Jonesboro Road near I-285 "The Perimeter", Clayton County, Georgia. Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 13:00

Sara opened her eyes to see Mr. Niles' corpse completely mangled. The two wraiths had basically dismembered him and cut his torso to ribbons before the man's Mana disrupted the two incorporeal undead. The girl swallowed the icy-cold sticky saliva that gathered in her mouth. Queasy, she glared at the military officer.

"I hope you got your footage and this is the last man who dies in such a stupid way."

Hainsworth looked at Kyle, "Did you get that?"

The drone operator was about to join some of his fellow volunteers in losing their lunch behind the MBT. "From forty different angles," was all he said before bending over the edge of the tank and throwing up as his mind released the grip on his stomach with the relief from delivering his report.

Still angry at the pointless loss of life, Sara started to walk forward. She reached Mr. Niles's remains and closed her eyes, dedicating a moment to pray for his soul. She wasn't a religious person before Armageddon but with Celestials falling from the Heavens and the very seals of the Apocalypse being cracked open, she had no choice but to believe.

Today, Famine the third horsemen would be set loose. She dreaded hearing the toll which would come at any moment.

The girl raised her head and looked at the horde of ghouls. "Crush their hearts and the kill is free of charge, right?"

That's all she needed to know. Though Kyle never answered if the undead bled, she cared not for that. If she was stronger, if she hadn't stopped at sixty-five, maybe Mr. Niles would be alive and could be cantankerous about something else, something less lethal. It was so stupid it got her blood boiling as she psyched herself for what was coming.

"Graaaaaaaargh!" Sara bellowed at the top of her lungs and ran into the fight.

She was done being a craven bitch. She was done being afraid. She was the fucking world's strongest human right now. She felt she could shrug bullets and no stupid horde of undead would ever stand in her way.

Reaching the first ghoul, Sara pulled her left fist back and delivered a cross straight at the left side of the ghoul's chest. Ribs cracked as the ghoul was pushed backward into the next undead behind him. Sara jumped on the ghoul, driving it to the ground, and clawed its chest as the undead struggled to strike back. Her fingers punctured the emaciated flesh easily and she grabbed a rib and pulled. It broke off in her hand. She then punched into the ribcage, feeling the still gooey organs underneath. She grabbed something squishy and pulled.

Sara tossed the piece of lung out and punched again. This time she felt something with more consistency. She grabbed and yanked it out. A puff of Mana followed and entered her channels. She looked at the shriveled heart and crushed it in her hand.

More ghouls closed in, some circling around. Hands grabbed her loose flannel shirt. Sara reached with her left hand and pulled. A female ghoul dove down, jaw unhinged as she tried to bite the girl. Sara stabbed with a knife-hand and found purchase between two ribs above the ghouls' breasts. The dead woman's bra offered more resistance than the flesh. Sara curved her fingers inside and yanked down, dislodging two ribs. With her left hand, she pulled the bra cup down and drove her right fist into the hole. She felt the heart cushion the punch until a point, then it broke. She absorbed more Mana.

Three ghouls grabbed her from behind as more closed in. She heard Hainsworth's voice shouting something but didn't understand the words. Or didn't care to even try to.

Sara jumped to a crouch, and the corpse of the female ghoul fell down from her lap. She kicked the asphalt and lunged forward, into the ghoul who cushioned the one she knocked back. With both hands, she clawed the ghoul's collarbones and pulled both out. One of the sides, the right one, broke out, causing that arm to swing behind.

Dragging the ghouls clinging to her along, she shoved her left arm into the opening as she pulled the ghoul to her. Sara literally rummaged inside the undead's ribcage until she found the heart and crushed it. Three.

"Sara!" A ghoul called.

"Saa-rah!" Another drawled.

"Fuck y'all all!" She roared.

Sara grabbed the arms trying to pin her down one by one and broke them. Twisted them out of their sockets. Yanked them off the undead bodies. Her conscious mind receded and refused to cope with what she was doing. Gone feral, she fought like a savage, clawing ribs, seeking hearts, crushing them, and screaming for more.

Should she mind noticing, she would find that the ghouls were becoming easier and easier to handle. Even though many grabbed or bit her, she could still plow her path because Abby was dumping all the energy she got from the kills into Prowess. It reached twenty levels, twenty-one.

The drones buzzed nearby but she heeded them not. All she cared about was to end this undead infestation and avenge Mr. Niles who she knew by name for all of five minutes or less. But that was not what she did. She unloaded every indignation she ever suffered. The bullying at school. A couple of ghouls who looked a bit similar to the Tailors were brutalized even after she had removed their hearts. Hodges, that corrupt social worker who embezzled her mother's social security death indemnity and took a bribe to mishandle her adoption papers. The mafia boss whose safe she stole from. Pamela, the two-faced mean girl. Keynes the kidnapper. Even her grudges against Joe. Sara might acknowledge she had an abrasive personality but Joe was a pure, a hundred percent asshole of a jerk. Verachiel, that gaslighting fallen Celestial. She couldn't believe she cried about his death. The parasite living inside her had the gall to threaten her with death should she try to remove them.

Curiously enough, she didn't think about Amanda while she unloaded her grudges.

Somewhere during her rampage, Sara lost her respirator.

*

*

Exit 55, I-285 "The Perimeter", Fulton County, Georgia. Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 16:00

She kicked, clawed, and punched the dead. She broke arms, legs, ribcages a-plenty. Even with Brawn reducing her stamina consumption, she felt her limbs were made of lead. She could barely breathe as her lungs felt like on fire. She could hear some shuffling around but saw no ghoul walking nearby.

She spat something she had in her mouth, unwilling to even think what it was. She was rather sure she hadn't bitten anything. Her legs wobbled.

Slowly, she recovered her senses. Her head buzzed and she felt nauseated. Her fingernails were sore. Sara spun slowly, looking around. She was far deep north, more than a quarter of a mile away from the strip mall and the tanks.

She was past the entrance to the Home Depot store, actually. Between her and the M1 Abrams, a carpet of corpses. The sun was rather down.

Sara took a water bottle from her belt and washed her mouth, spitting more pieces of something she refused to identify. Only then did she dare speak.

"Did I bite something?" She asked dreading the answer.

Abby's reply gave her little respite. She knew the fairy... thing inside her lied whenever convenient.

She looked up and saw a lot of drones buzzing around her. They actually backed off probably on command of their operators out of fear of being shot down. "If I watch the video from the drones, will it show me biting something?"

"Right now," she scoffed.

She saw some ghouls still crawling on the ground or, in some really bad cases, wriggling like worms. Her fingers felt sore.

"I feel awful. It's like I'm drunk," Sara conjectured. She had never been drunk to know but saw enough drunks back in Seattle to recognize the effects.

"I'm drunk on Mana?"

"Explain it in layman's terms, please," Sara was about to rub her temples but recoiled when she smelled her hands approaching her face. They were beyond filthy. It felt like she'd butchered... oh, goodness. She had butchered hundreds of carcasses.

"And if I use Mana you can shunt the excess to the MP pool, right?"

"Killing these ghouls with imbued strikes gives me a net loss in mana, right?"

"Boost Rapid Healing," Sara drew a knife and killed those the usual way. Imbue, stab, rinse, repeat. She kept killing until no corpse was left in Jonesboro. The drones helped, pointing out still-moving ghouls under this or that body or body part.

"Any left? How's the intoxication?"

> You gained 4 points of Adroitness.

> You gained 4 points of Composure.

> You gained 5 points of Prowess.

> You gained 6 points of Rapid Healing.

> You gained 6 points of Thermostasis.

> You gained 2 points of Presence.

> You gained 2 points of Flattery.

> You gained 3 points of Mana Infusion.

> You gained 3 points of Skill Boost.

> You have reached your daily limit of 50 Skill Points.

"Was this daily limit always a thing?" Sara asked, very suspicious.

Now she was a host. Spoken like a true parasite.

"Said every fucking germ ever," Sara joked sardonically. "Show me the Status Screen.

Name:

Sara

Species:

Human (+2 Skill Slots)

Skill Slots:

10 / 12

Magic Type:

Mage - Enhancer (Exclusive)

Special trait:

See through the Veil (Able to see into the ethereal)

Special trait:

Personal Core (Treat Core Strength as levels in a main Class).

Main Class:

N/A

Secondary Class:

N/A

Development

System Core Strength (SCS)

25

The System Core becomes stronger and better at generating its own energy. Core Strength is maxed out. It requires a connection to the main System Core to evolve.

1 - You can have a maximum of 10 skill points per level of Core Strength.

2 - A maxed-out Core allows for better aid in fine mana manipulation. Active Skills' upkeep can be fractioned.3 - Increases max MP pool and MP recovery by 50%.

Mana Conductivity (MC)

50%

(75%)

A measure of how clear the body's meridian system is. Mana conductivity impacts environmental energy absorption and channeling directly. Cleansed body systems are MC% stronger, more efficient, and tougher.

Foreign contaminants in your channels lower your conductivity slightly.

Purity of Body

Digestive, Epithelial, Skeletal, Muscular,Circulatory.

1 - Increase the efficiency of all cleansed body systems efficiency by MC.

2 - Synergy between Skin, Muscle, and Bone: Increase damage resistance by an additional half of MC3 - Synergy between Muscle and Bone: Increase physical strength by an additional half of MC.

4 - Synergy between Digestive and Circulatory systems increase immunity and resistance to external pathogens and toxins by half of MC.

5 - Cleansed body improves MP pool and all recovery rates by half of MC.

Mage - Enhancer (Exclusive)

25%

Your mana channels greatly enhance internal circulation but aren't that good at projecting and controlling ambient mana.

1 - Add a linear 25% to your mana conductivity for internal manipulation purposes.

2 - Multiply the effect of all Physical Skills and internal mana manipulation Skills by [25+Mana Conductivity]%

3 - Divide the effect of all External Mana Manipulation by 10.

4 - Exclusive-type mages cannot cultivate or actively use Qi.

Cold Affinity (major)

50%

You have a great affinity with the Cold element. Increase all Cold-related effects and resistances by 50%.

MP Pool

Available Energy for Active Skills. Equals to (10*SCS) + MC%. Recovers 10% per day under normal mana densities.

Skills: Physical (122)

Adroitness

20 52%

The Skill of moving one's body with grace and precision. Increases speed and coordination and reduces reflex delay by Rank%.

Composure

20 105%(90%)

Staying calm under pressure or pain. This Skill's effect is capped at 90%. The remainder offsets penalties from magical effects.

When under duress, reduces penalties to mental stability, logical reasoning, and self-control by 2*Rank%.

Prowess

20 52%

Making the most of one physique during stressful situations.

Lower reflex delay, increases combat damage and physical power by Rank%.

Brawn

22 58%

Muscular toughness and physical endurance.

Reduces stamina consumption and damage taken, increases lifting and carrying capacity by Rank%.

Rapid Healing

20 105%

Accelerates and optimizes body recovery.

Increases healing rate, reduces the odds of permanent damage, including scars, by 2*Rank%.

Thermostasis

20 52(%/F)

Widened temperature comfort range and resistance to detrimental heat exchange. Increase comfort temperature range by 1F per rank. Modify body heat conductivity by Rank%.

Skills: Social(32)

Flattery

16

48%

Making graceful compliments and answering them appropriately.

Increases reactions during and after intimate interactions by 2*Rank%.

Presence

16

48%

Motivating people with the power of your personality.

Increases reactions during and after social interactions by 2*Rank%.

Skills: Mystical(35)

Mana Infusion

17

89%

Infuse Mana into tools and melee weapons. Adds 2*Rank% to tool effectiveness, tenacity, hardness, and damage.

Infused objects can interact with incorporeal entities. This is considered an internal manipulation Skill.

Active Skill: Activation time: instantaneous. Cost: 1 MP/6 seconds or 10 MP/attack.

Skill Boost

18

54%94%

Specialized supplemental Mana flow to a Skill.

Boosts effects of a Skill by 2*Rank%. This is considered in the same category as the affected Skill.

Active Skill: Activation time, 1 minute. Cost, 1 MP/6 seconds

Total Skill Points: 189 / 250

"Can't you fix the conductivity? I thought you were working on it."

"A little problem, it says. And why did I go berserk if I have ninety... you turned that shit off, didn't you?"

"Right. Sure thing, buddy," She sarcastically remarked. "I don't even know what to... know what, fuck it. Just fix this demon dog poisoning issue ASAP."

Abby quipped.

Sara walked back.

*

*

Strip Mall on Jonesboro Road near I-285 "The Perimeter", Clayton County, Georgia. Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 16:30

The stares were almost unbearable. Especially now that she could estimate quite accurately what each person was thinking by their facial expression. They were afraid of her. Now that they saw the beast and recorded it in full HD, there was no takeback.

Worse, it seemed that during her afternoon of a berserk rampage, Trevor and Patricia had finished clearing a lane of debris and joined Hainsworth.

"The way is clear, the overpass has no ghouls nearby," She reported, then added what Abby informed, "There's a few trapped inside the Home Depot store."

"I thought you said you only had juice for forty more. Not the hundreds standing all the way to the Perimeter," Hainsworth said, impressed.

"That if I used the knives to fight and killed them cleanly with a Mana-infused stab," Sara looked down at her clothes, "What happened there wasn't clean. At all. I think I need a shower."

"That you do," Patricia said while pinching her nose.

"The only place with running water nearby is the university," Trevor added.

"Sara, can you kill a few more? We sent drones north of the freeway, there are a few ghouls on the other side."

"In for a penny..." Sara shrugged. "I'll go ahead. Keep the drones going, and tell them to mark the ghouls by hovering near them."

She ran back north. It was really uncomfortable staying around, with all the stares.

**********

DOOOOM!

**********

The pulse of Mana was quite audible this time but without pain or anything like that.

"No kidding," Sara rolled her eyes.

As usual, Abby showed her the relevant section of the Bible.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

"How's that related to famine?"

"Is this it? Just someone hiking the prices up?"

"But tomorrow, we'll have Death on the loose."

"And how the fuck are we supposed to fight with those four walking, no, riding catastrophes?"

She looked at the corpses as she ran past them. "I'm glad they had three weeks to dry out under the sun. I can't imagine what would happen if they still had fluids in them."

Instead, they had congealed rotten meat.

"I didn't swallow."

Sara stopped. "Wait, do people who eat human meat also get corrupted?"

"They get stronger and mad like the dogs?"

"Because it will install a personal Core on everyone."

"Hey, there's my respirator," she pointed. The accessory was broken and completely covered in gore. It was like Hannibal Lecter had used it to make a quick uncooked meal.

Fast-healing was still going on boost, making her heal seven times faster from all the bruises and scratches she suffered during the fight.

She crossed the overpass hopping from car roof to car roof and reached the other side. She saw the drones zipping to and fro, some hovering up and down to mark the ghouls. Sara drew a knife and went to work.