"So, we agree that we need to know if Domains make a difference against actual threats. Who wants to go first?"

  Carl grunted then spoke up. “I can, I guess Camila’s Domain will boost me the most if I use a melee weapon. Y’all need to keep in mind that everyone will hear if I start using this puppy.”

  He gestured to his new submachine gun.

  "Right let’s find a couple of zombies. Nothing fancy. We find lone stragglers, verify that the domains help, give Carl a proper field test of his abilities before and after he's marked."

  David watched Carl's expression shift from tired to focused attention.

  "After what happened today," David continued, "we need every advantage we can get. If these domains give us a real edge, I want to know before we go back to the airport."

  Sarah stretched, wincing slightly. "Makes sense, we all agreed so stop procrastinating so we can get this done and go to bed. We're all still sore, but we should be OK stalking isolated targets."

  Mark spoke quietly. "Short and controlled. We don't engage anything we can't handle easily."

  Katie looked worried but didn't argue. She understood the logic even if she didn't like it.

  "Alright," Carl said finally. "But we do this smart. Scout properly, pick our targets carefully, and the second things look dicey we bail."

  They gathered their weapons and moved out of their secluded yard. The expansion of the safe zone meant they were in a kind of buffer zone where hostiles seemed to be rare to non-existent. The borders of that zone should be a perfect hunting ground for what they had in mind.

  David extended his spiritual hearing as they moved, the others falling into a loose formation around him. His spirits drifted ahead, invisible scouts testing the darkness beyond the safe zone's glow.

  The first few blocks were clear, which didn't surprise him. The zombies hadn’t appeared to spawn or want to remain near the zone. Now as they moved, he extended his spirits to find individual Nath searching for prey across empty streets.

  Charlie moved nervously beside him, not looking thrilled with the direction they were going in. Sarah had her ice prepared as well, though she was clearly favoring her left side where healing wasn't quite complete.

  "Got something," David whispered, his spiritual hearing picking up the alien broadcast of a Nath. "Single zombie, about a block west. Trapped somewhere I think…"

  They adjusted their path, moving quietly through the darkness. David's domain allowed him to track his spirits close to him precisely. He broke his mark on Carl for the first phase of the test and noted how his sense of the man became less precise. He could feel everyone else’s positions precisely even when he couldn't see them clearly.

  A house came into view. A modest two-story with a chain-link fence around a small overgrown yard. The front door was secure, and they could see the two mailboxes telling them this was a multi-family house.

  David's spiritual hearing confirmed what he'd sensed. A single Nath inside, its alien thoughts broadcasting confusion and hunger as it tried repeatedly to navigate through a doorway it couldn't seem to master. It wasn’t resorting to violence, yet.

  "It's stuck somewhere inside," David reported quietly. "Upstairs. I think it’s having trouble with interior doors."

  Carl studied the house. "We go in quiet, confirm it's alone, then test your theory. No heroics."

  They approached the fence carefully. David, focused on his spirit scout, let the others lead. He was busy using his improved domain-enhanced control to direct it with precision now he was close enough and benefiting from the fact that it seemed to be able to sense more now. Confirming that the thing was stuck in a room towards the back of the second floor.

  The feedback was clear. Only one zombie, so they were good to go

  "Perfect target," David breathed. "It's trapped in a room, we can force out way in safely then open the door."

  They moved to the front door. Camila went first, crowbar in hand, Sarah behind her with ice forming between her hands. David followed with Carl and Katie, while Mark and Charlie watched their backs.

  The door yielded, revealing the interior was dark, the only light was what they brought with them. The house smelled faintly, that tired body masked by medicinal smell you got when someone elderly and in poor health lived somewhere and wasn’t keeping on top of cleaning.

  They found the zombie exactly where David's spirit had indicated. The apartment was small and there was a bedroom with a closed door at the back. The Nath-animated body clawed and scrabbled inside. Then David opened the door.

  Before it could make a sound, David spoke.

  “Halt.”

  Then unheard by the others.

  Mine.

  The power of his bloodline flowed out of him, cephalopod like tendrils of will wrapping around the Nath, infused with his full domain-boosted willpower. His spirits rushed forward at his mental command, wrapping the Nath in layers of invisible force.

  The zombie's was locked down incapable of physical movement. David could feel the Nath struggling against his claim, it felt like the confused flittering of a moth trapped in his cupped hands. It wasn’t trying to broadcast and vague confused thoughts reached him as he clamped down. His spirits tightened their grip, his domain making the control effortless in a way he'd never experienced before.

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  Now for the hard bit.

  Be silent

  He poured intent into his command, the Nath seemed to struggle more as he pushed against its nature. It wasn’t enough, the creature remained trapped by his magic and his will. This was harder as he tried to maintain that command to be silent.

  "It's contained," David said, his voice strained with concentration. "Carl, whenever you're ready."

  Carl approached carefully, gun raised. Even trapped and silenced, the creature still radiated threat that was palpable. The corpse might appear old and frail but that wasn’t the real story. Appearance mattered much less than Mana. This creature had enough to be mobile and perhaps to be strong.

  As he approached, he let the gun slide down to hang on its straps. Then he reached down and drew his melee weapon, a large hunting knife with a wicked edge and a saw back. The blade had the length and weight to do serious damage and he steeled himself.

  He struck, the thrust slammed into the skull, inflicting damage and causing the zombie to shift, David felt his control waver and frantically gripped it with his mind.

  Stay silent!

  His command worked but he could feel his grip slipping on the limbs, silent wasn’t still. Then Carl struck again, the blow punching through this time and sinking into the brain.

  The body went limp immediately.

  David waited, maintaining his grip on the Nath spirit even as its host body failed. This was the critical test. Normally when a Nath's host was destroyed, it let out a death scream that could be heard for blocks, at least by the zombies and him.

  Nothing.

  The Nath spirit writhed in his grasp but made no sound. David held it there, claimed but not yet pulled free into his internal court. He could feel it struggling as it disintegrated in his grip, could sense its alien confusion at being trapped between states.

  After a long moment, it dissipated, denied both its host and its final act of warning. He let out a long breath.

  "That actually worked," He sighed "No scream at all, but it was a lot harder to do than I expected, I still don’t get how the zombie queen managed to get so many of her minions to do this, I must be doing something wrong..."

  "Easier this way," Carl commented, He was breathing slightly hard. "So, you have your baseline, I guess you all include me in your Domain’s again and we go again?"

  They retreated from the house quickly, not wanting to linger near the body, there wasn’t anyone else in the unit and they didn’t linger to loot. Once back outside, they regrouped.

  "We need one more test for you Carl," David said. "Sarah, do you want to do magic after that? I want to see if Charlie's and my Domains makes a noticeable difference."

  Sarah nodded, though she looked tired. "Sure, that was anti-climactic so what, you find more isolated zombies?"

  That was exactly what they did.

  They found another lone zombie two blocks away, this one wandering aimlessly through a parking lot. David's spirits confirmed it was isolated, nothing close enough to cause a problem and they fanned out to engage it.

  "Right, everyone should have boosted Carl?" David checked. When he got confirmation, he struck with his power.

  It was easier this time, as he knew what to expect and he quickly gave the nod to the man.

  Carl moved in with his blade held ready and struck. David couldn’t be sure, but he looked faster, smoother, more on it. The zombie died immediately, no second blow needed. Again, David held on preventing sound until the spirit disintegrated.

  Then they were moving again, arcing along in parallel to the border of the safe zone as they followed David’s hearing. Sarah was cut out of their Domain’s this time.

  They had to break into another house, finding their target on the first floor. Again it was simple for David to lock the zombie down.

  “Go as soon as your ready Sarah."

  Sarah focused, drawing on her magic. Ice formed in her hand, crystallizing into a jagged spike. She threw it with practiced ease.

  The ice struck the zombie's shoulder, punching through and staggering it back. Not a fatal hit, but solid damage. David felt the creature twist and writhe in his grasp and felt his power tremble as another magic briefly intersected with it.

  “do you want to finish this one off and find another or just shift to being marked?”

  Sarah suppressed a yawn and replied.

  “Maybe just give me the marks for now. We can see if we need another test.”

  "Now mark her," David told Charlie even as he added his mark to Sarah with a simple flexing of his will, it was easy if he was marking someone in his Domain.

  Charlie activated his Mark Ally skill, nodding as his domain recognized Sarah.

  Sarah formed another ice spike, this one noticeably larger and more defined. When she threw it, the difference was obvious. The projectile flew faster, hit harder, and blew clean through the zombie's torso.

  David started to relax his tensed will, time to consider the next…

  Then he felt it and heard the start of a scream bubbling up in the zombie. That sort of hit didn’t usually drop a zombie, at least not unless repeated several times to make a real mess. Desperately he clamped down on the creature sensing a burst of spiritual sound, more a whimper than a scream as he desperately held on, finally the sound died down.

  Not to nothing though, it became a sort of long moaning exhale.

  "Whoa," Sarah said, staring at her hands. "That felt completely different. Like the magic just... responded better."

  Charlie grinned despite his exhaustion. "The attack domain bonus is good then?"

  "I think we have what we need," Carl said, back to holding his gun. "We know the domains work in combat, we know David can keep them quiet, and we know I can make clean kills on marked targets."

  David nodded, then sheepishly spoke.

  “Yeah, about that. The last one dying surprised me and it made a little moan. I don’t hear any response, yet. It’s actually harder than I thought to keep them quiet and I suspect I’m doing it wrong… Still, I think we should move out from here and maybe head back.”

  "Agreed. Let's head back." Charlie had been nervous the whole time, but he was quick to propose a return. None of the others objected.

  They made their way toward the safe zone, moving carefully through the darkened streets. David kept his spiritual hearing extended, wary of surprises, but they encountered nothing else.

  Charlie was practically vibrating with nervous energy despite his fatigue. "That was intense. I mean, we barely did anything, but my heart is still racing."

  "Adrenaline," Mark observed. "Hunting predators that hunt us back will do that."

  As they neared the safe zone, Camila put her hand on Charlie's shoulder. "You did good, staying ready but not jumping at shadows." Charlie flushed at the comment, then looked troubled for some reason.

  The barrier's glow became visible ahead, that reassuring wall of light marking safety. David felt the tension drain from his shoulders as they crossed back into the protected zone.

  The park was quieter now, most people having found places to sleep. A few electric lanterns still burned near the Obelisk where night-shift volunteers helped late arrivals through their tutorials.

  They found their spot in the camping area, marked by the fact that the old truck Carl had claimed was parked there, giving them secure spaces where Carl kept their ammo and arsenal between the locked toolbox and the cab. Carl checked his submachine gun one last time before tucking it away, keeping a pistol to sleep with.

  Sarah and Camila whispered together briefly before retreating inside the tent.

  David lay back, staring up at the barrier overhead. He really needed to grab the tent and stuff he had set up over the other side of the camping area…

  His mind replayed the hunts, analyzing what they'd learned. The domains were definitely useful, more so than he'd initially thought. The boost to his control over spirits had been remarkable, making him speculate if that was the real purpose.

  He drifted off to sleep thinking about the airport, about what they'd face and going there again. The domains would help. But they'd still need to be smart, still need to be careful.

  His last thoughts were of Billy's face, grief eating at him as he was dragged down into sleep.