World Filter

Daphne POV

Her heart pumped double time as the thrill of battle sang in her veins. When she had returned the horde had slammed up against her with such force that she had had no choice but to take a step back. She would have been worried if it weren't for the fact that Mark was behind her, hacking away to relieve the pressure.

She couldn't fall, not now, not when people were counting on her. It had taken some getting used to but the longer she lived in this new world the more she felt herself changing.

She did things now that would have terrified her a couple of days ago, able to face people without flinching. Aura had done this for her. Sure she wasn't happy that the world had changed this much. However, in the back of her mind, she knew she wasn't complaining. She was meant for this. She was stronger, faster, and to top it all off she had never felt this kind of excitement before.

Unfortunately, Mark had ruined her high with reality. This was not a situation she had ever wanted to be in. Daphne had thought hard about this and she couldn't bring herself to hate Grace. That didn't mean she trusted her. She was still hoping that he was wrong, but deep down Daphne knew Grace was more than capable of this.

She had begun to suspect something was wrong a while ago, though she wouldn't have guessed that it was magic because it didn't exist a couple of days ago.

She had just noticed a weird dynamic in the group.

Over the years the two of them had spent a lot of time together. Grace was her extrovert to Daphne's introvert. They had gone everywhere together. The thing was when you spend that much time with someone you begin to learn what they are capable of, even if the other party believed that they pulled the wool over your eyes. The perks of being a wallflower were that people weren't afraid to show you their darker side and boy did Grace have a nasty one.

Daphne drew her fist back and brought it forward to crush the throat of an approaching zombie. The sound of its spine breaking reverberated out.

She was happy she had put all her points in Aura. Except for the one point she wasted in Mana. Panic had set in after the talk about brainwashing. Luckily she had only spent one before she came to her senses.

She thought back to her status and the new skill she had just acquired.

Name: Daphne Colt (20 - F)

Level: 7

Next level: 9/49

Stats:

Resistance

Aura

Mana

Prana

10

54(+9)

7(+1)

2

Unspent stat points - 0

Corruption value: 0.62%

Skills:

Guard[2], Punishment[1].

Skill acquired Punishment:

Through the suffering of pain and duty, your body has become a weapon. At the cost of Aura, any attack that you suffer can be returned to the attacker at similar strength.

The strength of this skill is based on the user's Aura and Resistance attributes.

This effect does not persist if the user is unconscious

This ability can be toggled On/Off

She absolutely loved it, although the prerequisite was that she needed to get hurt to use it. Also if a zombie hit her anywhere that was not vital, it would shrug it off. Whereas she would have to suffer the full blow. That didn't change the fact that she felt an affinity for it. It suited her in her opinion. Just because it didn't work all that well on zombies didn't mean that was the case for humans. If anyone ever tried to attack her she would take at least some of them down with her.

A bolt traveled over her shoulder, exploding the head of a nearby zombie. She had been lost in thought causing her to hesitate for just a moment. The Corrupted had tried to take advantage of her slip and Mark had punished them for it.

Daphne was slightly embarrassed, but the fact that Mark didn't even mention it helped. They worked so well together. She could swing her fists with a clear head because she knew Mark had her back. They fought with complete trust in each other. He trusted her to defend him while she trusted he would fill the gaps that she couldn't and keep her healed up.

Which is why it had stung a little that he had only told her the truth about Grace after she caught him in a lie.

Granted it was not something that she would have easily shared either. Especially if he thought she was on Grace’s side, but she thought she had earned a little more trust. She really liked Mark and wanted him to be able to rely on her.

She used her [Guard] skill as three Corrupted slammed into her. [Punishment] also triggered. Force seemed to rebound out of her, knocking back all three. She lashed out at two of them.

A ping sounded out.

Excitement flooded her system.

That sound usually meant either a level or skill and she had just gone up. The only thing keeping her from checking what she had gotten was the literal wall of hungry zombies.

‘Later’ she silently admonished herself.

She could deal with all of this later, right now there was only one thing to do. Kill.

***

They were exhausted by the time the call to swap came. Mark was sitting on 11 Mana and 48 Prana. He had needed to top up Daphne’s [Regenerate] so he was running just above half.

They had been resting for about five minutes when a scream of pain ripped out of Donny. Their heads whipped around to see Grace lying on the floor unconscious and Donny struggling with four Corrupted. Three of which had their fangs ripping into him.

“Shit!” Mark said as he got to his feet.

“It's alright Mark, trust us,” Ethel said.

At the same time, she slammed her hands together, and a green glow spread from her to Boe. Who was already right next to Donny.

Ethel released a pulse and Mark felt a spell complete. Suddenly Boe grew in size rapidly. From a small cute Border Collie to that of a bear. His form took up the entire gap blocking the Corrupted from approaching Grace.

“Get over there Mark, Boe and I will hold until you can heal them,” she said, never moving from her spot. A gentle green glow originated from her.

Mark charged forward.

He saw Boe rip into the Corrupted, knocking them off, Donny.

Getting to Grace he sent a [Prana pulse] forward. She had to bruise around her head. Checking for a concussion and finding one. He sent Prana to deal with the situation. Looking up he saw Daphne right there, he hadn't noticed at the time but she had followed closely after him.

Nodding to her he turned his attention to Donny and Boe. They were holding the Corrupted off but something was wrong. The corrupted were acting strange like they suddenly knew how to use tactics. They were pressing up against The two of them. Charging to fill the gap and push Donny back. It was almost as if they were taking advantage of their momentary weakness, but as far as Mark had ever seen the only time these things had ever shown any intelligence was when Oridinators were involved.

Mark looked down into the food court, spotting the tree-corrupted. There were five now and one of them had split off from the group. Its skin was like twisted bark and it stood about a head about the other Corrupted. It remained still near the bottom of the stairs staring up at them. It would release a wail and the horde would move like an extension of its body. Flowing around it like a river around a stone.

The thing was controlling them.

Mark cursed.

Conjuring three bolts he moved to the edge and launched them at the bigger Corrupted. The bolts flew straight to their prey and detonated. All three were direct hits, but that didn't seem to bother the creature too much. The bark-like skin had three nasty gashes in it and black sap oozed out but that was about all.

The other Corrupted continued to batter Donny and Boe. Grace was coming to. Mark left Daphne to deal with her and moved behind Donny. His wounds were pretty bad and Mark was beginning to run out of Prana. He placed his hand against Donny’s back and sent Prana to close the major wounds. Donny’s leg and rib cage had been ripped into along with a broken clavicle and multiple bruisings. Mark tried his best to stretch the Prana as far as he could but he still ended up using 25% to patch up the worst of it. Leaving him with about 35% of his total. He was panting and a little light-headed. He hadn't been this low on Prana in a while and he could feel it. Neither Mana nor Aura seemed to have this problem, which was unfair. However, right now Mark had to make the most of what he had.

They had to take out the ordinator, now.

Turning back he shouted above the sounds of battle.

“Grace, do you have enough Mana to do one of those [lightning bolts]”

Clutching her head to slowly turned her head to look up at Mark. It didn't quite look like she understood what he meant.

“Grace, [Lighting bolt], can you cast it?” Mark tried again.

“A.. yeah I can,” she said.

“Alright, Daph help me get her up” He moved to her side.

“Guys! Whatever you’re doing hurry!” Donny yelled

The Corrupted had now moved up the other escalator and were crawling over the barricade.

“Okay, Grace do you see that taller, ugly one? Hit it till it drops” he said.

There was some hesitation in her eyes, but when she looked back at Donny and Boe her fear won out.

“Okay, stand back” Electricity began to arc between her hands. A bolt of plasma went flashing forward, piercing into the Ordinator. Its body flashed with embers and smoke. Arcs of electricity jumped to nearby Corrupted killing them.

They looked on in horror as the Ordinator lumbered sideways. It had definitely suffered greatly, its skin was carbonized and torn open like a lightning strike to a tree. Yet it still lived, slowly retreating.

Another bolt flashed over crashing into its back. Lightning arced and the Ordinator stilled. It was dead, however, the horde that had been traveling up the escalator didn't stop. They lost direction when the Ordinator died but that didn't stop them from continuing forward on instinct. Crashing over the barricade.

“Retreat to the second choke point!” Mark shouted. While dragging Grace towards Ethel.

The three of them ran while Donny, Daphney, and Boe bought them time to retreat. Eventually, they disengaged too.

As it turned out they needed the head start, the others quickly caught up, but so did the horde. Mark wasn't sure how many were left but he hoped it was less than it looked. Diving behind the second barricade Mark prepared to cast.

They had spent more time on building the second fallback point as it was the last line of defense. If they fell here they would have to retreat to the room they slept in last night. After that, they’d have to book it out into the street and take their chances.

Boe got to them first followed closely by Donny. Grace brought up the rear. The gap was wider here, two of them would have to cover it. However with everyone so tired they would all have to turn to meet the charge. Mark barely had resources left and in an attempt to conserve both, he used [Shape Mana] creating a small purple dome of force attached to his forearm. Wielding it like a buckler. Everyone was panting in exhaustion, sweat was streaming down Donny and Daphne's faces. Even Ethel’s relaxed demeanor looked tense.

He gripped the hilt of his weapon and said.

“Don’t give up guys, just a bit longer!” Mark shouted

The horde once more crashed into their front line.

An: Barricaded floor plan