Survival Interval: 448

Michael pulled open one of the front doors of the Bay Institute main building and looked into the entrance hall. There was no internal lighting like most buildings Michael had been into. The only light in the foyer came through some windows by the front door and windows above the first landing on a stairway to the left of the entrance. Michael studied the foyer for a moment. Finely polished wood railings, fancy cushioned chairs around tables in a carpeted section, and white marble floor walkways… It was far more fancy than any place that he had been prior to starting the survival battle.

Long dried blackish red blood smears on the white marble indicated that perhaps there had been several ghouls killed just above the entrance stairs at some point during the battle. However, there was no sign of any corpses, nor was their movement. It made sense, the three men who had attacked him had likely cleared everything in the immediate area.

Michael did not look around for long. He quickly made his way over the stairs and started down them. The floor below the main floor was illuminated by what appeared to be candles every 20 feet down the corridor in both directions. However on closer inspection the light came from small bulbs. The light was enough for him to see, but not enough for him to feel comfortable. Frustrating since the bulbs looked like they were only putting out a tiny fraction of what they were actually capable of. There was not another set of stairs that led down under the stairs he was on, so he would have to search this basement floor for another way down. There could not be much more than another floor or two to get down to the hydro electric lab level since the surface the building sat upon was only a good 50 or 60 feet above sea level.

Michael would love it, if the ghouls were dumb enough that he could just make a bunch of noise and get them to come to him here on the stairs, but they had proven more sneaky during his last encounter. Instead, Michael had the option to go right or left down a carpeted floor. Both led into a wall with new hallways jutting off in the same direction. Perhaps the corridor was one big square with a handful of doors. Michael arbitrarily chose to go to the left.

Michael had 5 below average rebuff pills that he intended to take whenever he got into a situation where he would be fighting ghouls, but even if taken consecutively they would only last for 50 minutes. He would pop one in before fighting through a clump of ghouls. Unless he ran into an individual or a pair that he was confident that he could deal with without taking damage. Then he would rush around looking to take down as many as possible before the pills' effects wore off. He would not chance of getting paralyzed if he could avoid it.

The first pill he popped almost immediately after opening the first door and hearing several “Wraaaaaaaaaagghhhh,” cries from within the room. The room looked like a standard classroom with the student desk chairs. Michael did not get the opportunity to see much more as the ghouls started pouring toward the door, as if they had been waiting for him, which they likely had.

Michael would have loved to hold them at the door, but almost immediately one had climbed out from around the top lip of the door. It dropped itself by his side, even as Michael fought off one coming through the door. Michael did not need to analyze one to know that at least the ones he was fighting were tier 1’s. The one who had immediately engaged him had been able to block one strike from his sword with its forearm. It took a second strike to hack the arm off, but it was already too late for Michael to attempt a kill or hold his ground as the second ghoul came in from the side.

Michael was pushed back within seconds of the fight beginning. Still he was not in a bad spot yet. The sword was long enough to practically cover the full corridor. He could hold them all back by sweeping the sword back and forth, and occasionally working in a kill blow. It worked a couple of times. The things were tough but their reach could not match his, and they were at least somewhat weary of his blade.

His outstretched sword whirred back and forth keeping them at bay. It had enough power that as long as it only connected with a single arm it would likely sever it. Then the nearest door to his front right burst open and more ghouls poured out into the hall. Holding back the five right in front of him was doable. Holding back three times that number that were charging towards him, not as much. Definitely not since some of the new ones started climbing up and scrambling across both sides of the wall. Then he heard another door burst open from behind.

Michael started running back toward the stairs. Already several ghouls were in the hall running toward him from the other side of the stairs and more were emerging every moment. A wave of ghouls had emerged seemingly from everywhere on this basement floor. He needed to get back to the stairs before he got hemmed in. However as he closed on the stairs, he found blue creatures in a formation two to three undead deep on the first landing. Ghouls were the worst.

Michael had no idea where the ghouls on the stairs had come from, but fighting through them before the ghouls from below swarmed him did not seem feasible. In a split second decision, Michael decided that continuing forward would be the best course of action. He would fight his way through the handful in front of him. It would not matter how many ghouls there were down here if they were all in a hoard together behind him. Perhaps he could circle back around and back up the stairs. If he hit a dead end at least they would all be coming from one direction.

Michael performed a health offering to increase his dexterity. He pushed for strength and agility as well, wanting to boost as much as he could, but despite the desperate situation the bounds of the skill held firm only giving the dexterity bump.

Michael charged into the ghouls emerging from the left side of the corridor with his sword. He bashed through the arm of the foremost ghoul and cut halfway into its head. His forward movement and a wrench from his arm pulled the blade free. He activated a quick step speeding up his movement and awareness, he knocked right through a ghoul with his shoulder before slashing through another with a backswing.

One outstretched arm caught his side, claws cutting small gouges through his clothes, but the quick step was more than enough to get him around the rest. Thanks to the rebuff pill, he did not receive a paralysis debuff from the one successful strike that had broken skin. Michael continued forward into open space as around 40 ghouls fell into step behind him.

Michael reached the first turn, rounding it quickly. If there were enemies around the corner, he hoped to barrel through them. Once again a dimly lit carpeted corridor stretched in front of him. This time the hallway stretched on for a good thousand feet. More ghouls emerged from doors in front of him, but he easily swept through one or two of them before he was once again back into free space. Then new ghouls emerging from the side rooms then started to join the ever growing horde gathering behind him.

Small dead end hallways led off from the corridor. Each had several doors. Michael ran right past them. He would stay in the main hallway as long as possible. Glances behind him showed a sea of blue fleshed ghouls doing their best to remain hot on his heels. Michael ignored them too. The only zombies he killed were small pockets that emerged in front of him. Already there was at least one white drop floating in the hallway somewhere behind him. It had only appeared after Michael was several paces beyond.

Michael once again hit the end of the hallway and once again turned left. The hallway held more of the same, likely dead ending into the hallway he had initially been traveling down. It was indeed one big square. Michael killed another couple zombies as another 20 or so joined the hoard behind him. It was fewer than the prior hallway. There were at least a hundred back there. The reason was likely since there were fewer doors to the center of the floor. Not that all of the ghouls in the center had not already joined his followers.

Michael rounded a corner again and the stairway once again came into view; it was the only known avenue up that he knew of. However, Michael once again found a good ten ghouls waiting in a clump on the first landing. Michael continued past the stairs. Forcing his way up and through the clump would be impossible before his following slammed into him from behind.

Michael reevaluated. His stamina was still at around 75%. The ghouls were not nearly as agile as him, so his pace was something he could keep up for a good long while. In fact half of the stamina he had lost was due to using his quick step the two times he had. Still fighting would burn stamina far more quickly once he started, and he knew he would likely need to use quick step occasionally.

It was clear the ghouls would remain on top of the stairs to block his exit. He could speed up, creating more distance between himself and the hoard. On his next pass, he would then be able to fight through the ghouls before the hoard caught him from behind. It was his best option. Then a good sized clump of ghouls emerged from in front of him.

It was good they had emerged then and not a couple seconds later. There was still one door toward the center. Michael took it. He found himself in a massive conference room with hundreds of circle tables and even more chairs. Just one large room, with a stage at the far side. There were a good dozen doors out from the conference room to the various halls around the building. Partitions hung midway on two sides of the room, indicating that the large room could be cut into four smaller rooms. Michael ran toward the center.

On a positive note, Michael was sure he had already gotten the attention of every ghoul on the floor. He looked back. There was indeed a good hundred of the blue skinned undead pouring into the large room right behind him. Already some had broken off and were running along the walls as the majority followed after him. They were smart enough to form simple traps and to collaborate with one another to an extent, but they were not real intelligent beings, more like beasts. Beasts that would allow an enemy to get deep into their territory, and even guard the one route out of their territory. However, they were not smart enough to realize that he could use their basic intelligence against them.

Before him was a perfect opportunity to break up the large horde of zombies into small clumps or individuals. Michael weaved through the tables. First one way, and then another. Seeking to cut off all routes of escape or just do to the more narrow confines, the ghouls started dividing to various sides of the tables out into the room.

Michael could not fight through a wall of ghouls that were several bodies thick, but if he was careful he could whittle down the hoard. It would be dangerous. The game would end quite quickly if he got forced back into the center of a large concentration of them, since they would converge on him quite quickly like little kids would when playing football. He was the ball that they all sought to get to. Even if he kept moving to new corners of the room it would be difficult since ghouls would be coming in at all angles, but it was his best bet at this point. He would have to rely on his 28 in dexterity plus its current boost to react quickly enough.

By all indications, the idea worked. After making it three quarters of the way through the room, Michael cut back against the flow to the left of the main hoard of ghouls. Almost immediately he had to cut one down. A golden crown coin with a 3 on it appeared as it streaked into his back as he raced forward. A ghoul went up on a table before leaping at him. Michael’s sword bisected it midair. He did not pause. Two more ghouls went down, before Michael made it through to the other side of the main hoard.

A small pack came in at Michael from the left. A group that had circled around wider away from the main line of ghouls. Michael decided to partially engage this group to cut down the overall ghoul numbers. A yellow dart flickered into existence before turning to a pale orange before it took out one. As soon as the dart was launched a second popped into existence. Michael had judged that he would have to use about 25 points of pulse energy to bring down a tier 1 ghoul. It appeared he had been right that it would be enough. Who could say whether he could cut down the amount of energy, since he was not about to spend time fine tuning his estimate.

A white drop appeared from the second death, but Michael would not be able to get to it. He scraped across the edge of the group bringing down two more. He had already killed 8 in this room. A good start, but there was a good hundred more and he had expended most of his pulse points and more stamina than he would have liked.

Michael was able to cut back once more once they hit the opposite side of the room. However he found himself running along the room wall, and was eventually forced out and into the hall. It was fortunate since there was a white ball out there waiting for him. Michael collected it, even as he continued around the corridor to the other side where there were more entrances back into the large conference room.

Michael went ahead and threw the stat point into endurance. It was departing from his goal of increasing reactions and speed, but running out of stamina right now would kill him. Any drop he was able to snag in this battle would follow right after it.

Michael raced through the hallways rounding two corners, only to find a large clump of ghouls exiting the conference room between him and the stairs. Michael only had one door to his left, or he would have to try forcing his way through what was looking like a decent sized group that was still growing.

Michael increased his speed to reach the door first. The door swung open easily, crashing into the wall of the corridor even as he continued through. The door led to an area behind the stage. There was a bunch of various equipment backstage, and it was incredibly dark. Michael stumbled through. If there were ghouls out in front of him, backstage he would have had a difficult time picking them out of the darkness. The ghouls that had entered backstage behind him, likely were not having near as much trouble as him. He stumbled forward, even falling entirely once, but was back on his feet in a fraction of a second. He turned to move back into the main part of the conference room, bursting through the black curtain.

Michael could have sighed in relief with how much easier it was to see, if it were not for a good 50 ghouls streaming through the tables and chairs toward the stairs. The sounds of the ghouls behind him made sure that before he could even leap down from the stage that every ghoul in the room once again knew where he was. Michael continued forward. His target was a white drop and then to cut through a few more stragglers. His health offering boost had expired, but he still had a good 50 plus minutes with 20% less HP. He would try to make it without, until he was forced to use it again in a key moment. Regardless, the fight would not last more than another half an hour.