~~~Lee~~~

Lee was blessedly alone when he finally woke up, blue sky visible through his enchanted window, though he didn't like that he'd slept through the others leaving. He was also hungry again...

Debuff: [Hungry]

Debuff: [Thirsty]

Annoying since a bunch of dirty thieves had eaten his food... though he'd definitely eaten enough of his neighbor's food to make up for the loss, maybe even more. He felt a little bad about that, but then, his neighbor had been the one to let all those people in.

Water was an issue, especially because the taps no longer worked... Lee found some of the bottled water Maria had supplied the night before, but they were empty... and the bottles looked weird. Kinda melty. He finally broke down and drank some of the water from his toilet tank. It smelled and tasted fine, and he told himself repeatedly that it wasn't actually toilet water... Though the toilet itself was going to be a problem, and soon.

Beyond that, hunger was only a secondary concern for now. What he really wanted was to get some actual weapons already, and he had some ideas about how to do that. All of which would require going outside, but then he would still have to go out to find more water.

For weapons, Lee went straight for the obvious and closest option first; the metal railing on his porch.

It took some effort to cut free a single bar, but he had practice from the night before and an enchanted butter knife that could cut anything. He had to kick the shit out of the bar and make a few passes with the knife, but he got one free eventually.

Then he put a heating rune onto the thin metal, which was just barely wide enough to squeeze it on. Of course, it burned his hand immediately... and he dropped it on the porch. It didn't last long, the quickly heating metal destroying the rune while also draining its power. Once he started hammering on it, it really didn't last.

His 'hammer' was the frying pan Maria had cooked the food in. Not ideal, but heavy enough, and with a rune on it, tough enough as well. Someone yelled at him while he was pounding and clanging. Lee ignored them. What were they gonna do? Call the cops?

In the end, he was left with a slightly flatter and very slightly more edged bar of metal. Not great, but something he could squeeze a couple of runes onto and make into a sword. It would lose power faster than his butter knife, but the increased range should make up for it. It was definitely long enough to cut him free of a giant frog stomach, at least.

While he worked, and while he wasn't making a god-awful racket, he noted the silence of the city. Which was odd... he expected a lot more screaming, if nothing else. Once he stopped long enough to take a good look, he realized what had changed. The constant background hum of traffic was gone. No cars flying down the freeway or the streets... though he could see a few sitting in the middle of the road from his vantage.

It was nice. The silence, that is. It was the kind of thing you didn't notice until you got far enough away from civilization. The kind of thing they'd had sometimes on the truck... pulling over on some distant road, shutting down the engine, and then silence. We had some good times...

Lee shook himself out of the past. He had stuff to do. Plus, he heard voices accumulating outside the building and ruining the moment, one of which he recognized. So he avoided that area when he went outside. Instead, heading back to the site of his battle the night before. He wanted to see what remained in the daylight.

The sight of the massive corpse in the valley sent a chill up his spine. That thing really was gargantuan... How was anyone supposed to fight that? The smell wafting up from the valley was also extremely unpleasant, and he could see shapes moving around the corpse... probably scavengers. Scavengers that he could kill for cores...

The sight and smell put a damper on his plan. Sure, he might be able to see better now, but it wouldn't prevent a monster like the frog from still eating him...

Though, if he had more weapons, and maybe some armor... getting swallowed wouldn't kill him if he could chop the monsters up from the inside, but he would still need to survive the getting eaten part for that...

Lee had some ideas for armor, but between hammering out metal sheets thin enough for him to carry and attaching them to his body in an actually useful way, he wasn't feeling ready on that front.

He turned back toward the complex, and his eyes landed on the parked cars everywhere. Weren't they made of metal? Some of them? Lee touched the nearest car, and his mana didn't like the fiberglass... Some vehicles must still use metal, he just needed to find one.

The van a few spots down proved more promising when the rear doors turned out to be metal. He didn't know what kind of metal, but probably aluminum. Whatever it was, his mana didn't complain.

His new sword went to work, hacking one door off. It took a lot of effort and more than a little pounding, but Lee didn't consider how his actions might look until someone yelled behind him...

"Hey!"

He spun around to see an angry man stalking toward him. "What the hell are you doing to my van!?"

"I'm going to make a shield..." Lee said, easing back and keeping his blade between him and the other man.

"You... what... are you insane?"

Lee glanced at the guy's van. It looked ugly, and his aim hadn't been as good as he'd have liked, but he just needed to cut the last hinge. "How about I make you a shield from the other one, and we call it even?"

"Even!? You're destroying my van!"

"Isn't it useless now?" Lee probably should have asked about that or tested with the moving truck he'd... forgotten to return... Though, he was pretty sure the truck key had been in his pocket the night before, so that was a no-go. Besides, he'd seen no one driving today, that had to mean cars were toast. Maybe an emp effect from the mana when his phone and power stopped working? Would old cars still run if that was the case? Either way, the van was definitely not old enough to still work. It was more useful now as a source of metal.

"Trust me, it'll be a good shield," he reassured the guy. It would be too. The van had nearly straight back doors with a window at the top. Lee could already envision it; an indestructible shield that he could see through. Sure, the window would be slightly weaker, and the entire thing was going to be heavy, but shields with windows had to be hard to come by.

"I'll show you who's useless!" the man yelled and stalked forward threateningly.

Another man appeared in front of Lee and did so very abruptly. Lee wouldn't have recognized him from the back if not for the runes he could feel on the man's machete. He also remembered that movement skill from the night before...

"Please calm down, Sir," Alejandro said, taking a step back from the man and forcing Lee to pull his own blade back before he stabbed him.

"What the hell was that!?" Apparently, Alejandro had startled both of them. But seriously, had this guy missed the whole frog debacle? Why else would he seem so surprised at magic powers...

Lee took the opportunity of Alejandro's distraction to take another swing... and the door fell with a crash onto the ground and another yell from the owner. Lee winced. Luckily, the window didn't break. Now he just needed some straps to hold the damn thing on his arm...

Alejandro made a great wingman, and he kept the other man from assaulting him while Lee chopped off the second door. His wingman might need a shield, too. A few ugly strips of metal cut from the side of the brutalized vehicle became makeshift arm supports once he heated them and poorly welded them to the doors.

Even a bad weld was good enough once he stuck the rune on it. The strengthening enchant should hold where the welding didn't, though he would want some cloth or something for where the jagged bits touched his arm...

"Was that really necessary?" Alejandro said, and Lee looked up to see the other man no longer in the picture as he sliced apart the seats inside the van. Free padding and cloth!

"Good looking out," Lee said after wrapping the handle. "Did he agree to my deal?"

"I think he went to find a camera... for the police, he said..."

"Wow…" Lee shook his head. Some people were going to have a really bad time in the coming days.

"Then you can have... that one." Lee pointed to the first and still unpadded one that hadn't come out quite as good as his own. Not that it was bad... "For the food you gave me." Alejandro had owed him some food for what was stolen, but Lee felt like he'd really pigged out, and he didn't want to be in debt to anyone.

He took the other door, and it was heavy.

A few more stats in strength, and it won't matter. He hoped so, at least.

"I like it!" Alejandro exclaimed as a yellow glow covered the door. He looked through the window at Lee. "Very nice. This will help with our trip today, and you should come along."

Alejandro waved him to follow, and Lee did. He had just given the man a shield, and it wouldn't hurt to let that shield defend him while he went hunting. In fact, that was probably a much better idea than going it alone... plus, it really smelled in the valley where he'd planned to hunt.

"Where are we going?" Lee asked, eyeing the group Alejandro led him to. It was an eclectic mix of men and women, almost all representing a different look. This was clearly who he'd heard yammering out here earlier.

Alejandro smiled widely. "We are going shopping for food, after you ate everything last night!"

Lee narrowed his eyes. Alejandro had offered the food... besides, he had just given him a shield. That wasn't even counting the machete...

"I'm kidding!" Alejandro said. "But we have a lot of people in here," he gestured broadly at the complex, "and we will all need supplies. Will you come with us?"

Lee tensed under the gazes coming his way when the group all turned as one to look at him.

He wasn't about to become a caretaker of some random people, especially the ones in denial, like van guy... but he did need weapons and food.

"What can you do?" another man said before Lee could respond. "We don't need any dead weight slowing us down." He was bearded, holding a sledgehammer, and wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. The only thing that would have made him look more like a stereotype lumberjack was if he had an ax instead.

Lee glared at the man as he hefted his own wonky-looking sword. It was good enough to cut the moron in half... better than a hammer, for sure. His new shield hung heavy on his arm, and Lee resisted the urge to rest it on the ground.

"He's good," another man spoke up, this one holding an actual bow. "I'd take him over you, in fact."

"You little..." the asshole sputtered as he turned on the other man, but his protest died as he shrank away from the archer's gaze. "...freak," he whispered, turning away.

Then the archer's eyes slid to Lee, and he understood. The man's pupils were bright green, almost yellow, and they were vertical, like a cat. It was the man he'd met the night before, the one who saved his life... Only now, in the daylight, Lee couldn't tell if the eyes were still glowing.

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They were definitely still creepy, but to Lee, it meant this guy was probably well ahead of the curve already and, given what he'd seen the night before, a very solid addition to any hunting group. The bow also explained those streaks of light that killed the giant frog.

"Hi… again," Lee said. He was just glad he hadn't had any nightmares about that... yet. Though he expected they would come, eventually.

For now... well, it was nice to be in the sunlight.

The archer only nodded as Alejandro cleared his throat. "Listen, we all need to work together for this. We don't know what is out there, but after last night we can expect the worst."

"How about some introductions before we go? I am Alejandro, and this is my lovely wife, Maria. She has some healing skills too, but she will remain with the children this time." Maria nodded as people glanced at her, but her primary focus was on Alejandro. The child in her arms and the toddler in her hand looked to be taking up the rest of her attention.

Alejandro glanced around, clearly waiting for someone else to do the talking thing.

"Very well, I am Saira." The woman who volunteered herself was dark-haired, brown-skinned, spoke with a thick Indian accent, and was wearing... a sari. Lee was pretty sure he got that right. She had no weapons and didn't look at all like someone ready to fight monsters. "I have some skills that will allow me to heal us."

A healer. That gave her some leeway in Lee's mind... Though he wasn't sure how much that would help him. But if she could keep the others alive and let them be extra targets, Lee could see the value in that.

"Jake," the archer said, "I'm a hunter." That was all he said, but Lee didn't need more. He'd seen the man in action already and was feeling way better about this little excursion with him along for the ride.

It looked like they were going in a circle, and now all eyes were once again on him, so Lee introduced himself. "Lee. I'm a... enchanter." Not only did he not want to tell people extra details about his class, but Lee suspected their questions would lead right back to enchanting, so it was easier this way. The looks he got were not positive, other than Alejandro and Jake. They had seen him in action, though what either had seen and what they thought, Lee didn't know.

"I'm Larry," the hammer guy said. "I can't enchant anything, but I can hit stuff real hard..." he eyed Lee on the last bit. Lee ignored him.

"Sandra," the only other woman in the group said. She was dressed in casual jeans and a t-shirt but held a wooden staff taller than her. After introducing herself, she spun the staff in an impressive display around her body and said nothing else. While she clearly had some skill, Lee didn't see any magical effects from the staff. He hoped she had more than that...

"I..." a voice came from thin air. "I'm Mar..." The girl flickering into view gave Lee a start, and he flinched back, but she only appeared for an instant before vanishing again.

"Absolutely not!" Saira practically screeched. Lee didn't flinch that time. Between her dress and the way she held herself, that was about what he'd expected. "You are not coming with us!"

The girl appeared again, facing the woman, and Lee finally noticed the resemblance. Oh great. Family drama.

"You can't tell me what to..." the girl protested in a barely audible voice.

"I am your mother, and you will listen..." The girl vanished in the middle of her tirade, and the woman faltered at the visual loss of her target.

Mar appeared closer to Lee, on the other side of where her mother was looking. "You can't stop me!" She vanished immediately before she finished yelling. Saira turned her efforts to Alejandro, telling him loudly that her daughter could not join them.

Lee was suddenly feeling less confident about this group, and he moved cautiously toward Jake, hoping he didn't crash into the invisible girl. Her ability looked pretty good, considering how little he'd seen of her. Maybe her mana regen was really high, or the skill had a low cost. Either way, Lee was feeling just a little jealous...

Jake was staring at nothing, his eyes shifting slightly, as if following something. Could he see the girl? With those weird eyes, who knew? "Jake, you don't need a group to hunt." It came out as more of a statement than a question. "You wrecked that frog last night."

"Yea... turns out doing that wrecks my arrows as well." He didn't look Lee's way, but twisted the quiver at his waist to show the handful of arrows inside. "Need a resupply, and figured better to go with the team for now."

"Same," Lee said, "about going with the team, I mean. You saw my shitshow last night..."

Jake laughed. "You did alright until wandering down there yourself." He eyed the van door, lingering on the butter knife sticking up from the top. "Enchanting?"

"Pretty much." Lee would not divulge his real class but had a feeling that this guy might see through a direct lie. So he kept it vague. "I might be able to enchant some arrows..." he trailed off while eyeing the arrow already in the man's hand. It had a bullet-sized head, though more pointy. "Not like that, though. Needs more surface to work on. Maybe if you find some broadhead..."

"Sure," Jake said. "But how about enchanting Mar's knife?" He pointed at nothing, and a girl's voice squeaked before Mar appeared.

"How did you see me?"

Lee blinked in surprise. How had Jake seen her? "I can do that... where's the blade?"

Mar vanished. "Here." A massive knife appeared in the air and fell to the ground at Lee's feet. "S... sorry."

Lee ignored her stammering. Why did everyone else have better weapons than him? Still, if she was going to be on his team today, then he might as well make sure she had a good weapon. He could always take the runes back.

He picked up the bowie knife and drew his symbols on the flat of the blade... and hesitated. "Do you have a sheath? I need to enchant it, too, or this might cut it."

"I... yes." Her voice was barely audible, and she didn't appear.

Lee could hear the sounds of a belt being unfastened, and he looked around to see Alejandro and Saira both watching him. Or maybe just watching for Mar.

Then something tapped his hand, and Lee jumped. "What the!"

"Sorry!" Mar appeared for an instant, sheath in hand, and stretched out to him before vanishing again.

Lee held his hand out and didn't flinch when it landed in his grasp again. The sheath appeared as soon as she let go of it, and luckily, the mana seemed okay with the leather it was made of, so he got to work.

His own solution to a sheath was just a gap in the enchanted door where he could wedge the butter knife while his makeshift sword he just planted in the ground, but what he really needed was something like this. The leather wouldn't hold more than a single rune, but then that was all he needed. It also became much more rigid after he put the rune on, but not so much that he didn't consider leather armor as an alternative to metal...

Getting his own gear like this was one of the primary reasons for joining this trip, after all. Though Lee doubted he would find leather armor at the store... and he was even more doubtful about trying to build it himself.

Testing the resulting knife and sheath combo proved his runes successful, though it would drain the runes of both sheath and blade if she moved it around a lot... He told her as much while handing it back.

"Th... thanks," she whispered, and it vanished from Lee's hand. Even invisible though, Lee could still feel his runes on the weapon as the girl moved. It was definitely a way to track something, and he resolved to think of ways to use that if he ran into invisible enemies.

Everyone had gathered by then, and Lee once again found himself the center of attention, probably because no one could see Mar. "We going?" he said into the silence.

"Yes," Alejandro said, with a glance at Saira. It seemed like she had accepted her daughter joining them, and Lee thought he felt a faint pulse of mana fly away from her... "Is everyone ready?"

There were some nods and quiet agreement, along with nervous looks out the gate of the complex. Lee felt the same, especially after his misadventure the night before. Who knew what might be out there... not that they were necessarily safe in here.

Alejandro stepped next to Lee as they headed for the gate. "It is still enchanted, right? She will be safe?"

Lee followed his gaze to Maria standing in the doorway of his building. "It is, but it won’t last forever if something attacks. Just like your shield."

"Thank you, Lee." Alejandro didn't have a sheath for his machete, so had no free hands and instead bumped his shoulder into Lee, almost knocking him over. "I know it was not easy to do what you did, and Maria told me how it hurt you. I will keep you safe today and help you get your rocks."

Lee nodded and looked away from the man's gaze. He hadn't done all that to save Alejandro's family. It was to save himself. But the guy had a way about him... as if his words were true and sincere. As if he meant every word he said... It was suspicious as hell, and for all Lee knew, it could be a skill manipulating his mind to make him more trusting.

Larry never asked for his hammer to be enchanted, and Lee didn't offer. If the guy was too proud to ask, that was his problem.

It wasn't a big surprise, but they only made it a few steps into the street outside before something happened. It started with a rustling in the bushes that put everyone on edge.

The rabbit that darted from the bushes looked completely normal, and everyone visibly relaxed. Except for Jake. He was looking off to the side at another bush, and Lee followed his lead.

So he was watching when the squirrel emerged.

It was the size of a dog, not including the massive bushy tail, and it moved fast, pouncing on the rabbit before he could blink. There was a single squeak, and the rabbit vanished down the squirrel's throat. Lee wasn't sure if squirrels were usually carnivorous, but this one sure was.

Alejandro took a step ahead of the others, shield up and looking through the window as he advanced. The squirrel chittered at him, bushy tail lashing the air...

"Up..." Mar's voice came from thin air.

Lee looked up just in time to see the airplane-sized bird crash down onto the squirrel.

Everyone staggered back at the explosion of wind, and Lee cursed his class choice again. If he could shoot lightning, then maybe he could do something. But how was he supposed to fight these giant fucking monsters? It wouldn't matter if he was covered in enchanted armor. The bird could probably carry him away without issue...

Jake had lined up his arrow faster than Lee saw him move, and now light gathered on the tip as they watched the bird watching them.

Its massive head twitched back and forth, tilting in blurringly fast motions as it checked them out with each eye in turn. Then its head plunged... and it ripped half the squirrel's body free from its talons before swallowing it. The second half followed a moment later, and then the bird eyed them again from what had to be thirty feet overhead.

They were all backing away slowly when it hopped after them. More specifically, it hopped right at Lee.

Oh, shit!

Lee ducked low behind his shield, falling as he practically lay down beneath the enchanted van door. Why it targeted him, he didn't know, and he really hoped his runes were as good as he thought they were...

Alejandro appeared in front of him with that same blurring motion Lee had seen a few times now and caught the descending beak on his own shield.

It clanged loudly, flashing with yellow light and then a pulse of blue as the rune lit up brightly over the door.

The runes usually only looked like that when he first put them onto an item, and the sight was a bit eye-straining. As in, the symbols seemed to be only where he'd drawn them on the surface of the metal while also covering the entire thing.

The bird might have felt the same way because it hopped back after the attack and then just stood there watching them with more head tilts.

Alejandro took a step toward the towering bird, shield still glowing with blue and yellow lights, and the bird hopped back. Another step forward, this time accompanied by Lee and Jake. Lee because he preferred to stay close behind the man who blocked the bird from eating him, and Jake because... well, Lee didn't know what that man was thinking, but he hadn't fired the glowing arrow yet.

Fortunately, the bird didn't like what it saw because it spread massive wings and shot into the sky a second later.

There were a few tense moments following its departure while they scanned the sky and surrounding bushes much more warily, but nothing else emerged. The bird vanished into the distance, and Lee could have sworn he felt another pulse of mana from Saira as she stared off at nothing he could see... No, she was staring toward Mar. Lee could feel the runes.

Alejandro sagged to one knee, resting his shield on the ground. "Saira, please..."

The woman approached nervously as the others crowded around him. "Are you injured?"

"My arm," Alejandro said. "I think it's broken..." Watching his behavior made Lee more certain that his own regeneration was not standard. While he hadn't actually broken any bones last night, he felt that the injuries he had healed from were, in total, worse than a broken arm. Though, it was always possible he wouldn’t be able to regenerate broken bones…

"Oh, my! This way." Saira pulled Alejandro gently toward the edge of the road. "I need the plants."

Larry helped by grabbing Alejandro's shield once the man gingerly pulled his arm free, and then Saira had him sit on the grass. She placed both hands on his arm, and Lee saw a green light appear on her hands. Only it seemed to be coming from all around rather than from her personally, flowing in from the grass and trees before running through her and out into Alejandro.

"Why didn't you attack?" Lee asked the archer beside him, his gaze torn between watching the magic and keeping watch on their surroundings, like Jake was currently doing.

"It didn't really want to fight us," Jake said in response. "I suspect it is so much stronger than us that we aren't even worth eating... I think it was just curious," he said that last bit while glancing at Lee. "Why it tried to eat you anyway, I don't know..."

Lee shuddered. His body was still flush with unspent adrenaline, and it was all he could do to stop the shaking. "I don't know, and I really don't want to get eaten again..."

Jake chuckled as he turned to resume scanning. "I would have loved to fight it, but figured it was better not to drag all of you in with me."

"Thanks," Lee said dryly. The guy was verifiable, but who was he to judge? As far as he'd seen, Jake was probably the most powerful person here.

"Plus, I need a lot more arrows for something like that."

Sure, that was the only reason not to fight a giant hawk...