“Jab, jab, hook. Sidestep, kick, pierce. Dodge, axe kick, stomp. Deflect, gouge, rip.” Alex recounted his actions.

Exhaling the pent-up breath he held within himself, Alex made a forceful swiping motion with his hands, getting rid of the remaining blood on the pristine black metal of his gauntlets.

“Phew, with this it should make fifty,” Alex said, looking at the feral, oversized, now-dead, cats in front of him.

Walking a short distance away, Alex picked his trusty duffel bag which was lying on the ground, packed with dead body parts gathered over the course of the whole day, and returned to his initial spot, ready to collect the last of his bounty.

Squatting above the fresh corpses of the mindless beasts, he once again used the claws on his twin fists to rip the ears off his targets and mindlessly throwing them into the bag which was already beaming with morbid souvenirs of his previous encounters. Closing the bag and swinging it over his shoulder, he started making his way back to the obelisk. Looking at the sky, he could see that sunset was close at hand, meaning that he spent time from dawn till dusk hunting small groups of Awakened Beasts all over the city. As a feeling of irritation passed through him addressed at the time it took to complete his task, he could feel Nova, coiled around his neck, squirming her body in her sleep from the irritation overflowing from Alex into her through their bond.

“I know, I know, sorry. This would have taken way less time if I didn’t have to search for them so much. Oh, well, at the very least it seems that I’ve adapted to the teachings contained in the Musings. On a rudimentary level, at least.” Alex said, using his finger to pet Nova’s small head.

Walking through the desolate city, Alex took his time returning to the obelisk, opting to leisurely stroll through the empty streets while deep in thought.

“What is going on? How did everything change so drastically in five days? Last week at this time, I would clock out and leave work. I guess it’s true what they say about humans; adaptability is our greatest survival asset. Now, I kill, get visions, and hunt oversized, mutated animals for a living…” Alex thought as he sighed.

Shaking his head as if to clear his head of doubts, he resumed his walk towards the obelisk, upping the pace to a brisk one.

After walking for another good thirty minutes, Alex arrived at the boundary delimiting the central district from the outer ones. The boundary was not something official or even acknowledged among the citizens, but it was clear to all who looked, nonetheless. Starting here the buildings were different; bigger, more colourful, and luxurious. The roads were of better quality and there were far more commercial spaces; malls, clubs, cafes, restaurants, and pubs. As Alex walked in the middle of the road, he contemplated the fact that he never really had the opportunity to enjoy the finer things in life before the obelisks arrived, and that comically enough, this was the first time in a very long while that he walked around the city centre so leisurely.

As Alex made his way in silence, his enhanced hearing picked up a series of very loud grunts and groans, followed by a short scream that eventually broke the reverie of Alex’s stroll.

“Shit, shit, shit! I don’t want to die! Not after escaping that hellhole!” a man’s voice yelled in a panic a distance away.

“Shut up and hold your axe steady! Don’t let them reach her!” another man’s voice yelled.

“That voice…Jake?” Alex thought as his mind processed what he heard using his beyond human hearing, immediately piecing the voice with his memory of the man.

“Dodge!” a woman’s voice rang out, “Sear!”

“That must be Amber. It seems they’re in trouble.” Alex concluded and immediately broke into a sprint.

Running as fast as he could, he snaked his way across the winding city streets towards the source of the distressed voices, finally finding them a block away from his starting position.

The sight that unfolded before Alex’s eyes next was certainly grim. Jake, Amber, and another, unknown to Alex, man, surrounded by a pack of Awakened Beasts. The trio seemed to be in pretty bad shape; surrounded, and harassed by the pack tactics of the oversized canines, they seemed to be at their wit's end. The unknown man and Jake stood on both sides of Amber, shielding her from the vicious claws and fangs of the beasts, while Amber seemed to be focusing on casting another wave of her flame.

Deciding not to waste another second, Alex started revolving his Unity as he prepared to attack. As the billowing golden-coloured Divine Breath suffused his being, he dashed towards the pack surrounding the unlucky trio, reaching them in a fraction of a second. Considering the pack was entirely focused on their current prey, Alex decided to take advantage of the element of surprise. That, along with the fact that Alex was intimately acquainted with the oversized canines’ weak points slaughtering dozens of such beasts by this point made his course of action clear as day; strike fast and hard at their vitals.

Arriving behind the rough encirclement created by the beasts in a fraction of a second, Alex took to work. When he finally came within enough distance that the pack noticed his arrival, Alex jumped, aiming his drop unto the biggest, meanest, most menacing member of the pack; no doubt their alpha. Stranded in midair, Alex sent waves of power into his legs, reinforcing his bones, muscles, and sinews in preparation for the impact. Done with that, he tucked his legs closer to his chest, akin to a spring ready to expand upon contact.

What followed next was a grisly display of carnage as the dropkick fueled by Alex’s full bodyweight and further enhanced by the Divine Breath hit the leader of the pack right in its midsection, shattering its spine and torso along with it, killing it immediately. While the rest of the pack was taken by surprise, Alex yelled towards the trio as he continued his indiscriminate slaughter.

“Keep defending against the ones closest to you! I’ll take care of the outer circle!” Alex screamed his command.

Not letting the rest of the pack regroup now that their leader was dead, Alex manoeuvred between them as he made wide, clawing and thrusting motions using the steel-tipped ends of his twin fists, each strike aimed at their vitals.

“Throat, eyes, heart, eyes, neck, throat.” Alex used his heightened senses granted to him by the Unity to flawlessly execute a series of attacks.

Six seconds later, six dead canine-type Awakened Beasts lay dead around Alex, each killed in one, deadly strike. Turning around to check on the trio, Alex saw as the rest of the beasts that were closer to the other group, numbering four, were being taken care of. Jake slashed his sword, decapitating one of them in one swift motion while the other man used his axe to crack another’s skull. Amber held on to an elaborate staff she previously didn’t have as she held back the other two beasts with defensive movements, using the extended range the staff provided her to her advantage.

Once done with the beasts in front of them, Jake and the man turned to aid Amber, making quick work of them by striking from their behind. Once the last of the pack was dead, a deathly silence settled around the street. Alex started approaching them in stride, walking confidently, when the unknown man collapsed on the ground, blood seeping from his torso. By the time he reached them, Amber was already hovering above the bleeding man, checking on him, while Jake was looking at Alex with wariness in his gaze.

“Thank you for your assistance. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.” Jake spoke in a ragged, tired voice.

“I guess you could call us even then,” Alex said as he lifted the black mask off his face.

Turning her head from the wounded man to look at Alex, Amber seemed to take a moment before recognizing his face.

“It’s you, you’re that noob from before. I guess you’re not a noob anymore, huh? Got some exp under your belt now.” Amber spoke in a hurried, adrenaline-fueled tone.

“Wha-?” Jake was about to ask before Amber interrupted him.

“Remember him? He was in a group of five, him, another guy, and three girls. They were being attacked by three of these mobs. We saved them, though he had a nasty, maimed shoulder. Guess he found a healer.” Amber machinegunned the words out of her mouth, leaving Jake bewildered.

“Amber, so help me god, if you mention one more game-related thing, I won’t be able to control myself,” Jake said in an exasperated tone before turning to Alex and looking him over.

“And you, yes, I remember now. Thank you, and I guess we are even now. Guess you found the answers you were looking for then?” Jake asked.

“Some,” Alex said succinctly.

Turning his head towards the wounded man, Alex decided to find out how their situation came to be.

“How did this happen? The last time I remember you making quick work of these things, and now they drove you so hard,” Alex asked, looking at the man.

The question seemed to touch a sore spot for the group, considering all three of their faces immediately became overcast. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, it was Amber that answered, half sobbing.

“We were caught in a bad spot. We barely escaped that accursed zoo with our lives, wounded and drained of mana when this pack hunted us down. We ran from them as far as we could, but with Zack wounded, they eventually overtook us.” Amber explained.

“Makes sense, last time I met them, Jake used some kind of energy attack from his sword while Amber manipulated fire. Chances are neither of them are body cultivators, which means that if they were out of Divine Breath reserves, they were only slightly better than a normal human. What happened at the zoo though?” Alex processed this new information.

“Is your friend fine? Shouldn’t we get him to the Healer’s Guild as soon as possible?” Alex asked, hoping to use this to find out what exactly trashed the trio so hard before the pack.

“Ugh. You should. I’m sturdier than most, but I’ve got my limits.” The man, Zack, spoke.

Lifting his black tunic carefully, Zack drew everyone’s attention to his wound. A gigantic bite wound occupied most of the right side of his torso. Taking a closer look, Alex could swear he could see bits of the man’s innards through the bite marks.

“That’s definitely not the work of normal Awakened Beasts, whatever normal is in this case. None I’ve seen so far have such a big jawline.” Alex immediately tucked the new sight in his mind.

“What the hell did that?” he asked.

“A tiger. A fucking black, sabertooth, honest-to-god, tiger” Zack replied full of irritation, trying to keep his guts inside himself, “Now can we get to the outpost, I’m not a big fan of dying, you see?”

“Must be a body cultivator.” Alex deduced, marvelling at the man’s vitality.

“We should get going. It’s getting dark outside, and we have to report the casualties to the outpost.” Jake said in a grim tone.

“Wait, what? What casualties?” Alex asked in surprise.

“The only reason we escaped was that that fucking monstrosity was too busy ripping apart twenty-two other cultivators!” Jake answered with a pained voice, “Now let’s get going, we can talk on the road. It’s another half an hour until we reach the outpost if we hurry.”

According to Alex’s observations, Jake seemed to be the de facto leader of this little warband, which is why when Amber and Zack heard him, they started to get ready for departure. Amber stood up, leaning on her staff while Jake sheathed his sword. When Zack tried to get up, a flash of pain seemed to pass through him as he collapsed onto the ground again. Grimacing in pain, he gritted in pain but kept silent. Everyone understood what was happening, Zack best of all, but it seemed that his pride got the better of him as he kept silent still, allowing Amber to speak.

“Someone will have to carry him,” Amber said full of worry.

At first, Jake and Amber looked at Zack, then at each other, and then, after a moment of silent communication using head nods and weird glances between themselves, they turned their heads at Alex with an apologetic look on their faces.

“It’s fine, I’ll do it, but someone has to carry my bag for me. It’s going to be uncomfortable carrying both.” Alex said with a sigh.

“No problem, we can do it.” Amber broke into a fit of excitement.

“Just wait a moment,” Alex said.

Turning his back towards the trio, Alex walked back to the six Awakened Beast corpses, seven, if you counted their leader, and ripped their ears from their heads. Quickly he returned to back to the trio, opened the duffel bag, and stuffed the body parts along with the others already inside. At the moment when Alex opened the bag, the trio caught a glimpse of the contents inside.

“I only took the ones I killed personally, the others are yours,” Alex said in an offhanded manner.

“Holy-. How many did you kill?” Jake asked with surprise and a bit of reverence in his voice.

“Fifty. Well, fifty-seven if you count these,” Alex answered.

“But, how, it shouldn’t be possible,” Jake said, shocked.

“Didn’t you say we had to hurry? We can talk on the road.” Alex evaded the question.

Just as Jake was about to say something else, Amber elbowed and glared at Jake, clearly expressing her displeasure and annoyance.

“Right, right, we should go.” Jake quickly got the hint as he spoke.

Following Jake’s words, Amber quickly took out the same little ornate knife she had when they first met, and cut the ears of the remaining beasts, and stuffing them into her small backpack. Seeing this, Alex handed his own bag to Jake as he approached the wounded Zack and spoke.

“Well, Zack, I hope you like piggyback rides.” Alex tried to lighten the mood as he bent down to pick Zack up.