Status Window

Ted crashed into the store rack, overturning it and falling over. The store was spinning around him and his head buzzed with pain. Despite this, he saw the Tainted passing him and leaping at his wife.

Ted desperately wanted to help her but when he tried to get up his legs gave in and buckled under him. He tumbled to the floor again, tears welling in his eyes.

"Get up, you useless piece of shit!" he yelled in his mind and grabbed his head to stop the world from moving. The pain subsided slowly and Ted finally managed to stand. He moved forward while grabbing at the shelves for balance.

The Tainted was fighting with Adam already. Ted looked at his wife crawling on the floor away from the beast. All he wanted was to take her and run. Nevertheless, he couldn't do it. He couldn't just abandon the man who saved their lives.

Ted stumbled forward, picking up a bottle of beer on the way. He approached the Tainted from behind and struck it with the bottle with all his might. It collided with the creature's head and broke to pieces.

Adam felt the Tainted ragged breath on his face, its teeth a hair away from his cheek. Their struggle was coming to a close, the beast just a second away from ripping him to pieces.

Just as his arms were about to give in, Ted struck the beast with a bottle. The Tainted tumbled to the side with a surprised shriek.

Adam jumped on his feet and kicked it in the jaw with an enraged roar. It dislocated with a sickening crunch, blood gushing from the Tainted maw.

Adam kept kicking it furiously until it stopped struggling, blood splattering from its mangled head with every strike.

The white mist rose from the corpse and merged with Adam, just like when ha had slain the Tainted woman. There was no message this time, however.

Adam looked around the store in a daze. The fight was over, he survived. There was no time to celebrate though. He turned to his companions to check on them.

Emily was sitting against the wall and was staring absentmindedly at the ceiling while Ted tried to stop the bleeding and close the wound on her arm.

Despite his efforts, the blood kept gushing through the clothes he used to bandage the wound. If they didn't stop it somehow, Emily would surely bleed out.

The sight of blood captivated Adam. He heard its calling again and much stronger than before. Something in his mind urged him to act on this feeling, but Adam wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

Nevertheless, he kneeled beside Emily and focused on the ethereal sensations that filled him.

"Let me," he spoke to Ted and placed his hands over the wound. Before Ted voiced his protest, the blood answered Adam. He wanted it to heal Emily and it tried to fulfill this wish.

The blood stopped flowing from the wound. It covered the exposed flesh and veins and hardened quickly. A sudden jolt of pain ran through Adam's head. He swayed to the side, nearly losing consciousness. It seemed that using his skill came with a price.

The wound was closed, however. At least for now. It still looked gruesome though. A large, jagged tear on Emily's forearm, covered with a thick layer of dried crimson blood. The men could only hope it wasn't life-threatening anymore.

Seeing that the situation was under control, Adam laid back against the wall lifelessly. He felt overwhelming weakness attacking both his body and mind. He was about to surrender to it and drift away when Ted's voice resounded in his ears, startling him awake.

"What was that? How did you do it?" Ted asked with amazement.

"Truthfully, I'm not sure," Adam responded quietly. "It's a healing skill, some kind of ability I obtained during the Impact. When the messages appeared," He decided to divulge only what was necessary for now.

He didn't know much about his companions and wasn't ready to trust them yet.

"Make no mistake, the wound is still there. I just closed it for now" he added.

Ted listened to him intently and when Adam told him about the state of the wound, he once again began to dress it, covering it with torn clothes.

He whispered reassuringly into her ear while tending the wound, but Emily didn't seem to notice him at all and just stared in space.

Ted finally got a reaction out of her when he gently caressed her cheek and made her look at him.

A barrier that separated her mind from the terrifying reality broke and Emily began sobbing uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face.

It took half an hour for Emily to calm down, and another half for the group to be able to move out of the store.

In the meantime, they talked about what had happened, about the Impact, the arcane messages, and the Tainted.

Adam learned that the pair had been at the designated gathering spot in the town center before the Impact. Hundreds of people had gathered there and everyone had lost consciousness, only about half of them waking up.

The rest had been dead, at least for a while.

All of the survivors had got the same messages from Ourovoros System, while some had claimed to also receive mysterious skills. Not one of them had been able to use them though.

At this point, the dead had risen and began the slaughter.

The pair had managed to escape and had started to wade through the town., They had encountered a group of Tainted shortly after some time and had been running from them until they met Adam.

Adam narrated what he had seen in return.

"There is one more thing," Ted pointed out. "The Status Window. It is a real thing that everyone can conjure up. Just focus on it and it will pop inside your mind like the other messages.

"So, what do you say to us cracking some of these bottles open before we move out?" Ted turned his head to the shelves with a lighthearted grin.

He was immediately stopped by his wife's angry stare, however.

"This is not a time for your jokes!" she lashed out.

"Just trying to lift the mood a little bit, nothing wrong with that," Ted sagged for a moment and mumbled quietly.

Adam ignored their squabble and concentrated on summoning his Status Window.

A glowing screen appeared before his eyes almost instantly. It was mostly transparent and didn't obstruct the vision.

Adam began perusing its content.

---------------------

[STATUS WINDOW]

----------------------

[RACE - HUMAN (AWAKENED)

[LEVEL - 1]

----------------------

[ATTRIBUTES]----------[AFFINITIES]

[Strength: 13]----------[Strength: B]

[Dexterity: 12]----------[Dexterity: B]

[Constitution: 13]------[Constitution: A]

[Perception: 11]--------[Perception: S]

[Mind: 13]--------------[Mana: SSS]

----------------------

[LEGACIES]

[Blood (Greater)]

----------------------

[SKILLS]

[Blood Manipulation (Novice)]

----------------------

The group began preparing to move out after Adam finished checking his status.

They searched the store and stumbled upon two corpses in the back room. They were most likely the other members of the shop staff, dressed in the same clothes as the Tainted.

The bodies were mutilated savagely, nearly ripped to pieces. The whole room they were lying in was coated with their blood.

The group managed to secure three backpacks that they immediately stuffed with food and water. Lastly, Adam found a baseball bat under the shop counter.

"Where are you going?" Ted asked Adam as they were leaving the shop.

"The higway. I need to reach Cracow," he responded absentmindedly while observing the street cautiously.

"We are going in the same direction then," Emily joined the conversation. "We live in a village close to the higway. The only way for us all is to reach the bridge over Dunajec river and cross it."

She was still very pale but her eyes shone with determination. It seemed that she had managed to overcome the breakdown caused by the fight.

"What do you say we go together for now?" Ted asked. "We'll have a better chance to survive."

"Sure, why not," Adam answered with a smile. Even though he agreed to it, Adam wasn't sure if it was a good idea. The pair only brought him trouble thus far.

The group moved silently through the town, reaching its outskirts without much trouble. There weren't many Tainted on their way and they managed to safely avoid all the that they encountered.

They also made an interesting discovery while dealing with the monsters. The Tainted had severly impaired vision. They were almost blind and didn't react to movement unless it happened really close to them or was abrupt.

They reacted mostly to sound, which helped the team evade their detection. Moving stealthy became paramount as even the slightest noise drawn Tainted attention.

The team reached the town limits in this manner. It was nearly noon and they still needed at least an hour to reach the bridge. Despite this, they breathed in relief when last buildings vanished behind them.

The road ahead was straight. It was surrounded by fields and sparse trees and because of that they could finally relax a little.