The ground floor fire door was heavy steel, designed to contain fires, but it barely contained the sound of the slaughter happening on the other side.
Kael rested his hand on the cold knob. His heart was still pounding hard, but thanks to [Neural Synapse Enhancement I], his mind wasn't clouded by panic. Instead, it processed the acoustic information with terrifying clarity.
He could distinguish at least five different sources of wet snarls in the lobby. He heard the sound of broken glass crunching under heavy feet. And, above all, a rhythmic, dull noise: Thump... thump... thump. Like someone bashing a large piece of meat against a wall.
"The lobby is the only viable exit," Kael thought, visualizing the building's layout. The lower-floor windows had security bars. The back door to the trash room was usually double-locked. It had to be the front door.
There was no room for stealth. The moment he opened that door, the metallic sound would alert everything with ears in the lobby.
"Speed and violence," he told himself, gripping the hammer handle until his knuckles ached. It was his new mantra.
Kael threw the door open and stepped out into the lobby.
The scene was hellish. The elegant marble floor tiles were slick with crimson and black sludge. Mailboxes had been ripped from the wall, scattering useless correspondence over the corpses of residents who didn't make it out in time.
Three "basic" Vectors—similar to Mrs. Petrova, pale and frenzied—were crouched over a body near the elevators. At the sound of the door, their heads snapped up in unison, violet eyes glowing in the gloom.
But they weren't the problem.
The problem was near the shattered main glass door.
It was the building's night security guard. Or what was left of him. The man had always been big, an ex-powerlifter on steroids, but the Mana had taken that muscle mass and twisted it.
The "Guardian Vector" now stood nearly two and a half meters tall. His navy blue uniform was in tatters, stretched over a torso that looked carved from grey granite. His most terrifying feature, however, wasn't his size, but his skin.
It wasn't the pale, sickly skin of the others. The Guardian's epidermis was covered in thick, cracked calloused plates, like the hide of a diseased rhinoceros. Small bony protrusions were starting to sprout on his shoulders and knuckles.
"[Harden Epidermis] and [Reinforce Muscle Tissue]..." Kael analyzed coldly. That creature had had the same idea as him. It had been eating well.
The Guardian dropped the human torso he was beating against the wall and slowly turned toward Kael. His face was an expressionless mask of blind fury, nose flattened and teeth exposed in a permanent grimace.
He roared. A deep sound that rattled the remaining windows.
The three smaller Vectors took that as an attack signal and launched themselves at Kael, running on all fours like rabid dogs.
Kael didn't move. He waited.
Thanks to his enhanced synapses, the world seemed to slow down by 10%. He saw the trajectory of the first Vector, a teenager in a soccer jersey. He was coming too fast, without control.
Kael took a precise, almost lazy sidestep. The teenager shot past, unable to brake his momentum. As he passed, Kael swung the hammer with his enhanced strength.
CRACK.
The blow connected with the base of the kid's skull. The sound was sickening. The Vector smashed into the wall and didn't move again.
The other two were on him. Kael used the momentum of the hammer swing to spin on his heel. He raised his left arm, protected by magazines and duct tape, to block a bite. He felt the pressure of the creature's jaw, but the teeth didn't reach his skin.
Simultaneously, he drove the chef's knife into the second attacker's eye. The blade went in to the handle. Kael twisted it and ripped it out with a brutal yank, releasing a jet of black blood.
He kicked the Vector biting his arm, launching it a meter backward, and finished off the one with the missing eye with a downward hammer blow.
Three kills in less than ten seconds. He felt powerful. He felt fast.
Then, a gigantic shadow fell over him.
The Guardian hadn't been wasting time. He had charged while Kael dispatched the minions. Kael looked up just in time to see a fist the size of a melon, covered in bony plates, descending toward his head.
His brain screamed DODGE!, but his body wasn't in the right position. He only had time to raise the hammer in pathetic defense.
The impact was devastating.
The Guardian's fist hit the hammer, driving it against Kael's chest with the force of a wrecking ball.
Kael went flying. He sailed through the air and crashed back-first against the wooden reception desk. The furniture cracked and splintered under the impact.
The world spun. Kael fell to the floor, gasping for air. Pain exploded in his chest, but...
There was no sharp snap of broken ribs. His breathing was painful, but not wheezing.
[Reinforced Bone Density I: Structural damage mitigated.]
"It works..." Kael spat blood (red, his own) and forced himself to stand. If he hadn't spent those 8 points on his bones, that blow would have turned his ribcage into splinters.
The Guardian was approaching again, stomping heavily, confident in his victory. He wasn't fast, but he was an unstoppable tank.
Kael knew he couldn't win a direct exchange of blows. His hammer would bounce off that armored skin, and his knife would likely break if he tried to stab the chest.
He needed to be smarter. He needed to be a predator, not a street fighter.
His enhanced eyes scanned the giant as he approached. The calloused skin covered the chest, arms, and back. But...
"The joints," Kael whispered.
The back of the knees. The inside of the elbows. The neck right under the jaw. The skin there was still grey and taut, but not armored. They needed flexibility to move.
The Guardian threw another massive punch. This time, Kael was ready. His brain processed the start of the giant's shoulder movement.
Kael ducked under the blow, feeling the wind of the fist pass over his head.
Instead of trying to hit the body, Kael directed all his enhanced strength to a specific point. He swung the claw hammer horizontally, claw side forward, aiming directly at the back of the giant's right knee.
SHLUNK!
The metal claw sank into tendons and softer flesh behind the joint. Kael pulled back with all his might, tearing.
The Guardian roared, not in fury, but in genuine pain. His right leg gave way under his massive weight, and he fell onto one knee.
It was the opportunity. The giant's head was now at Kael's height.
The monster tried to grab Kael with his huge hands, but Kael was faster now. He moved to the Guardian's blind side, dodging the clumsy arms.
Kael dropped the hammer. He needed surgical precision. He gripped the chef's knife with both hands, reversing the grip so the blade pointed downward.
He jumped onto the kneeling giant's back, wrapping his legs around the armored torso like a tick. The Guardian bucked violently, trying to shake him off, slamming Kael against a nearby pillar.
Kael gritted his teeth, enduring the impact thanks to his reinforced bones. He didn't let go.
He located his target: the soft spot under the jaw, right above where the neck's calloused plates began. The direct route to the brainstem.
"Lights out, big guy."
Kael drove the knife down with all the force of gravity and his enhanced musculature. The blade punched through tough flesh, severed the trachea, and kept rising until it met bony resistance. Kael pushed harder, twisting the blade.
The Guardian's massive body went rigid. A violent spasm shook Kael, and then, the giant collapsed forward, falling face-first onto the slippery marble floor, with Kael still clinging to his back.
Silence returned to the lobby, heavy and suffocating.
Kael climbed off the corpse, shaking from effort and adrenaline withdrawal. His chest ached terribly where the first blow had impacted, and he was covered in blood of three different colors.
Then, the reward came.
The Guardian's black blood, thicker and oilier than the others, began to move toward him. It was a tide of energy.
[You have eliminated an Evolved Vector (Variant: Juggernaut - Stage 1).]
[High-level threat elimination confirmed.]
[Biomass Harvest will be significant. Prepare yourself.]
Kael fell to his knees as the energy flooded his system. It was too much. He felt like his veins were going to burst.
[Biomass acquired: 25 units.]
[Total Available Biomass: 25]
Kael stared at the number, stunned. Twenty-five points from a single kill. He could feel the potential bubbling under his skin, demanding to be used.
But a sound from outside brought him back to reality. A multiple howl, distant but approaching. The noise of the fight in the lobby had attracted attention.
Kael stood up with difficulty. He retrieved his hammer from the floor. He looked at the shattered glass door leading to the street.
Beyond the broken glass, the city burned under the violet sky.
The tutorial was over. The real open world was out there. And Kael had just secured the funding for his first major upgrade.