Long seconds stretched on as John stared out the window, wide-eyed, trapped in incomprehension. It took way too long for his mind to register what he was seeing, and understand that he was staring at another group of survivors. When the realisation hit, it brought mixed feelings with it.

Part of him was overjoyed to find confirmation that there were more humans out there, still. He had been starting to worry about that. On the other hand, a small, pathetic slice of his psyche couldn't help but feel trepidation at the possibility of having to deal with even more people.

Both of those were overwhelmed, however, by the dread that suffused him when he considered the implications of what he was witnessing. Mana Sense boasted an effective range of around 500 metres, at a guess. These people were currently beyond that. But it was obvious from their frantic movements that they were fleeing something, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what they would be running from.

A second later, he got his confirmation. The first monster that crested the small hillock in the distance was too far to gauge its size, or get a reading with Soul Vision. But he had already discovered that quantity was a quality all its own when it came to monsters. Even if the creature had been the weakest blue of all time, it didn't matter when 100 more came rampaging over the hill a second after it. They looked like an oncoming tide flooding the countryside.

Immediately, John's heartbeat accelerated to full speed. As was becoming a habit whenever faced with a difficult situation, he went right for his Aura menu.

Unlocked Eagle Eye!

-1000 Aura

John barely registered the skill implanting its instructions into his brain. He just snatched the information and put it to use. Narrowing his eyes and channelling his focus, he zoomed his vision in on the oncoming horde of monsters. To his frustration, it didn't give him any extra advantage on Soul Vision, so instead he was merely granted a somewhat closer look at the horrors coming their way.

They were a surprisingly uniform horde, in comparison to what John and his companions had been dealing with so far. The overwhelming majority of them were enormous insects: ants, beetles, fleas, with a few rarer bugs mixed in. There was little in the way of more exotic abominations.

Contrarily, the variety of monsters available in London was vast. There had only been a handful of repeat encounters with monsters of the same species. Was that different in other places? These survivors were clearly fleeing from the direction of Watford—he didn't know what the fuck they were thinking heading towards London, but then again he'd eventually be doing pretty much the same thing, once the M25 ring road took him around the city and close to Dagenham, so who was he to judge? Maybe there were people here this group wanted to check on, too.

John turned his attention to the humans. It took a moment, having to deactivate Eagle Eye so he could get a wider picture and find them again. Delving back into the Skill, he zoomed in on the humans like he was peering through binoculars. What he saw only had him more conflicted.

There were five of them in total. An Asian dude with long hair wearing a martial artist's outfit took the lead. Behind him were two people running side-by-side: a silver-haired old man dressed in only some loose-fitting shorts who seemed way too spry and muscular for his age, and a black woman with red locks flowing behind her, wearing a form-fitting bodysuit that left very little to the imagination even from this distance.

They were all intriguing visions in their own way, but the last two in their number introduced a factor to the equation that rather limited John's possible answers.

The poor kids clutched under each of the martial artist guy's arms looked like they were still in their pyjamas. One blue, one pink, both with blond hair and bare feet, even from here he could tell they were covered in dirt and gore, and his heart fucking broke in two to see a pair of children like that. Neither were panicking or thrashing around as one might expect from kids in their situation. They were utterly still in the martial artist's grip. John really hoped that was some kind of spell the martial artist was using to keep them placid. He didn't like what it might mean if the kids were truly unresponsive to the desperate situation they were in. The possibilities of what they'd been through…

John blinked away the Eagle Eye skill. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh that transitioned into a groan. Optimally, he'd voice a quip right now, something witty and sardonic that would communicate to the system that he wasn't going to back down from the challenge before him.

But nothing came to mind. It seemed his imagination was suddenly overwhelmed with speculation, and it was hard to drag it towards a new purpose.

What have they seen? John wondered. What have they had to do to survive all this? Do they have systems, too? Or has this group been protecting them from the start?

He hoped that was the case. But he somehow doubted it. The apocalypse didn't feel like a scenario conducive to pleasant possibilities.

Mana Sense was still pumping out with every heartbeat, and so John saw the moment the first monster in his range noticed the humans fleeing across the fields. The monsters had mostly been keeping to the surrounding suburbia, with only a few straying their patrols into the countryside. Now, a few dozen were breaking away from the residential neighbourhood and moving into the patchwork tapestry of fields.

These guys are probably going to be cut off. The realisation struck him like a lightning bolt, leaving him feeling like his nerves had been fried from the inside out. And we're gonna have to do something about it.

John made sure none of his irritation showed in his body language as he pushed himself to his feet. He'd just have to sleep later. Looking around, he assessed the state of his impromptu teammates. The three of them were dead to the world, having been exhausted by the time they arrived here. He wasn't feeling particularly energetic, either, but he at least had the means to power through it, and the knowledge that he'd hopefully only have to knock himself out for less than an hour to get a good night's sleep, after upgrading his Rest spell to Level 2.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

As he was debating whether to wake them up, the point became moot. A larger monster that had been a few streets away abruptly changed course, barrelling over gardens and across roads and through houses—in the latter case, it came stampeding through the house they were squatting in. Hiding in the attic proved to be a good decision, because it went straight past without gaining even a hint that they were there, bursting through the doorway on the other side with a tiger-like roar. John watched it barrel into the field, a quadruped monster covered in pollen-spewing flowers in place of fur, leaving an intimidating yellow cloud floating in its wake. Its soul was yellow.

The others snapped awake immediately. There was no sleeping through the ruckus that thing had just caused, regardless of how tired you were. Even John felt like he'd been shocked awake, and he hadn't been asleep.

Jade was the first to gather her wits. She looked at John, rapidly blinking her eyes to sharpness. "What's going on?"

John considered how to answer that, turning to grimace at the ongoing situation beyond the window. "Another shitshow," he eventually settled on.

Joining him at the window, Jade let out a curse. "That's a fuckin' lot of monsters."

"Probably about the same as what we dealt with before."

"Which was a fuckin' lot of monsters, too, John."

"Didn't say it wasn't," John said, trying not to sound defensive. He couldn't figure out what was wrong about what he'd said, and decided to believe she was just tired and cranky, and he hadn't blundered within the very opening exchange of the conversation. He pointed. "They're all chasing those people, there."

"I see them," Lily said from John's other side, and he hoped no one noticed his flinch. He hadn't heard her move. Lily sucked in a harsh breath through her teeth and said, "They've got two kids with them."

"Yeah," John said. He desperately wanted to sigh, but didn't know how they—or the system—might take that.

"Fucking hell," Chester whispered. He hadn't moved from his nest of blankets, and his voice contained the despair of a man resigned to the inevitable.

It seemed they were all in agreement without having to exchange a word of debate. They had to do something. Hell, they probably would have decided to act even if it was just the three adults; if they were thinking anything like John was, they had to be worrying over how few humans were left alive at this point, too.

The kids just turned it into an obligation. Only a total piece of shit would ignore what they were seeing here. He wasn't exactly sure what the Aura system would think about leaving a pair of children to die—regardless of whether that death was a guarantee without their intervention—but he didn't imagine it would look kindly on him.

"So what do we do? What can we do?" Jade asked. She was looking at him, now. The powerful one. The man with the answers. He'd positioned himself as a man of competence and consequence, and this, he supposed, was the heavy price of that ruse: duty. Authority. Responsibility. Lives were in his hands, now. If he fucked up, people could die.

And it was so goddamn awful that one of the biggest considerations he had to make in this moral calculus was his Aura. The possibility of people dying should have been more than enough weight on his shoulders. But no, he also had to think about how that would look. How the goddamn system would take it. Letting someone die under his protection sounded incredibly uncool. He could probably offset it by swearing revenge or letting a single tear roll down his otherwise inexpressive cheek or letting out a dramatic, Vader-esque, "NOOOO", but that felt so wrong. These were real people's lives, here. He hated having to even consider it this way.

John closed his eyes. Took a moment to breathe. Allowed himself to feel this weight that was bearing down on him.

The best path forward, he told himself, is to not let anyone die. Don't need to think about ways to prevent the Aura loss that could come with a comrade's death if no one fucking dies in the first place.

Resolve filled him. As he watched the movements of the monsters on his Mana Sense, an idea occurred to him.

"We buy them some time," John said, rising to his feet. Then he told them his plan.

~~~

They didn't like it, of course. He didn't think anyone who'd been through what they had would think his plan was flawless. Hell, even someone who'd never laid eyes on a monster would probably think he was a bit mad.

After making sure to pile as much crap onto the attic's hatch as they could, the three of them exited the attic through the windows. It took some dexterity to climb out onto the roof, but John's Agility at Level 3 let him drag himself out with some modicum of grace. The others had a harder time in their various armours, but they bore the indignity without complaint; he reckoned they were just happy that he wasn't having them charge straight into the fray.

Sneaking up to the apex of the tiled roof, they looked over the situation. The three-story house gave them a good vantage point.

It was hard to believe mere minutes had passed since John had first noticed the humans and the army of monstrous pursuers. Even without Eagle Eye, it was easy to see there were hundreds of the abominations giving chase. Maybe even as many as a thousand. With Eagle Eye, the humans were now close enough to see the expressions on their faces.

Each bore a look of ferocious determination. Their lips were moving, speaking to each other. There were furrowed brows, clenched jaws, flared nostrils. They'd covered a remarkably long distance in the space of time they'd been running, easily having crossed over two-thirds of the fields stretching between the outer edge of London and Watford, and it showed in the copious amounts of dirt covering their outfits.

John found himself briefly wondering about them. Who had they been before all this? What abilities had they managed to pick up? And what had the system forced them to go through in order to acquire those powers?

He tried not to look too hard at the children's faces. Those blank expressions… Nightmare fuel.

Mana Sense radiated out in an omnidirectional wave. The humans were probably in his range now, though the vanguard of the pursuing insect monster army wasn't quiet there yet. Dozens of monsters were starting to converge on this position from the other direction, but there were hundreds more that hadn't been alerted to the developing situation. Presumably, the mere noise of it was drawing them. Hopefully, there wasn't some kind of monster caller like that fucking red-eyed centipede thing back at the mansion.

John drew in a deep breath. He looked back at his comrades. "Ready when you are,"

With a nod, Jade clenched her machete.

Lily gave no answer beyond raising her crossbow.

Only after a few deep, shaky breaths did Chester squeak out a small "yes". Then he erupted into radiant light, and the monstrous army charging across the fields changed course.

John delved into his Aura menu.

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