The ghoul sailed through the air like a projectile of rotting flesh and razor-sharp claws.
Derek Vance survival instincts kicked in. He had honed them by avoiding violent street gangs in Sector 4.
He threw himself to the dirt. The ghoul claws whistled just inches above his scalp.
He hit the hard dry earth and rolled frantically to his feet.
The creature landed and immediately pivoted. It hissed with blind rage.
The other two ghouls were closing the distance fast. Their erratic jerky movements made them terrifyingly unpredictable.
The crimson timer in the corner of his vision read.
[02:40]
"Stay away!" Derek screamed.
He lashed out with a standard panicked punch at the lead ghoul as it lunged again.
He did not activate his talent. He just threw a wild desperate right hook.
His knuckles connected with the ghoul cheekbone. It felt like punching a solid block of concrete.
Derek yelled in pain and stumbled back. The creature did not even flinch.
The ghoul swiped its jagged claws across his chest. It tore through his cheap cotton shirt and left three shallow burning red lines across his skin.
Derek scrambled backward and clutched his bleeding chest. Normal strikes were useless!
His malnourished eighteen-year-old body could not even dent these things. He had no choice.
The system warning echoed in his mind but fear was a far more persuasive motivator.
He needed to use the Multiplier. But very carefully.
The lead ghoul charged again with its mouth wide open. Derek planted his feet and grit his teeth.
He focused on the volatile energy pooled in his mind and conceptualized a basic foundational punch.
'System, Activate Basic Strike. Multiplier: 10x!'
The shift was instantaneous and nauseating.
As Derek threw his right fist forward, an unnatural force hijacked his muscles.
His arm shot out with a speed that blurred his own vision.
The kinetic energy was amazing. His muscles contracted and fired with ten times the normal human limit.
CRACK!
His fist slammed into the ghoul jaw. The impact sounded like a gunshot.
The creature head whipped to the side. Its jaw cleanly dislocated as it was sent flying backward and tumbling into the dust.
Derek gasped and cradled his right arm. It burned!
His muscles felt like they had been stretched over hot coals and his shoulder throbbed with a deep dull ache.
Ten times the power meant his arm had absorbed ten times the standard recoil.
It hurt badly but his bones had not broken.
The timer ticked down.
[01:55]
The remaining two ghouls did not pause to mourn their companion. They flanked him and attacked from the left and right simultaneously.
Derek dodged the left one but the right one tackled him around the waist.
It took him to the ground. The stench of decay was overwhelming.
Rotten teeth snapped at his face and vile saliva dripped onto his cheek.
Derek jammed his left forearm under the ghoul chin. He desperately held it back as his muscles strained against its unnatural strength.
He could not hold it. The ghoul was pushing his arm down millimeter by millimeter.
He needed more power. Ten times was not going to get this thing off him quickly enough before the second one joined in.
He pushed the mental dial.
'Multiplier: 50x!'
With a roar of pure desperation, Derek brought his right fist up and hammered it directly into the center of the ghoul chest.
The result was explosive!
At fifty times the force of a normal punch, his fist bypassed its structural integrity entirely.
His fist caved the ghoul ribcage inward with a sickening crunch. The force sent a shockwave through the rotting flesh.
The creature chest cavity collapsed. Black blood sprayed out of its back as the sheer kinetic force blasted it completely off him.
It sent its broken body skidding twenty feet away.
But the physical cost was immediate and agonizing.
"AGGGH!" Derek screamed.
He rolled onto his side and clutched his right hand. The recoil had been catastrophic.
He felt the distinct horrifying sensation of his knuckles fracturing.
The bones in his hand shifted unnaturally. A blinding white-hot agony shot up his forearm.
His right hand rapidly swelled and turned a bruised violent shade of purple.
He had broken his own hand to kill the monster!
The system warning had been absolutely right. His physical vessel was too weak.
[00:45]
There was still one ghoul left. It was circling him now and wary of the explosive power that had just decimated its packmates.
Derek forced himself up onto his left knee. His right arm hung uselessly at his side and trembled from the shock of the broken bones.
He was sweating profusely and his vision swam with pain.
"Come on, you ugly bastard." Derek wheezed with spit flying from his lips.
The ghoul shrieked and charged.
Derek could not use his hands. Not unless he wanted to shatter his left arm too.
He had to use his legs. The femur and the muscles in the legs were the thickest and strongest in the human body.
They could handle more recoil. They had to.
The timer flashed in his peripheral vision.
[00:15]
The ghoul leapt and aimed to tackle him just as the previous one had.
Derek planted his left foot firmly into the dirt.
He poured every ounce of his concentration into the volatile energy in his mind.
He cranked the dial past his fear and past logic to a number that terrified him.
'Activate Basic Kick. Multiplier: 100x!'
He pivoted on his left foot and launched his right leg in a sweeping roundhouse kick.
The world seemed to lag for a fraction of a second.
The muscles in his right thigh and calf contracted with such extreme violence that he actually heard the fibers snap.
His leg tore through the air and broke the sound barrier with a sharp echoing CRACK.
His shin connected with the side of the leaping ghoul neck.
The impact was devastating. The ghoul head was cleanly severed from its shoulders and launched into the red sky.
The headless torso hit the ground and twitched uselessly as black blood fountained into the dust.
Derek collapsed instantly.
A guttural animalistic scream ripped from his throat.
The pain in his right leg was unlike anything he had ever experienced.
He had severely torn his hamstring. The muscle had literally shredded itself from the impossible velocity and force of the 100x multiplier.
He writhed on the dirt and clutched his leg. Tears streamed down his face and he was completely defenseless.
If another ghoul appeared right now, he was a dead man.
He could not stand. He could not punch. He was a broken bleeding mess.
He stared at the red timer hovering above him.
[00:03]
[00:02]
[00:01]
[00:00]
A loud crystalline chime rang out across the wasteland.
[Tutorial Mission Complete. Candidate Derek Vance has survived.]
The remaining headless ghoul corpse dissolved into particles of grey light and vanished into the wind.
Derek lay on his back and gasped. He stared up at the crimson sky as the system interface bloomed with a soothing blue light.
[Calculating Rewards...]
↳ Survival Rank: A
↳ Reward 1: Agility Boost Scroll F-Rank.
↳ Reward 2: Evolution Catalyst: Ghoul Marrow.
↳ Bonus Drop: Ghoul Fingernail.
Three items materialized in the air and dropped softly onto Derek chest.
He did not even care to look at them right now.
His hand was shattered, his leg was torn, and his body was in absolute shock.
[Initiating return transfer to Terra.]
The world around him dissolved into blackness once more.