Infected

While Jason stood in the back, the others were supporting Sebastian. He and Christian lost their entire family in the apocalypse and they only had each other. Last month they grew a better relationship, not only cause it was just the two but because they fought together.

Eventually, they met Hugo, Jax, and the others. Now they had more friends, more people to bond with. But now that Christian was gone, Sebastian truly lost his entire family.

"I'm sorry, Sebastian. I should've stayed in the back and stayed with him..." Erin, too, was sobbing. Other than his father, Christian was closest to the blonde girl. They were similar in age and even attended the same school before the apocalypse initiated. Although they weren't friends at the time, being in the party together made them bond.

It wouldn't even be incorrect to say the two shared mutual feelings, platonically and romantically. In fact, Christian was preparing to ask her on a date after everything from the Salvador mission was over, yet now that was impossible.

Christian's corpse was lost, and the group was in the woods grieving over the death of one of their own, and Sebastian of them was dealing with the death of his son.

Jason reached into his back pocket for the vial that Jovian gave him for the mission, but when he did all he felt was his damp trousers drenched in blood.

"That's a lot of blood..." Jason murmured as he pulled his pants down, examining the wound in full sight.

It was a deep cut. Blood was still flowing out of it. Yet this wasn't his only problem. He was wounded and bleeding from two different injuries.

"Jason?" Hugo called out, standing up and briskly walking to him. "Shit..."

The others looked over, some with red puffy eyes as they noticed Jason's state. "I lost nearly 80% of my HP... And I'm infected." Jason stated, taking another peek at his status window. [Time Remaining: 23M 04S]

[-2 HP]

[22/90]

[You're losing HP!]

[Stop the blood loss to prevent losing HP!]

"Blood loss and I'm infected with something..." Hugo walked back to the beast's corpse, lifting its paw and taking a quick look at it before examining its pointy teeth.

"They're both purple... I think Suljar breed animals can infect people."

Everyone turned their eyes to Jason and took a small step back. "What are you guys doing?" Jason worrisomely said, lifting his weapon.

Erin was the first one to draw her weapon, pointing the edge of her dagger at Jason. Shereen followed suit and aimed her sword at Jason.

'Do they think I'm infected?' Jason thought. "Guys! I'm not infected yet!" Jason stepped forward, lowering his weapon as he finished his first step.

"GET BACK!" William roared, stepping past the two women and swinging his hammer at Jason's hip.

"STOP!"

Jason stepped back as the wind from the blow made his hair flow wildly, a single blow from the weapon could kill him with how low his HP was.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!" Jason shouted back. Before he could stand up, William lunged forward and began to lift his hammer.

"Die!" He pulled his arms down and the hammer accelerated to high speeds. The air around it curved to its will, the pole barely managing to keep intact as it was close to snapping as it flexed.

'Fuck!' Jason grabbed his sword and quickly put it in front of him to absorb the brunt of the mighty attack.

As the hammer connected, his arms quaked and his muscles bulged as he withstood the power of the attack. The ground around him succumbed to the strength of the attack as a cobweb-like pattern of cracks erupted from the floor, flaring outwards until it extended over five feet from the origin.

The force never stopped increasing as it weighed down, threatening to crush Jason any second his focus slipped. "GET OFF OF HIM!"

A large brown blur flew into his sight. Hugo collided with William, sending him multiple meters to Jason's right as he rolled on the floor until coming to a halt.

"HUGO! WHAT'RE YOU DOING! HE'S INFECTED!" William got back up, instantly dashing back at Hugo in a rage.

"YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS!" Hugo shouted, raising his arms to his head as he assumed a boxer stance.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!" Clouded by rage, William sent a rash right hook to attack Hugo.

It was never a good idea to fight while enraged. It clouded your mind, made you do unreasonable things and one could barely think straight in such a state. This gave Hugo another advantage, paired with his superior physical stats.

Hugo skillfully ducked under it, jabbing at Williams's unguarded stomach.

As the blow connected, Hugo's knuckles dug into William's stomach, forcing his feet off the ground as he was lifted in the air for a few seconds due to the strength of his punch.

"ARGH!"

"It's over already, William."

Not letting his assault rest, he sent out a powerful hook that brutally connected with William's ribs.

"CRRRCK!" The sound of his ribs breaking under the force of Hugo's punch was audible.

It was undeniable. The strength behind Hugo's attack was strong, yet would William really be worthy of the system if that was all it took?

Recovering from the attack, William had a firm grasp on Hugo's wrist. He twisted it with all of his strength until an eventual click sound could be heard. Hugo grunted in pain but fought through it. Grabbing Hugo's shoulder, he pulled him into him and launched his head straight at Hugo's nose.

Blood shot out as the two heads connected.

'This goddamn muscle head!'

Hugo's nose was bent at a peculiar angle, and blood flew from his nose as it was hit.

Hugo stooped low, gripping onto William's under thigh and lifting in the air.

William rose his elbow, slamming it onto the wall of muscle that made Hugo's back. Despite the pain, he kept on with his attack, slamming William into the ground.

Mud and dirt shot up, clouding the two for a second until it landed, revealing an unconscious William and an exhausted Hugo.

William's eyes rolled back into his skull, and Hugo's nose was dripping blood.

Standing up, he gently rubbed his wrist before shaking it and popping it back into place, seemingly unaffected by it.

"No one is to attack Jason. We'll use the vials, one on his wound and one to drink."

No one opposed his orders, pulling out their vials of a red liquid with a tinge of yellow mixed in.

"Here." Jax handed in his, and so did Hugo.

Opening the first vial, Jason swallowed it all in one big gulp.

[Health Vial Consumed: 40 HP+]

[62/90 HP]

[Infection resisted.]

[Time Remaining: 49M 19S]

"It restored my HP, but the infection is still in my body although the time it would take to infect me got doubled."

Jason's body felt lighter and incredibly better than when he was injured. He could immediately tell the vial was potent with how fast and effective it was.

"Should he drink it again or use it on the cuts?" Jax asked. "It slowed it down, but wouldn't it be better to use it from the origin of the infection?"

Jason nodded, opening another vial and pouring its contents over the larger cut that took out more than half of his HP.

Instantly, it felt like ants were crawling inside his leg and were spreading throughout his body rapidly. His leg jerked and his muscles clenched as they absorbed the powerful liquid, a pristine golden smoke floating from it.

[Infection cleansed.]

[+6 HP]

[68/90 HP]

"It's gone."

Jason let out a breath of relief, followed by some sighs.

During the 'cleansing', William awoke, wobbling on his own two feet as he staggered toward the group.

Although he was knocked unconscious and injured, after a night's, rest he would easily recover and be in fighting condition.