A dull clunk of metal on stone echoed down the hallway as Mary dropped her hammer. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” Mary sobbed, rushing to and grabbing onto the superhero.
“Yeah, thanks,” Erika said, suppressing a twinge of irritation as the kill notification vanished. She was grateful for the rescue, but the first thing she noticed was that she only gained EXP for the zombie she killed. Even though she fought the other two with Mary, she didn’t gain anything when White Knight killed them. Her gaming instincts were forming a theory that she didn’t get EXP from those kills because the hero was so much stronger than her.
Why did it have to be him? She watched him get his ass handed to him by the Beastly Boys just a few hours ago. She’d rather have the two officers from that morning, and their guns, rather than a meta-human cosplayer with a sword. But beggars can’t be choosers, and she’d been running around with a torch and a mace. A clearly sharp sword in hands that seemed to know how to use it was probably better.
From behind, Erika heard the scuff of more footsteps on stone and gripped her knife tighter as she watched the gloom. “More zombies!”
“H-Hold on I’m not a zombie!” cried a man’s voice.
Erika flinched as she felt a heavy hand grip her by the wrist, holding her weapon in place. “I admire your fighting spirit, dear maiden, but those are not zombies, but more survivors I, White Knight, have rescued!”
One by one, several figures stumbled out of the dark. The first was a man with a messenger bag and broken glasses in scuffed and bloodied aloha wear holding one of those extendable batons. He probably kept it on him for some reason, and Erika nodded. Smart to have a weapon . The second was a paramedic carrying a bright orange duffel, helping the third, a man Erika definitely knew. Sure, the last time she’d seen John he’d been well dressed and smug looking, but now he just looked weak and pathetic, covered in grime, whimpering, and limping along.
Erika had to fight the urge to punch the man in his face. The last thing he’d said was demanding the literal shirt off her back after firing her. Clenching her fist, she took a step towards the man, but stopped as she caught the look on his face.
As she approached, John looked up at her as he came into view, but all he had was terror in his eyes. It made it hard to hold onto her anger in the moment.
“Erika?” Mary called out from behind, pulling her attention away from the cowardly jackass. Turning around, she saw Mary gesture towards White Knight, the hero patiently waiting as the other three joined them. As the paramedic set John against the wall and started moving towards her and Mary, the hero began to speak.
“Fair maidens, we are currently within an estimated E-Class portal. I and several other heroes, alongside teams of first responders, are currently working to rescue any survivors and clear the portal. As a hero, it is my duty to rescue as many civilians as possible, so we will need to keep moving together as a group and searching for any survivors. Please avoid engaging any monsters or touching any unknown items, and let myself or Paramedic O’Shea know if you see anything strange.”
“Thank you White Knight,” the woman said, stepping up to Erika and Mary. “Are you two able to walk? Do you have any injuries that might require immediate treatment?”
As Mary began to answer, pointing at a long gash on her shoulder, Erika pulled up her status with a muttered command. “Status.”
Name: Kira Nakamura (Alias: Erika Sato)
Age: 22
Race: Meta-Human
Power: Super System (Class F)
Available EXP: 1,100
Purchased Powers: Sturdy Bones (Class F)
Strength: 6
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 9
Conditions: Minor Bruising (Healing); Mild Concussion (Healing); Minor Life Drain (Regenerating); Mild Dehydration; Moderate Hunger.
Whatever the dagger she found was, it seemed every monster she killed with it healed her just a bit.
Erika jumped as she felt a tap on her shoulder, whirling around to see the paramedic looking at her. “Hello, my name is Beth, I’m a paramedic. Is it okay if I examine you?” she asked.
“Erika Sato, and that would be good,” Erika replied.
Beth nodded and grabbed her hand, pressing her fingers against Erika’s wrist. For the second time that day, Erika was poked and prodded by a paramedic, though Beth gave off a completely different vibe than the one from that morning. Where the guy had been friendly, perhaps a bit flirty, the woman in front of her was all business, quickly checking her over. “Did you fall or hit your head at any point that you can remember?” she asked, pulling out a flashlight and shining it into her eyes.
“Yes, I fell when I got sucked into the portal, and again when something blew up a while back.”
“Blew up?”
“The torches, they can explode if you hit them too hard,” she said, pointing at one of the torches they’d dropped on the ground.
“I see. You might have a concussion,” she said. “Once we get you out of here we’ll get you to a hospital to get checked out.” The paramedic kept working on her for a little bit, asking her a couple other questions about her head injury and checking her out before she made a few notes on a pad and tucked it back into her duffel. “White Knight?” Beth said, calling the hero over.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“What’s up?” The casual way the hero responded gave Erika a bit of whiplash. She’d expected him to keep on with the “fair maiden” crap in front of civilians, not sound almost normal.
“Miss Sato here said that the blue torches can explode if hit too hard.”
Erika winced as Beth prodded a sore spot on the back of her head at the same time that White Knight turned to look at her closer.
“The torches explode when hit, you said? How much explosive force? Any strange effects? How hard did you have to hit it?” With every question, he stepped closer, until he was staring at her uncomfortably close.
“Don’t push too hard White Knight, she has a head injury.” Beth turned and fixed the hero with a stare until he took a step back. Nodding, the paramedic started to pack up her medical supplies.
“Not sure how hard it exploded. The flames hurt the zombies, but they’re cold to the touch. They didn’t burn to touch, but left me feeling a bit tired. Hitting one of the torches hard against the wall caused it to break and explode hard enough to knock me back.”
White Knight nodded. “I see. Thank you for the information, fair maiden,” he said, turning back around and heading to the front of the group.
And… he was back to the Renaissance Fair voice.
“Sirs and madams, your attention,” the hero said, clapping his hands. Everyone but Beth turned to look at him while the paramedic continued to repack her kit. “The blue torches are dangerous. For your safety, please do not touch or stand too close to them. I cannot guarantee your safety if you take unnecessary risks. Now, let’s get moving, everyone behind me!”
With an honest to god cape spin, White Knight turned around and started to march forward, his sword out and ready. Like lost puppies, or civilians following after a hero, Mary and the other survivors fell in behind him, the man in the aloha wear grabbing John and helping him move. Beth shoulder her pack as she stood and gave Erika a look, jerking her head towards the other survivors.
Erika hesitated to follow after them. Going with White Knight meant safety, but she was a meta now, and it seemed her power required her to kill monsters to get stronger. She doubted White Knight would allow her to fight even if she told him she awakened. Not that she wanted to tell him. At least not in front of John or Mary. She loved Mary, but the girl couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, and she didn’t doubt that bastard John would try to find some way to use her awakening to his advantage. Sighing, Erika nodded and moved to join the group, only stopping to grab her dropped mace as Beth fell in next to her
Weapon in hand, Erika followed along as the sound of zombies growling and fighting came from up ahead. Turning the corner, Erika nearly bumped into John and the other man as they huddled far back from where White Knight stood in the entrance of another room fighting a group of zombies that surged into the hallway, only held back by the hero. Her hand tightened around her mace as she started calculating how she could slip through and join the fight, perhaps getting a few easy kills while the hero dealt with the worst of it, only to jump as she felt a hand touch her arm. Jerking around, she started to swing only for the hand to grip her arm like an iron vice and stop her cold, then her head caught up with her reactive swing to see Beth staring at her as she held her arm.
“I know that look,” the paramedic said, staring into her eyes until she started to feel awkward. “You want to join the fight. Don’t, it’s not worth it, no matter what power you awakened by falling in here.”
Erika’s heart leapt into her throat at Beth’s words. “P-Power? What power?” she replied, eyes flickering towards the group just a few feet away. She felt just a hint of relief that the rest of the group seemed hyper focused on the hero’s fight in front of them and wasn’t paying attention to the two that lagged behind.
Beth raised an eyebrow and jerked her head behind them. Erika followed the paramedic, squeezing the mace’s handle for comfort as they put a few feet between themselves and the other survivors. It was just enough space to have a bit of privacy, at least as long as everyone else was distracted. The paramedic chose a section of wall to lean against as she looked Erika up and down with an appraising eye.
“It’s a poorly kept secret that portal exposure increases a person’s chance of awakening. Every first responder who portal dives is informed of it, and part of our job is identifying newly awakened.” Beth said, speaking soft enough that Erika could barely hear her over the sounds of battle. “You’re displaying all the signs of a fresh awakening. Elevated heart rate and muscle twitches, muted pain response, and perhaps most obviously, the damage to your clothes don’t match your visible or noticeable injuries, indicating heightened natural healing.”
Erika opened her mouth to say something, whether it was to deny she had a power or confided in the paramedic, but before she could do more than part her lips, Beth shook her head. “Wha—” Erika started to say, only for the paramedic to raise a finger to her lips, motioning for quiet as she turned to face the dimly lit hallway behind them.
The sounds of battle echoed down the hallway as Erika awkwardly stood behind the uniformed woman. After a few seconds, the paramedic reached into her pack and palmed something. Erika heard a faint metallic click right before a zombie stumbled around the corner just a few feet away from them. Erika stared at the monster as she tightened her grip on her weapon, ready to push Beth aside and charge it, only for the paramedic to hold a fist up, motioning for her to stop.
“Contact rear!” Beth’s voice echoed down the hallway as the zombie turned and started to moan, only for a single sharp crack to echo through the hallway as the monster’s head exploded!
More zombies moaned out as the headless corpse toppled to the ground. The undead flooded out from around the corner, only for each monster to be greeted by a sharp crack that sent them falling over with ruined heads. Erika’s grip on her weapon loosened as the paramedic calmly dropped zombie after zombie, forming a pile of corpses that tripped up more of the undead.
Erika could only stare as each whipcrack of sound heralded another dead zombie. She was more than happy to stand behind the armed EMT.
The zombies surged forward as Beth stopped to reload and Erika raised her mace up, ready to crack heads. She needn’t have bothered. Beth didn’t flinch, smoothly replacing the clip in her pistol before picking off more of the creatures. It wasn’t long before only a single zombie remained, struggling to pick itself up from where it fell trying to get over its dead brethren.
“Can you take care of that one?” Beth said, calmly reloading again.
“I can.” Erika slipped past the DPS masquerading as a Support just as the zombie regained its feet.
“Hrrraarrrrgh!” The undead lunged for her, but she was prepared for it, slipping around the zombie’s clumsy charge and battering it in the shoulder with a wild swing of her mace that sent it crashing into the stone bricks of the hallway. As the monster picked itself back up, Erika swung her mace down with two hands, crushing the zombie’s head with a brutal overhead blow. The zombie stopped moving.
*Ding!* You have defeated Zombie (Class F)! You have gained 100 EXP! Congratulations!
The popups no longer surprised her, and with a quick mental shrug she banished it. She was tempted to open the shop and see what else she could buy, but it didn’t seem safe, at least not without someone to guard her.
“Nice job.”
“Thanks,” Erika said, looking up to see Beth nodding with approval, the gun she used nowhere to be seen. Behind the paramedic, she could see the other survivors staring at them and whispering. Looking at them, she saw John staring at her, a strange look in his eyes. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she didn’t like his attention on her. Beth seemed to notice her discomfort and glanced over her shoulder at the other survivors.
“Monsters are handled back here, but we’re not out of the portal yet. All of you should be ready to defend yourselves.”
“Awakening messes with the Fight or Flight response, increasing the willingness to fight. You jumped in to kill that zombie without hesitation even though I clearly could have handled it. That just confirmed you awakened.”
