World Filter

Donny POV

Donny had left with the scouting party to get a feel for what they were dealing with. He would be lying if he said he didn't shiver when he saw the situation down there. It was almost exactly as described, only now in the morning light he could see more detail. One of the obvious differences was that he was sure their numbers were less than what they spoke about last night.

Donny was just taking it all in when he saw movement near the base of the tree. Small pod-like growths were running up its length. The biggest ones were near the root system. They were probably only about the size of a baseball but what drew his attention was that currently one of the Corrupted was bending down over these pods. It looked like an origin Corrupted. It had plucked one of these growths as if it were a fruit and began biting into it with relish.

Once it had finished the entire pod Donny saw its form rapidly begin to change and then stabilize. It had grown, though not as big as the one they had fought under the bridge it probably weighed in at a close second. Its skin had taken on a bark-like consistency and its demeanor had shifted to a more territorial walk.

Donny drew in a hissing breath. Were they doping? What the hell was going on here? He looked to see if there were more of its kind around. From what he could see there was only one, so this was possibly the first. If he had to guess they would probably be much stronger than the normal variant. Which meant they were now on a time schedule.

The longer they took to clear out this place the more of those things there would be to fight at the end. They spent some time familiarizing themselves with the layout and had time to kill a couple of the stragglers on the second floor. None of them complained because they would have to start soon enough when Mark and Grace had finished working on those spells. Donny was happy he had chosen Aura.

Firstly, he never needed to spend time trying to think up all those complex spells. As far as he could tell Aura users earned their skills in combat. No need to spend time learning and making sure you had the resources to cast. As long as he did not spam his skills too fast he would never lose the enhanced strength that Aura offered. He had put a couple of points into Mana but that was just for the defense. Though If he ever found a worthwhile spell to learn he might. They had stopped in a clothing store to pick up a couple of sets of everything. Who knows what will happen in the future? He’d have to bring Grace back here to pick out something nice.

A warm fuzzy feeling sat in Donny’s chest when he thought about her. It was just a shame the apocalypse came when it did. Shaking those thoughts from his head Donny pulled up his status page when he had the chance.

3x Corrupted Humanoid cleansed (3)

Name: Donovan Nox (22 - M)

Level: 4

Next level: 11/16

Stats:

Resistance Aura Mana Prana

10 30 6 2

Unspent stat points - 0

Corruption value: 0.62%

Skills:

Dash[2], Ax Mastery[1].

He had just recently gotten another skill. The moment he had, he noticed a difference in how he used the ax. He noticed that as he began practicing with it he could start to see the flaws in his technique and the more time he could spend with it the more refined his weapon skill would become. Helping him improve, showing him what not to do. It didn't help him by telling him how to chop better, it allowed him to learn how to improve his movements so that he would eventually be able to tell what the best strike was without the skill's interference.

Basically, it was teaching him.

He was looking at their little scouting party when the reality of what they were about to do hit him. It was going to be intense and he couldn't help but be excited about it. However, he could do without the constant in-fighting. Donny had noticed Mark was a little jealous of his and Grace’s relationship or at least that's what she had said. Donny got it, especially since what Mark said usually made sense. Donny also wanted to help save these people, but he had Grace’s safety to think about. Maybe if he got interested in Daphne he’d understand.

He wasn't blind, he could see the way she looked at Mark. Thing was, Mark had always been a little bit lost to the feelings of others. He could fix people really well but he had always had a sort of tunnel vision when it came to his goals.

Perhaps when this business was over he could nudge him in the right direction. Mark deserved love too. Especially during this time.

Finally, after grabbing some more supplies and killing a couple more stragglers they made their way back with the bad news.

After they had returned, the room had become a hive of activity once more. Everyone was busy getting ready to move out in full force. They now had a deadline.

Daphne had grabbed a couple of Bags and tents from a nearby survival store. Even bringing back two machetes for Mark and Grace. When he asked why she didn't get one for herself she responded with a shy smile.

“Thought about it, but I figured my fists were doing the job well enough”

Mark had to remind himself that though she looked dainty she could probably throw him across the room without even blinking.

He was planning on going into the battle light. He didn't want a heavy pack weighing him down so most of them were leaving their things in the room.

As it turned out there was a gun store in the mall, but as luck would have it it was on the first floor on the opposite end of the building. Which was a little too close to the food court to get there undetected.

Another reason to clear the mall in Mark's opinion. Cold weapons were good and all, they were even silent, but nothing beat having a gun at hand.

His father instilled his love for guns in Mark. Making sure he was at least a passable shot.

Everyone had gathered in thirty minutes and was ready to complete the first phase. If Mark had his way he’d like to use one of the escalators for the second half of his plan. The reason was twofold. Firstly the escalators were narrow, allowing limited Corrupted up them at any one time and secondly there was a set of them leading right to the heart of the food court.

Leaving the safety of their room the group moved along the outer ring of the second floor. They took things slow, yes they were on a time crunch but rushing things now would only lead to them alerting the whole mall. The first part had to be done quietly. Over the course of the next seven hours, their group took out small wandering clusters of Corrupted. Clearing out the whole second floor. Luckily the most dangerous thing to happen had been when Donny had accidentally drawn too many at once and while it had been touch and go, he thought they had dealt with it really well. Mark lost count somewhere along the line of how many they actually killed but if he were to guess it was somewhere in the high 60s. He had stuck to using [Force bolt] as it was the most Mana-efficient killing method he had. He had tried crushing one of them with [Shape Mana] in the beginning. It had worked, although a little gory, it had taken almost 9 Mana and 3 Prana, and that was a normal Corrupted. He didn't think it would be that cheap for one of those advanced ones.

He also tested firing through his [Shape Mana] apparently he could, he could even allow Grace’s wind blades through. Allowing his allies to pass through and hold the zombies out turned out to be difficult, but he could manage it if he solely concentrated on that.

Ethel also pitched in. She used Boe as her main method of killing the Corrupted. It came as a huge surprise when Ethel used some kind of spell on Boe making him faster and stronger. Strong enough to rip the Corrupted apart.

When Mark had killed enough to level again. He willed his stats in the same ratio as his previous level he was still a bit worried about his Resistance stat but with the introduction of [Shape Mana], he had to rethink some things. He still didn't know if it was effective against mental attacks, but that was why he was raising his Mana stat too. It gave him more resources and the defenses he needed.

They did one final sweep of the floor and began the next part of the plan. This was where Donny and Daphne really shined.

They were moving furniture, wracks, tables, and more. He saw Daphne hoisting metal shelving over her head. If this were pre-system, Mark wasn't sure that all of them working together could have lifted that, but now she did it without breaking a sweat.

Grace kept watch to make sure that they weren't disturbing the Corrupted. On multiple occasions, they had to stop to avoid attracting too much attention. At around six in the evening, they were just about ready. The light was beginning to die and Mark didn't really want to do this at night, however, the longer they waited, the worse things would get both here and everywhere else.

After a quick check, Mark noted there were now four of those tree-corrupted.

“Alright just to check is everyone ready?” Mark asked.

They all nodded solemnly.

They had arranged themselves into three groups. Mark and Daphne, Grace and Donny, and finally Boe and Ethel.

They had done it this way so that they could rotate when one group got tired. The plan was to hold the choke point and kill as many of them before falling back to their second point.

Boe and Ethel would not rotate to hold the line, their job was to be overwatch. Clear any stragglers if they got past and watch behind them.

Mark and Daphne got into place. Since there are usually two escalators near each other they had barricaded one. Looking down towards the food court, Mark could see a straight shot directly into the heart of the moving mass. One of the things he’d noticed during the day was that the Corrupted were almost scared to move away from the tree, instead preferring to mill around it, it was probably a big reason why they never dispersed throughout the mall properly.

He prepared a single [Force bolt] and looked toward Daphney, waiting for her to get ready. She moved out into the open. The voices of the Corrupted began to raise. The longer Daphne remained standing there the louder it got. Daphne looked back at Mark and nodded her head.

He raised the [Force bolt] and fired it straight down to the second floor hitting one of the nearest zombies and killing it.

There was the briefest of lulls and then the world turned to chaos. Like kicking an ant nest, massive amounts of activity began to take place below them. Then like a tide, the Corrupted began to rush towards the escalators. The front runners hit the bottom of the steps. Mark created six [Force bolts] at once and sent them forward one at a time. He needed to make sure that he didn't waste a single point. Though the spell had said that he could create more than six he found that right now making any more than this was mentally taxing.

The zombies streamed up the escalators, the narrow paths were indeed funneling them. Though the fact that they did not care for their safety had the back ones pushing to get past the frontrunners. This caused the odd Corrupted to fall off the side, but a moment later the gap was filled by another.

The collective mass rapidly approached, Mark tried to slow their advance, but eventually, Daphne had to step forward.

With a little intake of breath, she set her stance. Blocking the path forward with her body.

Mark summoned more bolts.

Then the wave crashed.