Introducing Combat Highs and Emotional Lows

A black figure flew out of the window over the group of wolves and landed on its feet in a crouching position, crushing the ground as his armor slid by.

*I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was. And damn! I really can't lose balance. Though, being athletic probably helps. Over all, this feels gooood.*

Lira smiled as he looked at the wolf-esque creatures. They weren't much bigger than a mastiff, but they seemed to have various bone structures which stuck through their skin in various places – the head, the legs, and the body.

AROOOOO!

The wolves which had been chasing various small animals and attacking neighborhood people had instantly all stopped and turned towards him after hearing his collision with the ground. Though they seemed apprehensive, they still began to circle him.

"If I'm going to have this class, I better start inspiring some dread."

"HAAAAAARRRRRRHHH"

Lira gave the harshest yell he could, then reached out his hand and swiped summoning his kriegmesser and threw it as hard as he could while still aiming at the wolf with some precision.

Schwift! Zeeeen!

For a brief time, one could hear whooshing in the air followed by a slight wining sound as the sword burst out like a cannonball before striking and stabbing into the wolf before it could move. In fact, the impact of the weapon was so great that the wolf-creature was even thrown clean off of its legs. After a brief whimpering, it did not get up.

At the same time, before the wolves could react, before the sword had even hit the wolf, Lira had drawn his Tier 7 weapon, Black Canary. The staff was six feet long and the blade was two. He immediately cleaved a horizontal arc, with his hands towards the butt of the staff, cutting three of the wolves that were in front of him in their maws – a surprisingly clean slice. The force of the slash also sent the wolves flying back a few feet.

Ai! Arooo!

The adrenaline was pumping. Now, due to the whimpering, more wolves were being attracted over.

Lira then slammed the butt of his sword staff into the ground, albeit a bit sloppily, causing the concrete to fracture, and took out his crossbow.

*Already loaded? Wait, the bolt is blue? Eh, whatever, aim…and fire!*

Swif! Pup! Arooo!

He hit a wolf in the chest, right below his head. The effect however was far different than his expectations. The wolves head was clean sliced off like a blade had passed by.

For a moment, Lira just kind of stood there, in his surprise.

*Ah, still in battle.*

He immediately tensed back up.

Now, over ten wolves were moving around him, with two or more flitting inside the circle to nip at him every few seconds. Lira absolutely couldn't stop them, especially the ones that came behind him, however, as he had predicted, they didn't have the strength to bite through his armor.

*Holy shit…THEY CAN'T HURT ME AT ALL. TIME TO BRING OUT THE MACE THEN!*

As he saw another wolf flitting in from the front, just as it was about to bite his right arm, he summoned the mace in the left, slamming down as hard and fast as he could.

SLUTSCH! BOOOM! CRICK!

The mace went through the body of the wolf slamming the ground and fracturing the nearby concrete as stone and dirt flew into the air. The rumble and vibration were even strong enough to attract the attention of a group of people defending themselves down the road.

All they saw, of course, was a hulking figure in black armor fighting off wolves. However, it gave them a bit of hope, as they made their way over while trying not to die to the hairless, small, grey humanoids they were fighting, though there were already many bodies in the surrounding yards.

*NOW THAT'S THE KIND OF RESPONSE I WANT. LET'S SEE HOW THE GREAT SWORD DOES!*

He waited until another wolf dashed in, pushed the mace into his inventory, and then spawned the great sword in, giving a sloppy but powerful thrust.

The wolf was immediately skewered, unable to reach the helmet and visor it had been aiming for.

Lira then quickly threw his great sword, with the wolf still attached, at the circling wolves, hoping for a hit off of speed alone.

His dream quickly came true as the blade sliced one of the circling wolves in the head, splitting it from the maw up, as it continued to fly into a tree in the background.

*Every kill feels rejuvenating, like fresh water after having traveled for days in the dessert. Is this what Sanguine Firstborn…oh shit, I can control blood! I forgot! Probably works by imagination, right?*

Lira immediately imagined lines of blood coming from the blood that the dead wolves were spilling, pooling into a ball above his hand. To his surprise, it actually worked. Thin cardinal lines began to create a circle above his hand. After a quick moment of ignoring wolf attacks, the circle was almost half the size of his body.

*Lotta blood in these bodies. Jesus.*

He then imagined the circle turning into foot-long spikes and hardening. Taking them in his arm, he began to throw them at the remaining wolves, missing quite a bit. However, that was enough, because out of 14 wolves, he had killed 6.

Fight or flight kicked in for the group of wolf-creatures, and they began to retreat.

By this time, the group of neighbors that was constantly fighting had gotten within tens of feet of Lira, and one of the boys whom Lira had seen around the neighborhood called out to him.

You there! Help us, please! PLEASE!

Lira turned to them and saw that, as they made their way over, they were being attacked by a group of things that honestly looked like Gollum.

*The fun never ends, huh?*

"Alright! Keep coming this way but leave space for me in the middle!"

Lira then bent down a little, and jumped, using the momentum to pull his swordstaff out of the ground before throwing it down path the group opened up for him.

SHING!

The monsters immediately stopped, looking at the weapon that had suddenly appeared right in front of them.

He then started sprinting towards them.

Clump! Clump! CLUMP! CLUMP!

The sound echoed, attracting both the creatures' and neighbors' attention. However, as soon as they looked up and saw a hulking figure in black armor running towards them far faster than he should have been able to, they all froze.

Lira was now within ten feet of the group, so he jumped up, summoned his mace, and slammed toward the ground as hard as he could while yelling.

"GET DOWN!"

The humans were immediately shocked out of their trance, and everyone jumped to the side. The monsters also all began to try to scatter, but they couldn't get far enough.

BOOOOOOM!

The mace slammed down upon one of the goblin monsters instantly squishing it, once more causing a small explosion of debris and dust and dirt.

Though Lira couldn't see anything in the cloud, he could hear as the little monsters began to run away screaming in what he presumed to be their language.

*Brains and brawn? I may have hit the jackpot, getting this hidden class. Also, ugh.*

Lira suppressed the bile that was rising in his throat from having seen the goblin being smushed. After doing that, he simply put his hands on his hips like Superman and basked in the high that real combat brought him.

"You-you, who are you?"

*He's so cool…*

Lira looked down to see the same boy from before tapping his armor and asking him a question.

"Ah, it's Jone."

"Jone? That's you? How? I mean…what?"

The boy's mother spoke up behind him.

"The playing field doesn't start off even. Now, let's establish some things. For those of you who are older, this situation is closest to a typical RPG game. Ask your kids about these things. You should be able to see your stats, inventory, etc. with a swipe of the hand."

As soon as he mentioned asking kids though, he noticed an immediate gloom in the atmosphere. He then looked past the group to where they had originally been and saw more humanoid monsters feeding on the torn-up corpses of some smaller bodies mixed in with the larger bodies.

Lira's expression voided immediately.

*Jesus, definitely no respawns.*

"Would you like me to retrieve their corpses?"

"…"

A woman whose face was inundated with tears was about to speak up before, presumably, her husband spoke up.

"N-no. You have helped us enough. Please be safe, Jone. If you would, if you all would, would you offer prayers for my sons and daughter?"

"Of course."

Jone took a knee and whispered, "May they rest well, and not dwell upon the happenings of Earth."

After Jone had taken a knee, others had followed in his steps and done so as well, thus he waited until everyone was done before getting up.

"Before I leave, I'll answer any questions you have that I might know the answer to. Any questions?"

"How did you get so strong after only one hour?"

"I got lucky, though my combat ability is mine alone. However, my luck is just that - luck. Level up and the strength I have right now probably won't mean much. Level up and you will be able protect your sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. Right now, this is closest we'll get to survival of the fittest. The good thing this time is that via leveling, anyone can become the fittest. Anything else?"

The young boy spoke out at this moment.

"Um-m, I want to protect my mom. Can I, can I do that?"

Lira looked at the prepubescent kid and felt himself die inside a little as he responded.

"Yes, of course you can. Grow strong and protecting your mom will be a breeze! Anything else? Anyone?"

"…"

"Alright then. Good luck, and, if it is to occur, may we meet again under better circumstances."

Lira then proceeded to find his various weapons and put them back in the inventory, before walking off towards the main street outside of his neighborhood.

*Wooh. Haven't felt this emotional in a long time. This is such an unusual scenario; monsters could spawn anywhere, and we don't know what they can do. Hope that group can learn and grow, the boy at least. Speaking of grow, actually, what are my stats? I haven't really looked yet."

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Name: Lira

Title: None

Clan: None

Class: Black Iron Dreadknight

Level: 2

Tomes: None

Statistics:

Strength: 62 Agility: 32

Vitality: 102 Concentration: 26

Mana: 60 Mana Dexterity: 10

Stat. Points: 12

Immunities: 50% Immunity to Fire, Lightning, and Foreign Substances when armor is equipped.

Skills:

Dreadknight's Intimidation – passive skill: Beings of equal or lower level are naturally afraid of you and must overcome their trepidation to interact with you. Enemies lose 20% of their stats. Can be nullified towards certain individuals.

Dreadknight's Resolve – passive skill: You can only be hurt by deep wounds. Lesser wounds heal rapidly.

Weapon Expertise – passive skill: You have a penchant for handling weapons. Increased physical coordination and precision.

Sanguine Firstborn – passive skill: You are able to control blood in a ten-foot radius. For every being you kill in this radius, your vitality permanently increases by one.

Monumental Stability – passive skill: Your sense of balance is nigh-indomitable. To knock you off balance requires double your strength.

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*I can assume based on how that group was acting and the fact that some had died to such weak beings that these stats are out of the ordinary. Even in this heavy armor, I feel faster than I was before this change, just running track – and I was already far faster than the average person. My strength is clearly on another level. To crack solid concrete in such a way with a blunt weapon, I'd say the average human must be somewhere between 9 and 16, I'd say. My aim is better than usual without any real training on throwing things. No idea if that vitality is insane or not. Mana Dexterity, I don't even know what that is. No idea how it applies nor how mana does right now. But, I've got 12 points at level 2. I'm going to assume that everyone starts with some stat points seeing how the difference caused by them is a lot, so it wouldn't reward that many for a single level. All into strength for now though. Let's go find Che. His hidden class better be cool.*

Thus, Lira added all 12 points to strength and began his walk over to Che's house.

At the same time, various individuals were already beginning to adapt and show their worth. The highest level on the World Leveling Leader-board was now 7. Branches of news stations, in areas where monsters hadn't spawned yet, around the world were already receiving and displaying videos of particularly strong humans slaying various monsters.

In so little time, the strong and the lucky were beginning to distinguish themselves, and the weak and unlucky came to understand what being at the bottom of the food chain meant. All of this as she came so suddenly, this Great Change, and she wore a coat of misery – an omen that with her advent, all would lose something.