face. "Fuck you!"

"W... what?" She backed away, the fear coming right back as she tried to shield her wailing child with her body while cradling her broken wrist. A child who looked younger than Zeke, though not by much.

The sight of the girl clutching desperately to her mother cooled Stanley's rage. Slightly. This wasn't the kid's fault.

It was her mother's fault.

"What the fuck did you think was going to happen if you cowered in here!?"

"W... what?" Oh, she was an idiot, too. Though that was already pretty apparent by her still being at F-grade.

Stanley advanced on her through the air until she'd backed her daughter into the corner behind her. "Don't pretend you want to protect her now! Not when all you can do is fucking scream and cry while a monster eats you both!"

He lifted his hand, and she flinched away with nothing but more tears. Useless! Stanley turned in the air and backhanded her charging E-grade boyfriend through a different wall. "Now I have to come in here and deal with your fucking bullshit because you're too fucking weak to live! So don't thank me! Go out there and fucking fight!"

"But," she sobbed. "I... I'm just a baker. I can't fight!"

"You can pick up a knife, can't you!? Or a goddamn stick! Anything besides cowering in here and waiting to fucking die!"

It was obviously too late for that now. As an F-grade, she was practically powerless in the E-grade world. Her broken wrist was the almost inevitable outcome of an E-grade holding on a little too tightly. Even Stanley’s pathetic physical attributes didn’t matter against an F-grade. He could kill her with his bare hands, and it wouldn't even be...

"Look out!" she screamed, wide-eyed and staring at something behind him.

Stanley rolled his eyes and leaned his body aside from the guy taking a swing at his back. The glowing sword that whiffed just past his face was new, and it barely even registered in his domain. It was magic. A magic sword that looked very much like a black light. Perfect.

"Here," Stanley said, twisting the guy's arm around and watching the blade vanish right before it would have impaled its wielder. "You can have his knife..."

"Who the hell are you!?" the man screamed as he struggled ineffectually to escape. "Get away from my wife!"

"Your..." Stanley stared back and forth between man and woman in disbelief. "Wife?"

"Ex-wife!" the woman shouted.

"I saved your life, you ungrateful bitch!"

People really were the worst, and Stanley had heard enough. God damn it, he'd already heard more than he ever wanted to about these fucking people! Unfortunately, he’d been mad at the wrong person. This whole mess was no longer her fault, and Stanley turned his considerable anger fully upon the man of the house. "Then why the fuck is she still F-grade, you shit-stain fuck!?"

"Caw! Caw!" The crow flapped its wings again and flashed its soul a couple times before vanishing, but Stanley ignored the dramatic bird.

Surprisingly, so did the man in his clutches. Instead, he did the dumbest thing possible and condemned himself to death. "She’s my wife! You can't tell me how to..."

Stanley threw the asshole as high as he could out of the stadium.

At least, that was his intention.

It all went sideways when something blasted through his domain and into his back.

Whatever it was, it went through his suit jacket without slowing, severed his spine, split his heart in half, and then burst from his chest. There, he got to see what had killed him before everything started going dark.

It looked like a ribbon of light—a razor-thin, foot-wide ribbon of violently pink light.

Skill Level Up: Premonition

Move

He wasn't there when the real attack came in, but he was watching it come. So he got to see its flat trajectory turn in a series of sharp angles until it was back on target, all without slowing its pursuit in the slightest, and it was fast. Lightning fast.

Ribbon probably wasn't the right word for what was chasing him. It was his first thought, but it didn't ripple or flow as it moved; it came after him in sharp, jagged motions. A sheet of light, maybe. Or a streak. Yes, that was more accurate, both in shape and speed. A flat streak of sharp and offensively pink light.

Stop

It also resisted his power. God damned cheating magic!

The only positive about being chased by a streak of light was that Stanley could easily follow it all the way back to its origin. Not that he needed to. He could feel the murderous soul in the sky above the stadium—a blindingly pink soul—and one he'd missed approaching while dealing with the useless goddamned humans!

He couldn't tell at a glance if it belonged to a man or woman, but he assumed it was most likely this shithole's illustrious leader. Which meant that everything here was her fault. She had created this entire mess. She'd built a playground of helpless idiots for any and every predator that wanted a snack.

Now she was trying to kill him.

It made everything very simple in his mind. She was a problem, one he could solve the easy way. The best way. The violent way.

Stanley smiled a grim smile as his rage finally found a target worthy of it. A target worthy of total obliteration. That dark smile only widened as reality thinned out around him.

As the storm gathered.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He tore up the metal and wood construction below like it was paper, then threw all of it into the path of her attack. It barely slowed the magic, but that wasn't the point. Because he simultaneously sent his power into the sky, toward that tiny speck of light that was his enemy. To tear her apart piece by screaming bloody...

Still Mind activated.

It was extremely jarring to go from a beautiful, all-consuming rage right into a complete absence of emotion. Of course, the skill made the transition not only tolerable but smooth as well, and Stanley was very suddenly looking at the world in a new light. A much calmer light. Even as he carried himself away from the pursuing streak of light.

He knew what had happened. He'd gotten too angry, and Caffeine had used his latest trick. The little pug had finally figured out that he could use Stanley's ability to calm him down. Forcibly.

It was inconvenient, but not a serious issue. Not in this situation, at least.

Stanley had already touched the woman in the sky. Her attack was powerful, but her flesh wasn't. He could kill her like all the others. So he did.

Cut

Except he missed. Somehow.

There was a flash of pink light, and the woman was abruptly not there but off to one side, unharmed and untouched.

She could teleport and perhaps even had an ability like his premonition that would allow her to evade... no, that wasn't it. Her soul hadn't reacted before his attack. Only afterward. Which meant it was an automatic defensive ability.

That could be a problem. A minor one.

The upside was that her escape had shattered the streak of pursuing light. Which gave him an entire second to consider his next move while she sent another pink streak his way. It was an eternity in his current state.

Not that there was much to consider. His strategy didn't need to change. He still had to kill her, and it might simply take a few more attacks than usual. It was nothing he couldn't handle.

Cut

Her light shattered an instant before touching his flesh, and she teleported away again instead of dying.

Cut

The light didn't even make it halfway to him before collapsing that time. Simple and easy. She had to have a limit on how many times she could escape, and Stanley was confident that his own endurance would far outstrip hers.

Cut

Her death was inevitable. A fact she quickly grasped. Because she followed the next ribbon down, trying to close the gap between them. It was a smart move. Her only move, really. Her attack had a travel time—not a long one by any stretch, but far too long when faced with Stanley's power.

Cut

She was halfway down when Caffeine arrived in a cloud of expanding shrapnel made up of whatever he'd run through to get inside the stadium.

Stanley spared a moment to check on his allies and found them still outside, though it looked like they were preparing to follow Caffeine inside. A process expedited by the brand new entrance the pug had created. The E-grade guards had other ideas, but they wouldn't be able to stop Nate and the others.

Of course none of that really mattered. This would all be over in a matter of seconds.

Or less, because Caffeine wasn't content with simply making an entrance. He ballooned in size, his shape growing almost faster than the expanding cloud of debris around him. Until he was the size of a bus. Then he threw his head back and howled up at Stanley's attacker.

You have heard the Howl of the Beast Lord.

Effects:

+200% Effective Attributes to Friends

-200% Effective Attributes to Not Friends

His buff was getting stronger, but Stanley barely felt it. To be fair, it was hard to compete with his already considerable willpower boosts, and it was primarily his physical attributes that benefited more than anything.

Still, every bit helped, especially considering his enemy was getting the same amount subtracted from their power. It was not enough of a subtraction that he expected the woman to cease her attack and reverse course.

Which was strange, because that was exactly what she did...

How... odd. Her soul held... recognition? Had she met Caffeine before? Or perhaps she only now knew it was a hopeless fight and was hoping for mercy?

Unfortunately, Stanley had no mercy. She was dangerous, powerful enough to kill him, and had, only a moment ago, been trying her best to do just that. She had to die.

Cu...

Caffeine deactivated Still Mind.

Son of a... Stanley couldn't help but flinch as his emotions came crashing back into existence. The total bombardment of the surrounding souls only made it worse, and he quickly reactivated his Soul Shield.

It was still far from enough to block out the cacophony, but magnitudes better than going without.

While he caught his bearings and before he could gather his power to strike her down, the woman in the sky shouted, "Stand down!"

She had to be a peak E-grade. Hell, she was probably at the cap and only waiting for a D-grade core to push her over the threshold because her voice came out as a booming thunderclap that rattled the entire stadium.

It had an even more drastic effect on the swarming E-grade guards that were racing toward Stanley as well as pursuing Nate and company.

To a man, they instantly backed off. No hesitation, only instant obedience. They were afraid of her—terrified, even.

Stanley didn't share their weakness, but he also held off attacking and only glared up at the woman, who was sending the same look back at him. His anger wasn't as sharp as it had been, but it was coming back quickly as he once again felt the tide of misery and fear from the thousands of surrounding souls. Fear, which might have been a bit sharper after their small scuffle... and his slight destruction of some of their hovels.

The woman stood motionless in the air, her bare feet resting on tiny flickers of pink light as she stared down at him. Her gaze jumped between him and the now normal-sized Caffeine a few times, still with that recognition in her soul. Then she scanned over the entire stadium before starting a slow descent.

Stanley had a lot of things he wanted to say to the woman, or maybe scream to her, but he wasn't sure where to start. Caffeine delayed the inevitable by bounding into his arms, and Stanley pulled up his legs to give the pug his designated seat with a whispered, "Good boy."

He could feel Zeke's golden soul getting closer but didn't take his eyes off the approaching threat above. It was hard to pick out any details amid the cacophony of souls, but he thought the purifier felt mostly...

"Caw!"

"Where the hell were you!?" Stanley snarled at the reappearing bird. "I know you've got power. You could have helped!" Though, thinking back, had it tried to warn him before fleeing?

"Caw!" The crow's soul flickered in his senses, and Stanley got a feeling of supreme confidence from the brief flash.

"Of course I didn't need your help! But that's not the point!"

"Caw." A core appeared clenched in its beak, and it dropped the glowing rock onto Caffeine's head.

"Don't try to bribe me!" Stanley said, picking up the core. "Hey! This isn't even a skill!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Pink said, her voice loud but no longer earthshaking and her eyes narrow as she studied him. She was closer than before, perhaps even close enough to attack him faster than he could kill her, but her soul didn't want a fight. Not anymore.

"Don't you mean who the hell are you?" Stanley asked, studying her with his own narrowed gaze.

She wore no armor that he could see, had no physical weapons, and no shoes. Nothing but a pair of thin pants and a tank top.

"No," she said. "I know who you are, and I want to know why you are coming into my house and tearing up the place!"

How did she know him? Also, had she gotten a notification when he attacked the lair structure? Did it work like that even from far away? Because he wouldn’t have missed that soul if she had been anywhere nearby before.

"Your house fucking sucks," Stanley growled. "It's full of dead people. How do you know who I am?"

"I met one of your fans." Her gaze flicked to Caffeine and back. "Both of yours. And that's a shit excuse for attacking my fucking home!"

Stanley glanced over and saw Nate walk into view alongside the others. "Coming here was his idea. I was just the transport... until I got tired of listening to the screaming. What do you mean by my fans?"

She eyed Nate briefly before turning her gaze back on Stanley. "Oh, you'd remember that one. Ten feet tall, rather thin, and with four arms. What screaming?"

"Some asshole was..." Stanley stiffened as his brain caught up with what she'd said. "You've seen the invaders?"

"Obviously. The stiff came here, and the boney bastard was looking to recruit me and mine. Which asshole was doing what?"

Stanley's heart raced. "You saw them... When? Where did they go!? Wait, how..." He drifted further away, getting in between her and the approaching Zeke. "How are you still alive?"

"Which. Asshole."

"No! How the fuck are you still alive!?" Her soul was clearly not undead. Not even a little like Bernard's people.

"Everyone to me!" she shouted, her voice booming again. "Now!" Every single E-grade leapt to obey, scrambling closer with terror in their souls. All but one.

Caffeine sat up worriedly in his lap as Stanley drifted further away from her and closer to Zeke, but Stanley didn't attack. Not yet. She was angry, but it still didn't feel like she wanted to fight. Of course, if she was working with the undead, then her soul might be completely unreliable... Who knew what else they could do beyond hiding their souls? Was this a trap?

"You want to know about the undead? Fine. But I want to know which asshole was disobeying my orders!"

Wait, was it really that simple? No, it couldn't be. She was definitely powerful, but not strong enough to fight the invaders. She obviously hadn't killed any of them, or there'd have been a notification... But if she knew something?

He drifted higher, flicking on Soul Sight as he went, and his gaze followed the trail of destruction he'd left through the shantytown. All the way back to where this whole shitshow had started. There, he picked out the three souls he remembered from before.

One of them was already sprinting his way, but the other two were screaming again. Though it felt less... substantial this time. Kind of... dazed?

Stanley grabbed all three and dragged them over. He was much more gentle with the two F-grades, but may have accidentally dragged the E-grade through a few walls and ceilings along the way. Mostly because he was having a hard time believing what his mental touch was telling him.

Unfortunately, it was exactly as bad as he'd thought. The singular E-grade who hadn't instantly come running when she called was the one who had started all of this. He hadn't come running because he literally stopped to tie up his ex-wife. And the kid! He'd even gagged both of them, and he hadn’t been gentle about it, going by the fresh bruises and dazed souls.

"Help m... Sam!" the psycho yelled as he flew in, his voice only slightly muffled by Stanley demolishing another wall with his face. Then he dropped to the ground at her feet. "This psycho came in and attacked me out of nowhere!"

That was rich, and who the fuck was he calling a psycho!?

"Did he now?" Her voice came out almost whisper soft as the man scrambled to his knees at her feet, but her soul told another story entirely. It was ice cold, and it promised death.

"Yes, ma'am! He..." The idiot finally trailed off when he noticed she wasn't looking at him. He followed her gaze and went white when he saw his bound and gagged ex-wife hovering behind him.

Despite the pure terror flooding his soul—which Stanley appreciated—he still tried to talk his way out of whatever this was. "He attacked my w... my ex! I tried to stop..."

"What were my orders, Roman?" The question came out soft, almost gentle, but her tone was icy. "What did I explicitly tell you to never do, and who did I tell you to stay the hell away from?"

She was furious with him, but Stanley had the distinct impression that her anger had nothing to do with his battered wife and everything to do with his going against her orders. She didn’t care about the woman or the kid. Otherwise, they wouldn’t still be F-grade. She was just pissed that someone had defied her.

"You can’t do this to..." The protesting denial ended abruptly. Probably because between one second and the next, there was suddenly a horizontal sheet of pink light extending out from the woman's hand, into his chest, and out of his back.

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.