I made a habit of following Jessica’s line of sight, as she was usually scouting out our movement plan. She was reliable in that respect and I had learned to leave our route to her and concentrate on watching for enemies. Most of my thoughts were taken up by thinking about the new and difficult encounters and how to minimize risk and maximize efficiency.

“Over there,” she pointed to a goliath of an abomination, which surely had to be an elite enemy? The size of the dinosaur-headed monster was staggering; it was about twenty-five feet tall. But it wasn’t only the size that was intimidating; the massive abomination was also different to the standard version in other aspects. The elite ogres and banshees were just large clones of the normal type, but this…

I was staring at a monster that had at least six arms coming from its bull-like torso, and all of them held enormous cleavers. “How are we even supposed to fight that? Can you inspect it from here?” I asked.

Jessica tried with success and the information that came back was interesting, albeit worrying. It was indeed an abomination, level eighteen, but it wasn’t an elite. It was only marked as an ‘exceptional’ enemy. If this wasn’t the elite form, then what was?

“We can avoid it,” Jessica said, “follow me.” I stuck close behind her as she pushed across the street and ducked behind a shoe store. Moments later, she nocked an arrow to her long bow and pulled an abomination that was in the alley ahead and we cleanly dispatched it.

I used the corpse to reanimate an undead version to add to our small force and then shadowed my partner as we edged along the alley. She ended up pulling three more abominations from range before it was safe to move across the alley and into an apartment block through the back entrance. From the top of the steps at the far side, I looked up and down the nearby streets: between the downed poles and charred building sides the city was so unfamiliar to me that I couldn’t make heads or tails of exactly where we were.

We continued to move as stealthily as possible. I had to admit that Jessica’s tracking skill was definitely as useful or more useful than most of my passive skills (except, perhaps Sixth Sense, which had the potential to be lifesaving). On two occasions already, she accurately avoided pulling a pack of enemies hidden around corners that could have wiped us out.

Jessica’s skill allowed her to have a sense of the movements of patrolling mobs, and basically watch them move through walls. It was a godlike ability to say the least, and her decision to go Trapper was now showing its worth and then some.

We poked our head out of an alleyway about five blocks in. I scanned each direction as I looked for anything familiar, anything that could put a mark on our location. “There,” I said with relief. I recognized a half-burned mural on the side of a duplex. I had come down here before to avoid traffic, and from here I knew how to get to 6th and Wallace.

“You see it? The mural there?” I pointed.

“The graffiti with the badly drawn butterfly?” she asked.

“Hey, it’s called a mural to the people who live here.”

“Right, so what does it mean to us?”

I pointed. “We’re two blocks away. We need to head in that direction.”

As soon as Jessica looked in the direction I had indicated her facial expression changed. It looked as if she’d eaten a pile of shit, “it’s there…” she said.

“It?” I asked, and even before she could answer I realized what she was talking about.

“Run… we have to run,” she said in a panic, and before I could even clarify what was happening she grabbed my arm and started pulling me in the opposite direction. Her eyes scanned in a hurry before she dragged me up the steps of a home. She turned the doorknob but it didn’t open.

“Break it down! Now!” she was frantic.

I had never seen her lose her cool this much, so I didn’t hesitate. My skeletons chopped open the door and we raced inside. She dragged me upstairs to the second floor and into a bedroom. Her hands frantically locked the door.

I wasn’t used to such a reaction, especially when my own Sixth Sense didn’t indicate that anything was wrong. There was no prickling on the back of my neck. She inched over to the window and looked out onto the street towards the direction we needed to travel.

I crawled up beside her and looked out as well, waiting for any sign of that evil creature.

“It’s here,” Jessica suddenly said in a whisper. My eyes scanned the distance and I couldn’t see anything at all. “On the wall of that building about three floors up,” she added.

My eyes pinpointed the general area, and yet I could see nothing. She wouldn’t be toying with me, so I continued to concentrate, and then I saw it. The clouds shifted and a ray of light bounced off the wall, and there was a refraction of light.

For a moment the creature’s lizard-like body appeared there, and then it disappeared like a chameleon. My heart picked up speed: this was the creature I feared the most so far. “It can fucking go invisible?” I protested. I wanted to curse the developers of this ‘game’.

Her eyes were glued to that spot, and my eyes were glued to hers. I couldn’t see the evil being anymore, and when her eyes moved, I knew that it had as well. The top of a tree rattled with a sudden intensity, but there wasn’t any wind. It was just a dozen meters away from us now, completely invisible from my sight.

What was it doing? Was it coming for us? Suddenly, its purpose was revealed. The creature launched itself from the tree at a speed hard to track with the naked eye, and landed directly onto to one of the snake-headed mobs. There was almost no resistance at all. Jaws forward, the creature itself, slim and spinning like a drill, smashed directly through the chest of its target: a one hit KO.

I’m sure my eyes nearly sprang from my sockets. That was instant death for either of us if we were hit. Bone armor would do nothing to stop that attack, I was sure of it. “Can you inspect it?” I whispered.

“I… don’t know. I’m scared I might attract its attention,” Jessica admitted. I didn’t have anything to say to that, as it was the reasonable response. Was it possible that it would feel the detection? We had never tried it on any enemy remotely similar in power to this one.

After the snake-headed mob had died, disgustingly, the evil chameleon started to devour the corpse. The difference in size between the two enemies was enormous, and yet chunks of the demi-human disappeared into the reptilian’s small frame as though its stomach contained another dimension.

I hadn’t urged Jessica to inspect again, but information suddenly appeared before me. It was called a Fiend, level 33, Elite. Immediately after the inspection, the Fiend raised its head for a moment and started to sniff the air.

My heart was in my throat, the creature did not seem to have eyes; what was it using to search with? Scent? After the sniff, its long tongue extended and tasted the air as well. The Fiend didn’t react and when it lowered its head to finish the dead monster I felt a wave of relief like I’d never experienced before. As soon as the corpse was devoured, the Fiend took off and moving away from us it disappeared in the distance once again.

We waited at least fifteen minutes before we decided it was best to continue. The faster we finished, the faster we could get out of here. “We should make this as quick as possible,” I said.

“Agreed.”

We returned to the street and made the most efficient beeline for 6th and Wallace possible. Snake-heads or abominations, we didn’t care. They were both on the menu because my MP was recoverable and my life was not.

We ended up dispatching over ten enemies on the way.

Congratulations, you have reached level 14!

My necromancer passive triggered again, and I was able to add one more skeleton to my ranks. Besides that, a weapon dropped for me and armor for Jessica. There were also three consumables: a ration, an EXP UP potion, and an Elixir that increased STR.

Survivors Rod: A staff that symbolizes the hardship one has undergone to survive.

HP +50, WIS +3

There was no passive skill, but the massive increase in HP and 3 INT was amazing. I happily equipped it.

Sniping Suit: A suit designed with optimal movement in mind.

HP +20, DEX +3, True Strike +7

More critical strike and damage for Jessica was welcome as well. I had to recognize too that the tight-fitting, dark leather suit looked good on her. She appeared lithe and deadly, like a movie heroine. And if I had been a little intimidated by her beauty on first meeting her, that was reinforced now. Looking away before she caught me staring, I checked my character sheet.

Name: Mike Reynolds (27) Class: Necromancer Level: 14 EXP: 2%

HP: 590/590 MP: 213/260

STR: 5 Fear Resistance: 5

AGI: 2

DEX: 1

VIT: 15 +2

WIS: 15 +8

Available: 9

Skills: [A]Summon Skeleton LV. 6 |[A] Decay LV. 1| [A] Reanimate Dead LV. 1 | [A] Bone Armor LV. 1 | [P]Sixth Sense | [P] Bravery LV. 2 | [P] Mutated | [P] Pain Resistance LV. 2 | [P] Skeletal Mastery LV. 2 | [P] Intimidate Living

My HP was nearly 600 now, which felt absolutely amazing. It seemed the bar kept getting higher and higher though. At first I had been afraid of the goblins, and then the snake-headed humans, and now it was the new Fiend. I was also afraid of guns in the hands of other survivors. The power of a rifle or shotgun terrified me, and I wasn’t sure even now if 600 HP meant it was possible to withstand a bullet to the chest.

EXP UP Potion: Increases EXP gain by +50% for thirty minutes.

Showing the potion to me, Jessica said, “I suggest we save it and if we get another, we can go all out somewhere rich in targets.”

I nodded with appreciation at the sentiment. We had a bond between us, and should keep levelling side by side without either of us falling behind if it could be avoided.

Our destination was only just across the street now, and we had dispatched all the enemies that could hinder us from reaching a door that had been torn open.

Having scampered inside, worried that the place might have been smashed up by mobs, I was delighted to see most of the goods were still on the shelves, and immediately in front of me I found a basket with rolled up maps. I didn’t hesitate to grab every single one and put them all in my pack. There was a map of the city on the wall with a red dot marked ‘You are here!’ on it. I ripped that off as well and stuffed it away.

After that was done, we treated ourselves to some candies that were still good. Our bags were completely packed when we left, and there was no doubt that Lucas and the three others would enjoy some of them too.

A journey that had taken us several hours grinding our way through mobs ended with a race back that lasted less than ten minutes. We had our maps, and that was good enough for me.