The young boy's surprised face just showed pure confusion at my question as we both just stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. However, a woman's scream from nearby broke the silence. The boy's frozen features finally changed after hearing the piercing scream, and with tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, he pleaded, "Please, please help my sister!" The boy began to talk in such a rush that the next few sentences came out in a muddled, crying blur. But I got the gist of what he was saying.
Apparently, this brother and sister pair had watched my descent off the roof and had dragged my unconscious body into the parking lot. I hesitated for a moment, my mind screaming at me to be hesitant about sudden friendly help in this ghoulish world I found myself in. However, looking into the young boy's pleading eyes, I couldn't help but see my own brother crying for help. 'Don't be such an ass. What would Dad think if he saw me now?' Mentally slapping myself for hesitating to help someone in need, especially someone who had apparently lent a helping hand to me already. "Calm down, calm down. I'll help." Trying my best to calm the boy, who was still babbling pleas for help while snot ran down his face, I then leapt down from the truck.
I intended to only lightly jump down from the back of the truck, but the moment I exerted force, my jump turned into a leap, sending me flying over the boys' head and slamming into the floor, rolling ass over head in an embarrassing state on the ground. Letting out a pained groan, I attempted to push myself off the ground, but once again the moment I exerted force on the palms of my hand I almost leapfrogged into the air instead. In the end, what I did was a weird push-up jump that, going by the boy's face still standing behind the truck's open door, looked absolutely ridiculous.
This time with only a little force, I slowly lifted myself into a kneeling position and then stood up. 'Is this from the Ascension? What the hell's going on with me?' Looking down at my bare arms, I could see that there appeared to be a layer of mud coating my bare skin in sprinkles. As if I had been sweating dirt. This didn't stop me from inspecting my body, however, and from what I could see besides looking like I slimmed down in the stomach somewhat, I looked the same as I remembered. No sudden bulging muscles or anything. 'Then where did this sudden power surge come from if not an increase in muscle? No, that's not right. My muscles hadn't increased in size, but they feel... denser?' Clenching my fists and flexing my body, I felt a different strain than I had done doing the same before.
It was as if my muscles tightened in on themselves, like they were focusing to exert a burst of strength far stronger than I could have hoped to exert before. "Please hurry! I can't hear sister's voice anymore!" The boy's frantic cry broke me out of my introspection. As I turned to follow his voice, I could see that he had started running past the truck and further into the underground lot. "Well, I guess fighting a couple of zombies will be a quick way to find out the extent of what a Life Tier 1 Human is capable of." After muttering to myself, I swiftly followed the boy.
As I ran, I did my best to control the amount of strength my legs exerted. Which wasn't an easy thing to do. The first couple of steps had me bounding forward in an awkward leaping skip, before I finally got it under control. In a split second, I reached the young boy and passed him. Because the lot was small, it wasn't necessary to follow the boy to where his sister was trapped. I just had to follow the sounds of the zombie's hungry growls. Running around a couple of cars, I soon found my intended target only a hundred meters away. What appeared to be five zombies were surrounding the back of an SUV, their heads and shoulders partially through the broken glass of the boot and in a frenzy, trying to grab something inside.
One of the zombies looked to have at least half its body through the back window, causing me to question out loud, "Shit, am I too late?" Even though my words were not spoken in a loud volume, in the low-roofed parking lot, my voice still bounced off the concrete walls and travelled throughout. The boy running up behind me must have heard my words clearly, and seeing the state of the back of the SUV, he clearly couldn't help but scream out, "Marla!!" while dropping to his knees as if he had lost his soul.
If my normal voice was loud in the enclosed area, the boy's despair-tinted cry was like a roar to my ears. And apparently, the zombies thought so as well, as two of them, who were on the sides of the SUV and weren't making as much progress as the ones in the back, turned towards our direction. In the horrible fluorescent lighting, the milky orbs of the zombies looked to be shining as they saw me and the boy. With saliva flecking their roars, the two zombies began trudging towards us.
Seeing them approach, and after giving the boy who was now kneeling at my side a reproachful look, I reached down to my sheath tied to my belt. However, after grasping nothing but empty air, I looked down in a rush and, to my horror, I saw that my lovely black trench knife was nowhere to be seen. Snapping my head down to the boy, I yelled, "Where the hell's my knife, you little shit!?" In reply to my sudden bellow, the boy jumped, and a wild-eyed look of innocence stole across his face.
Shaking his head from side to side repeatedly, he said, "I don't have it. I swear! When we found you, you didn't have anything besides a backpack with water and biscuits inside." Seeing the boy's panicked but sincere face, I decided for at least the moment to believe him. It wasn't exactly like I was naively trusting a stranger, but the fact remained I had two zombies heading in my direction and I was utterly weaponless. To my relief, however, I noticed that at least my crafted wrist guard was still wrapped around my forearm but besides what looked to be a piece of zombie skin stuck to my right side, I was only a man with a pair of pants and two fists.
"Shit on me." Cursing my crap situation, I put the disappearance of my supplies aside and decided to take the initiative against the zombies. Staring intently at the right-side zombie, who was leading the charge, I intuitively activated my personally earned talent, Analyze.
[Human Zombie – Level 1 – Hostile]
With relief and after checking the slower zombie on the left, I was happy to see that both zombies were just cannon fodder level 1's. Not being a hand-to-hand kung fu master, I decided that finesse would not help me right now. Not including the fact that if the boy's sister was still alive, she was surely running on borrowed time, I also didn't have the skills to take the zombies down elegantly. Instead, I opted for a brute-force method. Turning my soft jog into a sudden sprint when I was only a few meters from the leading zombie, I tucked my shoulder in and slammed into the zombie's chest as hard as I could.
Tightening my leg muscles at the last moment and slamming my feet to increase my force appeared to work splendidly. As the moment my shoulder hit the zombie's chest, the sound of breaking bones rang out in my lowered ears, sounding like the sweetest of music. What happened straight after though, truly shocked me. The body of the zombie became airborne after I tackled it and flew back a few meters, tumbling onto the ground in a scraping of flesh. "Well, shit on you, buddy." I said while continuing my charge, but this time aiming for the zombie on the left.
I don't know if it was because the zombie had seen what happened to its partner when its chest came up against my shoulder or if it was blind luck but the moment I was about to slam into its own rotted, half-exposed chest it stumbled to the left. Realising I couldn't stop my momentum all of a sudden and that I was going to miss the zombie entirely, I instead reached out with my left arm, grabbing it around its middle. Slamming my leading foot onto the ground and pivoting towards my right, while gripping onto the zombie's waist as tight as I could, with even my fingers disgustingly puncturing through the soft flesh, I spun to my right, the zombie's own body following backwards before sending it flying to my right.
With the sprint-enforced half spin, the zombie's almost weightless body went flying straight into the zombie I had already knocked over, sending them both onto the ground in a roaring heap of flailing limbs. "That's a strike!" With a roar of my own, I sprinted over before both zombies could get off and kicked one as hard as I could in the face. Even though my shoes were in tatters and I expected it to hurt a lot more when my foot made contact with the hard bone of the zombie's skull, I was absolutely delighted to find out that besides a dull pain, my foot came out completely unscathed. The zombie's skull, however, was an entirely different matter. Alongside the sound of a large crack echoing out into the lot, the zombie's head snapped backward with such force that another snapping sound of a bone breaking rang out from its neck. Its whole body went limp followed by the itch of a notification ringing in my mind, joining the several that had appeared the moment I awoke.
The second zombie, who was the first to be bowled over, still had not gotten to its feet and was half pinned by the limp corpse of the one I had just dropped-kicked. Even though my heart was pumping and I still hadn't fully adjusted to my current body after waking, the familiar thrill had begun to bubble up the moment I engaged the first zombie. Feeling my lips rise, I knew that my current face was sporting a wide grin as I viciously pinned the half-trapped zombie's flailing limbs with my knees before grabbing both sides of its snarling face.
Looking into its pupil-less eyes, my grin only grew bigger as I roared into its face, "Stay dead this time!" and gripping its head I raised it up from the hard cement before driving it down with enough force that the patchy hair I was grabbing onto ripped off in my hands. My objective was completed however, as the loud cracking noise once again rang out, along with half of the back of the zombie's skull caving in but just to make sure I lifted its head and slammed it down once, twice and then a third time. Finally, accompanied by a wet squelching noise, the back of its skull was destroyed, causing its rotted brain to splatter onto the pavement.
Right at the moment I was feeling the true adrenaline surge of defeating two zombies barehanded, a sharp pain suddenly came from the side of my neck, causing me to scream out in pain. Obviously, in the time I had been straddling and introducing the now-dead zombie's skull to the cement floor, one of the zombies from the SUV had been attracted over. It had got the drop on me and, obviously leading with its mouth; it took a large chunk of flesh from my neck, causing a fountain of blood to flow down my bare chest.
The zombie that had just swallowed a piece of me had apparently found my taste much to its liking and was just about to go for another serving when my hand rudely interrupted it. Grabbing the back of its head over my shoulder was slightly awkward, but with a clench of my muscles and a most indignant roar of pain and anger, I managed to drag the zombie over my shoulder and slam it into the concrete.
Leaping off the already dead zombie, I pinned the new one down and rained anger-fueled blows onto its mushy face. I don't know whether it was because the generic low-level zombies had all-around low defense or the overall rotten state of their bodies made it feel as if I was punching into something not much stronger than a pumpkin. Their skin, muscles and even bones broke under the onslaught of my fists, with only a little ache coming from my knuckles in the process.
"Screw off!" A piercing woman's scream broke my unrelenting blows upon the now thoroughly dead zombie. Looking to my left, I could see that the remaining three zombies were all half inside the SUV, with just their legs sticking out of the shattered windows. One of the zombies that was vigorously moving had suddenly fallen still after the woman's voice cried out. "Shit." Seeing the situation was dire and the fact that I had unintentionally wasted precious seconds battering already dead enemies, I cursed at myself and leapt up.
Springing over to the back of the SUV, I first grabbed the zombie who had entered through the back window and by the time I arrived, only had its feet outside the car. Taking both of its bony feet in hand, I yanked back with all my might. The jagged glass around the rim of the window cut deep furrows into the zombie's flesh as I pulled it out of the car, causing a visceral waterfall of rotten blood to pour onto my shoes. Not bothering with the foul, sticky blood seeping through my already tattered footwear, I jumped back and with another tug at the zombie, dragged its entire body out of the SUV. With a meaty thwack, the zombie slammed face-first onto the ground with a gurgling roar, leaving some crooked teeth and flecks of blood on the pavement. I leapt over to the zombie and, not giving it the time to try to stand; I slammed my heel down onto the back of its face. The crunching noise and sudden stiffness told me everything I needed to know about the current condition of the zombie. "Help, I can't pull him out!" A young boy's cry to my right made my head flick over to the side of the SUV. There, the boy who had requested my help earlier was currently trying to follow my previous action and was vigorously tugging at the zombie who had broken through the window.
His little face was pale with fear and but his eyes held a determined visage one wouldn't see in someone so young. With sweat gathering on his forehead and running down his still baby fat-filled cheeks, the boy was trying with all his might to pull the last zombie out of the car. Despite his best efforts, he had only managed to stall its pursuit, and with each vigorous shake from the zombie, the boy was seconds away from losing his grip on the brittle skin of its ankles. Rushing over, I roughly pushed the boy over and gripped the zombie's ankles while shouting, "Step back." The boy didn't have to actually move as what I originally thought was a gentle shoulder push actually sent the boy over a meter away and onto his ass with a cry of pain.
I internally winced at the sight, but ultimately put the rough handling of the child to the back of my mind for the moment. Gripping the zombie's ankles as hard as I could, I wrenched back with all my might, while leaping backwards. Still not in complete control of my new strength, my added leap caused the skinny zombie's body to come flying out of the broken window with ease. Losing the stability of the zombie's body, I stumbled back in surprise, giving the zombie, who had fallen to the concrete floor, a chance to rise to its knees and turn towards me.
Even though I lost my balance for a moment, something within my core righted my flailing limbs so naturally it was as if I was a born gymnast and not the overweight, clumsy boy I actually was. At that moment, it felt as if I had finer control of my body, more than I ever had. It was a mystical feeling, as the average person never truly thinks about the control of their limbs, and what deliberate control actually means. But at that moment, my previous clumsiness and heavy-handedness finally felt as if they had righted themselves, allowing me more precise control. As if my brain had finally caught up with the actions of the rest of my body.
Seeing the zombie in its rising state, I put pressure on my back foot and felt every muscle in my leg contract in minute detail, filled with concentrated explosive power. Pushing off the ground, it felt as if I arrived in front of the zombie in a flash and with my right leg raised; I slammed my knee into the zombie's roaring face. The zombie's head snapped back under the force of my flying knee but suddenly came to a halt when the back of it met the SUV behind it. My knee, however, didn't stop, and between the car and my thick leg bone, I crushed the zombie's head, with its brittle bones and mushy brains leaking out to either side in a grotesque spray.
"Holy shit." The boy behind me muttered in a breathy voice, obviously unaccustomed to the sight of what was once a human head being smashed into a pulp. With a savage grin, I retracted my knee from the shattered skull of the zombie, leaving the zombie that was being held up to slam woodenly to the floor at my feet. Retrieving my gaze from the crushed zombie, I scoured the surroundings vigilantly, seeing no more zombies in the area or approaching from the ramp to the top floor in the distance. I finally released the pent up breath I had been holding and sat down next to the dead zombie with a sigh. Even though I was suddenly filled with a new vigour and felt as if I could run miles without losing breath. The adrenaline spike and then drop after a fight still caused me to feel slightly exhausted.
The boy, who had been staring at me from his position on his ass from when I knocked him over, finally snapped out of whatever stun state he was in and, with wild eyes, he leapt up and ran over the driver's side door. Opening the door wide, the boy yelled out in a choked sob as tears began to run down his face, "Marla! Marla!" Seeing the boy's state and frantic look, I got up from my spot leaning against the car and steeled my heart for what must be the sight of his supposed family members' dead body. However, to my bafflement, what I saw instead was a completely empty car. Besides one zombie's limp corpse that had what appeared to be a tire iron shoved into its forehead, there was nothing else.
Looking at the boy with a frown, I asked, "What's going on? Where the hell is your sister?" The boy didn't say anything in return and just looked back at me with large eyes clouded in tears. His previously determined look was now covered in the very familiar look of despair. Before I could say anything in comfort to the boy, his dead fish eyes that were looking at me caught onto something behind my shoulder and the tears that were gathering finally cascaded down his face in a waterfall as he cried out, "Marla!!"
Tracking the boy's eyes, I spun around in a flurry and raised my fists. My first thought was that the boy's sister must have turned into a zombie as the woman who had appeared behind me looked in such an absolutely wretched state, with several wounds on her arms and legs oozing blood and a pale face that contrasted vividly with her freckly face. However, I shortly lowered my fists, as the unmistakable look of relief and intelligence in her brown eyes told me she was clearly not a zombie. The boy wailing behind me soon brushed past my side in a flurry as he leapt into the young woman's embrace. Even the sight was quite touching, the loud wailing of the boy caused me to wince in pain as I half covered my suddenly sensitive ears.
I hadn't noticed it before, mainly because of the odd hyper-focused state I keep falling into when fighting against these monsters, but not only my hearing appeared to have been enhance,d but my eyesight had as well. Never needing glasses before, I wouldn't say I had bad eyesight, but gazing around the dimly lit parking lot, I saw that I could easily read a licence plate of a car close to a hundred meters away, which shocked and excited me greatly. "I'll be damned. Is this what it means by an enhanced life form?" Thinking over to what the system notification had previously said about increasing my life tier and what it must have entailed, I couldn't help but marvel at myself.
Clenching my bruised and blood-covered fists, I could feel the muscles underneath a thin layer of fat still left on my body also tighten. Focusing on the feeling, it felt as if my very tendons were vibrating with explosive power. While looking at my hands, I also witnessed the little bruising and cuts on my knuckles heal and close over. 'Did my regeneration talent also increase, but I thought it said it was non-upgradable?' While I pondered the new state of my body and was preparing to check out my current status, the sound of wailing along with the soothing words of comfort coming from in front of me halted. Looking up from my hands, I saw the young woman, now holding the boy's hand in a tight grip, approach in cautious steps.
From the cautious gait of the woman, I could understand that, as I must have looked like a semi-deranged barbarian. With my clothes in tatters and body liberally covered in grime and gore, I would be surprised if the woman wasn't wary of me. However, looking at her face, I saw more surprise and what I thought looked like intrigue or interest, as her eyes roved up and down my semi-naked body. Getting what I perceived as a heated look from a young, attractive woman made me immensely shy. Not just because of my current state, but the eyes of women, even my own age, had never truly wandered over to me. Especially in the last couple of years, with my poor upkeep and generally disheveled, exhausted state, I was never winning over hearts. On an average day, I would be happy if I didn't receive a sniff in disgust from a woman, let alone an extra look.
I couldn't help but ask myself with a faint light of hope, 'Did ascending make me attractive?'