John knelt in a puddle of Jade's blood, his hands still pressed uselessly to her wound. The world seemed to narrow to that single point of contact, that futile attempt to hold back the inevitable.

Distantly, he heard Doug's voice calling out. Heard Lily's answering shout. Heard the sounds of rubble being cleared as they fought their way toward him.

But none of it mattered.

Something inside John's mind made a sound. A snap. A crack. A fundamental breakage of something that had been holding his carefully constructed persona together.

The cool, detached protagonist he'd been forcing himself to play. The mysterious badass who cracked jokes and posed for invisible cameras. The lone wolf who acted like he didn't need anyone. The performance he'd maintained for days, constantly aware of the System watching, constantly calculating what would earn points and what would lose them. All of it shattered in an instant.

What rose in its place was something primal. Something that had been buried under layers of social anxiety and fear of judgment. Something that had been compressed and contained and forced down for so long that when it finally erupted, it came out with the force of a volcano.

Rage.

Not the performative kind. Not the calculated anger that was deployed for Aura gains. This was real. This was the core of every frustration, every humiliation, every moment of powerlessness he'd ever experienced in his miserable fucking life, all converging on a burning point of focus.

John's gaze lifted from Jade's still form to the shattered window across the room. Through it, he could see a figure sprinting across the overgrown sports field, black ninja gear stark against the sickly grass and the burning sky.

Running away. Escaping, satisfied with his kill, that his brother had been avenged, as if there was any fucking justice in that, any kind of triumph.

A sound tore from John's throat. Something between a scream and a roar, something utterly inhuman that seemed to bypass his vocal cords entirely and erupt directly from his soul. The air around him rippled with the force of it, dust swirling away in eddying currents.

+1000 Aura

His body moved without conscious thought. Rising to his feet, he pulled Jade into his Inventory.

Human Corpse.

His vision flooded with crimson, a tide of rage so pure and absolute that it washed away everything else.

His weapons materialized in his hands—black katana in one, scythe in the other. His aviators had fallen off again at some point during the explosion, but it didn't matter.

"John!" That was Lily's voice, distant and muffled, like she was shouting from underwater. "John, we need to—"

He didn't hear the rest. He was already moving, his body a blur of motion as Accelerate activated without him even thinking about it.

The ninja must have heard him coming, must have felt the weight of John's attention, because he looked back over his shoulder, and even from hundreds of metres away, John could see the man's eyes widen in that little slit in his ninja headgear. Good.

Run, John thought, his mind a howling void of red-tinged fury. Run as fast as you can. It won't matter.

The streets of Watford were already alive with monsters. They were pouring in from every direction, a writhing mass of claws and teeth and malformed flesh. Here to force the confrontation, or maybe to delay it to later, at a more narratively satisfying moment.

John saw them. Registered them as obstacles. Dismissed them as irrelevant.

The first wave hit him as he crossed the car park. Insects of every variety. They launched themselves at him with feral hunger. Mere days ago, the sight would have been terrifying.

John didn't slow down. Didn't dodge. Didn't even bother to parry. He just sucked in a breath, activated a Spell, and let it out. Hurricane sent the swarm flying, blowing a hole right through the centre of their formation and revealing the target to him once more.

+10000 Aura

He ignored the notification. His eyes were locked on the fleeing ninja, who'd just vaulted over a fence and was disappearing into the maze of ruined suburban streets.

You can't hide from me.

John's Draconic Wings burst from his back in an explosion of dark scales and membrane. He didn't care that his new shirt tore. Didn't care about the Aura cost. He just beat them once, launching himself into the air and over the fence in a single bound.

More monsters. The streets were crawling with them. Blues, greens, yellows, according to his brief flash of Soul Vision. A rainbow coalition of nightmares, all converging on the destruction, trying to slow him down, to give his prey time to escape the hunt. Unacceptable.

John descended on them like the wrath of a vengeful god, striking with the force of a meteor.

Draconic Inferno erupted from his mouth, bellowing his fury for all the world to hear, white-hot flames turning everything they touched into ash and slag. A car exploded. A building's facade melted. Monsters screamed and scattered, but there was nowhere to run from the blaze.

+5000 Aura

+8000 Aura

+6000 Aura

He landed in the centre of the carnage, his trainers crunching on superheated asphalt that glowed cherry-red. Through the flames and smoke, he could see the ninja, still running, now casting panicked glances over his shoulder every few seconds.

That's right. Look back. See me coming. Know that there's no escape.

A building stood in John's path. A two-story house, its windows already shattered, its door hanging off one hinge. The ninja had swerved around it, following the street.

John went straight through. Meteor Strike materialized above his head, a chunk of impossibly dense stone and flame that crashed down ahead of him, pulverizing the wall into powder. He ran through the dust cloud without slowing, his feet crunching on debris, his weapons dripping with ichor from the monsters he'd carved through on the way.

The interior of the house flashed past. Kitchen, living room, hallway. He didn't navigate. He just moved, straight toward his target, and anything that stood in his way simply ceased to exist, didn't matter if it was furniture, walls, or windows. Wood splintered. Brick exploded into clouds of reddish-brown powder. He emerged from the far side of the house like a cannonball, leaving a John-shaped hole in his wake.

+3000 Aura

The ninja was closer now. Maybe fifty metres ahead. He'd ducked into an alleyway, probably hoping to use the tight space to his advantage. Foolish.

John didn't slow as he entered the alley. The ninja had somehow set a trap in that fraction of a second he'd broken the sight line: wires strung across at ankle and neck height, barely visible in the gloom. His scythe swept low, his katana swept high, and both wires parted like gossamer.

The ninja had stacked crates and debris to create choke points. Hurricane burst forth, and the alley became a wind tunnel. Crates, bins, loose bricks, and everything else that wasn't nailed down flew backward in a maelstrom of destruction, clearing a perfect straight path.

The ninja stumbled, caught in the edge of the blast, and lost precious seconds recovering his balance. The ninja's nerve broke. He made a desperate gambit, throwing something over his shoulder. A flashbang, maybe, or a smoke bomb. John didn't know. Didn't care. He just tanked through the resulting explosion of light and sound, his enhanced stats and recovery Skills already compensating for any temporary blindness or deafness.

When his vision cleared a second later, the ninja had managed to gain maybe ten metres. Had turned a corner. Was still running.

A fresh pack of monsters, giant mantises not dissimilar to the headmaster, erupted from a storefront when he emerged onto the main street, mandibles clacking. They threw themselves at John with suicidal fervour.

He didn't break stride. His next swing bisected all four of them in a single stroke. Their corpses hadn't even hit the ground before he was past them.

+2000 Aura

+2000 Aura

+2000 Aura

The chase continued. Street after street. Alley after alley. The ninja was good. John would grant him that. He knew the area, knew how to use the terrain. He had some kind of magical ability that let him set traps in an instant. Set ambushes that he had no obvious way to have prepared for. Used every trick in his arsenal.

None of it mattered.

Because John wasn't fighting smart anymore. Wasn't being tactical. Wasn't conserving resources or planning ahead. He was just an unstoppable force moving in a straight line, and everything in his path, anything that dared to impede him in his task, whether it be walls, monsters, or anything else, were annihilated.

The ninja led him through a park filled with monsters. John turned it into an abattoir, his weapons singing through flesh and bone, his spells turning the air itself into a weapon. Bodies piled up behind him like a grotesque trail of breadcrumbs.

+10000 Aura

+10000 Aura

+10000 Aura

+10000 Aura

The notifications kept coming. The System was loving this. Loved the spectacle. Loved the violence. Loved watching John carve a path of absolute destruction through Watford's monster-infested streets.

John didn't care. The Aura could have been negative a million, and he wouldn't have stopped.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Finally—finally—the ninja made a mistake. He turned down a dead-end street, probably not realizing it until it was too late. The far end was blocked by a collapsed building, rubble piled three stories high.

John walked toward him slowly now. No need to rush. There was nowhere for the man to go. The hunt was over.

The ninja stopped running. Turned to face him. Drew a tanto from somewhere and settled into a proper stance, blade held low and ready. His chest rose and fell with the exertion of the chase, but his hands were steady. His eyes were clear.

"Come on then."

The ninja moved first, closing the distance with a burst of speed that would have been impressive against a normal opponent. His blade came in low, angling for John's femoral artery, then pivoted mid-strike toward his throat.

John watched it all happen at normal speed. Saw the feint. Saw the real attack. Saw the follow-up strike the ninja was already preparing.

Accelerate activated, and the world slowed to a crawl. The ninja's blade drifted through the air, moving with all the threat of a falling leaf. John stepped inside the man's guard, batted the tanto aside with his katana, and drove his knee into the ninja's stomach.

The ninja folded around the impact, air exploding from his lungs. But he didn't go down. He twisted away in slow motion, creating space, and came back with another lunge, aiming for John's neck, the very same spot he'd targetted on Jade.

John slipped past the blade with ease and caught the empty hand. His fingers closed around the ninja's wrist with the inexorable force of a hydraulic press. The bones shattered instantly, pulverized to fragments by the combination of his enhanced Strength and Limit Break pushing him even further beyond. It was like breaking a brittle twig. The ninja's mouth opened to scream, but John was already moving, sweeping the man's legs out from under him and slamming him face-first into the pavement.

The ninja rolled, somehow, despite the broken wrist, and came up with the tanto in his off-hand. His ninja hood came off, revealing a pale man with a shaved head who looked to be in his 40s. Blood was pouring from his nose, mixing with the dirt and ash on his face. He lunged again.

John let him get close, watching in dilated time with something like fascination. Allowed the ninja close enough to see the determination in the man's eyes. Close enough to see him commit to the strike.

John broke his other arm with a titanic punch, then grabbed him again, pulled him close, and stomped on the leg the ninja tried to reflexively balance on. The joint bent sideways with a wet pop. When the man went down this time, he didn't roll away with that fluid grace. The next leg followed a moment later, each break accompanied by the wet crunch of bone giving way and the man's shrieks.

When it was done, the ninja lay sprawled on the cracked asphalt, limbs bent at wrong angles. His features twisted with agony. His breathing came in ragged gasps, and tears were gathering in the corners of his eyes. But he was looking at John. Not crying. Not begging. Just... looking.

John stood over him. And as he did, as the immediate fury of the chase faded, he felt the berserker rage beginning to ebb. Slowly, gradually, like a tide going out, the red haze receded.

Accelerate ended, and, as if noticing, the ninja started to speak.

"This is how it should be." The ninja's voice was rough, strained, but steady. "Men... settling their differences. Direct. Face to face."

John blinked. The words filtered through the hollow space where his emotions used to be and ignited a new spark of fury.

"The hell are you talking about? You ambushed us. Set traps. Hid in the shadows like a fucking coward."

"I know." The ninja coughed, spraying blood onto the pavement. "I know what I am. What I became."

"Then why?"

The man took a shuddering breath, his eyes falling closed in memory. "I had two brothers. Wasn't just Mikey, once upon a time. All three of us enlisted. Army. Different units, but we kept in touch. Even got stationed near to each other, sometimes. We had so many plans for after our tours ended." He paused, sucking in air through clenched teeth. "Only got the one chance to patrol together. My youngest brother. Jack. Routine ride through south Helmand. There was an IED. Ambush. He didn't even see it coming."

John said nothing. The fury was building now, a slow burn replacing the emptiness.

"After that, I couldn't stand anything but direct confrontation. No ambushes. No traps. No cowardice. If you're going to fight, you should look your enemy in the eye." The ninja's gaze never left John's face. "Then this fucking apocalypse happened. The System... it knew. Of course it knew. It gave me Skills and Spells designed for ambush, rewards for surprise attacks. Analysing the enemy, preparing traps, sneaking around and waiting for the right moment to strike. Everything I hated."

The chittering of approaching monsters was getting louder now. Closer. But they weren't rushing in. They were advancing slowly, as if waiting for something. As if the System itself was holding them back to let this moment play out. John clenched his jaw so hard it creaked.

"I tried to fight head-on anyway. Refused to use the abilities it gave me. Almost died in the first day. Would have died, if I hadn't… No. If Mikey hadn't talked sense into me." The words came out bitter. "But I wanted to live. Needed to. Someone has to remember them. They say you die twice, you know. Once when you stop breathing, and once when someone says your name for the last time. I couldn't let that be yet. Not for them."

"So you became exactly what you hated." John's hands were beginning to shake.

"Yes." The ninja's eyes closed for a moment, then opened again. "But this? Being defeated like this? Face to face, by a superior opponent? No tricks. No plots. Just... combat. This is how it should end." A grim smile spread the ninja's lips. "I appreciate you not using any of those crazy abilities you've got. Dunno how you've got so many, but you could have obliterated me in one go, in a place where I haven't got my Labyrinth set up."

"What are you talking about?"

The ninja shook his head. "Just one of my shitty Skills. Analysis. Lets me see what you got if I observe you long enough. You can't imagine how I felt when I saw some guy show up to join with Jade's team, and he had shit like Level 7 Earthquake in his repertoire. How the fuck did you even get all your stats that high?"

"As if I'd tell you," John snapped.

"Fair." The ninja gave a weak chuckle. "Fair."

Silence lingered between them for a moment. A bug of some sort let out a high-pitched whine, sounding barely further than a few houses away. John gave a quick pulse of Mana Sense and confirmed it; there were thousands surrounding them, slowly creeping closer.

"Was it worth it?" John could barely get the words out. "Tell me. Was it fucking worth it?"

"She's dead." The ninja's lips pulled back in something that might have been a smile or might have been a grimace. "Jade. She's dead. And at least inside that cage, it was somewhat direct. A fight. I would have preferred no subterfuge at all. No fucking planning. Would have preferred to defeat all of you with my own power, honest and open, rather than having to plan and scheme and rely on Skills that analyse weaknesses and Spells that let me strike from hiding. But Mikey died because we underestimated your group once, thought our ambush was perfect when it wasn't. Couldn't make that mistake again. Couldn't throw away the chance. All that matters is I won. Mikey's avenged."

Each word stoked the flames higher, hotter, until John could barely form thoughts through the inferno of rage consuming him.

"I'm glad she's dead," said the ninja. "I'm glad I killed her. Even if I had to do it the wrong way. Even if I had to ambush dozens of other people to build up enough points to unlock Labyrinth so I could fuck with your base like that. You should be careful. No idea if the traps will still work after… After."

John couldn't speak. His jaw was locked, teeth grinding together so hard he could hear them creak. His vision was going red again, but different this time. Not the berserker haze. Something more focused. More deliberate.

The ninja saw it. "Go ahead. Kill me. You've earned it. Defeated me properly. I'm ready."

John stood there, hands curled into fists, his whole body rigid with the effort of not moving, not attacking, not obliterating this broken man who'd just admitted to being glad about murdering Jade.

Back in his school years, towards the latter half of secondary, he'd read online that standing up to your bullies was the only way to get them to stop. That they were just looking for an easy target. The next day, he'd gone to school with the resolve to punch the next person who fucked with him in the face as hard as he could.

He'd always remember the fury Declan Evans' eyes as he rained down 'retaliatory' blows on him. The righteous indignation, as he if Declan couldn't believe that the boy he'd been tormenting for who knew how long had dared to be upset about it, had the audacity to reach above his station and try to make a change in his life, as if the very idea that he might object to being treated like shit made him worthy of even worse treatment.

It was the worst beating he'd ever received. His bullies had pretty much never escalated to such a physical extent. Declan had been expelled, and John had been given a seven-day suspension for 'starting it.'

That was the worst part. The idea that he'd started it. The idea that the months and years of daily torment didn't count, somehow.

In his mind's eye, he saw another Declan Evans lying before him. Another bully. Another shithead who thought that consequences only applied to other people's actions.

It didn't matter to the ninja that him and his brother had been the initial aggressors. He didn't care that Jade was acting in self-defence. She'd upended the natural order of the world by defying him, and so she had to be punished.

Trembling, John turned his back.

"Wait," then ninja's voice cracked. "Where are you going?"

John walked away. Each step was deliberate. Each step was a choice.

The chittering monsters exploded into a cacophony. The insects, released from whatever invisible restraint had been holding them back, surged forward in a tide of chitin and mandibles and hunger.

At the end of the alley, John used Geomancy to carve out a platform of rock beneath his feet, then Teleported himself a hundred metres into the sky, just as he had done with Curtis and Claire what felt like a lifetime ago. Through force of will, he held it there, suspended in the sky, above it all. He didn't look back. Didn't look down. There was no need.

Below, the ninja started screaming.

John's fists were still clenched. His jaw was still locked. But he didn't look back.

"You should know," John called out, pitching his voice loud enough that he hoped the ninja heard it. "We have the ability to bring her back. Revive her. She's not going to be dead for more than five minutes total!"

The screams went on for longer than he expected. Ten seconds. Twenty. The wet sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bone lasted for almost thirty seconds in the end. Then, abruptly, silence.

Soul: 21,138 -> 21,139

John's wings exploded from his back once more, and he launched himself into the sky, the fury propelling him forward even faster than normal flight. The community centre appeared in the distance, a finger of smoke curling upwards from its wrecked walls as if beckoning him, and he angled toward it, his mind a white-hot blank of rage that wouldn't cool, wouldn't fade, wouldn't give him the mercy of emptiness.

The building's ruined facade came into focus. It barely resembled the building it had been before, the walls replaced by strange metal constructs that looked like they were going through a time-lapse, decaying before his eyes in a way similar to how monsters did after they were slain. Through the shattered windows, he could see figures moving. Doug, Chester, and Lily by their hazy silhouettes. They were standing together in what used to be the dance studio, positioned around the bloodstained spot where he'd placed Jade's body into his Inventory.

He landed hard enough to crack the pavement. Didn't bother retracting his wings. Just walked through the hole he'd made earlier, his boots crunching on broken brick and shattered glass.

They all turned as he entered. Doug opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, his eyes going wide as he took in John's expression.

After a moment, Lily was the one to step forward. She spoke with a tremor in her voice, "Where's Jade?"

John didn't answer. Couldn't. His gaze moved past her to the bloodstain on the floor, then away, fixing on nothing in particular.

"John." Lily's voice came again, different now. Thinner.

Doug let out a sigh that contained all the weariness in the world. "Fuck."

Chester stumbled back like someone had bodily shoved him.

The three of them started talking, debating among each other. John stood at the threshold, wings still extended behind him, and let their words wash over him without penetrating. His mind was elsewhere. Had been elsewhere since he'd walked away from the ninja's screams.

John opened his Inventory with a thought. The list expanded before him in his mind's eye, cataloguing everything he'd collected. Weapons, materials, supplies, and more. And there, near the bottom, a new entry.

John stared at the words. Human Corpse. The letters seemed to burn themselves into his vision, searing through the rted haze that had settled over him during the flight back.

She'd been human. Been a person. She'd made decisions, made mistakes, made choices that led to this. She'd fought alongside them. She'd been real.

And now she was reduced to inventory clutter.

Their argument continued, voices rising and falling in a rhythm John recognized from every group project he'd ever been part of, every committee meeting, every situation where people needed to make a decision but wanted someone else to make it for them. They'd keep going in circles until someone acted or everyone gave up.

John looked at the entry again. Tried to look away. Found he couldn't.

"—John?" The sound of his name snapped him out of his fugue. Lily's voice, closer now. He looked at her, taking in the concern in her teary green eyes. "John, are you even listening?"

He wasn't. Hadn't been. His entire world had contracted to the space occupied by those two words and the option hovering beneath them.

John didn't answer. He just pulled up his interface, found the Revive function he'd been ignoring since he'd first discovered it, and selected it.

The cost injected itself into his mind: 500 Souls.

He confirmed the purchase without hesitation, and the world went white.

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