Interlude - Survivors

Aurora dashed to the side, evading a sword about to stab her through the chest.

“Can’t y’all just, like, stop coming after me!” She yelled as she retreated and unleashed her [Earth Quake] skill.

The four men wobbled, trying to catch their balance, one fell to his knees, losing his sword in the process.

“You’re coming with us,” one of them, their leader, presumably, said.

“Hah, nope,” Aurora said as she set her feet and glared at them, gripping her staff tightly.

“We can help you,” he said, trying the nice guy routine again. “We have a safe place with many other survivors, you’ll have a home and be surrounded by other people. It’s better than a rundown and abandoned town.”

Aurora rolled her eyes. “Again, I don’t need your help buddy. I’m doing great on my own.”

They managed to get back to their feet as the ground settled and glared at her. She didn’t shy away from their glares, she had gone through too much to be afraid of them. They were barely in their First Investment, while she was approaching her Third. She was confident.

They’d come into town a day before, and both she and they had been surprised when they run into each other. At first, she was happy to find more survivors. They all had to stick together, but then they started talking about their group, far north, a “Kingdom”.

They asked her to come back with them, they were apparently sent out to search for other survivors and bring them back to safety. Aurora declined their offer, of course, she was waiting for Marianna to come get her. Aurora had tried to head to the coast, but the wild was too dangerous for her. Not the beasts that much, as the lack of supplies. In town she had a rift that she could get meat from, and the house she had settled in had a well of its own so she had water.

She wasn’t like Marianna who could survive in the wild all by herself. She had barely even hiked before the world went to crap. She hoped that Mari could find her, or at least that she made it to the next challenge as they had agreed.

These “Warriors of the Kingdom” that she had met didn’t take her answer kindly. They started trying to persuade her, and once they realized that she wouldn’t go, to force her. Unfortunately for them, she was a lot stronger than they were.

“I’m not going with you,” Aurora stressed again. “And you cannot force me.”

The leader, Rick, and the others exchanged looks, they had been surprised when she demonstrated her skills, they hadn’t seen anything like it. That was when they had decided to take her no matter what.

“King Proximus has decreed that every survivor with a unique Mask must be brought before him,” Rick said.

“I don’t know what kind of a fantasy roleplay you guys are all playing, but try to pay attention this time. I. AM. NOT. GOING. ANYWHERE.”

“These lands are claimed for the Sun Kingdom, anyone living on our land is required to offer fealty to the King.”

Aurora blinked at the, clearly, insane man. “I know that the world fell apart and that there are no real countries and stuff anymore, but man. Do you hear yourself? It’s been barely three months and you are already claiming land? Making kingdoms? Who do you think you are?”

Rick shrugged. “We need order, it's just how we’re built, and King Proximus gave us that, he helped us survive and gave us the tools to retake our world. He was one of the chosen ones, given knowledge and gifts by the New Gods.”

Aurora blinked, what he was saying made her suspect that whoever this King was, might have also been an Exemplar. She didn’t remember anyone like that in the challenge, but then again, not everyone had probably accepted to go in the challenge. And it wasn’t like she had made many friends in there with the rest of the one hundred.

She hadn’t revealed her Exemplar status to these four, she had kept a lot back. They just knew that she was the only survivor of her town, not much more than that. She hadn’t even told them about their Mask.

“I don’t care,” Aurora said, her face turning determined. She had tried to argue with them, then to run, but they pursued her. They weren’t giving her much choice. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

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“Regretful,” he said and pulled out a vial from a pouch at his waist.

She frowned. “What's that supposed to be?”

The others did the same, all pulling out identical vials, with the same purplish liquid inside. Then they downed it.

Her eyes widened as she saw their veins turn violet and a cobweb of them spread beneath their skin. Their eyes darkened and turned the same color, their muscles bulged and then they launched themselves at me.

Aurora barely reacted fast enough.

[Stone Wall]

The concrete beneath her feet shifted then rose as a barrier between her and the four charging men.

They were fast! Not Mari fast, but definitively faster than humans, even Invested ones. Unless they were like Third or Fourth Investment, which she knew they were not.

Aurora dashed backward, as they came around. She saw the mad looks in their eyes, whatever they just took, she knew it was bad.

They roared, spittle flying out of their mouths like they were some mad dogs.

Aurora stopped holding back.

[Sunder Earth]

The ground opened beneath them, cracking the concrete in half and widening into a chasm between them and Aurora. One of the men didn’t stop in time and fell in, tumbling through the hole that was several meters deep. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

Aurora focused on the other three, she raised a hand and used [Shape Stone] with her newest skill [Stoneform Proficiency], hands made out of concrete rose and grabbed the three, trapping their arms against their torsos.

The struggled, but even their improved strength wasn’t enough to break free.

Aurora closed the ground back up, their dead friend buried beneath forever. She felt guilty about that, she didn’t mean to kill him. But she wasn’t going to let it show.

She approached the others, who looked at her with violet eyes.

“I’m not going anywhere, and if you come back and bother me again, you’ll end up the same as your friend. Understand?” She asked, trying to channel her best Marianna, and failing spectacularly.

Aurora just didn’t have that same intensity a vampire had.

The three finally nodded, and their leader, Rick spoke.

“I’ll inform the King that this town is off-limits.”

Aurora sighed, she didn’t know if she trusted them, but she wasn’t ruthless enough to just kill them. A part of her whispered that Marianna would’ve done it, but…

Aurora wasn’t like that.

She sighed, and released her skill, hoping that she wasn’t making a mistake.

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The pack of hyenas had tracked them across the desert. Even when Oluwatobi hunted them in the dark or tried to scare them away. He could’ve, and should’ve, killed them before, but he was fearful. The pack was large, and every predator knew that a pack of hyenas was dangerous. They took down lions with their numbers, and Oluwatobi couldn’t risk death.

He had children to protect.

He looked behind him at the little den they had found in the oasis, his son and daughter slept, exhausted from months of constant wandering through the desert. Adanna and Ade were in their true forms, just like how he was, so it was easier on them, but they were still only children.

Oluwatobi pushed his large head through the door, then looked at the pack circling around. They had approached while he slept. A stupid mistake to make, but he had been tired too.

Their roars, barks, yips and growls, rose in intensity, waking his children up. They yelped, their bodies and eyes showing clear fear. He nuzzled them, then barked softly, telling them to stay inside and hidden.

He stepped outside, surrounded. He took a deep breath, then roared, his voice drowning out the hyenas. For a moment after, there was silence, and he hoped that they would be frightened enough to decide this wasn’t worth it.

Only they didn’t. They had been tracking them for days. He could see it in their red eyes, they wanted his flesh, they wanted his children.

Oluwatobi prayed to the Mother Earth, hoping for a miracle. The world had become a hell, ever since that night when his wife had vanished before his eyes. And now it felt like the nightmare was drawing to the end.

But he wasn’t going to go quietly. He was not going to lay down and show them his belly. He was a child of the Earth, and he didn’t give up.

He bared his teeth, clawed at the ground and waited.

The hyenas attacked first. Their twisted and hellish forms rippling with muscle as they charged.

He pounced, cutting the distance and grabbing the closest hyena in his powerful jaws. With a single bite, he crushed its skull in his mouth.

Pain lanced through his thigh as another hyena bit his hind leg. Oluwatobi whirled around and smacked the hyena down with a paw, rending flesh apart and smashing it against the ground.

Another hyena jumped on his back, biting. He roared, and bit and clawed and threw himself against the hyenas, but no matter how many he killed another was there to take its place. He was healing from his wounds, he was faster, stronger, but he couldn’t leave the small shack where his children were hiding.

If he had more room, if he could run against them… If, if. The world was mad. And as his blood soaked the floor he prayed again.

As if to answer his prayer, a loud crack shook the air, and something landed on top a hyena like a star falling from the sky, like the wrath of god.

The animal exploded in a shower of blood and gore, bits of flesh, organs, and bone scattered in all directions. Everything froze, and all eyes turned toward the small crater.

The first thing Oluwatobi saw were wings, as black as night, beautiful, the kind one saw on a falcon. Then the thing that had fallen from the sky straightened, pulling the wings back.

Oluwatobi saw a humanoid with blue skin, with glowing emerald eyes. The clothes she wore were skin tight on her torso, hugging every curve perfectly. Long black hair fell over her shoulders, and strange bracers covered her arms.

She met his eyes, and then moved. The air cracked again, and another hyena exploded.

Oluwatobi could barely follow the movements, but he retreated, putting his back against the entrance to the shack and his children.

He didn’t do anything but watch the strange creature as it slaughtered the hyenas with ease.