No heartbeat. No breath. No voice. I shouted her name anyway.

  Nothing.

  “Damn it,” I growled, punching the wall. “How could I let this happen?”

  “Hold on! Did you just say… Sunshine?”

  I glanced back at the woman, who had a shocked expression. “Yeah, she’s my daughter. Listen, I don’t have any more time for your ramblings, so-”

  “Jerome, is that you? It’s me, Angela!”

  My whole body froze. That name, that voice, cut through my panic like a light in the dark. The overwhelming anxiety that enveloped me disappeared momentarily the moment I heard that name, and her teary eyes told me all I needed to know. I closed the distance between us and hugged her.

  “I thought you died,” I said somberly. “What happened? How’d you escape that attack?”

  She patted my back and said, “We can talk about that later. We have to find Sunshine. Where’s the last place you saw her?”

  I nodded and pointed at the hole I just looked through. “I put her in there after I heard these loud ass footsteps. Well, ‘put’ isn’t the right word. I guess I pushed her inside pretty hard without thinking.” I gave my cheek a light punch. “Man, what the hell was I thinking?”

  Just then, a familiar pain smashed into my chin. An uppercut from Angela Angels. Haven't received that in a while.

  “That’s for acting too hastily,” she said with a serious look. That face wasn’t there long as she went back to that innocent smile she always had. “You can expect to receive your other two punches later. That’s after we save Sunshine, that is.”

  “That’s fine by me,” I groaned, rubbing my chin. “But where do we even start? The end of that opening is solid rock, and I didn’t feel any holes when I looked. Just a bunch of those crystals. There’s nowhere else she could have gone.”

  Angela adjusted her glasses “On the contrary, my old friend. Look at these special little things over here.” She grabbed two glowing orange crystals from near the hole in the wall, and came right back. “You see these two? Nothing special, right? But watch what happens when I make them touch.”

  The woman tapped the crystals against each other, and in a flash of orange light, she disappeared.

  “Woah. Teleportation, I think.”

  “Correct,” said Angela, placing the crystal on my head. She then showed me a red crystal. “Orange crystals can teleport you to the nearest red crystal. “I spent all night testing these fields out, so you can thank me for losing sleep over this. But knowing this new information, why didn’t your daughter teleport to this area instead?”

  I thought about the answer for a second. “Oh, ‘cause-”

  She made a buzzing sound like the ones you would hear on a game show. “Too slow. It’s because there was another red crystal closer to her than this one.”

  Shit. I was gonna say it was ‘cause she actually teleported to a different crystal… But. now that I knew what the deal was, I grabbed the two crystals from her hand, and rushed back to the hole, entering it. “What are you waiting for, Angie!? Let’s go!”

  Her cheeks turned red as she hurried on over to me. “You’re just assuming two people can teleport at once if they’re near one another?”

  “Yes, I am!” I said, slamming the crystals against each other.

  Orange light burst outward the moment I slammed the crystals together. In an instant, the world warped, colors smearing across my vision. Then, just as fast, everything snapped back into place. We were in a different part of the cave now. The walls shimmered with vibrant colors—blue, purple, red—each crystal pulsing faintly. For a split second, I could almost believe this place was beautiful.

  Then I saw the blood.

  Mangled animals and monsters I didn’t even know existed decorated the floor, and my daughter stood in the middle of the bloody circle. Shock was written all over her face as she looked at the strange man across from her.

  A haunting pressure filled the area, forcing the energy within me to go into overdrive. Everything about his features gave me a bad feeling—his katana covered blood and guts, his Halloween horse head along with its lifeless eyes drilling holes into Sunshine, and the fact that he was only wearing tighty whities.

  “Who is that guy?” Angela said under her breath.

  I looked at the dead creatures again, and imagined my child in that state. “Who cares?”

  I sprinted into action, forming a ball of energy in my right palm while my left hand’s fingers began to vibrate. The energy ball shot out of my hand and landed near the swordsman's feet, causing the group to erupt in a cloud of dust. Obstruct my view, and his would be obstructed as well. I charged through the smoke and debris. He wasn’t there anymore. I aimed my fingers anyway, waiting for the smoke to clear.

  “Lesson on Aura Usage Number One!”

  Once the dust cleared, a mixture of anger and fear took over my body. That horse head freak was now crouching in front of Sunshine, talking about something I didn’t understand.

  “Aura can be used to boost your speed by infusing it into your limbs! In case you need a clearer example…”

  As if he had already predicted my next move, he looked up at me as I descended down on him ready to knock his lights out. I swung my fist. He weaved out the way, leaving my attack dangerously close to my daughter’s face. To my surprise, the man grabbed my forearm right before it turned Sunshine’s face to mush.

  “Eres fuerte, hombre muerto,” he said. Pretty sure that was Spanish, but I didn’t understand any of it. “As you can see, little lady, applying aura in this way is usually better than wasting it with blasts like this Radion did. After all, aura is essentially just energy from the environment.”

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  “Don’t worry, baby,” I said, trying to break free from his grasp. “Your dad’s gonna save you.” This guy’s strength was off the charts. Was holding my arm really enough to keep my entire body restrained?

  “Neeeeeigh!” the horse head exclaimed, spinning his head in a circle. “For someone who wants to save his kid so badly, why’d you attack me first before grabbing her and taking her to a safe spot. In fact…” He looked at Angela, who was watching from a distance, writing down in a notebook. “You should’ve had her grab the little lady, while you went after me. That’s assuming I actually wanted to hurt your kid.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Then explain all the blood on her. And why did she look so scared of you?”

  “Oh, that’s not fear, hombre muerto. That’s some good ole shock!” He slid one of the corpses to himself with his foot, and then repeatedly kicked it up like a soccer ball. “You see, I didn’t kill any of these guys here. Your kid got to them before I did. She’s got some real potential.”

  “You think I’d believe that!? My girl couldn’t hurt a fly!”

  Jesus kicked the body away, blood splattering on the floor. “Oh my, ‘couldn’t’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’. Brusco! In that case, Lesson on Aura Usage Number Two!”

  Before I could react, Horse Head lifted me up and slammed his palm against my gut. I flew, pain filling my ribs until gravity sent me back down.

  “Damn… it,” I growled, my hands hovering over my belly. Even I was able to send Jason through a wall, but now I couldn’t even land one hit on some random dude? How the hell was I supposed to beat the Underground Radius if Horse Head was treating me like a ragdoll!?

  “Aura can be used to boost your physical strength and power,” said the swordsman, twirling his katana on his finger like a basketball. “In other words, it makes your punches go boom and your kicks go pop, so even zombies like that really ugly one over there can get hurt by your attacks. Aura can hurt Type Two Radions!”

  Aura? As soon as I was made aware of that word, I noticed something that could only be described as green fire enveloping his body, as though it was naturally a part of him. No wonder he could move like that. That must’ve been his Radius Ability.

  But then why was he telling this stuff to Sunshine? I assumed Radius Abilities were unique to each person who had them, so maybe what Horse Head was doing was actually a skill anyone could do. If I recall correctly, he even said I was wasting my energy by shooting it. Maybe if I kept the energy inside of me, my body would get stronger.

  Woah, is this what using my brain during a fight feels like? I should start using it more…

  “Let me tend to my daughter,” I said standing back up. “She needs me.”

  “Not until I finish my lesson,” he replied.

  “I can tell your intentions aren't what I thought they were, so what's your deal?”

  “No shit my intentions are different,” he cackled. “Do I look like I kill little girls?”

  I looked at his bloody sword.

  Noticing what I was looking at, he laughed again. “Don’t mind this. These are just animal remains. They’re red instead of green because I was killing normal ones. I was only down here blowing stuff up.”

  Blowing stuff up? “Aaah, I get it. So you're the bomber.” I went into a battle stance. “I don't know what you get out of causing so much destruction, but it's about time you stop.”

  “Make me.”

  This guy had no idea how much I wanted him to say that. I get to learn more about this aura shit, get stronger, and then beat his ass.

  Horse Head began scratching his back with his sword. “How about we make a game out of this? If you can touch your kid just one single time, I'll leave here and never come back. Cool?”

  A response didn’t come out. My legs did the talking for me, rushing towards the swordsman as energy built up in my hands. But not to release it. I stored it. Horse Head sidestepped to the left, and was right in front of Angela, who was still writing. I followed, the ground cracking under my feet.

  “Lesson on Aura Usage: Number Three!”

  Thinking back to when he was playing with one of the corpses, I grabbed the dead body nearest to me and hurled it at him. Just as I predicted, he caught it. What he didn’t expect was the small finger blast right behind the corpse, detonating once it made contact.

  Blood and other remains painted the walls. They weren’t his though. The man stood there unaffected by my attack, the aura around him now looking more solid.

  “Aura can make your body as hard as a rock, metal, or something even harder than that,” said the swordsman—his hand in front of Angela’s face like he was shielding her. “If you’re really good, you can even protect other people with it.”

  So I can use my energy to make myself more durable, huh? Alright, nice, nice! I can do that. Let’s do it right now!

  My adrenaline was on the verge of reaching new heights I didn’t even know existed, and my zombified soul was all in for seeing it out with me. I ran at the man once more, getting ready to throw another punch. Or at least, that’s what I wanted him to think. If I tried my smokescreen trick from a different angle, then maybe I’d catch him!

  Once I closed the distance just enough for him to raise his guard, my fist changed directions. The ground exploded, and Horse Head rose from the dust cloud holding Angela. Before he descended, I made sure he saw me enter the dust, hoping he’d follow me there.

  “Lesson on Aura Usage: Number Four!”

  I heard him drop down, and my head turned in every direction to see where he’d be coming from.

  “It’s very much possible to see another energy user even if you can’t actually see them…”

  A loud footstep behind me alerted my attention, and I immediately kicked behind me, dispersing the dust to reveal… no one. A strong pressure collided with my back, causing me to fall to my knees.

  “It’s called Energy Sense,” said Horse Head, sauntering towards me. “That attack you did earlier nearly hurt your friend. Good thing I saved-”

  “Don’t stop fighting!” I hissed, swinging my arm at his neck. Despite him catching it, the built up energy within that limb allowed me to knock his hand back. He nearly fell, and took that chance to regain my bearings.

  It didn’t take long for Horse Head to do so as well. “Here's a useful tip, little lady! There are multiple parts of the body that people subconsciously don’t protect.” I rocketed towards him, but he jumped over my flying body and chopped my neck in the process. “One, the back of the neck!”

  After skidding through the hard rock, I deactivated my rocket energy on one leg to slow down my momentum. Then, I aimed that foot downwards. Energy burst out like an intense flame. The swordsman didn’t even give me a chance to get far as a sudden pain cancelled my ability to fly. I plummeted pathetically, unable to stand back up.

  “Two, the calves!” He picked me up by my skull with a ferocious grip. “And last, but not least. And this one is definitely my favorite.”

  My butt.

  He literally kicked my butt. I was already stuck in the wall before I realized that.

  That must’ve been the third body part. Despite this obviously being a form of humiliation, it didn’t stop me from thinking how satisfying it would be to… snatch his head off using all the skills he was unknowingly teaching me. But how should I do it? I was beginning to run low on energy, and Horse Head hasn’t used anything I could absorb yet.

  Maybe aura was something I could absorb? The colorful rocks around me had an aura around them too, but upon touching them, my ability didn’t work. In that instant, a crazy idea entered my head, and the chances of it working depended on how reckless I wanted to be.

  Eating crystals full of unknown properties wasn’t the safest thing to do, and yet the surge of power I received upon doing so made the act worth it.

  “Ok!” I shouted, tearing apart from the wall. “Ok, ok!” If eating those crystals gave me a power boost like this, then imagine how strong I'd be if I ate a human!

  “Just keep on moving, human,” I said, flying at the swordsman. “Show me more of what I could do!”

  “Hey, hey, you’re not the same hombre muerto I was fighting before, are you?”

  I reeled my arm back, straightening my hand as if it were a sword. Judging by the way he threw his guard up, I knew I had successfully tricked him. I thrusted my hand forward. Horse Head caught it with both hands. Finger bullets followed, which was able to knock him back a couple feet.

  As we exchanged more blows with each other, it was becoming clear that the gap between us had closed significantly. However, there was still some distance between, and that seemingly miniscule difference prevented me from devouring the human where he stood.

  That katana…

  He hadn't used it against me since the fight started, meaning he was still holding back. If I could just get one bite on him, one bite of that delicious flesh…

  A flash of light from my left caught my attention, and I jumped back from my opponent to focus on it. The sight amazed me. A beautiful aura that shined like the sun emanated from that little human girl’s body. It drew me closer to her like I was a fly, ooze dripping from my mouth, body tingling.

  “Oh, do you finally feel like trying to touch her now?”

  That look of fear in her eyes, that smooth skin, that unmoving body inviting me to come…

  “Hey, you're not going to do what I think you're going to do, right?”

  I ran. Faster than I ever did today or yesterday or any day before–all in an attempt to get what I wanted the most.

  My mouth opened as I inched closer to her head. “Just hold still, baby. I promise this won’t hurt.”

  Blood, bone, and meat.

  Mmm. Humans really did taste like chicken!

  Although, something seemed off about it. My hunger had blinded me from the fact that this wasn’t my daughter’s neck my teeth had sunk into. This was a hand.

  The swordsman’s hand.

  The human man groaned in pain. “You really are a zombie, Jerome… Hunter.”