Two things happened at once as the large oak tree maintained a collision course with myself and my captor, quickly getting closer and closer.

  First, a bolt of lightning hit the Child of the Overgrown who was grappling me, along with a large rock with a plaque attached which had been lifted from the garden. I felt the sharp branches hold on me break instantly, but I still couldn’t move, despite my team’s efforts. Ritesh and Maria screamed at me to dodge, or do anything, but they didn’t know I had been stunned. Their efforts to save me would be wasted.

  Just as I made my peace with a death by crushing, the smog beside me separated as if blown by a large gust of wind.

  Zahra burst through it towards me, a look of pure concentration on her face as she grabbed me under my armpits, human forklifting me away. With our height difference, it was fairly easy for her to do. I gave a slight, high pitched groan and she lifted me off my feet and the world started spinning again.

  She had saved me from being a burden on everyone. I was thankful, but also frustrated. If I didn’t have the symbiote, I would have died 10 times over by now.

  Zahra, no, the whole group was stronger than I was.

  I refuse to be dead weight. Never again.

  The log smashed into the ground where we had just been, rolling past us and hitting a Child of the Overgrown, who groaned and screamed in response. The protector roared in frustration, but Zahra was already moving us away.

  “Not bad, huh? This skill you gave me is really, really good. Although I gotta say, I think that thing could do some serious damage, if it could land a hit. Anyway, good job tanking that shot.”

  “Ugh. Agh. Urg.” I said.

  I couldn’t make a coherent reply, each shockwave from her feet hitting the ground causing me to involuntarily groan. I kind’ve sounded like a Minecraft villager taking damage, which Zahra must have thought funny as she stifled a laugh. She carried me, racing through the smog as my body revolted against me. She made easy work of dodging the one monster who tried to intercept us, staring dumbly at the grass as we zig-zagged past the swing of its branches.

  With her new speed, we were quickly catching up to the group. Finally, the stunned condition wore off and I could finally run again. I tapped Zahra to let me down as my body relaxed, my feet still not touching the ground.

  “Down please!” I said, my armpits starting to bruise from the constant bouncing. My healing didn’t make it a problem, but it still felt weird to feel a new bruise appear in the same spot over and over again.

  She slowed down a second and put me down beside her, and we followed the group’s lights on the map. They had just made it out of the garden and were moving towards a larger building, which I assumed was a part of the University.

  We ran into a circular sitting area, where benches surrounded a large oak tree. The thing was massive, easily as wide as my entire arm. It had thick branches which went up nearly 30 ft. No leaves grew from its branches, some nearly as wide as the trunk itself. It almost looked normal, before it started to teeter from side to side like a natural leaning tower of Pisa. The roots broke out of the ground, dozens of supernaturally strong tendrils lifting the tree out of its base. Zahra darted to the left and I followed her, attempting to run around the monster before it could turn us into red paint.

  As the tree turned and began to move towards us, I caught a glimpse of something that made me run harder than I ever have.

  Human faces were growing out of the wood, each one petrified with terror frozen on their face. Their lips began to crack open, splitting bark and splintering wood as they murmured in low voices. They were indecipherable, but each second listening to it grew the pit in my stomach and my sense of unease.

  “What the hell are those faces!?” Zahra yelled as we ran, the blue light from our map illuminating the smog. We were 30 yards from the exit, each step a balancing act as the ground danced below us, cursing us for entering the Overgrown’s nest.

  Another message from the symbiote filled the blue textbox in front of me.

  Art: A second Protector?! What the hell is Graxis thinking! How do they expect anyone on this planet to survive Phase 2!? Cover your ears or burst your eardrums if you have to, don’t stop! Your life depends on it kid, RUN!

  I activated Density Shift on my chest to make myself lighter, and ran as hard as I could beside Zahra. She was easily keeping pace with me, her attention more focused on the danger around us as we zoomed past the Protector. I had never run so fast in my life, scanning the smog blowing past us. Density Shift was an effective skill, but I needed to find a way to activate the effect on my whole body at once. I kept losing health from random attacks that stuck in my skin, or the branch I couldn’t dodge which hit hard enough to break bones.

  But I kept running, making use of the small speed boost from my skill. Every breath mended my broken body as my lungs heaved with fire.

  The Protector roared to life behind us, the ground shaking as it moved, the tendrils not entirely able to prevent the trunk from colliding into the ground as it lumbered forward. I risked a glance backwards, not long enough to get the creature’s stats from Greater Observation, but just long enough to get the System description popping up.

  Protector of the Overgrown, level 1

  Warning: This creature is a Graxis S.A.I.

  While the Overgrown loves all her children, she can’t help but have a few favourites. Seedlings who grew larger than their siblings, hoping, no, needing to gain their mother’s approval. They protected the nest and brought food to their family, all the while gaining more strength and size from the infused fertilizer. Now, these student athletes have been enhanced further using Graxis’ synthetic symbiotes. The Protector gains a new face on their trunk for every 100 people they’ve turned into mulch. The more faces, the more likely your brain will explode when you hear them scream.

  The mumbling was getting worse, coming from the mouths on the Protector. It was loud, as if it was coming from inside my head, and no thought or attempt to calm it down was working. The forest-induced migraine was making it hard to focus on anything but Zahra’s back as we ran. She was holding a hand to her temple, probably dealing with the same thing I was.

  Just as I was about to message Art, every mouth on the Protector stretched open, letting out a wicked, mind-piercing scream.

  The world ignited in white-hot fire.

  Zahra and I both fell to the ground, consumed by the stabbing sensation of a thousand needles pressing into our brain at once. I couldn’t make out the difference between the screams in my head and the one leaving my mouth. All of my senses morphed together, overloading my brain and making it impossible to think.

  My health had dropped to 40%, and was slowly ticking down. My regeneration couldn’t keep up!

  Zahra was writhing next to me, blood dripping from her hands as she tried to cover her ears. I could see my textbox moving from messages, but my vision was too blurry to make them out.

  Have to… get up. Must… help...

  I had to stop the screaming at all costs. I writhed onto my back, bringing both my hands to my ears.

  I had to do this now, before my health dropped any lower.

  I mustered all the strength I could, pushing both my thumbs into my ears as far as they could go, and then further still. The blinding hot pain flooding through my skull broke through the mental attack, as the entire world went quiet around me. My eyes flashed to my health bar, hoping I had more health that I felt like I did.

  HP: 29/170

  Don’t think. Just go. If your hearing regenerates before you can get out of here, you’re fucked.

  I didn’t know how long that could be, but I had to keep going.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  I dragged myself up, stumbling over to Zahra. We were both in serious danger, the shaking ground only getting worse as I pushed myself towards her. She was tossing and turning, taking damage from the attack but her ears weren’t bleeding. She looked like she was more incapacitated than anything, so I did my best to scoop her up and escape.

  She was surprisingly light in my arms as we pushed through the smog as quickly as my legs would carry me. My ankles, calves, and hamstrings all screamed at me to stop and rest, but the adrenaline pushed me forward, avoiding the Children of the Overgrown who tried to stop us. As much as I wanted to use another Density Shift, I only had Energy for three more uses, so I had to be stingy. I hadn’t expected the exploration to be this difficult, or deadly, and 15/50 was not enough Energy to take on those Protectors.

  Not without getting squished in the process, at least. We were quicker than them, but that was about it.

  I carried Zahra over a small wooden bridge, the slow trickling of the stream drowned out by the dull thumping in my ears. It was slightly elevated, rising above the smog ever so slightly.

  Just enough to make out the bloodstains covering the wooden planks.

  I continued running, keeping my gaze focused ahead. I would pay Zahra back no matter what. She had to survive.

  Just as we crossed, I felt the explosion of wood splinters hitting my back as another massive projectile just missed us, destroying the bridge. The smog opened up a bit on the other side, and my map and eyes confirmed the same thing.

  The exit was just ahead. We were almost there.

  I ran even harder, legs pumping while trying not to bounce Zahra too uncomfortably.

  Two Children of the Overgrown appeared out of the smoke in front of us, but as we got closer one shuddered and fell, and the other turned, it's back away from us. We dashed right past it as a bolt of lightning collided with its lower half, crippling it.

  “Thank God!” I exhaled as we crossed the exit surrounded by stone walls. My ears and hearing had finally recovered, becoming more clear as my health got higher. I couldn’t keep upright however, dropping to my knees and skidding along the paved sidewalk. Thankfully, Ritesh and Maria were waiting for us on the other side.

  Art: That was crazy close, kid, but good job. Usually the Psychic Murmur isn’t something that immediately incapacitates you, but if Graxis are using symbiotes to boost the monster’s skills, I’m not surprised. They’ll stop at nothing for their goal.

  The message was finally clear, and I responded.

  Levi: Is their goal just to kill everyone on Earth then? What purpose does that serve if they need one person to get strong enough to deal with this ‘Void’?

  Art: I’m guessing that if Graxis is using symbiotes to boost certain creatures from the System and reintroducing them, it probably means they’re betting on one of these monsters to get strong enough to deal with the Void. While the System controls the creatures while they’re on Earth, it won’t extend outside the zone Graxis has set up. If a creature gets strong enough from their symbiote bonding, they could just shut the System down or destroy Earth, whichever’s faster. Then boom, they have their little gladiator ready to go, following whatever they order it to do.

  Levi: Great. Another reason for these stupid monsters to want to kill everyone.

  Art: It's a double edged sword, really. The symbiote-enhanced creature from Graxis will get stronger as they kill more people, especially those with symbiotes. However, you should be able to significantly power yourself up if you can kill one. Graxis is trying to see who can win the race to level 10 the fastest, no matter how much death or destruction it causes.

  Levi: So killing these S.A.I’s will make us stronger because they have symbiotes?

  Art: Yes. Well, defeating anything with a symbiote will make you stronger. However, the creatures Graxis has sent out should be your top priority.

  Anything? My thoughts were disrupted as the sound of broken Earth erupted behind me.

  Maria raised her arms, exerting as the ground began to rise up to the height of the stone walls, closing the exit and hopefully giving us time to move. Ritesh ran up to me, arms outstretched to help carry Zahra. As he did however, she stirred. Her eyes opened and I put her down in front of me. She sat up quickly, looking around us.

  “Levi? Are we safe?!”

  “Yeah, we’re okay. And we’re even now.”

  “Oh. Damn. Thanks, I guess. Ugh, I need a painkiller.”

  She rubbed her temples, scrunching her eyes together as the last of the screams that vexed both of us left her head.

  “We really thought you two were dead, especially when you ran off.” Ritesh said, pointing at Zahra. He kept his face neutral, but there was an edge to his voice.

  “If we hadn’t waited here or if you got stuck further in the gardens, it would be over. We need to stick together to handle these threats. No showing off.” He crossed his arms, staring at us.

  Maria interjected.

  “We had no way of knowing we were walking into a death trap, Ritesh. Give them some credit. Zahra stopped quite a few from following us. The entire group could have wound up dead, not just them.” She was clearly discontent with the man, her hands on her hips and brow furrowed as she stared at him.

  Wait a second. The entire group.

  As Ritesh cleared his throat to respond, I looked around.

  We were missing a member.

  “Hey Maria? Where's Christian?” I said, turning and locking eyes with her. She and Ritesh stopped their bickering, their heads turning to the campus building on the other side of the street.

  “He went inside that building to quickly check it out, he said If he found an enemy he would draw them outside to deal with.” She answered, occasionally looking to the wall of Earth she made, making sure it was still holding up.

  Something about that didn’t really make sense to me. Why do anything solo at this point? With the potential of being down two people?

  “We should follow him, we don’t want him to get ambushed away from us.” I said.

  Half of that was genuine, and the other half I was trying to feign wasn’t distrust.

  Maria nodded.

  “With you two here now, absolutely. We can reprimand them later, Ritesh.”

  The man nodded, shrugging his shoulders and straightening out the collar of his Blue Jays’ jersey.

  “Fine. But just know that wasn’t a reprimand, that was a gentle suggestion. Real discipline builds strength.” He smiled, stroking his long beard.

  Maria sighed, exasperation slowly building towards the man.

  “Sure, whatever. Let's go.”

  We all crossed the street together, a sign in front of the grey building reading ‘Molecular Sciences’. The entire middle of the building was green, including the glass panels that went up three stories. It was a neat, smaller part of university but I liked the architecture that some of the buildings had. There was a sense of mystery there, only heightened by the smog covering most things. I was lucky to have Greater Observation, as I could tell the others were having trouble making out much. Before, it was hard to make out even 5ft. in front of me with the smog. Now, I could see maybe 10-15ft., which was incredibly helpful.

  The entrance to the building was a glass door with a scanner beside it, but the glass had been shattered and the door was tilted, the frame damaged as there was a massive dent in the building above it, cracks spreading out horizontally. As we stepped through the building, I noticed the smog had permanently moved in, slowly shifting around our feet as we moved.

  The hallways in front of us extended left, right, and directly ahead. We all scanned down each direction, trying to make out where the aid had gone.

  Maria gasped as we made out a few bodies lining the floor, hands or knees peaking through the smog. Most were students, still wearing their backpacks when they succumbed to the System Integration.

  But two of the bodies were different. They were the Salamander Footsoldiers from before, but their necks had been twisted and broken, blood dripping from their gaping jaws onto their worn, tattered leather armor.

  Still dripping. This was recent.

  As I looked down the hallway in front of us, I saw a figure just on the very edge of my vision. It was Christian, the very dull glow from his textbox making it possible for Greater Observation to see him.

  Maria called out his name, and I watched as he focused on the box for a few more seconds, before slowly beginning to move towards us, breaking into a sprint as he got closer.

  “There you are!” He said, breathing heavily like he had been running around. He looked slightly disheveled, his black beard sticking out unevenly.

  “With everyone here, we can finally move towards Bunche Hall. I scouted out this building. There may not have been enemies, but we can’t be sure. We need to keep moving north, through buildings if we can. That seems safer than the streets right now.” Christian said, his eyes flickering to his menu as he looked at the blue map.

  I looked at him. “You didn’t see any enemies on this floor? Or beat those Salamanders?”

  He shook his head now, eyes locked on mine.

  “I guess I got lucky. Either way, we should head out. I don’t want to push it.”

  “Sounds good, boss! Everyone needs to remember to stick together, we are a team after all. Let us give Graxis hell.” Ritesh said, raising his hand towards us, palm down.

  Zahra immediately slapped her hand on top, smiling a bit as the man winced.

  “We can definitely do that, deer-man.”

  The two stared at Maria, who placed a hand hesitantly on top, the other crossed along her body. Christian placed his hand on top of hers, surprising me a bit. He didn’t seem like the ‘rah rah’ type. The group looked towards me, and I sighed, collapsing to the combined peer pressure.

  I raised my right hand, but switched to my other arm when I saw the silver reflection staring back at me. I placed it down on Christian’s hand, and Ritesh slightly lowered his hand, and all of ours.

  “Go Jonsson on three! One, Two…”

  We whisper-shouted the chant and broke the huddle, quickly making sure the hallways were still clear before continuing onwards. I couldn’t help but stare at the back of Christian, the back of his scrubs stained ever so slightly with blood.

  At first, I thought Christian’s demeanor was a result of the circumstance. We all process differently, and hell, even I wanted to dive into that despair sometimes. It was comforting to surround yourself in the pain, especially if you were consumed by emptiness.

  But something was off with the man, more so than I just thought. I messaged Zahra to let her know.

  Levi: We need to keep an eye on Christian. He’s acting suspicious.

  Zahra: Agreed. I really thought he was going to shun us and the cheer, fr. We’ll stick together, I like having you and Maria both on the lookout.

  We both looked ahead down the hallway, following Christian’s footprints as he led us further into the University.