I’ll Level Up So My Friends Don’t Die

The cocoon twitched again. I stepped forward, weapon raised, everything in me screaming not to. "Lucan," Naevia said behind me, low and tense. I ignored her. I had to know. The membrane split open with a wet, tearing sound. Slime poured out. Something moved inside. Then it spoke. "...L-Lucan...?" My grip tightened. No. It couldn't be. "Help... hurts..." The voice was wrong. Distorted. But it was familiar. Kai. One of the recruits from earlier. I saw him die. Torn apart in the first wave. But here he was or something wearing his voice. His face emerged next, pale, sagging, eyes too black, too wide. "Please... don't leave me..." I hesitated. That second cost me. His head snapped up with a crack. His jaw unhinged, split wide and too far. He shrieked not human, not even close. He lunged. I caught him midair, barely, slammed him to the ground. He clawed at me like an animal, mouth frothing, eyes rolling. I drove the pipe into his skull, once, twice, over and over until the twitching stopped. Silence. I stood over him, breath shaking. Still wearing Kai's face. Still shaped like him. But it wasn't him. It never was.

Naevia didn't speak, the moment I stepped back from the corpse that used to be Kai, I saw her expression stone. No fear. No hesitation. Just fire.

Flames burst from her palm like a living thing. It coiled and surged, crashing into the nest wall with a roar that swallowed everything else. The fleshy surface caught instantly. Wet membranes shriveled. The cocooned horrors inside screamed high-pitched, warping, inhuman sounds that burrowed straight into my skull.

The whole room lit up in shades of orange and death.

I turned away, shielding my face. Heat rolled off the walls like a wave. The air grew thick, heavy with smoke and burning rot. And still the fire raged.

Rael was already moving through it shadow-stepping between columns of flame, eyes narrowed, face unreadable. He dragged a wounded recruit with him, arm slung over his shoulder, both of them half-covered in ash and blood.

I followed, coughing, eyes stinging. Every step crunched through charred debris and twitching limbs.

But the fire didn't kill everything.

One of the cocoons tore open halfway something skeletal and slick with flame tumbled out. It didn't scream. It crawled. Fast. Limbs scraping, claws clicking across the floor.

I didn't wait.

I slammed my foot down on its spine, pinned it in place, and crushed its skull with the pipe. It let out a hiss like steam, then went still.

Naevia's flames kept burning. She didn't stop. Not even as parts of the ceiling began to crack and fall.

The fire was cleansing but also wild. I could see it in her face. She wasn't just trying to kill. She was trying to erase it.

"Out!" I shouted. The hallway was collapsing. Smoke was choking every breath. We moved me, Rael, the injured recruit, and Naevia trailing behind, her hands still glowing.

Another creature came crawling out behind us, already on fire, still trying to chase.

I didn't even blink.

I turned and ended it with a blow so hard I felt something in my wrist pop.

No mercy. Not anymore.

Whatever these things were, whatever they used to be they didn't get second chances.

We kept moving. Through the fire. Through the screaming.

And I didn't look back.

The deeper we pushed into the hospital's blackened spine, the more they came.

Lesser aberrations. Twisted things. Half-grown, half-starved, all teeth.

The first leapt from the ceiling I caught it mid-air, spun, and slammed it through a gurney. The second clawed out from beneath a pile of collapsed tile. I crushed its skull before it cleared the rubble.

[SYNC LEVEL: 70%]

The SERO system's alert flashed red across my vision, but it was background noise now. Everything was background noise.

All that mattered was the rhythm of the fight. The pattern.

They came at angles. Flanked. Hide in the shadows. But I knew where they'd be. Before they moved.

It wasn't just a reflex. It wasn't just speed.

It was instinct. Pure. Unfiltered. Like something deep inside me had uncoiled something old and patient and angry.

[SYNC LEVEL: 73%]

Another wave poured from a shattered stairwell. Five of them. Claw-limbed. Flickering between dimensions. I didn't hesitate.

I slid between two, came up behind the third, and snapped its neck with a twist and kick.

The others hesitated.

I didn't.

Pipe to the face. Elbow to the jaw. I felt a rib break mine when one of them caught me off balance. But it didn't matter. Pain only sharpened me.

[SYNC LEVEL: 76%]

More blood. Not all of it theirs. My arms were cut. My legs ached. But I didn't slow.

Naevia shouted something behind me warning maybe but I was already reacting, turning before the crawler phased through the floor behind me.

I was struck blind. Caught its face mid-phase. It screamed like tearing metal. Then it died.

There was no pause.

No breath.

No peace.

Only the grinder. That's what this place was. A meat machine.

But I wasn't being chewed up anymore.

I had teeth.

And somewhere in the chaos, a thought surfaced jagged, cold, and terrifying in its certainty:

I was made for this.

Whether I wanted to be or not.

I finally let myself take a breath just one thinking maybe we were through the worst of it. The building around us had gone still, too still. That kind of silence doesn't mean safety. It means something worse is coming. I knew it in my bones.

Then the air shifted.

Not with a breeze, but like the entire structure exhaled all at once. Dust rose from the cracked tiles, bits of glass trembled on shattered window frames, and something deep inside me recoiled.

The lights didn't flicker. They died.

Instant blackout.

My comm buzzed once and went dead. The SERO overlay on my vision started to fuzz, glitching with streaks of static. Red warnings blinked and vanished just as fast. A loading icon spun wildly, like the system didn't know what it was looking at.

[ERROR: Unable to Sync Data]

[WARNING: UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED]

That's when I heard it. Not footsteps. Not breathing. It was a sound that didn't belong in this world, a low hum, metallic and alive, like something vibrating through dimensions. Then it stepped into the open corridor.

It was tall. Sleek. Armored in what looked like black glass or chitin, smooth enough to reflect the dying flames from Naevia's earlier barrage. Its movements were too precise, too quiet. Every step it took landed without sound, like it didn't weigh anything at all. Its limbs were long, jointed wrong, ending in clawed fingers that flexed like they were made to cut through bone.

But that wasn't the part that made my stomach knot.

It wasn't the armor, or the height, or even the quiet confidence in its gait.

It was how it moved calm, deliberate, watching us not with the curiosity of a beast, but the judgment of a predator that had already decided we weren't worth fearing.

Naevia stepped closer to me, silent. Rael didn't move at all. His entire form had half-faded into the wall behind us, his eyes wide, locked onto the thing like he already knew what it could do.

And then it looked at me.

Not in the group. Just me.

Its head tilted slightly, like it was studying me in particular. Then its lips pulled back and it smiled.

Not human. Not even close. But there was recognition in it, and maybe even pleasure.

I raised my weapon a broken length of pipe wrapped in torn cloth and dried blood. Pathetic, really. But it was all I had.

The comms crackled, spitting static.

"...Lucan… backoff… you're"

Gone again.

[NEW THREAT CLASS: ELITE TIER]

[WARNING: COMBAT DATA INSUFFICIENT. ABILITY PROFILE UNKNOWN]

It lifted one clawed hand and clicked its fingers together. The sound echoed like knives grinding against bone, and I felt it all the way in my spine.

Rael's voice was barely a whisper. "That's not just a monster."

I didn't answer. I didn't blink.

This thing hadn't stumbled into us by accident.

I was looking for something.

And I was starting to realize it had found me.

Naevia was crouched by the scorched remains of the nest, one arm limp, eyes darting between the creature and the nearest exit. Rael had just pulled a bleeding recruit behind cover, his form flickering like his phasing was struggling under stress. The others? Scattered. Wounded. Out of position. Out of time.

That left me.

Just me.

The elite-tier creature stepped forward, slow and deliberate, as if it knew the kill was already decided. It didn't need to rush. It had patience. Confidence. Arrogance.

I could feel the weight of it pressing down on me like gravity had doubled just for me, just for this moment.

It stopped a few paces away, standing there in the silence, taller than I'd realized, its shoulders rolling like a predator stretching before the final lunge. That humming sound it made low and rhythmic was getting louder, and with each pulse, my SERO overlay glitched harder. The system didn't know what to make of it. I wasn't sure I did either.

But I didn't move.

My legs ached, my ribs screamed with every breath, and I could feel the sting of every cut across my body, hot and sharp and real. Blood slid down my wrist, soaking the pipe I still held in both hands. The grip was slick, the edges dented from too many impacts, but I didn't let go.

I planted my feet.

Between it and the team, there was only me now.

No orders. No backup. No escape.

Just a line I refused to let this thing cross.

My chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, every inhale a reminder of how much this body had already endured and how much I'd already lost. Eli. Mari. That broken promise in the fire. That quiet whisper of "never again" still echoing in the dark places of my mind.

The creature cocked its head again. Studying me. Judging me.

And I stared right back.

Not blinking.

Not backing down.

If this thing wanted to reach them, it would have to go through me first. I didn't care how much it hurt. I didn't care what it cost.

I was done running.

I raised the pipe. My arms shook. My jaw clenched.

It took one more step.

I held the line.