Waking up to my alarm, I sat up and bonked my head again on the ceiling. Staring at the offending structure, I deactivated my flight and walked into the kitchen. There was no power, so cooking food would have to be either done over a fire, or on a camping stove. I decided against cooking today and instead decided to have another granola bar. It’s not that I disliked granola, and ever since my transformation I’ve noticed my appetite fading, but I was just sick of it. Granola for breakfast every day was rather annoying to me. I am a woman of variety, after all.

Begrudgingly eating my breakfast, I noticed pretty quickly that my flight skill hadn’t increased during the night. Just like I expected, there were definitely diminishing returns to skill levels. While meditation was pretty useless regen wise, it was useful for introspection. While meditating before bed last night, it was really driven home to me that the status page that I had was not where my power came from. This power was my own, and the status only gave me a convenient means to understand the changes to my body. My stats were increasing because this race simply had a stronger body. In fact, the most difficult stat to level up, intelligence, was probably taking the longest time because while my body changed a great deal, my mind remained rather constant.

My skills were more like suggestions; I was the one in charge. From what I could tell based on intuition, the spells were the most hand-holdy part of the system. They were guided forms for me to manipulate my inherent elemental controls. I could probably mimic the spells themselves using the magic skills alone. I was curious if that was a part of my race or just a part of how magic worked in this world.

My current race was apparently not very skilled in magic and instead relied on physical combat. Considering that I could already throw some pretty powerful bolts of electricity, I wondered what actually powerful magic looked like, and what kind of effect it would have.

 

---

Considering that my car was practically locked in place, I was going to have to fly back to Austin. It’s a real shame that I couldn’t really bring back any of the supplies I planned to bring, but I was forced to settle with what I could carry in my backpack. Because my flight density change seemed to affect anything I was wearing, I could carry a lot more than I would normally even considering that I was even stronger than an Olympic athlete. The real question was, which kind of Olympic athlete? I understand the explanation, but the actual application needed some work. I needed to find a weight set and test my limits.

I grabbed a large hiking backpack and started to change over the clothes from my small bag into the larger one. I also placed the CB radio in the bottom, wrapped in a t-shirt for some extra padding. As well as that, I took one bag of pinto beans and a bag of rice. I was able to fit one ax, and both machetes as well as the kerosene lantern, an extra canister of fuel, and two electric lanterns. I was currently charging my phone with my portable solar charger, but I would be able to fit the large foldable solar panel as well. Testing my flight while wearing the pack, I found no problems at all. I was also going to take the AR-15 and the Glock, as well as all of the ammo I could carry. My personal firearms could wait here in the house, locked into the gun cabinet. Better safe than sorry, after all.

I folded up the solar charger and placed it into an outside pouch of the backpack, and I was ready to go. I put on the backpack, and activated flight, soaring into the sky.

Ever since I started to incorporate my Aerokinesis ability with flight, I realized that it felt incredibly natural. Like I had started to discover last night, the race skills and magic skills were more personal than I had previously believed, and I was only just starting to scratch the surface on what they could do. To reinforce this idea, as soon as I started to use my wind control to change the air around me and propel me onward, my flight skill began to improve at a visible pace. It was called Elemental flight, after all.

Looking out over the landscape, I craned my eyes, searching for new sights after the changes to the world. The downtown Austin city skyline was still off in the distance, but it seemed much farther away then it was previously. Further to the south there was actually some type of temple or crystal spire, piercing the air. I would have to look at that later after I checked to see that my friends were okay.

Continuing my surveillance, I noticed a problem. There were about 6 separate plumes of black smoke rising out of the woods to the northwest of my current location. I decided that I would be in my best interest to drop off these supplies using my new flight speed, and then come back and investigate before it became a problem. There was little I could do for a forest fire, and if there were people in the area that were dangerous, I didn’t want to run into trouble while bogged down with a large backpack.

 

I decided to try and throw out all the stops. I cast wind shield and could feel an invisible barrier blocking me from being buffeted by the wind. I then use Aerokinesis to throw wind behind me until I just about broke even with my mana regeneration. I flew off at max speed, straight towards downtown Austin.

And I freaking FLEW. I’ve been on a motorcycle before, but that had nothing on unrestrained flight. Just for fun, I tried to do some aerial maneuvers, like a barrel roll and a flip and executed them easily. I couldn’t even feel the shifting g-forces. I guess that kind of makes sense, as technically speaking I was made of air, and it didn’t seem like air would have that problem.

As I tried to accelerate even further, the level-up messages for flight just kept coming. This was the first time I ever tried to go max speed, and it was paying off for sure.

 

It took about an hour of constant flight to reach the apartment. Granted I had to slow down when I reached downtown, but still. It just goes to show how drastic a 65% increase in landmass would be. I wonder if there’s increased gravity and my new strength makes it difficult to notice, or whether something far more ridiculous is going on.

I landed on the third floor of the fire escape and pulled open the window. I carefully set the backpack inside, entering in behind it. The house was almost entirely quiet, save for the crackling of a radio. Cindy was sitting on the couch, and as I entered the building, she looked up at me. She did not look happy. Decidedly un­happy I would say.

Understanding that I was in for a chewing out, I decided to start off with an apology, “Hey, Cindy. Sorry for being late.”

Oh shit, that sounded way too sarcastic. But wait. Why do I care so much? Is Cindy my mom now? Is this what the world has come to?

“Late, were you? You said you would come back when the next wave started. You certainly did not. It’s been two DAYS Victoria. Did you know that I had to beg Taylor to not go looking for you? We were so worried.”

Oh damn, now I feel bad. Well, she’s definitely correct that I probably should have come back earlier. I’m glad I spent a day training but leaving them in the dark both literally and figuratively was probably an unwise decision.

“I’m sorry again Cindy. My car got penned in when the second wave came, and I couldn’t get all of the supplies out to you that I wanted to. I also felt like I needed to train and being stuck in the city surrounded by others would really hamper my progress. I was able to level my skills a ton while I was gone. I wanted to make sure I could defend us if it ever came to it, and I couldn’t think of any other time where I would have freedom from monsters again.”

Great, it looks like she bought it. I definitely didn’t get sidetracked. For sure. I totally couldn’t have avoided spending a whole day as a lumberjack by realizing that more than just my driveway was covered in trees, making all of that work utterly useless. Not like I have magic powers making scouting long distances trivial. For sure.

“Oh, very well. Expect to receive a chewing out from Taylor as well when she gets back. She’s out with her band right now, trying to make sure her friends are safe through all of this chaos. We were able to get in contact with our families, and they are fine but are holed up within their respective houses. She was the only one in the beta test, but she wanted to make sure that the guys were okay and had a good start with their changes as well.”

Taylors band had four members including herself, and Taylor was both the lead singer/guitarist, and the only female member. The guys were nice, but pretty imposing-looking, as they were all tall, tattooed, and buff. Though I suppose I pretty safely fit in the imposing category now, as well.

“In my bag are some supplies that I wanted to bring back, as well as some basic weapons. I saw a big fire on my flight over, and I want to see what was happening there if I needed to warn someone. Also, I think I could probably stand to make another supply run back to the ranch. I have a second hiking backpack and plenty of food. Now that I know you both are alright, I can have a bit more flexibility. Plus, my race gives me the unique ability to instantly run away from all danger, which I’m not sure many others have.”

Cindy let out an exasperated breath.

“Alright Vic, fine. But you better come back later. The gangs in this part of the city are starting to take liberties, now that they basically all have some form of superpowers. The cops can’t control them either, so watch out for yourself. I have seen a few unsavory looking individuals walking about the area.”

I unpacked the AR-15 and made sure that Cindy knew where it was. The great thing about Texas is that practically everyone has at least some experience with a firearm. Definitely useful in a crisis like this. I had brought a thigh holster for the Glock with me, and I holstered it at my side. I also stuck an extra mag into the pouch attached to the holster just in case.

With that I was ready to head out.

I leaped out of the window once again, flying through the city. I couldn’t fly high enough to go over all of the buildings just quite yet, but I could definitely pass over a lot of them. Not too many that are over 9 stories in this part of town and weaving through the various office building was pretty fun.

I actually spotted another person flying above me. They were some kind of bird beastkin, and they had black feathers and rounded wings like a crow or raven. I turned on my back and waved up at them, and they waved back. Good to know that the world going mad didn’t change good manners.

I turned to the west and headed out of town. I accelerated again and managed to level up flight twice more, and Aerokinesis once. I apparently also managed to tip my wisdom over the edge, because I was able to get my final point in that as well.

 

I soared through the sky, enjoying the wind and the pleasant air until I could now clearly see smoke rising on the horizon. Before when I had left, I counted six distinct plumes, but now there were 8. One of the plumes of smoke was only a few miles away from me, so I flew towards it to see what it was.

---

Arriving at the scene, I was almost shocked into silence. The plume of black smoke rose from what was once a house. I slowed my speed and began to very cautiously approach the scene from about 10 feet off the ground. The whole area was quiet save for the sounds of the occasional bird, so chances were good that there were not too many things that would be considered predators by the small animals in the area.

There were two cars parked out front of the house. Both had all of the wheels popped, and the windows were broken. The wheels had definitely been punctured by a knife. Getting closer to the door, I smelled the stench of burning meat, and I knew what I would find.

There were six bodies hastily piled on the ground outside of the house. They were so charred that I couldn’t make out anything about them. I felt my mind grow cold, and simultaneously I wished I could run away and hide, and also avenge them. It was clear that no fantasy monster did this, as roaming monsters weren’t a part of the world yet. Only people could have done this. It must have been bandits or looters, trying to take advantage of the chaos of the second wave, and their newfound strength.

I so wished I could simply call the police, but they were bogged down dealing with gangs in the city, and there were no roads that they could use to get out here anyway. Someone had to let the people in the area know that there were murderers roaming about the wilderness. That someone would need to be able to travel quickly long distances and see far enough to find houses with people in them. And unfortunately, I fit the bill. Damn my good conscience.

I flew back into the air and decided to try and find the bandits’ whereabouts. I could pretty easily see that one of the plumes of smoke was bigger and darker than the others. It must be the newest. Flying just over the treetops, I sped towards the large plume of smoke looming in the distance. At this height, it seemed to tower over me, almost blocking out the sky. My nerves were getting to me.

Eventually I arrived at a clearing and settled into a on its edge. It was still bright out, so hopefully my glowing bits would be less noticeable. I guess that’s the price I pay for being sparkly. In the clearing, I could make out five shapes moving around the smoke. They were all clearly changed. Four were some kind of beastkin, but at over 70 feet away, I couldn’t quite make it out. One was clearly different though and had slightly reddish skin. From this distance, I could tell that his hair was glowing. As I watched, he stepped straight into the flames in the house, seemingly taking no damage from them.

There was a small shed outside the house that was untouched by flame. Two of the men went behind the shed that was blocking my vision. I could hear a struggle, and I had to cover my mouth to keep from calling out. The two beastkin dragged out from behind the shed a young woman. She was tied up and gagged. One grabber her under her arms, and another grabbed her bound feet, and they began walking into the wooded area towards me. I closed my eyes, and sat perfectly still, using one hand to cover the gem on my forehead.

I could hear something happening on the ground beneath me. I could sense them there through my Electroreceptivity, their brains sending out electrical signals to their muscles. Risking the glance, I opened my eyes. ‘Inspect’

 

 

 

After figuring out the stats of the bandits, and quickly making use of the techniques granted by the quiet movement skill, I inspected the girl on the ground.

 

They dropped her on the ground. One of them began to unzip his pants. As I watched, I saw her eyes widen in fear. Then they rose and saw me, widening with scant hope. I needed to move. It was now or never.

I willed my stats into the back of my consciousness.

 

I charged a spark in both hands.

 

I unleashed them both at the Ratkin’s head.

With a crackle and the scent of ozone, two white-hot bolts of energy rushed into the Ratkin’s brain.

As they struck, I actually saw a floating red number pop up above his head. It was weird how I understood my health, mana, and stamina on intuition, but damage numbers were actively represented in my vision. 

-30, -30 Critical Hit!

I guess it was a critical hit. I fell to the ground behind him and dropped two quick body blows into his gut, charging them into Storm Fists. My hands glowed with an intimidating light, and each punch rocketed off with the sound of gunshots.

-21, -21

He stumbled back, and I reached down to my thigh to draw my pistol. Getting it in front of me before he could react any further, I pulled the trigger three times.

-10, -10, -10

He fell to the ground in a bloody heap. His friend must have been on something because it took a few seconds for him to get ready for combat. My agility and dexterity were already paying off, as I could move and get into place for combat incredibly fast.

As he started towards me, I turned the pistol on him and emptied the mag.

-10, -10, -10, -15 Critical Hit, -10, -10, -10, -10, -10

As I peppered him with holes, I could hear shouts behind me. I threw the gun to the side and raised my fists.

As he drew towards me, he raised his hands, and vicious claws shot out of the tips. Considering his lack of general deadness, he definitely had hella constitution. Fucking badgers.

My fists crackled with current as I prepared to bake this bastard well done.

He ripped his claws down my front, and I tried to dodge out of the way, but I took a hit. -12

Activating dash, I placed my fist into his face with +50% speed and +100% style.

C-C-COMBO CRITICAL 2.5x; -62!

His face crumpled under my fist, and he was no more.

I was actually doing pretty good considering my lack of fighting experience, but it was time to leave. I didn't want to risk another encounter with collateral damage being a possibility. Reaching down, I grabbed hold of the cheetah girl, and ran deeper into the woods.