All my doubts, fears and guilt over taking the gang members' lives was completely crushed after entering the store loading area.

Inside the main shopping aisles were surprisingly tidy but overall missing at least 60% of stock. All the perishables were gone leaving only longer lasting items like toiletries, drinks, pastas and tinned food.

Notably there had been no alcohol remaining anywhere in sight.

But as we entered the loading and warehouse area, we were disgusted to see horrific living conditions.

The warehouse had huge tall shelves filled with crates and it was eerily silent except for a few muffled sobs and whimpers with a few very faint whispers.

Dotted about in no clear pattern or order, people were locked in cages that were designed to take foot in and out of the store, barely 1x1 sq. metre of space with no toilets visible and no beddings.

The place smelt bad, as if people were having to soil themselves.

The first cage held a young fair haired blue eyed girl, who couldn’t have been more than 12 and she was absolutely filthy; she slowly raised her head and her eyes went wild as she recognised Terin.

Like an abused animal, she cautiously moved over and leaned against the cage sides with a sliver of hope appearing in her glinting tearful eyes.

She didn’t make a single sound as her eyes darted from him to us and towards a raised office space further at the back of the warehouse.

I put a finger to my lips to signal her to be silent and she clapped a hand over her mouth, nodding and weeping uncontrollably as I inspected the cage’s padlock.

It was a generic padlock which we regularly had to deal with such as shed doors when looking for tools, so after fishing out a couple of spanners, I cracked open the lock and the girl carefully got out, shaking like a leaf.

We went round and unlocked 24 cages, nearly all of them were kids or young teenagers with only 3 adults: 2 young women and a young man.

The young man gave me the impression that he’d just been captured by the fact his dark clothes looked in good condition, whilst everyone else were wearing rags and mismatched stuff, he had boots, combat cargo trousers, a thick army jacket and even a face scarf; a proper scavengers outfit.

Sensibly, I scanned every person before breaking their lock, mainly to look at their karma rating which I’d presumed was a measure of if they had been killing other people or not and then absorbing their EXP. I just hope you didn’t get negative KAR for just killing… But nobody was negative and all the kids were MAGN 1 without exception, whilst the two young women were MAGN 3 and 4.

The young guy on the other hand was MAGN 10, making me both slightly nervous but interested in hearing how he’d been captured.

Label = Ven

HP = 98/98

MAGN = 10.980

KAR = +

On paper he should be stronger than the mobbers we’d walked over and he seems so familiar..

We led everyone back out to the entrance towards the toilets while not a single person made a peep. Their self control was astonishing as nobody made a run for it or broke down, they all just followed silently and once we reached the entrance we had a short discussion with everyone about our plan and asked them to either sit tight if they wanted to come back with us, else they were free to go if they wished.

Met with silence and fearful faces, I nodded to the adults and took them to the side to ask them if they would be willing to protect everyone, not that they have much choice if I’m being honest. All three nodded and I momentarily caught eyes with Ven. He gave me an exceptionally warm smile that was a bit intense, making me feel slightly uncomfortable but I shrugged it off and handed him a spare hunting knife; in response he held out a fist for a fist bump.

“I’m Ven. Thank you, kind friend.” His voice was calm and measured… Ahhh that’s who he reminds me of! His accent and looks were a spitting image of that desert warrior in The Mummy.

We asked Terin if he could stay and help protect the group, to which he didn't argue at all. He definitely had post traumatic stress but he had stuck protectively close to the first girl ever since we'd found her and I got the feeling he'd found a new sense of purpose in ensuring her safety.

Me and Catara turned around and started swiftly moving towards the warehouse but as we reached the doors…

A man walked through from the other side.

Label = Ivil (MURDERER)

HP = 223/223

MAGN = 18.901

KAR = -

"Well, well, well, look at you two cunts." A dangerous, dark voice announced.

He had a squashed hardened face with short black hair and a black overgrown beard. He wasn't tall but he was very stocky and had big arms and chest on top of thick legs.

Built like a proper brick shithouse.

MAGN 18?!? SHIIIIT!

Pushing down a feeling of pure dread, I didn’t waste a second and immediately shoulder charged forward but just before I impacted the man, he smirked and I thought I saw a flicker of movement before my vision burst into multicoloured lights and then went pitch black..

What the fuck just happened?!

You’ve been hit for 61 damage by [Murder Step].

You’ve been knock-down for 2 seconds.

My vision returned like a car crash and my body was very disgruntled, in pain. I could hear screams and shouting as I drunkenly looked around and noticed that I was lying in a chest freezer…with a ‘me’ shaped mould embedded in it.

“Ughhh…what just…” my body kicked into gear as a rush of blood pulsed through my brain, I widened my eyes in shock as my thoughts started forming correctly.

Oh shit! The combat log had appeared!?

Something's changed.

I've never seen it actively respond to my queries before.

Status..

STRY.KYR - MAGN.15.999+

HP [==110/176HP==]--

MP [==120/185MP==]

EP [==25%EP==]

DS [==100%==]

I’d been fucking booted halfway accross the store and with that one hit I’d taken 30% of my total HP, the pain was beginning to fade as the adrenaline dulled it all away.

Not as bad as you would expect but thats Majik and superpowers for you. Still don’t really understand how these numbers correlate to actual body damage.

“Eat SHIT Motherfu-” An angry voice rattled the air, before being drowned out by shelves crashing.

Glad to hear Catara’s going strong!

I quickly but carefully got up, checked all my limbs and then sprinted forward towards the shouting.

The direction of where we'd left Terin and the others.

*CLANG

“Ahhhhhahahahaha! What a fucking dirty cunt! You fink’ you can stop me?"

I came round a corner and was at the side of both the man and Catara.

He had a machette and was clashing with Cataras shield, she was blocking him from getting to the captives we freed.

"I told all doze' little fuckstains that if they eva' left their cages again, I’d rip their limbs off…AND LOOK WHERE YOU ALL ARE? TRYING TO SNEAK OFF?! I-FUCKING-WARNED-YOU-ALL!!” The man called Ivil roared as he backed up and his leg blurred with inhuman speed as he kicked out but Catara gritted her teeth and held her ground, even against the insanely powerful blow.

"ARGH! FUCKING. MOVE! STUPID. COW!" His smashing his weapon into her shield like an enraged neanderthal.

*SMASH *CLANG *SMASH *CLANG

Catara was sweating heavily and she was starting to buckle under the onslaught, she couldn't hold him off much longer.

Having seen enough, I made no battlecry or warnings as I took one huge sprinting leap forward and jumped and used shoulder charge midair, an azure majik haze enshrouding me and accelerating me forward by removing all air resistance.

"Huh? URKK-" He snapped his head towards me a split second before I impacted into his face and the azure majik haze converged and blasted into him with a visible explosion that dispersed into the air. This time, he was the one sent flying down onto the floor.

Catara and some others gasped at my sudden appearance.

"He's alive??"

"But he got hit?"

"I told you he was strong!"

It

"Ugh…what the..f-OI! HOW THE FUCK'YOU STILL ALIVE?" He wiped a cut on his lip and spat out some blood as he got back on his feet.

"Huh, most people's ribs don't last long when I'm around haha! But it looks like we got some real 'ard cunts here today eh?!"

Keeping silent and not daring to look away, I took off my backpack and tossed it behind me.

"Oh it's like dat isit? Got nuffin to say ya boring Ponce?" He took a step towards but stopped when I said nothing and simply stared at him.

My mind was frantic with fear, but these types of scumbags lived off fear and I was determined to not give him a single shred of satisfaction. I'd been dealing with monsters for months now, I had fought worse.

"Well then. Fuck it. I don't see why you need a mouth if you ain't guna' use it. 'Ere, let me cut it out for ya!" He was gritting his teeth in a twisted furious smile.

A familiar sound of metallic rain on glass pierced the air.

My blood ran cold. A fucking Majiglyph?! Backmounted as well??

Behind Ivil, a thin dark green insect leg like appendage appeared, the tip of it was a cleaver style weapon. The whole thing looked chitinous and insectoid, but still unnatural like 3d printed plastic.

My heavy breathing, and slightly panicked eyes betrayed my shock however, and Ivil lapped it up like the bottom feeder he was.

"Ahahaha yeah you're propa fucked now ain't ya! look at your mug! Oh but wait, there's more!!" He was cackling as three more backmounted cleavers spread out from his back.

My shock briefly passed and it was replaced with a snarl of disgust.

Disgust at how he had been given these tools and he used them to prey on others like a coward.

"I'm Guna cut that fucking look off your face, you wannnnkerrr!"

He took a step towards me, fists raised as his cleavers snapped into positions.

Once they did, he ran towards me.

Two can play at this game.

Before I even started to deploy my own Majiglyph shields, I got a strange emotional feeling they were absolutely frenetic for me to tag them in to fight the other glyph and their bearer.

If they had a voice it's almost like they would be shouting "PUT ME IN COACH. I'LL REND THEM ASUNDER."

Well then.

Tag, you're in.

Metallic rain sang in the air as I shook my limbs loose, narrowed my eyes and lowered my stance.

Both Shields snaked up and over my shoulders and they stretched forward as far as they could go which was as far as I could outstretch my arms. Point forward, they were acting like a couple of wolves on leashes, practically dragging me forward to get at the charging man, with his 4 very sharp looking..

insectoid..

cleavers.…

Fucking Majik.

His face, oh boy his face was priceless! Eyes bulging, he slammed the brakes on his pace as his cleavers spread out in a defensive X but I was already dashing forward much quicker than he could react, thanks to skill cancelling my shoulder charge, gaining a burst of speed without using all energy or MP.

The top cleavers tried to come down on me yet and my shields juddered and emitted the printer jamming sound in response.I felt a big tug on my reserves as they tracked each one and blurred, smashing into them and then blurring again to swipe down into the lower ones.

My shields would be manically laughing right now, they were faster and stronger.

Ivils body language was like reading a children’s picture book and I knew he was going to bring both arms up to protect his face, which gave me an amazing opportunity.

As if by Majik, which of course it was, the high value target area I was thinking about became highlighted in white; my focus and thoughts were laser sharp.

Once I start landing hits, his cleavers will reactively attack those limbs, so I'll need to hit, then block.

Certain on the movements I needed to take to achieve a critically effective hit, I first landed a solid quick right punch into his left side, quickly pulling my arms to my chest and bringing my shields close to block all four attacks of his cleavers afterwards.

Then I used my right shield to protect my shoulder as I pushed forward into his arms as he brought them down to protect his left side, and I got a quick low kick into his left knee. He started leaning slightly to his left as a consequence and this opened himself up for my main target.

His liver.

I spun 270' rapidly, my shields gyroscopic in their movement to keep me protected from any of the cleavers attacks, and, using the momentum from my spin, I shoulder charged using an elbow directly into the highlighted area; I put every ounce of strength into the attack as I flared azure blue, the energy converging on my attack and blasting into the target.

Because he was leaning to the left, his right side below the ribcage was heavily exposed and my elbow impacted with an audible crack, indicating I'd broken some small lower ribs as well.

Ivil stumbled back and took a sharp gasping breath, trying to shake it off. He screwed his face in confusion as I jumped back, not letting my guard down…and I waited, taking controlled deep breaths, hoping that my idea worked.

"Wha-...ufff..Idge' jyat' owl yooh' ghot'..." His words were disturbingly slurred.

*THUD*

He flopped onto his back, eyes lazily rolling around and he cramped up into a ball, groaning as his body actively fought against him trying to get back up.

"Your liver has been hit." I said flatly.

"Unless you have a healing ability or someone else helps you, you're probably going to die." I didn’t feel much sympathy and I wasn’t gloating or anything, it was almost a courtesy to explain what was happening at this point as he must be extremely confused as to what was going on.

But there was no response. He was deteriorating rapidly.

I heard gasps, followed shortly by murmurs, prompting me to look up at the kids and three adults.

"You all okay?" I said, slightly weirded out by the sudden hushed din.

Everyone was whispering like a cult.

And it was freaking me out.

Catara jogged over to me as uncertainty turned into tension before Ven moved to the front and nodded with everyone.

He turned back around and walked a few steps forward and stopped, glancing cautiously down at Ivil getting quieter and quieter.

"I believe we've all received the same divine instruction." His Egyptian accent was thick. He glanced back at everyone and looked back at me.

Divine instruction? Does he mean task?

"We have been given a collective choice to either forgive Ivil for his sins or contribute to his death in order to reap his strength." He swallowed anxiously.

"We MUST choose a path either way. Else we risk heavy punishment." He sighed.

"What the hell? What does it say? What kind of punishment?" I hissed.

"It says we will be inflicted with a permanent status of soul sickness." He uttered a few curse words.

"Soul sickness?" I asked.

He shook his head and shrugged.

Looking down at Ivil who had slipped into unconsciousness, his cleavers were limp bar a couple of twitches.

"Either way. It matters not. We've already come to an agreement." He stepped towards him.

The others, the kids, the teenagers and the two young woman, they all shuffled forward; their eyes were wild with rage and pain.

Everyone had a weapon of some kind, some even were holding a tin can.

Who am I to refuse the will of the tasks…but come on, they’re just kids for fuck sake…

Sighing I stepped far back and Catara just blew air out of her nose and moved over to me.

"The unforgivable cannot be forgiven." I heard Ven whisper.

There was a few seconds of silence before it turned very, very dark as everyone brutally attacked the motionless Ivil.

It was hard to see through the crowd, but a couple of kids were trying to snap the insect cleaver appendages and some of the teenagers were stabbing him quite literally in his arsehole.

About 10 seconds later, my sight flickered, a sign for me to check my black thought space.

Grimacing from the violence, I turned away and focused.

(!)SEV II TASK TX(!)

DESTROY NEGATIVE KAR ENTITIES

[SWAINE, IVIL, YEJA, JOHN, SHAYN, RILE, GURI, TINN, PORTER, EJIV]

..

..

SUCCESS.

REWARDS:

X10 [+250 PER TARGET]

X1 [ NULLIFY_EXP_CORRUPTION I ]

x350(x20) [+KARMA (KAR)]

BONUS:

NEURAL VISUAL DISPLAY FULLY AMALGAMATED WITH ######### - [PECHO TECH I] LEAP EVOLVED INTO [ANALYZE II].

[ANALYZE II]

IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LEARN.

…..

…

..

Time for me to learn what?!