The four girls were still pressed against the wall, staring at Nox like he'd grown a second head. The hallway reeked of blood and whatever those dogs were made of, which was definitely not normal dog.
"You just..." Kendra started, then stopped, looking at the torn-in-half creature. "You just ripped that thing apart. With your hands."
"Yeah, so?" Nox said, examining the blood on his palms before wiping them on his pants again. Not that it helped much. His uniform was basically a biohazard at this point.
"How?" Emilia asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She was still hiding behind Kendra, even though the danger was clearly over.
"Got strong," he said with a shrug. "World ended, powers happened, now I can rip monsters in half. Pretty straightforward."
"Powers?" Masha spoke for the first time, her quiet voice somehow carrying perfectly in the ruined hallway. "You mean this is happening to everyone?"
"No idea. Maybe. Some people are getting different stuff." He thought about Ava's fire, Diana's telekinesis, Jax's golden sponsor. "Seems pretty random."
Yeda was just staring at him, and he noticed she was shaking. Not from fear of the monsters though. She was looking at him like she was seeing him for the first time.
"You were going to shoot us," she said quietly. "In the classroom. You had a gun."
The other three girls went very still.
"Yeah," he said, not bothering to deny it. "I was."
"But you didn't," Emilia said, like she was trying to work through a math problem. "The earthquake happened instead."
"Lucky you."
"Lucky?" Kendra stepped forward, still gripping her bent pipe. "You were going to kill us and you're saying we're lucky?"
"You're alive, aren't you?" He gestured at the dead monsters. "Which is more than these things can say. Or the kids downstairs. Or probably half the school by now."
"That's not the point—"
"Look," he cut her off, already bored with this conversation. "I saved your lives just now. You can either say thanks and we move on, or you can stand here arguing about what I almost did before the world ended. Your choice."
They exchanged glances, having one of those silent conversations that groups of friends could have. Finally, Kendra lowered her pipe.
"Thanks," she said, though it sounded like the word physically hurt her. "For saving us. Not for, you know, almost shooting up the school."
"Fair enough."
"So what now?" Masha asked. "Where do we go?"
"We?" Nox raised an eyebrow. "There's no we. I saved you, now you're on your own."
"You can't be serious," Emilia said, finally stepping out from behind Kendra. "There are monsters everywhere. We'll die without help."
"Not my problem."
"It kind of is though," Yeda said quietly. Everyone turned to look at her, surprised she was speaking up. "You're trying to clear the dungeon, right? That's what you said downstairs."
'How did she hear that from up here?' Nox frowned. "Maybe."
"Well, if we die, we can't help. But if we live, maybe we can. Some of us might get powers too."
It was annoyingly logical. He looked at the four of them more carefully. Kendra was tough, even without powers. Emilia was smart. Masha noticed everything. And Yeda... well, she was observant in her own way.
"Fine," he said finally. "You can follow me. But I'm not protecting you. You stay alive on your own or you don't. Clear?"
"Crystal," Kendra said.
A blue screen popped up in his vision.
[Plague Hounds Slain: 3]
[EXP Gained: 30]
[Current Level: 4]
[EXP to Next Level: 270/400]
He dismissed it and started walking toward the stairs. "Keep up or get left behind."
The girls scrambled to follow him, Kendra still carrying her pipe, the others empty-handed but staying close together.
"Where are we going?" Emilia asked as they descended the stairs.
"To find more monsters."
"That seems like the opposite of what we should do."
"I need to clear the dungeon. That means killing everything."
"Everything?" Masha asked. "How many are there?"
"Started with about 170. Probably down to around 140 now."
"You're keeping count?"
"The system is."
"System?" all four girls said at once.
He sighed. This was going to be a long explanation. "I see blue screens. Like a video game. Tells me stuff, tracks my progress, gives me stats."
"That's insane," Kendra said.
"That's Tuesday now. Get used to it."
They reached the second floor and he held up a hand, stopping them. He could hear growling from multiple directions. A lot of it.
"Stay here," he said.
"But—"
"Stay. Here."
He walked down the hallway alone, following the sounds. Three dogs came around the corner, saw him, and charged immediately. No hesitation, no pack tactics, just straight aggression.
'These ones are dumber than the ones in the gym.'
He clotheslined the first one, its momentum working against it as his arm nearly took its head off. The second one he grabbed mid-leap and used as a weapon, swinging it into the third one. Both creatures went down in a tangle of limbs and teeth.
He stomped on one's skull, punched through the other's chest. Quick, efficient, done.
[Plague Hounds Slain: 3]
[EXP Gained: 30]
He walked back to where the girls were waiting. They were staring at him again, that mix of horror and awe that was becoming familiar.
"It's clear," he said. "Move."
They followed him through the carnage, carefully stepping around the bodies. Yeda made a small sound when she saw the one with its chest caved in, but didn't say anything.
"This is insane," Emilia muttered. "This morning I was worried about a chemistry test."
"Chemistry doesn't matter anymore," Nox said. "Only strength matters now."
"That's a pretty bleak worldview," Masha observed.
"It's realistic. The weak die, the strong survive. Always been true, just more obvious now."
"So what does that make us?" Kendra asked. "We don't have powers."
"Potential food," he said bluntly. "Unless you get lucky and develop something."
They were passing by the cafeteria when he heard familiar voices. He stopped, listening.
"—should be safe to move now," Ava was saying. "The path to the gym is clear."
"I still think following him is a bad idea," another voice said. The blonde girl from the gym.
"We're not following him," Jax's voice, rough but determined. "We're just going the same direction. For now."
Nox almost laughed. They were following him whether they admitted it or not. Using him to clear the path while staying at what they thought was a safe distance.
'Smart, actually.'
"What is it?" Kendra whispered.
"Other survivors," he said. "The ones from the gym."
"Should we meet up with them?"
"No." He started walking again, but deliberately louder this time. Heavy footsteps that echoed in the hallway.
He heard the voices in the cafeteria go silent. They'd heard him. Good. Let them wonder if he was coming back. Let them be afraid.
He led the girls up to the third floor, which was weirdly quiet. Too quiet. No growling, no scratching, nothing.
"I don't like this," Masha said softly. "It feels wrong."
She was right. The monsters had been everywhere else, why not here?
Then he saw it. The hallway ahead was covered in something white and sticky, like massive spider webs but thicker. It stretched from floor to ceiling, wall to wall.
"What is that?" Yeda asked, her voice very small.
Before he could answer, something dropped from the ceiling behind them. Not a dog this time. Something else. Something with way too many legs.
The girls screamed.
Nox turned around slowly, looking up at what had to be the biggest spider he'd ever seen. It was the size of a small car, eight legs spread wide, multiple eyes all focused on them. Its mandibles clicked together, dripping something green.
"Well," he said, cracking his knuckles. "This is new."
[Mini-Boss Detected: Brood Mother]
[Recommended Level: 5]
[Warning: Summon-Type Enemy]
'Summon-type? What does that—'
The spider's abdomen pulsed, and suddenly dozens of smaller spiders, each the size of a dinner plate, came pouring out of the webbed hallway.
"Oh," he said. "That's what that means."
The girls pressed against him, terrified. He could feel them shaking. For once, he couldn't really blame them. This was definitely worse than dogs.
"Run," he told them.
"What?" Kendra asked.
"I said run. Now."
For once, they didn't argue. They ran back toward the stairs while he faced the spider army.
The Brood Mother chittered something that almost sounded like laughter.
"Yeah," Nox said, rolling his shoulders. "Laugh while you can."
Then he charged straight at it, because really, what else was he going to do?