Stars danced in his vision. Dazed and disoriented, John put all his strength into throwing himself backwards, aiming for the railing that divided the up and down staircases. His vision swam. The world was turning topsy-turvy. If he made it through this without throwing up, he'd be overjoyed.

The air slammed from his lungs as he and the monkey monster on his back collided with the railing. There was a crack, a groan of wood, and the hard surface they'd landed against gave way, spilling them down. John activated Accelerate, pivoting in the air and snatching at the upper staircase even as the monkey monster fell from his back, crashing to the landing below. Both his shoulders wrenched from the strain. He rushed to pull himself back into the darkness, but the eyeball monster was already there.

Only Accelerate let him duck beneath the scorpion tails that speared towards him. He landed hard on his shoulder. The world was still spinning. Accelerate ran out, leaving him far too slow to dodge as the eyeball monster lashed out with one of its immense red human legs, aiming a savage kick at his ribs. John was able to get his arms up in a loose cross guard approximating the stance that Ninja told him would be best, but the force of the blow lifted him off the ground and sent him flying through the air, along the corridor, away from his darkness. He cried out, he couldn't help it.

-200 Aura

Unbelievable pain exploded in his arms where he'd taken the hit. He knew without looking they were both broken. Just trying to move his wrists was agony. Combined with the dull throbbing from the blow the faceless monkey monster had dealt to the back of his head, he had no choice but to turn to the Aura system.

Talent Level 1 -> Level 2!

-200 Aura

Barely giving himself a moment to acknowledge the sweet ecstasy of the upgrade's healing effect, John drew on Shadow Stream and threw up a roiling cloud of darkness as he retreated back along the corridor with haste. No plan had occurred to him yet. He was just reacting. Moving on instinct to put distance between himself and the monsters. The bedlam echoing from downstairs was a distant, tertiary concern. The screams and shouts and wails of monsters and humans alike would have to wait their turn. He had two problems of his own to deal with before he could worry about anyone else.

Accelerate's cooldown finished, and he immediately reactivated it for a burst of speed. The eye came barrelling through the place he'd just been, scorpion tails outstretched. They skewered into the wall with puffs of dust. The monkey monster appeared right after, moving in slow motion to John's perspective as it chased him down. It was faster than him at base levels, he was sure.

John fired a Soul Arrow at its ugly fucking face with a snarl of pure loathing.

+200 Aura

It skewered the monkey beast through the broken area where its mouth would have been, and it stumbled sideways into the wall. It recovered, but he'd bought himself some time. Another arrow slowed the eyeball monster, and soon he was peppering them with shots, relying on Marksman's instilled instincts to draw and loose without putting conscious thought into it as he retreated. It meant imperfect aim, but that was a trade he had to make. The monsters both notably slowed as he turned them both to pin cushions, but they weren't going down.

Accelerate ran out just as his back hit the door at the end of the corridor. Suddenly, the two monsters were much faster, baring down on him in the blink of an eye. He snatched for the handle and threw the door open, then rushed through and threw it shut behind him.

Not a second too soon. The eyeball slammed into the door hard enough that the walls cracked around the jamb, dispelling a cloud of dust. Then, it started banging against the door, using its own bulk as a battering ram. Slam, slam, slam. The sound was deafening. This lasted for barely a few seconds before the door handle started twitching, presumably the monkey monster utilising its spindly opposable thumbs.

In those few seconds, John threw as much shadow into the air as he could manage. Great torrents of darkness erupted from his hands. The room he was in was another nursery, this one blue, about the size of a two-car garage. He had nowhere near enough time to fill it completely, but sending the darkness high up into the air like a great fountain would give him a few milliseconds of cover.

He opened his Aura menu and went straight for Spells.

-500 Aura

The moment the door was off its latch, it slammed open under the weight of the eyeball monster forcing itself through. There was a brief scrum as the two monsters fought to be the first through the door, but the eyeball quickly won. The jamb cracked more as the monster forced itself through. Its sclera had turned bloodshot, especially around the areas his arrows had pierced it, and its pupil had contracted to a needle point that looked comical in an eye so large. It looked around wildly, searching for him. Despite himself, John spent a heartbeat admiring the crystal blue of its iris.

Then he threw a Fireball at it.

The spell was a simple one. It spawned a flame the size and shape of a cricket ball in his hand that somehow didn't burn him, and it was up to him to figure out what to do with it from there. He could summon only one at a time, but the cooldown ended as soon as the previous one left his hand. The only limit was his physical ability to throw them.

The eyeball monster reared back as flames scorched its cornea right over the pupil. Its massive eyelid snapped shut, its scorpion tail eyelashes thrashing around wildly. An acrid smell like rotten meat that had been burned on a barbeque filled the air. Pain must have overwhelmed the creature, because it fell into a frenzied panic in its sudden blindness. It stumbled around on its giant red legs, then threw itself face-first into a wall, as if out of some vain hope that would alleviate the pain.

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"What's the matter?" John called as it stumbled down the corridor. "Did you get something in your eye?"

+200 Aura

The monkey monster evidently had no self-preservation instincts. Having clearly seen its fellow monster have its eyeball face melted, John had somewhat expected it to run away. Instead, it attacked the moment the eyeball monster vacated the doorway.

Activating Accelerate, John dodged beneath the monkey's outstretched hands. It sailed through the spot he'd just been standing in, and he lashed out with Mana Blade as it passed. The magical sword scored a deep line right through its torso. A surprisingly small amount of yellow blood sprayed out. Barely a splash.

The monkey monster landed in a heap further inside the room, tumbling through a stack of building blocks. John chased after it, Duellist dictating a lateral slash aimed for the monster's neck. With Accelerate working its magic, the grey monkey had no chance to dodge John's superhuman speed. The blade sliced smoothly into its neck. At first.

About halfway, the blade stopped like it had hit an impenetrable shield. John gave it only one small tug before dismissing the spell and retreating just as Accelerate ran out and went back on cooldown.

The blow had sliced the monster's neck clean open, leaving its head hanging lopsided, and it was not happy about this. It shoved one hand right into the wound and rummaged around. It made a sickening squelch, and the creature moaned. Then it pulled, dragging its head back into the approximately correct position.

"Fuck this," John muttered, then palmed another Fireball.

Distracted by trying to fix its head, the monkey monster didn't even try to dodge as the Fireball came for it. The flames hit it dead on, and the creature's body lit up like it was made of kindling. It abandoned its efforts to rearrange its head immediately. Throwing itself to the floor and thrashing around, it let out a muffled screech that sounded like a chimpanzee getting suffocated by a pillow. When the trusty stop, drop, and roll didn't work, it evidently decided it was going to take John down with it. It hopped to its feet and lunged.

John had been wise to this possibility, though, and he had Accelerate ready to go. He dodged the monster monkey easily, slashing it with Mana Blade once more as it passed him. It went flying out into the corridor, where it crashed into the wall.

Now, John was hit with a bit of a conundrum. The combination of the flaming monkey monster and the half-melted eyeball monster presented an issue he really should have expected: the nursery was now somewhat on fire, and in the current circumstances it seemed liable to spread.

There was no time to take stock of the situation. With two heartbeats of Accelerate remaining, he used the time to rapidly assess his situation. Mind kicked in, and he snapped his gaze left to right. Out in the corridor, the eyeball was still bashing itself against the walls. It was slick with transparent yellow ooze, and its sclera were almost entirely red. Half its scorpion tail eyelashes were bent and broken. The monkey monster was continuing to roll around now, except it was moving further and further along the corridor, spreading the fire. John wondered if it was doing that on purpose.

He snapped out a Soul Arrow, and it finally went still. But the damage was already done.

+200 Aura

Downstairs, he could hear the bassy slow-motion noise of battle ongoing. It sounded like all the monsters down there had been alerted to the trio's presence, and their attention was entirely directed towards them. Even if going down the stairs was viable, it would likely be putting him right in the midst of that fight. Not the way he wanted to play things.

Spinning on the spot, he spent an instant judging the windows. Four of them: two on the wider wall at the end of the house, with one more on each wall to the left and right. Accelerate ran out, and he was forced to a decision. His legs took him right, heading for the window that looked out onto the back garden, away from the fire the monkey monster had started with its frantic rolling. A Soul Arrow shattered the glass for him.

The next step was tricky. Without Ninja augmenting his meagre abilities, he probably would have royally fucked it up. Broken glass and an untrained idiot trying to parkour didn't seem like a good combination.

Even with the Skill, he felt a few cuts sting his hands as he vaulted over the window sill. He pivoted to one side, grabbing on to a drainage pipe. It took his weight, but groaned ominously. He wasted no time. Shimmying down so fast it was more like a somewhat-controlled freefall, he hit the ground with another three-point landing.

When he looked up, he saw no monsters prowling in the garden. A ping of Mana Sense confirmed it, though it wasn't all good news on that front: there were ten monsters inside the house, now, and he could feel more approaching, presumably drawn to the noise. The sounds of battle inside were cacophonous. Screeches, screams, blasts, booms. It was mayhem in there. The fire starting to rumble on the upper floors added to the racket.

Activating Accelerate and Shadow Stream, John sprinted across the garden. It was a manicured lawn big enough it could have fit in a couple of football pitches surrounded by well-groomed hedgerows standing a good ten feet tall, with enormous trees looming high over them.

Even with the shadowed curtain that had been pulled across the world at nightfall, the fiery sky still lit the world to a state closer to dusk than midnight. There was a giant tree to one side, about halfway up the garden. A sturdy-looking treehouse rested among its thick branches.

Accelerate ran out barely halfway to his destination, but he kept going in the low-postured run Ninja had imprinted on him, aiming for the treehouse while spraying out as much darkness as he could. Agonising seconds crawled by as he ran. His mind conjured up images of a hoard of monsters on his heels, and his pace picked up on its own. There was a brief moment of detached disbelief as he realised he was running faster than he ever had, but it was gone by the time he finally reached his destination.

John crouched at the based of the tree, pausing to catch his breath. He looked back at the house and winced. The second floor was slowly being engulfed in flame, while smoke was billowing from the windows of the third floor in great black columns.

The back wall of the ground floor was made up almost entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows, giving him a great view into the partially open-plan living space. Pink light flashed intermittently. An occasional golden laser beam lashed out, and with a blink he realised it was shaped like a giant machete. There was a repeated tat-tat-tat sound, and by squinting, John could just about see tiny needle-like silver projectiles shooting out in bursts of three.

All three of the human defenders were still alive, then. He could see their silhouettes hunkered down in their defensible position behind the bar area in the games room. It seemed half the walls in the ground floor had been torn to shreds. They were doing an admirable job at holding the oncoming enemy back.

Judging by the monsters he could see and sense, he wasn't sure how much longer this could last.

With a sigh, John climbed up into the treehouse.

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