Revelation 3:2
“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”
The celebrations were light, Joe’s gleeful ‘healing’ was painful and exhausting and most everyone had been kissed by that damned red-hot blade. Someone broke out a few bottles of whiskey and everyone took plugs then someone had produced proper cups and those started getting filled. I sat back and chatted with Lena about nothing much at all.
I nudged her, “Come on now.”
She gave me a skeptical look, “Come on what now?”
I rolled my eyes in response, “You know…”
“Know what?”
“Victory speech!” I raised my glass and announced before switching it and starting a speech-speech-speech chant. I realized just afterwards the average age of the people around me and the fact that my little stunt could have just failed miserably. Oh God, that would have been awful. I blew out my cheeks to release some anxiety from the situation that hadn’t even happened.
She gave it and… it wasn’t half bad. Honestly anything she said would have been fine. Gramps moved over to take a seat next to me and refilled my cup with more whiskey.
“You did alright, boy.”
“Thanks Gramps, was that you with the shot through the zombie’s neck at the end?”
He grunted, “Lotta good that did you, still almost died like a punk.”
“Well thanks, I had thought you went down for an old person nap or something. I wasn’t worried about you being eaten though, too bitter for zombies to want a taste.”
“Brat.” He was smiling and held up a cauterized bite mark on the bottom side of his palm.
Old Joe came by and he taught me some of his old war chants which we loudly proclaimed in the increasing drunkenness. I almost wished I could take both him and Lena with me. I knew I couldn’t. Still, it was a great few drunken hours that were sorely needed after the last week.
With the doors having been recently opened, everyone decided to not sleep in the auditorium with its hastily, and drunkenly, refortified door. Instead, everyone chose closer confines with each other, spread over a few classrooms on the second floor. Lena and I talked for a long while about nearly everything, lives before, plans for the future, and some other stuff before bedding down ourselves.
I started awake in the middle of the night, almost used to it by now. I looked at my watch, about an hour until dawn if I was guessing right. Damn, I used to sleep so well. I groaned at the thought then realized that it was… quiet. A metal-nail grinding on glass feeling scraped at the back of my neck. I pictured Lena dying a hundred different ways.
The skill, ‘eyes in the back of the lord’s head’, it was kicking in. I looked over to Lena and she looked… fine. I looked again, after pushing the sludgy dark into the back of my eyes to activate Evil Eye. There was a putrid glob that settled on a small scratch on the back of each of her hands. I tried to shake her awake, then Gramps, I didn’t see old Joe but he could have been in the other rooms. Everyone else was out cold.
I geared up, picked up a shield that had been left by the door, then drew my sword and followed the dark thread of writhing slime out of the classroom and down the hall.
It disappeared into the stairwell and I scoped around looking to see if it branched off anywhere. I focused on thickening the greasy oil around my eyes and could make out that it did go into the stairwell. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything down there. I drew my pistol in my shieldhand. I was getting a bad feeling about all of this and I silently chided myself, I should have handled this earlier. I just got caught up in victory.
I crept down, pistol-shield raised and sword held in a loose and ready grip. It went beyond quiet, this was definitely supernatural-system-bullshit. There was a door at the end of the hall and I could see a faint glow of light peeking out from the base of the door. Then I saw something interrupt that line of light for a fraction of a second. Not from inside, outside.
I raised my shield and a burst of light filled the hallway as a *blam* sounded, my shield was pulled to the side and rocked me back. Stalwart kept me on course as I realigned and pulled the trigger on my .38 over and over. A blind gunfight erupted in the hallway as I moved to the side and felt air kick past my face and a bullet graze my right arm.
By my last bullet I saw the body slump. I didn’t spare it another glance as I threw my pistol to the side and kicked the door open in a vicious stomp.
The three women, covered in darkness with twisted features, froze.
They pleaded something about how it wasn’t their fault or that they would kill Lena if I didn’t stop. I didn’t listen as I cut through them one after another.
Quest 3 of 3 Completed. Class Advancement Selection Options Available. Singular Class-Locked Light-Affinity Skill Available.
“Display Available Class Advancement Selection Options. Display List of Purchasable Skills with Feat Points.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Two screens opened up in front of me. I suspected that I had help opening the first screen, I suspected that Gabriel could assist that much, even though he chose not to and let the system revert to the default commands. I reviewed them quickly, as the bloody mess around me finally sank in.
Class Advancement Selection Options:
Requirements:
Secondary Requirements:
Wandering Light Knight
Must possess Light Affinity and Light Affinity Skill(s)
Must not possess Dark Affinity or Dark Affinity Skills
Wandering Dark Knight
Must possess Dark Affinity and Dark Affinity Skill(s)
Must not possess Light Affinity or Light Affinity Skills