Despite James’ earlier attitude, Isaac quickly learned that the guy wasn’t all that bad. At the very least, he knew how to handle himself in a fight. With the ability to make his skin as hard as steel and transform his arms into blades, the beasts couldn’t even land a single scratch on him.

  He was slow, though, which became obvious when an entire street filled with Wretched charged at them. Isaac, with Marie supporting from the back, did just fine with only Symphony of Blood active. James, however, got overrun real fast when a dozen or so monsters pounced at him at once.

  At least he had the decency to apologize afterward, nodding in gratitude when they pulled him out of the pile of bodies. From there, things progressed much smoother.

  “We could take the alleys,” Marie suggested quietly as they eyed another street full of monsters from behind one of the many crashed cars.

  Isaac hummed. “Maybe… How are you on Viron?”

  “Still close to full—I think,” James whispered. “My skills only really use energy when I activate them or take damage. Other than that, I’m good, boss. We can take ‘em.”

  Of course you would say that. Not that I disagree, he thought and glanced at his second teammate.

  Marie shrugged. “I can fight, but if we try to clean up every street on the way, I will run out sooner rather than later.”

  Isaac nodded. “Alley it is, then. Might as well use them while we still can. We’re gonna need to fight anyway once we get out of the main part of the city.”

  Not even James had a witty remark for that, and they slipped away from the street and into the narrow alley beside it. It wasn’t much different than the one behind his apartment building—filled with trash containers, old boxes, and other useless junk.

  And, of course, there were the Wretched.

  Blood Dagger.

  Four crimson blades materialized at his side and shot at the nearest beasts. Next to him, Marie’s whips flared to life while James charged ahead, one of his arms transformed into a long blade.

  Isaac didn’t join him this time and just continued summoning more blades. Even if Symphony refused to advance to the next tier, Blood Dagger grew stronger just as fast, if not quicker, than Blood Draw. Soon, it should reach its final tier, too.

  A shiver ran down his tattooed arm, almost making him chuckle. The Root of Blood definitely didn’t enjoy being left out for a fight.

  I told you, be patient.

  Before long, the alley was clear, and any other Wretched that noticed them refused to approach. One glance at the vanishing corpses was enough to have them running in the other direction.

  This is getting far too easy, Isaac mused as he sent another salvo of Blood Daggers toward some Wretched standing on the street connected to the alley. The nearby beasts instantly turned in his direction, but when their gaze fell on Root of Blood in his hand, the dagger floating above him, and at the two other Hosts standing next to him, they ran.

  James snorted. “Maybe we don’t need the alleys after all. ”

  Even Marie snickered at that. “Maybe…”

  Isaac rolled his eyes, a little amused himself.

  “Let’s go.”

  Blood Dagger has reached its maximum tier.

  You have leveled up! You are now level 8. Distribution of Ascension Power in Progress. Power and Regeneration have advanced a tier.

  There it is. Advancing skills does help.

  Isaac grinned, leaning out of the way of a charging Wretched and slicing it across the back. The creature screeched as it collapsed, and before it could recover, a dagger to the skull silenced it for good.

  He looked around, but no more monsters came at him. Most had already run away, while the few remaining were putting on their final show against Marie and James. Still, he sent a couple more daggers there, speeding up the battle.

  “Thanks, boss!” James mock saluted again as he stabbed the final Wretched in the heart. Once he allowed it to drop, he and Marie canceled their skills and stepped beside Isaac.

  “The gems are barely dropping anymore,” the woman commented, watching the bodies around them vanish.

  “Yeah… I noticed,” Isaac said, following her gaze. “There might be a daily limit, or we just got lucky in the beginning?”

  James huffed. “Not me… I killed at least fifty Wretched since this mess began and only got four gems for my effort. I counted!”

  Marie crossed her arms. “Maybe if you weren’t so annoying, your karma would be better.”

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “As if! That’s part of my charm. Besides karma? Girl, I don’t believe in such bullshit.”

  “Yeah?” She raised a challenging eyebrow. “Then maybe you should start. Seeing how shitty your luck is, being a better person might help.”

  Isaac stayed quiet, watching their back-and-forth with mild amusement. He would never admit it, but when it wasn’t him that James annoyed, it was pretty entertaining to witness him get under someone else’s skin.

  And to think that not even an hour ago, she was telling me to ignore him. Yet here we are…

  From what he noticed, Marie seemed like a quiet and calm person—a bit like himself—so for her composure to crack this fast? It was quite impressive. Hell, they were still going at it in the middle of the street while every Wretched in the area was running for their lives.

  Isaac hummed to himself. Maybe James wasn’t entirely wrong about his charm.

  Either way, it’s time to end this. He cleared his throat. “That’s enough. Come on, we’re getting close. Let’s get this over with.”

  And that was indeed the truth. They had long since left the main part of the city behind, and now only single-family homes surrounded them on either side. They hadn’t encountered any groups yet, but the distant gunfire echoing all around was hard to miss.

  “Roger, Roger!” James exclaimed while Marie just shook her head.

  With that, they were off again, taking out the last few stragglers in their way.

  Every now and then, they caught movement in the windows of the houses they passed. Marie suggested investigating, but with their target so close, Isaac shot down that idea for now. If the people there survived this long, they could wait a bit longer.

  “Oi! You two,” James whisper-shouted after they cleared another street. “You hear that?”

  Isaac paused, furrowing his brow as he tried to understand what the man meant. Then, his ears picked up some muffled sounds—people talking, some angry shouts. He shared a glance with the others, and they all nodded at once.

  Without a word, they veered off the street and slipped into the backyard of a random house. A hop over the fence later had them landing behind another home. The noises intensified, so they quickly moved along the building’s walls and peaked on the street on its other side.

  Bingo.

  At the far end of the road, free of any Wretched, cars stood parked next to each other, forming a makeshift barricade. Just beyond it stretched a small camp filled with tents and people moving about. Some carried weapons, while others rushed all around, their arms full of supplies.

  Then there was the small group standing in front of the cars—the source of the noises they all heard. Though at this distance, the rest of the camp wasn’t much quieter. Isaac was also fairly certain he could hear some strange humming of a machine somewhere in the background.

  “That’s the group you mentioned?” James whispered once they backed off. “They sure are doing better than us. A lot more of them, too.”

  “Most likely,” Isaac answered just as quietly. “The address checks out even if I’m not sure which house is his with all those tents… Maybe if they didn’t all look the same…”

  “Why are we hiding then?” Marie added a cent of her own, her brow furrowed.

  “Girl’s got a point, ” James agreed and casually stepped out into the open.

  Isaac shrugged and followed right behind. The sudden appearance of three strangers instantly got the attention of a few people in the camp. Though, for the most part, they only spared them a short glance before returning to whatever they were doing.

  Right, they probably have new people coming in every few minutes.

  And so, unbothered by the curious stares, Isaac and his team approached the group next to the cars. Thankfully, a woman with a mop of dirty black hair spared him the trouble of beginning the conversation.

  “Welcome to our little survivor camp. Name’s Sadie,” she greeted, flashing them a friendly grin. “You three are new, right? I don’t know everyone here, but I’d remember a group like yours.” She pointed her baseball bat at James’ formerly white tank top. “Just how many did ya kill to get here?”

  “A lot,” Isaac answered before the older man could say something dumb. “I’m looking for Daryl West. Know where he might be?”

  Sadie frowned, glancing at the others in her group. When they just shrugged at her, she turned back and smiled. “Sure.” She gestured to the nearest house on her left. “You should find him inside. Though I doubt they will have time for ya. The bosses are busy organizing this whole mess.”

  Isaac waved her off. “We will manage.”

  “Your choice.” Sadie shrugged. “Just don’t cause any trouble, or we will have to come for ya.”

  “We will be good, my lady. No worries,” James promised, a roguish grin on his face.

  The woman rolled her eyes. “Yea, yea. Now go. Stop wasting my time.”

  Isaac almost gave in to the urge to point out that she and her group weren’t doing anything productive. However, the moment he noticed James opening his mouth again, he just settled on dragging the man forward.

  “Your charm, hmm?” Marie muttered once they were out of earshot.

  “It takes time to work. One sentence ain’t enough,” James shot back. “Just look at you two. Grumpy here looked like he wanted to kill me when we met today. Now we are best of friends. Right, bossman?”

  Isaac sighed. “No comment.”

  James clutched his chest dramatically. “You wound me.”

  “You will live, idiot. Now act your age. People are watching,” Marie hissed.

  True to her words, thanks to James’ antics, people were looking at them as if the trio had lost their minds.

  “Both of you, be quiet, please,” Isaac said. “We’re here.”

  The door to Daryl’s house was wide open. An elderly woman standing nearby narrowed her eyes at them when they passed but didn’t try to stop them. And so, they entered the hallway and moved toward the voices coming from somewhere in the building.

  They were about to enter the living room—the source of the noises—when Isaac collided with someone coming the other way. The person gasped when she looked up at him.

  “Isaac?”

  He glanced down at the person he caught at the last second—a short woman, a bit on the chubbier side, with waves of long brown hair framing her friendly face. She stared up at him with wide green eyes, and before he could step back, she pulled him into a tight embrace.

  “My dear God… You’re alive!” She exclaimed once she released him but still kept a firm grip on his forearms. “After Daryl couldn’t reach you yesterday, we feared the worst. Oh, I’m so glad we were wrong.”

  Isaac, still slightly disoriented from the sudden physical contact, offered the woman a small smile. “It’s good to see you too, Mrs. West.”

  She huffed. “It’s Mia, dear. How many times do I have to tell you? Ah, whatever! Doesn’t matter. Come!”

  Before he could protest, she tugged at his arm and dragged him into the living room.

  “Daryl, dear! Come here quick. Look who I found!”

  To read more, you can visit my Patreon (always between 24-26 chapters ahead):