Alex took a look at the grinning Jane. He couldn’t even begin to understand what was going on through her head. She had a rendezvous with death not long ago; twice even. The first time when she had been attacked by the Awakened Beast, and the second when the duo got handsy with her. Yet here she stood, well, sat, and refused the safety of the outpost in favour of accompanying Alex on his hunt.

“No, I’m sure you’re going to say something like the outskirts of the city, and I already thought of that,” Alex answered her previous question.

“Mmhm, no, the place I know of is right in the middle of the city; well, maybe a little bit outside the centre, but still well within city limits.” Jane rebutted in the same smug tone.

“And there are fifty Awakened Beasts there?” Alex asked, doubt creeping in his voice.

“Oh, there are way more than that, if you can handle them,” Jane answered.

Her nonchalant tone confused Alex. Why would she be so adamant in accompanying him when the safety of the outpost was all but guaranteed. Had the two thugs traumatized her so much she truly didn’t want to have anything to do with the outpost? Or was it something else entirely?

“You do realize how dangerous this is going to be? That I may not always be able to protect you?” Alex asked.

“I understand. Still, I would like to accompany you on your little quest.” Jane answered again.

Feeling as if he was talking to a wall at this point, Alex thought about it some more and made up his mind.

“Fine. There are two conditions though. First, you listen to me at all times; if I say jump you jump, and if I say duck you duck immediately. Second, when I’m done with this, you go to the outpost with me.” Alex said, lifting two fingers.

Just as Jane was about to say something, Alex interrupted her.

“Non-negotiable. Take it or leave it.” Alex said with finality.

Narrowing her eyes, she grinned at Alex as she answered.

“You drive a hard bargain, but I’ll take you up on it,” Jane answered.

“Okay, shoot, what’s the place?” Alex asked expectantly.

“Why, my previous workplace of course,” Jane answered cryptically.

“The one you were on a night-shift when the obelisks crashed? You didn’t mention what it was when you told me your story.” Alex double-checked.

“The same one, and you didn’t ask,” Jane assured him.

Rolling his eyes at the little trick Jane was playing on him, he made a motion with his hand as if asking her to tell him. Seeing Alex’s goofy exasperation, Jane smiled genuinely as she answered.

“The zoo,” she said in one breath.

“How could I not think of that? Oh my god, that place must be crawling with Awakened Beasts. Not the domestic kind either.” Alex thought to himself.

Seeing realization wash over Alex, Jane stood up and started gathering what little sweets were left back into the duffel bag as she addressed him.

“Let’s go then?” she asked cheerily.

Hearing what Jane said, Alex stood up, took his mask, and threw it into the duffel bag along with all the other things. After they were done, Jane donned Alex’s robe as her blouse was in a very precarious condition and they started descending the construction site’s stairs. A short walk later, and the two found themselves back on the empty city streets as Alex spoke.

“The last time I went to the zoo was when I was very small, with my mom, so I don’t know the way there. You’ll have to guide me,” he said matter-of-factly.

“It’s pretty far from here. About a half-hour drive with the car, three if we walk,” she answered.

“That’s about thirty kilometres, which I could cover in about 20 minutes if I push myself. But what about her?” Alex thought as he made some mental calculations.

Seeing the frown on Alex’s face, she quickly added.

“Don’t worry, I saw some bicycles locked in front of the general store. We could borrow them and be on our way; I don’t think anyone’s going to come looking for them.” Jane said.

“Okay, let’s go then.” he agreed with her suggestion.

Making their way back from the construction site to the general store, the two walked in silence. Following a short while, they arrived in front of the store, and true to Jane’s word, the bicycle rack in front of the store had three bicycles locked to the steel frame of the rack with standard cables.

“They’re locked. Maybe we can find an industrial cutter in the store with which to cut the cables. We used them back at the zoo when some wire would get tangled up or a lock got too old to function properly.” Jane said thoughtfully.

“Let me,” Alex said as he stepped forward “Step back,” he added.

Alex squatted down towards the lock cable, tensed his muscles, and pulled. Immediately the sharp sound of something snapping could be heard, and random bits of plastic flew off.

“Okay, we can do that too,” Jane commented, perplexed.

“Take it and let’s go,” Alex said, not wanting to waste any more time.

“What about you?” Jane asked.

“I can keep up, don’t worry,” he answered.

“Oh common, it’s going to be very weird if I’m the only one riding the bike. Just take one and let’s go.” Jane added.

As the words left her, an embarrassed look covered Alex’s face as he looked away.

“Don’t tell me…” she said in a joking manner, “You can’t ride a bike, can you?”

“…” Alex didn’t know what to answer her, and so decided to keep silent.

“How? How do you not know how to ride a bike, haha?” Jane kept punching where it hurt.

“Oh shut it, take it, and let’s go, unless you changed your mind and you want to go to the outpost?” Alex said in exasperation, fighting back in the only way he could.

“Okay, okay, mister grumpy, let’s go.” Jane caved in, trying hard to stifle another laugh.

Jane saddled the bike, and after making sure everything was alright with it, took off, with Alex entering a light jog alongside her.

As two made their way along the empty city streets, they didn’t encounter a soul for a good twenty minutes. Looking at Jane, Alex could see her start getting tired, which is when he decided to be petty for once.

“Can’t you go any faster? I thought you were proud of your cycling skills, with you knowing how to ride a bike and whatnot.” Alex made fun of her in an attempt to get even for the previous exchange.

“You can really hold a grudge, did anyone tell you that before?” Jane answered in ragged breaths.

“What can I say, I have a pretty good memory and I don’t enjoy people making fun of me, but then again, who does?” Alex answered in a nonchalant tone as he wasn’t affected at all by the light exercise.

“Jokes aside, if you’re tired, we can take a break,” he added in a slightly more serious and worried tone.

“I’m fine,” she said in an unconvincing manner before quickly adding.

“You know, the city is pretty old. What I mean is that the city wasn’t built using grid blocks, which means that irregular city blocks allow for inner nooks and crannies of interconnected courtyards. I just remembered there’s a shortcut through the courtyards. We can cut the time by avoiding the main streets,” she added.

When she told Alex about the courtyards, a small flash of yellow sparks appeared around her head before quickly dissipating.

“I knew it.” Alex thought.

“Okay, lead the way,” he said, deciding to play along with Jane.

As they made the turn, the two entered a series of interconnected courtyards and started making their way towards the zoo. As the two entered their third or fourth courtyard, a different sight than previously greeted the two of them. A pack of three Awakened Dogs eating an oversized, dead pigeon.

Seeing the grisly sight before them, both Jane and Alex stopped in their tracks, though their reactions were vastly different.

“We have to leave, like, now.” Jane quickly said, her previous resolve nowhere to be seen.

“Jackpot.” Alex simply added as he dropped the duffel bag onto the ground.

“You can’t be serious. There are three of them and only two of us, or did they not teach you how to count?” Jane said half-joking half-serious.

“Just stay back. This should be over quickly, but one of them might try to jump you,” Alex said, already revolving his Unity and strengthening his body and mind.

“But-“ Jane was about to say when Alex interrupted by raising his hand.

“The first condition, don’t forget,” he said with finality.

Gritting her teeth, Jane finally stepped a good distance away from Alex. Making sure she was at a safe distance, Alex switched his focus to the beasts.

“They’re still feeding on that pigeon and haven’t paid much attention to us yet. A blitzkrieg approach should be best. Strike fast, hard, and don’t leave them much time to react. According to the Musings, Canine Awakened Beasts are simply stronger, faster versions of their previous forms, which means they have the same weaknesses; eyes, throat, joints” Alex thought to himself.

Deciding on a course of action, Alex took up a sprinting position as he chose which of the three targets to attack first, and bolted. Letting the Unity enhance his body to its utmost capability for a split moment, he covered the distance between his targets and himself in a fraction of a second.

As he reached the beasts, the three finally felt a shiver down their spines as their survival instincts kicked it. Unfortunately for one of them, it was too late. As the one nearest to where Alex was turned its head to look at the one intruding upon their meal, it was met with a full-force kick to its head. What followed next was a grim display of carnage as the beast’s head popped like a watermelon, washing the surroundings in a cacophony of blood and brains.

Seeing one of their own lose their life, the two remaining beasts backed off for a second before surrounding Alex. One was growling menacingly from the front while its companion circled towards Alex’s back silently. Once the beast behind Alex was in position, the two finally decided to apply pack tactics and attack at the same time. The moment the two jumped him, he willed the Unity to start overclocking his brain and time once again slowed for Alex.

“This is bad, I took care of one but I can’t prevent both of their attacks. Their teeth are most likely enhanced or coated in the Divine Breath, which means the little trick I did when Jane stabbed me is not going to work. I have to choose; either let the one in front get a bite or the one in the back.” Alex analyzed the situation while time crawled for him.

“The front one it is; I can’t let the one in the back land a hit.” Alex decided.

Making sure his next course of action was prepared, he stopped the flow of Divine Breath to his brain as time returned to normal for Alex’s senses. The beast in front of him was already mid-jump towards Alex’s face, whereas he did not see the other beast hiding in his blind spot. As the one in front approached Alex’s face with its fangs, he put up his dominant hand, his left, in front of himself for protection. Immediately, the beast’s fangs were met with absolute resistance from whatever metal the Legion used to craft Alex’s gauntlets as it stopped its advance dead in its tracks even as it held on to Alex’s hand with its vice-like bite.

“Whatever weapon master you encounter, all will tell you about how their weapon is supreme. Spears, bows, swords, axes, clubs, cudgels, etc. All of them are fools, babbling about making their weapon one with their body, totally forgetting they already have a body. For any that might stumble upon my teachings, remember; a body is the most powerful of weapons, the supreme tool, a perfect conduit of destruction; even if the body in question may not always belong to the wielder.” Alex remembered a passage from the [Musing of Destruction] as he dodged the beasts attacking his rear-side.

“I don’t think that’s what the passage meant when it said the enemy’s body is also a weapon, but I guess this is as good a plan as any.” Alex thought as he got to work.

Finally coming face to face with the mindless beast that aimed at his exposed back, he rushed it as he lifted his left hand, the same one the other beast was still biting and swung. As he swung his left hand with all his strength, he used the still-hanging beast as a faux-club to smash the one currently in front of him. As the full force generated by Alex’s body passed through the beast hanging by his arm, the shock forced it to let go as it flew off together with the other beast about ten meters away with a loud yelp escaping the both of them.

Using this moment while the two beasts were stunned from the previous impact, Alex kicked the ground in a furious motion and arrived in front of his unfortunate targets. Not dilly-dallying around while his enemies were weakened, he used the claws on his gauntlets to aim for their throats, immediately ripping them out while the beasts were still in a daze.

Making sure all the threats were neutralized and no new enemies showed up, he finally allowed the Unity to stop revolving. Looking around, he finally had a chance to take in all the carnage he managed to cause in the fight, which by his account did not take more than five seconds.

“That’s better. Five seconds, and singular bursts of enhancement rather than running at full power; this only took a small fraction out of my reserves. There’s still more to work on, but I can already see evident progress. It is a shame I have no long-range attacks, or ways to deal with multiple enemies at once. Oh well, I made my bed, and now I have to lie in it too; that’s just another thing I’ll have to look into in the future.” Alex thought to himself as he turned to the place where Jane was waiting the fight out.

“Hey, it’s safe now! Could you bring the bag with you!?” Alex shouted to Jane, who was a slight distance away.

Hearing him, Jane, who was well and truly shocked, gathered her wits, took the bag lying on the ground, and approached Alex.

“Wow, you weren’t joking when you said you were out to hunt the things,” Jane remarked, still looking at the gory corpses of the beasts lying on the ground.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence, it means a lot to me,” Alex replied sarcastically.

“Could you hand me your knife?” he added.

“What for, I’m pretty sure the poor things are already on their way to the next world,” Jane replied sardonically.

“Well, unfortunately for me, the folks at the outpost don’t take words as proof of extermination, so I have to bring something to prove I killed all these beasts. I could rip out the parts with my hand, but I think we’ve had enough gore for a while, so, your knife, pretty please.” Alex explained.

Jane took in Alex’s words with a sigh as she took out the bowie knife she had hidden away inside Alex’s robe she was wearing at the moment and handed it to him.

Taking the knife from Jane’s slender hand, Alex took to cutting the three Awakened Beasts tails as proof of extermination, after which he took them to the bag, and opened the compartment with the two crow beaks he already collected and threw the three tails inside.

“Holy fuck, don’t tell me those things were inside the bag all along,” Jane said exasperated while making gagging noises.

“Yeah, why?” Alex replied, not understanding Jane’s issue.

“Our food is in the bag! It’s unsanitary!” she half-screamed at him in a girly manner.

“Yeah, but it’s in another compartment. I don’t see the issue.” Alex replied straightforwardly.

“Wow, after all you’ve been through, now your nerves give out?” Alex added, not missing his chance to take a verbal jab at Jane.

“We could get an infection! Or does that not register with you!” Jane yelled at Alex, looking at him like he was a madman.

“Hmm, that didn’t cross my mind, but something tells me I don’t have to worry about it,” Alex added.

“Well, what about me?” Jane asked, starting to calm down.

“Well, you chose to accompany me instead of going to the outpost and joining a faction, so I’m not entirely sure you have a right to complain,” Alex replied, clearly enjoying their banter.

“UGH!” Jane intone, stomping the ground under her feet.

“Whatever, gather what you need, and let’s go,” she added, lifting her bike from the ground into riding position.

Making sure he didn’t miss anything, Alex returned the bowie knife to Jane, closed all the pockets of the duffel bag, and fixed it onto his shoulder as he addressed Jane.

“All done, let’s go,” he spoke.

With that said, the two took their leave from the little urban battlefield and continued snaking their way through the city towards the zoo. The rest of the way was quiet and uneventful. The only other sighting of Awakened Beasts Alex and Jane saw was a couple of pigeons nesting on the roofs of the apartment complexes they passed by, but Alex decided it would be a waste of time to hunt those down, and so they went their way, leaving the pigeons alone.

Along the way, something strange was going on, at least according to Alex’s thoughts. The more they moved, the more pronounced were the sparks of yellow around Jane, a detail Alex was loath to miss. Considering the speed at which Jane rode her bike, Alex could leisurely keep up while spending most of his focus on thinking.

“The sparks of yellow first appeared when she mentioned the shortcut she knew. They dissipated almost instantly then, but the more we travel, the more they start to manifest around her. There’s something different though about those little motes than usual.” Alex started to theorize.

“If I’m correct, then the brightest colours correspond to the major negative emotions. Yellow is fear, but different shades of yellow are the branching negative emotions from fear. It’s kind of like a tree, if fear is the trunk then feelings like anxiety, insecurity, weakness, and feeling rejected or threatened are branches. If I’m not wrong, the yellow sparks around Jane are a subset of fear; anxiety. But why would she be anxious? Could it be…?” Alex arrived at a strange, but somehow plausible conclusion.

Deciding to continue playing along with Jane’s little scheme, Alex opted to say nothing. If he was wrong, and all this was baseless conjecture, then there was no need to say anything. On the other hand, if he was right, then it would all get revealed soon enough.

As the two made their way through the city, they finally reached the last stretch of streets before the zoo. As they made the turn to the next courtyard, the little motes of yellow finally overwhelmed Jane and she started showing visible, physical signs of distress.

Entering, Alex could see a couple of worn-out couches in the middle of the courtyard with countless alcohol bottles and food packaging littered around the couches. Entering such a courtyard before the world changed was a prime way to get yourself mugged if you weren’t someone in the know. Taking a couple of steps, Alex noticed that Jane stayed back, frantically searching the place with darting eyes, clearly looking for something.

Turning back to take a look at Jane, Alex heard two people’s voices as they entered from the entrance on the other side of the courtyard. Alex kept his sight focused on Jane even though he could hear the new arrivals talking to each other, opting to observe the corona of colours making their way around Jane at the moment.

The instant Jane heard the voices, the sparks of yellow previously present were snuffed out as a torrent of the crimson-red and pitch-black washed over her as a savage expression took hold of her face. It was at this point when the two additions, wearing dark green robes with a sabre strapped to their backs, got within a suitable distance to see Jane furiously glaring at them, and Alex with his back still turned to them.

“Woohoo, Pack! Look what the cat dragged in. If it isn’t the little girl we were about to have fun with!” Bones spoke with baleful glee in his voice.

“Oh, I’m going to pay you back for this little scar, you bitch!” Pack sneered at the furious Jane.

Remembering that she wasn’t alone, she shifted her gaze from the duo to Alex with a complicated expression on her face when Alex spoke.

“So this is why you were anxious when you mentioned the shortcut. You were anxious I would say no, or that I would suspect something. And then, when I agreed to follow you, your anxiety disappeared for a while; but the closer we got to this place, the harder it became to keep in check.” Alex monologued his question.

“You knew?” Jane asked with a pained expression.

“I started suspecting when you declined to go to the outpost, and then when you offered the shortcut, my suspicions gained weight,” Alex explained.

“And then, a wild theory formed in my mind. But first, answer me, did you truly forget what happened the previous night when we met or did you remember?” Alex asked.

“I…remember,” she admitted with a semblance of guilt on her face.

“Now it all makes sense. You remembered me stopping the crowbar with ease, and the way your knife failed to wound me. Then, the next morning, your plan started to take shape when I told you about the outpost and cultivators. You forced yourself to come with me, and then, when we reached the half-way point, you mentioned the short-cut knowing full well we would pass through here.” Alex said, half-turning and waving his hand to point to the thug's hideout.

“You planned to use me to take care of the two of them, or at least help you. Is that correct?” Alex asked with genuine curiosity.

“Yes,” Jane replied shamefully.

“One last question. How did you know where their hideout was?” Alex asked.

Taking an audible gulp, Jane replied.

“The day they…caught me, they mentioned this place when they were arguing whether to have their way with me there or drag me all the way here first,” Jane answered with a trembling voice.

“I see…” Alex replied emphatically.

“So, what now? Now that you’ve uncovered my little plan, what are you going to do?” Jane asked with despair in her voice.

“What would I have done in the perfect version of your plan?” Alex asked with a smile on his face.

“Help me,” she replied immediately.

“Well then, consider that your plan worked to a tee,” Alex replied, his smile turning into a full grin.

“You will? But why!? I lied to you, I manipulated you into coming here. Aren’t you angry at me?” Jane asked in confusion while tears were forming on her face.

“Well, let’s just say I don’t hate what you did. It takes a special kind of crazy to come up with something like that, and I happen to like crazy.” Alex said as he turned to face the two thugs.

“Besides, I happen to have my own bone to pick with scum like them,” Alex said.

Taking a look at the two walking towards him, Alex could feel the churning, boiling anger surface from the deepest parts of his being as their image superimposed with the memories of his father beating his mother. Immediately, he willed the Unity to enhance him to his peak power as he spoke.

“Well, this is going to be therapeutic,” Alex said as he clanged his gauntlets against each other.