Their escape actually went okay for quite a long time, all things considered. They darted along roads, scaled walls, fences, and hedge rows, snuck through houses, darted down back alleys, and even made it across an entire park without being spotted. John repertoire of Spells and Skills allowed him to pick good routes, for the most part, and hunker down for however long they needed when there was no good path to take. Sure, there was plenty of doubling back, retreating, and going in circles, but they managed a good hour without being spotted.

It was only inevitable that this state of affairs couldn't last. The beginning of their luck running out was heralded by a change John started to pick up in his Mana Sense; at some point, as they were crossing a road to go from one alley to another, he noticed some of the monsters breaking off from their positions to immediately charge in a particular direction. Not all of them diverted so drastically. But enough were changing course that he knew it couldn't be natural.

It happened again a little while later. And again after that. Then, it became part of the regular routine he needed to find a way to plan around. Each time, that strange diversion seemed to come quicker. Like all the monsters were being called to a specific place. An ominous feeling grabbed onto his heart.

Further observation revealed a pattern, and he decided to test his theory. At one point, he stopped behind a garden shed when he didn't actually need to—at this point, the trio following him were inured to his erratic behaviour and didn't even question it. He still heard them whispering to each other now and then, but it was mostly practical stuff, addressing their remaining stamina, mana, "classes" and stuff like that.

They didn't try to talk to him anymore. He had mixed feelings about that; on the one hand, he did want to know what they'd experienced and seen so far, and especially wanted to know how their powers worked. On the other hand, conversation had already proven perilous. Better to wait and listen and hear what they said.

Soon enough, he moved on, keeping a mental note of how far they moved away from the spot they'd just stopped in. A minute or two later, the monsters diverged once more. John paid attention to his Mana Sense, and a few moments later he felt he had confirmation: they were heading for the place he'd stopped in.

Somehow, they'd found a way to divine his position when he came to a stop, and they were getting better at it. The origin of this new ability didn't matter. He'd never be able to find it and do something about it in time. A new inevitability dawned: eventually, if the monsters kept up this pattern, they'd be able to triangulate his (or one of the others') positions if they even stopped for a second.

John grimaced as he kept running, picking up the pace. The problem was, those stops were necessary. The Aura he'd invested into Vitality had pushed his physical limits far beyond anything he'd ever been capable of before, making him feel like he could endure an entire marathon. He was feeling a bit of burn, and lactic acid was building slightly, but stamina wouldn't be a problem for a while yet. Especially not after the magical Rest he'd had.

Chester, Jade, and Lily evidently hadn't been quite so lucky with their superpowers, or simply hadn't accumulated as much Aura—or whatever equivalent they'd been given, he hadn't heard them use the term Aura—because they all looked exhausted. Every time he looked back at them, they were huffing and puffing, red-faced. Determination burned in their eyes. Even Chester. But it was clear they wouldn't be able to keep up a massive run.

That wasn't even accounting for the fact that they simply had no choice, at times. Not if they wanted to avoid confrontations with monsters way too numerous or strong for them to deal with in any reasonable time frame, if at all.

So yeah, John thought as they were forced to duck into a garage to let another pack of monsters stampede past. He eyed his new comrades, all slumped, taking the moment to catch their breath. He only felt slightly winded. Big problem here.

His heartbeat started to pick up, accelerating with every second they were forced to a stop. He was practically glued to his Mana Sense, wishing it would pulse faster. Right now, he figured he was at about 100 BMP. That sounded quick, but it meant there were still perceptible gaps between one update and the next. He dearly wished it was just a constant thing. But no.

At least his increasing agitation was improving things on that front. Would he look like a weirdo if he started doing exercises for no apparent reason? Probably. He didn't want to risk it.

Barely giving the passing monsters time to turn the corner, he burst out of the garage once more. The trio let out varying sounds of quiet alarm, but quickly followed.

They were deep into the nastier neighbourhoods of London, now. Just a day ago, he would've balked at the idea of running around a place like this at night. Well, he was still balking at the idea, but for different reasons. Monsters were a bit scarier than hooded youths with their shanks, though admittedly not by much. Unfortunately, he had no choice.

Less than ten seconds after vacating the hiding spot, monsters started converging on the locations in their hundreds. The pack pursuing them far behind was now so numerous he didn't even want to think about it. He was sure he could hear them. The dull roar of thousands of abominations' stampeding footsteps. Was the ground rumbling, or was his mind playing tricks on him? No way to say for sure.

Things were clearly going to come to a head, soon. John started to lean on Accelerate to throw out vast quantities of Shadow Stream in as little time as possible, darting back and forth in his vain attempts to saturate the area and provide cover so they wouldn't have to stop and hide from the converging monsters. It seemed hopeless. Getting the stuff to pool more than a few feet off the ground was an exercise in frustration. And there were just too many.

They didn't even make it to the end of the road before they had to hide again, crouching between a van and the wall it had crashed into. The monsters started converging on the spot barely five seconds after they had left.

John led them straight into a small back garden, Accelerate letting him zip ahead and launch what felt like a whole swimming pool's worth of oily smoke. It wasn't enough.

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The first bit of combat he was forced into came in the form of a spiny crystalline thing that looked like a sea urchin painted neon blue and blown up to the size of a medicine ball. It rolled over the top of a fence, clinging on by its spines. Fortune smiled on them: its soul was a mere blue, and it was dealt with by a simple Soul Arrow, fired while John was still thankfully just a heartbeat away from coming out of Accelerate. The projectile speared right through it as it peeked over the fence, and it hit the ground with a sound like a smashed glass.

+400 Aura

Not the most dangerous monster he'd faced by any measure, but it seemed to open the floodgates. It felt like he was constantly being forced into confrontations after that.

For a start, the crystalline spined thing wasn't alone. Like some kind of invasive species, they were suddenly everywhere, constantly rolling into their path like tumbleweeds. Soul Arrows dealt with them easily enough, but he got barely any Aura for it after the first, so he left Lily to take them out with her triple-shot crossbow.

He needed to focus on the bigger things. Monsters large and small stepped into their path, giving them no choice but to fight through. A zombie bear thing with two heads got taken out by a Fireball. He wielded his Mana Sword to bisect a hideous glob of impossible exposed musculature at the waist. Soul Arrows dealt with a gasbag jellyfish, a pale leafless tree with an angry saw-toothed mouth, and yet another one of those fucking ugly rat things. God, John fucking hated them.

The others got in on the action too. Jade's golden machete projection took out a giant mammalian monster with shadow fur. Chester's pink flash seemed to give most monsters paused, stunning them long enough for Lily and John to pincushion them from range.

But it was obvious this wasn't sustainable. The other three seemed dead on their feet, and John was feeling plenty of strain from the inconsistent run-battle-run-battle-run himself. Things came to a head, though, as had been inevitable from the beginning.

They stopped and crouched down for a breather under a bridge when John's Soul Vision told him an orange monster would be crossing the road a few dozen metres ahead of them. Barely a few seconds after they fell still, that same monster changed its course, coming right for them.

"Shit," John muttered.

As he'd barely said a word in the last hour, this naturally drew attention. Three pairs of eyes snapped to him.

"What is it?" Lily asked with a tremor in her voice.

John couldn't afford to agonise over how to phrase himself. "Gotta move."

"What?" Chester wheezed. "I'm about at my limit here, man. I need to catch my breath."

In response, John only pointed at the monster that had just appeared on the road ahead of them.

The bridge they were beneath spanned over an artificial dip in the road, above which a train line ran. They were too far out of John's familiarity zone to guess which line it was. Modest houses lined the road, which rose at a slight incline until reaching the regular ground level about a hundred metres away. Before that, a smaller side road presumably led to the back gardens and garages of the houses on this estate.

Lingering down that alley had been a monster that stood taller than an elephant, and probably wider even than that. Black spikes jutted out intermittently from its green skin along thick arms, broad shoulders, a muscular back, and the chunkiest neck John had ever laid eyes on, making it look like a bodybuilding orc was wearing a manic amalgamation of a lion's mane. Its eyes glowed with orange fire. A forest of jagged tusks stuck out from its wide mouth.

Now it was out of that alley, and it was looking right at them. Through Mana Sense, John could feel hundreds more racing towards their location.

"Oh," Chester breathed.

John didn't waste any more time with talk. Activating Accelerate, he launched a veritable tidal wave of shadow towards the monster, darting out into the street and straight towards a back garden. With varying groans and cries of dismay, the others followed.

Ninja kicked in, and he started hopping fences with no regard for stealth. Luckily, this neighbourhood was one of those cookie-cutter copy and paste council-designed affairs, so none of them were much taller than his head height, and there were few bushes or plants to speak of.

There was a crash behind him when he vaulted his fifth fence, and he turned to see that the one behind had collapsed, spilling the other three to the floor; they'd tried to take it on at the same time, and the panel had been unable to bear their armoured weight. Beyond them, he could see the giant orange-souled monster squeezing its way through a gap between two houses. Its mouth yawned open, and it let out a roar. More monsters were spilling into the road, filtered by the bridge for now. Soon, he was sure they'd be launching themselves over the railway track.

John grimaced. Another Accelerate and Shadow Stream combination threw up a wall of darkness, but that was the best he could do for them. A few jumps later saw him out on the adjacent street. He could hear countless roars and screeches and cries, accompanied by the thunderous cacophony of what had to be hundreds of footfalls in pursuit. It was too much to make any sense of, blurring into a dull roar.

Here, the road ran parallel to the raised train tracks, and he sprinted along it. The others emerged a few seconds later, but it seemed they were further behind him every time he turned. He stopped looking back, relying on Mana Sense to keep him informed of the monstrous horde's pursuit.

With what he was feeling through that magical perception, he almost wanted to shut it off and continue on in ignorance. Every heartbeat, it felt like a dozen new monsters were revealed to him. They weren't just behind, in pursuit. There were hundreds of them in the adjacent neighbourhood. Hundreds more were on the other side of the train tracks, running in parallel. Innumerable were ahead, coming to cut him off.

We're fucked, he thought, despairing. Escaping the pursuing horde would have been a challenge, but it might have been doable. Surrounded as they were, he didn't know how the hell he was going to get out of that himself, let alone see the other three survive. With every second, he was becoming more and more resigned to leaving then. The gap between him and them was only growing.

Then he saw a sign. A red circle with a blue line slashing horizontally through the middle, within which were capital letters in white which read: UNDERGROUND.

John's mind latched onto that sign like a man stranded in the ocean. It was a couple of hundred metres down the street, hanging above an arched stone opening in the side of the small hill that held the railway line. Even without the Second Wind Skill, he felt like he'd gained a new burst of energy. His heart wrenched in protest as he ran for that sign with all his might. His legs ate up the distance. It came closer and closer. He didn't know where the hell this station was or even if it'd be safe down there, but anywhere had to be better than the madness up here.

In what felt like no time, he was at the underground entrance. Fluorescent lights illuminated the familiar sight of stairs descending downwards into the Earth, and he couldn't believe it gave him this much comfort. There was a blue, translucent sheen over the archway, but he didn't give a shit. It could have been on fire, and he still would've gone in without hesitation.

John launched himself through. The moment he passed the threshold into the station, his Mana Sense was cut off from the world outside. He ignored it, taking the stairs down three at a time.

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