I snatched up the Mossberg I had propped next to the door and patted my cargo pocket to ensure I had shells, adjusted the velcro flap and swung the door open as my phone dinged in my pocket. I didn’t have time to consider the phone as my gaze swept to the apartment building in front of me and I grimaced.

The first thing to grab my attention was the sedan sized mountain lion crouched low and beginning to roar its lungs out exposing foot long incisors. Six inch claws extended from all four of its paws and blood matted the fur along its mouth and nose. It wasn’t hard to spot the source of its ire, the wailing siren of a little girl crying at maximum volume covered in blood and a hysterical mother trying to pull the girl back.

“DADDY! DADDY! GET UP!!!” She cried as I scanned the scene and found the body of whom I assumed to be her father. At least what was left of him. Only his upper half remained, laying face down in the doorway of their apartment, bisected at the waist, his intestines were spread through the entrance of the apartment and littered the dirt parking lot, steaming in the cool morning air.

The oversized cat moved before I could bring my shotgun up and tried to snatch the little girl from her mothers arms. Her mother was quick but not quick enough and the beast latched on to the girls legs with a sickening crunch. The mother and girl alike wailed in fear and pain.

As I lined up my sights I heard the sickening tear of flesh and crack of bones breaking as the cat shook its head in frustration. I froze in horror as the girl's legs tore free and the mother, still clutching her to her chest, fell over and smashed her head into the sidewalk. What remained of the little girl tumbled from her mothers arms as the woman fell unconscious. The lion swallowed it’s meal in one large gulp then turned to get more.

“OH FUCK!” I heard someone below me shout and the sound of a screen door slamming shut. The big cat’s head snapped to focus on the new noise and I snapped out of my stupor and pulled the trigger of the Mossberg.

*BOOM*

First round was buckshot, it caught the giant cat above the shoulder by the neck. It yowled in surprise and dropped it’s head then turned it’s piercing violent eyes in my direction. It hunched back preparing to leap in my direction. I activated STEADY SHOT and noted how my stamina began slowly draining, then fired my second shot.

*BOOM*

My second round was a 1 ounce slug. This time the cat knew it was coming and made an attempt to dodge. Unfortunately for the beast it was only about 10 meters away and the slug traveled the space between us faster than the eye could track. Even so it managed to shift its face out of the path of the slug and it impacted it hard in the same shoulder I had previously hit. The force of the impact caused the cat to roll in the dirt and then it hunched low and considered it’s next move. Now wary of me and my weapon it tried to pull back to safety. I didn’t give it a chance. With STEADY SHOT still active I stroked the trigger two more times.

*BOOM*

Buckshot peppered it’s face and it collapsed towards its injured shoulder, the top of it’s head now facing the barrel of my gun where the fourth round of the engagement was now leaving it.

*BOOM*

The round entered the top of it’s head and a splatter of blood and gore blew out the bottom of the cat’s head. I could see the entry wound from my spot on the second floor balcony and was certain it was dead. The notification that popped into my vision a moment later confirmed what I already knew.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED A LVL 6 MUTATED MOUNTAIN LION! YOU HAVE BEEN AWARDED 600 EXPERIENCE POINTS!

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE EARNED THE TITLE “FIRST BLOOD” FOR DEFEATING YOUR FIRST ENEMY WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNIVERSAL MANA SYSTEM.

“Congratulations Karl! We survived our first monster encounter!”

I didn’t respond as I surveyed the carnage. My neighbors stepped out onto the patio next to me. One was about 5’ 10” a little pudgy with blonde hair, the other was about an inch shorter with glasses and a dark receding hairline. Glasses saw the big cats victims and turned and puked over the opposite edge of the balcony, blondy paled but kept his breakfast down, then glanced at me and nodded, too stunned to say anything.

More people were starting to mill around the grizzly scene and the downstairs neighbor who was an EMT ran across the parking lot to the woman and her child. He checked the child and shook his head confirming what I already knew to be true. Then he attempted to render aid to her mother. “She’s in shock.” I heard him mumble.

“Ma’am?” He spoke louder now trying to get her attention. I suspected she was done for mentally and getting her to move would take an act of god. She was just as dead as her family was.

I began to analyze the scene more closely. There’s only one beast. Other places were hit with multiple monsters… so… FUCK!

“I think more are coming!” I called out to the EMT. He looked back and a brief moment of panic lit his face but he didn’t leave the woman’s side.

I dashed through my apartment while reloading my shotgun, entered my kitchen and pulled the shades from the window so I could get a look at the I-40 that cut through the edge of Winslow heading East and West. The view from here was pure chaos. The giant lizard was still there smashing trucks and cars and eating anyone it could flick its tongue at. Blood, oil and gasoline were flowing off the highway in equal amounts and bodies of the dead and maimed littered the roadside.

Near the college my system enhanced perception alerted me to movement and when I focused I saw that three more of the large feline assholes were headed our way. I needed to see if I could get some more fighters and let that EMT know to get hidden.KEEN OBSERVATION Churned in the back of my brain assisting with calculating how long I had before the new trio of asshole mountain lions became my problem. 2 minutes was the number that flashed in my mind. I can work with that.

I grabbed the rest of my gear, to include the duty belt with pistol and hatchet I had taken off while I was sitting at my computer early. I slung my AK and rested the shotgun outside the door of my balcony as I turned to speak to my neighbors. They looked at me in wonder as to them it probably seemed like I was producing an armory of artillery from nowhere. I smiled then looked at where the EMT was still working on the woman who had just lost her entire family.

“YO! EMT DUDE! YOU GOT TWO MINUTES!” I yelled loud enough for him and the rest of the residents of the apartment complex to hear my announcement “THREE MORE OF THOSE MEAN FUCKS ARE HEADED OUR WAY! IF YOU GOT WEAPONS ARM YOURSELVES! IF NOT STAY THE FUCK INSIDE!!”

I turned to my neighbors “Tell me you geeky fucks have chosen a class.”

Blondy startled at my sudden attention to him and his roommate “Uh, yeah, yeah, I chose something called Guardian, don’t have a weapon though.”

“Uh… yeah… I chose Pyromancer, I can throw fire bolts and shit like that” Glasses muttered a bit less confidently.

I reached to my left hip and unfastened my Hatchet and handed it over to Blondy “Will this work? If so I expect it back once we’ve secured this area.”

He took it gingerly then gave it a few test swings and nodded approvingly, “Yeah… ok man, this’ll work.”

Veep, assign any free points I gain to agility. I thought directly to my assistant. I had already earned a level from the previous encounter and couldn’t remember when I’d get more attribute points at the moment. Mind was on more important shit, like, not dying.

“Sure thing boss!”

With two more fighters to draw the attention of the approaching big cats, I turned my attention back to the young EMT frantically working on his patient. He still hadn’t gotten her to move and time was a ticking.

“DUDE, GET HER TO COVER RIGHT NOW!”

“I CAN’T MOVE HER, SHE’LL DIE FROM SHOCK!”

“You ain’t got time to save her.”

He scowled back over his shoulder at me, then looked back at the woman not willing to give up on her.

“Make your choice, you or her. I can’t guarantee I can cover you against three of those things.”

“DANIEL! Get back in here, you can’t help her. Think about Ally and Mike.”

Daniel the EMT looked back pleadingly at his hot young hispanic wife with a pained expression on his face. Then he ran back to his wife and kids and went back to hiding in his apartment. Part of me considered whether or not I would be able to pull a Shane if he died out there. My lecherous thoughts were interrupted by a squeal from Glasses and the sound of a firebolt striking one of the large cats that had just prowled around the corner of the building. I couldn’t see it from my angle but I heard it hiss as it was struck and a fist pump from glasses as confirmation his attack landed. Blondy had already scrambled down the stairs to reach the ground level where he would be fighting directly as needed.

At that moment I felt goosebumps raise across my body and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My eyes went wide when I heard the scrape of roof tiles and I spun in time to see another oversized mountain lion crest the peak of the roof and lock eyes on me. I fell backwards with my rifle still slung behind me, with the shotgun out of reach I did the only thing I could and drew my pistol.

I aimed at the beasts face just as it crouched low to pounce and muttered “MAG DUMP”

As the skill activated my fingers seemed to work on auto pilot. Every trigger squeeze was perfect, efficient, and quick. At less than a meter from the giant mountain lion I didn’t even need to aim, just shoot.

The first three rounds caught the beast by surprise and startled it out of it’s intended pounce. It opened its mouth to roar at me and caught another three in its neck and jaw. This wasn’t California though and I had 18 rounds in the pistol. Every second three rounds left the barrel of my pistol and every second more dark red furrows sprouted across the animals neck and face. Though none fully penetrated its thick mana mutated skin.

Six seconds later I heard the faint click of the pistol slide locking open. The mountain lion was covered bleeding and stunned, head hanging low in front of me, but not dead. I rolled to my side and unslung my rifle and took aim. I faintly heard the sound of glass and wood snapping and shattering behind me but was too focused on my opponent.

I activated STEADY SHOT, then “SELECTIVE AMMO, PENETRATING” and stroked the trigger. Instantly the round entered the beasts skull and, at the angle it was presented, traveled out it’s spine about midway down it’s back. The beast slumped sideways and then rolled off the roof and landed at my feet with a solid thump.I turned to find Glasses still slinging fire at a badly charred and pissed off mountain lion the size of a Yaris and no sign of Blondy. I tried to inquire about their fight and if they had seen the third monster but all I heard was ringing. Fucking forgot the ear pro.

I was wondering where Blondy had gotten off too when I saw him circling the monster mountain lion on the opposite side of where Glasses was trying to barbecue it. He jumped in with my hatchet held high and sunk the blade into its shoulder. The mountain lion screamed and swatted a paw at Blondy that sent him tumbling a meter away with several gashes in his shoulder. He managed to maintain his grip on the hatchet then yelled something to Glasses that only sounded like muffled ringing to my ears.

On the balcony next to me Glasses started charging up what seemed to be a larger fire bolt and then released it towards the mountain lion. This fire bolt seemed to move at almost twice the speed of the previous ones. It struck the mountain lion in the upper shoulder and sent it tumbling sideways. Blondy was there to seize on the moment and drove my hatchet into its neck. It swung the top of its head around and knocked Blondy back then its neck opened up and crimson blood began flowing like a fountain. It blinked its eyes slowly, stumbled, then fell back to the ground and began to bleed out in the small field at the end of the apartment buildings.

Now where did that last one get to?

I turned slowly surveying the area for the, hopefully, final opponent. Blondy and Glasses were occupied with something below us in the EMT’s apartment. I looked to where the shocked woman was last laying and wasn’t surprised to find a blood trail leading around the front end of the opposite apartment building. The truck that normally was parked there was now standing on its nose leaning against the building with the undercarriage facing me. I looked to the end of my building and saw the trucks that normally parked there shoved out of place with broken windows and dented paneling.

Suddenly the ringing in my ears stopped and I could hear Glasses trying to get my attention.

“Hey man, it got Daniel and his wife!”

I looked at him slightly confused “Who?”

“Uh… the EMT guy, Daniel, and his wife, Isabella.”

I mulled that over for a moment then headed back into my apartment and out the front door and down the stairs to see for myself. As I exited the stairwell I instantly saw where the crashing noises I heard had come from. The north wall of the apartment was demolished where the bedroom would have been. I peered into the dark bedroom and determined this was where the EMT and his wife slept. The bed was shredded and the dresser and far wall were also smashed to smithereens. Blood covered the walls and there was no sound from inside.

I looked at Blondy and he looked back at me. Blood had stopped flowing from the wound on his arm and it actually looked like it was healing quickly.

“What’s your name?”

Blondy looked at me quizzically, “Dave. Yours?”

“Karl, good to put a name to a face. I’m gonna follow the blood trail, you think you can check inside for the kids?”

He blanched momentarily then steeled himself “Yeah… yeah I can do that.”