It looked like a true glimpse of hell as literal flaming corpses continued to try and march forward in a ravenous effort to destroy our community. I knew the sight would be the stuff of nightmares for weeks to come.

The damage that resulted was only confirmed by the bizarre deluge of experience notifications.

Notice: Your attack has been amplified by an unknown catalyst...

[Calculating...]

...

[Calculating...]

...

[Error...]

Spell determined to be within the purview of the system.

[Calculating...]

...

[Error...]

...

Error Code 137: Unrecognized spell catalyst, requesting manual overide...

...

[Accepted]

...

You have dealt ▗▚▙▚ points of ▟▚▚▞ damage to [Reanimated Decomposing Corpse] x234

You have dealt ▗▙▚▚ points of ▟▚▞▚ damage to [Reanimated Corpse] x74

[Reanimated Decomposing Corpse] x234 has been defeated.

[Reanimated Corpse] x74 has been defeated.

...

5,790 experience points received.

...

Skill [Basic Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level 10

70 experience points received.

...

Skill [Basic Mana Manipulation] has reached the requisite eligibility to be advanced into the Tier 2 skill: [Intermediate Mana Manipulation].

Would you like to use a skill point to advance the skill?

Yes / No

...

[Accepted]

Skill [Intermediate Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level 1

50 experience points received.

...

Skill [Intermediate Mana Manipulation] has advanced to Level 2

60 experience points received.

...

Skill [Intermediate Fire Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 8

120 experience points received.

...

Skill [Air Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 3

35 experience points received.

...

Skill [Air Elemental Affinity] has advanced to Level 4

40 experience points received.

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 15!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 16!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 17!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 18!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

Congratulations!

You have now advanced to Level 19!

+4 Strength, +3 Constitution, +2 Agility, +3 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, & +1 Charisma awarded!

+4 Free Attribute Points Awarded!

...

278.38 / 1775.61 experience points until Level 20

And, I'm embarrassed to say that I subsequently collapsed. While I was still conscious, my body was suddenly spasming. The massive expel of mana as well as the deluge of experience apparently overwhelmed my body and it no longer responded. The one thought that went through my mind was how brilliantly lucky we were that it had taken several precious seconds for the system to supposedly calculate the experience gain and process whatever error had arisen. Had I collapsed before releasing that torrent of air, half of us would likely be running around with severe third-degree burns.

As it was, I suddenly realized that despite my efforts, one of us had still been hit by a glob of gasoline; and that person was me.

As I collapsed, an overwhelming amount of pain snaked its way through and up my right arm. The glob of gasoline was mixed with melting pieces of plastic, likely part of the gas containers that had held the oil. Now, it was searing my skin, and literally starting the process of melting through my body. The effects weren't immediate though. My large constitution stat was proving its worth as the flaming gasoline struggled to melt past my epidermis.

I couldn't do anything but watch, however, and even with my impressive constitution stat, my skin would eventually give and burn away if not treated quickly enough. With my current condition, there was nothing that I could do except watch and pray that somebody would notice my predicament. Our frontline was preoccupied with recovering from the blast, and to my dismay, our backline had all collapsed from exhaustion as a result of their mana expenditure. All except for Priscilla that is. She continued to fire away, oblivious to my predicament. It was clear that I was alone.

Then, suddenly, I felt my body being slid down from the top of the dirt mound and roughly dropped onto the asphalt below. I tried and failed to move my head and catch a glimpse of whoever was rescuing me, but the voice I heard would have brought a smile onto my face had my nerves not been paralyzed.

"Jesus Christ, Thomas, what the hell did you just do!?" my oh-so-favorite brother, Alex, exclaimed as he began throwing clumps of dirt onto my arm in an attempt to douse and wipe away the flaming globs of petrol.

In a matter of seconds, Alex's efforts bore fruit, and the flames were smothered along with the burning oil. "God you are one lucky man, Thomas. All of that happened, and you still only managed to receive a slight second-degree burn."

There wasn't much more he could do though without any actual medical supplies, and so he quickly doused the area with a nearly empty water bottle and then proceeded to rip another part of his shirt off and roughly bandaged my arm.

"Now, stay here while I deal with the aftermath of this mess," Alex stated as he slowly rose to his feet and went straight for the front-line, where the sounds of fighting appeared to be resuming.

As I laid there in the dirt, internally groveling at the pain of having flesh literally seared away from my body, I gandered a glance at the massive differences in my status.

Name: Thomas Parker [Genesis]

Tier 1 - [Juvenile High-Human Paragon] Level: 19 | Experience: 278.38 / 1775.61

Race: High-Human

Titles: High-Human Paragon | Genesis

Health 431/787.5 ( +532.5 / hour )

Stamina 321/690 ( +435 / hour )

Mana 112/997.5 [1027.5] ( +517.5.5 [-50] / hour )

Active Effects:

Astia's Grace [Divine Blessing] - 12:02

Overcharged Mana Channels

Attributes:

Strength: 102 [127.5]

Constitution: 71 [88.75]

Agility: 58 [72.5]

Wisdom: 69 [86.25]

Intelligence: 110 [137.5] [+5]

Unique Attributes:

Charisma: 24 [30] [+5]

Free Attribute Points: 20

Skills:

Appraisal T1 - Level 4

Basic Sword Proficiency T1 - Level 7

Intermediate Mana Manipulation T2 - Level 2

Elemental Affinities

- Intermediate Fire Elemental Affinity T2 - Level 8

- Water Elemental Affinity T1 - Level 3

- Earth Elemental Affinity T1 - Level 4

- Air Elemental Affinity T1 - Level 4

Meditation T2 - Level 2

Leadership T2 - Level 4

Paragon's Influence T3 - Level 2

- Paragon's Tether

- Paragon's Charge

- Paragon's Bestowal

??? - Level 1

Free Skill Points: 17

'Hell' I thought, 'No wonder I collapsed. On top of whatever blessing Astia gave us, my stats just jumped up a ton!' Granted, despite the increase, my health, stamina, and mana didn't receive a bump when I leveled up... Just my capacity. As it was right now, I wouldn't be casting any more spells. Despite the loosening of my body, I was still rather stiff. I was starting to be able to move some of my extremities though, as my fingers twitched, and my arms spasmed slightly with the slightest bit of input. I continued to attempt to send signals down my nerves and into my body but everything seemed reluctant to respond.

Astia's blessing was still no joke though, with its added regenerative buffs my mana channels loosened much quicker than the last time I had overcharged them. Even though it was only really my gates that had been disrupted, it appears that the system doesn't differentiate the damage to the channels and the gate, rather classifying them under the same debuff... Interesting. Regardless, it was only a matter of minutes before I was able to slowly climb back to my feet. My mana having recovered to about a fifth of its current capacity.

Just as I secured my footing, Harrison arrived back in the Humvee. The original plan was for him to ram the vehicle as hard, and fast as he could through the gap in between the now extremely battered gate. However, flaming petrol literally coated the battlefield, and as I surveyed the scene, it was truly apocalyptic. The sky was already becoming black, saturated with the burning remains of countless dead, and petrol fumes. In front of us, the horde ominously trudged forward. Countless more of the undead lay dying on the battlefield, slowly cooking away until the glowing blue lights of their eyes began to extinguish. I felt the notifications continue to stream in, notifying me of their demise. I was nearing level twenty quicker and quicker, and despite the situation, I couldn't help but feel my heart leap in excitement. I was nearing the level that denoted the Tier 2 class advancement, and boy, if we survived this battle, I was sure we were going to need it.

Harrison pulled the Humvee tp next to me and with the windows rolled down, yelled, "The hell, Thomas!? I didn't think it would be that large of an explosion! It felt like an earthquake had just gone off along with it!"

At the moment our frontline was holding just fine, and I was recovering control of my limbs, slowly loosening them up. My arm still cried out in pain, but I could feel it healing rapidly as my health climbed up from the Astia's divine regeneration buff.

Turning to Harrison, I just smirked slightly, "Ya, it was definitely... Larger than expected."

"No kidding!" He exclaimed, and then turned his attention back to the gate.

"Thomas," Harrison continued, "We can still plow the Humvee through, but... I don't know how it will fare going through that flaming hellhole."

I paused. Harrison was right, if we went through with our plan, then we might lose a very valuable asset to the community - one of the few vehicles still working. On top of that, somebody might have to drive the car into the horde in the first place unless we can somehow wedge a brick, or anything really, onto the gas pedal. The hesitation only lasted a moment though as I reinforced my resolve.

"The lives of the community are more important than any means of transportation may ever be Harrison. If we fail to defend ourselves today, we won't get a chance to use that Humvee anyways." I retorted.

Harrison somberly replied, "I'm ready when you give the word then."

I glanced back to the front. Everyone was tiring. We had been constantly fighting for nearly twenty minutes now, and the buff Astia had given us was about to wear off. When that happened, we were going to start having issues.

Before I resorted to ramming a Humvee through our gate - an act similar to the Riders of Rohan's charge during the Battle of Helms Deep in the Lord of the Rings: Two Tower's movie - I would give us one last push to make sure our plan worked.

With a bellowing cry, I lifted my sword into the air and activated my most potent buffing skill, [Paragon's Charge]. As of right now everyone was already under the effects of several buffs at once; Astia's blessing, my leadership skill, the passive buff of [Paragon's Inspiration], and even their own personal buffs. Now though, they received an even greater buff via my [Paragon's Charge] skill.

The skill only lasted sixty seconds and as such, I had refrained from using it until we reached the direst of circumstances. Right now, our tiring frontline was going to need every help they can get to push back the horde to the entrance of the gate in an effort to maximize the Humvee's impact. If we pulled our frontline back right now, the Humvee would likely miss a large portion of the undead as they fanned out into the community. As such, it was necessary to do all we could to ensure that our plan didn't backfire. The undead at the moment were still managing to slowly push us back. We were going to need to rectify that.

Alex had proved his resourcefulness though in the several minutes I had been out of the fight. He had managed to rip off several doors from the cars and was currently using them as 'riot shields' of a sort. They were utilizing their makeshift riot shields in an attempt to form a rudimentary wall against the undead while some of the others continued to attack the walking corpses. Of course, that wasn't to say the undead weren't struggling either. Their footing was compromised as they attempted to clamber over a hundred deceased undead interspersed in front of the gate, oddly reminiscent of a scene from the movie 300 when the Spartans had formed a literal wall using the corpses of their enemies. In this case, it was more like a mound, but it was helping to stimy the flow of the dead.

It was also at that moment that I realized the humvee may fail simply because it had to contend with a wall of bodies that had formed this makeshift barricade. In sudden realization, I shouted to Harrison, "It isn't going to work!" I yelled, "There's no way we can get it to plow through that much mass!"

Harrison seemed a bit more reluctant to give up on the plan in contrast to me though, "What else can we do Thomas!? We can't keep holding on at that rate."

In a sudden decision, I hoped I didn't regret I yelled out, "reinforce the line! Forget about using the Humvee!"

With that conclusion, Harrison jumped out of the Humvee and joined me as we sprinted to the frontline. Even though I was currently incapable of using mana, my physical condition was in much better shape comparatively, and my current overwhelming physical attributes could change the entire direction of the battle at the gates.

We rushed forward.

With thirty seconds remaining on [Paragon's Charge] I grabbed a discarded slab of metal from the ground and plowed through the undead. Crushing them under my strength and forcing a massive collapse in their momentum as hosts fell like dominoes before us. The brief respite on our lines was critical as the frontline gained a slight reprieve. It was only as I was close to them did I now see the number of wounds they were sporting. Many of them were covered in blood, and I could only hope most of it wasn't their own. All of them, Alex, Kevin, my Father, Dante, Alejandro, and William were out of breath, and bleeding from multiple gashes caused by the clawing dead. We were lucky these zombies weren't like from the movies, not caused by a virus, but by magic. As such, there was no fear we would suddenly turn into the undead from a simple infection. Of course, that was only of little comfort.

To my sudden befuddlement though, I noticed Liam was nowhere to be seen. I turned to Kevin, the least exhausted of them all, "Where the hell did Liam go!?" I screamed.

Kevin huffed as he attempted to catch his breath, and with disdain and contempt flooding his voice, "He ran," he gasped for more air, and continued, "as soon as you collapsed... and the undead started to stream in... after the explosion," he finished in between breaths.

"Damnit!" I screamed, "What in the living hell was he thinking!?" I was enraged that after everything we had done for him, he still ran when we needed all the help we could get. The Coward. If we survived this, then I was for sure going to make sure he wouldn't.

The slight reprieve ended moments later as the undead began to clamor back to their feet to continue their neverending assault.

Suddenly a rumble began to be heard over the cacophony of moans and groans on the battlefield.

Then, suddenly, a shriek, and an explosion just in front of the gate.

"What the..." I couldn't help but say as my sword cleaved an undead in two, and then transitioned my momentum to bisect another skeleton, causing the light in its eyes to extinguish.

As I continued to slash away, my attention was pulled elsewhere as I attempted to make sense of the... Familiar sound.

Then suddenly, pop, pop, pop. In quick succession, the sound of bullets whizzing through the air and striking flesh began to rain throughout the battlefield, and then a deluge of pip-pip-pip-pip in several repeating resonances.

As I continued to slash apart any undead that drew too close, I heard the unhinged laughter of Harrison beside me, "No fucking way," he exclaimed in crazed astonishment as another loud boom was heard followed immediately by an explosion.

Harrison turned to me and smiled as the tide of undead began to wane as they turned to counter the new and more immediate threat to their invasion of our Community.

I helped to finish off the last of the undead within our gates before moving to plug the gap in between our makeshift gate of very clearly damaged cars. With more strength than any man ought to rightfully have, I pulled the cars back in, enclosing our gate once again, ensuring that any further assaults will be met with a barricade once more. It was at that moment though that I caught a glimpse of what was happening just outside our walls.

Two M1A2D Abrams, one of the newest, and at this point supposedly the last model of tanks that will ever enter service of the United States Army, were currently blasting apart the battlefield. In their open hatches, the mounted turrets tore like scythes through the massive horde of undead, cleaving away like a sickle through a field of wheat.

I didn't know how a local military unit, likely National Guard, had gained access to some of the most advanced tanks known to humanity, and how they had managed to be here at the right time. The question could possibly be answered by the mere presence of an R&D base nearby, but my knowledge of local military installations was, unfortunately, lacking. Regardless, the boundless joy that coursed through my body at the sight of the military was immeasurable. We had thought the military to no longer be intact, but it seemed I had personally underestimated the true resilience of America's army.

'Why were they here though?' That was the only real question racing through my mind as I watched a platoon's worth of soldiers advance, slightly crouched, firing away into the mass of dead, making quick work of any walking corpse unfortunate enough to be caught in their crosshairs. Fireteams grouped together, fanning out and pincering the dead from multiple angles. Towards the far end of the battlefield, I barely made out through the haze of smoke, a lich struggling to survive a hail of bullets.

It only proved that a tier 1 undead, even if it was a 'rare' grade lich was no match for modern weaponry. Though, I'd say in the back of my mind I was slightly disappointed that I wouldn't be able to experience a brawl with the undead that had so ruthlessly attacked our community. 'Was I turning into a battle junkie?' The thought made me slightly concerned until I suddenly remembered Antonio, our first casualty of the battle.

I sprinted back into the confines of our community, barely taking note of the fact that pretty much everybody was currently sprawled on the ground breathing heavily as they sought to recover and take advantage of the precious minutes the military had provided us. Ignoring the sight, I made my way to where Apinya was sitting by Antonio's side. Alejandro was also knelt by his brother holding his hand. It warmed my heart to see the man ignore his exhaustion to make sure his brother was still okay.

So, with the chorus of gunfire and explosions providing the ambiance to the moment, I too knelt down next to Antonio.

He was still breathing, as his chest rose up and down. His grievous wound was no longer bleeding profusely and appeared to have actually scabbed over, clearly in the process of healing. Alex and Apinya had been successful, Antonio was alive.

Just as my most pessimistic of thoughts withered away, a mana explosion reverberated throughout the battlefield. It was death mana. A small shockwave indicated the death of the lich, and with it, so too went away the cohesive push of the undead, as they no longer operated under a single mind. The lumbering mass of ravenous monsters lost their enhanced buff from the mana-enriched atmosphere as the mana was no longer held in place by the Lich's very presence.

I breathed out a sigh of relief. It was over. The Community had survived.

But now we would have to deal with the presence of a military we had thought collapsed and gone with the sands of time.

'Was America still alive?'