A few choice curse words and an ill-advised punch of the wall later, Erika settled back down and made her choices. Sturdy Bones was necessary, especially from the way her knuckles were clicking a bit weirdly after she punched the unforgiving stone. Then she bought four stat points. Two in Strength, Two in Vitality. Confirming the purchase, she sat back and waited, expecting something, but nothing happened. She didn’t feel any stronger or any healthier, no tingling, no surge of power, nothing. Her body still ached all over, her knuckle was still clicking a bit. Maybe the stat points and power wouldn’t be too obvious. Or maybe all of this is just a hallucination brought on by getting sucked into a portal, her intrusive thoughts not-so-helpfully supplied.
Sighing, Erika started to stand, and immediately keeled over in pain. The torch she’d been holding clattered to the ground alongside her mace before she landed on her hands and knees.
Her entire body felt like it was on fire. She could hear her heart pounding and blood rushing through her ears as what could only be described as a full body cramp ripped through her. Even her tongue. Her bones tingled with electricity like she just plugged herself into a wall socket or swallowed a hundred batteries. Erika’s vision dimmed and went black.
…
Erika groaned and coughed, sending a small cloud of dust blowing across the hallway as she came to. Her mouth was dry and tasted like burnt dust as she sat up. Working up some spit, she hacked out a glob of something dark. It didn’t get rid of the taste in her mouth, but it helped.
Her brain felt foggy. How long was she out? Blinking, she pushed herself upright and looked around, her eyes locking onto her discarded mace as her thoughts caught up with her. She passed out in a portal! The zombies! Adrenaline surged as she snatched the weapon and bolted upright, only to yelp as she pushed harder than expected and launched herself backwards into the stone wall, knocking the air from her lungs. Gasping for breath, Erika whipped her head around, looking for monsters, only to relax as she realized she was still alone. As her breathing eased, she took a step forward, only to stumble as she went a bit farther than expected.
“What the—” she started to mutter, only to remember her meta power. The Super System! “Status!”
Name: Kira Nakamura (Alias: Erika Sato)
Age: 22
Race: Meta-Human
Power: Super System (Class F)
Available EXP: 100
Purchased Powers: Sturdy Bones (Class F)
Strength: 6
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 9
Conditions: Mild Stab Wounds (Bandaged; Healing); Mild Bruising (Healing); Mild Dehydration; Moderate Hunger
Skimming through her status, she noticed the power first, then the changes to her Strength and Vitality. It worked!
Excited, she focused on her body as she felt through the changes. Now that she was paying attention, she felt lighter, like she’d dropped half her weight in a moment, not that she weighed all that much to begin with. Even better, her muscles didn’t ache as much as she remembered. Whether she owed it to however long she was passed out or the increased stats and new power, she didn’t know, but something helped.
Still, it wasn’t all good news. The pain as her body changed was excruciating, easily the worst pain she’d ever experienced. She definitely shouldn’t try to change her stats or add a new power outside of a safe place unless she had absolutely no choice. Her imagination started supplying images of things that could have happened to her if a zombie had showed up while she was passed out. They weren’t pretty thoughts. She couldn’t help but curse herself for taking such a risk, even if she hadn’t known her power would fuck her up like that. It was still a stupid risk to take.
“Damnit, I’ll beat myself over my stupidity later. It’s time to get out of this portal,” she said, stooping down to pick up her dropped torch. Armed with a weapon and light source again, Erika approached the stairs and peered down them. They curved around to the left, faint blue light coming from around the bend. Shrugging, she headed down, weapon held at the ready.
It was good she did as just a few turns around the staircase, a zombie lunged up at her from below. Moving on instinct, Erika lashed out with her mace, intending to knock the zombie back, only to feel the cold splash of sludge on her hand and legs as her mace popped the zombie’s rotten head like a balloon.
*Ding!* You have defeated Zombie (Class F)! You have gained 100 EXP! Congratulations!
Retching, Erika shook her hand, shaking off the worst of what she was sure was rotten brain from her hands. Zombies were disgusting. Carefully poking the headless corpse with her torch, she waited for the thing to fall to ash before continuing on. But the zombies didn’t wait for her.
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“Grargh!” A group of zombies suddenly appeared from around the corner, shambling over the burning corpse to lunge at her. A wild swing smashed the first zombie in the arm and sent it reeling to the side where it bounced off the stone wall and fell back, tangling up the other zombies as they tried to climb the stairs to get her. Taking advantage of the tangled mess, Erika stepped forward and slammed her mace into one of the zombies, crushing its head in another splatter of foul smelling sludge.
It was a poor choice. Growling, one of the zombies grabbed the haft of her mace before she could pull it back, the undead’s inhuman strength dragging her off balance. Abandoning the weapon, Erika caught herself on the wall, wrenching her back as she hauled herself back. Without her trusty mace she scrambled back up a few steps and shifted the torch to her right hand. Though it wasn’t near as heavy as the rusty metal and wood weapon she lost, it still had heft to it, with the bonus that it seemed to burn the undead. As the zombies untangled themselves and chased her up the stairs, she let loose with the torch, knocking the zombies back as they came at her in ones and twos, the blue flames slowly burning the undead.
Minutes passed as she continued to fight and push back the monsters. Her arms ached from the effort, but she slowly whittled the zombies down. She lost count of how many she’d killed in the confusing fight, but there were only a few left, all of them singed or burning in places. Batting away another grasping limb, Erika swung a sloppy blow that glanced off a zombie’s face, smashing through its nose.
Wood splintered and iron cracked as the torch, swung with all of Erika’s newfound strength, crashed into the stone wall of the staircase. There was a bright blue flash as the torch broke, releasing a wave of blue flames that filled the passage.
***
Mary sucked in a heaving breath through her mouth, trying not to smell the foul smell of dead zombie that filled the air. Everything hurt, but she’d gotten lucky. Not like Brandon. She couldn’t help but suppress a shudder at what happened, her hand gripping her bloody hammer tight. It all seemed so simple an hour ago, but now all she wanted to do was get home, shower, and cry. How did it all go so wrong?
***
When the portal sucked them in, she was lucky enough to get dropped close to him. Even luckier, Brandon had been carrying the cafe’s toolbox to fix something when he got sucked in, so they were able to arm themselves with a couple of hammers.
The first zombie they found, they were able to put down easily enough by working together, and that had made Brandon confident. Too confident.
“Let’s clear the portal! We’ll be heroes!”
“Are you kidding?! We’ll die!”
“Oh come on! They’re just zombies! They’re so weak, the portal can’t be more than a Class E. Normies like us clear those all the time!”
“Trained soldiers with guns you mean!”
Brandon waved away her protest. “Come on, I’m a blue belt in jiu jitsu and you did tae kwon do, we can take a few zombies! Besides, we have weapons too,” he said, hefting his bloody hammer.
Mary shook her head. Brandon had a good point, but she remembered the first rule of self-defense was to avoid a fight if possible. Hunting monsters was the opposite of that. “You don’t know for sure what the portal’s class is. We should just find somewhere safe to hide until the police or superheroes come.”
Brandon scoffed. “And let them take all the power for themselves? Come on, everyone knows the government tells normies to avoid portals because they’re afraid we’ll awaken super powers. If we work together we can clear this before the heroes or the government comes in to take everything, then we’ll have powers too!”
Maybe it was his handsome face or his charm, but Mary ended up agreeing to his plan. “Fine, but don’t rush ahead, we need to be smart about this,” she’d said, secretly excited to go along with the idea. She could already imagine what kind of powers she’d unlock. Fire abilities like Fuego and Blaze, the C Classers, or maybe even a B or A Class power like Infernus or Hellwalker. The first few groups of zombies had been easy enough. A few hard blows to the head was enough to get them to stop moving, and they were slow enough that they could just jog away to get distance.
They didn’t realize the zombies were surrounding them the whole time.
“Damnit, where’d they all come from?!” Brandon had screamed as he kicked another zombie back. As the two of them had been fighting a group of zombies, another one came at them from behind, only the groaning of the undead giving them any warning. Mary hadn’t had time to respond, too busy fighting for her life. If only she had, maybe things would’ve been different. Maybe…
***
Blinking away the tears in her eyes, Mary forced herself to keep moving through the poorly lit hallways alone. Memories of her screams and the ripping tear of flesh were fresh in her head, but she couldn’t afford to focus on that. She was still alive. As long as she found somewhere safe to hide, a defensible spot, she could last until the superheroes showed up and found her.
Turning another corner, Mary saw a welcome sight. A staircase going up! Quickening her pace, she headed straight for the staircase, but some instinct told her to slow down at the last moment. It was a good thing she did, as blue flames blasted out from the spiral staircase, sending a gush of cool air through the hallway that whipped her hair about. If she’d gone any further, she would’ve been incinerated!
That power though, it was one she recognized. Freezer Burn, a B Classer, was known for his blue flames that burned cold. Those flames could only be the B Classer. She was saved!
Carefully approaching the spiral staircase, she shouted out above her. “I’m a civilian! Help!” Mary waited for a response, expecting to see the superhero come down and tell her everything was alright, or at least to hear him give her instructions, but she didn’t hear anything. Seconds turned into minutes and no one came down.
Maybe he didn’t hear me? Mary thought hopefully. Or maybe he died. Maybe this isn’t an E Class portal after all, a darker part of her mind suggested, drawing up dark thoughts. Maybe she should go check? It seemed like a sensible idea, but fear kept her rooted in place. At least until she heard the groan of a zombie coming from the darkened hallway behind her. If there was a chance the hero was still there, or maybe other rescue workers, it was better than waiting around to be zombie chow.
Mary rushed up the staircase and right into a battlefield. Soot and ash covered every surface, some spots still burning with cold flames. Several turns up, she found the remains of some kind of weapon that looked like her hammer’s angrier, rusty cousin, and a couple turns after that, she found her.
“Erika?!”
