Evolving Classes In The Apocalypse-Chapter 19: Bravery And Desperation

Some skittered towards us even faster than the hands had. They sent their own hands forward and caught an Enforcer by the waist before anyone could react.

They were fast, unnervingly so, and their torsos were encased in their own limbs, as though they were the complete opposite of what a human torso should be.

The supporters turned quickly, but the headless torsos sent their rib-legs forward and tore into the suits of the Enforcers before they could fully turn. The legs wrenched downward and split the backs open so savagely that blood pooled beneath them in seconds.

The supporters started shooting, but arrows were too slow. The Undefined mounted upon them with their rib-legs, moving quickly on eight of those things, and used all eight to tear into a single Enforcer.

Just a moment ago, despite this nefarious situation, I was sure that we were going to get through it. The Enforcers had displayed an almost flawless efficiency, proof enough that they had dealt with situations like this too many times to count. They knew just what to do.

But now, that seemed to have been an illusion. Their formation was being eaten from behind, and that would most likely cripple the support the vanguards were receiving.

One of the headless torsos hurtled towards me, but someone intercepted it. He blocked the arm reaching for me with an iron ball that he threw into its path.

The ball looked heavy, but it bounced off and returned to his grip. He locked his eyes onto the target, swung his hand backward, stepped forward with his leg, and lunged the ball forward again.

All I heard was a hollow whoosh across the wind, then the sound of bones breaking. The ball had crushed a hole clean through the center of the Undefined, and it simply crumpled.

The man looked at me and shouted, "Get to a safe place, run away with your wife if you have to." He hurled his ball in another direction and hurried over.

He bent down and buried his hand into the cavity of the fallen Undefined, then brought out a pale-yellow crystal cone and handed it to me.

"From here on out, it’s going to be about survival. We were not supposed to be attacked, much less by three different groups. But then, you can never study the pattern of Undefinition. So go. Tell the others too." He caught his ball again and ran forward.

I stared at his back for a moment, and then my gaze fell to the crystal in my hand. While he had been talking, while he gave me the crystal, the Axiom had spoken to me.

[You have received the Fragment of Definition of a Warped Flesh]

After staring at the Fragment for a moment longer, I sent it into my soul with a thought, as we were taught. Then I beat my mind into order and did as he said. I ran towards the pile of bodies.

The Defineds, even the Medic teams, all of them were fighting to prevent the newly arrived Undefined from reaching the Mundane people behind them. It was not an effort that was paying off.

As I tore into a limping run, an Undefined finally broke through the line and skittered forward, almost catching up to me. But it wasn’t directly behind me. It was more like we were running along the same column, a few meters apart.

Instead of angling to meet me, it continued to skitter forward, even after it passed me.

When I saw this, I picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the creature with every bit of strength I could gather.

The stone landed on the back of the creature. It turned around. It had no eyes to glare with, and I had no interest in how it saw or intended to eat. But I could perceive its fury well enough from where I stood.

My injured leg almost buckled, but I picked up my pace instead and dashed towards it.

’What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do?’

I thought frantically as I raced towards it and it towards me. I couldn’t use the new Class because I was awaiting full integration after evolution.

’But my own Class is still there, right...’

I had come to deduce a few things about what my Class trait most likely did, especially after my battle with Desmond. I was simply going to rely on that.

As I reached the creature, it sent its hands forward. They didn’t simply reach, they extended, stretching out far beyond where they should have.

Instead of being caught in their grips, I reduced myself to a crouch and rolled past them. Before the hands could retract, I stamped one down with my foot and pinned it to the ground.

The hand was surprisingly soft. Brittle, like something a touch away from breaking.

But the second one flew immediately and cracked across my face. It was just a slap, but my fat body rolled away and tumbled across the ground like I’d been hit by a truck.

’This is so much more than a slap!’

I tried to throw myself to my feet but my weight and my injured leg held me down, and through my peripheral vision I could see the creature now hurtling towards me. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Then someone else met it. He brought one hammer down on its leg, targeting the joint. The second hammer followed, crushing the next leg.

The hands shot out to meet him but he swung his hammer the other way and smashed them into a spray of black putrid blood.

The hammer twirled in his grip while two of the Undefined’s rib-legs closed together to block, and the hammer crushed through them without slowing.

The second hammer flew from below as the man twirled and crashed into the cavity of the torso. The creature staggered, stilled, then collapsed to the ground.

The man turned to me with a malicious smile in his eyes.

"Axel, I don’t think we’ve ever properly met before. So regretful we had to do it this way."

Before I could say anything, he moved. The next thing I knew, my vision darkened and consciousness gave out.