A Reborn: Apocalypse fanfiction

23. I Guess I'm Bulletproof?

Once Kevin got on the bridge he felt a sense of safety he hadn't felt since his encounter with the two odd morankai. The central cluster was so much more dangerous than he thought it would be, but also much more profitable. The wildly increased size made finding golden morankai a lot simpler. If he hadn't felt hunted in the end there, he probably could have killed two more without really even going out of his way. He also felt another couple black orbs between the center of the city and the bridge. Even if Kevin hadn't felt in danger, he had been unwilling to delay himself anymore, so he had elected to just keep moving.

The feeling of being hunted passed once he got to the ship bridge, but Kevin was well and truly spent. There was no way he didn't have to sleep the sleep of the dead tonight, a nap wasn't going to cut it. Kevin should have had several hours before it was time to sleep, but everything finally caught up with him. The injuries, the healing, the running, the soul deep exhaustion. Despite several hours until sun down, Kevin found a cabin, only a few ships deep onto the bridge and collapsed still practically in spitting distance of the city. He splurged from the shop to take a mid-tier recovery pill and a calming aura pill. He pulled another mid-tier healing pill.

Kevin woke up the next day feeling much better, his soul still felt strained, which wasn't a good thing. He took yet another calming aura pill, not a great sign for an addition of his bridge expedition rations. Kevin was glad that he probably wouldn't have to fight too hard today. He didn't have a group of people behind him to clear the bridge for, he didn't need to do anything at all except run. Despite his soul feeling strained, Kevin used his Cloud Step shoes, though sparingly, to avoid morankia or to make the transition between bridges easier.

He wondered how Kev was managing without the Cloud Step shoes. Hopefully he was doing just fine. They were really useful on transitioning between ships on the bridge, to say nothing of avoiding some of the morankai. Kevin had given Kev some good stuff, he was going to miss that Ice axe, it was so handy. The dane axe was a favorite too, but Kevin couldn't give Kev crap and then send him on to their mother. Kevin did have to kill morankai, even some abnormals. Fortunately there were no packs and the abnormals were relatively easy to handle. All the same Kevin was feeling the repeated abuse of his soul.

Kevin had been up and running before the sun rose, by the time evening finally arrived, Kevin felt like he could collapse again. He cleared the ship he was on as the sun finished setting, found himself a room and laid down to rest, annoyed that a full nights rest was, yet again, unavoidable. Kevin sighed, he lamented his lost tower shield. Aside from the points lost - Kevin also lost the security of a giant shield he could literally sleep partially under, a literal security blanket. Kevin had a huge meal with lots of water, his second to last recovery potion and a low-tier healing pill and another cleansing aura pill. He settled down to meditate and fell asleep before he even had a chance to really center his breathing.

The next day, Kevin woke up with the sun. He ate a carb heavy breakfast, did a short stretch session and activated Soul Tracker to verify that no morankai had snuck up on him. He started running, his body feeling refreshed after the magic tonic that was the recovery potion/low-tier healing pill combo with the addition of the cleansing aura pill. His soul did feel refreshed by the long nights of sleep, but he could tell something was strained. He needed to stop abusing himself. Blessedly, the day was easy, despite the increase in the number of normal morankai. Hardly any abnormal mornakai at all, Kevin's pace was acceptable.

He continued to ping Katie, probably more often than he needed to. It had been more than a month since his little sister came to the first layer, he didn't have any reason to think she wouldn't make it a few more days. Kevin was anxious to find her but he felt like he was in the final stretch of this hell trip. He was hesitantly optimistic.