While the crystalline growth found within so-called Mana Beasts induces various physiological changes, these alterations are constrained by and directly correlated to the purity of the mana contained within the crystal. Importantly, this transformation is distinct from the process of forced, uncontrolled awakening observed in humans. Unlike Mana Abominations, which exhibit extreme and unnatural mutations, Beastified creatures remain within their species' natural physiological limits. This inherent constraint serves as the key distinguishing factor between Mana Beasts and Mana Abominations.

  Notably, the process of Beastification does not appear to influence the cognition or behaviour of affected animals. They continue to exhibit the same behavioural patterns as their non-Beastified counterparts in identical situations. Herd-based or social animals, for instance, continue to accept, interact with, and even mate with their Beastified brethren without exhibiting signs of rejection or altered group dynamics. The only observed exception occurs during periods of elevated mana density in the surrounding environment, which has been shown to have an agitating effect on Beastified creatures, often leading to heightened aggression or erratic behaviour.

  — Extract from a lecture by Dr Elliot Barnes, Doctor of Applied Mana and System Theory, delivered in September 2042..

  Chapter Six

  Day of awakening – 00:50

  Making it across the street and down a different alley, heading in the general direction, the screaming was becoming louder and more desperate along with the sound of something being smashed. Not looking back, I shouted to the others.

  “Hey Shannon,” I could swear I heard a groan from behind me, but I ignored it and pushed on. “You okay to run burst?”

  “Burst?- Oh yeah, yeah that’s fine.” Initial confusion gave way to determination in the kids voice.

  “Okay good, wait for me to lock it down and then go. Hey errr…” I looked back quickly at the other guy, “sorry I didn’t get your name?”

  “Stevenson” the response short and terse.

  “Okay Stevenson, I need you to pull aggro, you okay with that?”

  “Aggrow?” confusion and a small amount of annoyance clear in his voice from the unknown gamer term.

  “Distract it and try and keep it attention on you, but don’t fully engage it in a fight, just harass it and turn and get it to turn it back to me and Shannon.”

  “You going to try and kill it?” his voice now harsh and aggressive, “They people, you can’t just-“

  “Look we don’t have time for this, if you not going to help just stay out of the way.”

  Turning the corner, I didn’t even hesitate, box section out, I lowered my body and charged.

  A giant man-bat like creature had smashed open, the passenger side window of a small hatchback and had reached one long clawed arm and was taking swipes at the back seats where two girls had pressed themselves into the corner away from it screaming in terror.

  The cut off end of the box section slammed straight into the side of the creature’s torso and clean out the other side causing it to screech and pull back it arm out for eh car to try and get at me, but by holding onto the box section I was able to keep my distance and somewhat control its movement and then the kid came in, slamming his knife into its back over and over again driven by panic and adrenaline.

  The man-bat monster tried to spin around and grab him, but threw my entire weight behind the box section keeping it pinned against the car and preventing it from turning to face the kid.

  Really? minor contributor again, if it wasn’t for me he would have never of gotten the kill. God Damn it.

  The man-bat monster had eventually spasmed and slumped forward onto the car door after quiet a few stabs from the kid, far more than I would have liked, guessing that the ribs were protecting anything vital from the wide kitchen knife from reaching.

  Going to need to think about that, the kid really needs to hit something vital on the first strike or this will take too long.

  I leaned up against the side of the car, glancing inside, I remembered the two girls’ existence and swearing to myself, worked to pull the man-bat monster away from the car.

  “Fuck, sorry, are you girls okay?”

  I leaned in through the car window to get a better look at them to see if they were okay and not injured in anyway. The two girls, most likely in their late teens or early twenties and dressed up in the kind of short tight dresses that somehow women managed to wear clubbing even this close to winter. Streams of tears running down their face, making their makeup run, clearing stuck between terror and shock.

  “Hey Hey, it’s fine now, we killed it, you’re safe now, come let get you out of there and somewhere safe.” I tried to make my voice as soft and reassuring as I could, as I pulled the chair forward to let the girls out, one of the girls sudden cried out, her voice broken with fearful sobs.

  “What about John!?.... did you find john!?... You need to save him… another one of those-“

  Shit

  I yanked myself out of the car, not listening to the rest of what she was saying, just in time to see another creature come barrelling down the street on all fours, its face distorted into something resembling an owl, but still with teeth, taloned hands digging into the ground.

  I grabbed at the box section trying to pull it free of the man-bat corpse at my feet, knowing that I needed to try and get in front of the owl monster’s charge and try and impale it like I had the blob monster. Trapping and ambushing had worked well so far, but skilled warriors we were not, and it would slaughter us in a standup fight. No if I was unable to lock down its movements, we were going to have to flee and abandon the girls to their fate.

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  But yanking my makeshift spear free I saw that I was already too late, it was upon us with no time to get into position and just as I was about to shout to run, Stevenson stepped in front of the monster and in same fluid movement bashed his cricket bat into the owl monsters head, knocking it to the side before side stepping out of it way.

  What then followed was one of the most amazing scene of my life, Sanderson somehow managed to stand his ground against the owl monster, using his cricket bat to quite literally bat way each of the monsters blows, deflecting or redirecting them as he bobbed and weaved in a way that looked effortless and almost slow, never stepping back, never giving ground but gradually turning the creature until I realised that he was repositioning it so that I had an opening.

  Quickly moving up the creature, and not have the space to get a good run up to build momentum, I thrust my make shift spear into the creatures side, piercing just below it ribs and going deep into it stomach, but not passing all the way though, then once again using the box section as leverage I was able to twist the creature around until I was facing the car and then shoved forward, pushing the screeching monster off balance until it was pinned up against the car, its trashing and clawing causing the girls inside to once again start screaming in fear.

  Despite having it pinned, holding it in place against the car was quickly exhausting me, the combined need to keep pressed forward into place, while also straining to stop it from slipping sidesways was almost over whelming, be Sanderson appear and grabbed onto it helping to hold it in place as simultaneously the kid appeared and began once again, manically stabbing at its back.

  Suddenly exhausted, I collapsed to a crouch and rested my back to the car trying to catch my breath as the adrenaline and panic from being the one almost ambushed this time fled. I looked up at Sanderson, the man just looking around not even out of breath.

  “Thanks for that, we most likely would have had to abandon the girls and run if you hadn’t stepped in.”

  He nodded noncommittally down at me before the kid pipped in.

  “Yeah, you were fucking awesome, I’ve never seen someone fight like that, it was like watching a lightsabre duel or something, where did you learn to fight like that, are you some marital arts blackbelt or something?”

  “Just something I picked up from my time in the navy”

  The kid’s eyes seemed to go wide and light up at that.

  “What like in the Seals!?”

  “Ha, god no!, I was just an engineer, I mostly just went around slapping grease on stuff and fixing anything the officers broke.”

  A slight smile crossed his face as some of the tension he must have been carrying left him and his body started to relax.

  “Also, the Seal are from the U.S.A” I said, pulling myself to my feet, “it the S.A.S in the UK”

  “Actually, it’s the S.B.S for the Royal Navy, S.A.S is the army” Sanderson added going round to check on the girls.

  “Are you two okay? Do you live near here, can we get you somewhere safe?”

  Both girls shock the heads

  “We live on the other side of town, but we need to find John, that creature was chasing him, he might be injured. We need to-”

  “Wait stop,” I interrupted, “do either of you to have any medical training, are you nurses or trainee doctors maybe?”

  They shock their heads again “no but,”

  “But nothing, it’s insane out here at the moment with more of these creatures roaming around” I could already here other disturbances not far off and knew we needed to get moving. “Look do you know whose house this is?” I pointed to the house the car was parked outside off, the door wide open.

  “it’s Ryan’s”

  “Who’s Ryan?”

  One of the girls pointed at the body of the man-bat monster and while the other one burst back into tears.

  “Shit right, look just… just go and lock yourselves inside, we will go look for John and we will let him know where you are if we find him okay.”

  The girls just looked at me, still clearing in shock and I ended up gently but firmly leading them into the house and then dragging them up the stairs after they saw the bodies of who I guessed were Ryan’s parents in the kitchen. Depositing them in the master bedroom I turned to leave, but of the girls lunged out grabbing my hand.

  “Please don’t leave!” desperate panic filled her voice.

  Gently I peeled her fingers off my hand.

  “I need to go, there maybe others who need my help.”

  “Please we do anything, just don’t-“

  “Look, you’ll be fine,” I interrupted, “Just hid in here and wait for morning, okay, just don’t go outside, as long as nothing sees you will be fine. If I can, I’ll swing back around and check on you. Just stay up here and hid.”

  I left the room quickly and shutting the door behind me, leaving them just standing there lost and afraid.

  Heading out of the house I saw Sanderson staring down at the man-bat monster who was apparently once a guy called Ryan, a mixed expression on his face.

  Right, I need to get on top of this now, or it will just slow us down

  The fight with the owl monster had shown that we needed Sanderson if we wanted to stay safe, or more importantly increase our farming rate and efficiency.

  “Look Sanderson,” Getting his attention, “while I’m not going to promise anything, if we get an opportunity to trap or contain one of these creatures, by trapping them in a big freezer or a shipping container or something and there is a low risk to us, then I am happy to give it a go. But let me make this clear, first, we will prioritise saving people over any monsters even if they were once human and second, if and when we come across any monsters, we will either trap them if we can of kill them. I’m not willing to just leave a monster roaming around even if it is not attacking anyone at the moment just so that it can ambush and attack someone once we leave, Am I understood? Oh, also when I say trapped, I mean securely contained, not just locked in a shed.”

  He frowned at me clearly not happy with me, whether it was from what I said or just the fact that I was talking down to him when I clearly a lot younger than he was, but seemed to let it go and letting out a long sign.

  “Look I get it, I’m just not happy about it, we are talking about killing people here-“

  “Well, the world might be ending,” I cut in, “And if the power doesn’t comeback on, then murdering each other might soon become the normal soon just to survive.”

  “What do you mean?” the kid worriedly asks from my side as I cleaned off my makeshift spear. “I don’t know if I can kill real people? I mean-”

  “I mean” interrupting him this time, a little more short than I meant, “Ignoring both nuclear and biological containment which both rely on a stead stream of power,” Sanderson face when white at this, “The UK doesn’t produce enough food to feed itself as it is, we import around 40% and with the fridges and freezer not working, everything fresh will go off in the next to weeks, and the supermarkets and warehouses would be emptied of dried or tinned goods and by Christmas there will be mass starvation, not even to mention water sanitation, do you know how to get clean water? I sure as hell don’t, also it going to be winter soon so people will also be freezing to death, oh and to top it all off, because of how much we have abused and over farmed our arable land and our reliance on fertilizer and pesticides, good luck growing anything in any real quantity come spring.”

  Both the kid and Sanderson were staring at me, looks of horror plastered over their faces.

  Fuck, this isn’t helping anything.

  The kid looked like he was about to say something, so I quickly cut him off.

  “Look, there is no point worrying about it now, there is nothing we can do about it, unless you want to go start looting supermarkets for rice and loo roll. No let’s do what we can and save as many people as possible while we can and leave tomorrows problems for tomorrow, who knows this might all be a temporary thing and the power comes back on. Anyway, we have far more important thing to focus on first, like not becoming under levelled.”

  I end what I was saying to a pointed look at the kid, who nodded back understanding, if not happy.

  “Under levelled?” Sanderson asked worry still plain in his voice.

  “Don’t worry about it, we can discuss later, it isn’t important right now, let just focus on saving people,”

  Not allowing the convocation to continue, I headed off at a jog in the direction the owl monster had come from, passing body on the corner of the street of a well-dressed young man ready for a night out with what looked like his chest torn open, and I headed off towards the sounds of the next disturbance, ready to get some really farming underway.