Rude Awakening

Kade jolted awake to the sound of shouting echoing through the steel-and-concrete corridors below. His heart raced as he scrambled to his feet, the haze of sleep vanishing instantly. The yells weren't of casual argument or idle chatter—they were panicked, desperate. Something was wrong. His eyes darted toward his belongings, but there wasn't time to put on a shirt or even fully gather himself. He shoved his feet into his boots, and bolted for the door.

Descending from the maintenance room, Kade was met with chaos in the main hall of the clubhouse. A cluster of survivors crowded near the entrance, their voices blending into an unintelligible din. Pushing through the throng, he spotted the cause of the commotion: the young man with the slingshot, doubled over and clutching his stomach, his face pale and contorted in pain. A faint, eerie glow emanated from his chest, spreading through his veins like molten fire.

"What happened?" Kade demanded, his sharp voice cutting through the noise.

One of the older survivors, a wiry man holding a broom, stammered, "He—he touched something outside while clearing the bodies. Said it looked like a weird rock. Soon as he picked it up, it… it did this to him!"

Kade's stomach sank. A core. The idiot must've absorbed it without knowing how to handle the energy. He crouched beside the young man, gripping his shoulders firmly. "Hey! Look at me. Listen carefully. You're gonna be okay, but you need to focus."

The boy's trembling eyes locked onto Kade's. "It—it burns. I can't—"

"Breathe," Kade interrupted, his voice steady and commanding. "In through your nose, deep and slow. Hold it. Then out through your mouth, like you're pushing the burn away."

The boy struggled, his breaths coming in shallow gasps, but Kade guided him, demonstrating the rhythm with exaggerated motions. "Visualize it. The energy is in your blood, right? Picture it flowing, not thrashing. You control it. Let your breathing guide it."

Gradually after several minutes, the boy's erratic gasps softened, his breathing evening out as he followed Kade's instructions. He likely had not absorbed any resonance energy previously so the low-level core had only a limited amount of resonance energy and couldn't entirely overload his system. The glow beneath his skin dimmed, the searing pain giving way to a dull warmth. He slumped back, exhausted but alive.

Kade exhaled sharply, relief washing over him. He stood, addressing the crowd. "This is why I've been keeping these cores wrapped. If you touch one without knowing what you're doing, it can kill you—or worse, turn you into one of those things."

The murmurs of fear and confusion rippled through the group. Kade scanned their faces, a grim determination settling over him. "I can't leave you all in the dark anymore. If we're going to survive, you need to know what you're dealing with."

He motioned for everyone to gather, and as they did, Kade began explaining what he'd learned from Westler's book. He spoke of Resonance Energy, how it flowed through cores, and how it could either empower or destroy those who came into contact with it. He demonstrated the breathing technique again, emphasizing its importance.

"You have to be careful with these things," Kade said, holding up a core wrapped tightly in cloth. "Never touch them with your bare hands unless you know what you're doing. And if you're going to absorb one, you need to be ready. If you can't control the energy, it'll tear you apart—or worse, twist you into something monstrous."

The group listened intently, their fear tempered by the promise of knowledge. Kade's words carried weight, and for the first time, the survivors felt a sliver of control over the chaos surrounding them.

As the crowd began to disperse, Julia approached him, her rapier slung over her shoulder. "That was… good. They needed to hear it, I needed too... it sounds crazy but seeing what you've done already, I cant help but believe you"

Kade nodded, his mind already turning to the next challenge. "I'm going to need your help, Julia. You're the only one here I trust to back me up out there, but you need to get stronger. That means evolving. And for that, we need cores."

She frowned, glancing at the survivors around them. "What about them?"

"They'll hold," Kade replied. "Griggs has this place locked down, and they've got enough people with weapons to defend if anything comes knocking. But we need to clear out the tunnels and start hunting. If we don't, we're all dead anyway."

Later, Kade stood in Griggs' forge, examining the weapons laid out before him. His eyes settled on a medieval mace, its steel head wickedly spiked. "This'll do," he muttered, hefting it in his hand. Griggs had also taken the luxury of repairing Julia's rapier, it had taken him all night, though he had made no progress on smelting the riftsteel.

With the mace in tow, Kade and Julia descended into the tunnels, their shared urgency a silent understanding between them. The dim light flickered against damp, cracked walls, casting long shadows that danced with each step. The air was thick, cold, and laced with the sharp metallic tang of old blood and damp concrete. Every breath felt heavier down here, every movement sharpened by the weight of knowing they were running against time itself. The creatures out there weren't just threats—they were evolving. Every moment wasted was another step toward irrelevance, another monster growing stronger while they remained the same.

Julia moved with a quiet intensity, her grip tightening around her weapon. She wasn't just here to survive—she was here to take back something that had been stolen from her. The violence, the bloodshed, the raw instinct of the fight—it gave her something she hadn't felt in a long time: control. The monsters weren't human, they weren't innocent, and she didn't feel an ounce of hesitation when she cut them down. Each strike was precise, each movement an extension of her rage. The thrill of it, the sheer clarity in the life-or-death exchanges, brought her something dangerously close to peace.

But beneath that satisfaction, something darker stirred. The memories clawed at the back of her mind, no matter how much she tried to bury them. Her coach...her father—his voice, his demands, the suffocating expectations—until the day she finally said no. Until the day he came after her, consumed by his own failure, by his own twisted sense of ownership over her talent. After years of suffocation, she took her stand. The fear, the struggle, the moment the knife had sunk into him—self-defense, they called it. But the guilt never left her. She had hesitated that day. It had cost her everything.

Down here, against these monsters, she didn't hesitate. There was no moral dilemma, no consequences that would haunt her afterward. Just the clarity of battle and the brutal satisfaction of survival. The Wretches weren't just enemies—they were her catharsis.

The first few Wretches they encountered were dispatched quickly, their emaciated forms grotesque in the faint glow of scattered emergency lights. Kade's raw strength, amplified by the controlled Resonance Energy surging through him, sent his mace crashing down with a force that shattered bone and crystal alike. Julia moved beside him with precision honed from years of fencing, her strikes surgical and deliberate. She had begun incorporating the breathing techniques Kade had shared with her, syncing her movements with steady inhalations and exhalations. It didn't take long before subtle changes in her began to manifest. Her strikes carried more weight, her reactions were sharper, and she moved with an uncanny fluidity that hinted at something more.

Kade noticed the signs immediately. Julia wasn't just surviving—she was evolving. The more she practiced the breathing techniques while fighting off the Wretches, the more her body seemed to acclimate to the Resonance Energy saturating the air. Her movements were no longer just those of a skilled fighter; they were becoming something more, something instinctual. Kade could see the faint glow in her eyes after each encounter, the subtle but unmistakable signs that her body was starting to integrate the energy naturally.

Yet, for all their skill and progress, the reality of the evolving creatures pressed against the back of their minds. Every slain Wretch was a grim reminder of what might lurk deeper in the tunnels—stronger, faster, and more deadly mutants climbing the tiers of power. Kade couldn't shake the thought: this wasn't just survival anymore—it was an arms race. If they didn't collect cores, strengthen themselves, and master the energy coursing through their veins, they'd end up as prey. The monsters weren't waiting for humanity to catch up; they were adapting at an alarming pace. And with every creature they defeated, Kade felt the growing weight of their situation. This wasn't just about today's fight—it was about what was coming next.

It wasn't long before Kade heard the telltale sound of heavier footsteps echoing through the tunnel. He signaled for Julia to stop, his grip tightening on the mace. From the shadows emerged a larger mutant, its grotesque form similar to the Rendclaw he'd fought before. Its crystalline growths glinted faintly in the dim light, and its guttural snarl reverberated through the air.

Kade didn't hesitate. Drawing on the Resonance Energy flowing through him, he lunged forward, his movements precise and deliberate. The mace connected with the creature's arm, shattering the crystalline growths and sending it reeling. Julia held off the smaller Wretches that trailed behind it, her strikes efficient but growing desperate as the rapier bent under the strain.

Kade focused on the larger beast, each swing of the mace calculated. He remembered the book's advice—control the energy, direct it where it was needed most. With a final, devastating blow to the creature's temple, The beast collapsed, its crystalline form shattering under its own weight as it fell.

The fight left them breathless but victorious. Kade knelt by the fallen creature, carefully extracting its core—larger and darker than the Wretch cores—and wrapped it in cloth. He pried several jagged shards of Riftsteel from its back, their dense weight confirming their potential use. Julia, bruised but steady, moved through the Wretch corpses, retrieving cores with practiced efficiency. Each kill brought a strange catharsis, a quiet defiance against the ghosts of her past. With their spoils secured, they exchanged a nod—this was enough. It was time to return.