4 My First Victim to-be and a Dungeon to Conquer

"I'm just walking by. I'll be on my way now," he said, trying to defuse the situation. He wasn't certain what ability the girl had, and since [Sadist's Curse] didn't seem to deal any sort of damage, he thought it foolish for him to escalate things.

"I-I did it out of self-defense. He kept chasing me... he-he almost rapped me," replied the girl, trying to justify her stoning Sir booms-alot to death.

"Okay. But I'll be going now, sorry to bother," said Azrael, shifting his weight as he stood on top of the zombie. If worse came to worst, he was going to let it lose and use it as a distraction to escape.

"My name's Ella, what's yours?" asked the girl, dropping the bloody stone to the ground.

[She's never killed anyo- what am I saying, I've never killed anyone. Well, directly that is,] thought Azrael as he examined her demeanor. Her eyes were wide in shock, and her whole body was shaking. She seemed exactly like he did when he started his first house fire.

"Collin, my name's Collin. Say, Ella, do you have any friends close b-"

"No, no I don't," she answered almost immediately.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm just so scared. Everyone else at my school is dead, h-he killed everyone who survived the earthquake," she continued, realizing that perhaps she sounded a little too desperate.

[Earthquake?]

"Do you want to team up? Just until we find shelter. I think we have a higher chance of making it if we stick together," said Azrael with a friendly smile.

"I-I'd like that... thank you," replied the girl, though she kept her distance.

"I'm sorry to ask something of you so early into our partnership, but can you help me out. I've gotten myself into a bit of a situation," said Azrael with a light-hearted mirth as he gestured to his feet.

Ella moved closer ever so slightly, her demeanor still defensive.

"It's one of those monsters, the ones that eat people," she said, trying to suppress her urge to run away in fear.

"Good, good. But it's lost its head, so it can't really hurt us. If you use your ability on it while I pin it down, then we'll be able to deal with it and move on." Azrael's plan was to have her show her ability without him having to ask directly, after all, asking her what her ability was outright would put her more on guard.

"I-I can't, sorry. My ability is... it's useless," she said dejectedly, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Ah, that's okay. Then can you throw me that rock and turn around? What I'm about to do might come off as brutal, but I'm doing it for our survival," replied Azrael. He almost couldn't hold in his laughter. Whether the girl had tricked Sir booms-alot out of her own devious instinct or because she needed to survive, she seemed to be eating up his act quite wonderfully.

"No, it's okay. You saw me k-k... you saw me defend myself, so its okay. I'll have to get u-used to it anyway." The girl's eyes were still wide open, and although her gaze fell on Azrael, her mind seemed elsewhere. She threw him the rock she had used and watched attentively.

Azrael looked down at the squirming zombie, before smashing the rock into its elbow joint. He smashed into it repeatedly, scraping flesh and crushing bone.

[+1 Agility]

[+1 Strength]

[+1 Stamina]

[Free real estate baby,] laughed Azrael inwardly, smashing into the zombie to his heart's content.

After several smashes, its arm was destroyed. Azrael repeated this process at all of its joints, it took some time but eventually the zombie was left immobile, its limbs twisted at odd angles.

Ella had begun vomiting at the second joint, compared to what Azrael had done to the zombie, her killing Sir booms-alot was nothing.

"Enough! It's enough, I can't continu-" her words ended in retching sounds, by this point Azrael was covered in blood and the zombie didn't even look like it ever been human.

[Target stats depleted]

[Guess she only had 1 stat in each attribute,] thought Azrael.

"Let's get going before more of them appear," he said out loud, dropping the rock to the floor before walking past her.

The two of them began sneaking their way around the city, though it was easy to avoid the zombies, keeping cover from the flying creatures proved to be difficult. However, Ella seemed to know the city quite well. She always seemed to choose the safest routes, as not once did they encounter any hostiles on their journey.

"There should be an untouched building in the next intersection, though it looks kind of weird," said Ella, as the two of them were taking a break behind the ruins of a service station.

"I've been meaning to ask, how is it that you can see that far?" asked Azrael. Ella seemed to have calmed down a bit, and wasn't as distant as before. Though she was still averse to Azrael getting too close to her, she seemed to trust him enough to hold a proper conversation.

"I-It's my ability, [Star Gazer]. It gives me a birds-eye view of the entire block. Pretty useless, but at least it's helpful right now. What about you, what's your ability?" asked Ella, turning to look at Azrael.

"Mine's also pretty useless. It's called Steel Heart, it basically gives me courage. That's how I was able to destroy that zombie without vomiting like you," explained Azrael, a sort of shy expression on his face.

"Oh, no wonder. I was sort of worried that I had been paired with a psychopath. Thank god there was a reasonable explanation," said Ella, visible relief on her face.

[So that's why she was still keeping her distance,] thought Azrael, happy that his plan was all coming together.

"Anyway, we should get going. A horde of monsters is coming this way," warned Ella, before slipping past Azrael and heading down the street.

After running for a few minutes, the two reached the intersection and came face to face with a rectangular building that seemed to give out pulses of blue energy. It was clear to both of them that this was no ordinary building, but from the groaning sounds that they heard coming from behind them, it was this or almost certain death. They approached the building cautiously, before slowly placing their hands on the massive stone door that blocked the entrance.

[Dungeon portal Rank F] sounded a voice in Azrael's head.

"Did you hear that?" asked Ella.

"Yeah."