The concrete stairwell turned into an echoing chamber of pure terror. Michael’s boots slammed against the stone steps, punctuated by the chaotic, metallic scratching of dozens of claws right behind him. The narrow walls compressed the snarling, snapping sounds of the remaining thirteen hound-foxes, magnifying the noise.
Michael took the steps three at a time, he once again give it all forcing his lungs to burn but keeping his legs moving as fast as he could. He hit the hairpin turn, his shoulder slamming into the cold concrete wall to swing himself around the corner.
As he swung around the landing to face the final flight of stairs leading to his waiting team, his back foot slipped slightly on a patch of blood, belonging most likely to those they killed earlier.
That single misstep nearly cost him his life.
A massive hound-fox, driven by a frenzied burst of bloodlust, lunged through the dark. Its jaws snapped shut a hair’s breadth from Michael’s left foot, the sound of its teeth cracking together like a breaking branch. Michael felt the hot, foul breath of the beast. Instinctively, he threw his upper body forward, using his strength to haul himself up the remaining steps, barely evading a sweeping claw that tore a ragged strip of fabric from the hem of his jacket.
“Thrust! Now!” Michael roared as his boots reached his team.
The twelve students have already been waiting for this and reacted without delay. The fresh, intoxicating power of their recent Level 2 status advancements had steadied their nerves as much as it was possible in a situation like that. The suffocating panic that had once paralyzed them in the Audimax was gone, replaced by the will to survive but also to kill.
The two veteran students flanking the front line stepped inward instantly, their iron spearheads locking into a tight V-shape. Behind them, the ten newer Level 2 students raised their shafts over the veterans’ shoulders, creating a solid wall of metal and pointed wood.
The lead hound-fox, still airborne from its leap after Michael, flew straight into the waiting wall of spears.
Three spears impaled it simultaneously—one through the chest, two through the ribs. The sheer force of the beast’s charge shoved the front line back half a step, but the veterans dug their shoes into the stone, gritting their teeth and holding the line.
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
The narrow staircase worked perfectly. Blocked by the carcass of their own packmate and squeezed into a corridor barely wide enough for two of them to run wild, their greater numbers stopped mattering.
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They became a squirming, desperate mass of snapping jaws trapped in a slaughterhouse.
Michael didn’t stay in the back. He shoved his way into the center of the formation, his recruit’s spear flashing through the narrow gaps between the students’ shoulders. His mind was entirely devoid of emotion now, his body moved on its own without thinking much, just thrusting his spear again and again.
*Thrust. Twist. Withdraw.*
Every combined strike of the spears punched through fur, muscle, and bone. With every beast that choked on its own blood, the system relentlessly fed the numbers directly into their vision.
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
The first to level up were the two veterans at the front. The golden shimmer went through their bodies. The deep-seated exhaustion in their muscles evaporated within seconds as the System regenerated their stats.
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 3. All baseline attributes have automatically increased by +1 point. You have received 5 attribute points and 1 skill point.]
“Don’t let them breathe! Push back!” the left veteran shouted, his voice newly empowered, his grip tightening around his spear as the remaining monsters rammed into their formation.
By the time the fifth and sixth monsters collapsed, their combined kills broke through the next threshold for the others. Behind the veterans, a series of involuntary gasps echoed through the ranks. One by one, the ten newer students were hit by the warm, revitalizing energy of the System as they reached the next level, knitting together torn tissue and flooding fresh stamina through their bodies.
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 3. All baseline attributes have automatically increased by +1 point. You have received 5 attribute points and 1 skill point.]
The formation became faster, heavier, and completely unstoppable. Michael’s spear was the deadliest of them all, darting into the smallest gaps to pierce skulls and sever spines without mercy. He watched his own counter tick up with every single drop of blood spilled.
77... 82... 92... 97...
*Thrust!* His iron point punched through the eye of the eleventh hound-fox, killing it instantly.
[You have killed a Hound-Fox — Level 1]
[You have received 10 Experience Points]
[Ding! You have leveled up]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 4. All baseline attributes have automatically increased by +1 point. You have received 5 attribute points and 1 skill point.]
A notification overlayed his vision as his body was entirely refilled with raw power. The remaining two beasts didn’t even stand a chance. The formation drove forward, skewering them against the concrete walls in a matter of seconds.
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
[You have assisted in a kill.]
[You have received 5 Experience Points.]
Within minutes, the violent thrashing subsided into silence, broken only by the dripping of hot blood down the steps and the ragged, heavy breathing of the thirteen survivors. All thirteen hound-foxes lay dead, piled over the previous wave.
But as the initial rush of the level-ups began to fade, the blue status screens didn’t minimize. Instead, they remained and showed a text none of them apart from Michael had seen before. A completely new notification was blinking in their screen.
Every single person in the stairwell—from the newest Level 3 students to Michael himself—looked at their screens as an identical golden prompt forced its way to the foreground of their vision.
[You have unlocked a unique Talent slot based on your choices and traits.]
Michael’s breath caught. He remembered this notification from before. He got it as soon as he reached level 3 but ignored it for the time being.
The system didn’t give a list of options. It didn’t offer a choice. It manifested their individual talents.
Through the system everyone in this group made their first step to become more than a human now. They got their individual talents that would not only rewrite their future but also change the whole world.
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