Charlotte looked down at the arm in her hands. Her battle against the second zombie had pretty much ruined it. She wasn't sure if she would have the strength to rip off the second arm before they came for her.

She growled in frustration, squeezing the dismembered limb so hard, the black zombie blood oozed out of it. Scowling, she dropped the arm in disgust and wiped her hands on her uniform pants. Her core pulsed as she thought about how royally screwed over she'd been.

This tutorial is so messed up! I shouldn’t be here! I wanna go home, not fight freaking parasite zombies! And the thing that's supposed to help me fight them isn't even here!

The pressure in her core intensified as her anger and indignation mounted. The anima inside raged, threatening to break loose. It hungered for battle, for her to put it to use.

Charlotte teetered on the edge of losing control, still reluctant despite her anger. The zombies were getting closer and, by the sound of their howls, she only had a few minutes left before they got here. If she lost control now, what if she was left defenseless against them? What if she could somehow access that strength increase while fighting them? Wasn’t it better to wait, if that was the case?

Her anima bucked at her hesitance. She reeled at its sudden violence, nearly releasing her hold on it. She fought to push it back down but a piece escaped her grasp. It flew upwards from her core, shooting past her heart and slamming into her brain.

Knowledge slowly expanded in her mind, filling her head with foreign, intrusive thoughts. The process was uncomfortable but not wholly unwelcome. She sat in wonder as her mind filtered through the gift of information until it clicked.

Charlotte abruptly snapped back to the present, armed with the knowledge of animus. The zombies were just beyond the door now, scrabbling over each other to get inside first. She hoped it would take a while for them to figure it out.

I must’ve been out for a while, she thought, getting to her feet. But it was worth it. I finally got a leg up against these freaks.

She imposed her will over her anima, ordering it to do as she ordered. She wanted it to make her stronger; so strong, the zombies wouldn’t stand a chance against her might. Her fiery energy heeded her demands, albeit reluctantly conforming itself to her wishes.

She gasped as the anima coursed through her body, firmly attaching and boosting her muscle density. Her dark skin stretched over her arms and legs as the muscles beneath it swelled. They kept growing until, finally, Charlotte desperately lashed out against her anima, wrestling it back under control.

Her grip on her power was tenuous at best but she kept a small and steady flow to power...whatever this form was. Whatever strength she had brought forth was unknown to her but she didn’t doubt for a second that this was her ace in the hole against the undead creatures.

As she bent down awkwardly to pick up her bat, not used to having muscly bulk over fat bulk, she wondered if she could use her anima to take on different forms. She quite liked the idea of an anima-charged super hot body; walking through whatever zombie-filled hellscape this was would be a lot more fun if she was a hundred pounds lighter, had curves that weren’t from excess fat, and eyebrows that didn’t make her look like Cookie Monster.

Could she look like a supermodel during the zombie apocalypse? She’d certainly be accepted into any surviving group of ‘paladins’ left on the planet. Who wouldn’t want a babe on their team as they fought against an unceasing tide of undead enemies? No, she’d sit out of the fight. They wouldn’t want her to turn if one of those unholy creatures got their fangs on her.

Charlotte stared in disgust at her infected arm wound, sensing the anima blockage keeping out the zombie virus. The wall was still strong even though the parasite splayed itself against every nook and cranny, looking for a way in.

No one would want her if they saw this. Heck, even if she didn’t have such an awful wound, they still wouldn’t want her.

Pursing her lips, Charlotte made figuring out how to make her anima give her a ‘beauty body’ her top priority. That is after she killed the zombies, of course, which were growling right outside the cabin door.

She hefted up her bat―it hardly weighed anything with her new muscles―and positioned herself in a batting stance a few feet to the right of the door.

Ready, she thought, though it wasn’t entirely true. She had to keep adjusting the grip on her bat due to her sweaty palms and she felt a little light-headed but there was no turning back now. She would have to do or die and dying-

The door flying off its hinges interrupted that train of thought.

Charlotte shrieked and swung her bat hard at the first thing that ran inside the cabin. It cracked against the charging zombie’s head, smashing its brains against the wall adjacent to the open doorway. The impact jarred her arms and she let go, wincing as her bones rattled painfully.

That left her open to the second zombie waiting for its chance to rush her. Charlotte planted her feet, tensing up as the zombie rammed its shoulder into her gut. The collision hurt but she stayed standing, grabbing both the zombie’s shoulder and neck before it could bite her and shoving its head away from her sides.

She heard an audible crack as its neck snapped but the zombie hadn’t yet died. Its arms wrapped around her waist, surprisingly long enough to reach around her fat, and squeezed. Groaning in pain, Charlotte tried to push the zombie away from her but its grip was too strong. So she did the next best thing and ripped the head off its shoulders.

Stomach gurgling at her gruesome display of brutality, Charlotte shoved the rest of the body off of her, still holding the head by its bent neck. The headless body spasmed for a few seconds but, luckily, it went still and did not get up again.

Thank God the brain makes everything else work, Charlotte thought with a sigh, dropping the head and crushing it with her boot. And thank God they weren’t stupid enough to charge in at once.

Then she promptly puked the bagels she’d eaten nearly an hour earlier and passed out.