“Faster, Eric. You wanna die with a rats eating you alive? Pick up your feet and RUN, boy!”

He could so easily picture Mr. Vincent, his fitness coach who looked like a C list star with his silver-grey eyes, Beckham style haircut, and bristly mustache. A man Eric knew couldn't act for shit, but who could absolutely wipe the floor with anyone so arrogant as to think a handsome face meant they were worth shit in an action movie.

Because Vincent had been old school. Old school enough to make sure that Eric could fence like an 18th century gentleman, shoot straight with both smooth bore musket and crossbow, and fence with bayonets well enough that a Roman spearman wouldn't spit in his face if Eric had gone back in time. The legionnaire might laugh a little, but at least he wouldn't think Eric utterly hopeless.

And he could at least throw a punch that didn’t look too bad on camera, having quickly learned how to mimic a basic boxer’s stance, surprised by how much he had enjoyed the basic boxing lessons the hired professional had given him, eager to learn how best to land a solid right hook that was great for a movie cut scene. For a time, he had wanted to take it up seriously, but his mother put an immediate halt on the training, after he had managed to break a stunt double’s nose, just days later.

An unfortunate accident, so certain the guy had been that Eric couldn't use his fists any better than any other white boy on set. And who was Eric not to trust the assurances of a trained professional? So poor Bobby had ended up paying quite the steep price for the sake of cinematic verisimilitude. At least the hot blood shooting out of the guy's nose had looked so on point, his stunned expression exactly what the director had been looking for, that the shot had survived the final cut. And that was as far as Eric's unarmed training had gone, Mr. Vincent himself having little interest in any boxing save learning how to use the knuckle bow of a saber to smash in teeth, break ribs, or crack an opponent's skull. The man reserved all his hardcore training for actual weapons of war, as he put it.

Of course, what his mother loved most about Mr. Smith wasn’t just that he believed that actors should actually know how to use the weapons in their hands, but that he was old school enough to think a little bit of juicing wouldn’t do Eric any harm at all.

“She’s giving you the good stuff, Eric. Actual Testosterone. None of that testicle-shriveling artificial shit.”

Eric recalled all too well that conversation, having given the man such a look in between his exhaustive sprint-work on the track, earning a smirk in return.

“Fuck, son, I use a patch myself. Doctor prescribed. Just like yours is. So quit pussy-footing around, and run like you mean it!”

Eric couldn’t help chuckling in bitter memory, a chuckle that soon turned to a wheezing cough. To think that he had once trained so hard for a role that would have made any John Carter fan proud, and was now struggling just to breathe with his scorched lungs and the discordant squeals of countless scurrying rats behind him, after jogging just a few hundred yards.

Not that long ago, he would have been sprinting up the passage before effortlessly leaping across the surprisingly strong current comprising the waterway in the center of the tunnel before dashing another fifty yards, turning right, and there he was, home stretch.

Now, he was whimpering in terror as he ran in what seemed like perfect darkness lit up only by the faint, faint glow of the stone all around him, and the water just ahead of him as well.

For a heartbeat, he was terrified that maybe the walls were glowing with faint radiation, which almost certainly promised an absolutely agonizing death. But when he turned around to peer into the darkness, he was surprised and terrified to see not the faint dim outline of rats against the stone, but brilliant red eyes glaring back at him, their massive rodent bodies glowing with a fiery light.

A sight that terrified him so badly, he promptly tripped and fell into the current.

Congratulations! Desperation and a need to see above all else has allowed you to directly tap into the essence of Flame. Interface allows for full integration of infrared spectrum. You now possess Infravision, and can sense the heat radiating from both inanimate objects and living things!

Finesse check FAILED! You have fallen into waterway!

You fail to regain your feet.

You have successfully saved versus drowning!

Basic swimming skills detected.

Swimming Skill successfully quantized at Rank 1!

Alex’s exhilaration at actually having the ability to see in pitch darkness was instantly replaced by terror when he stumbled and fell into the current, shock nearly causing him to take a deep breath of ice-cold brackish water that thankfully tasted like nothing so much as runoff rainwater.

Water so cold he feared his heart would stop, buck naked as he was.

Still, dozens of hours of swimming classes, surfing at the beach, and countless laps by the pool kicked in to play during those desperate moments, Eric struggling with a such a sad approximation of the breaststroke he had once used to cut through the water before he realized just how shallow the water truly was, immediately shifting to a half-swim, as he struggled to his feet in the vicious current.

Extensive practice as a beginner and/or a moderate degree of natural talent has been detected.

Swimming Skill is now Rank 2!

It was, he thought, a miracle he was even able to fight against the current with his weak, clumsy limbs that reduced him to tears as he kept falling over in three-foot deep water before at last crossing to the other side.

And all the while, he could hear the furious squeaks of rats of unusual size getting ever closer…

Then he heard the awful splash of large bodies diving into the current, vicious predators eager to tear into his flesh.

Eric desperately held back a panicked scream, struggling just to pull himself up onto the hard stone lip of the far shore, desperation giving strength to trembling limbs such that he ignored the blinding pain and bloody smear when imperfectly healed scar tissue ripped on the rough stone tiles he now trembled and shook upon.

For endless moments, he shook and sobbed before finally regaining his feet, risking one furtive glance behind him, and so wishing he hadn't.

For the hot-eyed monstrous rats were not only struggling to cross the waters en-mass… they were frantically scrabbling on top of each other, swarming as one for the stone ledge just as he had been, and just seconds away from finding purchase.

Alex didn't waste time on panic or frantic racing thoughts leading nowhere, he just acted on instinct.

Falling to his butt, ignoring the shocking jolt pain, he kicked out with withered legs, striking the furiously twitching noses of first one and then a second rat, sending them both squealing monstrosities back into the river with a splash, feeling such a fierce surge of relief when their angry chitters rapidly faded downstream.

Before the third managed to sink its incisors into his foot.

You have been struck for 1 Light Wound! 8 Health lost!

You have saved versus excruciating pain!

Eric screamed when vicious yellow teeth tore into his foot, whipping it back and forth. But the little fucker was latched on. Grinding cracked food bones together, glaring at Eric with evil eyes as its companions slowly climbed over the lip of stone, and Eric could taste his imminent death.

And to his horror, he almost thought he could sense the cold smugness of a certain pod some distance away, happy to witness the death of the foolish mortal who refused to surrender his prize, perishing like all the other trash in this realm.

In that moment, with his world torn apart, his body ravaged, his future destroyed, surrounded by nasty man-eaters eager to see him dead, his terror transformed to white-hot rage as he snarled down at the rat, gripping it tight with trembling hands somehow squeezing the massive rat so tightly that it was actually forced to loosen its grip.

Right before bursting into flame.

Eric’s sudden fury turned to shocked disbelief as he gazed at the blazing rat, feeling an odd dizziness he hadn’t expected, as squeals both frightened and furious hammered home just how perilous his situation truly was.

With a desperate jolt of fear, he sprung back to his feet as the gathered cluster of rats hissed and chittered, before leaping away as Eric pegged them with the furiously blazing remains of their brethren… earning Eric a desperate moment’s reprieve before the scattering rats gathered themselves once more to glare at Eric with hate-filled beedy eyes.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Eric sobbed, desperately lurching on his now bloody foot, eager just to escape.

Because the miracle of whatever it was he had done paled before the realization that his accomplishment had taken something out of him. He felt drained to his core, and he was still dead if those rats attacked en masse.

This time, when the mustachioed countenance of his former sadistic couch roared “run!” in his mind’s eye, he was sprinting at a rate that would have done even that psychopath proud… no matter that his foot was leaving a crimson trail through the maze of tunnels to a dead-end corridor leading to a reinforced steel door.

Eric was heaving for breath at that point, as whatever odd abilities he might or might not have had wasn’t doing shit for his lungs.

“Thank god, thank fucking god!” He sobbed, trembling hands on the latch, knowing he had only seconds before the swarm of rats, their awful chitters echoing endlessly through the corridors, would be all over him.

But it was only when he gave a second hard tug on the latch that he registered the combination lock rattling just under the handle.

He froze in terrified disbelief as death closed in on him.

Choking back a whimper before panic finally overwhelmed him and he began screaming and pounding on the door, leaving bloody smears in his desperate frenzy.

“Elonia! Mom! Vincent! It's me, Eric! Please, open up! For fuck's sake, open up before they kill me!"

Eric gave a desperate whimper as the jittering squeals got closer.

Only then realizing he was being a complete fucking idiot.

The lock was sealed on the outside.

Because everyone was gone.

There was no one here but him.

He was going to die alone.

“Fuck that, fuck that, it’s a combo lock!”

Mind racing, knowing he only had seconds, he gazed down at the lock, sobbing with relief when he noted that the numbers were fluorescently dyed.

“Okay, it's a combo, not a key. Maybe… yes, Birthday. My birthday! It's a message for me!"

It was a desperate hope, and all he had to go on as he spun the dials to his sister’s birthday, giving it a desperate yank… and getting nothing.

His heart lurched. Why wasn’t it working!? “is it month, day, day? Fuck!”

By the time desperate scarred fingers spun in 7, 3, and 1, the rats were coming around the bend.

And the lock remained stubbornly closed.

“FUCK!” Eric screamed for all he was worth, buying half a second of life as the rats hesitated, his voice echoing far too loudly in the corridor.

“My birthday? It’s Elonia’s birthday. She was born at 12:05 the next day. I’m an idiot!”

And somehow he found it within himself to force his trembling fingers to give the lock one final spin, and he wanted to sob with relief when it finally came off, smooth and easy as a dream.

Before screaming with pain when fiersome sharp rodent teeth tore into his calf.

You have been struck for 8 damage and One Light Wound!

You have saved versus crippling blow!

You have struck your opponent for one Light Wound!

“No!” Eric screamed, spinning around and slamming down with the lock in his hand with all the force of a fastball he’d never throw again, the metal lock cracking against the startled rat’s skull. Enough to stun it, but it still refused to let go.

Eric's terror turned to blinding fury once more, charred lips cracking in a feral grin as he grabbed the greasy fur of the thick rat with his scarred hands and screamed his hate at its beady little eyes.

Screamed as it began to writhe and twist, before bursting into white hot flame with its dying squeal.

And with the last of his strength, strength he thought forever lost to him, Eric tossed the furiously blazing rat at the swarm of rapidly approaching rodents, the closest handful hissing and scurrying away from the miniature inferno tossed in their midst.

Which gave Eric the desperate second he needed to yank open the reinforced door just enough to scurry in with zero regard for the scarred flesh he scraped on the walls, leaving bloody tracks behind as he slammed the door shut and spun the wheel lock as the reinforced steel rang with the dull thuds of multiple rats slamming against it as Eric sunk to his knees with desperate sobs.

He was a scarred wreck who couldn’t even catch his breath, a broken shadow of his former self, and he had never been so grateful to be alive as he was at that moment, curled up and sobbing on the floor of the shelter that had been his family’s bunker in a world gone mad for weeks, and was now all that stood between himself and countless feral horrors that wanted him dead.

__________________________________

Sometime later, when the storm of grief, regret, and desperate relief had finally past, he was filled with a strange bittersweet serenity. Able to look at himself in the mirror and analyze the chamber he found himself in with a clearheaded tranquility that had been lacking when he was first forced to confront the horrors of his body, then desperately fighting for his life for the frantic few minutes immediately after.

Now, for the moment, he was safe. Or so he prayed.

Both safe and feeling oddly serene, or perhaps just too drained to scream and rail against a fucked up world as he forced himself to look in the nearby mirror and confront the horror of what he had become.

There was no sugar-coating it.

His scarred, mostly numb fingers had failed only in detecting the degree of his disfigurement.

His worst nightmare had come true.

He was a grotesque mask of scar tissue leaking puss.

And he was a brother who had jumped into a literal hell to save his sister.

He was a man who had dared lance one of the bastard invaders treating humans as livestock…

And he was someone who had managed to set two rats ablaze with nothing more than the hot fires of fury he could now sense flickering within his soul.

But whatever else he might be or become, he most certainly was not the beautiful, spoiled young actor who had been just weeks away from becoming a household name.

Yet if the messages blinking in his interface were correct, no matter how rough his start, he was now walking a path that he had only dreamed of embracing in his wildest fantasies.

If only the world hadn’t had to end in order for him to live out that dream.

If only he hadn’t had to kiss living flame.

Congratulations! You have slain two Giant Rats! You have discovered a Sylvan Faction Sanctuary! You have unlocked the secrets to three Essence disciplines without assigning any Primal Nodes!

Experience from Multiple Sources Earned!

You have leveled up!

You are now a Level 1 Conscript!

Eric was immediately flooded with a sense of his own endless potential. Of all the ways he could change himself, evolve closer to his ideal, whatever that ideal might be.

You may invest any number of potency points in the characteristics of your choice!

Additional options available to you at this level:

A fresh start.

You may spend 1 point to remove all damage suffered from the flames you dared! This will restore 3 points of Strength, 5 points of Vitality, 3 points of Quickness, 3 points of Finesse, 10 points of Appearance. NOTE. This will eliminate Essence of Flame. Essence of Wrath would still be kept!

For long moments, far longer than he wanted to admit, he considered grabbing that fresh start. For a single measly point.

But if had just given both essences to that damned Pod, he would be walking around with an Advanced class and Olympian stats already.

Besides, the only reason why he had been able to navigate the pitch blackness beyond the faint vegetative green glow of the pod, the only way he had managed to kill either of those rats, was thanks to whatever the hell he had done to set them ablaze. An odd combination of fury and pouring everything he had into his memory of being burned alive, right before giving that pain to them.

No. He had already made his choice.

And with at least two abilities blossoming from it, and multiple hints that he might have others as well, he’d be a fool to stray from that path. Two powers revealed in a single day, and he was just getting started.

He would see it through.

But still, he absolutely hated his transformation from vital, graceful youth to someone who could barely breathe when jogging, with weakened hands that trembled at rest.

That weakness was absolutely inexcusable.

He took a deep breath despite his exhaustion, beyond grateful to find himself back in familiar surroundings, no matter how terribly alone he felt, knowing that he was the only one here. Because not only did these once luxuriously appointed rooms represent safety in a world gone mad, they also represented an opportunity.

An opportunity to better himself, just as his coach would have expected him to.

But in order to take advantage of that opportunity, he needed to at least be resilient enough to endure it.

Feeling a sense of peace with his resolution, he collapsed upon the leather sofa, still naked and covered in his own blood, allowing himself to fall into the deepest of slumbers as he took that first vital step to forging himself into the man, the warrior, he most wanted to be, as he lost himself in dreams of endless flame, until he sensed at last the beauty behind the chaotic patterns of oblivion itself.

You have successfully invested THREE character points into Vitality.

You have chosen to KEEP all essences!

SEVERE pulmonary scarring has been reduced to MINIMAL pulmonary scarring. Essence Pattern maintained! You now enjoy 95% of expected lung capacity!

Your scars have begun to fade. Appearance automatically improves by 1 point.

_____________________________________

Eric Silver Level 1 Conscript

Physical Characteristics

Strength – 8

Vitality – 11

Finesse – 9 (Your hands suffer mild tremors at rest.)

Quickness – 10 (Your scars and keloids make it painful for you to move too quickly!)

Appearance – 7 (You suffer significant scarring over 90% of your body!)

Mental Characteristics

Scholarship – 12

Perception – 13

Willpower – 15

Charisma – 13

Potency Pools

Arcane Potential – 14

Spiritual Energy – 16

Soul Reserves – 20

Stamina – 110 Points (You have regained 95% of original lung function! You now enjoy baseline stamina!)

Health – 128 Points.

Resistances & Recovery

Physical Resistance – 0

Physical Regeneration – Baseline (You need 20-(Vitality) = 9 hours of rest before your body will fully restore from all negative ailments or injuries.)

Elemental Resistance – 0

Qi Resistance – 0

Mental Resistance – 1

Interface Recognized Skills

Swimming – Rank 2

Interface Enhancements

Full Neuro-Linguistic capabilities

Extradimensional Storage space

Essences Claimed:

Fire (Rank 1)

Wrath (Rank 1)

Essence Abilities:

Infravision – Rank 2

Heat Surge – Rank 1

Burst of Strength – Rank 1

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