'Huh?'
'Where am I?'
'What is this place?'
Kael found himself surrounded by impenetrable darkness, his body floating in empty space. He couldn't feel his body and couldn't move at all. He could only remain there, alone in the silent void.
Before a suffocating feeling could engulf him, the darkness before him suddenly gave way to a scene. He saw himself standing in the middle of the corridor, blood pooling beneath him, and a split zombie corpse at his feet.
'Wait... is that?'
'I remember!'
'Did I actually kill that monster?'
A giddy feeling started welling up within him. He had really done it. He had fought a zombie ten levels above him, and it was even one that had passed the level ten mark. And if his theory was correct, level ten should be a milestone the system had spoken of.
Yet he had pulled a victory over such a monster.
'I really am awesome, aren't I?'
He was quickly pulled out of his thoughts as the sounds of approaching footsteps drifted towards him. Then came the growls. At the other side of the hallway, a horde of zombies burst forward like a flood about to drown the whole floor. The undead practically climbed over themselves in an attempt to reach his lone figure.
He could see their twisted looks, their crimson, dead but hungry eyes, and their wretched mouths, with pieces of flesh stuck between razor-sharp teeth.
'Move...'
'Run!'
'What the hell is going on?'
Kael tried so hard to move, to control his body to run in the other direction. There was no way in hell he could face something like that. His earlier victory didn't mean he was now invincible. After all, his current state said it all.
'Wait... my current state?'
Kael's eyes widened in realization. 'I remember now. I seemed to have lost consciousness. That would mean the one outside is...'
His vision returned to the scene playing before him, and his thoughts were soon proven by what happened next. A burst of radiant golden flames erupted from him, and Kael could feel his wounds practically sealing themselves shut.
'What...?'
Kael's eyes widened in surprise at the inhuman rate of healing, but this was merely the beginning.
The first zombie arrived before him, its teeth flashing in a deadly snarl, as its eyes glowed deep crimson as if about to release some ocular skill. Yet it didn't get the chance to.
Kael's good hand moved in a blur, as a backhand slap met the side of the undead's face, hurtling its body to the side and deep into the wall with a resounding boom.
[LEVEL 4 ZOMBIE (RARE) KILLED!]
[8 EXP GAINED]
Before the next zombie could react, his still-raised fist tightened around its disgusting neck, and with a sudden burst of immense force, it was hurled forward into the approaching horde, sending the front line stumbling back and halting the onslaught for a brief moment.
A moment in which he felt his ENERGI reserve suddenly fill up, before tiny amounts—very small ones—were used. It was almost as if a unit of ENERGI was being split into smaller units before they were sent into his other stats.
And funny enough, the stat he felt was boosted the most wasn't Mind, Strength, or even Agility. It was the one stat he had never considered enhancing until this moment.
His Vitality!
**Ignition Fist** suddenly activated, but in a way he had never used before. Jets of golden flames erupted at the base of his feet, propelling him into the horde.
An uppercut flew towards the lower jaw of an undead, yet before the attack could land, another jet of golden flames erupted from the base of his elbow, blasting his fist into a deadly blur. Blood bloomed violently into the air as a head was literally knocked away from its body.
[LEVEL 5 ZOMBIE (RARE) KILLED!]
[10 EXP GAINED]
Kael could feel his body moving in that peculiar state he found himself in when he enhanced it with ENERGI. The attacks of what Kael now surmised to be the **Primordial Override** fell into a rhythm, a beautiful yet deadly one.
Almost like a dance, his raised fist flowed into a side elbow strike. His fist opened, with a burst of flames jetting out of his outstretched palm. His elbow slammed into the neck of another zombie, its spine practically collapsing from the attack as it was sent flying.
[LEVEL 7 ZOMBIE (COMMON) KILLED!]
[7 EXP GAINED]
Kael watched with stunned eyes as his body danced among the undead, unleashing a massacre. The cacophony of feral roars, cracking bones, and his moving body painted an entrancing macabre performance.
System messages flashed every second, yet his body was yet to suffer an injury as he merely wove between the zombies' lunges and attacks like a fleeting shadow. Be it common zombies or the rare ones, none were able to block his path for even a breath.
As if sensing his killing rate was not enough, his body suddenly flew into the air, and Kael watched in slow motion as his head turned towards his useless left arm. Golden particles suddenly appeared in the air before swiftly entering his body, almost as if they were being funneled.
And what happened next almost shattered Kael's pride.
He felt his passive actively activate—something he had never manually done before—and a new pale yet intact limb practically jutted out at high speed from the stump. It all happened in a split second, the visual impact jarring despite how smooth it looked.
**Ignition Fist** activated once again, but this time on both of his raised fists, as they were tightly clasped together, the golden flames around them burning like a mini sun. Then his body fell back into the gruesome horde as gravity did its job.
His clenched fists collided with an undead, crushing its body into blood and gore that flew everywhere. His attack continued unimpeded before colliding with the ground.
Then... the world seemed to hold its breath.
Before all hell broke loose.
- BOOOOOM!
A loud explosion shook the entire dormitory as golden flames erupted from the point of impact outward, swiftly covering the entire corridor. Kael felt a bad taste in his mouth when he saw the result of the attack and the devastation left in its wake.
'Is this what I would be capable of if I had chosen Path 1?'
The thought echoed quietly in his mind, the regret twisting his insides so badly he felt his breath hitch. Of course, that was all in his head, as he couldn't feel a thing.
He ignored the system messages, with a level-up one even included within, and focused back on the scene outside.
The flames scattered after a few more breaths, and the result of his attack was shown in all its glory. The previously filled hallway was now empty, with no undead or even a corpse in sight. His body was within a crater, while burnt marks covered the floor and walls of the corridor.
He was bare-chested at this moment, with his blue pants having turned into shorts. What was left of his shoes had been burnt away, his barefoot touching the floor of the hot crater.
His body suddenly turned back to the stairwell entrance, as two new figures slowly came into view. One was a female zombie and the other a male. Yet their appearance was different from every other undead Kael had seen so far.
Most especially, two system messages shone in bright orange colors above their heads.
[LEVEL 15 ZOMBIE (RARE)]
[LEVEL 17 ZOMBIE (RARE)]
******
AN: Please vote power stones, drop comments and reviews! Let's make this novel great together.