Chapter 7 - Chapter 7: Opposite Path's

Fifth Quest Wave! Quest Type: Investigation - Find and enter a dungeon located within 500 meters of your position. Inside you must find information on what the infection is and what caused it. Inside the dungeon there will be less infected than outside. Warning! Because of your party's (Referring to Ethan, Jake, and Landon)'s , your future quests will drastically increase in difficulty. Would you like to invite players and to your party?

Both Axel and Nathan clicked accept immediately, and we followed Axel towards the exit of the building. Once we were outside, I took the lead and followed the Systems path towards the dungeon. Walking through shattered buildings and abandoned cars, we came across signs of life not too long ago, but they seem to have moved on. As we got closer to the dungeon we encountered a handful of infected, but they were dealt with easily, so we kept advancing towards our goal. As we got closer to the dungeon, a looming presence began to fall over us. Shadows that seem to disappear after being noticed, distant sounds of footsteps.

"Am I the only one who feels like something's off?" I questioned, gripping my spear tighter.

"Its not just you," Axel replied, "We all can feel it… something bad is coming."

"No… that something is already here."

As we headed up the stairs of a building and walked through a hallway, there was a doorway at the end.

"Well, whatever it is, it's camping our dungeon." Landon says, drawing his bow and racking an arrow," So be ready."

"I always am." Jake says arrogantly.

Jake walks up to the closed door, and waits for my signal. Nodding my head, he kicks the door off of its hinges, launching it crashing into the room. Cautiously entering, I scan around and find a familiar figure, hands clasped and staring at the floor, sitting on top of a table. It was Henry. His arms were crossed, his head down but I could see his tired eyes.

"Henry… Did your sister make it?" I ask, my voice low and cautious.

"No." He responded bluntly, "Went through dozens of infected to find her, they were all children so it was easy." He paused for a moment, "When I got to her, she was halfway turned. So I killed her."

"I-I'm sorry." I forced out, not knowing what else to say.

"If you guys went with me, we could have saved her." Henry said, slowly moving his tired eyes to meet mine.

"Even if we all went along with you, there's still no way she'd survive." Jake bluntly replied.

"Shut it!" I hiss, snapping my head towards Jake before turning back to Henry, "But-he's sort of right. I'm sorry to say it but it's the truth."

"You're just like everyone else. Always thinking of yourself before others." Henry says, faintly laughing.

"Look dude, I'm sorry about what happened, but I was thinking about the majority of us. If we agreed to save her we could have all been dead." I responded harshly.

"Thanks for telling me that." Henry says, a grin spreading across his face behind the curtain of messy, ragged hair as he stands from the table, almost mad with laughter, "And that's -heh- the last thing I need from you."

"And what's that?" I question, readying my spear.

"Justification."

Henry blinks out of existence suddenly, then reappears bolting at me with blistering speed and attempts a body shot, which I'm barely able to deflect with my buckler, and smash him in the chest with a kick, sending him hurtling through the room, flinging aside tables and slamming hard into the concrete wall.

"Heh…Ha haha. HA HA HA!! Man-" Henry begins laughing maniacally, more crazed than before, wiping blood from his lower lip and rubbing his ribs, "What kind of quests you lot complete to get that strong?"

"Well, -cough- it doesn't matter anyways, I'm still stronger." He says, pulling himself out of the rubble as he begins to conjure his weapon.

A misty, deep green aura begins to surround his right arm, as a wavelike blade attaches itself to his arm.

"That power..!" Jake says, beginning to grin, "So there are others! You… you are a Herald!" He exclaims.

"I figured you'd be chosen by an Authority too, but it doesn't matter to me." Henry says, growling, his cackle falling to an intense stare, "I'll just remove your head, like I had my sister's."

 Henry charges towards me again, this time even faster than before, becoming almost completely imperceptible to the average eye, but Jake intercedes. Stepping in front of me, he throws out a slash in a wide arc toward Henry, the intense pressure forcing him to step back and block the attack. Henry staggers backward, and Jake uses the momentum to attack again. Lifting his greatsword, Jake swings down at his skull, and Henry barely manages to block the crushing force. Jake's pure strength presses Henry down to a knee, cracking the ground with it's weight. While Henry was pinned, I dash forward past Jake and slam my buckler into the trapped attacker's face, dragging his head into the ground. The weakened concrete couldn't hold the strength of my attack, and it gives out beneath us. Leaping backwards, Jake manages to stay above with the others, while I drop down to the basement floor with Henry.

"C'mon man!" Henry exclaims with a crazed look, lifting his head up from the mess, "Use some skills, let's make this interesting!"

Looking around, the basement was a huge parking garage, and the crumbling concrete from the previous floor still poured down, chunks from the ceiling crashing into the lot, booming echoes across the expansive space. The only light in the room came from the hole from my previous attack that flickered unevenly down onto the pile, leaving most of the area still hidden save a few distant cars sounding their obnoxious alarms and flashing their head and tail-lights, periodically flooding the lot in an eerie, ominous, red revealing uncanny silhouettes wandering silently through the haze of dust blowing through the lot.

 I take a deep breath and fix my eyes back on Henry, who stood in the mess of rebar reinforced stone that I'd unconsciously backed up off of. 

"I don't want you dead Henry." I respond, "We can forget this and move on. Maybe even work together if you're up for it…"

"Huu…that's fine." Henry says, his expression falling into a dull grimace, "If you don't… then I guess I'll have to force you to-"

Almost instantly, dozens of nearby infected rushed towards me, pouncing out of the shadows all around the dark basement. For some reason, they completely ignored Henry. Reacting just as fast as they appeared, I grab my spear and dash forward toward the only other "living" being in the basement, I couldn't waste time down here.

"He's gotta have something to do with these zombies, they aren't paying attention to him at all… maybe he has a skill that prevents them from detecting him? That's way too strong,..."

The wall of infected surged from behind Henry who slowly stepped back toward the shadows, subtly shifting so that the rotting corpses didn't make contact with him. I prepare for their imminent onslaught, but it never comes. Full speed, they sprint past me and head towards the staircase. They were after everyone else.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I yell, turning my head towards Henry, my grip tightening around the shaft of my spear as I prepare to attack.

"I told you Ethan, if you don't use your skills by yourself then I'll have to make you, personally." Henry says, wiping his dagger down.

"How the hell can you control them?" I questioned.

"Oh well that's quite simple, but I can only tell you this. You already know that Jake isn't the only one who was given a power of sin." Henry says," I am the Manifestation of Envy, and I'll tear you apart in the same way my sister had been because of you. Cruelly."

Before I could speak, Henry activated a skill. Instantly, I feel an overwhelming pressure, and get a system notification telling me that all stats have decreased by two.

"What is this?" I question, trying to stay standing despite his imposing aura.

"It's pretty simple, it's a skill called . Basically if your level is lower, I decrease all your stats by two for our whole fight." Henry says, walking closer and closer, "I told you Ethan, I am not your friend or someone you should care about. I am your enemy."

Instantaneously, Henry dashes towards me and stabs at me with overwhelming weight. I barely manage to block it with my buckler before another attack comes. He slashes at my chest, but I manage to parry with my spear and counter with my buckler. It connects clean with his chin, but barely any damage is done. I attempt to dash back, but he's quicker. He gets behind me and kicks my knees in, throwing me onto all fours. As I try to stand, Henry jumps onto the ceiling, and with insane power, he launches himself, feet first into my back. The impact shockwaves through my body and into the floor, completely splitting it open. Falling through the floor and further into the basement's levels, I lay face-down in the rubble, struggling to stand as Henry suddenly appears beside me and kicks me hard in the gut, sending me hurtling into a row of blaring cars. I quickly crawl behind the dented car and sit with my back against the front fender, clutching my stomach.

"So you want to play hide and seek? That's fine. It reminds me of my sister." Henry says, beginning his crazed rant, "After her schoolday ended I would take her to the park and we would play hide and seek with her friends. It was a good time, until you took it all away." He finishes, kicking a car away from him with full force, as it rolled careening violently across the lot in a series of loud metallic booms.

Using the noise, I manage to dash from car to car, finally getting behind him.

"Oh the times… they were good times." Henry says, turning around towards me as he grips the roof of a car with one hand and picks the whole thing up, "But unlike back then, I'm not letting you win."

As he finishes what he was saying, I dash around the car and head straight at him. He flings the car at me, thinking that I lost, but I surprise him. I swing my spear full force at the car. I cut through the roof of the car as my strength stops, but activates, and I cut through the entirety of the vehicle.

"Shit!" Was the only thing Henry could say as I slashed his chest with my spear.

Blood begins to spew out from the freshly opened wound as I prepare for the second round, but the sound of a body of one of the infected crumpling loudly onto the asphalt throws us both off. Jake, Axel, and Nathan began their fight.

"AXEL!" Jake yells towards him, "WHATS YOUR SPECIALTY?"

"Anything." Axel replies calmly, "And it's better to just show you instead." He finishes as a Tanker infected runs towards him. It swings its sword at him, but he knocks it aside with his bare fist, and lands an outrageously powerful blow to its skull, removing its head in a single strike.

"…Okay, just keep doing whatever you're doing then." Jake responds, shocked by his strength.

"FOCUS GUYS! ETHANS ALONE!" Nathan shouts as a regular infected runs at him. It tries to jump at him, but a swift swing from his mace ends the charging undead.

"YOU'RE RIGHT, I'M GOING DOWN TO HELP ETHAN WITH HENRY!" Jake yells, charging forward towards the fissure in the floor.

Dropping down with a loud thud, he surveys the area for the next breach in the floor, but is instead met with almost a dozen infected. Lunging forward towards two of them, he swings wide with his greatsword, cleaving clean through one but being blocked by the other. The Tanker swings its great hammer down at Jake, but he parries, activating . Stunning the Tanker, he stabs sharply into its chest, and carves downwards. As it falls, three more Tankers charge at him. A swift strike hurtles towards his left shoulder, but he parries with his gauntlet, causing to activate. Instead of attacking, he slashes at the abdomen of another Tanker, spilling its intestines across the floor. The new slippery surface causes the infected Jake parried to crash to the floor, and he stabs it in the neck. The last infected comes from behind him and tries to ram its body into Jake, but he dodges out of the way and watches as the wretch plummets headfirst through the gap in the floor, landing with a disgusting thud.

Henry dashes away from me and uses his aura to stop his bleeding momentarily, "Wow that one hurt!" Henry exclaims crazed, "I thought you were underestimating me but it turns out I was the one underestimating you. Time to get serious."

Henry's maniacal face disappears instantly, as he begins to start our real fight. He dashes at me at full speed, and I barely manage to dodge his lunge. Countering with an attack of my own, I activate , launching dozens of slashes and stabs at him, but not a single one reaches him. 

"It's confusing isn't it?" Henry says, behind a transparent, green, glowing thorn wall, "Thinking that you got a free hit off but not a single one lands?"

Henry continues talking as he walks forward, the shield dissolving slowly into the air, "It's called , if your wisdom stat isn't as high as mine that barrier negates all damage." He finishes, blitzing me with incredible speed.

Dashing backwards, I swing my blade up at his chest, but he slams his Waveblade into my spear, pinning it down to the floor. Dropping my weapon, I stomp Henry's hand against the floor and land a clean swipe to his kidney with my buckler. A hint of green flashes and slowly fades from where I'd hit him. He dashes backwards, wincing in pain even though no real damage had been done, and I use this opportunity to grab my spear again. I wind back my arm spear in hand, aiming for his chest, but his dagger is quicker. Pulling my spear back down to center mass, I block his blade then grab it with my bare hand, fighting through the sensation of the blade serrating my skin, I pull him forward and past me, twisting my body and throwing my free elbow at his face. It connects cleanly with his nose, and blood begins to spew out as I prepare another attack, but I can't. My left arm begins to feel staticky and numb, almost like I was hit with venom.

"You cheeky bitch." Henry says as he begins to balance himself, "I guess you really want to die."

"What did you do?" I ask, my forearm and below completely numb,"What kind of skill is this?"

"It's not something you can defend against, but I guess I'll tell you a little bit. It's called , whenever I attack you, I can poison you." Henry says, wiping my blood off of his blade, "But that's the last thing I'm telling you. I need to end this."

"Fine…if you want me to kill you then you could have just asked." I say, my expression turning from confusion to resolve.

Dashing forwards, I slam my Atgeir into his . Tearing through a third of the wall, my activates and I cut the wall down. Completely surprised, Henry attempts to dash away, but I hurl my spear directly at his face. He barely manages to put his guard up, but not without repercussions. My blade carved a path through his hand, severing his ring finger and thumb, and grazed deep into his neck. He let out a blood curdling scream as he dashed far away and kneeled on the floor.

"How… cough*, how did you carve through my defense?" Henry questioned, trying to stop his bleeding as blood spewed from his mouth.

"I'll tell you since you used to be a friend. I have a skill called . It gives me +5 wisdom whenever I use spears." I coldly told him, walking over to him, "The only reason you weren't hit early was because my other skill doesn't work with ."

"Thanks for telling me that...now I know what I need to do." Henry says, standing up as if his injuries didn't affect him.

"Good luck."

Henry charges forwarded me, albeit slower than before. He slashes at my heart, but I try to parry with my buckler. As his blade meets my bucker and slows down, he activates a skill, my skill, . His blade tears through my shield, carving it clean in half as his blade meets my chest. It carves across my ribs as I dodge back, weakening its effect. Again, his activates and I begin to feel its poison seeping into my bloodstream.

"You bastard…" I yelp as I dash backwards.

"Oh please, save your tears for when I actually kill you." Henry says, preparing for another attack. But right as he does, another infected falls through the hole in the floor, along with a second thud.

"Hello Henry." Jake says, stepping over the freshly killed infected, "It's been a while, but you didn't greet me."

"Sorry about that. I didn't have time to squeeze a worthless piece of shit into my schedule." Henry replies, sarcastically.

"The fuck did you just say?" Jake barks angrily, his ego hurt.

"What? You're a weak waste of time so I-" Henry couldn't finish his sentence before Jake lunged at him.

Activating , Jake dashed across the entirety of the open parking lot and caved Henry's chest with a devastating knee, infused with his aura. Henry couldn't even comprehend the attack before his body was hurled thirty feet away. He tried to catch himself, but the mere power of Jake's attack made his body slide, rolling across the floor until he slammed into a heavy truck at the entrance of the parking lot.

"Say that again and see what happens." Jake says, his fury unrelenting, "Oh and Ethan?"

"Yeah?" I responded weakly.

"You look like shit. Go back up and get some healing from Nathan. I'll deal with this narcissistic jackass myself." Jake says, confidently.

"Got it, thanks for the help." I say running towards the gap in the ceiling, "I'LL BE BACK ONCE I'M HEALED!"

"Take your time," Jake adds, turning his head back to Henry who was attempting to stand back up, "I'm going to enjoy this."

I jumped into the air and grabbed onto the ledge above me, and hauled myself up. Before I was completely gone, I grabbed my spear using ,Looking around for the other hole, the clamoring sounds of battle persisted above me.

"ONE BEHIND YOU AXEL!" Nathan shouts as he smashes his mace into the face of another infected.

"I know!" Axel replies calmly.

Axel dodges the attack of the infected behind him as it stumbles past, and grabs it by the spine. Grunting with effort, he tears its spine out, its body falling to the floor crumpled. Turning around, he grapples another Tanker to the ground, and saws its head off with the spine. Discarding his improvised weapon, he looks for another infected to kill, but instead finds me. He yanks me up after I grab onto the ledge, and I can finally get my healing.

"Nathan!" I say, rushing towards him,"Can you fix me up? Henry has some kind of paralyzing poison he can use, I can't feel my left arm or chest."

"Got it! Axel, you-" Nathan says but gets cut off by him.

"I know, I know. Protect you while you heal." Axel says as three more infected come rushing at him.

"Will he be alright?" I ask.

"He'll be fine so shush, I need to concentrate." Nathan tells me, and I obliged

He holds the palm of my left hand open as a golden aura appears above it. Casting , my wounds begin to close, and the poison is sapped out of my body. Next he went over to my chest, but also casting to boost the speed and quality of his healing. While he was healing, Axel began his fight with the infected. Two Stalkers came charging in at him with blistering speed, one targeted his side while the other went for the neck. With atomic precision, he dodged the one attacking his neck, dodging without issue. Grabbing its arm as it flew past, he used his own skill , to dislocate its shoulder. Spinning around, he slammed the infected into each other, then pinned the one he was holding to the floor by his foot. Using his barbaric strength, he ripped its arm out of its socket as it let out a blood curdling scream. He finished it off by splattering its skull against the concrete floor. Crouching down, he avoids an attack from a Tanker, and flips backwards onto its back. Using the arm he claimed, he wrapped it around its neck and jumped off, kicking its knees in on the way and slamming the heavyweight into the ground. Axel raised his left fist, almost relishing in the moment, and propelled it down with such speed that on impact, a ring of blood and gore sprayed savagely from where the tank's head used to belong on its limp body.

"Thanks for the heals," I say, stretching my shoulder as I stand up, "But what the hell is that guy made of?"

"Pure testosterone," Nathan replies, "Maybe a bit of steroids as well."

"I'm going back down to Jake, finish up the rest of them then make your way over!" I yell, hopping back down the hole.

"Got it!" Nathan responds, turning around to another 8 infected heading up their stairs.

Jake' greatsword cleaves down into the car Henry was slumped against, but Henry dodges out of the way at the last second. Turning around, Henry sees the car he used to lay upon was now split in twain.

"Jeez, you really pack quite a punch," Henry says in worried consternation, recognizing Jake's strength, "But I think it's time I knock you down a peg.

Staring intently at Jake, Henry's , begins to activate Henry scoffs at Jake, and charges in to attack the now weakened Jake. Swinging his blade at Jake's throat, Henry thought the fight was over, but his blade was repelled against Jake's superior aura. Jake then took his turn to strike, pummeling Henry's stomach with his fist, and activating . Henry tried to strike back after withstanding Jake's attack, but then its secondary assault began. Jake's flames spread across Henry's body, causing him to start convulsing in pain, along with yelping a bloodcurdling scream, then he dropped to the floor.

"How...how did you resist my ability?" Henry says, meekly.

"You thought your lousy half-assed skills would affect me?" Jake says with disgust, "You knew that I was a Herald, so you shouldn't have assumed that I would fall so easily to you."

"What's even more unlucky is the particular Sin you chose to fight." Jake said staring down, sneering in pure contempt "You chose to fight the Authoritarian of Pride, me. I almost feel pity for you but still, I'm going to fuck you up."

"Sorry, not sorry!"

Sniveling and crawling backwards, Henry tries to scurry away, but Jake pounces onto him. Grabbing Henry's arm, he pins him down and unleashes a volley of attacks directly into his face. Henry tries his best to block with his free hand, but the assault continues. With all of his strength, Henry plants his foot on Jake's stomach, and kicks him off. While Jake was regaining his balance, Henry appeared behind him and stabbed him in the stomach with his blade. But his attack was much stronger than it should have been. Jake fell to his knees as Henry took the opening and began to slash and stab at him. Finally, I drop down into the basement, and see the damage that Henry had been doing to Jake and in rage, throw my spear at Henry with full power. He turns to face me as the spear connects, piercing him straight through the chest. The spear impaling Henry through the heart dragged him along, skewering him on a concrete column. His body collides into the support with overwhelming force, cracking the pillar and showering the area in fragmented concrete.

"Jake! Are you okay?" I yell, rushing towards him.

"I'm fine, just got hit by one of his skills. Don't let him get behind you." Jake says seriously.

"Cough cough*...You pathetic pieces of shit." Henry says, "Why won't you just let me KILL YOU!?!"

Despite his thrashed body, Henry advanced onto us. Once again he used his skill to control the undead, and all of the infected from above, twenty in total, rushed down to us. Fifteen of them bombarded Jake while the other five rushed me. Using , I reclaim my weapon and throw it towards two infected. The first one gets carved through without difficulty, and the second is destroyed by . Dashing towards the other three, I launch myself forward and activate , breaking the knee of one with a kick and stomping on his skull. Dashing towards the other two, I grab a piece of rubble and slam it into the neck of the closest infected. The last one swung his sword at me, but I parried with my broken buckler. Dashing forwards, I swung my buckler at him and slit its throat. Turning back towards Jake, I run towards him but Henry meets me halfway. Calling my weapon back using , we begin our final brawl.

"Look what you started!" I yell towards Henry, waving my hands around pointing at the destruction, "We could have prevented this if you were reasonable!"

"Reason? You talk about reason to ME!?" Henry shouts angrily, "As if I didn't have enough reason… the ONLY reason I had to kill my only remaining family was because of you."

"I KNOW!" I yell, "I know… but it was the only option we had. I put the majority first."

"I do not deserve your forgiveness, but I'm not going to say what I did was wrong." I tell him truthfully, "So come at me… I'll end this misery myself."

We both ran towards each other, ignoring everything else, his Aura against my will. Using my longer reach, I slash at his weakened side. He parries with his dagger and uses his superior speed to stab at my shoulder. Barely, I block his attack, his blade hardly grazing my across my skin, but the poison stays. My arm begins to slow down. Using this, Henry lets out a larger volley of attacks. Slashing, stabbing, punching, everything he could throw at me he did. The poison combined with my already exhausted state made it impossible to block everything. He tore at my body, abdomen, neck, chest, arms, everything. As his blade was about to slit my throat, Jake screams, both Henry and I freeze in place. Looking towards him, his purple flames encompassed his entire body. He was forced into his mode. With one swing from his sword, every infected in front of him was split clean in two at the waist. Turning around, he walked straight at the largest infected there. Staring into its eyes, his pure aura forced the infected to grab its own blade and plunge it into its own chest down to the hilt, and collapse lifelessly to the floor. Turning towards the other infected, one more swing from his blade was all it took to decimate all that was left.

Turning my head back to Henry, he tackles me down. He began to pummel into me using both his fists, his blade had disappeared, molding into his green barrier that kept his wounds from progressing worse. Grabbing his forearm, I throw him off balance and kick him off me. Rolling back onto his feet, Henry charged back into me, but I had my weapon. Stopping before he got to close, Henry prepared to end this battle. Despite his entire body in shambles, bones shattered, covered in burn marks, bruises, cuts, and a hole through his chest, he stood seething against me.

"GUYS!" Nathan yelled from above,"THE DUNGEON OPENED! WE ARE GOING IN!"

"WE'RE IN A PARTY SO YOU GUYS WILL GET PULLED IN WITH US!!" Axel yells back.

Without a moment of hesitation, Henry lunges one last time at me. He tries to punch me in the face, but I dodge to the side. As I raise my weapon to attack him, he uses his remaining aura to summon his weapon to slash my face. His blade intersects with my right ear, carving half of it off as he cuts across my nose bridge. Despite the pain of his attack and the poison circulating my entire body, I attacked. Driving my spear up at his face, I slice up at his mouth and up to his eye. We both fell back in pain, but before we could attack again, my body began to get dragged to the dungeon.

"ETHANNNNN!!!! I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS! I'LL KILL YOU!!" Henry shouts with the rage of a thousand suns.

"YOU WILL PAY!!" He shouts as I get dragged into the portal.

This would not be the last time we would meet, I thought to myself as I entered the dungeon.