Nox stood at the entrance to the cafeteria and just took in the chaos for a second. Tables were flipped over everywhere, chairs scattered like someone had a serious temper tantrum.
There were at least a dozen of those dog creatures prowling around, sniffing at overturned lunch trays and the occasional forgotten backpack. A few students were huddled behind the serving counter, looking like they were about to piss their pants.
Perfect. More targets.
He heard Ava's footsteps behind him, getting closer. She was breathing hard, completely out of breath.
"Sheesh, how are you so damn fast when you look so… you know," she said between gasps, leaning against the wall next to him to catch her breath.
He turned to look at her, a completely blank expression on his face. She immediately jumped back like he'd just slapped her.
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly, holding up her hands.
He didn't bother responding. 'What's the point? She meant exactly what she said.' Everyone always did. They saw his skinny frame and his ratty clothes and just assumed he was weak. Well, that assumption was about to get a lot of monsters killed.
Without another word, he sprinted into the cafeteria.
The closest dog looked up from whatever it was chewing on and started to growl. Nox reached it before it could even finish the sound and drove his fist straight into its skull.
The impact sent the creature flying backward into a stack of chairs with enough force to snap the metal legs. It landed in a heap and didn't move.
Another one came at him from the left. He caught it mid-leap, his hands grabbing its throat, and slammed it down onto a table so hard that the whole table just collapsed underneath it. That one didn't get back up either.
"Holy shit," one of the students behind the counter whispered. "Who the hell is that guy?"
He looked older, probably a senior. Of course they didn't recognize him. Upperclassmen never paid attention to the younger kids unless they were bullying them.
"Isn't that the kid that always gets bullied?" another voice said from behind the counter.
A third dog charged him while his attention was on the students. He sidestepped, grabbed it by the tail, then swung the whole creature around his head like a cartoon hammer before letting go. It crashed into the metal serving counter with a loud bang that made the hiding students yelp and scramble further back.
"Something tells me we should not piss him off," the first voice said again, his voice a little shaky.
Nox overheard that and almost smiled. 'Finally, someone gets it.' Too bad it took a world-ending apocalypse and a ton of supernatural strength for people to finally notice him.
Two more creatures came at him from different angles, trying to coordinate their attack. Smart for dogs, but not smart enough for this. He grabbed the nearest lunch tray and threw it like a frisbee. The metal edge caught the first creature right in the neck and nearly took its head off. It went down with a wet gurgle.
The second one actually managed to jump on him, its claws scraping against his chest. For a split second he thought it might actually hurt, but then he remembered his boosted stats. He grabbed the thing by the scruff of its neck and just held it at arm's length while it snapped and snarled at him.
"You're not even trying," he said to the creature, a bored look on his face. Then he punched it so hard in the face its jaw came clean off.
He dropped the body and looked around for more targets. There were still several monsters in the room, but they seemed a lot less eager to get close to him now. A few of them were actually backing away. Interesting. Apparently even these things could learn.
Before he could move toward the remaining creatures, Ava was already sprinting past him. Red flames erupted from her hands as she launched herself at a group of three dogs that were cornering some other kid near the vending machines.
"Get away from him!" she yelled, sending a stream of fire that turned the first creature into a pile of ash instantly.
The other two spun toward her, snarling. She didn't hesitate, just kept blasting them with those red flames like she was holding a flamethrower. The dogs didn't even have time to dodge before they were burning up.
Nox watched her work and felt something that might have been approval. 'Huh. Would you look at that. Maybe she does have a spine after all.'
She helped the cornered kid to his feet and pointed toward the exit. "Get out of here. Find somewhere safe."
The boy nodded frantically and ran off without so much as a thank you.
Ava turned to face the rest of the cafeteria, her hands still glowing faintly with that red aura. There were maybe six or seven dogs left, and they were all staring at her now instead of him.
"Come on then," she said to them, a determined look on her face. "Let's get this over with."
One of the creatures tried to circle around behind her, but she spun and caught it with a blast of fire before it could get close. Another one jumped at her from on top of a table, and she just grabbed it mid-air, holding it tight while the flames consumed it completely.
Nox had to admit, she was getting the hang of this pretty damn fast. A lot faster than he would have expected from someone who had been running for her life just twenty minutes ago.
The remaining dogs seemed to realize they were totally outmatched. A couple of them started backing toward the kitchen doors, probably looking for another way out.
"Oh no you don't," she said, and chased right after them.
She disappeared through the swinging kitchen doors, and Nox could hear the whoosh of her powers going off. More burning, more ash hitting the floor.
The students behind the serving counter were all just staring at where she had gone.
"What the hell was that?" one of them whispered.
"Fire powers," another one said, his voice full of awe. "She had actual fire powers."
"This is so messed up," a third voice added.
Nox walked over to the counter and looked down at them. There were four students crammed back there, all of them looking terrified.
"You guys can come out now," he said. "The dogs are dead."
They didn't move.
"Seriously," he said, getting a little annoyed. "It's safe."
"How do we know you won't kill us?" the oldest one asked. He looked like he was maybe eighteen, with short brown hair and a stupid-looking letter jacket.
Nox shrugged. "Because I don't feel like it right now. But that could change if you keep pissing me off."
They scrambled out from behind the counter so fast they were tripping over each other.
"We're gonna get out of here," the letter jacket kid said, not making eye contact with him at all.
"Good idea," Nox replied.
They were halfway to the exit when Ava came back out of the kitchen, wiping ash off her hands onto her pants.
"That's all of them in there," she said. "How many did you get?"
Before he could answer, a blue screen popped up right in front of his face.
[Combat Summary]
[Dogs Slain: 12]
[Total EXP Gained: 340]
Wait, that didn't make sense. If he needed 100 EXP to level up, and he had 340, shouldn't he be like, Level 4 by now?
[Note: Experience requirements increase with each level.]
[Level 2: 100 EXP]
[Level 3: 200 EXP]
[Level 4: 300 EXP]
[Current Level: Still 1 - Processing...]
"Are you seeing one of those screen things right now?" Ava asked.
"Yeah," he said, still reading the notifications. "It's telling me how many of those things I killed."
"How many?"
"Twelve."
Her eyes went wide. "Twelve? In like, ten minutes?"
"Something like that."
The screen updated again, and this time, it was the good stuff.
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 2!]
[All stats increased by 1!]
[You have 5 unallocated stat points!]
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 3!]
[All stats increased by 1!]
[You have 5 unallocated stat points!]
[Current Stats:]
[Strength: 17]
[Agility: 7]
[Stamina: 7]
[Endurance: 7]
[Perception: 7]
[Luck: 4]
[Unallocated Stat Points: 10]
'That's more like it.' He thought about where to put the extra points, then decided to keep things simple. Five more into Strength, five into Agility. Hit hard, move fast.
[Updated Stats:]
[Strength: 22]
[Agility: 12]
He felt the changes immediately. His muscles felt denser, more responsive. When he flexed his fingers, he could just sense the power coiled up in there.
"So what's your screen telling you?" she asked.
"That I leveled up twice and got stronger." He looked at her. "What about you? You getting any system messages?"
"Nothing," she said, looking a little disappointed. "Just the fire thing."
'That's weird. But now that I think about it, the notification from back then said I won the system. So maybe it's just for me?'
Another screen popped up, this one giving him a progress report.
[Dungeon Status Update]
[Total Monsters Remaining: 170]
[Dungeon Progress: 16.7%]
One hundred and seventy monsters left. That seemed like a lot, but it also sounded kind of exciting. Each one was more EXP, more levels, more power.
"We need to keep moving," he said to Ava. "There are still a lot more of these things around."
"We?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You can go off on your own if you want," he said with a shrug. "But you're useful. You could at least be useful."
She thought about it for a few seconds. "Fine. But if you try to leave me to die again, I'm going to burn your ass."
"Fair enough."
They headed toward the cafeteria exit, stepping over dog corpses and scattered debris. The four students had already disappeared, probably running for the main entrance like their lives depended on it.
"So where to next?" she asked.
He looked down the hallway. He could hear growling coming from the direction of the gymnasium, and there were scratching sounds from the second floor.
"Gym first," he said. "Sounds like there's a whole pack down there."
"Lead the way," she said, and he could hear the excitement in her voice now instead of fear.
Yeah, she was definitely getting the hang of this.