Noara notices the change in his posture immediately.
"Yes."
The moment he says the word, he looks like he's looking somewhere far away.
Did he…?
"Noara… I awakened a class… And I think that it might be useful."
When he looks at her, his hands aren't shaking anymore. Even the emotional reading in his aura is different.
"Wow!!! That's great, Marcos! What class is it?"
Noara's smile at that moment was born from genuine relief.
"It's called Streetwright. It's useful for building and for… this. Crackline Authority."
He applied pressure to some specific points on the hinges of the gate, and then it fell down with a loud thud, as if it had been held in place with just a few easy-to-snap threads.
"Whaa…"
"Impressive, right? I can see fractures in buildings and apply pressure on them to turn them into cracks. I can also do the inverse, reinforcing structural integrity with another skill. And also build barricades and fortifications for defense, though I still don't know how that works."
Everyone around them was gathering, startled by the loud sound the gate made when it fell.
***
Marcos' awakening meant that they wouldn't need to bury the corpses anymore, which was a boon in the relentless heat of the tropical summer's sun.
A ditch was created on the patio of one of the nearby buildings. His class made it possible for him to use the microfissures that existed within all non-living things to break them down easily, but the work of taking the debris out was still heavy duty.
Luckily, they had found some tools inside a house that was being renovated, so the work, while still hard, was at least feasible.
It was carried on efficiently, thanks to Clara's logistics and Julia's organizational skills. While they were working, they could see a huge fire raging about two kilometers away from their point.
"That's the location of Roosevelt Plaza. The drug-dealer group is burning the bodies in their location."
Noara and Lu were carrying another body to throw in the ditch.
"Which means that they don't have a person with a civil engineering class amongst them. We are the best, Noara!"
"I have doubts about that last part. We are good, but pretty far from the best, Lu. We have three awakeners amongst us, of which only one is truly geared towards combat - you. I'm at most a support. If they come with guns, we're cooked."
They reached the ditch's edge, threw the body, and then went to the place where Julia was keeping the mandatory hand-washing point. Every time anyone touched a corpse, they were mandated to wash their hands to avoid contamination from spreading.
"But you just leveled up, Noa… and I did too! Level two Neon Lancer, ready to kill anyone who tries to lay their hands on you."
Lu said it with loud laughter, a smile, and a wink, then took Noara's hand.
"Come, let's get another one. We need to have at least our block clean before night settles."
With a giggle, Noara followed her energetic friend.
"Don't you ever tire?"
"Of being with you? Never!"
"You know that's not what I was asking about."
"I have no idea what you mean."
Noara giggles again, shaking her head.
"You are irredeemable, you know? If I didn't know you, I could even believe that you meant those words."
"Hey, but I do!"
***
They finish the burial of the corpses that were in the critical radius right as the light in the city was beginning to die out.
The air, which was beginning to really smell by late afternoon, had gotten better. Not fresh, still smelling faintly, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.
Marcos was the star of the day, being glazed by the others, the fire of hope rekindling in their hearts.
Meanwhile, the girls were in a meeting on the second floor of the former BDSM club.
"Things seem to have settled down with the shadow monsters in the surrounding area. Those seem to be born by spikes of panic and fear, and we've been managing those well… Much thanks to you, Noara."
The four were visibly exhausted, with bags under their eyes after a whole night and day without sleeping. Julia handed them energy drinks while she spoke, and soon Noara chimed in.
"Not just me, Julia. Lu has been doing a wonderful job, giving them a feeling of safety from monsters. And your care and Clara's guidance also help a lot with easing people's hearts. But still…"
She turned her head to Lu, as if asking the girl to speak.
"Noara's right, but I bring bad news from my last patrol. There are packs of things in the streets. They seem to have been brought by the lingering scent of death. They are still distant, but I fear that they might attack, as we deprived them of the food they were seeking."
Her words landed like a bomb onto the meeting, but Clara bounced back quickly.
"I see… Another all-nighter, then. We need to understand how class awakening works. We need more awakeners. More people with fighting skills… I mean, skills in the game-y sense of the system."
"And now we know that there are also civilian classes… Some healing and weapon-making skills would come in handy as well."
"Clara, Lu, I get where you're coming from, but we don't have time to daydream right now. We need to present a unified response and organize our defenses."
Julia was the one to cut the other two and bring the conversation back to practical matters, then Noara added.
"We work with what we have right now. Sadly, we didn't find any guns in our search, but there were quite a few things we can use as weapons, including some machetes and two axes. And we have Marcos. We should get him to reinforce our barricades."
"Noara's right. And we had a new influx of refugees during the day. We should organize the vigil in turns so everyone can have some sleep, but get the fighting-capable people in position to get to fight at the first sign of an attack."
Clara's words ended the meeting, as the four went to execute what they planned.