As the Mana began to circulate from the center of my chest throughout my body, it went to the brain first and foremost and then it began to travel through my limbs. I felt a link established between my brain and soul. I could freely bring my consciousness from one space to the other. I moved my consciousness to my brain.
My eyes fluttered back open. I felt much stronger. As I stood up, I saw the others and they saw me. Suddenly, a blue system window popped up instead of a green one.
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You killed three Actualization tier Zombies with your "Combat Knife" but have not leveled up. (20-minute old message).
You have consumed 2 Mana stones and have gained 80 Mana.
Congratulations, you have made it to the next Awakener tier!
Travis Scott: Level 11. Transformation tier Awakener.
SYSTEM → [Input Command/Open Store]
Vitality → 100 // Strength → 100 // Agility → 100 // Stamina → 100 // Mana → 211
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I flicked the message away from my face as Zane spoke. "Are you alright?"
"I'm better than just alright. I'm just right! I moved up to the next awakener Tier. I feel like I can use my Mana better."
Tessa shook her head. "We should really keep moving on, but you've been nodding off so much… Do you need to sleep, old man?"
I snorted. "Haha, very funny miss lower tier than me."
She grinned. "That's gonna change soon."
All of a sudden, the blue system window popped up in front of my face again.
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Localized Time Limited Event: There is an Initialization tier Beast within Dallas that Zanoth has linked with. Kill it and sever the link.
Eris, god of Love has created the event.
Reward: 5,000 System Coins
[Accept] // [Reject]
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I instantly slammed my finger against the 'Accept' button, and a red point appeared on the edge of my vision; apparently it would show the Beast's location until the event had finished. I turned around to the others who all seemed to be staring into the air. "Hey hit accept on the Event. We are going to kill that Zombie or Beast or whatever it is?"
Zane aggressively thrust his finger into the air. It was kinda funny.
'Bro ain't got a functioning prefrontal cortex.'
After everyone was ready, we took off in our vehicles with the same distribution of people in cars. I drove ahead and Tessa still hugged my ass with her blue minivan. There were alot of crashed and burned cars, but we were able to avoid them for a while. Eventually though, we got to a traffic jam on the road. I stopped my car, killed it, and hopped out.
I turned to Zane as he got out of the truck. "I need your combat knife since mine shattered. I have the highest stats anyway, so I'll be going headfirst to fight the thing."
He pulled his sheathed combat knife off his belt and handed it to me. "Alright, fine."
As I grabbed the knife, the others walked over to us. I smiled as I began to walk in circles. "Alright guys, this is where we part ways with the cars. We will run from here. Hopefully we can come back in time to get them, but honestly, we don't really need them anymore. We have gotten to the point where everyone of us has enough Mana and stats to run just about as fast as the cars can drive on clear roads."
Tessa sighed. "Man, I'm gonna miss my phat old blueberry."
Everyone started laughing and Tessa's checks started to flush.
I cleared my throat after a good few seconds of laughing. "Alright everyone, I'll be taking point. Everyone follows behind me as fast as you can go. I will be going slower for you all. We all know where this Zombie is because of the little red tracker, so there is no need to scope anything out. We are just going to stick our dicks out into the enemy's territory and fuck all their shit up."
Zane started clapping. "HELL YEAH!!!"
Tessa turned to Zane and frowned. "Take a chill pill!"
I sighed. "Alright children, let's go."
I took off at a nice jog. We ran alongside the road for quite a bit, but we did not see any Zombies. It was like something had distracted them and drawn them away. Or maybe, something had eaten them all.
After running for about half an hour, we finally arrived at the red dot. It was pulsating within a parking garage. I did not stop. I brought my leg right up and smashed straight through the first metal door that I saw. On the other side of the door, there was a fucking male lion with glowing green eyes.
'Aw fuck this ain't good. I thought that it was going to be a Zombie. When the system said a Beast, it meant it!'
The Lion didn't wait for me, it growled and pounced forwards. It was fast, really fast. I barely moved out of the way in time and the Lion's claws had been shining green as they passed just inches from my neck. As the lion landed a few yards away from me by the door, it heard the others coming in and turned to the door.
In one fluid motion, I dashed towards the lion and pulled my knife from its sheath. I thrust the blade through the air towards the Lion's eyes. It jerked its head to the head just in time. Its jaws snapped around and came down hard right next to my hand that I had quickly drawn back.
All of a sudden, the corrupted Lion spoke. "The audacity of you Humans is unbelievable. Which god threw a few pennies at you to come here and fight me?"
"Eris. For a scrawny little bitch like you, 5,000 coins is well worth the effort. Zanoth, just give up your little pet and let me slide my knife through its rib cage."
"He chuckled. I can feel the anger bubbling up inside me."
With a roar, the corrupted lion became a blur. It jumped towards me, and as I dodged, it simply followed. It threw its unsheathed claws towards my face with a green Mana aura covering them dangerously.
From behind me, Zane was lying down with his AK cradled up against his shoulder. I understood that he was waiting for a time when he could shoot without hitting me.
As the lion threw it paws at me, I dodged them both and swiped my dagger towards its arms that it had thrown. My knife made a deep gash in its arm. Instead of blood, liquid Mana dripped to the floor
I let my body hit the floor and Zane opened fire. BAM. BAM. BAM. He fired and fired. As the gun went off, I rolled on the ground. I saw the Lion turn to Zane and roar, only for its eye socket to be blown out. It took one slow step towards Zane and then it hit the floor dead.
I jumped to my feet and screamed. "Fucking run everyone, the building is about to blow."
My body became a blur as I whizzed out the door and grabbed Zane bodily and Jason too. I carried them several hundred feet before the building exploded behind me in a green flash. ZZZZZZZZZZZTTT. BAM. CRASH.
I dropped to the ground and cradled my body and head protectively as huge chunks of concrete began to rain down all around us. I heard crunches and smashes as the chunks smashed down hard all around.
When the sound stopped, I stood back up straight. There was just one problem, Francis and Steve had not been able to get away from the building fast enough. Both of them had been wholly crushed by concrete slabs. Their bodies were both still and blood leaked from them. Jason ran towards them.
I turned and I saw Tessa. She had been much faster than Jason's two unfortunate friends. She had more Mana afterall. I nodded towards her.
'Well, fuck. That isn't good.'