We bolted down the stairwell, jumping down the flights of stairs and barely keeping upright as we raced as fast as we could. It was impossible to know exactly where the howling was coming from, just that it was below us and occasionally getting louder. There were multiple creatures I could hear at once, each one a different direction or distance away.

  Christian tried to be the first down the stairs, but Zahra quickly outpaced him, deftly spinning and flipping down the stairs, with a mix of speed gymnastics and parkour. Her ability to twirl through the air was superhuman, like she weighed almost nothing.

  Well, besides the massive cracks in the drywall she left from using it as a spring board.

  Christian yelled out as we turned the corner of the 9th floor.

  “Get back to the hospital as fast as you can! Don’t stop, just go!” He was running faster than I’d ever seen him move, and there was real fear on his face as he pushed past me. I was busy trying to see the people in the building across from us, hoping they would be able to escape. As the window came into view and I focused, I made out the same two figures. The smaller woman, Amy, was trying to shake the other woman up, to no avail.

  Get up. Get out of there. You have to.

  I hoped, praying to whatever god was still out there that they would be able to escape, run or get away from whatever was coming.

  I kept following the group down the stairs, the window leaving my view until we reached the next floor. The 10 seconds that passed where I couldn’t see anything was agony.

  What was worse was seeing my greatest fear realized.

  The window of the 8th floor came into view just as the survivors in the other building were attacked. The two women were in the same place when the door to the stairwell next to them flew open and a young man, the third survivor, ran up to the other two, his face tense with absolute panic.

  He didn’t get two steps towards them before a long, green, scythe-like appendage flashed out of the shadows, bisecting the man in half as the killer creature followed him, emerging into the stairwell.

  The insectoid monster was 7 or 8ft tall, standing on two legs with a huge abdomen. Green and yellow scales covered the creature’s body, and I could see the ultra sharp mantis-like claws which had cut the guy in half. It had large, beady yellow eyes and four open mandibles which oscillated as it moved towards the women. It was like a praying mantis and the predator had a feral, unmentionable lovechild.

  They were too far away. I had no way to reach them. My mind raced, trying to think of any way I could help them. There was nothing in the stairwell to grab, besides the fire extinguisher and AED. I wished I could put those into my inventory, especially the defibrillator.

  An idea formed, and it sucked. I also had no other options. I grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall, and quickly ran over to the metal railing in front of the window. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now it was integral to this stupid, stupid plan. I put the soon-to-be projectile on the ground and gripped the railing with both hands as hard as I could.

  I heard Zahra call out my name, but it was too late. The creature was almost on them. I had to act, now.

  I leaned back, bringing all my energy forward as I slammed my head down into the railing as hard as I could. The loud bmm! resonated throughout the stairwell from the strike, and white stars dashed my vision. I didn’t care, my health bar had gone down about 40% which was exactly what I needed.

  I was already moving to pick up the extinguisher, lifting it like a spear and locking in on the creature through the glass.

  I activated Force Resonance from the damage and threw the extinguisher as hard as I could, sending the red missile crashing through the glass and flying through the air towards the other building.

  I almost felt bad for the mantis as the extinguisher suddenly broke through the window in front of it, colliding into the thing’s stupid forehead. It crumpled for a second, falling to its left knee. I gave a little woop in celebration, hoping I’d given them enough time.

  My jubilation was short lived, withering away as the creature quickly got back up, hissing and roaring at the two women. All I’d done was pissed it off.

  No no no. Please god no.

  My attack had gotten the attention of Amy, who had turned towards our building. She probably couldn’t see me through the smog, but she got up and started running, pushing herself down the stairs and exiting the stairwell into the building. She would hopefully escape.

  The same couldn’t be said for Joyce.

  I screamed in frustration as the Mantis pounced on her, continuously stabbing into her with its bladed arms as she fell over, limp. I couldn’t watch this, I could feel my chest sinking.

  But as I was about to turn away to follow the group back down, I got a message.

  Art: Don’t look away! 7 more seconds and Greater Observation will activate. We need to know what we’re dealing with!

  God fucking damn it! What the fuck!

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  As much as I hated him at the moment, Art was right.

  That didn't make the seconds go by faster, or the brutal mauling any easier to watch. Each second that passed was accompanied by a new separated limb flying through the air as the Mantis hacked her to bits, its mandibles greedily buried within her stomach.

  I could barely keep it together. I was hyperventilating, my pulse pounding in my head as my entire body was suddenly coated in sweat. I kept my eyes pried open as hot tears hit the stairwell between my feet. I was so full of rage I was physically shaking, vibrating the railing I was leaning on.

  An eternity passed, and I finally collapsed to my knees as my skill finally activated and the System description filled my box with information.

  Nature’s Assassin, level 1

  Class type: Physical

  Warning: This creature is a Graxis S.A.I.

  Strength: 10

  Dexterity: 20

  Intelligence: 4

  Spirit: 10

  Health: 15

  Luck: 14

  Okay, Graxis has created a doozy here, and a massive headache. This praying mantis look-alike has deadly slashes and speed, but its eyesight is pretty bad. That would be an exploitable weakness, if Graxis hadn’t just decided to ignore and overwrite us completely. It would be wise to not turn your back on this one, Graxis given it the ability to deal extra damage to prey it's chasing. The mantis is powerful, probably about halfway to level 2.

  And now it knows where everyone is in a building. Great.

  Did you know that nearly 70% of humanity have set up in buildings? Almost like it's normal behaviour or something. But we’re just a silly little System, what do we know?

  We’re not excited about this level of intensity, so we’re changing the odds a bit (sorry Graxis Institute!). If you can kill one of these bug boys, we’ll make sure to reward you rather generously.

  With that being said, don’t fight one alone. Unless you fancy transforming into human sashimi. Run and avoid buildings if you can, they’ll focus on clearing out nearby structures first.

  Good luck, Earthlings. We’re rooting for you.

  Shit. I didn’t like the sound of any of that. The assassin had one less speed than Zahra, and its health wasn’t something to play around with either. Tough and fast was a brutal combination, and I’d already seen what these things were capable of.

  I was shaken out of my dissociation as Maria grabbed my arm, the shorter woman pulling me forward with a look of tense worry on her face.

  “Levi! We need to go, now!” Her grip around my bicep was surprisingly strong, forcing me back to the present as I followed her. The group was waiting for us around the corner, and we continued down the stairwell. I tried to focus in front of me, pushing the image of Joyce’s last moments out of my head. Hopefully Amy had made it out.

  We could hear the creatures around us as we descended, their piercing shrieks effectively sending fear through my body. They were accompanied by another sound. Human screams we could hear getting louder as we got closer to the first floor.

  UCLA had turned into a hunting ground, and we needed to escape as quickly as possible.

  Maria had moved her grasp to my wrist as we finally made it down to the first floor.

  “Don’t give up! We’re almost there. You’re doing great!” She forced a smile as she spoke to me, helping me calm down a bit as we opened the stairwell into the hallway. Christian went first, raising a finger to his lips as he opened the door.

  We had barely started moving back the way we came when we heard two pairs of footsteps fast approaching from that direction. We looked to the left as an older white man stumbled around the corner, looking behind him as he raised an arm to defend himself.

  “No! Stop! Ple-” His cries were cut short as a Nature’s Assassin pounced on the man, sending them both slamming into the wall about 15 ft. from us. The creature immediately began to tear into the man, who quickly fell silent.

  Christian froze, and then quickly turned the other way down the hall, towards the bloody drag marks I had seen before. It didn’t look like the mantis was worried about us while it was… feeding, so we had to move quickly. I followed him, the rest of the group quickly trailing behind.

  This area of the building opened up with a small lounge, but it smelt and looked more like a butcher shop from hell. Tables where students once sat to study had been profanely violated, turned into an area to store bodies and parts from the creature’s hunts. Heads, limbs, and intestines littered the floor, along with clothing and backpacks of its victims. I tried not to focus on anything, cursing the detail offered to me by Greater Observation. There were some things I just couldn’t see without breaking. We moved through the gore and viscera, Christian pointing towards a doorway to outside on the other side of the room.

  I could feel myself sinking, the pressure and pain in my chest getting worse as we continued and I processed what I was seeing. Everyone else had gone quiet, Ritesh was covering part of his eyes so we wouldn’t have to see the sick, demented scene we had come across.

  The other three were definitely shocked to some degree, but they weren’t showing it on the outside, especially Zahra. She had a completely neutral look on her face, and her eyes somewhat absentmindedly shifted around the room, noticeably staying away from the tables where parts were displayed. Maria and Christian had probably seen their share of shit at the hospital, too. They were strong.

  Maria gave my hand a squeeze, and I squeezed it back. Her other hand was raised in front of her, scanning as we walked. We were 5ft from the door when she stopped.

  “Wait! Something’s coming!” She whispered, hand pointing towards the door.

  Everyone got ready as the door to the outside slowly opened, creaking forward as a figure gingerly stepped inside the building. I could hear the sound of sniffling and crying before I could even see her, but I recognized the little Hello Kitty character immediately. It had a black jester collar with ping bells, along with a little pink skull on the forehead. It was cute, but also kind of metal which I could appreciate.

  Amy turned to us, dried tears caked onto her cheeks. She had a sizeable limp from a pretty massive cut down her left thigh. She was shaking, arms wrapped around herself to provide some sort of comfort and safety.

  “C-can you please help me? I-I got attacked b-” She stopped as she noticed Christian’s raised finger to his lips.

  “We can help,” he whispered, “come with us, we’re leaving the university for a safe zone.” She nodded, turning back around to the door she came in through, opening it for us to follow.

  The university was quiet no longer. Screams, howls, and wails echoed around us, some far away and others much closer. The worst was the occasional person’s final screams as they died.

  Christian stood to the side of the building as we entered back into the smog.

  “You two lead the way. It's the only chance we have of getting out of here in one piece,” he said, looking at Maria and I.

  Maria crossed her arms, giving a “humph” before looking towards me.

  I sighed, “he’s right. I’ll lead the way, if you can watch our backs.”

  “Sounds good, Levi.” The woman relaxed, raising her hands towards the building as Christain stared at her.

  “Whatever. Let's go.” He said. I wiped the tears and dust from my eyes as I felt focus flow through me.

  We have to live. I’ll make sure of it.