I wake up screaming.

The horrifying faces are still lingering in my eyes. I try to chase away the vision by kicking and flailing my arms around. Fear grips my heart but then I realize that I am back in my room.

I died…

Deep breaths still my pounding heart and ease the tremors coursing through my body. Calming down took more time than I wanted, but the trauma of seeing your classmates get slaughtered by sword-wielding zombies is not just shrugged off.

This is insane… Who was that guy? And why did he attack the lecture hall?

I know I have to do something, but I am at a loss on what and how. I don’t understand how this guy controls the black mist or what those beams he fired were. The obvious thing to do is to contact Riley. But I have to give him something or he won’t bother to come because just I asked nicely.

So I repeat the next hour four times until I have a good grasp on the situation.

A quick search on the HiddenNet taught me that the attacker is a powerful mage. There is no mistaking what those black beams are: They are death spells.

Death spells are very powerful. Even grazing someone with one of those beams is enough to cause half their body to rot in mere minutes. But it has a serious demerit. It eats away at the lifeforce of both the target and the caster.

At least that’s what my research said. The way the hooded figure threw them around freely meant he must have found a way around this side effect.

I doubt my shield would be any good against a spell of this magnitude, especially when his rate of fire wasn’t far from a machine gun.

But the black mist remained a complete mystery since the few snippets of information I found on dubious forums all contradicted each other.

So we have a mage wearing an ominous black robe that can wield death spells and control an army of zombies...

I have no delusion about my chances of beating this guy. He’s so out of my league that it would be a miracle if I can even scratch him. But I have to do something or the students would die…

Come on, answer me!

I keep calling Riley, and my friend finally answers after what is probably the 20th call.

“Hmm yeah, what do you want? I’m kind of busy right now-”

“A man capable of wielding death spells with an army of sword-wielding zombie at his command will attack Lecture Hall B-” I glance at my clock, “-in about 30 minutes.”

A heavy silence falls and I hear my friend muttering profanities.

“Are you absolutely sure about that? And how do you even know?!”

“I’m 100% certain, and you know I have my sources. So can I count on you or am I going to do this on my own?”

“I’m coming with Steve. See you there.”

Riley hangs up as I grab my rifle and backpack from my cupboard along with my chest rig. I then run to the lecture hall where I meet with my friend and his brother.

“So are you sure about this attack? We heard nothing about this guy, and we have a big network of informants.” Riley asks.

“I don’t think we should believe what this Fangless told you. Don’t you think it’s suspicious that he lures us away from our investigation-”

And there he goes again! Doesn’t he understand that lives are at stake?!

“Now you will shut the fuck up!” I interrupt Steve, “Or we will see how good your regen is against .223,” I say as I unpack my rifle.

“What?! How dare you speak like-”

But the arrogant Werewolf suddenly stops talking and turns his head towards the hall.

“Do you sense that?” he asks Riley, who nods with a grave expression.

“We need to go now, or we won’t be able to enter!” I shout as I kick the door down, just in time to see the professor getting slaughtered.

Fuck, we’re still too late!

I empty my magazine into the robed figure who jumps in surprise upon seeing me and the two Werewolves barging into the room, causing the students to scream in terror. My friends act quickly and jump onto the nearest zombies, tearing the creatures apart like they are made of paper while I reload my rifle.

“EVERYONE GET OUT!” Riley shouts as he parries the attack of another zombie.

The panicked students rush out of the hall as fast as they can while we do our best to get the attention of the robed man. I narrowly avoid a downward slash from a zombie that emerged from my shadow and take him down with a burst of three rounds.

“They can teleport in the shadows!” I shout as I explode the head of two other zombies.

“You should have told us earlier!” Steve screams as he destroys a sword aimed at his eyes with a single punch.

I drop another empty magazine and get sent flying by a beam of energy. I’m unharmed since my shield takes the brunt of the damage.

“Who are you?!” the figure shouts as he fires another volley, I avoid it by jumping to the side. I use the opportunity to empty another magazine into his body, causing a cracking sound to echo in the hall.

A smirk forms on my face as I reload and empty another magazine. I am about to reload again but I suddenly get tackled by a zombie that had his head ripped off.

“Those things just keep getting up! There’s no end to them!” Riley shouts as he kicks the creature that pinned me down. It explodes once it hit the wall.

"Thanks, man!" I say as I get up and grab my rifle. “I’ll take care of the zombies, just kill the other guy!”

My friend nod and join his brother’s assault against the mage who jumps around like a feather in the wind.

In the meantime I have to take care of the remaining zombies. Most of them are missing limbs and those that are still holding onto their swords haven’t noticed that their weapons are completely destroyed.

The assault of the zombies isn’t very difficult to avoid since they go down with a short burst and the two Enforcers already ripped most of them to shred. So I run around, jumping on chairs and tables. I easily avoid their limbs that have surprising strength despite looking like they could snap at any moment.

A quick look at the Enforcer duo shows that they have the situation under control despite their superficial wounds. They are slowly pushing the mage into a corner, and he already abandoned his offensive attacks. He’s now focusing on parrying the powerful punches of the Werewolves with an impressive amount of strings made of white lightning.

Something grabs my ankle, and I nearly vomit when I see that it’s a torso with a single arm that crawled beneath the bodies of its comrades. I pepper the creature with bullets until it releases its grip.

It looks like some of them are no longer getting up. Maybe they have a limited amount of regen!

Something wriggling in the pile of bodies catches my attention. It’s a single arm that jumps out to grab my throat!

I smack it away with the butt of my rifle and fill the rogue limb with holes, causing it to go limp.

“ENOUGH!” the figure shouts.

We all stare in awe as the massive cloud of black mist that had accumulated over the mage enters his body. His eyes shine with a bright red light while his body gets larger and taller.

He fires a massive beam towards Steve, who couldn’t react in time. We watch in horror as his body decays in a few seconds, leaving nothing behind but a pile of dust.

“YOU BASTARD!” Riley shouts as he pounces on the mage, only to be swatted away like a fly.

I am unable to move and fall to my knees as I stare at the remains.

This is my fault! I should have saved him… But I can still fix this!

I pull out my phone and type as fast as I can, a black beam is about to hit my head just as I press the Rewind button.

...Riley's PoV...

“ENOUGH!”

The mage shouts and condenses the black mist that has been accumulating above him. My brother and I can only stare at the black substance that seeps into his body.

Shit, this is not good! He’s getting stronger!

“GET DOWN!” John shouts as he knocks Steve down, saving him from the Death Beam that misses him by an inch. But John isn’t so lucky: The unstoppable attack pins him to the wall and quickly break through his shield.

But something unexpected happened.

His body absorbs the beam and it restores itself each time it decays. The mage's red eyes shine when he notices that his attack has no effect. He knocks us down with a shockwave before disappearing into the shadows.

My brother rushes to John’s side as soon as he gets up.

“He’s still breathing!” he shouts, taking me out of my stupor.

I run towards my unconscious friend and gasp since he doesn’t have a single scratch.

“So what’s the situation?! Is he still alive?!”

The result of my spell makes my jaw drop: I don't sense any form of mana lingering in his body, and he has no internal damage.

Reporting my findings to my brother makes his eyes bulge, “What?! You can’t be serious… How is he still alive after enduring a Death Beam like that?!”

“I... I don’t know.”

Steve grabs John and sighs, “We need to get him to safety and have him examined by a proper doctor, so I’m taking him home. In the meantime, you get to work on tracking the bastard who did this.”

I nod and my brother disappears into the shadows.

...John's PoV...

My head hurts…

I open my heavy eyelids and groan since my body is stiff and sore. However, the bed is nice and the calm atmosphere of the room is relaxing-

Wait.

My memories suddenly come back: I remember how Steve died. I remember how I Rewound time and pushed him away from the beam, and how I took the full brunt of the attack before losing consciousness…

I should’ve died, so what am I doing here?!

The white room I am resting in has identical beds lined against the walls, and I have something on my finger that is hooked to a machine that is regularly beeping.

I pat my body and sigh with relief when all of my limbs are accounted for. At least I am still in one piece.

There’s a window near my bed so I strain my neck to get an idea of where I am, but I only see an endless sea of trees.

Which isn’t very reassuring. Waking up in a creepy empty hospital in the middle of nowhere rarely ends well.

I freeze when I hear footsteps and scan the room for a weapon. But the only thing I see is a used plastic spoon left on a table in front of my bed.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The struggle to take the spoon reveals itself to be more difficult than I expected since my limbs barely respond. But I finally snatch the plastic utensil and snap one of its ends off to turn it into a makeshift knife just as a figure emerges from the doorway.

I expected some kind of deformed monster or an old man wearing a bloodstained lab coat. But I am instead greeted by a wolf-headed nurse wearing blue scrubs.

“Oh! You’re awake!” she says as she hurries to my side.

I tighten my grip on the plastic spoon, ready to jam it in her back at the first sign of malicious intent. But she just checks the machine and takes my temperature.

“So how are you feeling?” she inquires after finishing her examination.

“… Fine I think? Where am I?” It’s a bit hard to speak since my jaw feels stiff, so I have to take time to speak.

“We’re in the Wolfheart Residence. And does it hurts when I touch you here?" She asks as she pokes me in the ribs.

I recoil when I feel her cold hand and nearly stab her. But I reign in my reflexes at the last second and process what she just told me: Wolfheart was Riley’s family name. So I somehow ended up in his house.

Really, a clan of Werewolves is named Wolfheart? How did I not see that coming?

“So?” the inquisitive nurse takes me out of my thoughts and I nod to answer.

“How did I end up here?”

“Well Master Steve Shadow Walked in the middle of the living room while covered in wounds and bruises. He said ‘You took a Death Beam to the fucking face’ before throwing you into my arms and collapsing.”

Despite me situation, a giggle escapes me: A giant Werewolf throwing me like a sack of potatoes on the frail looking nurse before falling asleep is quite an amusing image.

So Steve saved me? I wasn’t expecting that. I thought he was waiting for an opportunity to make me disappear.

“And how is he doing now?”

"Well, he should be fine. However, his recovery took longer than usual since he destroyed some of Mistress’ priced vases in his botched landing. She wasn’t happy about it.” the nurse reply with an amused tone.

I can’t hold my laughter any longer because imagining that burly Werewolf getting spanked like a mischievous child is just too funny. And it looks like the nurse is thinking the same thing as me since she tries to hide her smile with her hand.

"So, anyway," I say once the laughter dies down, "Can I go back home now?”

The nurse’s expression turns serious, "I don't know about that… You were fine when I first examined you. But then you suddenly opened your eyes and mumbled something about not wanting to waste time before typing something on your phone and losing consciousness again."

So I entered the code… That explains why I didn’t wake up in my room. But not why she wants to keep me here.

"Don't worry about that, I'm fine now," I say as I shake my free hand to dismiss the nurse’s concerns.

“Yeah, I’m used to it. You’re not the first patient who sometimes acts delirious before falling back into a coma, and it’s no wonder you acted like that considering what you went through. I won’t stop you from leaving, but Master Riley told me he wanted to see you before you left.” I nod but the nurse raised a finger.

“But please answer my questions before you leave: Did you really get hit by a Death Beam?”

“By Death Beam, you mean a big beam of death energy that rots everything it touches?”

“… It’s a way of describing it.”

“Then yes. I guess my personal shield saved me.”

“Well, you’ve been here for nearly two days and I don’t have a reason to keep you here any longer.” The nurse cups her chin with an amused expression, “But can you please hand me that spoon before you go? We can’t have you going around with that, or else some people might react badly to a random armed person wandering in the corridors.”

My jaw drops.

She couldn’t have seen me grab it, right? And I spotted no cameras in the room, so how-

“I’ve worked for the Wolfheart family for thirty years. This kind of thing is elementary for anyone living here. So could you please give me that?”

I lower my eyes as I hand her the broken spoon. She smiles and helps me up before guiding me through the maze-like hallways. I hurry behind her while trying to not touch anything since everything looks like it’s worth more than what I could ever earn.

“We stored everything you had on you when you arrived in this room,” she says as she opens a wooden door.

I nod and enter the small room: My clothes are neatly folded on a polished table while my phones and my guns along with my backpack are laid on another one. I flip through my phone and checking the logs tell me it wasn’t opened while I was out, and nothing got installed. The fact that there was no sign of tampering took a weight off my shoulders.

At least my secret is safe. I’m lucky they dismissed my outburst as a side-effect of the coma.

My eyes turn to my clothes, which are in relatively good condition, on the table and then to my shivering body. I then realize that I am only wearing white scrubs, and they are very inadequate against the cold air creeping on my skin.

Well, time to change!

“I’m so glad you’re all right!” a familiar voice shouts when I leave the changing room. It’s soon followed by a hug that makes my shield, which barely restored its charge, wince.

“It’s good to see you too…” I say as I try to free myself from the vice-like embrace of my enthusiastic Werewolf friend.

I take deep breaths once he releases me. This guy would’ve probably crushed my bones if I didn’t wear my shield!

“So what happened back there?” My question freezes Riley for a few seconds and causes his smile to become strained.

“Well, about that…” he dismisses the nurse with a shake of his hand and turns towards me once she’s no longer visible.

He then grabs each of my shoulders and sighs.

"We need to talk," he says in a hushed tone before dragging me into the shadows without waiting for my reply.

We emerge in a small and dimly lit dusty room. The single light bulb hanging over the simple table in the middle of the room shakes when another person emerges from the shadows.

I tense up when I recognize Steve’s figure, but he says nothing and briefly looks at me before sitting on a chair with a heavy sigh.

“Are you sure you weren’t followed?” Riley answers with a nod and sits on the opposite side of his brother.

“I hid my presence as much as possible so we should be fine. But we shouldn’t linger here too much, just in case.”

What’s all this about? Just what happened while I was out?

“What’s happening here?”

My question causes the two brothers to raise their heads and stare at me.

What?! Did I do something wrong?

I am about to ask again but Steve breaks the silence.

“Well… We are in deep shit.”