The New World

Althea leapt through trees, using her ever changing limbs as grappling hooks. She swung as fast as we ran, laughing at the sudden surge of strength. I used a little bit of augmentation to keep up with both of them. Branches snapped when I passed by them as did any rocks or briar brambles. The forest was more of a playground than a struggle.

Since we could cut through the forest, we left the legion behind us. They'd no doubt catch up and use our entry point in the barricade for follow up. When we reached the barricade, Kessiah didn't have to scare the shit out of the guards anymore. They all already knew who we were by now. That meant they knew to move out of the way.

We passed by, the three of us jumping over the barricade with ease while Althea flipped and laughed. She was relishing the new, sudden surge of strength. When we reached the first house, she rushed through a window, tearing the wood apart. She smashed through two walls before exploding out of the front door.

Her health was down over an eight as I shouted,

"Try not to kill yourself."

Kessiah jumped off the wall of a house,

"Why don't you try it then big boy?"

I rolled my eyes before charging the runes on my hands. The rush energy flowed up my limbs before I sprinted straight into the wall of a house. A detonation of dust followed me into a kitchen before I ripped through a countertop made of granite. Another wall crumbled as I passed through to a den. A couch dragged with me before splintering in half as I passed by.

I spread out my arms as I rushed into the last wall of the building. The door and both walls collapsed before I rushed out. As I crushed forward, the building wobbled before falling sideways. Althea and I had left it with little to keep it standing. Unlike Althea, my health regen more than outpaced any damage the shock of the impacts could do to me. Compared with her, I was invincible.

I crashed into an empty car before ripping the metal apart. The glass splintered against my armor, and the steel bent like tin foil against it. Like I was kicking a door down, I stepped forward and heel stomped the car, knocking it backwards. It flew backwards before flipping. I turned and grinned at Althea,

"See? I didn't even take any damage."

Standing on a roof, Althea frowned and kicked a chimney apart. Kessiah turned to me, "Not bad. I'll show what I can do though."

She leapt off the house, flying high into the air. After a full five seconds of falling, she crashed into the middle of the road. A crater formed under her weight before she ran and squeezed the top and bottom of a truck. The metal squealed and the glass shattered as she lifted the truck with ease. She stepped forward before using her own weight to toss the red four door truck.

The car flew like a metal bullet, going far faster than I imagined it would. The ground under Kessiah's feet tore apart at the force of her toss. When the car crashed into the house, the walls smashed inwards. The car's momentum kept it going until it flew out the other side of the building, before crashing into another house. The impact was loud enough to crack your teeth.

The first house looked like a bomb had detonated the middle of it. The car carved it out, leaving little left besides the sides of the house. The other house held up better, but Jesus Christ she fucked that first house up. It was crazy.

Kessiah glanced at the ground, "Man, this shit is soft as putty. It's like trying to throw something while balancing on a surfboard in the ocean. Can't get any balance."

The difference in the way she looked at the world was telling. Pavement was like to putty to her. I'd noticed something similar too. Wood wasn't near as hard. Neither was steel. It wasn't anything like putty though. It was ridiculous. Utterly insane.

Althea just started giggling at the sheer might of Kessiah. After a moment, I followed suit. Each of us let out a long winded laugh before Althea even started snorting a bit. As she snorted, I couldn't help but laugh harder. That made her laugh harder, making her snort even more. The cycle continued for a bit.

I laughed till a tear or two fell from my eye. It'd been so long since I'd laughed like that. I didn't realize just how much I needed it. As we finished, Kessiah had joined in a little before we walked up together. Kessiah crossed her arms,

"Now what's so funny?"

Althea wiped a tear, "I just forgot how much stronger you were than us. It's easy to forget when you're so petty."

Kessiah's eyes narrowed, "I'm not petty."

I rolled my eyes, "We all are. Come on. Let's go fuck some zombies up. Enough messing around."

Althea nodded her head, "I swear I'm not petty."

I rushed out in front of the others before turning on oppression. I shouted back, "It's not one of those things you can argue. Saying that you aren't petty is being petty. If you agree with Althea, then you are petty. You lose either way."

She raised an eyebrow, "It's like a trap with words then."

I nodded, "Another good example is if I say you argue too much. Either you accept the statement or you tell me it's not true. The problem is, you're arguing with me if you deny what I said."

Althea pressurized her biotic rifle. She raised it, "And that proves the point of her arguing too much."

I grinned as they contemplated what I said. It was a little play on words I'd read in a children's book. It was funny how much these two powerful, deadly aliens were stumped by such a simple trick. We walked like that, with light, easy chatter between us that was as natural as breathing. It wasn't until a zombie came running out that we were serious.

The thing ran on two arms with its feet turned into two large mandibles. It squealed at us before Althea shot a bolt through one of its feet. I spotted a manhole cover a few feet away. I ran forward and slammed my fist into the edge of it. The cover popped up, flipping like a giant coin.

Whipping backwards, I grabbed the edge of plate of metal and swung it around behind me. I was like a discus thrower in the olympics. The manhole cover shot through the air before dragging the spawn backwards and into a nearby brick wall. The metal plate sliced it in two clean halves before it died.

I turned backwards before shooting out a high five. Kessiah shouted back, "What are you doing?"

"High fiving. Just pretend like we're doing it together."

Althea raised her hand before we did an air five. Some people just get stuff like that I suppose. Anyways, we continued chatting as more zombies came in. After a while, we all sort of gained a more focused approach.

Kessiah said we would be taking the town back in ten block long chunks. We would walk down ten blocks, then move a block down. We'd walk another ten blocks and repeat this process ten times. As we finished out blocks, the legion would follow behind us with the mounted force fields. It wasn't a bad way of doing things.

So by the time we finished our chunk of the city, I glanced at my status screen. I'd gained twelves levels, though progress was slowing down by quite a bit now. I wasn't getting enormous amounts of bonus experience anymore.

I hadn't even noticed, but the limiter on experience was dropped post level 100. As long as you killed monsters above level 100, you gained at least some experience. Still a fuckload less, but it was enough that you could grind out quite a few levels over your own base level. Made it so that newer players could fight enough to find a new fighting style.

None of us needed to worry about that shit now though. We already had our styles fleshed out. The main problem for me was my upcoming evolution and how I'd forgotten all about my genesis of potential tree. It was easy as fuck to do. Gaining 250 tree points took a long damn time to collect, and allocating the points after you gained them was a huge waste of time.

It was far better to just put them into the tree in chunks of 250. I'd already gotten that many points and then some though with all my new skills related to runes though. So much had been going on, I was almost embarrassed about how I'd forgotten something so basic.

I mean, genesis of potential would be giving some awesome bonuses for sure. If I'd had enough points before first running into the infected zone, I might have had an easier time with Elijah. I didn't know and I couldn't tell regardless.

What I could do was change myself going forward. Laziness like that could get me killed or worse. If I was ever going to kill Yawm, I needed to get back on the grind again. Skill trees would be an essential part of that grind. It was straight up idiotic to neglect them. I wouldn't let it happen again.

At least I'd been focusing on gaining skills for the past few weeks though. Instead of just wasting my time, I pulled up a damn respectable total of 568 points in various skills. The majority of it was in the magic and runes skills I'd gained. Quite a few were in older skills though, like boundless storm.

With that in mind, I put all my points into genesis of potential before the upgrade message came up at 250 then 500.

You are one of the chosen among your species. You represent the latent potential for greatness within humanity. +1 extra level 100 leveling perk in total(4 max). Choose wisely.

The light you have will become a paragon of your race, the decider of the fate of worlds. + 2 extra leveling perks in total(5 max). Choose wisely.

I stayed silent as we kept walking forward. On the inside though, I was screaming. This was like opening a closed door. So far, my bonuses were strong but kept me in line with what was normal among the galaxy. This bonus, when combined with the obliterator and determinator trees, set me apart. I could do the unthinkable now. It was like there was nothing outside my grasp.

For the first time, I could see a way out of this endless cycle of being alone. Hell, if I was the strongest dude ever, then I wouldn't have to worry about other people using me. I would be able to tell if someone was planting ideas in my mind or using an enchanted voodoo bullshit voice on me.

I wouldn't have to doubt all that bullshit. It would sort itself out along the way. Whoever was near me, they would rely on me and I'd choose to help them. Right now, I didn't have a choice. In the future, I would.

The voice in my head interrupted my thoughts,

"Yes, embrace the hunger."

I frowned and thought back, "No. It's not hunger you fucker. It's my own choice. Hunger is a need. I don't need to do this, but I want to. You don't get to have a say in what I do. I get to decide how I move forward."

"Is it your choice though-"

"Yes, it is my choice. I don't know what you are, but I don't need to know. I'm not doubting myself anymore. I'm not going to sit in limbo. It isn't like me. I decide where I will go and how I'm going to get there. Just because you think I'm a tool for other people doesn't make it so."

As we reached the next block, the voice whispered, "You will come to need me. When that time comes, I will still be here."

"I don't need a goddamn thing from anybody. I'm not a monster or a man or this harbinger of cataclysm either. I'm goddamn Daniel Hillside. I am who I choose to be. No one else will make that choice for me."

The voice tried speaking again, but I shut it out. I wasn't about to listen to some disembodied voice. Fuck that. I forged my own path to get me here. I'd keep forging my own path to get wherever I wanted to go.

Even if I had to drag myself there, one blood soaked step at a time.