The doors opened with a hiss, and a jingle rang out. The tune was off-key, distorted, like the speaker system had been possessed by the souls of the damned.

It hadn't finished playing by the time the monster horde came spilling out of the adjacent carriages. The sound of hundreds of monstrous voices reached them. John Accelerated to the open door, then started launching fireballs down the platform, arms akimbo. The platform lit up as they flew by, illuminating the beastly tide that was already barrelling towards him.

His heart dropped. Feeling this many monsters via his Mana Sense was one thing, but actually seeing it with his own eyes afflicted him with a kind of terror he'd rarely experienced. When he was very young, he'd been playing outside his house when a bunch of football hooligans came marching down the street, on the way to attend a match against their rivals. They were drunk, rowdy. He'd frozen like a deer in the headlights, horrified by the wall of noise approaching him.

This was a hundred times worse than that. Hooligans or not, those drunken louts back then weren't interested in hurting a kid, and some had even shown the kindness to rush ahead of the pack to help him back towards his house before the main bulk of the group could trample him.

Here, he was fairly confident there was going to be no kind-hearted monster who'd charge ahead of the pack and help them escape. They were going to have to stand and fight.

The only upside was that these were indeed blue monsters. In a handful of heartbeats, his hail of Fireballs had taken out for more than he'd expected, burning right through their carapaces and skins and armours and whatever else. Dozens perished in no time.

+1000 Aura

But there were hundreds of them. Worse, he wasn't the only one with a projectile attack. It was tough to make out the forms of any individual creature in the darkness, but Ninja instincts kicked in, picking out a small shape sailing through the air towards him and urging him to dodge. Only Accelerate let him twitch his head to one side, just in time to avoid a hurled spike before it could impale him through the eye. He paid it back with a Fireball, but heeded the lesson.

Accelerate ran out, and John retreated back inside the carriage with a grimace. He'd bought them a few seconds by culling some of the front-runners, but it wasn't sustainable. This was going to suck.

I need Spells. Area of effect stuff, with range.

The other three were behind him, at the ready. Chester was trembling, and his army helmet was askew, but he still had his spiked mace clutched in a two-handed grip like he was clinging to it for dear life. Lily's crossbow was aimed and ready to fire, but her eyes were wide with terror. Even Jade was far from the picture of composure, eyes darting around, her face pale.

It was going to come down to what he could do. He quickly delved into the Aura interface as he repositioned himself at the door, hoping to make a choke point.

Level 1 Spells:

Wind Shear: 500 Aura

Electric Shock: 500 Aura

Aqua Shot: 500 Aura

Rock Shield: 500 Aura

Flash Freeze: 500 Aura

Light Burst: 500 Aura

Level 2 Spells:

Sigil Detonation: 1000 Aura

Earthen Armour: 1000 Aura

Scouring Steam: 1000 Aura

Burning Gale: 1000 Aura

Ice Grasp: 1000 Aura

Illusory Clone: 1000 Aura

Astral Projection: 1000 Aura

Phantom Hand: 1000 Aura

Force Push: 1000 Aura

Force Pull: 1000 Aura

Level 1 Skills:

Second Wind: 500 Aura

Limit Break: 500 Aura

Insight: 500 Aura

Suppress Soul: 500 Aura

Grappler: 500 Aura

Striker: 500 Aura

Level 2 Skills:

Inhuman Stamina: 1000 Aura

Iron Fist: 1000 Aura

Eagle Eye: 1000 Aura

Danger Sense: 1000 Aura

Athlete: 1000 Aura

Thief: 1000 Aura

Engineer: 1000 Aura

Rider: 1000 Aura

Ventriloquist: 1000 Aura

Current Aura: 2500

Nothing immediately jumped out at him as something that would be good for this situation, and he didn't have time to mull over what the name of each Spell or Skill implied. Would it be better to upgrade what he had already? There was no time to consider that, either. The horde was almost on them.

The wealth of options was threatening to afflict him with decision paralysis, ultimately leaving him with no new tools in his belt at all. So he let instinct guide him, picking out anything that even hinted it might be a ranged attack. He spent everything he could.

Wind Shear unlocked!

-500 Aura

Burning Gale unlocked!

-1000 Aura

Force Push unlocked!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

-1000 Aura

A flare of mana in his navel combined with a fizzle of warmth in his brain, and knowledge of multiple new spells was injected into his mind. For the first time in what had to be hours, he dropped Mana Sense. It wasn't needed any more. The monsters were more than conspicuous enough for his mundane senses, and he needed that Spell slot.

Accelerate came off its cooldown, and he dashed a step beyond the threshold of the carriage door. Lifting his arm and slashing it back down again with his hand flattened like he was performing a karate chop, an invisible blade of wind lashed out. Under the effects of Accelerate, Wind Shear crossed the distance between him and the front line of the charging monsters impossibly fast. Admittedly, it wasn't a great distance. The monsters were getting close enough to see the whites in their eyes.

Blood sprayed in a rainbow of colour, lit up by the Burning Gale he followed with. Monsters howled as his two spells culled their front-runners. The Wind Shear was silent, but the Burning Gale was anything but.

It manifested as a twisting cone of wind that spiralled out from his outstretched palm when he thrust it forward, carrying on it twinkling embers that the wind stoked into flames as they struck targets. The fires it yielded weren't large, but they didn't need to be. Force Push was similar: it simply created a wave of force in whatever direction he thrusted his flat palm, corresponding to the speed and strength of the motion. The only limit there was him. That seemed to be the theme among these combat Spells: they all required motion to cast, and thus it came down to how fast he was.

At the same time, he made sure to dedicate a free slot to Shadow Stream whenever he could. Darkness billowed around him, concealing his form, and he was the only one who could see through it. The world turned a hideously dark grey, since the station platform was so dark already. He had to tolerate it. Anything to prevent the monsters hitting him with their own projectile.

He ended up constantly on the move, dashing side to side, throwing out Spells. Fireball, Wind Shear, Fireball, Wind Shear, Burning Gale, Fireball, Wind Shear, Fireball, Wind Shear, Burning Gale, with Force Push acting as a backup whenever needed. The confrontation lasted for seconds but felt like a lifetime.

The roar of flames mingled with the cries of dying monsters. The air filled with the acrid stench of burning flesh and rotting meat. The chaos was so overwhelming that he almost didn't hear the jingle repeating itself. Seeing the horde of monsters suddenly abandon their manic charge and start piling back in to the nearest carriages clued him in, making him pause in bafflement to figure out what was going on, and only then did he realise. Without a swift application of Accelerate, he wouldn't have been able to dart back through the doors into the carriage before they managed to snap shut.

+3000 Aura

When he saw what was waiting for him inside, though, he wondered whether it would've been better to just make his way out through the station alone. Switching to Mana Sense, he found that only a hundred or so monsters had failed to get back on the train. And there were more in the station itself. That didn't sound so bad, comparatively.

Jade, Chester, and Lily were waiting for him there, staring, wide-eyed. They all had their weapons at the ready, but they slowly lowered them as the train started to pull out of the station once more. The world outside blurred.

He nodded at them, then went and sat down again, crossing his arms.

+400 Aura

There was a moment of silence before they followed, moving to take up three seats across from John. He had to hold back a sigh. Even after the awesome shit he just did, none of them wanted to sit next to him. Maybe he'd simply accumulated too many awkward vibes throughout his life so far, and he'd have to do a lot more cool shit to balance it out.

Worse, they were staring at him. All three shared a wide-eyed look, but the contrasts were found in the rest of their expressions. Chaster's mouth was hanging open. Jade's lips were a thin line, and her nostrils were flared. Lily was the strangest, her eyes looking kind of vacant while she chewed on her bottom lip.

John had no choice but to endure their scrutiny in stoic silence. From personal experience, inquiring as to why someone was staring at him never ended well. He'd learned that one early, and the lesson had been hammered in repeatedly through observation of other confrontations.

Eventually, Lily blinked and cleared her throat. "So, um…"

Unfortunately, her failure to come up with a topic of conversation only made things more awkward. John hoped the sweat on his forehead wasn't too obvious. Maybe they'd think it was from the exertion of casting so many Spells? That's what he'd say if they asked.

Jade broke next, closing in her eyes and drawing in a shaky breath he didn't know whether to interpret as angry. "You have way more power than the three of us."

John nodded slowly.

"How? I've butchered a dozen monsters since those ugly fuckers killed—" Jade cut herself off like she'd choked back the words. She blinked a few times. Took another deep breath. This time, John was pretty sure it was an angry one. "What have you been doing differently, John? What's your class?"

There was no way he was answering that. Aside from the humiliation of revealing that he'd been deliberately trying to act 'cool' from the moment he met them and he wasn't actually this stoic and mysterious guy in real life, he was pretty sure it would be straight up detrimental to his Aura. Knowing he was trying to act cool would make them think he was lame. He was sure of it. And then sticking with them would've been all for nothing.

Well, not nothing, exactly. I do have a few new Spells and Skills.

But it would feel like a waste if he threw away his persona now.

Nevertheless, he knew he needed to give them something, if the variety of looks he was being subjected to were anything to go by. Interpreting people's emotions wasn't his strongest suit, but he wasn't so far towards the end of the spectrum that he couldn't figure out there was a range of discontentment before him. He didn't want to lie, but he couldn't tell them the truth, either.

"You guys are the first humans I've interacted with since before this all started," he said eventually, focusing on ensuring there were no voice cracks or awkward turns of phrase in his speech. He didn't mention that they were the first non-family humans he'd interacted with in… damn, it was nearly a month. "I didn't know I was different," he added.

"Different to us, at least," Lily said, glancing at her companions. "You're the first person I've met besides these two since the monsters showed up, too." She gave an awkward smile. "Maybe it's us three who're the weak ones, and you're closer to the average… survivor."

"I don't believe that," Jade said.

"I kinda do," Chester muttered with a tremor in his voice.

"You're weak, sure, but I've been working my arse off," Jade said, squinting side-on at Chester before turning her steely gaze back to John. "Have you been fighting monsters at every waking moment since the start?"

John thought back to what he'd done at the start of all this. He didn't know how to tell her that he'd spent a good ten minutes upside down in a wheelie bin. "No," he said, trying not to laugh. His lips still twisted a little way towards a smile, though. "I've been given an advantage, I think. Somewhat."

"What advantage?"

It took a lot of effort to keep still. Every atom in his being wanted to hunch his shoulders. "I don't want to say."

Jade narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but Lily placed a hand on her shoulder and talked over her. "If he doesn't want to say, that's his right. We don't need to know everything about each other to be allies, right?"

That came out rather pointed. He got the impression she was repeating Jade's words back to her, if the shorter woman's slumped shoulders were anything to go by.

"Sure," she muttered. Her eyes fell closed, and this time they stayed that way, even as she continued, "I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong, that's all. Gotta get stronger if I want to survive this. If I want… I don't want to fail anyone again."

Lily's eyes were full of sympathy. "You won't."

John kind of wanted to see if he could escape to the adjacent carriage. Emotional stuff was far from his forte.

Sadly, there were quite a lot of monsters in there. Twenty or so. He could probably deal with that many, going by his display back in the previous station, but in the close confines of the carriage, it could be different. For one thing, setting the train on fire didn't seem advisable.

Looking around for something to distract himself while Jade and Lily started whispering about mushy stuff, he eventually settled on the Blizzard Line info above the door. He got up, moving closer to inspect it.

There were 32 stops on this line. Reaper's Gate was listed at the far left, with Marybone on the far right, which had been listed as the final stop back on the departure board in Reaper's Gate. They'd just left Elephant and Dungeon, and were presumably now on their way to South Killington—John rolled his eyes at that one—after which would be Blackhall.

The fifth stop was the most problematic.

"We're going to have to get off before Burning Bridge," he muttered. "Either at Blachkhall or South Killington."

Conversation halted behind him, and he turned.

"What?" Jade asked.

"Burning Bridge, three stops from now," he said. "We're going to have to get out of here before then."

Jade frowned, then stood to get a look at the route map he'd been perusing. "The Hornet Line crosses over there… You said monsters souls have colours. Yellow was the third worst, right?"

John nodded. "There's no way it's a coincidence."

"Right. Getting out of here seems easier said than done, if the next stations are anything like the last."

"But I'm betting it'll be a hell of a lot easier than whatever a station connected to a yellow line will have waiting for us," Lily said.

Chester made a pained wheezing sound. John pondered whether the guy had been given something similar to the Aura system, except flipped around. Getting rewarded for being lame sounded so much easier.

Rolling his shoulders, John turned to face the doors. More monsters were starting to enter his range, telling him they were close.

"Be ready," he said. His voice came out more harshly than he'd intended, like a barked command.

+400 Aura

John didn't even bother questioning it, at this point. If the system wanted to give him Aura for basically nothing, he wasn't going to complain.

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