The pneumatic bone saw screamed, a high-pitched mechanical shriek that vibrated through the metal bones of Alex's exoskeleton.
?In the gloom of the tunnel, the noise was deafening. To the Ghouls, it should have been a warning. But to scavengers starved by weeks of famine, it was just another noise to be overcome by hunger.
?The hesitation broke.
?With a collective hiss, the six remaining Ghouls scattered. They didn't charge in a straight line. They were pack hunters, hardwired for flanking. Two scrambled up the curved walls, their claws sparking against the tiles. Three rushed the center. One vanished into the darkness beneath the subway tracks, looking for an angle to hamstring him.
?[ THREAT ANALYSIS: MULTIPLE TARGETS ]
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY (OPEN GROUND): 12% ]
[ ADVISORY: SEEK DEFENSIBLE STRUCTURE ]
?Alex didn't need the blue box to tell him he was dead if he stayed in the open. His exoskeleton was powerful, but it was slow. If they surrounded him, they would strip the flesh from his back before he could turn around.
?He needed a funnel.
?His eyes snapped to the rusted subway car to his left. It was an ancient Model-80 transport, derailed and leaning against the tunnel wall at a forty-five-degree angle. The windows were shattered, but the chassis was reinforced steel.
?"Move," he commanded himself.
?He didn't run; he stomped. The fused exoskeleton leg hit the concrete with the force of a pile driver, propelling him forward.
?Clang. Clang. Clang.
?The Ghouls screeched, realizing their prey was retreating. The three in the center accelerated, their limbs blurring.
?Alex reached the sliding doors of the subway car. They were jammed open, rusted into the frame by twenty years of damp air. He threw himself inside, spinning around instantly to face the gap. The interior of the car was tilted, forcing him to brace his reinforced leg against a row of seats to stay upright.
?The first Ghoul hit the doorway a second later. It launched itself through the air, jaws wide. Alex didn't swing the saw; he simply held it out.
?VRRRRRR-ZZZT!
?The diamond-tipped chain met the Ghoul’s chest mid-air. There was no resistance. The saw chewed through the ribcage in a spray of black mist and bone chips. Alex kicked the twitching corpse backward, turning it into a projectile that slammed into the second Ghoul behind it.
?"One," Alex counted, his voice flat.
?But the funnel wasn't tight enough. The subway doors were open two meters wide—enough for the Ghouls to swarm him two at a time. He looked at the rusted door mechanism above him.
?[ STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS ]
[ OBJECT: PNEUMATIC DOOR ENGINE (RUSTED) ]
[ INTEGRITY: 15% ]
[ WEAKNESS: MAIN PRESSURE VALVE ]
?Alex raised his left hand. He didn't have time to fix the door; he had to break it correctly. He grabbed the rusted housing of the mechanism, the hydraulic assist in his frame whining as he applied four hundred pounds of crushing force.
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?CRUNCH.
?He crushed the pressure valve. With a groan of dying pneumatics, the heavy steel doors slammed shut—until they collided with the wreckage of the frame. They jammed, leaving a gap exactly wide enough for one Ghoul at a time.
?[ KILL BOX ESTABLISHED ]
[ TACTICAL ADVANTAGE: +40% ]
?A claw reached through the gap, blindly swiping at Alex’s face. He watched it with cold detachment as the System overlaid the limb with red lines.
?[ TARGET: RADIAL ARTERY ]
?He stepped forward and tapped the saw against the arm. The limb fell to the floor, severed cleanly at the elbow.
?A head forced its way through the gap—pale, hairless, and snapping. Alex drove the saw into its skull.
?VRRR-CHK. The body went limp, blocking the entrance. He yanked the corpse through, tossing it to the back of the car to clear the zone.
?"Three."
?He was winning. The math was on his side.
?CRASH.
?The sound came from behind him.
?The Ghoul that had climbed the walls hadn't come for the door; it had crawled along the tunnel ceiling and smashed through the roof of the subway car. It dropped directly onto the seats behind Alex, glass raining down on his shoulders. At the same time, the Ghoul beneath the tracks smashed through the rusted floor plate near his feet.
?"Flanked," Alex hissed.
?[ WARNING: PERIMETER BREACHED ]
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: DROPPING... ]
?The roof Ghoul lunged. Alex swung the saw, but the angle was awkward. The blade caught the creature’s shoulder, tearing flesh but missing the bone. The monster crashed into him, its weight driving him back against the closed doors. Simultaneously, the floor Ghoul grabbed his human leg and sank its teeth into his calf.
?"ARGH!"
?The pain was sharp, cutting through the System’s dampeners. The roof Ghoul was clawing at his throat, its foul breath washing over his visor, while the one on the floor shook his leg like a terrier. He was pinned. The saw was too long to use in a grapple. He needed space. He needed an explosion.
?The Crates.
?The two crates of Raw Mana Shards were still strapped to his back, crushed between his frame and the steel door. The warning light was blinking so fast it was a blur.
?[ WARNING: CONTAINMENT FAILURE IMMINENT ]
[ MANA VOLATILITY: CRITICAL ]
?Alex roared, triggering the [System Overclock]. His vision turned red. He ignored the teeth in his leg. He jammed his arm back, metal grinding on metal as he fought the weight of the beast, and yanked the manual release pin on the cargo straps.
?SNAP.
?The eighty kilograms of loot dropped. Alex used the sudden loss of weight to throw his body weight forward, head-butting the roof Ghoul with his reinforced helmet. He kicked the floor Ghoul in the face, the steel boot shattering its jaw.
?He had two seconds.
?He grabbed the primary crate—the one with the cracked seal. It was glowing with a chaotic violet heat. Then, with a desperate grunt, he used his other arm to shove the second, intact crate toward the front of the car, kicking it into the driver’s compartment. It slid behind the heavy steel bulkhead, shielded from the immediate blast radius.
?He looked at the breach in the floor. "Fire in the hole," Alex gritted.
?He smashed the damaged crate against a steel seat, cracking the casing completely.
?HISS. Violet gas screamed out of the breach. He jammed the crate into the hole in the floor—right into the car’s undercarriage.
?Alex scrambled toward the driver's cabin, diving behind the heavy steel bulkhead just as the air began to hum with lethal energy.
?[ SKILL: STRUCTURAL REINFORCEMENT ]
[ TARGET: DRIVER'S BULKHEAD ]
[ MATERIAL: STEEL + AMBIENT RAW MANA ]
?He slammed his hand against the wall. He had no mana of his own, but the air was thick with the leaking violet mist from the floor. He reached out and pulled. The ambient energy flowed through his fingers, acting as a catalyst. The steel wall glowed with a geometric lattice, thickening and fusing with the floor to create a bunker.
?BOOM.
?The world turned white.
?The raw mana detonated, vaporizing the back half of the subway car. The concussion wave lifted the twenty-ton carriage and slammed it against the tunnel wall. Alex curled into a ball behind his reinforced wall. The noise wasn't sound; it was a physical blow to his soul.
?Then, the screeching of metal stopped.
?Alex lay in the wreckage of the cabin. His ears were ringing, his suit covered in white dust. But the wall—his reinforced wall—had held. He pulled himself up, coughing out ozone and blood.
?He looked back. The passenger cabin was gone. A glowing crater smoked in the ground where the tracks used to be. Scattered around were the charred remains of the pack.
?[ MULTIPLE ENEMIES ELIMINATED ]
[ EXPERIENCE GAINED: 750 ]
[ LEVEL UP! ]
[ LEVEL UP! ]
[ CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE REACHED TIER 0, LEVEL 2. ]
?Alex looked at the second crate of Shards. It lay in the corner of the cabin, scorched but intact. He had lost twenty-five thousand credits in the blast. He had burned half of Sarah's future just to see tomorrow.
?Alex laughed—a dry, rasping sound. He limped over to the wreckage of the Ghoul that had bit him and spat on the charred meat.
?"Keep the change," he whispered.
