Ken roared in fury, an act that was quite unlike such a calm young man like himself. His sword carved through the horde and gave off the feeling it would even cut through the asphalt. His injuries were racking up, sure, but who wasn’t injured by now? Who hadn’t been bitten by a rat only to kill two more?

He had led the charge with Dallas towards the sleeping bladesman, the swarm in all of it’s rage doing the same as it wanted revenge for it’s Hivemind.

Anger boiling over in him to return him to an unnatural calm, the swordsman struck faster, harder, stronger as the faults and mistakes in his swordplay slowly got ironed out of him as he found the best ways to cut through flesh and bone. He forced himself to improve, to get stronger.

His muscles ached, his sword cracked, skin torn and leaking blood like many others in the group. Ken felt his body move like the wind, his sword carrying the stinging sharpness of a harsh gale as he slashed his way through the unending horde in front of him, the horde that was in his way.

The bladesman bled for them, burned for them, scarred for them. For all they knew right now, he was lying in a puddle of his own blood bleeding out, living his last moments. He refused to let that happen. They would defeat the horde and save his life.

Sebastian had saved his life last time, and had always been taking the hard hits, making the decisive actions. That’s exactly why he was levelling up faster, but the whole trio knew his face would never heal properly, a sacrifice he wasn’t even rewarded for. He refused to let the man make all the sacrifices, all the hard choices.

And if Sebastian was forced to do either of those things?

He’d make damn sure he’s strong enough to accompany him to the end of the line.

Dallas sighed lightly as his fists flew out amongst the swarm, crushing the bodies to bits amongst the battlefield. His knuckle dusters long bloodied and covered in bits and pieces of flesh and insides, something he clearly didn’t mind. His mind was distracted, brought elsewhere by realization of the sight he had seen.

He had heard of Sebastian’s choice to be a distraction, and he had an inkling of what would happen then. Not for a single moment though could he imagine he’d wipe out every Vanguard Rat amidst the flaming remains of the parking lot’s cars. Not for a moment did he think he’d ignore the injuries and burns to tank through the horde.

Not for a moment did he imagine the bladesman would release a bone chilling roar capable of stunning the horde, and not for a moment did he think he’d kill the Hivemind too. He had turned the horde from an issue into little more than free experience for the lower levelled members of the group. Hell, if the higher levels decided to be nice, every ordinary person here could level up once.

He shook his head as another fist crushed a rat’s skull. Sebastian had already won the hearts of quite a bit of the group, either because of his combat prowess, his quick adaptation to the new world, or the willingness to sacrifice and become a distraction. Dallas might be a good Emperor, but Sebastian was the Imperial General.

Looking over to Sebastian’s still breathing body, he sighed again. His boot turned another rat to mush as he led the charge towards the unconscious man, their group of patrolmen screaming and releasing their own enraged war cries.

Just based on these men’s pride, they’d never let him dispose of or get rid of Sebastian after what he’s done, and he didn’t see much reason to either.

Now he just had to make sure they got to him first.

Mariah was scared. Who the fuck wouldn’t be? A Light had suddenly blinded the world, taking a good chunk of the population with it, and then all the animals got the most unbelievable steroids on the planet. Even the god damn squirrels want to rip you to shreds and feast on your insides.

Standing beside and behind a smaller patrol group, she was shoving her spear through the gaps in the line, swiping rats away or piercing their bodies as they tried to attack another in the group. A good number of other survivors changed the way they looked at her as she continuously did her best to save the lives of others, even if she wasn’t a healer.

Her body felt like it was burning itself up from the inside, a fire spreading from her muscles to her bones and her nerves. Mariah had never felt so tired, but she insisted she wasn’t to leave the fight. Not because Sebastian was there, but because of guilt. She refused to let others fight in her place again, refused to let others die because of her cowardice. Not again. Never again.

Jacob had saved her life, sure, but it was at the cost of another’s. Not knowing the woman’s name even now, her guilt had plagued her since. She knew it hadn’t been long, but it was already overwhelming her. Breaking her. But she was determined to fill the cracks made by guilt with gold. She had always liked Kintsugi after all.

Even as the different notifications in her mind popped up into her vision, she didn’t once stop moving her arms, swinging her spear, thrusting the point through one rat, then another, and another. She even placed her points into her physique when she levelled up because it would help her fight just that much longer.

Mariah was going to come out of this better than she was before; and she wasn’t going to let anyone else die for her, never again.

She was sure of it.

[Overdrafted Vitality, overly heightened Perception]

[Early detection of Vitality attribute]

[Host will soon experience backlash.]

[Congratulations on unleashing your Affinity in special circumstances. Awarded the Unique ‘Earthen Bulwark’ Title due to unique method of detection. Good job, Mariah]

So.. so tired..

The mind floating through the darkness felt only fatigue as it looked around the surrounding void, having been there who knows how long. There was nothing to see, nothing to feel, smell, or taste. It could only hear.

It heard the raging screams of a woman, and the enigmatic cries sounding as if they came from every animal at once. The cries sounded sad, as if they had lost something or someone, but they understood why. An understanding sadness? The entity shook its ‘head’ as it tried describing the situation, but it couldn’t.

With a sigh, it continued floating aimlessly around in the void. Only when the temperature dropped immensely did it stop suddenly and turn all about, trying to find the source of change.

And it found the source.

A small, blue.. Infant. A baby, even. Completely ice blue in colour, breathing calmly and quietly. As the figure looked at it, he sensed an immense familiarity to the blue child, and he wasn’t sure why. He circled it briefly, trying to take in all of it’s details. When he finally saw its face-

The entity froze. He froze. The face had a long gash on it’s left side, some tiny small holes remaining in the cheek that emitted white steam with every breath. The child abruptly opened its eyes, and the mind that had been floating aimlessly coalesced into a large shape almost entirely within a few moments

It understood immediately.

His heartbeat rang out amongst the endless void like a war drum, the sound echoing and silencing the sounds of his past. With every thump, he felt his body warm with blood. The baby in front of him slowly smiled gently, and then slowly dissipated as the man came back to himself. He felt the fury deep within boil and churn inside him, before it was released as an undying roar that filled desolate black around him, cancelling out even his thunderous heartbeat.

He was Sebastian Albrecht, The Bandaged Bladesman, Prime Aspect of Ice and Snow.

And he wasn’t fucking dead yet.

His eyes opened abruptly, staring at the dark grey ceiling of the warehouse, sunlight streaming in through the windows and warming his body. A small surprised yelp came from the side as he quickly sat up, feeling the tightness of even more bandages around his body. They were like snakes constricting him, as if the pressure was the only thing keeping him put together.

Sebastian looked to the side towards the yelp and his gaze softened with a shake of his head. It seems Zachary was overseeing his treatment again, considering he left his daughter here.

“I-I.. I’m supposed to go get someone when you wake up.”

“Well? Go get them then.” He smiled lightly and gestured towards the door. They were still in the infirmary, but the injured had lessened by a lot, even considering they fought the horde. Though that might just mean all the injured were dead, not healed.

She nodded quickly, skipping for the door. Turning and hesitating for a moment when she grabbed the handle, she spoke up again before leaving. “My name is.. Kayla..”

The bladesman spoke to respond, but the kid had immediately run away after introducing herself, earning a wry smile from the bandaged man. He took a moment to look over his body’s condition as he waited for the people Kayla was meant to get.

The surface of his skin was covered in burns, and anywhere not burned was saved only because it was instead just a missing chunk of flesh. He had a few lacerations here and there, puncture wounds from the shrapnel, and he had way too many scratch marks for his liking. They weren’t even the fun scratches.

Sighing gently and looking around for his saber, he found the weapon set beside his cot, the blade now a mix of scorched black and stained crimson red from the battle. He didn’t know much about weapons, but the feeling that it wouldn’t last him much longer was definitely there.

[Good morning, Sebastian]

Good morning, Scorn

He received a weird, joyful chirp sound in response. He had to admit, it confused him a little bit. Cracking his neck, he began circulating his Vitality to help heal his body faster. He had made the estimate that, even with his Vitality, it would take him a week to heal, if not longer. Vitality rich meals will speed it up, but still. Aiming for a week.

His thoughts were interrupted by a score of cheers and footsteps when the door swung open with a bang. The front of the crowd consisted of Zachary, Ken, and Dallas, while those behind them consisted of random ordinary citizens and patrol group members. Only those three stayed, the rest seemingly only wanting to see him awake, before screaming something about popping open beers and celebrating.

“They’re in great spirits, eh?”

Dallas rolled his eyes. “You were sleeping for three days, your survival was questionable. They wanted to make sure the Vermintide Butcher that saved them survived after all, can you blame them?”

“That’s the nickname they gave me?”

“Less wordy than Prime Aspect of Ice and Snow.”

Sebastian nodded, not denying that. His Aspect title sounded cool, sure, but it was way too fucking long. He remained silent for a moment. “What about casualties?”

“We lost a few patrolmen, but just about everyone who survived leveled up once , some twice. We used the crippled ones from your car bombs to level all the ordinary people to Lv. 1”

Nodding, he looked over to Ken. “And our whole group made it inside?”

“Well, yes, you’ve seen two of the three. His wife is taking care of Kayla. Mariah though..” The swordsman seemed a little hesitant, scratching at his bandages idly as he tried to think.

“What about her?”

“She overdrafted her Vitality, apparently. Awakened her affinity and a title. She’s still out cold, but we think we just have to wait for her to wake up. We’ve been feeding her from the remains of the rat horde.”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes for a few seconds, before nodding calmly. “She’ll be fine. Why’d it happen?”

“She refused to stop fighting when we went out to melee with the horde. Apparently saved a lot of people before she went down. Completely out of energy.”

“Tough woman.”

“Very.”

“Not as tough as you though, you’re a freak.” The doctor interrupted. “How often are you going to waste our bandages like this? How do you even have a body left? Almost all your burns remained at surface wounds somehow, but the bite wounds and shrapnel should have knocked you out long before you killed the Hivemind.”

Sebastian grinned as he heard the man, wanting to laugh at his bafflement. He wasn’t sure why either, but he was pretty confident he was just too damn angry, mostly at himself. He felt a responsibility to make sure things had ended, and wouldn’t let himself go down without winning the fight, first.

“You could say, Doc, that I just really fucking hate pests.”