Outside the school, the scene was pure pandemonium. Screams tore through the air as people, mostly students and a few terrified teachers, scrambled for their lives. Green, skittering creatures, the gobdogs, darted through the chaos, their snapping jaws seeking flesh.
One girl, Ava, was trying her best to push back the tide.
When the world had started shaking, something had awakened inside her – a sudden, shocking ability to command the wind. Gusts of air slammed into the gobdogs, sending them tumbling away from fleeing students.
She was holding her own, creating small pockets of safety, ushering people towards the mangled school gates.
But there were just too many of them. For every gobdog she blasted back, two more seemed to take its place. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, and the exhilarating rush of power was fading, replaced by a growing ache in her head.
'I can't keep this up much longer,' she thought, desperation slowly setting in.
Then, a larger one appeared. It was easily twice the size of the others, its hide a darker, mottled green, and its eyes burned with a vicious intelligence.
An alpha. It bounded towards her, ignoring the smaller creatures, its focus entirely on the girl who dared to fight back.
Ava gritted her teeth, her breath coming in ragged gasps. 'Okay, big guy, let's see what you've got.' Her mana, or whatever this new energy was, felt dangerously low, like a draining battery.
She threw a blast of wind, a concentrated punch of air. The alpha gobdog barely flinched, just lowered its head and charged.
Panic flared. Her attacks, which had stumbled the smaller ones, did nothing to this brute. She tried to dodge, to weave, but it was surprisingly agile for its size. Its claws raked the air where she'd been, inches from her face.
It cornered her at the gymnasium. She could smell its fetid breath, a mix of rot and blood. She lashed out again, a swirling vortex of air, but it was weak, more bluster than force.
The alpha swatted her attack aside like it was nothing, then slammed its blocky head into her side.
Pain exploded through her, and the world tilted. She slammed hard against the brick wall, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs. Stars danced in her vision.
The alpha loomed over her, drool dripping from its maw, its fetid breath washing over her face.
'This is it,' she thought, a wave of despair washing over her. 'I tried.'
She closed her eyes, bracing for the inevitable.
But then, a sound like a thunderclap split the air. A long, dark object, impossibly fast, streaked down from above. There was a sickening thud.
Ava's eyes snapped open.
The alpha gobdog was pinned to the ground, right in front of her, a heavy metal pole driven straight through its skull with tremendous force. The end of the pole was deeply embedded in the earth, sticking up at an angle, the creature impaled on it like some grotesque trophy. Dark, thick blood was already pooling around its head.
She stared, stunned, then slowly looked up.
Standing on the edge of the school roof, silhouetted against the unsettling orange sky, was a figure. A boy. He was just standing there, looking down. Even from this distance, she recognized the faded, ill-fitting uniform.
Then the recognition hit her with the force of a physical blow. 'Oh crap, it's him,' she thought, her heart plummeting. 'The killer.'
Whispers had already spread like wildfire through the school's group chats, frantic messages accompanied by a blurry, shaky video. A girl, fleeing past the history classroom, had caught him on camera, standing amidst the carnage, a gun in his hand.
Nox.
Her fear of the gobdog was instantly replaced by a new, sharper terror. He had saved her, yes, but he was the one who… He was the one who had shot all those people.
Nox watched the girl scramble to her feet. She looked absolutely terrified, her eyes wide and fixed on him.
'Sheesh. 'You'd think I just saved her from certain death or something. Oh, wait.' He almost snorted. The irony wasn't lost on him.
He jumped down from the roof, landing lightly on his feet beside the dead alpha. The fall barely jarred him anymore. He was Level 5 now, his stats noticeably higher. Saving this girl, Ava, brought his save count to six. Four more to go for his reward.
Ava was babbling, words tumbling out of her. "Th-thank you… I… I thought I was… You're… him, aren't you?" Her voice was trembling. "The news… the video… Are you… are you going to hurt me?"
She then did something that surprised him. She bowed, a quick, jerky motion. "Thank you for saving me!" Then, without waiting for a reply, she turned and fled, stumbling a little in her haste, disappearing around the corner of the building.
He just watched her go. 'Well, that was awkward.' He didn't particularly care what she thought of him. It wasn't like his reputation could get any worse.
He turned his attention to the dead alpha gobdog.
[Alpha Gobdog Defeated! EXP Gained: +40] the blue letters helpfully informed him. Good. Every bit helped.
He had learned a few things in the last couple of hours, between clearing out the stragglers in the school and cautiously exploring the immediate grounds. One of the most important was that these creatures, these 'gobdogs' as the system called them, had glowing, crystal stones inside them after they died.
'Cores,' the system had termed them, and it had emphasized they were 'important.' He had already collected a small handful. This alpha would probably have a bigger one.
He knelt and, with a grimace, began the unpleasant task of extracting it.
A few minutes later, a slightly larger, pulsing blue core in his pocket, he stood up, wiping his hands on his already filthy trousers. The screams in the distance had died down somewhat, replaced by an eerie quiet, punctuated by occasional, distant roars.
"Alright," he muttered to himself, looking around at the desolate school grounds. "Six down, four to go for that first reward. Plus, more EXP is always good." He glanced at the sky. "Let's move on. I wonder which direction I should head in."