Tanya gasped—a throaty, dry sound that tore the air from her lungs.

Black spots appeared in her vision.

She was very aware of her hands on the metal box; it was so cold under them that they burned. Staggering backwards, she was returned to the world. It was duller than she remembered. She gasped, feeling like she'd just come up from deep water.

Adam's eyes were still glowing light blue. Marjorie touched Adams's shoulder, and he jumped slightly, before removing his own hands and blinking rapidly.

"How long?" was all Tanya could manage.

"A while, we think," said Marjorie.

"Those exclamation marks aren't actually portals; they're ripples," Adam added. "The portal that made the Boss before was logged manually the first day I put it up, and it didn't change for a long time after."

Tanya nodded slowly. "So it's not panic, it's—"

"Can Mrs Eceer's wards stop a Boss coming in?" Ishita interjected.

"You'd have to ask her, but I doubt it." Tanya thought the words through again. "So the rush…?"

"Well…" Marjorie started.

Ishita ripped the band-aid off. "Have you made the deal with the customers yet?"

Tanya leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, she's helping me contact my family, and she has an hour with Mrs Eceer about adding sound stuff to the wards too."

Marjorie bit her lip, looking disappointed.

"What did you have in mind?" Tanya asked.

"Everyone in the estate knows the Tesco lot. They're some of the highest-level people around her. If you hadn't made the deal yet, then maybe you could have focused on the ward info, that's all."

Tanya shook her head. "She said anything shop-related wasn't in her control anyway."

"What is this shop anyway?" Adam asked. His head snapped between them, like watching a game of tennis.

"Me tattoo parlour," Tanya said, offhand.

"So you'll need to convince her to talk to the guy in charge, maybe?" Marjorie brainstormed.

"What do you mean, tattoo parlour?" Adam asked.

Tanya opened her mouth to reply, but was instantly swept up by Ishita and Marjorie again.

Ishita wagged her finger. "—Or at least get some information about their different Classes."

Marjorie interlaced her fingers, mask falling as she took the puzzle more seriously."What Classes are we even looking for? A higher level version of Mrs Eceer's Class is unlikely so I suppose it's things that could be woven in, or—"

"What do you mean, tattoo parlour?!" Adam demanded.

They all stopped, looking at him. He sank into the seat.

"That's me business," Tanya said, slowly. "I'm a Tattoo Summoner."

Tanya could see the cogs in Adam's head turning.

"That was why you were talking about me getting a tattoo," Adam said to Marjorie, accusingly.

"Yes."

Tanya was surprised by her honesty.

He stood up, backing towards the door. "You always do this. You treat me like an adult and like you think I'm so impressive, and then it suits you so suddenly I'm a kid again."

"Adam," Marjorie said softly.

His words twisted in Tanya's gut. She remembered what it was like to be a teen. It was like the worst parts of childhood and adulthood combined. And in the apocalypse? Tanya couldn't even imagine.

Adam swung the door open, rage building. "Which is it, Mum? Am I the talented boy that's taken it in his stride and is growing into a fine young man, or am I only worth bragging about if you're trying to control me?"

Marjorie stopped, mouth agape.

"That's what I thought." Adam turned on his heel and ran.

"Adam!" Marjorie called, lurching towards the door. "It's not safe!"

"I'll go," Ishita said, but her eyes were set on Fahad's door in the hallway. There was no way this hadn't woken him up.

"No, I will," Tanya said instinctively. She stuffed her arms back into her coat. "Stay with Fahad."

Marjorie was grabbing her shoes in a frenzy.

"You'll only push him away," Tanya said. She instantly regretted it, seeing Marjorie's pained expression.

"I didn't mean…" Marjorie started. She snapped out of it, her gaze steeling. "I need to guard him."

"I'm level 6 and I have a sword that's defeated a Mini Boss," Tanya stated.

She used Marjorie's pause to run out of the flat, going down the stairs two by two until she was out in the winter air again.

She looked left, then right. There was no sign of him. She even peered sideways into the Wyrm and Needle in case he'd wanted to find out more, but she wasn't hopeful. Still nothing.

Which way…

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

What did I do when I was pissed at me mum?

I ran to my room.

Home. Where is his home?

Tanya remembered what Marjorie said when she was talking about home: 'the estate.'

That had to be the local Peabody Estate. She could jog it in five minutes. It would take her outside of the ward area—but that meant it would also take Adam outside of the ward area.

She turned left and started running.

She could almost see the map from inside the PC with Adam. The other way had the Tesco Express group, and the group of high-level people in the flats that Marcy mentioned were opposite. She swore to herself. That way would have at least somewhat protected him from the monsters with so many high-level people. Tanya had no idea what was happening towards the estates, so all she could do was hope she could find him before something else did.

Even with her increased physical ability, Tanya was very out of breath. She couldn't just run straight; she had to zigzag across the street so she could see down all the side streets. So many of these streets would end up at the estates, and she didn't know if he'd run straight there or avoid the larger main roads.

Tanya didn't even realise she'd crossed the ward until after. Every hair on her arms lifted the moment she crossed, like her body remembered how danger felt before her mind did. She paused for a second without even meaning to, looking back and seeing the familiar circuitry of Mrs Eceer's traps around the edge of the buildings.

I haven't been outside of the wards in a couple of weeks.

She'd forgotten what that fear felt like.

Tanya kept moving, going from a fast walk to a jog and then a run. No matter how many times she looked, it felt like something was behind her.

Maybe he's already made it back.

She just hoped she was going the right way.

Her feet thudded against the pavement. Each side street was the same pattern of veering and looking until she saw them.

She saw the monster first around the car crashes and rubble from destroyed buildings. It wasn't one of the hounds, but it was a similar size.

Huge muscular legs and smaller arms set it apart from others she'd seen. It was like some horrific mix between a dinosaur and a kangaroo. That same black inky flesh coated it, rubbery in appearance around its haunches. From those haunches, Tanya thought it would jump. Instead, it walked one giant foot at a time. No matter what type of monster it was, these never seemed to go in for a kill.

She remembered the information.

Entity is operating under external command to retrieve live human subjects to an extradimensional origin point.

If they all wanted to pull people through portals alive, she could use this to her advantage. It wouldn't kill Adam if he were incapacitated—it would try to drag him. She just had to keep it occupied and kill it before it could.

She ran faster until she could see Adam properly around the largest pileup of crashed cars. The wreckage formed a rough barricade at the edge of the street, partially shielding him.

Adam was slumped against the side of a car, blood trickling down his leg. One of his hands was weakly wrapped around his ribs, the other against the car. His eyes were flickering in and out of that blue, failing to cast some kind of magic against the vehicle.

Tanya didn't call his name. She just ran. The thing lunged; so did she.

Summoning Phantom Brand into her right hand, she swung. The sword appeared as she struck it, slicing the monster's back. It was so hunched over she just wanted its attention, not wanting to overcommit and end up right next to some huge weapon she hadn't seen coming.

The beast roared, spinning round.

Its head looked more armadillo-like, the small ears and ears so strange next to a predator's mouth.

She gave it two quick jabs, then backed up.

It looked between them, analysing whether it could leave Adam.

She pulled the spike trap from her leg with her other hand, then pivoted and sprinted behind the nearest car—a dented white hatchback half-hidden under a collapsed scaffold. She dropped to one knee behind the bonnet for partial cover.

From there, she had a clean angle on both the monster and Adam's prone form.

The spike trap snapped out of her leg like liquid steel, curling mid-air before lashing down the street between the monster and Adam.

She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth, forcing the spikes out of the trap early. They popped the car's tire that Adam was leaning against, scraping against the metal rim with a screech. Paint flaked against the pavement.

The monster backed away from it and turned away, sizing up Tanya. Then it leapt.

Tanya stared up. The monster blocked the sun, light flaring around it like an eclipse.

With gut instinct, she ran further into the street. The monster landed behind her, metal-crunching noises filling the air behind her.

There were terraced houses on both sides. To her left, a black car had crashed into the brick wall of one of the houses, cutting off that alleyway completely—it would need to be climbed if she got cornered. Adam's red car was parked half on the pavement. To her right, and ahead, was clearer ground—closer to him, more dangerous, but with more mobility.

Closer to him, and she could see his damage, but there was also space to run all the way around it. Worst case, she could slam her body weight into the blue door a few feet from Adam and hope there was some kind of back area. She didn't know the layout of anywhere around here, so it was low on her list of plans.

Fuck it. What else can I use?

She summoned the CCTV-style cannon. It unfolded from her hip in three glowing segments, the head spinning before locking onto the bestial shadow behind her. It hummed, then it began to fire.

It wouldn't take it down, but every little bit helped.

Tanya grabbed the red car to steady herself on the way past, circling it to where Adam was. His mouth was open, his head turning to see her. He was trying to pull himself under the car to hide. A pool of blood spread around his leg.

She crouched low as she passed the back of the vehicle, using the boot as brief cover.

She reached for her leg again, summoning the Vitality bandages. They appeared in her hand, and she chucked them to him.

"They'll heal you," she said. Then she kept running.

If it followed her round to Adam, it might see him trying to hide, so she went against all her instincts and ran straight towards it on the other side of the car to Adam.

She cut sharply left, skimming along the passenger side of the car, and burst out just as the beast rounded the front.

She slammed Phantom Brand into the car's doors, slicing through them as it ate its fill of the metal. Mid-crunching, she pulled it back out, stabbing the creature with the still-forming metal blade. The sword glitched in its neck, trying to form and pull the monster into it at the same time.

She yanked it back out again. Then stabbed, again and again, aiming for the throat and head. It might want them alive, but she didn't need to play by the same rules.

It gurgled and hissed, falling on the floor. She stabbed harder, long after it had stopped moving.

She unsummoned her sword and the spikes.

Vitality: 3/24

Not bad. The tattoo studies helped me with me limits. We'll be fine as long as we don't fight anything else.

Tanya ducked around the side of the red car to see Adam again. He'd pulled himself as far under the car as he could manage, only his bloodied leg stuck out, which he must have struggled to move.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Stupid question.

"Was that a police spike trap—and did your sword eat the car!?"

"Yes and yes." She noticed the summoned bandages on his leg. They were so bloody that they'd blended in. "Are the bandages helping?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so." He flexed his knee and hissed.

I'll keep the tattoos on him 'til I hit 2/6 Vitality. Then I should unsummon everything to be safe.

"Let's get you out of there," Tanya said. She started by pulling his arm, then under his arms. She could see how much each pull was hurting him, but waiting wasn't an option.

"Do you think those are pack animals?" he asked, expression darkening.

"Hope not." She brushed it aside. "How close is the estate?"

Adam baulked. "How did you know I was going home?"

"Everyone's been 15 once," she said, grinning. It looked more like a grimace. "Pretty much the equivalent of slamming the door to your room, eh? Just way more dangerous." She considered telling him to save his energy, but talking seemed to distract him from the pain.

"Oh," Adam said.

Tanya helped him to his feet, wrapping her arm around his back to help him hobble. "Do you think you can walk?"

I really hope so, 'cause I dunno if I can carry you.

He gingerly put some weight on it. "Yes, I think so."

"The estate?" she pressed.

"Uh, right then left."

"Is it safe?"

"Yes."

"Then it's closer."

They moved step by step. It was going to take a long time. Tanya fell into the rhythm, wondering what the place on the other side would be like.

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