An odd sense of calm settled over John as he ran. All throughout the last couple of days, he'd been putting up an impassive act while feeling absolutely terrified on the inside. Every moment he stood within even a mile of death had filled him with a heretofore impossible level of dread.

It wasn't as if that fear was lost to him, now. Thoughts of what could go wrong still rested at the back of his mind. Death, the ultimate end, still frightened him, regardless of how it ended up occurring, and he wanted nothing more than to stave it off until old age came for him—and, hell, even there, he'd always held out hope that some tech advancement would unlock the secrets to immortality, and he'd never have to feel his chest constrict over thoughts of what came 'after' the end ever again. Maybe these magic powers could end up doing the same thing.

And John Woods could never truly be called calm when placed in a social situation. Though this was, admittedly, a strange one as far as those went.

So maybe calm wasn't the right word for what he was feeling right now. It was…determination, he reckoned. A sense of grim purpose he'd never experienced. There was a task before him, and that allowed him to draw his mind away from all the anxiety and fear and self-doubt.

In other words, his mind was entirely occupied with how he was going to slaughter all these monsters before the night's end. There was room for nothing else.

Avoiding the monsters in the city was trivial compared to last night's events. Either none of them had any sensory abilities, or the conflagration overtaking the adjacent fields was drawing all their attention; as it was, the majority of monsters that were on the move were clearly heading for the fields. The result was that they barely had to stop and hide, and didn't require doubling back on themselves even once.

It especially helped that they didn't actually have a distinct destination in mind. Instead, their current flight could perhaps be better described as a search. If there was one apt criticism of this next phase of John's plan, it was how much relied on an element of luck.

Considering he'd only encountered two of the things personally in almost two days of traversing what felt like half of the bloody capital city, the chances of running across another portal at random didn't seem especially high. But he told himself he'd been keeping to out of the way places, stealing down back alleys, sneaking through gardens. He hadn't gone near a busy area since before the apocalypse arrived.

That was going to have to change. It was a risk. A huge one. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, and John was tired of feeling like he was going from one desperate escape to another.

They'd climbed down from the roof via the drainage pipes, then quickly put the pursuing army behind them. The flames John had laid down provided enough of a head start that the monster horde was out of his range before it had even been able to put up a significant pursuit, and the four of them headed south, back into the suburban outskirts of Greater London.

He didn't know this area of London at all, but he'd spotted the roof of a supermarket in the distance while they were atop the house, and he figured there'd be a high street nearby. Hell, maybe they'd get lucky and find a portal within the supermarket itself.

Mana Sense was constantly radiating out with every beat of his heart, plotting little dots of energy into his awareness. Thus, he became aware of it immediately when a dense pack of monsters entered his range. The situation grew clearer as they approached it. By the time the supermarket was in sight, he was thankful of his decision to stay away from busy areas.

What he'd been feeling through his Mana Sense was a horde of monsters idling in a great mass that snaked its way along what he could only assume was the main high street. Giant insects, mutated animals, and more elaborate abominations were all in attendance, and they were all… doing pretty much nothing.

Seeing them all so lackadaisical and carefree stoked a righteous indignation in John that he'd never known he possessed. The fact that they'd invaded the Earth and slaughtered countless living creatures was bad enough, but having the audacity to then relax after a job well done… John wanted to see these fuckers bleed.

"Fucking vermin," he murmured under his breath.

Beside him, Jade growled her agreement: "Bunch of scabby wee bastards. Think they can just lounge about like they own the place? Get tae fuck."

"Your accent's kicking in," Chester whispered.

"And you sound like you're gonna cry," Jade hissed back.

"Guys," Lily said, and they both quieted.

They'd positioned themselves at the edge of an alleyway, peering around the corner at the high street beyond. John could just about make out the front of a large car park, presumably for the supermarket, and some kind of bus depot sitting across the road from it. Further on, rows of shops squatting beneath terrace flats were visible, just before the curve of the road cut off further inspection.

Between and within it all: monsters, great and small. They were close enough that Soul Vision revealed them to be mostly greens and blues, but there were at least ten yellows visible at a glance, and John was sure he saw some specks of orange in there.

Far, far in the distance, perhaps miles away, a humanoid creature with great black wings floated through the sky. Beyond that, over Central London, the black hole, and the great shapes that moved between the skyscrapers.

It was a harrowing sight. Daunting. John felt as if he was staring at the path he would be forced to walk, a step by step prediction of his future. He took a deep breath, forcing himself back into the state of focus that had got him here so calmly.

Mana Sense was telling him that more monsters were entering his range behind them. They didn't have unlimited time.

After a signal from John, they snuck back down the alley, flanking the high street a few streets over. Utilising his repertoire of magical senses, they were able to move in a zigzag pattern, cutting through alleyways and gardens to repeatedly bring them within view of the high street and assess the situation.

The supermarket turned out to be a Lidl, not that it particularly mattered. Further up the road was indeed the high street, full of shops both independent and franchise, none of which John paid any special attention to. Didn't even bother reading their names.

Because the majority of his focus was now devoted to the building across the road from the supermarket. Three great bay doors sat open, exposing the innards of what had once been a bus garage, with some of the iconic red double-deckers visible within the warehouse, illuminated by a fiery red glow flooding in through the intermittent skylights. The road outside was littered with crashed cars, abandoned buses, and lounging monsters.

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Most importantly, haunting light hung over the three giant doors of the building.

John activated Soul Vision and Eagle eye, barely daring to blink. The one on the left was blue, the middle green, and the right was yellow. Every few seconds, a monster would emerge from the blue portal. The green would spit out a monster perhaps once a minute. After watching for five minutes, he saw no sign of a monster exiting the yellow portal.

Nothing changed about the area within the warehouse. There was no sign of monsters inside the place. These portals weren't windows directly into another world, evidently, or they'd be able to see the monsters on the other side before they came through. That revelation complicated things, but not enough to back down.

John turned back to his comrades. They'd been staring at the portals, too, but his movement drew their attention.

"We sure this is a good idea?" Chester was the first to speak. There was a distinct lack of inflection of his voice, like he was putting all his effort into keeping it even.

"Can't be sure of anything," John said. "But it's what we're doing."

+400 Aura

"It's just that the last portal we went to was a bit, uh. What did you call it earlier? A shitshow?"

"It was hectic," John admitted.

"But we killed all the monsters," Lily added.

John refrained from pointing out that he'd been the one to kill the overwhelming majority of the monsters. It didn't matter, when he was going to be doing the same thing here, too.

"Aye," Jade said. "Luring the bastards into a choke point and slaughtering them isn't a bad idea." She shrugged, but she was frowning as she continued, "It worked last time, so why not again?"

John frowned at her. "You sound doubtful."

"Of course I am, you barmy git, there are hundreds of 'em out on that street, and you want to drag more over here so you can kill as many as possible." She shook her head and sighed softly. "Guess it's got to be done though, aye? All those monsters have to die, and who else is going tae do it?"

"And while we're in the portal, we might as well kill all the monsters inside we can find," Lily said just as softly. "If these things really are what's spawning the monsters, it's a public good."

"Yeah, no big deal," Chester whispered, not sounding like he believed even a syllable of those words. "All I've got to do is act as bait to lure in a huge horde of monsters, only to then have to run through all of these monsters to get to the portal, then go in the portal and somehow not die while I wait for you three to kill them all. Piece of cake."

His voice was getting rather hysterical towards the end there.

"We'll make it work," Lily said.

"Can't keep running forever," Jade agreed.

Silence fell between them with the heavy weight of anticipation and dread.

John considered the others for a moment, taking in their expressions, their postures. There was a tension in them. They were undoubtedly fearful of John's plan, and there was no shame in that. There was a deeply buried part of him that was still terrified, too, and he didn't think he'd ever be able to completely quiet it. Hell, he probably couldn't even call it quiet right now, either.

He was just… It was… He just wanted these piece of shit monsters to die. So, so much. He couldn't remember if there was a time when he'd ever wanted anything so badly, and he reckoned that was a feeling he was going to have to examine in more depth, later.

For now, he said, "You three don't have to come."

It turned out he still had a lot to learn about other people, because he couldn't even begin to comprehend why all three of his comrades looked at him with furrowed brows and thinned lips and clenched jaws and so on. Despite his general social clumsiness, he could recognise anger when he saw it. Why they would get mad at his offer when they'd all been expressing doubts mere moments ago, he'd never know. Perhaps he never would.

"Of course I'm stickin' around for this, don't be daft," Jade chided him, turning to glare at the monsters and their portals.

"I'm no coward," Lily said, hefting her crossbow.

Even Chester set his jaw and gave a stiff nod, making no move to leave.

"You're mental," Jade said, and somehow there was no insult in the word, "but I don't think you're wrong about this. We're less than two days into this madness, and it's becoming clear to me already that we have to take the fight to these bastards."

John blinked. He watched them for another few beats, but none of them gave up on their resolve, though they all seemed no less tense than before they'd affirmed their decision. He decided not to clarify that his intention had decidedly not been to continue taking the fight to the monsters in the medium term.

"Well then," John said. "Let's do this."

"Yes, let's," a voice came from behind them, deep and gravelly.

John activated Accelerate on reflex, spinning around to face the newcomer and rising to his feet in a defensive position as dictated by his combat Skills in the blink of an eye. The shock had his heart thumping, only for it to stutter in brief confusion at the sight before him. Then it dropped as he recognised the man.

There's couldn't have been many old guys with bald, liver-spotted heads and wrinkled faces wearing only a pair of white swimming shorts. Eagle Eye hadn't done his muscular physique justice; it looked like someone had taken an old man's head and transplanted it into prime Arnold Schwarzenegger's body, then gave it a few cosmetic touches in skin tone and such to make it a bit more believable.

And there was a grin on his face, showing off gleaming white teeth. That wasn't the smile of a man who'd just left behind a pair of dead or doomed children. There was nothing grieving in it.

But it was more than a little feral. Anticipatory. Predatory.

That thought was still echoing in John's mind when Accelerate ended.

"You brats sound like you're planning a bit of fun," the old man said, grin widening. "Got room for one more? I may look like an old fogey, but I knew how to throw a party, in my day."

The old man winked at Lily, and the notification John received baffled him more than anything he'd seen today.

-400 Aura

What? Why?! It took careful control to show no reaction, even as he raged on the inside. I didn't even do anything, what the hell did I get punished for?

"Really think you can handle it, old timer?" Jade replied. Why was she smiling?

Lily gestured back towards the portals. Why was she smiling, too? "We're planning for things to get a little hairy."

"Oh, I like hairy," the old man said with a chuckle. "Name's Douglas. They called me Doug the Thug, once upon a time. Didn't think I'd ever be able to relive those days, but here we are." He made his hands into fists and held them up in a boxer's stance. "You whippersnappers show me an enemy, and I'll show you how we boxed in the fifties."

-400 Aura

The notification took him off guard again, but this time he understood its cause.

Holy shit, John thought, alarm bells starting to ring. This old guy's a gigachad, and I'm losing Aura because he's cooler than me.

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