The clouds, tainted by the smokes from the burning gas stations and buildings, the streets littered with burning and burnt cars, debris from fallen buildings, flickering sparks of electricity from utility poles and the ground painted with blood and shredded dead bodies.
The once beautiful city had been reduced to shambles, a far cry from it's former glory. The chaos had transformed pismo beach into a deserted wasteland. The only movement: the once adored pets, domestic animals, rodents and pests that had been mutated, their sizes enhanced, physiology twisted and their instincts warped.
In the midst of these mutated creatures, were flaming humanoid beings who shared the same instincts as the latter. "To Hunt and Kill Humans."
And on top of a tall building amidst the hellish city stood three striking figures, gazing upon the horrid scene.
"Okay, I'm gonna say it!...Why The Hell Are We Just Standing On The Rooftop Staring At The Damned City?!!"
Chloe, a dazzling beauty called out on top of her voice. Her long shiny blue hair tied up in a pony tail shimmered with the small rays cast down by the clouded sun. Her once sparkling brown eyes were robbed of their glow by her furrowed brows, her lips tightened in seriousness, as she continued...
"We've been standing here for over thirty minutes, shouldn't we get going already?!!, your posing like your some kind of novel protagonist!.
"Pffft—" Mio who was standing beside her, struggled to hold back her laughter. Her hands desperately covering her mouth, her blue eyes glowing in excitement and her long blueish–white hair fluttering in the wind as they stood on the rooftop of a tall skyscraper. Though destroyed but still standing 'barely'.
"...I'm not posing, I'm scoping out the perimeter so we can—"
"Avoid the mutated beasts, blah blah blah, I swear you keep spiting cringy lines like a rettarted MC "
Mike who was in front of the lot, his right leg on top of the pavement on the edge of the rooftop, arms folded against his knees, back leaning foward, his silver tipped black hair mysterious as ever, his once radiant blue eyes dimmed in focus as he tried to explain why they were on the roof but Chloe, the loudest in the group cut him short with a mocking mimicry.
"Pffft ha ha ha ha!"
Mio couldn't hold back anymore and burst into laughter, holding her stomach and tilting her head upwards.
They both turned to look at her. Mike shooting a scorching glare at Mio, yelled...
"Mio?!!"
"What?!, it was funny" she said in her defense.
"Hmm...how interesting, so you could laugh too huh?!, I thought you were just a stuck up bitch, turns out your a stuck up bitch with a sense of humor."
Chloe struck again, but this time Mio was the one on the receiving end of the brutal attack.
"Ha ha" Mio's brows furrowed on hearing Mike chuckle slightly.
"Mikey?!,...well I guess we're even now, hmph" she pouted and shot a glare at the annoying Chloe.
Chloe was expecting a come back from the latter, but her expectations were disappointed as none came.
It seemed as if something changed after the talk with Mike while time was frozen 5 days ago.
Its been 5 days since the Apocalypse, and the lot had trained and gained more insight on their abilities...or more accurately Chloe did, the others just focused on training their body, since they already had a bit of knowledge about their abilities.
The atmosphere turned serious as mike turned towards Chloe, his expression, expectant as he asked...
"Chloe, have you checked your status window yet like I told you?, am particularly interested in your Stamina, since...well it's the factor that can decide how much power you can actually use currently"
"You forgot to add 'without collapsing' hehe!" Mio chimed in with a teasing chuckle.
"Yeah yeah bitch, I'm pretty sure my Stamina is already higher than yours by now."
Chloe retorted as she pulled up her status window and read it out loud.
[ Status window ]
[ Name- Chloe Hawkins ]
[ Race- Human ( Awakened ) ]
[ Age- 17 ]
[ Strength- 1.6 ]
[ Agility- 2^= 5]
[ Intellect- 1 ]
[ Stamina- 2^=5 ]
[ Constitution- 2.2 ]
[ physical skills- Super Athletic ]
[ Mental skills- Scheming ]
[ Tip- Training or killing monsters can increase stat points ]
Mioʼs eyes widened, Jaws stiffened as she gritted her teeth. Chloe's monstrous growth had left her utterly speechless.
"Aww, cat caught ur tongue, you must be in awe of my amazing growth" Chloe smirked with content.
Mio chuckled slightly, turning towards Chloe with her arms folded "did you really think that you could beat me with those pathetic stats"
She quickly pulled up her status window and announced it proudly.
[ Status Window ]
[ Name- Mio Cruz ]
[ Race-????? ]
[ Age- 17+ ]
[ strength- 1.2^= 1.9 ]
[ Agility- 2.5^= 5.3 ]
[ Intelect- 1 ]
[ Stamina- 3^= 4.9 ]
[ Constitution- 2^= 2.4 ]
[ physical skills- Athletic ]
[ Mental skills- Extreme determination ]
[ Tip- Training or killing monsters Can increase stat points ]
"Well at least my stamina's higher than yours"
"By only 0.1 point!!"
Chloe had remarked immediately after the stat reveal and Mio, as if already expecting her remark, came on aggressively. Her eyes glaring daggers into Chloe.
"Aww...! are you a sore looser?" Chloe smirked.
"my stats are way higher than yours so I'm definitely stronger, so just shut up and accept defeat already!" yelled Mio.
"As if" Chloe turned, meeting Mio's stare with a condescending glare, as she continued "I don't need high stats to take care of a bitch like you"
"let's test that theory, shall we?" Mio stormed towards Chloe, her blue eyes smeared red in anger.
"Bring it on bitch!" Chloe said while moving towards the latter as well.
The two girls kept spewing hateful words as they approached each other. But just as they made to grab each other by the neck or hair, a voice was heard across the rooftop...
"Can you guys just quit it already!"
Mike who had just been watching their..."not so thrilling performance" had finally had enough and decided step in.
The ladies froze as soon as they heard him.
"you guys are seriously exhausting" he let out a disappointed sigh.
Mike had hoped that Mio's behaviour had changed after their talk, and Chloe might stop her annoying remarks in light of that, but he just realised that that would just be like wishing for the sun to suddenly become cold.
"Sometimes I wander if I'm dealing with immature kids instead of full grown ladies." he muttered to himself but it was audible enough for the girls to hear him.
But they didn't utter a single word, well why should they, he was right, they were behaving childishly. They couldn't look at him as their eyes were glued to the floor.
"...ok guys, we're gonna be flying there with each of our abilities"
"why not just teleport us there, and besides I can't fly with my ability." Chloe had found her voice.
"teleporting there is a bad idea as there's a risk of landing right in the middle of mutated creatures." Mike answered.
"you could just teleport us away from danger and—"
"no time for questions just follow my lead!" he announced as he levitated to the sky and called out...
"Accelerate!" *zoom!*
"I still can't fly you JERK!!" Chloe yelled as Mike zoomed off.
Mio smirked, and with a gust wind flew into the sky and called out....
"Gale Force!" and zoom she went.
"bitch" Chloe snorted looking to the sky as they both left her. "I guess I should use 'that' if I wanna catch up"
Chloe walked a few metres back and then turned, gazing at the edge of the roof.
"Solar Flare—Feet Release!"
And immediately her feet instead of her arms glowed with Orange-yellow solar energy, burning her shoes and pants up to her knees as a result of the flames.
Chloe zoomed towards the edge and leaped 70 metres into the sky and landed on another building about 1.3 miles away from the previous one.
"heck yeah!" she yelled as she could now see Mike and Mio a bit vividly than before. "now let's catch up to those guys"
*Voom!*...*Crash!* "wuuu huuu!" *Voom!*...*Crash!* *Voom!*...*Crash!*
She kept leaping from one building to the other while yelling heartily.
"(well I'll be damned, I guess she's got something up her sleaves after all)" Mike thought as a smile danced across his face, watching from above as Chloe approached with her glowing feet.
"uhh! guys?! I think we've got company!!" Mio quickly brought Mike's focus to the front once again.
A swarm of mutated creatures was approaching with terrifying speed, blocking the path to their destination.
Mike let out a creepy smile as if the outcome was expected.
"Time to show off a bit" he muttered, halting immediately and with a simple hand gesture, he uprooted two skyscrapers and smashed them together with half of the mutated beasts in the middle, they were completely decimated.
*Boom!!!!*
The explosion from the impact left a huge cratter in the middle of the road, the air filled with smoke and dust.
Chloe who was now standing on top of a building was in complete awe as she couldn't say anything but....
"he's a monster"