“So wait, you made that spell during the fight?” Donny asked as Mark was finishing up his checks.
“Aaa yeah, I didn't see another option at the time” Mark responded, he was running really low on Prana having saved just over 10% for emergencies. Feeling really light-headed for it.
At this stage all of them were sore, Mark had enough to heal up the worst of Daphne’s and Donny’s wounds. Patching himself up just enough so that movement didn't reopen the wound. His passive healing would take care of the rest.
“What's it called?” Donny asked, interrupting Mark's train of thought.
“Mmm, dunno haven't checked yet,” he said as he pulled up his status.
3x Corrupted Oridinator cleansed (1 + Sector reward: x4)
36/36
Level up!
+2 Prana, +2 Resistance
Spell Acquired: Shape Mana(Force)
Through extreme Mana control and imagery, the user can expand and create simple (Force) constructs.
Size and distance correlate to the Mana expended.
Complexity based on mental acuity
Mana can be retrieved if the form is reabsorbed by the user.
Damage to the construct will cause leaks in the framework, reducing the Mana returned.
Movement and reshaping costs Mana.
The strength and toughness of constructs are based on the Mana and Resistance attributes.
This spell can be altered by all other attributes.
Mark’s eyebrow rose in surprise.
‘That was a ridiculously complex spell’ but the more he thought about it the more he liked it because while a bit confusing, he could see a lot of applications.
‘I wonder if I can fix it in place?’ he shook himself out of it, testing could come later. Now it was time to get to safety.
1 x Corrupted Ordinator[chaos - 1] (3 + Sector reward: x4)
Dividing rewards among participants (Daphne Colt[4], Donovan Nox[4], and Mark Young[4])
The next eye-opener was the fact that that creature was most probably some kind of evolved version or something, considering it had a different name or sub-category. It gave more points but Mark also noticed that his sector reward had been applied before the system divided the exp points amongst them. Which was good to know, as long as he made any effort to help in a fight they would all benefit.
Name: Mark Young (22 - M) Level: 7 Next level: 10/49 Stats: Resistance Aura Mana Prana 39 (+2) 0 30 (+10) 67 (+2) Unspent stat points - 0 Corruption value: 9.12%
Spells:
Passive Regeneration(Self)[1], Force bolt[3], Prana Pulse[1], Regenerate[1], Draw Corruption[1], Corruption recovery[1].
In total, they remained in place for about 10 minutes. Any longer felt like they were pushing their luck. As it was everyone was on edge and keeping a lookout. Grace had refused to speak to anyone during this time.
Not that Mark was complaining.
Even Donny looked conflicted about her decision. She had completely overridden all of their opinions.
All in all that did not leave much room for chitchat.
They began moving again and as they exited out into the sunlight, a soft barking sound caught their attention.
There about 10 meters ahead sat the collie. Resting up against a fire hydrant, panting in the midmorning sun.
“Okay, now this is just getting weird” Mark voiced his thoughts.
How was this dog getting around so safely? It was clear to Mark that it was not a normal canine.
Neither Grace nor Donny spoke but Mark could see the hesitation in their eyes.
The same could not be said for Daphne.
“Aww, come here doggie, come on, Momma’s got a snack for you” she chirped, dropping low and holding her palm out. She had removed a granola bar from her pocket and tore a piece out of the wrapper.
The collie got up and trotted over to them, not even hesitating when it approached Daphne. It happily came up and wolfed down the small offering.
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“Oh my gosh guys he’s so fluffy,” she wined as she tentatively began patting it.
Her hands traveled along the collie's coat until it snagged on a collar. Flipping it around she read out.
“Boe”
When he heard this his wagging tail began thumping softly against the floor.
Quickly he took a couple of steps back from the pats and looked behind him. Then turning back to them he pointed his nose up the road in a pointing display that would put an American Brittany to shame.
“Okay, so if I wasn't sure before I am now, it wants us to follow,” Mark said
Grace spoke up for the first time since their fight.
“I think we should vote on it”
“Oh, now you want to vote?” Mark replied with a brow raised.
Grace clenched her jaw and then slowly released.
“Look, all I can say is I'm sorry, it was wrong of me to do that and it won't happen again”
Mark was slightly thrown off, he never expected her to openly take the blame. Which is why when he paused she stole the opening.
“I vote we follow it and deal with whatever comes of it.”
Mark was reeling from the constant changes to her narrative.
“Wait, now you want to follow him? Why?” Daphne asked.
“Because it clearly knows its way around the dangerous areas and if it's out here then there might be people somewhere nearby.”
Daphne and Mark looked at each other then they both nodded in agreement.
“Well, I vote to follow as well” Donny broke the silence.
“Okay then it's sorted let's get going,” Grace said.
That whole exchange had felt off to Mark, she was definitely forcing herself, but he didn't get why.
They all moved towards the collie and as they did it moved ahead of them, leading the way.
They began to follow Boe through the infested streets of Brooklyn. Wandering up ahead they came across abandoned office buildings and streets. Boe took them through the main road only ducking out of sight when large hordes passed by.
Their first problem arose when they got to a nearby empty plaza. Probably once a very cozy place with cafes and small storefronts, but at the moment it was a complete ghost town. With the exception of three Corrupted wandering near a large trickling water fountain.
There was a beach ball-sized patch of ichor splattered near the lip of the fountain
The strange thing was none of them wandered very far from the water feature. Almost like they were guarding it.
After watching for a moment Mark asked
“Should we take them out? They're acting strange and I wanna see what's going on over there”
“Hmm, if there’s only three then we can do it quickly,” Donny responded.
“Wait guys, this could be a trap. I don't know if what happened under the bridge was planned or just a coincidence but we can see these things have some sort of intelligence. We should approach them carefully.” Grace whispered.
Right now he was loath to agree with anything she said. However, she had a point, these things had shown a higher level of intelligence than any of them would have expected. If they kept treating them like brainless zombies, it very well may come back to bite them in the ass. Literally.
“Mmm, well then how do we tackle this?” Donny asked.
“Mark and I can take them out from long range, then you and Daph can investigate,” Grace said.
Mark was surprised. That was actually very well-thought-out.
“Well I agree, I think that's a great plan,” Daphne said while grinning.
“Right well then let's give it a go,” Donny said as he pulled Daphne forward.
Sneaking as close as they could get, waiting for them to attack.
Mark began readying three bolts, just in case they missed the first few.
“Mark, before we start this I wanted to apologize for how I acted, it was wrong and I won't let you see that side of me again,” she said.
Mark furrowed his brow, he didn't quite like how she phrased that
“It's just we need a leader and I know I can do a good job if you give me a chance,” she said trying to hold his gaze.
Mark sighed.
“Look, I couldn't care less about being the leader, however, if you want to be one then you need to prove to people you’re worth following. Even then it doesn't give you the right to silence them if they disagree with you.”
Her face scrunched up like she was wrestling with something. He could see the cracks in her mask.
“If you want to be a strong leader, you gotta have people trust you. And what you did completely messed that up for me.”
“Then I’ll try and earn it back,” she said.
Mark simply shrugged his shoulders. The way things were going he found that highly unlikely and she still wasn't getting it.
“Look Grace I’ll be straight with you. I don’t like you, never have. I know the feelings are mutual. So let's make a deal, we’ll put aside how we feel and work together for our own good. When we get to safety we can go our separate ways”
At first, Grace looked shocked and hurt, but when Mark didn't react her mask crumbled.
Her face relaxed into a smirk.
“Mark how could you say such cruel things,” she said smiling.
“I would have said it sooner if I thought it could actually hurt you.” he drawled.
“It's sad you think of me as such a villain Mark,” she said in a husky tone.
“No more manipulation of any kind, Do we have a deal?”
“And what of Donny or Daphne?” she asked.
“They are their own people, what they decide to do has nothing to do with me”
He knew she was already thinking of ways to work this in her favor, hopeful when the time came he could stop her.
“Deal,” she said, her mask sliding back into place.
“Good, well then shall we should get started?” He took aim at the Corrupted.
After a pause so did she.
“Now!” she whispered as a bolt of lightning arced from her hands.
Mark fired all three bolts at the same time guaranteeing the zombies never had a chance.
The lightning arrived first, frying the closest creature, then bouncing to the next nearest one. The distance between them was quite great so all the secondary hit did was paralyze the one.
This turned out to be perfect though because of the three [Force bolts] two hit their targets killing them instantly and the other smacked into a very carbonized corpse.
They waited for the other shoe to drop and when the only thing to greet them was silence Mark let out a small sigh of relief.
Donny and Daphne moved forward to take a look, while they were busy Mark heard Grace whisper
“They gave more exp points than I expected” A confused frown appeared on her face.
Mark brought up his prompts
2 x Corrupted Ordinator (1 + Sector reward: x4)
[partial experience awarded to (Grace Winters)(2)]
When he saw that prompt he figured it out. It looked like because they had both done damage to one of the creatures the system had applied his sector reward and then divided it. Usually, the last hit was all that mattered because they only gave one point. In this case, she would have gotten 3 points total, 2 from the one they shared and 1 for the other one.
He wasn't about to explain this to her though, if the system didn't tell her where the extra exp was coming from he wasn't about to enlighten her.
“Guys you may want to come to check this out” Donny called.
They both made their way over to the water fountain.
It didn't look like anything dangerous was around but when they got to the edge of the fountain Mark saw what they were referring to.
In the water itself was a cluster of twisted life, Like an alien rock pool. Black anemone-like lifeforms swayed with the slow currents. All manner of shapes and warped forms squirmed below the surface. A brackish smell drifted up from the pool.
“Shit what in the world is that?” Grace took a step back
“Dunno but it's safe to assume it came from the ichor,” Donny said pointing to the place where the ichor touched the water line.
“Well, can we do anything? Should we?” Daphne asked.
“Do what? If I’m being honest I want to move on, but we should vote on it.” Grace declared.
“Not too sure what we could do to help so let's get out of here,” Donny announced
This area didn't feel right, there was something he wasn't getting. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to investigate right now, night would be falling soon.
“We should keep moving then” he agreed.
“Okay! Onwards Boe!” Daphne cooed.