I’ll Level Up So My Friends Don’t Die

I hit the ground hard. The dropship hadn't even landed properly; it just slowed enough for us to jump before veering off like it didn't care who lived or died.

My boots slammed into cracked concrete. The air was thick with smoke and ash. Buildings burned. Sirens screamed from somewhere distant, and gunfire snapped in every direction.

And the monsters

They weren't like anything I'd seen before. Shadows that flickered between walls, tendrils phasing through brick like it wasn't there. Their shapes didn't make sense. I stopped trying to count how many legs they had. Or mouths.

"Squad One, hold the lineSquad Two, pull back"

The comms were all static and overlapping voices. Too much shouting. Too much screaming. And then silence.

I spun around.

No sign of Naevia.

No sign of Rael.

Not even the loudmouth from earlierToma or whatever his name was.

I was alone.

"Lucan Rath, stay mobile," barked a voice over comms, but I didn't know who said it. I didn't know where to go.

I ducked behind a ruined barricade, trying to breathe. The heat was choking. I watched a soldier older, seasoned get yanked into a wall by something invisible. He didn't even have time to scream.

Then I heard it.

A scream. Humans. Young.

I turned the corner and saw a recruit, maybe fifteen, couldn't have been much older pinned under some kind of dog-sized beast. It had blades for legs and a face like melted glass, twitching violently as it gnashed at the kid's helmet.

I froze.

I wasn't ready for this. I wasn't trained.

I was just a thief. Just a

He screamed again.

I ran. I don't remember making the decision that my body just moved. I picked up a jagged metal pipe from the ground and slammed it into the thing's back. It screeched, spun, and raked its leg across my ribs.

Pain exploded through me. I dropped to one knee.

The pipe slipped.

The thing lunged

And I grabbed its leg mid-swing and drove the pipe upward through its underbelly.

It let out this awful gurgling sound, staggered, then collapsed in a twitching heap.

Blood black and sticky sprayed across my arm. Some of it wasn't mine. Some of it was.

The recruit stared up at me, eyes wide behind his cracked visor.

"Thanks," he gasped.

I helped him to his feet, shaking.

Then I looked up.

More of them.

Dozens.

Crawling over the rooftops. Melting out of the walls. Phasing in through the asphalt like it was water.

We were in their world now.

And no one was coming to help.

I staggered down a shattered alleyway, one arm around the recruit I'd just saved, the other pressed tight against my ribs. Every breath was fire. Every step shot white pain through my leg. I didn't know how deep the cut was and didn't have time to check.

Screams echoed from the street behind us. Gunfire flared somewhere ahead, followed by silence.

I didn't know where to go.

Then the world glitched.

[SYNC LEVEL RISING...]

[52%...]

[59%...]

The notification flashed across my vision like a burst of lightning. I blinked, and suddenly everything slowed down or maybe I was moving faster. My heart didn't beat so much as roar in my ears. My limbs tingled like they'd been electrocuted.

I let go of the other recruit. My body moved before I gave it permission.

A crawler leapt from the wall.

I sidestepped without thinking, slammed its face into the ground, and drove my foot into its spine with a sickening crunch.

It didn't even feel like I was the one doing it.

[Power Sync Stabilizing... Adrenal Response Heightened.]

Another one lunged from the alley's mouth. I spun the broken pipe in my hand like it was weightless and took its legs out mid-air. It hit the ground hard. My boot followed, fast and final.

Everything was sharper. The world was louder, clearer, brighter.

But I wasn't in control. Not really.

I felt cold. Not just physically something inside me had shut off.

I turned and realized I'd left the recruit behind. He was staring at me like I'd grown horns.

"Don't just stand there," I snapped. My voice didn't even sound like mine.

Then I saw movement and a ripple in the air behind us.

Rael.

He stepped out of a wall like it was mist. His eyes were glowing faintly, void-dark. He raised a hand, and shadows peeled from the street like smoke, slicing through a group of things I hadn't even seen creeping up behind me.

Then he was gone again. Not a word. Just gone.

I stood there, chest heaving, blood dripping off my arm.

What the hell is happening to me?

This wasn't training. This wasn't some simulation in a controlled space.

This was survival. And something inside me was… changing.

Is this what strength costs?

Becoming less afraid. Less hesitant.

Less human.

And still somewhere in the chaos, something in me whispered:

More.

I kept moving.

I didn't know where. I didn't care. My legs just followed the momentum, the noise, the stench of smoke and blood.

Everywhere around me, it was chaos. A building collapsed somewhere behind me with a thunderous crack, fire roared from ruptured windows, and through it all came those warped, distorted growls. The monsters were still phasing in through walls, through roads, through people.

I turned a corner and stopped cold.

There, in the middle of the cracked street, was a wrecked car upside down, frame twisted, flames licking at the undercarriage. And just behind one shattered door, curled up and shaking, was a little girl.

She couldn't have been older than eight.

Her hair was matted with dust. Her face streaked with tears and soot. She didn't scream. She just stared eyes too wide, too hollow at the dead thing sprawled a few feet from her, its body still twitching.

I moved.

Didn't even think about it.

I sprinted toward the wreck, boots skidding on loose gravel. "Hey!" I shouted. "It's okay! I'm not"

She flinched, burying her face in her arms.

"It's okay. I'm with"

[MONITORING SYNC RATE: 61%]

My voice caught in my throat.

Something shifted above me. The sky is wrong. The clouds churned like water circling a drain. A deep, inhuman sound rolled overhead. Not thunder.

I looked up and my blood froze.

A shape was descending from the sky. Huge. Too many limbs. Too many eyes. Its body shimmered in and out of existence like bad reception, tearing holes in the air as it dropped.

The girl saw it too. Her mouth opened a scream forming but never coming out.

I ran.

I didn't think. Didn't care how far. I just ran.

Toward her.

Toward the thing falling like a god of death behind her.

Because no one else was coming.

And maybe I couldn't save Eli.

But I could save her.

Or die trying.

I stumbled forward, each step shaking, lungs heaving for air that wasn't thick with smoke and blood. My arm was soaked from wrist to elbowsome of it mine, some of it not.

I didn't know where Rael had gone. The other recruits were either scattered or already dead.

Then I saw her.

A little girl, no older than seven, crouched in the wreck of a burnt-out car. Her eyes locked with mine. Wide. Terrified.

She didn't scream.

She just stared at me, like I was the only thing left in the world.

I moved across the broken asphalt. Past a collapsed storefront. I was maybe twenty feet away when I saw the shadow pass overhead.

Then

BOOM.

The world cracked open behind me.

The ground shook like it had been hit by a god's fist. Pavement split. Cars flipped. A wall of force picked me up and hurled me like trash. I landed hard and skidded across the street, vision blurred, head ringing.

My system blared to life across my vision:

[WARNING: NEW THREAT DETECTED]

[CLASSIFICATION: TIER C ABERRATION]

[IMMEDIATE EVACUATION RECOMMENDED]

I groaned, rolled onto my side and froze.

Something was rising from the crater. A massive figure, twice the size of anything we'd faced so far. Smoke rolled off its skin like it was shedding the air around it. The girl was nowhere in sight.

I couldn't move.

Couldn't breathe.

The thing lifted its head and all I saw were rows of eyes blinking out of sync.