People surround the creature quickly, but it roars as it tears one such person apart. People start hacking at it with makeshift weapons, but it's completely pointless. Knives won't even penetrate its thick skin as people attempt to stab it. It rips another person in half. People start running up the stairs, but the skeleton and Kaleb stand still. A few other people start walking forward, Kaleb does too.

 

 

*THUD*

 

 

The zombie hits someone, who flies away and hits the wall, the skeleton rushes through the final part of the crowd and leaps into action.

 

 

The zombie doesn't notice this new intruder, *thud*.

 

 

The axe pierces the skin and gets lodged in the zombie’s neck; the axe handle snaps while the skeleton punches forward.

 

 

*splat*

 

 

The skeleton's fingers pierce the zombie's ribs, and holds its inner organs in place, not allowing it to move, other people are shocked, but Kaleb runs ahead.

 

 

"ROAR"

 

 

*THUD* *THUD* *SPLAT*

 

 

The skeleton pulls its hand out of the zombie's ribcage, it falls over, without a head.

 

 

The people are stunned looking at the two of them cleaning their weapons, who then continue walking down the stairs. Another roar is heard, and they start running on their way down. All the people present thank Kaleb and the skeleton but also leave a wide empty path for them to follow.

 

 

The skeleton hands him the items that were dropped from that creature.

 

 

< 3 Survival Coins > and a black box. He opens it and gets another bottle, it's the same bottle of green liquid he received previously which he quickly tucks away.

 

 

The crowd continues to move down the stairs, people are nudging and elbowing him forcefully at times while giving him an annoyed look. The guardian spirit has a hostile reaction to this, but Kaleb gives it a mental command to stay back. Kaleb stops moving with the crowd, opting to stand to the side as he wonders what's going on.

 

 

A few people, as they pass'em by, indicate to him and the skeleton to exit through the door ahead, and go right back to try killing things. Kaleb feels annoyed at this reaction since he stepped forward before any of them to sort out the issue for them all, but now they're telling him to stay away. He takes a deep breath and looks at where he is now, it's the 10th floor. It's just another floor in the hotel.

 

 

The door to the outside has been shut but this place is also quiet, so he allows himself to relax slightly, and lets his stamina recover.

 

 

Those attacks cost 2 stamina, while running down all these stairs had already cost him 5 stamina.

 

 

The potion effects have worn off already, so his recovery rate for the spent stamina has become quite slow. He's currently at 3/6 stamina.

 

 

'A potion should just influence the natural recovery rate; it was 1 per minute before so... maybe it's like 10 minutes per point normally?'

 

 

He asks himself internally, but he can't answer this clearly without further experimentation. He isn't given any time to wait though, as there's a sudden yelling from the door a floor up. Lots of people still need to come down the stairs but it seems they'd all decided Kaleb and Skeleton aren't welcome anymore, so going against the flow of people he walks up to the 11th floor.

 

 

A strong looking man is yelling at him in some foreign language and pointing out the door.

 

 

The door opens up to a foyer and sitting area that has several people sitting down, bandaging themselves, a few of them clearly have visible scratch marks.

They'll all turn into a zombie shortly, but even if he could speak the same language as them, why would they believe him? He's not a doctor and can't explain what's happening.

 

 

Kaleb walks through the door when some screaming comes from down the stairs, there must be another attack, but those people can fend it off for themselves for all he cares.

 

 

The yelling man bumps into Kaleb walking through the door, Kaleb walks through as the door slams shut behind him, but the people here don't care.

 

 

Kaleb watches from a distance, the corridors seem safe but there is quite a lot of banging coming from the hallway. Luckily, there's no yelling so that indicates that everyone has evacuated. The scratched-up people in the foyer start to toss about as people restrain them.

 

 

Kaleb and the Skeleton stand and ready their weapons, inching closer to the people while still unnoticed.

 

 

The people's eyes start to shift into red as their hands quickly turn black.

 

 

The 4 people on the ground are tossing about as their muscles tense and relax, the people attending them check their vitals, but Kaleb is just waiting, he'll only have a moment to help.

 

 

"AHHHH" one of the injured men starts yelling quickly followed by the following 3.

 

 

"AHHRAHHHH"

 

 

The injured man reaches out, Kaleb and the skeleton quickly pull away the people from those on the ground. The first two strike out with their claws but the staff and axe don't miss their mark, two of the zombies are dead, while the other two have been body blocked by the skeleton as their claws penetrate his clothing.

 

 

One of the people tossed back by Kaleb runs up yelling at him, "MURDER!" is all he can say.

 

 

Kaleb doesn't pay attention to the man as the skeleton positions the two zombies.

 

 

*THWACK*

 

 

One of the zombies has its skull crushed as the skeleton holds back the remaining zombie. It's snarling and snapping at the skeleton, who has it in a bearhug, but it can't even fathom to escape.

 

 

The skeleton turns around showing the zombie to the people there who were yelling at Kaleb.

 

 

"This is what they turn into after being scratched, you have to kill them. They cannot be cured."

 

 

The people are stunned but Kaleb doesn't want to wait, *SPLAT*.

 

 

The zombie's head is crushed, Kaleb thinks about the required stamina for all that as it sits on 1/6.

 

 

He walks away from the people who are stunned but also leave him alone, returning to the door he opens it up where it's quite noisy and people are standing around. He doesn't want to deal with these people, so he walks down the hallway and checks, the next door is a tall office building. The interior lights are off, but it looks like there are figures walking around.

 

 

He's unable to see anything other than part of the main street, they look chaotic with cars, bikes, and people everywhere. It's only a small snippet but it looks very chaotic. This building still has power and running water, he contemplates walking up to the top floor and staying there for a few days, until the streets settle down, when the building shakes after a structural thud echoes through the building.

 

 

He runs down the hallway to the foyer that is now empty, he walks to the door and opens it.

 

 

He's hit by some dust that covers him; he wipes it from his eyes trying not to breathe it in grabbing some water from the skeleton after closing the door.

 

 

He pours the water over his face before wiping it off then making a facemask, he exhales then starts coughing. The skeleton hands him another water while he recalls what he saw.

 

 

It was just endless dust coming up from below but there were cracks in the staircase, he thinks for a moment before grabbing some glasses and going back into the stairway.

 

 

He works his way around people who don't try to hold him back.

 

 

"Shit."

 

 

He stops his feet as he can barely see in front of him, he wipes the goggles when *BANG*

 

 

"Shit, that came from below." he exclaims.

 

 

More dust blows up from below, it comes from almost directly beneath.

 

 

A flickering light shows a glimpse of what has happened, the staircase collapsed.

 

 

"OOOOOOORAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG"

 

 

A loud roar comes from below as the whole tower shakes. He quickly backs away from the staircase as it crumbles away.

 

 

He backs away from this area, the people are in a daze, but he wants to try something.

 

 

He climbs up to the 11th floor opening the door, he walks down the hallway, killing a creature while the skeleton kills 3 and levels up again as it briefly flashes.

 

 

[Guardian Spirit, Level 3, Form: Bones, Strength: 12+4, Agility: 12, Vitality: 12, Stamina 9/12, Spirit: 12, Endurance 12+4, Skills: Object transformation.]

 

 

It so far has been a linear progression, he's eager to try the spirit on other items but the first thing he's got to do is to escape this situation.

 

 

He reaches the end of the hallway after checking the other stairway and elevators, there's no other way down other than this. The other stairway is completely infested with zombies and creatures, it seems like it was taken over early while the elevator is completely filled with smoke.

 

 

He looks through the glass across the alleyway where there's a much taller office building. It looks much more expensive and well-built than this hotel. He can spot a lot of smoke wafting in the alleyway from the street where the hotel is located.

 

 

He still can't see inside it but it's not very far...

 

 

He gulps as he thinks about this slightly, he takes a moment to think about it.

 

 

"There's no other way down as the elevators are damaged and there's a fire at the bottom. The stairs are busted, and I can't clear out the other one before getting tired. I have no other choice... FUCK" he exclaims at the end as the club bashes through the pane of glass. It shatters but doesn't break.

 

 

He bashes it again to relieve some tension, *BASH BASH BASH*

 

 

"RAH"

 

 

Some zombies approach from behind, the skeleton takes care of them with ease as he bashes through the window in small chunks. Kaleb creates a large hole almost knocking out the whole pane as the Guardian Spirit slices through one zombie while holding the other two, finally slicing their heads off in the end.

 

 

The whistling of the wind as the air rushes inside reminds him of what's going on outside.

 

 

The smell of smoke and fire.

 

 

The sounds of sirens everywhere while alarms and speakers blaring instructions.

 

 

It's absolute chaos outside.

 

 

Kaleb takes a deep breath before stepping back.

 

 

"Ahh damn, it's hot outside. Fuck, why is this the only option?"

 

 

The skeleton walks forward while it fashions some bones into a spear, it uses the zombies’ bodies to create several more as it approaches the window.

 

 

It throws them across, *BANG*.

 

 

The first one shatters on impact, but it leaves a dent, the skeleton throws another one which hits the same spot.

 

 

*BANG* *Crack*

 

 

The huge pane of glass cracks from the repeated strikes in the same spot, the skeleton throws a few more spears.

 

 

It opens up a large glass pane that covers several floors as it shatters in huge chunks down on the ground.

 

 

Kaleb pats the skeleton as he walks up to the side, he tries to not look down as he judges the distance.

 

 

"Uhh... this is a really bad idea."

 

 

He can make the distance, maybe.

 

 

The other side looks like there's a bunch of offices, the skeleton throws over the suitcase filled with food. It lands somewhere on the other side.

 

 

Kaleb runs back slightly as he stretches, wondering what is going on with his life. Just an hour ago he was working on a report, now he's jumping across the damn alleyway into the neighboring building as the hotel is filled with zombies and fire.

 

 

He starts running towards the hole he made, the skeleton is standing by.

 

 

He reaches the end of the hallway, he leaps out as the skeleton pushes his back, boosting him forward.

 

 

"FUUUCK!"

 

 

He yells as he flies through the air.