Edwin left White Hall and found the nearby roads empty. The stream of cars from earlier had run its course. No errant shouts or cries for help diverted his path and so he made his way west. Down the road he had run the night previously. Where he had tried to save a man’s life and failed. His destination was that same crash site. The wreck must have been a military vessel to have been involved in the fighting, so Edwin was banking on there being some hand held weapons mixed in the debris.

Walking through the intersection of Ivinson and 15th, he swept his gaze around, finding the nearby trees and rooftops clear. Thinking of the owls Edwin wondered if they had switched their hunting cycles. Owls are nocturnal predators afterall. Yet they had attacked in the middle of the day. They each had an obvious mutation but maybe there were further mutations like one that eliminated the need to sleep or something. There was not enough information so all he could do was speculate and try to be cautious.

The thought of just returning to the dorm crossed his mind. The safety of a roof over his head and other people around him to shield him from the owls’ gaze. But Edwin did not want to hide away in the building. He was being selfish, emboldened by his discussion with Zoey and too eager to wait for her to finish writing it all down. He needed something to do and so he came here.

False confidence buoyed Edwin onward. He had brought down seven owls in a hard won skirmish earlier. Leveling up had healed him. If he got into a fight again he only needed to win without dying and his injuries would be fixed. So he crept on.

He continued down the road for several more minutes. Every movement Edwin tried to keep quiet. At the same time, he craned his neck searching for owls. Ahead of him he could see the intersection roped off with yellow police tape. A moving truck was parked inside and there were several uniformed officers moving around the wreckage, occasionally moving over to the truck for a moment.

Edwin ducked behind one of the many vacant cars parked along the road and watched them for a time. They had one man on guard duty, staring off towards Prexy’s. While the others were throwing stuff into the back of the truck. He did not want to approach the officers, they would probably just tell him to buzz off, so he stayed hunkered down. As time passed, they continued to work. Edwin grew bored. His eyes drifted to inspect the wreckage.

On the grass off to the side of the parking lot a row of bodies covered with white sheets stilled Edwin’s wandering eyes. Two rows, adding up to 30 bodies made him pause. Considering the size of the aircraft there were likely more bodies yet unearthed or simply too damaged to recover. Not to mention those could be people killed by the owls. It was a grim reminder that he was being a bit too cavalier about this. He could have easily been one of those people lined up there. If a stray piece of debris from the aerial battle had struck him, or an owl had come down to paralyze him quicker. If, if, if. So many ways he could be killed. Edwin preferred not to think about it further.

Large splinters and beams of wood littered the area, the more intact sections were burnt and charred. A thin metal framework still stood where the hull had burned through around it. It looked like an old skeleton. The aircraft was well and truly gutted. Near the was truck a pile of miscellaneous items. Scavenged by the officers but not deemed worth taking.

Melee weapons and tools filled most of the pile. Knives, hatchets, hammers, saws, and other metal tools more specialized in the maintenance of a flying wooden ship. What stood out were three huge harpoons. Twice as tall as himself, the wooden shaft was as thick as his head. The wicked barbed tip glinted beneath the sun.

One of the officers said something and the rest of them dropped what they had and moved to get into the truck. A minute later they drove down the street Edwin was hiding on. He shifted around his cover to keep out of sight. When he could not see the truck anymore Edwin got up and made his way over to the piled weapons. His hunch had been correct. A good place to come check for a weapon.

Rooting through the pile, Edwin reached down and picked up one of the long handled hatchets. The wood was smooth from use and the blade’s head was coated with soot. But it was not chipped and the handle was only one of a few not burnt. So he decided to keep this one.

With the hatchet in hand, Edwin decided to try his own hand at looting through the wreckage. Maybe something would stick out to him that the police had ignored. Moving away from the pile of tools he passed through part of the metal framework. Loose wooden beams were kicked around and larger chunks shifted. Piles of ashes shifted underneath him as he worked. He paused to examine what looked like a horse hoof print in one pile of ash. He could not tell if it was real or just a coincidence where the ash had shifted to look that way.

Lost in thought Edwin did not notice the looming hunters. They snuck towards him with minimal sound, and then they struck. He was thrown to the ground by a chorus of laughter and heard the weight of another body. Oh wait, he had hit his head, those two things were backward. Focusing, he heard the ringing laughter around him and felt the weight of a large body pressing down on him.

“Hey there Ed!” The laughter stopped and a voice that Edwin unfortunately recognized spoke. Ava and her posse of male RAs were standing around looking at him. Each one carried a hatchet, same as his. Kurt was in the process of untangling himself from Edwin’s back. Edwin shoved him to the side as he rolled away and Kurt shot him a glare. One which Edwin ignored as he regained his footing, he held a hand against his forehead where he had smacked the ground.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Ava giggled.

“Sure,” Edwin deadpanned. Then he brushed at the dirt on his shoulders. The guys were leering at him and Ava seemed a little off at the moment. He started to back away ever so slowly. To try and put a larger piece of hull between them. “Anything I can help you with?” He asked.

“We saw what you did last night,” Ava said drolly. Which just annoyed Edwin further. Probably her intent.

“Oh,” Edwin replied, his calm façade holding solid. “What might that have been? I was pretty busy sleeping.” His eyebrow was now cocked, an invitation for her to play her cards first.

“With the concrete Edwin, You busted your hand up pretty good too. Looks fine to me now though, how odd,” her tone was much less playful now. The sharp edge he was familiar with set the other’s backs straight.

“Oh that, yeah. What of it?” Instead of backing away, Edwin started to walk in an arc, trying to circle more towards the dorms. The third guy in the group, the one whose name could not recall, was twitching in place.

“Quit playing around. I want you to tell me what that was, and how you accomplished it? Is it related to that flash of light from last night?”

So Ava’s pretty much still in the dark about everything going on. I imagine those invasion panels today really freaked her out. Not to mention if she did see me scoop that concrete ball up or the fact that my hand is good as new, thinking it over, Edwin could see why she picked to confront him. One of them must have even been watching his room in case he left that night.

“Haven’t you noticed Ava? Stuff’s changing,” Edwin fed her a worthless line. His head was still ringing slightly and if this came to a fight he wanted to be able to focus. Already his steps were more solid, he felt more stable, the throbbing was fading.

Adrenaline flooded his veins and Edwin felt his breathing grow coarse. His pupils dilated to search for a way to flee or a weakness should this turn violent. They looked at ease, a casual confidence in controlling how this situation played out. Assessing the situation, it did not look good for him. They had him outnumbered and the others were in better shape athletically. Trying to run would end with them catching him. Unless he incapacitated them somehow.

“Stuff, as you say, is changing Edwin,” Ava said. “All I am asking is for you to help me. Explain what you know. Would you be so selfish as to hoard what may be lifesaving information?”

That was not what he wanted to hear. Of course, he did not want to be selfish, he definitely had no designs on letting ignorance kill people. Hell, he was pretty ignorant of what was going on himself. But to just tell Ava in a situation like this. Where they were threatening him so nonchalantly. It did not sit well with him. She was a snake and he did not trust her. For her to use such a direct method like this, it was worrying.

“Look,” Edwin held his hands up placatingly. The guys had taken several steps towards him. They were not going to let him distance himself any further. At his gesture they paused. “I do know a bit about what’s going on. But it sounds crazy. So I don’t think you would believe me,” he said.

“Try me,” Ava hissed. Her face twisted into an angry sneer.

“Well, from what’s happened, it’s like something out of a story I’ve read before. It's stuff like a video game system gets put into place on Earth. Our lives become videogame-like. You following?”

“I’m skeptical. But continue,” she said. Since it was not an outright denial he decided to continue.

“Well, that’s what seems to have happened,” Edwin continued. “That flash of light was me leveling up. I accidentally got experience points for trying to save that guy last night. I broke a couple of his ribs doing CPR. Apparently that counts as a killing blow or something. The concrete was a skill I got. And I’m guessing you’ve seen the invasion information. That’s all I know.”

A bark of laughter came from the twitchy guy. “That sounds like bullshit. Are you trying to fuck with us?”

“Relax Thomas,” Ava said placidly. Apparently, Edwin’s answer had gone a long way to calm her down. “The girl, Zoey, someone told me they saw her,” Ava paused here and raised her hands up to make quotation marks with her fingers as she said the next word, “level up as well. They saw you two kill a bunch of owls and then you both leveled up from it.

Annoyed to have been so thoroughly spied on, Edwin felt his mood shifting. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon. He had told Ava most of what he knew, and she seemed to know quite a bit herself. “Yeah, I guess you know a lot yourself already,” Edwin said snidefully.

Ava did not take the bait. Instead she looked at him placidly. Her bearing was serene instead of hair trigger. Edwin wondered if she had been faking an unstable attitude to pressure him.

“Of course, thank you Ed. I now have a proposition for you. I believe a common trope in video games is to form a party to hunt monsters and gain experience points. Would you be willing to accompany us? To help us level up and acquire our own skills?”

That Ava wanted him to tag along left him flat footed. That she would even want to venture out and try to grind xp from those owls was something not even he wanted to really commit himself too yet. Too many uncertainties.

Before he could give an answer either way an owl darted down between the two sides. A purple glow sparked up and Thomas grew slack as the owl held him in it’s gaze. His hatchet fell from limp fingers. Edwin was the quickest to react. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes. A moment later the other’s reacted similarly, turning away or covering their faces.

The owl was head height with Thomas, within his reach, so Edwin stepped forward twice and brought his hatchet down full force onto the feathered back. The blow smashed the creature to the ground. The axe head severed through its spine, dealing a mortal blow. Edwin did not cheer though. He wrenched the hatchet free and kept his other hand extra ready to clamp over his eyes.

“Bro-Broski! Edwin dude!” Kurt cheered. “You just saved Tom. Damn dude, that’s crazy. Just stepped forward and fucking cut that thing near in half!”

From behind him, an owl screeched. It was a long drawn out haunting noise and they all jumped and yelled when it startled them. Turning, Edwin crouched and completely covered his eyes. Unfortunately, besides Ava, the others did not cover their eyes. Half a dozen owl’s hung there flapping silently with their third eyes exposed to greet them.

Thomas was ensnared once again along with Roy and Kurt. Both of their hatchets also clattered to their feet, barely audible over the screech. Idiots! Edwin cursed in his head. Edwin strained his ears. As the others shouted and flailed, Edwin tried to orient himself. He was not having much luck.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” Edwin chanted like a mantra. He was shaking. The owls caught them with their pants down. What happened next depended on how many more of them there were. If the whole flock came down on them then they were dead without a doubt. Edwin stilled himself for a moment, an attempt to focus his mind. He stopped chanting to hold his breath and ignored Ava’s frantic voice. He tried to recall where the closest sidewalk was. An image formed in his mind of what he wanted, what he needed in the next moment.

He breathed out, and the ground rippled. Behind where the screech had come from was a sidewalk. He ripped up a dozen tiny spears, each the size of a pen, and sent them barrelling in a tightly spaced cluster through the air towards himself. Hopefully they would shred the owls in their path. His effort was rewarded as several more screeches split the din. Drowning out whatever Ava was shouting.

Roy’s shout joined in a moment later. Edwin had freed him. Ava was now yelling at Roy to cover his eyes. He was successful and they started to holler back and forth. Edwin wished they would shut up but he was too busy trying to figure out what to do next. He stopped his volley before it could tear into himself. The little projectiles clattered down to rest on the asphalt.

An almost physical feeling struck his chest as his energy rushed out in the most impressive and strenuous use of power Edwin had done yet. He reeled backwards gasping. His heart hammered in his chest as he staggered backwards, nearly falling.

There was no other choice but to repeat the same feat. So as his body shouted at him to hit the brakes he instead slammed down on the gas. His free missiles rose once more and Edwin flinched as he felt wings tickling his elbows. Then an impact sounded out and a meaty thunk heralded someone collapsing to the ground. He sent his darts sweeping through the same area a second time. The two still paralyzed were being contained by the owls over there.

This time Edwin’s legs gave out and he fell backwards on his ass. From down on the ground he risked a peek. The hostage holding owls were not there. Only the one he had brought down earlier lay on the ground run through by two of his shots.

Edwin turned around, still on the ground and saw the chaos unfolding amongst the others. Ava was swinging her hatchet with vigor as she beat at an owl that was flying circles around her. Roy was cowering on his knees. Hands covering his face as he sobbed violently. An owl hovered in front of Kurt, it’s third eye locking him down. A second owl stood on the roadside. It held the collapsed form of Thomas motionless.

With his targets in sight, Edwin recalled two projectiles and sent them rocketing out one at a time to free the captives. His aim held true and both owls buckled and collapsed. Thomas came free with a roar, while Kurt took his time to regain his bearings. Thomas writhed and screamed on the ground.

Thomas and Roy were going to be no help. Kurt would at least serve as a target for any other owls looking to catch someone. Not willing to risk looking above, Edwin had no idea how many more owls might be around. Unaware of his foes, an owl came low and raked his arm from behind. Edwin cried out as the beast rent his skin. He was hyperventilating, his body trying to deal with the shock from his wound and whatever supernatural effects using his energy was imparting on his body.

He dropped his hatchet, unable to maintain a grip on it. Anger seethed through him at the birds' foul tactics. Forcing him to fight all but blind and then striking where he could not see. They were devious. Through his fingers he watched it execute a tight backward half loop before soaring right back towards him. The bird stretched its cruel talons out, as it readied to tear into him.

Edwin called the nearest concrete chunk towards himself. It was out of his sight but he still felt a tenuous connection to it. A temporary bond made through his energy tethering on it to grant control. It zipped over his head and punched straight through the diving owl in a gory display of physics. The bird lifelessly crumpled down before him.

The unnatural drain grew stronger, yet as it was neither physical nor mental Edwin realized it did not impact him as badly as he had been acting. The sensation felt physical but it was mental, his body reacted naturally to what it did not understand and caused it to seem worse than it was. Still, he could tell he was running low on juice. Maybe one or two more uses like he had just managed. He did not really want to know what would happen if he ran out. At the same time, he realized he might need to kill more owls to ensure he leveled up and got his arm restored.

Two owls were harassing Ava, trying to get her to drop her hand guarding her face. She was swinging blindly. The hatchet came close a few times but didn’t find a mark on one of the owls. She needed help. Edwin dropped his guard with his good arm and reached out to tear free the concrete impaling the dead owl in front of him. With a small application of metaphysical force he cracked the thing in half in the middle. Two smaller projectiles were now sitting on his palm.

Edwin needed this shot to count so with as much determination as he could muster he sent the bullets from his palm on a collision course with the owls. One missed and the other barely clipped a wing. The wounded owl squawked and spiralled in the air. It collided with the other and both went down in a tangle of feathers. Ava, quick on the uptake, peeked through her fingers and brought her hatchet down with two meaty blows. Edwin felt his eyes roll into the back of his head as the world seemed to twist around him. He collapsed unconscious.

-Frontrunners-

Light bloomed around Edwin and he came to with a heaving breath. His mouth worked like a fish gasping for air. The motes of light died out a second later along with the flash. It was quiet, save for Roy’s now subdued crying. A blue screen appeared announcing his advancement to level seven. Both it and the subsequent status screen disappeared after he glanced through them. He looked up and saw Ava staring down at him. He wondered if she had been worried about him. But she dashed that notion by kicking him hard in the ribs. He rolled away from the blow hissing. His hands came up to cover the spot.

“Fuck you, Ava,” he bit out.

“Hmm, you seem to have recovered from leveling up. The same as I did. It truly does have some sort of healing property. Quite amazing. Anyway, get up already. Thomas is injured, Roy is useless and Kurt has run off. I require your assistance further.”

Edwin groaned and rolled to his side. He pushed himself up and started stretching out his sore muscles. His body protested the movement. Fatigue lingered on the edge of his consciousness. Like a blanket that beckoned him to its embrace. Thankfully, though, the damage the owl inflicted was gone, as if it had never happened. Ava was right, that was something amazing,

Looking around he confirmed Ava’s words. Roy was still cowering. Thomas was still as a stone, probably in shock by that point and Kurt was nowhere to be seen. The owls were all dead. Finished by himself and Ava. Several of the ones he had downed looked to have been finished off by her. She had killed the same amount as Zoey. Which meant Ava was probably level five. As if on cue, she locked up and fell to her knees. Her back was to him so he did not see her expression. She rode out the experience and regained herself a moment later. She stood up as if nothing had happened.

“Ava,” Edwin called out. With his shoulders squared and back straight Edwin marched towards her. “What skill did you get?”

Ava paused where she was and whirled to face Edwin. For a moment he thought she might protest but then she giggled in an unsettling way and said, “Oh Ed, there’s no need to worry. I would have told you, I just thought now wasn’t an appropriate time for this sort of discussion.”

“It’s really not,” he agreed. Arms crossed, “But I still want to hear it.”

Tension lingered between them as Ava did not immediately respond. Edwin bent down and picked up a hatchet that one of the others must have dropped. His obvious movement led Ava to release a great drawn out sigh. “Okay then Edwin, if this is how it is. I now have an ability by the name of Empathy. Happy?”

Empathy? Shit. That’s like emotion sensing. Or it could be manipulation. How do I resist that? He thought furiously.

Ava must have predicted his train of thought, or perhaps she sensed his growing distress because she spoke again, “I can’t affect your emotions. All I can do is sense them, it would seem.”

“Alright, well as you probably figured already, my skill is concrete manipulation. So now we're even. And you know I told you the truth earlier.”

A wicked grin split Ava’s cute face. Her eyes gleamed as she looked at him. “Of course Ed. Mutual trust and respect are important for a pair of RA’s like ourselves. Thank you for your information and assistance. I hope we can continue to get along.”

Edwin did not enjoy her tone. It left him uneasy, and when Ava chuckled a moment later he decided she probably sensed that.

It took some serious shaking, a bit of emotional manipulation involving a dog and some not so subtle harsh words to rouse Roy. But he was back on his feet and Ava brought him along to join Edwin as he checked over Thomas.

Thomas’s left arm was gashed to the bone. The bones looked broken. The owl had been a hair’s breadth away from tearing half of his arm off. Edwin hurriedly took his shirt off and used one of the hatchets to twist the shirt in as tight of a knot as he could above the wound on Thomas’s arm. The impromptu tourniquet was his only hope of living. Thomas laid there, deathly pale, a large pool of blood formed around him. It was a shitty situation.

He turned his head to call for Ava only to find her walking over with Roy in tow. “Ava,” he called out. “I need you to hold this hatchet in place, don’t let it slack at all. It needs to be as tight as possible.” She nodded her understanding of his instructions and came to switch places with him. “Roy, take your sweatshirt off and lay it over top of him. We have to try to keep him warm. Then go grab his legs, we need to rush him back to the dorms. Tony has a truck that will probably start. We need to get him to the hospital.”

Roy robotically followed his orders. He knelt down in the pooling blood and waited for Edwin to give the lift command.

Thomas was heavy, and hard to carry with any sort of speed. Yet they moved with as much coordinated haste as they could manage. Luck was on their side as no more owls happened upon them. The sweatshirt would not do much, but getting Thomas to the hospital was more important than spending further time to keep his temperature up.

Kurt came out of the shadows against the library as they passed by. He jogged over a smile on his face.

“Hey guys! You’re alive, I’m really happy to see that. I mean shit dudes, that was some ca-razy shit.”

Ava scoffed, Edwin grunted and Roy remained silent. Thomas had nothing to contribute, he was unconscious after all. “Kurt go grab the hatchets we left around here then come help me,” Ava ordered him. She did not sound happy. All too eager to try and appease her, Kurt jogged off to do as he was told.

He came back with his pockets stuffed full of hatchets. Edwin directed him to support Thomas’s head. He had been struggling to stop it from lolling around as he also supported Thomas’s upper body. Edwin had no other words for the guy besides his instructions. Now was not the time to be upset or angry about Kurt’s cowardice.

Like this, the bunch of them hurried back to the dorm. Edwin had no idea if Thomas would survive, but for the time being he still drew breath. Thomas had been an asshole in the brief time Edwin interacted with him. But he did not wish death upon him. Especially not after the effort he was undergoing to save the guy’s life.