From Weakest to Building a System That Made the World a Game

Chapter 7: Second Ambush

The squad moved cautiously. The silence that followed the first wave of ferals was unnatural, still reeling from what had just happened.

Breaths came ragged, sweat streaked with grime. For a moment, no one spoke — the bravado had been stripped away, replaced by the raw awareness that survival was only temporary.

Owen leaned against a wall, one hand on his thigh, chest heaving. "Not… bad," he muttered, voice rough. "For a warm-up."

Sera knelt beside him, rolling her eyes. "Warm-up? You nearly got yourself torn in half." She pressed a cloth to his wound, tying it off with practiced efficiency. "Try surviving first before bragging."

Owen hissed, pulling at her restraint. "Don't pinch my leg too tight," he groaned, shifting impatiently. "I'm fine, really—"

"You're not fine," Sera cut him off, voice calm but firm, her eyes narrowing. "And if you keep squirming, I'll make it tighter anyway."

Owen grunted, leaning back against the wall. "You know, one day, I'll get tired of your lectures."

"Only if you don't bleed to death first," she shot back, finishing the bandage and stepping back. Her movements were precise, practiced.

Daniel stood a few paces off, quietly observing. The way Sera patched Owen reminded him that some of these people could save lives, not just swing pipes or fire rifles. His gaze drifted to Maya, who adjusted her carbine with a meticulous calm that contrasted the chaos around them. Even when the air shimmered with the Zone's residual energy, her movements never faltered.

Kade stood a few paces away, rifle resting loosely in his hands, sweat dripping down his brow. He shot Tomas a sharp glare. "And you — don't fumble the drone next time. We almost lost our lives because of that."

Tomas swallowed hard, hands still shaking as he gripped the console. Daniel stepped between them. "Enough. It's over for now. Let focus on our next move."

The tension between the boy and the squad member eased slightly, though Kade's scowl lingered. Tomas's grip on the controller tightened, less frantic now, as he looked up at Daniel with a mix of fear and relief.

Meanwhile, the squad debated what had just attacked them.

"Ferals, what the hell are they?" Kade muttered, wiping blood from his forearm. "The zone… it twists them, make them faster, smarter. I swear I saw one calculate its jumps like it knew where we'd be."

"Aether storms corrupt living things." Hart's voice came over the comms, unamused. "That's all you need to know. Stop theorizing and focus on survival."

Daniel's eyes swept over the broken street and ruined buildings, catching the faint shimmer in the air like a mirage — Aether was alive. It was the way the Red Hallow pulsed that gave the clue away. It watched, listened, and shaped itself around their movements.

He noted the subtle distortions; dust suspended in still columns, shadows flickering where no source existed, the faint pulse of static through the air.

No one spoke of it. No one even seemed to register it. The world accepted the ruins, the storms, the twisted creatures, as chaos. But Daniel felt a pattern beneath it all. A structure. Rules. And if no one else could, or would see it… then maybe that was exactly the advantage he needed.

Daniel adjusted the strap of his pack, eyes tracing the shimmer lingering over a broken section of the wall.

"Thinking about… what's really going on here?" Maya asked, following his gaze. Her tone was measured, curious even.

Daniel didn't look at her. "Yeah. But Hart doesn't care about that. We need to secure the ruins first, then figure the rest out later."

Maya nodded, adjusting her grip on the rifle. "Right. Lead the way."

Without another word, he led the way deeper into the ruins. Maya stayed close, letting him set the pace. The rest of the squad followed reluctantly while Tomas's drone hummed overhead, its lights casting narrow beams across collapsed walls and shattered streets. Every creak of timber and shifting stone made them flinch.

Daniel's mind raced quietly, noting the patterns and distortions. For now though, he stayed focused on the mission.

The ruins ahead had somehow survived the storms that twisted the city around them. Ancient stone structures jutted skyward like forgotten monuments, and the air itself thrummed with the pulse of Aether.

As they neared a particularly collapsed building, dust wavered unnaturally, and the drone's light split into jittering streaks. Shadows crawled along walls, twisting and stretching where there was nothing to cast them.

Hart's voice crackled over the comms, sharp and no-nonsense. "Listen up. Your main goal is the beacon, bring it back online if you can. If not, secure the core and get it out. Keep an eye on the ruins as you move, mark anything that could help logistics later. Move fast, stay sharp, and… good luck. You're going to need it."

The first sign of the second ambush hit before they could respond. A section of collapsed masonry shifted violently. From the gaps and shadows, ferals leapt. Faster this time, more coordinated — they flowed across rooftops, darted through tunnels, and shifted through the debris like predators in a hunt.

Owen reacted immediately, planting himself at the choke point, swinging his pipe with crushing force, each strike buying precious seconds.

Maya yanked Tomas toward cover, dragging him back as another feral lunged at his exposed position. He cried out, nearly dropping the controller, and Daniel dove forward, intercepting the creature with a brutal strike that drove it into the wall.

Kade fired blindly over his shoulder, teeth clenched, sweat streaking his brow, trying to hold the swarm back, but the sheer volume of attackers pressed them back.

The team's formation broke as the attackers pressed in from every side. Owen held the entrance, covering their retreat with raw strength. Sera backed up, firing carefully into the emerging gaps, each shot precise and lethal. Tomas followed Maya's lead, still clinging to control of his drone, as it scanned the incoming threats.

Daniel moved fluidly, side-stepping falling debris and throwing rapid strikes at the ferals pressing close. His mind processed the chaos differently than anyone else's — mapping angles, anticipating leaps, predicting which attackers would strike next.

A heavy beam fell from above, cutting Daniel off from the others. The ferals growled behind him as he scrambled deeper into the ruins. Comms crackled, then went dead. Hart and the squad's voices were reduced to broken static.

For the first time since stepping into the Red Hollow, Daniel was truly alone.