Survival Interval: 448

After eating, Michael felt much better. He did not like hanging out precariously on a ledge near the water, but nothing had seemed to notice him yet. He decided to stay put versus inching along the ledge to the other side of the wall, at least until his health offering timers expired. Less than an hour later he was back up to full health.

Now that he had 20 in vitality, he had 200 HP. It also meant that he could recover 1 point in pulse every half a minute. A quick experiment had proved that his health offering skill only affected his health points. Michael was still not sure why the vitality attribute was connected to pulse recovery, but it did give another reason to add to the attribute. Now with his new skill, doubly so.

Back up to full strength, Michael edged along the narrow walkway. Michael glanced around the edge of the wall as soon as he made it. The ocean did not extend too much further. Two thirds of the cavern were filled with the earthen platform he currently stood on the edge of. Only bare rock lay before him for a hundred feet before it met a cement pad on which a massive building lay. The building was a simple rectangular building with no windows. Bare except for a set of double doors just beyond the three cement steps.

There was only one additional structure connected at the far end of the building. It was a cement looking boathouse. The arched entrance was completely open, but this far away Michael could not make out any details of what lay within except that water was flowing through into the cavern. Several picnic tables lay before him and the building. Perhaps a potential break area for the building's occupants. They were wooden and rough, but still functionable.

There was no indication of any entrances back to the surface. Seemingly Michael could either swim out of the cavern through the underwater link to the ocean or find a way up through the test facility. It was something that he did not really need to debate. The building showed up as a dark red on the tactical map, so within was an opportunity to climb back up the ranking list.

Michael had started out at just over 6,048 in the rankings. It was high enough for him to be given a rank, but not so high that his name was featured on the rankings. He would have to break 1,000 to get that honor, but so far he had only gotten down to almost 3,300. That was yesterday. Now he was at 3,412. Over a hundred people had passed over him in the last day including another six in just the last couple of hours.

The rankings might not be gospel, anything could happen, but it was an indication that there were thousands of contenders that the interface considered would survive over him. Michael even knew 2 of them, Sarge and Kyrie. While Michael had not seen Sarge do anything but speak, he had seen Kyrie in action. The only way he thought he could top her in a fight, would be if he could keep his distance and take her down with bolts or pulse darts.

The tier 1 contenders had long ago disappeared from the top one hundred. At this point there were only a few within the top one thousand, and those few must be absolute monsters since there were probably over 1,000 in the rankings that had already tier’d up although Michael could not see them. Kyrie was in the 2700’s this morning. Even she was near the attribute point threshold of 75 for tier 1. It meant that in another couple days there might be several thousand tier 2 contenders running around out there.

Michael was still doing extremely well considering that there were 1.5 million contenders still in the battle. However, it was likely that the number of survivors who made it to day 448 would likely number in the hundreds at most. It was even possible that they would all die. A lot could happen over the days and months going forward. It was possible weaker people could survive to the end by relying on stronger contenders, but he needed to push to be one of the strongest if he wanted to increase his chances.

Traveling with Kyrie had been highly beneficial. He likely would not have been able to snag the higher drops they had without her, but it also meant there was always someone he had to share the high level drops with. Now he was at a point of time where he was potentially strong and equipped enough to try going at it alone once again. Breaking rule number one and swimming for the surface was probably the safer option for him right now, but the red drop was far too appetizing.

Michael cautiously moved toward the double doors. The boat house-like extension promised another entrance to the building, but there did not seem to be a walkway inside. He only paused at the door for a moment, before gingerly sliding one side open and looking within. It opened into one large room. In fact it appeared the entire building was one big room.

The room had a handful of overhead lights that waned in and out. They were never fully illuminated, meaning the room was still far from well illuminated. But it was more than what his eyes had adjusted to outside, but the light flaring and waning would definitely be disorientating to deal with. But what really caught his attention was the other flickering light closer to ground level a couple hundred feet off to the left. The yellow flashes would occur when the overhead lights waned and they were accompanied by a ‘svittt’ sound in a rhythmic cadence. It sounded the same sound as an electric lantern zapping fly after fly.

Being the source of the light and sound, it of course was the first thing Michael chose to examine a bit closer once the immediate area had been deemed clear of threats. An electric fly zapper was not far off. Except in this case it was a monstrous generator, the size of a small air ship, and instead of the fly it was a dark humanoid like figure standing on top holding onto several coils. Electricity was exiting the coils into the creature.

Michael could not exactly see what the figure was despite the shifting light in the room. However, a shadow figure would be a perfect description. It was like a bunch of dark smoke had been bound together in a human-like form. The only notable feature were the gleaming red eyes that blazed from underneath a black hood. Luckily it did not seem that the eyes had noticed him. If they had, the figure gave no indication. Still the hairs on his arms and leg stood up just from the sight of the creature. Michael had been frightened plenty of times over the last few weeks, but this was the first thing that instantly struck a cord of being truly terrifying. He instinctually analyzed it.

[Disembodied spirit wisp; tier 2]

[Disembodied spirit wisp: a portion of an undead’ s spirit split off from the physical body. A disembodied spirit is mostly incorporeal meaning it is highly resistant to physical damage.]

A flash of doubt made Michael briefly consider not taking on this threat. The spirit was already tier 2, and it was just a part of a greater entity. The incorporeal bit was also concerning. He had no frame of reference to know how effective any of his attacks would be against the spirit. Were there more wisps in the facility, or was the physical body somewhere else in the room or complex? The confidence that he had felt just a minute ago was stifled.

The creature gave no indication that it had noticed him. Like the executive zombie it seemed content to just leech off of more power from the electric lines, and they might not be the only source of energy. The glowing red eyes indicated that the thing might be holding the drop inside of itself. It would not be the first time. The dark hound had done the same with a green drop. It was not too late to turn away and swim for the surface.

After watching it for a few more moments, Michael felt safe enough to check out the rest of the room. The room was 20 feet in height and was all one room, and it was all one level except for an upper deck on the other side of the generator the disembodied spirit wisp . The upper deck overlooked the water streaming through. Michael guessed the water was the source . There was only one additional exit that he had not seen previously. Another pair of double doors nearly straight across from him on the far wall. Likely they would lead to a way to the surface.

With the disembodied spirit focused on leeching power it was even possible he would be able to sneak through the room and bypass the red drop boss to the doors. There did not appear to be any other enemies in sight… Michael dismissed that idea. Who knew what was behind those doors?

One thing, he was fairly certain of. The disembodied spirit wisp was the only being in the big room. Sure it was creepy, and highly resistant to physical attacks, but wouldn’t that mean it might be more vulnerable to an energy attack. With his pulse energy, he might actually be quite suited to taking on the incorporeal spirit and he could not just walk away from a red drop. He just needed to psych himself into the first step of battle against such a creepy creature.

A minute later, a ball of energy winked into position to the right of Michael’s head. Once it was in existence his resolve hardened. He was committed. The energy dart quickly went from a light yellow to a deep red, as Michael put every one of his 50 pulse points into empowering the shot. The idea was to hopefully end things with one shot. Ideally, Mark would have aimed for the head. His aim with his pulse darts had never failed to miss his intended target up to this point, despite having made shots in the heat of combat. It was a far cry better than shots made from his bracer where he quite frequently missed shots other than when they were point blank.

However this shot would have to go three times the distance as any he had made previously, so he aimed for center mass. After only a couple seconds of charging, he spent the fumes of his pulse energy to send the dart streaking forward. It caught the disembodied spirit on the shoulder, only a foot off from where he had aimed. Pretty good for a shot made from a good 200 plus feet away.

The creature screeched as its body was whipped around forcibly. What had been its right arm and shoulder was just gone. However it caught itself against the far bulkhead of the generator with its left hand. Mark had been hoping for an instakill, but those hopes were instantly dashed as a pair of red eyes whipped around to focus on him.

Mark pulled both energy shots from his inventory. He had hoped one max power shot would be enough to finish the creature off, but since it hadn’t he was willing to expend both of the shots to bring him back up to full for a second shot. However, his body froze before he could inject himself.

“Wwwwreeeeeiggghhhh…” The creature wailed.

The energy shots fell from his fingers and clattered down to the ground. Michael did not need to check his status to know what was wrong with him. The eyes glowing from the same colored drop from within was not the only thing the creature shared with the Hound boss. He had experienced this debilitating terror before. His body was practically frozen stiff. His mind on the other hand was like a caged creature frantically searching for escape. The only result from his efforts were slight twitches of his appendages. The terror was more overpowering than the hound’s had ever been. At least then, he had been able to manage to stab himself.

Seconds passed, as his arms and legs twitched as he tried to reassert control. His eyes remained locked on the creature, but the disembodied spirit wisp made no movement toward him. Finally, a forced spasm in his leg allowed him to collapse to the floor. He had been hoping the fall would help wake him from the terror. Unable to catch himself, his head ended up bouncing on the grated floor. It was not as bad as hitting pavement, but his world still swam, but he was able to maintain consciousness. The damage to his HP was minimal, but the blow had been jarring enough to break him from the grip of the terror that had gripped him.

Michael immediately started regaining control. Although it would take seconds more to be able to get to his feet. It was as if his legs and arms were recovering from numbness that occurred when blood flow got hindered for long enough. Except this numbness was mental in nature, as if his brain had to remember how to control the various parts of his body. Mark regained his mental faculty completely first. He still felt the urge to panic and separate himself from the creature before him, but he was rational enough to take action. He flipped up his status confirming the terror debuff.

The knowledge did not alleviate his panic that still worked to re-de debilitate him. Last thing he saw was that the creature had still been standing on top of the generator, but how long had he been on the ground… five seconds… ten? Death could be closing in at any moment, but he focused on what he could control. Which was to get back to his feet.

Michael made it to his hands and knees when the pair of double doors slammed open across the room. There was no question for him on what it meant. More enemies had come. The disembodied spirit wisp’s wail had done more than give him the debuff. Four bluish skinned humanoids stood outside of the entrance. Their heads swiveled for a moment more before they locked on him. Sounds of feet slapping against the tile floor beyond them indicated that the four were just the first of the reinforcements to arrive at the call of the disembodied spirit. Once again, like the terror debuff, Michael did not need to analyze the creatures to know what they were. He had fought through dozens of them a mere week ago.

[Ghoul X 8; Tier 1]

Eight tier 1 ghouls normally would not be enough to make him balk, but his body was still suffering from the latest debuff. As soon as they caught sight of him they started sprinting his direction. They would be on him in seconds.

Michael was able to push himself up from his hands and knees. A second later he was on his feet. The ghouls were already too close and in a single clump. He caught one more glimpse of the disembodied spirit as he turned to flee immediately utilizing the quickened step skill to buy some space. He stumbled down the steps, but he did not fall. With every step his body seemed to be more under his control.

All the while the last sight of the disembodied spirit remained emblazoned in his mind. A yellow flash illuminating a white skull with piercing red eyes underneath a black shadowy hood, staring at him evilly. It had been fully facing him.. Its eyes dared him to challenge. Even as it went back to leeching power from the cables, content to let the summoned minions deal with him.

Deal with him, they did. Perhaps it was still residual feelings of panic, but Mark had no thought of turning to make a stand. He ran right to the edge of the earthen platform and dived into the water. He swam nearly to the far side of the cavern wall before surfacing for air and chancing a look back. What greeted him was an ominous view of 20 plus tier 1 ghouls staring out at him from the platform's edge, and additional ghouls were still trickling out of the labs doorway. Not one had apparently been willing to come into the water after him.

Michael only wondered why for a moment before he recalled something from undead lore about certain undead. It was something about them not being able to cross or enter water. A moment later, he remembered that he had literally been wrestling undead zombies in water an hour ago, so the thought did not completely hold up.

Regardless, Michael did not feel like being in the water longer than necessary. Moments later he was swimming through a subterranean tunnel. There were too many tier 1 ghouls for him to deal with all at once. Perhaps if they were as weak as the tier 1’s he had faced a week ago, but there was a good chance that some if not all of them would be quite a bit further into the tier.

His eyes stung from being open as he pulled himself forward into the sunlight. The light increased all at once. At the same moment he felt the gentle swell and lull as he moved into the surf. A moment later he surfaced. He quickly looked around. Behind him was a 50 to 60 foot cliff of rock. To his right was the shipyard. Nearly as far as his eyes could see were shipping containers and a couple massive freight liners. The rock cliff extended endlessly in the other direction as far as he could tell, so he started toward the shipyard.

Michael did not have to swim for long. It took only a couple of minutes before the waterfront of the old town district came into view. There were perhaps 10 blocks worth of store fronts and general buildings separated from the shipyard by a small tributary of water off from the larger river. The small section of the old town district had been hidden from view by the cliff face. Once Mark had successfully hit the beach he glanced at his tactical map.

He was a mere half hour away from the old town outpost that he and Kyrie had been at a mere hours ago. With the thought, Michael checked his contender page. Kyrie’s name was still sitting just fine under his companion column. She was still alive out there somewhere.

Michael hung out there for a moment thinking on what his next course of action should be. However, it did not take him long to decide. He still had not given up on the red drop. Sure he had been forced to flee, but now he knew what he was getting himself into. Still he would need to prepare better for the endeavor, and luckily he had a good way to make enough money to pay for everything he would need thanks to his most recent tier up method. Perhaps he would run into Kyrie at the outpost, but if he didn’t he did not have a plan to stick around and wait. Unfortunately, unless they were close in proximity they had no method to find other contenders, even companions, and Michael could not afford to wait around for her. If they both lived long enough they would undoubtedly link back up.