“Hey!” Alexandra shouted. “Over here!”

“What are you doing?” Alistair practically shouted. His whole mode of operation so far was based on sneak attacks and stealth. Getting the first surprise blow seemed like a good idea to Alistair. Why not start your fights up a hit? Calling out the three orcs from a hundred feet away sounded idiotic to Alistair.

“We don’t need to ambush these guys, I promise. They’re really not that strong,” she said, stretching her arms. Then she dashed forward, the blunt edge of her knife pressed against her forearm.

Alistair was relieved to see that Alexandra was a decent bit slower than him if that was her full speed. There was no way her stats could all have been good if she dumped so much into Strength. After he started running, he quickly overtook her and reached the group of charging orcs first. They wore identical metal armor to the last duo, and Alistair wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

The sound of impact and the sickening crunch of bone had become routine to Alistair as he sent an orc tumbling to the ground. The sword of his partner hit only air as he leaped backward and ducked under the mace of the other pissed-off orc.

It was a marvel how easily his body moved with his commands, and with the grace of a gymnast, he delivered a front kick straight to the face of the sword wielder. Before he could react to the third enemy swinging his mace a second time, Alexandra stepped in.

She had run faster than any ordinary human to Alistair’s battle, but she still wasn’t quicker than him, and he guessed she might have been annoyed by him stealing her thunder. That didn’t last for long, as Alistair witnessed something that both confused and awed him.

He had seen the black tactical knife before when Alexandra tossed it around, with a blade no longer than seven or eight centimeters inches long. The dark edge she wielded now that was ostensibly the same weapon was at least a meter long. It looked exactly like the blade of the old tactical knife, except magnified dozens of times. Because it retained the ratio of dimensions of the knife, it was almost a foot thick and looked completely unwieldy, though Alexandra slashed the war-orc to ribbons with incredible ease.

In an instant, she swung her giant knife in a wide arc straight down the center of the orc. The black knife met the gnarly red of the beast and started cutting, not stopping until she was clean through the pelvis. The halves of the orc’s body collapsed, leaving the young woman who had just bisected a seven-foot-tall monster grinning with joy.

He didn’t have time to react to the scene he had just witnessed, and his two normal attacks weren’t strong enough to instantly kill the orcs. They both had bleeding faces and he had certainly broken some bones, but they weren’t out of the count just yet. Not wanting to be shown up by Alexandra, Alistair side-kicked the armored sword-wielder nearly into the forest. It wasn’t a blow intended to kill, but to transfer force, and he sent the larger orc at least fifteen feet in the direction of the woods, giving him time to focus on the orc in front of him.

The nasty brute was one of the biggest leader orcs Alistair had laid his eyes on, standing at least eight feet tall, its muscles barely contained by a bronze breastplate. There was something vicious about this one, Alistair thought, and he activated [Inspect].

Name: Throkk Bykrozz

Species: War-Orc (Partially Evolved)

Level: 15

Title: Heir of the Orc Prince

Alistair was surprised by two pieces of information given by his Skill. The first was Throkk’s level. He had never seen an orc at the level 15 marker so far, and he wondered if like a human, an orc would obtain a Class. If so, Alistair imagined that the orc would probably be much tougher than the other leader orcs. The second was the title section of [Inspect]. Alistair vaguely remembered the orc’s last name and tied it back to his memory of the [King Orc Hunt] Quest. Throkk appeared to be Kalgur’s son or possibly younger brother.

Even as he looked at Throkk, Alistair felt like he could see some similarities in appearance between the red creature in front of him and the golden lord in his visions. He had killed a bunch of their kind and never thought twice about it. Did the orcs have some sort of society? Why were they killing humans indiscriminately? Now that he thought deeper about the situation, it was somewhat weird that they were orcs at all, and not some random alien species. The English-speaking half-orc Alistair had killed before only added to the mystery.

Alistair stopped his stray thoughts as he nearly had his head split open by Throkk’s tree trunk-sized club. He needed to think about orc lore later and focus on orc killing now.

In his peripheral vision, Alexandra was engaging the orc he had kicked away, but Alistair let all the distractions of the world fade away and all that remained was him and his opponent. Every strike he delivered went exactly where he commanded. His reach was too short to hit his towering enemy without jumping, so that was exactly what he did.

A leaping jab to the face with his left hand was followed up with a midair kick as Alistair twisted his entire body to impart maximal force. Throkk staggered from the blow, dropping to a knee, but Alistair didn’t relent. He couldn’t, as this was his fighting style, at least without [Mana Punch]. He lacked Alexandra’s finishing prowess, so he would overwhelm the orc with quantity and speed.

The heir to the prince put a hand to the grass to steady himself, but nothing would stop the blur of fists and feet that was Alistair. His motions grew increasingly less graceful and more animalistic as if he was returning to his natural state, all occlusions of human civilization removed. He punched again and again and again. He punched so many times his fists started to ache and when he finally stopped, Throkk was beneath him. Or what was left of Throkk. The noble orc’s face was completely unrecognizable. If Alistair didn’t know better, he would have guessed it had been run over by a car.

Level up! You are now level 13. +4 free Attribute points.

Ignoring the notification for now, he wanted nothing more than to puke as he looked down at his hands. They were soaked in blood and covered in what he dearly hoped was not the brain matter of his dead victim.

“Jesus,” Alexandra remarked as she sheathed her once again small knife on her belt. “Remind me never to fight you. You’re one vicious bastard.”

Alistair regained some of his composure and quickly knelt to the ground, trying to use the grass to wipe off his hands. He couldn’t sympathize with the enemy, not now. If he wanted to see his friends and family again, he had to be harder. “I could say the same for you, what’s with that giant knife?”

“It’s my Skill. I can grow any weapon. It’s useful so I don’t have to lug around one of those big ass clubs or maces.” She pointed at the weapons of the dead orcs. “I guess I should answer your questions now.”

“Huh?”

“About how I can make a Contract? How about we squat in one of the houses down there,” she said, pointing at the neighborhood near the forest. “I think we could both use some food and a change of clothes. And we should probably swap stories.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Alistair replied. His shirtless torso was covered in blood and dirt, and the shirt covering his wound was caked dry and reeking. It was time for a change of clothing.

They were lucky in that the first house they broke into had a son and daughter, and that their clothes were a proper fit. Despite the broken showerhead and moldy ceiling, Alistair considered the shower he experienced in the Brady’s house to be the best shower he had ever taken. Sweat, blood, and dirt were scrubbed and washed away as he was reborn anew. Even the wound Kalak gave him was looking better. The way Health worked was inscrutable to him, but as his Health increased, his wound grew smaller and smaller. Or maybe it was vice versa, Alistair couldn’t tell.

After he finished the shower, he finally got around to the notification he ignored before. What to do with his new free stats. Unless he got some crazy new Badge giving him a ton of Agility, it was impossible to get to 50 before level 15, but seeing Alexandra's Badge increased his desire to min-max with stats. Before, he had a solid idea of a fast close-quarters combat fighter that used magic to enhance his strikes, but he wasn't sure about the opportunity cost of eschewing defensive stats like Constitution or Endurance. Those concerns were abated now, and Alistair happily put all four of his points into Agility, bumping it to 32.

Once he was done cleaning up and allocating stats, he quickly donned a blue t-shirt and pair of sweat shorts and met Alexandra in the home’s kitchen. Her curly hair was still wet and she was wearing black athletic shorts and a white shirt that was tight around her chest and exposed her midriff.

“Looks like she’s a bit smaller than me,” Alexandra said, not looking at Alistair.

“I wasn’t—“

“Lighten up a bit, Alistair. We have a lot to discuss. Oh, I see you’ve reached level 13, congratulations.”

Alistair smiled. “I’m surprised you aren’t a higher level than me, with your “Orc Slayer I” Badge. Or maybe I’m right on your tail.”

“I mostly killed the normal ones, not the war-orcs. They don’t give as much experience,” she said. “But onto the Contract part, right? Well, actually, I think I should explain what happened to me first.”

“I was with a group of my friends when we heard the voice. I’m from New York, by the way. We were hiding inside, thinking we were going to be blown up any second, and then in a flash, I’m in Boston, surrounded by a bunch of strangers, with a status screen listing out stats like some video game and a Quest telling me I need to kill a ‘sophont’. You can imagine how jarring that is.”

Alistair nodded. He had thought about what happened to Tommy and Nathan and Katelyn after they disappeared in a fracturing of reality. Everyone had it bad, but he thought those who had been displaced must have had it even worse.

“The people I was teleported to turned out to be pretty cool. Basically right away we were attacked by a bunch of weak orcs. I was the first person to kill one, with this beauty right here.” Alexandra flashed her once-massive knife. “They were scared, but after seeing me kill one, it made it easier. Our group killed most of the orcs a couple of miles east of here, in downtown Boston. Everything was fine until someone made it to level 15.”

“They got a Class?” Alistair questioned.

“It’s not just a Class,” Alexandra replied, shaking her head. “George, who was basically our leader, killed one of the golden orcs that are way tougher than the others. Once he got to level 15… he changed. He got a boost of stats and additional Skills. He said he got access to way more information, started talking about cultivation and said he could contact other people who had reached level 15 and had access to a shop. We wanted to ask him more, but that’s when he attacked us. Out of nowhere. He killed Linhai and Isabella and I just ran until I found myself in this region. I’m still not sure what happened to him. Will it happen to everyone when they reach level 15? Or was it something about George in particular? I don’t particularly want to find out, but if we don’t level up, we’re going to die eventually.”

“What do you mean?”

“You think this is it?” She laughed. “That was one thing George was very clear on. This is just the first in a series of Quests. We’re all pawns in the game of some bigger players. That’s why I’m going to be the strongest person on Earth. I’m not gonna be some slave of a fucking alien, you feel me?”

“That sounds good to me,” Alistair said. He liked that Alexandra was very blunt and direct, even though they’d just met. A person like that would never stab you in the back; if they had an issue with you, they’d confront you to your face, and in Alexandra’s case, possibly split him in half. “What about the Contract though?”

“Oh, that? It’s just one of my Skills. I was a first-year in law school before the apocalypse, and from my interaction with others, it seems like your Skills are suited to your personality and knowledge. Don’t know where my ‘grow weapons to massive sizes’ Skill comes from though.”

Alistair frowned. [Mana Punch] was a very useful Skill, but he wasn’t a professional fighter or anything, he had just taken a couple of kickboxing classes. “I thought I was more of an intellectual, but turns out the system thinks I’m some kind of bruiser.”

“I didn’t say it was a perfect match.” She shrugged. “You have [Inspect], right?”

“Yeah, I think everyone does.”

“That matches my experience as well. No matter what, everyone gets [Inspect]. Somehow it’s the most important Skill of all.”

“Information is power,” Alistair said. He supposed he believed the laconic phrase well enough, but after seeing an alien who looked like an adopted ancient Chinese philosopher kill billions, he was feeling more that power was power. The person who invented that phrase had never heard of a man that could survive a barrage of missiles.

“What’s your story, Alistair?” she asked. “I’ve been curious for some time now, with that Badge and all.”

Alistair recounted his past nine hours, starting from when the alien arrived on Earth. He found himself lost in a reverie as he spoke about Tommy and Nathan, and his girlfriend, all vanished. He recalled his decision to save Donna and Tamia from the gun-wielding level 8 man, the experience that granted him the “Good Samaritan” Badge. He told her about the half-orc that could speak and spoke of the Dao and Jules and Robert who were worried about a necromancer and the Regional Map that showed him the Prince of the Orcs. He was probably oversharing, but he didn’t care. It was nice to have someone to finally talk to.

Alexandra sat through his speech with full attention, not asking any questions and just taking in his story. After he was done, she sat silent for half a minute.

“I think I understand now, what George was talking about before he went completely crazy. He started talking about a ‘monster wave’ and how we were all going to die. The next Quest must be defeating a giant wave of orcs. And you’ve been given the chance to kill the leader of the monster wave before it even happens. The way George was talking about it, he implied there would be thousands upon thousands of orcs.” Alexandra had gotten up and started pacing around. “That must be where he went, to kill this prince orc.”

“I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to do that Quest,” Alistair admitted. “I was given a vision of Kalgur when I looked at his location on the map. There’s something about him that screams danger. We’re not even level 15 yet.”

“Not yet,” Alexandra said. “Once we clear out the orcs of the forest, we will be. We might even be higher leveled than George. You said there are two hours left in [The First Step]? Let’s kill all the orcs and General Krazz within the next two hours and then head back to your house. We still have over a day for the [King Orc Hunt], if I’m not mistaken, and we both need some sleep. I’m almost at being awake for 24 hours straight. After we take a nap, we’ll head out to kill the prince and find George, all in one fell swoop. What do you say?”

Alistair considered what she said. He wasn’t all too happy about the possibility of encountering a crazy level 15+ guy who had killed Alexandra’s previous allies randomly, but risks had to be taken to progress. And Alistair had promised to himself to keep trekking on, no matter what.

Alexandra looked at him with expectant eyes. They had just met, but for some reason he trusted her. In a world where might made right and all laws had broken down, he could use all the help he could get. He raised a hand. He already entered a Contract via her Skill, but that was impromptu and based on a split-second decision for some assistance.

She accepted his handshake. “Pleasure doing business with you, partner.”