I stared at the man in front of me, having tied him down with zip ties. We were both in the lab now. My actual self had gone out to help him here, alone Second was too weak. I wouldn’t have risked the maneuver without having a set of eyes above that basically functioned as a real-time camera.

I’d had just enough time. I was here and Second and Third were out there. So I was both here and there. It hurt my head if I thought about it too much. My clones and I shared the same mind, but even I wasn’t clear if it was three instances of the same will or a single puppeteer. My understanding leaned towards something in between.

Again, it hurt my head, so I stopped thinking—and started thinking.

Could I kill? That was the first question. They had tried to kill me, they were openly hostile, and I needed to survive. Yes, I could kill. Did I need to? Considering everything and their numbers, the answer was probably also yes.

Then how?

I sat underground, safe and sound, as my clones above worked. I directed them as much as they directed themselves, working off what we all knew. My input wasn’t even needed, and I couldn’t be sure if I’d thought of the plan, or if it had come to all of us at once.

Third played overwatch. Big Brother. The eyes in the sky. The watcher above. So long as he saw it all, I saw it all.

Second had to do the fighting. Which meant I had to fight. He would be the boots on the ground, the agent on the field. The hardest job with half my physicality. I grimaced, I couldn’t risk my real self.

Second stopped by the stairwell and opened another storage closet there. It was the likeliest place to find any kind of metal implement to use as a weapon. I hadn’t searched it earlier, but there it was: a crowbar.

For now, it would be good enough.

Second waited for any of the information to become useful.

The creatures moved in pairs and I realized they checked all the boxes for ‘goblin’ except worse. Grotesque. They moved in pairs, wore simple loincloths, and had claws on both hands and feet, moving about like primates.

They could speak to each other too. I shivered, a spark of intelligence was enough to worry me. They split up into pairs, leaving one alone. The paired goblins stalked around the building, leaving one behind to watch.

They were taking it slow which was exactly what I didn’t want.

That gave me a single target. Outside and alone. The risk was minimal, considering the expendable nature of my clones, but losing Second meant I’d be blind to going on’s of the inside of the building.

Still, any opportunity to thin their numbers was—

“Hey…” The man, Horace, struggled as he regained consciousness. “Hey! What the hell?” He stared around and found me sitting.

“You’re safe, man.” I calmed him down.

“Why the hell am I tied up?” He tensed against his bonds. Wary and hostile, cornered.

“We’re in the laboratory under the building. And you’re tied up because you threatened to blow me to pieces, remember?” I jogged his memory. “I helped clean up your leg.”

His eyes slid to his thigh, patched up as best it could be. He relaxed, minutely. “I’m not gonna attack you, after that.” He said after a moment. “Christ, I was gonna die.”

“And I’m not doing this for anything but my safety.” I replied, tracking the happenings above. “I have no idea what can you do but I saw you hand glowing and I’m trusting you on your threats.”

Second dashed out as soon as Third confirmed the little goblin thing had turned around. I watched myself brain the creature from behind, its body fell in a muffled thump. The other four were on the other side of building. I had enough time to drag the corpse near the murky waters and was just strong enough to throw it in, leaving no trace.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, dude.” He said, having calmed down. “You can untie me. I’m not stupid enough to attack the only group of survivors.”

I saddened at that. “There’s no one else?” I asked quietly.

“I saw them die.” He said blankly. His eyes were seeing something else. “Then it went for me… and, well.” He gestured, tried to, at his leg.

“What’s your name?” I asked him, though I already knew.

“Horace Wakes.” He replied. “And you? Where are the others?”

“Evahn Wynst.” I said. “The others… are outside.”

The pair of goblins rounded the building and found their other member missing. They gibbered at each other, looking around questioningly, before pointing to the building’s entrance. The two of them approached the door, walked through.

I was waiting on the other side. I didn’t need to hear them to know where they were. I waited for them to fully enter, waited for the right angle. Then I kicked the door shut behind them and swung for one’s head, knocking it out in a pile of flailing limbs. The other one hissed, lunging for me instantly but I dodged backward and swung again, smashing its skull in.

Two more.

“Do you see all this too?” Horace asked, gesturing loosely. “Uh, level, class, strength, dex, all that?”

“Yeah.” I replied, his words confirming I wasn’t crazy. It looked like everyone had something similar. If they lived long enough to discover it. The thought was sobering.

“So what did you get?” He asked pointedly. “There was… were people with abilities.” He grimaced. “I think they were Skills. I have one too. I saw someone shoot flames from his hands.”

[Notice]: You have leveled up: Level 3.

To say I was distracted was wrong. I had my entire attention on the conversation, just as I had my entire attention on the happenings outside. Here, I was sitting having a conversation about the end of the world. Out there, I lived it.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll keep it to myself.” I replied as a claw raked across my back.

Horace leaned back and I brought the crowbar down, breaking bones from the sound of its crunch. The visceral sound of flesh and bone, right in that moment, threatened to overwhelm me. All of me.

I’d clubbed them upside the head but I had never looked.

Now, I had to. I had to fight this living creature struggling against a killer, with a arm that bent the wrong way, bleeding but alive. Its friend—no, I couldn’t think of them like that. Yet… I—I saw the lifeless body in the background, one part of my world moving slowly, defending against a creature I could end with a swing of my weapon.

Second threw up and I screamed.

“W-what the fuck?” Horace jumped, pressing against the wall. “What the fuck’s wrong with you?” Fear in his eyes.

I groaned, grabbing my eye, realizing I could see. Blinking. I was still screaming, not here, but there. Bleeding from my eye, crying. My hand was bloodied, my own blood, the crowbar was slick in my grip, but my knuckles were white.

“You fucking bastard.”

Then I killed the last goblin.