Eira led the way, her movements crisp and controlled, eyes constantly scanning the ruined streets. Kael followed closely, bow at the ready, alert to any movement or shift in the shadows. Darrius brought up the rear of the front trio, axe slung over his shoulder, muscles tensed and primed for action.
Garret walked behind them, silent, the Chixiao hanging loosely by his side, catching the pale morning light with every step. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, every sense stretched. Leah, Aria, Dave, and Marcus fell into position around him, staying close but careful not to crowd or speak. Their concern was written clearly on their faces; they knew something was troubling him but none dared to approach him.
The march to the girls' dorm was unnervingly quiet. Broken concrete crunched softly beneath boots. The distant groans of the zombies and the occasional scrape of debris against walls were the only sounds outside of their careful breathing.
Even with Eira, Kael, and Darrius leading, every shadow felt like it moved with intent, as if aware of Garret's presence. He didn't glance at the others. He didn't answer when they exchanged worried glances. Words would have been a distraction he couldn't afford.
With every step, the tension grew. The closer they got, the more the morning light revealed the scars of the campus—shattered walls, broken glass, and silent corpses scattered like warnings. Garret's mind wasn't on the terrain or the hazards. It was on one thing, his sister.
Behind him, the others stayed silent, following his lead without him needing to acknowledge them. Leah's hands flexed, Aria's eyes scanned every shadow, Dave's grip tightened on his sword, Marcus adjusted his hammer's weight — but all of them knew better than to speak. Garret, for some reason was mad. They could only give their silent woes to whoever or whatever had angered him.
They reached the girls' dorm. The building loomed ahead, shattered windows like empty eyes, the morning light catching jagged edges of broken glass and twisted metal.
Eira had already gone over the plan with the group. Each of them knew their role. Everyone was briefed. Everyone was prepared.
Garret exhaled slowly, forcing himself to remain clear-headed. He hadn't slept. His mind clawed at him with fatigue. But none of that mattered. He had the most important job in the group — he was the one to face the creature directly.
Without a word, he stepped forward, Chixiao in hand, the blade catching light with a deadly gleam. Every step was measured and silent. His shadow stretched across the cracked concrete like a dark omen, coiling with his movement.
Leah's lips pressed together, her hands flexing at her sides. Aria's twin daggers gleamed at her hips, though she didn't move. Dave's sword was ready, Marcus' hammer adjusted, each waiting.
No one spoke. Words would have been useless.
Garret moved through the dorm like a shadow made flesh. Each step was silent, careful, deliberate. Zombies roamed the ground and first floors, mindless and slow, but he didn't take chances. One by one, he dispatched them with precise strikes of the Chixiao, the blade sliding through bone and sinew with a whisper rather than a scream. Not a single sound escaped to alert anything.
The first floor cleared, he ascended to the second. His senses sharpened. Every creak of floorboards, every groan of metal and wood, was amplified in his mind. Then he froze.
At the end of the hallway, across from where his sister's room should have been, the door lay shattered, hanging on broken hinges. His chest tightened. His stomach turned.
A dark pulse ran through him, the Shroud reacting to his anger. Shadows deepened around him, coiling like living things.
And then it hit him. The images. A rush of nightmarish visions: her body, mutilated, broken, drenched in blood, silent and still. The scenes slammed into him, crushing every rational thought. His mind flickered between disbelief and rage.
{You have leaned a Unique Skill….}
Garret's hands tightened around the hilt of the Chixiao. The shadows surged, wrapping around his arms, creeping up his body. His eyes glinted black as the darkness obeyed his unspoken command.
He snapped.
A roar erupted from him — inhuman, primal, a sound that carried fury, grief, and the promise of vengeance. It echoed through the dorm like a thunderclap
With a fluid, terrifying motion, Garret charged toward the stairs leading to the third floor. Every step was propelled by rage, by desperation, by the dark energy coiling within him.
"If it's on the third floor… I'll tear it apart. I'll make it pay for her. Every second. Every breath."
The third floor was silent, suffocating. Garret's boots made no sound as he approached the end of the hallway. And then he saw it.
The creature wasn't like the others he'd fought. Not a mindless zombie. Not a simple monster. It was humanoid, twisted and alien, a grotesque fusion of blue-grey flesh and insectile form. Its four limbs curved like a scimitar sword, clicking softly as they flexed. Its head tilted unnaturally, compound eyes glinting with intelligence.
Garret's grip on the Chixiao tightened. There was no hesitation. No second thought. The creature's gaze locked on him. Its stance was low, coiled, every muscle ready to spring.
Then, almost simultaneously, they moved.
The creature lunged, its scimitar-shaped limbs slicing through the air with terrifying speed. Garret met the charge head-on. He sidestepped, feeling the wind of the blade-limbs whistle past, and countered with a lightning-fast arc of the Chixiao. The strike connected, the blade biting into its shoulder.
It screeched — and spun, swinging two limbs in a deadly cross. Garret twisted. Another swipe. Another dodge. The hallway became a blur of motion, shadows, and steel.
The creature was fast. It was precise. It was strong — stronger than anything Garret had faced before. Each swing of its knife-like limbs sent shockwaves of force through the hallway, splintering tiles and scraping concrete. Every strike could have ended him if he faltered for even a fraction of a second.
But Garret didn't falter.
His mind may have snapped the moment the Shroud revealed the visions of his sister, fury searing every thought, but his body moved with terrifying mastery. Every dodge, every parry, every strike of the Chixiao was executed with the precision of a seasoned warrior, honed through years of survival and combat. It was as if his muscles remembered more than his mind could comprehend.
The creature lunged again, its knife-like limbs cutting through the air with terrifying speed. Garret's mind screamed with rage, images of his sister burning in every corner of his vision.
He may have lost his mind to grief and anger, but he hadn't forgotten the others. He wasn't alone this time. He moved to execute the plan.
With Eira's words echoing in his ears.
"You are our best fighter, you will engage the creature in close combat and then lure it to this window in one of the rooms in the third floor. Kael will be positioned somewhere strategic and will shoot the bastard with this." Eira said as she showed him the arrow she had condensed using 100 points of mana.
He suddenly withdrew from the creature and moved down the hallway towards the room they had marked. The goal was simple in theory but brutal in execution: Lure the creature to a room near a window and give Kael a clean shot. The creature enraged by the little human suddenly vanished and in next to no time, reappeared next to Garret.
"Damn it, this bastard can use skills too"
For a moment, Garret lost his bearing. When he came back to his senses, he found himself falling, from a height. The pain from his lower abdomen jolted him back to reality.
"That bastard slammed into me, and now somehow we're falling from the window." he cursed. "How is Kael going to shoot it without impaling me?" Garret silently wondered.