With the help of Dare and his nanobots, clearing out the second floor became very easy. Dare would use his spider bots would scout ahead and make them ready for what they were going to be facing. In some cases, he would even help out when dealing with the nulls by forming melee weapons with his nanobots.
Another thing to note was the fact that Lucas and the other man, who went by Seth, had warmed up to them a little bit, even though Zayden was still very wary of Lucas. After all, he couldn't get rid of the subtle reminder from his memories that kept bugging him, but for now, things were ok.
With their increased size, they were able to take on larger groups of nulls, making their clearing of the floor faster, and by the end of the day, everyone was already in level three and had cleared out ninety percent of the second floor, leaving only the stairs remaining.
The only disappointing thing was the fact that apart from their group, they didn't find any more survivors. One thing of note was that some people had an upgrade in their weapons, with Seth and Lucas getting their skills.
From clearing out the floor, the number of cores they had gotten amounted to fifteen, with five of them being orange cores, while the remaining were all red cores. This was because of the fact that they were now either one or two levels higher than all the nulls that they came across.
At the moment, the group of six was at the edge of the hallway, with the stairs leading up to the second floor in their line of sight.
The only thing was that there was a null just at the foot of the stairs, walking back and forth aimlessly as if guarding the stairs. If it were just a normal null, they wouldn't have been this wary. This particular null was already level five, as shown by the system, and it was different from other nulls in more ways than one.
Its skin wasn't a dull gray color but was pitch black like it had been burnt alive, and some cracks snaked across its body, glowing a fierce red light. Its hair wasn't normal but was made out of flaming red embers that never seemed to run out, and these embers didn't seem to be hurting the null at all.
When looking at the name of the null, the team couldn't help but grow wary.
[Withered Ember Null Level 5]
"Are we going to fight that?" Dare asked, his voice quivering. "Of course, just think of the benefits we could get from defeating the gatekeeper," Tyrel said, but he wasn't focused on the null; all he could think about was the boss monster that should be on the roof of the dorm.
Zayne, of course, knew the null; he had seen multiple nulls like this in his memories of the future, but he knew how strong these nulls were at the beginning of the apocalypse, and one shouldn't forget that this was still apocalypse day one.
"I think that null learned a skill," Seth said, and everyone nodded their head, agreeing with what he said. "Well, we should get some rest," Zayden suddenly said. "Now that we've cleared out the floor, we shouldn't be afraid of the attacks from null.s."
"But just to be safe, let's all sleep in the same room, and be on the lookout in case a null appears," Zayden added. "We need all the energy we can get if we are going to fight that thing tomorrow."
Everyone agreed with him, and they chose a random room to spend the night. They decided to take turns guarding the room, changing every two hours. But it was safe to say that it wasn't needed, as none of them were able to sleep.
They were trying to come to terms with the fact that the world was not the same as it was anymore. Everything had changed, whether for better or worse was unknown at the moment.
****
The night went by quickly, and very early the next morning, everyone was awake. "We have a team of six people, four at level four and the remaining two at level three," Zayden began as everyone was seated in a circular pattern around them.
"Due to our skill sets, Dare will scout ahead with long-range attacks when needed, Tyrel will also help with long-range attacks, firing at will, whereas Darian and I will go close range. I'll be the main damage dealer with Darian backing me up," Zayden said as he looked at Seth and Lucas.
"You guys try your best not to die and help out with your skill sets." Zayden said, "Let's head out."
With that said, they all headed out of the room. With their weapons and armor equipped, they looked more like a strike force sent out by the government than college students. Tyrel had his pistol strapped to his waist with the submachine gun in his hands, a look of excitement on his face. Darian was still as indifferent as ever, Zayden had a serious expression, whereas Dare was nervous, but he was doing well to mask his nervousness.
Before long, they were in front of the withered ember null just a few meters out of its range of perception.
With help from Dare's nanobots, the team could see the null doing nothing but patrolling.
"Let's do this," Zayden said as he charged at the null, Darian and Lucas following closely behind him.
With his plasma blade in hand, he slashed horizontally at the neck of the null, hoping to decapitate it in one fell swoop if possible, but nothing in this life was ever so easy.
As if on instinct, the null raised his hand, blocking the neck, while the plasma blade cut into its arm, stopping just by the bones.
Slowly turning its head, the hollow eyes of the null landed on Zayden. At this point, Zayden could feel some sort of familiarity when looking at the face of the null.
Quickly searching through his memories, he remembered that this null was once his coursemate. He was a loner with little to no friends who liked smoking. Thinking up to this point, it was no wonder that he was able to become a fire null variant.
But that was all in the past. Just because he was able to remember the face of the previous owner of this body didn't mean that it was going to stop him from killing the null; after all, it was survival of the fittest. For him to survive, this null had to die.
With the gaze of the null on him, Zayden jumped back to put some space between himself and the null.
"Bang!!"
"Bang!!"
The sound of gunshots echoed in the air as two energy bullets were flying towards the null, golden lightning crackling around them.
The bullets were only a few inches away from the face of the null when what looked like a wall made entirely out of flame sprouted from the ground, easily blocking the attack of Tyrel.
Zayden wasn't surprised, but the same couldn't be said for the rest of the team. "How are we going to defeat it when its defenses are this high?" Seth suddenly asked, the panic evident on his face.
Zayden was about to say something when he suddenly ducked. Through the fire, a dark, pale hand coated in flames shot out, narrowly missing the head of Zayden, but the person behind him, Seth, wasn't so lucky.
The hand latched onto his neck, and almost immediately, Seth was aging at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Within a few seconds, he was already an old man.
"H..help...m..me" He managed to say in a hoarse voice, but it was too late for him as he turned to dust.