Jack sought out fights whenever the enemy inconvenienced him. Gone were the days of skirting around tribes of monsters, or hiding in basements while they passed by. Jack confronted everything that stood in his path. If he wanted to stash a cache in a specific building, he’d walk in a straight line until he got to it!

This led to several very lucrative encounters with both monsters and dungeons. First was a lizard man who wore leather armor sized for a human. Jack refrained from killing it to strip the armor off first, nearly guaranteeing the loot when he killed the monster. Then came the time when he killed a mechanized mannequin in a dungeon, and the body didn’t disappear. He was able to detach the mace and shield it wielded for his own purposes. The weapon and shield were superior to his regular equipment in every single way!

Jack stashed them away in a very secure place.

He allowed himself to keep the leather armor, since the weather was getting hotter and he didn’t feel like continuing to wear multiple layers anymore. But since his current armaments were good enough for the smaller mobs, he didn’t want to waste the durability of the good stuff.

Goblins were beginning to be a joke to deal with, so Jack placed restrictions on himself every time he encountered them. Kill them all without being seen. Kill them all by only using looted weapons. Don’t use a shield. Don’t taunt. Only use fists. Knock them all out first, then kill them in a single blow. Jack achieved this feat by lining up their unconscious bodies and toppeling a lamp pole on their heads.

The lizard folk were more challenging by the fact of body proportions. They were much larger than goblins, meaning they more easily blocked his vision when they got up in his face. But still, Jack could deal with them. Ironically enough, the ratkin were the hardest to deal with. They were a lot more organized than the other two tribes, and their weapons and armor were better. Jack was only just getting to the phase where he was used to their combat styles that he could even consider giving himself challenges to make the fights more fun.

But all that was neither here nor there. Because Jack found another dungeon, and this one promised to be fun.

It was a church, following the typical style of being larger on the inside than on the outside. However, unlike other dungeons, this one had more foreign stones in it than normal architecture. The church was white on the outside, but inside the walls were black and gray, covered in hundreds of carvings. The shape of the main area where mass was held was shaped like a cross, with the arms and lower portion being where the people would normally sit. The top part of the cross was where the priest and choir sat. Instead of the usual christian iconography above the priests area was the largest mural of the four figures Jack had ever seen.

This time though, the mural was different. The most obvious difference was that it was upside down. The fourth person, a human, looked like shattered rubble, with pieces of himself exploding out from a central spherical core. The core was bleeding, and although the stone didn’t glow like the others, Jack could still see the blood as red as any other. There was no paint, nor any trick. It was just so detailed that Jack saw the illusion of color where there wasn’t any.

The blood poured through a gate in the center of the mural. The gate looked to be made of rubble on one side, with buildings, clumps of grass, and other earthy chunks forming a square. The other side of the gate had a mix of the three others’ civilizations. Stone foundations, intricate mini murals, and advanced tech woven throughout. Drip by drip, the human’s blood fell into their cups.

The three figures still smiled at the bottom, though their grins looked far more sinister.

An elvish figure stood elegantly at the center of the mural. Pale as the moon, staring at Jack with blood red eyes. Two of them, fortunately.

Jack swaggered down the carpeted hall, approaching the figure. She regarded him cooly as he got closer.

The setting entranced him. Jack took a breath through his nose, mind swirling. It was said that no human could last in isolation for long. He’d read about effects of isolation, especially concerning those that referenced hallucinations. While Jack was under no illusion that he was perfectly healthy and sane, he couldn’t help but imagine an intricate orchestra placing their bows to violin strings behind the elf.

He’d always loved classical music.

The elf bolted into motion, diving hands first for Jack. Claws extended from her fingertips, and her smile displayed beautiful fangs. Jack’s shield deflected the blow without issue, and the two combatants switched places.

Jack maintained an exact distance between them. His movements were slow in comparison to hers. She just barely dodged out of the way of his sword, using Jack’s recovery time to get closer. He just stepped back, blocking her attacks with his shield before returning for another blow.

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Back and forth they went. Jack’s technique versus her overwhelming speed and ruthlessness. Their steps moved in tandem, each reading the other before they had even begun to move. A delicate balance turned to a dance. Music swelled in Jack’s mind, following the rapid tempo of the fight.

They said that violence was the only universal language.

Before the apocalypse, Jack had never spoken it before. He was always a tall kid. His parents and older sister warned him of the danger he posed to the world just by virtue of being male. How he didn’t know his own strength, and how he had to be gentle at all times. Don’t hit kids, even if they hit you first. Don’t shout, don’t cause problems, just sit there and play nice.

It was as if a veil had been lifted.

He’d spoken to people before, obviously, but Jack never understood them. Not intimately. He recognized that he was different, Jack wasn’t blind. But he didn’t know how. He still didn’t know.

Who was Jack? He knew stuff about himself, but that didn’t translate to who he was. Maybe he was just a cumulation of experiences. That didn’t explain the parts of himself that he couldn’t control though. Jack never knew he was afraid of spiders until he saw one under a microscope. He never knew that vanilla ice cream was his favorite until his grandpa brought some along for the family camping trip. What were these likes and dislikes that he had never known about until he experienced them? If Jack had never experienced them in the first place, would they still be a part of him?

This elf, this vampire didn’t always used to be like this. No words had been spoken, but she told Jack her story regardless. No scars marred her skin, and she never felt the damage he inflicted. Yet, whenever Jack aimed for her head, she flinched. Not with grand movements, but with a squinting of the eyes and a quickening of the breath. A hitch, before she dodged. Always downwards, as if she feared a blow from above.

Though she was an elf, Jack knew she was young. It showed in her inexperience. She relied too much on her speed, indicative of an early turning. She gained power before she was taught to fight, and she hadn’t been taught since, not by an equal nor superior. Her strikes were desperate, fierce, and fatal. She didn’t thirst for blood, she just wanted Jack dead and gone.

She spoke to Jack between the bars of their silent music. Her bare feet shoved wooden debris aside with no regard for the splinters it gave her. A runaway. Each attack was aimed where Jack could see it, as if she was trying to make him fear her. This was no fighter.

And Jack was holding back.

He surprised her with a kick, pausing the music. She slid back, surprised by the direct blow. The tiny cuts Jack had given her healed before his very eyes, and she watched him as Jack threw aside his sword and shield. The music began quietly again, and they both entered our stances.

Hers was wide, and full of rage. Jack’s was tight and under control.

Their pasts spoken, Jack began a conversation about the present.

He was no fighter either, but he learned. Jack evolved with his circumstances, being somehow uniquely suited to the situation. He showed her his accomplishments, mimicking her moves after he’d experienced and internalized them. Without her claws, his attacks didn’t damage her, but she still shied away from each one.

She told him about her resolute nature. Her desire to live, even through the horror she was forced to live through. She spoke of resolve and peace through isolation. Her anger at his intrusion, and a building hunger that she was struggling to control the further the fight went along.

The music swelled, and their violent dance forced them to grapple each other close. Her hands in his shoulders, and his own holding her wrist and neck. They spun in circles, entering the skylight from above. Her eyes strained, vessels growing in desperation. Her hands were too small, her claws too dull to properly cut through his armor. Blood spilled out from the gaps in his armor where she gripped his bare flesh, but Jack did not release his grip.

With a final crescendo, the music cut, and they tripped over a small stool. Jack knelt over the vampire, staring down at her eyes. She was crying. Not from anger, desperation, or anything negative. She felt relief.

Jack slowly released her wrist and brought his second hand to her throat. She continued to struggle, weakly pressing her own claws against his Adam's apple. Her strength failed her as Jack starved her of oxygen. Jack raised his shoulders slowly, then pressed down with all his weight concentrated on his hands.

Bones crunched deeply beneath his grip.

The elf girl dropped her arms to either side of her, and the room fell silent. She did not vanish into black smoke, so Jack fell back onto her stomach. He wasn’t out of breath, but for some reason, he found it hard to breathe.

Taking to his feet, Jack returned to the hallway where his weapons laid. He left the shield alone and took up his sword once more. Marching back to the body with heavy steps, he stood above her, victorious.

He couldn’t speak aloud, so he just thought the words.

Thank you.

He knelt, slamming his blade on her throat. Her head separated from her body, and finally, she vanished into black smoke and embers. A light shone above him.

“You have achieved something Awesome.”

Awesome…

Jack somberly collected his things, leaving the vampire's loot behind.