This time the students don’t shy away.

Unlike the ones in my fourth period these kids haven't been forced to watch someone they had grown up with, be speared through so they probably still thought they had a chance.

As I run towards them, some of the upperclassmen block the way forming a wall between the rest of the students and myself…..

Still no teachers, so I was right in trying to go looking for them. If they have all suddenly ditched the school, something bad must be happening, and they avoided telling the students to not cause mass panic.

Focusing back on the upperclassmen, it's not hard to tell they’re part of the football and baseball teams. The jerseys and the bats held by some of the kids are a dead giveaway.

I might need to be careful…. Aiyla is amazing and beautiful and wayyy stronger than all those lumps of wood, but i'm still outnumbered and they aren’t crippled by fear this time. That's an easy fix though……

Thinking that, I throw Scott to the nearest kid, and he immediately blanches as the still bloody arm cartwheels towards him. Blood fountains in a circle after every revolution, painting the kid red as well as the surrounding tables and heavily, polished tile floor.

As soon as he catches it, he drops it and vomits all over the freshly painted floor, green and red are such pretty colors.

Unknown to everyone else, I had put Jessy into my bag, removing Aiyla at the same time. While the rest were focused the on the kid, I take the chance to relieve some of Aiyla’s hunger by shoving her bladed edge into his exposed back.

Straining my muscles, I lift the kid and show off my newest trophy to the gathered committee. Aiyla’s contentment at finally being fed is immediate as well as the resurgence of hunger now that she finally has a chance to eat.

The next few moments are a strained silence as the students’ brains comprehend the bloody scene in front of them, before they break out into hysterics. The girls are all closing their eyes, and falling to the ground screaming in fear, while the boys all pale at the viciousness with which one of their friend’s lives had been ended. At this point, even the jocks are backing up, now regretting their earlier rash judgement, thinking they could be heroes.

Vomit boy’s blood begins to coat Aiyla’s shaft so I go ahead and shake off his corpse. She shouldn’t be playing with her food.

The head jock suddenly starts, realising everyone else is too scared to speak, “Why the hell are you doing this! Are you crazy, the cops are gonna be here any minute! Stay away from us we never did anything wrong, I swear!”

“You did nothing wrong?” I ask, my head is starting to hurt.

“No, in fact I regularly help out in the community! I’ve always been a nice guy, and never mistreat anyone! I promise you, i’m a good guy!” Every second that passes he gains more and more confidence, inching his way forward. Now it's just him blocking the way…..

……

….

…

He never did anything wrong? LiEs. HE IS LYING. AIYLA IS HUNGRY AND HE IS BLOCKING THE WAY. FOOD IS RIGHT THERE AND HE IS TRYING TO STOP AIYLA FROM EATING. HE'S JUST LIKE THEM.

HE'S JUST LIKE THEM.

HE IS THEM.

THEM.

THEM.

THEM.

“Just put down that weapon, it’s dangerous. You could really hurt someone, and no one needs that you know? I’m sure we can talk this out if you give us a chance.” By now he's only a few feet in front of me and begins to reach for Aiyla.

Did he just call Aiyla an IT.

My mind feels numb as I gaze into his hopeful face.

I put on a lazy smile which he takes as permission.

When his hand is only inches from grasping Aiyla, my face contorts to match the silent fury raging on inside me.

With a twitch of my arm his head launches upwards. On its way back down I rear back holding Aiyla’s blade flat like a bat and with a swing sending it flying!

I shout, “Home RUN!!!!!!!”

Now even the boys are screaming as the severed head flies amongst their group. The whole interaction took less time than the jock’s body needed to collapse. Poor guy probably has a killer headache right now…..

Good thing I’m standing in front of the only way out of the cafeteria, the students look like they would run if they could. Only problem is, even with Aiyla’s reach I still can’t reach both sides of the arch way if everyone rushed me at once…..

I wonder if I could use that Bloodlust in a situation like this….. Aiyla seemed to have agreed with my assessment as I get a feeling in the pit of my stomach. Almost like someone had started a pyre in my body, I felt like I was burning up.

A flickering red fog seeped out of my body and began to surround Aiyla as I felt something be drained. It was like I was using a sixth sense, everything the fog touched I could feel it more intimately than if I had been kissing it. It was the most surreal feeling…. Like I hadn’t been able to actually feel anything until that moment.

I could feel each individual groove and runic symbol that ran up Aiyla’s shaft. I could even tell that, despite having already sliced through 20 people, her blade was sharper than it had been when we first met. Even the dust floating in the air seemed to part as it merely came into contact with her.

Congratulations, you have created your first skill!

Blood Aura: (Tier I)

Staying true to the art of manipulation, Blood Aura is the malleable physical form of Blood Lust. The more permeable a form is, the more Blood Lust that is required to sustain it.

Current limit: 2ft

Its a bloody mess!

Synergy Detected!

Fear Inducer has been altered by Blood Aura as well as U̷̲̟̦͍̟̜̤̯̳͒̂̓̇͌̀̒͋͠͝Ń̵͍̫̘̓̃̇̈́̇̔̃̚͘K̴̳̩̈́͛̋͐́͝N̵̻͎̼̘͉͕͎̞͎̚͜O̶̧̩̞̤̮̍̂͛́̚͝ͅW̷̢̗̳̙̻̰̞͙͍̓̃͠N̵̻͚̳̥̣̜̫̎̉̔͑̿̕ to become Eldritch Fear Inducer! Eldritch Fear Inducer: (Tier II)

All actions intended to induce fear are given a bonus of 50%

Fear created through the use of this trait will temporary strengthen the user by 1% per being affected and weaken affected beings to 80%. The greater each individual being fears the user, the greater the boost, up to 5% per affected being. Affected beings can become crippled completely by fear at this level.

Dependent upon Will.

You are an abomination. Now let everyone know why.

After Mr. Blue Boxes disappears, the red fog that had been lazy and barely present, suddenly condensed. It looked incredibly solid, well as solid as fog could be in this situation. It flowed more like water now collecting on the blade of Aiyla before becoming a carbon copy extending her impressive reach by another staggering 2 feet.

The most surprising part was that it added no additional weight. I would never tell her, but Aiyla is kinda heavy, at least 40-50 pounds if I had to guess. At first this isn’t much but carrying her for so long has started to wear on me.

The students who had been fearfully watching me, became even further agitated as they watched the red fog pour from my body. The fog condensing seemed to have been some sort of signal as most of the students begin to race for the door, hoping it isn’t their lives that are taken to help the others escape. Some are still on the floor, but their eyes look empty showing they are still in severe shock.

Preparing myself I take a basic stance, somehow knowing the most optimal footing to fend off a horde such as this. Must be that other trait I got earlier, Basic Spear whatever. I hope it does more than help me keep my feet in a fancy pose because I’m still not confident on taking on the flood of terrified students.

Lowering Aiyla so that the Blood Aura extended tip is pointing directly at the horde, I can feel her anticipation and desire to consume them all.

The first five to fall to my Aiyla were quite easy. So did the next five. The bodies began to trip up others and after only a few seconds I had already killed around 17 students.

This is was when my trial truly began. In my fourth period, all of the students had more or less offered themselves to me so I didn’t have a chance to really experience how exhausting it is to wave around a 50 pound Aiyla. Now however, I have to run, stab, slice and do all sorts of fancy movements that I saw as unnecessary but ended up removing some of what I believe was excess movement.

By the time I had speared the 30th student, I couldn’t feel my arms.

The 40th made my body feel like jelly.

50th and I could feel some of my muscles ripping to keep up the constant pace.

65th and my vision was covered in red as tears of blood streaked down my face.

90th and everything was pain.

140th and I couldn’t stop, the battle had consumed me and I felt like a spectator to my own life.

190th and pain.

250th AND PAIN.

PAIN.

PAIN.

PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN.

The smell had gotten so strong that many of the students still in the back of the horde had to breathe through their mouths. Even then they could taste iron in the air and had to resist the urge to vomit. Some still did, again and again.

Those at the front were even worse. They dreaded every impact they felt as they ran for the arch way. They knew every step brought them closer to that demon.

No human could possibly endure the amount of stress swinging that enormous spear would take. What's worse was that they had no idea how much Mark was struggling on the inside. His outward appearance showed no sign of struggle and had kept the same pace as the beginning of the slaughter.

This was partly due to his new Eldritch skill. Allowing his body to reach heights no human could before The Gift. Given that it stacked while simultaneously growing stronger by milking the survivors of their fear, Mark’s power kept rising.

Around the 300th student, the rest simply gave up. The entrance was so completely blocked by bodies that just to get to the arch way, they had to crawl over life long dead friends. That alone would have invited insanity upon a normal person’s conscience but these students also had to face the Demon at the top of the mountain of dead.

The one that had single handedly killed everyone they knew. The people they had been raised beside. The people they called brother, and sister all dead. So they gave up. They surrendered their lives to him, to do as he pleased.

He was hunched over, completely covered in blood. Every step he would take left a bloodier footprint. The blood that caked him was so thick, it was several shades darker than even the pool that coated the floor. It was impossible to tell whom it belonged to, so thoroughly was he soaked in the viscous liquid.

Believing the monster would want them for some other purpose the girls that had surrendered began to weep. Little did they know their only value in his eyes were their souls, which he could feed to his beloved Aiya.

And so it went….. Though only an hour had passed, one of the many massacres that accompanied The Gift had passed. All of the students in the cafeteria were gone. Their lifeless corpses littering the floors like the trash they were. Now that they no longer possessed souls Mark had no respect for the shells of the former Humans.

Mark reflected on how much he had changed in what he could think was only a few hours. Since he had been given Aiya everything had changed. His life had suddenly gotten so much brighter. Of course he was in pain. Every inch of his body felt like it had been torn about and sewn back together but he was used to this sort of torment. Now he had choices.

He wasn’t the same child locked in a cellar waiting for his supposed parents to come back and bring more pain. Now he could grow stronger. The more happiness he felt, the more he thought this was all a dream. This only furthered his resolve to enjoy it while it lasted. He decided even if this had been real, given similar choices he would have walked the same blood paved path.

Mr. Blue Boxes must’ve learned from last time as not a single box showed up till he had finished his slaughter.

While he was scrolling through them, he went to find Scott. Luckily, no one had decided that touching the severed limb was a good idea meaning Scott was still lying next to Vomit Boy. Putting him in the blood drenched backpack along with his sister, Mark returned to the screens. He was eager to check his gains, even if those gains still made his entire body feel as if it was falling apart…….