Sooty let out a screech; she used her last strike of her active, along with Reaver Beak, readying herself. She let one strike hit, then used the stacked abilities to have her beak pierce another vampire through the head, killing it instantly.
These vampires are absurdly fast, even with Essence Bond on them. Luke complained internally.
Luke decided to take the remaining charges of Infusion on himself and continue to ram the torch into the vampire he wrenched off his arm. With the additional damage the ability gave him, he did lethal damage.
One vampire was before him, and as Luke forced the previous vampire down, Sooty had taken two strikes for him. He pulled the torch back out, the flame now extinguished by blood, and focused on the vampire before him. Its eyes were practically glowing red. Luke took some blood from his arm, bleeding at a concerning rate, and threw it into the mouth of the last vampire.
The vampire was lost in ecstasy for a split second.
As a recently very bloodthirsty crow, Sooty was ready to take advantage of that half a second. She took her talon and rammed into the unprotected stomach of the vampire. Despite the open wound, the blood-crazy vampire ignored the injury entirely. Its eyes never lost sight of Luke's bleeding arm.
And Luke never lost sight of his plan.
Aiming for the moment, the vampire lunged in a motion to drain his arm of all its blood; he jammed the torch into its mouth, then took both hands to its end, thrusting it forward. Luke strained as hard as he could. The blood loss was beginning to make him feel faint. The vampire, for once, got a taste of its own blood for the first and last time.
Jumping back, Luke kept his eyes on the vampire. Sooty, seeing no point in waiting around, had her nails flash, killing the vampire as it lunged forward. The vampire's body skidded on the stone path, stopping at the feet of Luke, cold and dead.
The cold blood filled air of the hallway rushed past Luke's face. The adrenaline from the deadly fight began to calm, and the blood flowing from his arm made him frown.
Sooty let out a soft caw as her eyes glowed an ominous blue.
For a moment, Luke let out an involuntary shudder. His crow-pal Sooty had become a deadly creature before he knew it.
Breaking the moment, Wayfinder started to speak. "The wee lassie shredded those vamps, didn't she? Makes you wonder who's the bloodthirsty one. Count yourself lucky she's fighting on your side, lad. Now, would you mind getting this corrosive blood off me? I was shiny as a new penny, and look at me now! What would the young'uns think if they saw me in this state?"
Luke had a grin on his face as he replied, "There are no young ones here, Wayfinder."
"Now, listen, lad. What happens when we're out of here, eh? Got to think about the wee ones; can't spook 'em. And how am I gonna win over the lady compasses with blood on me dial?"
Sooty pecked at Wayfinder, her way of telling him to shut up.
"You daft bird, hands off the needle! Fine, fine, I'll button it for a wee bit."
With some time, Luke took in the moment. The bleeding closed rapidly, the fight must've been calculated, and the experience distributed was enough for a level-up. He let out a sigh of relief.
"This is becoming a serious problem; it's taking more and more to level up, and I've got no other way to heal for now." He'd ask Wayfinder for some advice again but decided he'd rather have the quiet. When the opportunity came up, he'd remember to ask the compass in the future.
Luke nodded at Sooty, and she landed on his shoulder. He tilted his head over her and caressed her feathers, not minding the blood.
"Let's go back to the other two entrances, Sooty. If we can fight something else to help us level, we might be able to continue forward. As we are now, it's too risky; we've still got some time."
As much as Luke wanted to press forward, his personality didn't let him. While he was on a timer, it wasn't like he had no time at all. With the last fight as deadly as it was, Luke figured going forward wouldn't be nearly as risky if he could gain a few more levels.
Sooty let out a soft sound of agreement. Before they left, Luke went over each of the bodies. The loot rate started to increase, and three flashes of bronze entered his inventory.
On the way back to the three-way split, the mysterious rune became brighter again. Luke went over the battle log and his gains from the fight.
[You have reached level 10. Gained two skill points]
[Your companion, Sooty, has reached level 11. Gained one skill point]
A smile covered his face; he was always happy to see Sooty level.
[9 Blood-Starved Vampires Slain. Gained 2500 EXP]
[You have looted a Blood Ring]
A ring? Let me clear the rest of this out and take a look. He continued to sort the rest of the Interface notices.
[You have looted 3 Silver coins]
[You have looted Night Shade cape]
[You have stolen 6 HP, 5 Agility, 1 Intellect, 1 Strength]
Luke's smile turned excited at finally gaining some new items. He equipped both of them before taking a look at their stats.
[Blood Ring]
Quality: Uncommon
Strength: +3
Passive - Life Leach: Heal for 1% of damage dealt.
A ring often found on blood-sworn vampires—a solid choice for beginners.
[Night Shade Cape]
Quality: Uncommon
Agility: +3
HP: +10
As for the silver, it was naturally useless in this cave, so Luke didn't care about it. The two items gave him more confidence, but he knew his health was still far behind. He had a lot more stat stealing to do before he'd truly catch up. His worries were slowly starting to dissipate, however. With the ability to heal slightly from the ring, his concern for healing himself subsided, but not completely. Especially since that didn't solve the issue for Sooty, the extra agility he was gaining lately was especially appreciated when he thought of how much he needed to run during fights.
After trying to put some skill points into Infusion and having a prompt tell him this skill could not be upgraded, he kept the skill points for now, waiting to see the next monster before using them.
Holding back the tears upon seeing his 29 hit points, Luke soon made his way back to where he made his campfire, taking more note of the murals and symbols on the wall along the way. Sooty let out some water from her Spatial Feather when he asked, and the two washed themselves with it.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Oi lad, aren't you forgetting something?" Wayfinder piped up after Luke was done washing himself.
Luke silently removed the compass from his neck and threw it into the small water pit.
"Ah, I'm drownin'! A compass can't breathe in water. What in the blazes are you doing?"
"Stop being melodramatic. Wayfinder, a compass can't breathe air either." Luke lazily replied.
Being caught red-handed, Wayfinder silently accepted Luke wiping him off. He put the compass chain back around his neck, checked on Sooty, and then decided to go to the entrance furthest from the first one he went into.
Upon passing the threshold, this entrance became far more natural and cave-like than the first. There were no markings on the walls except a few scratches from whatever inhabited the place. The floor had turned to dirt, not stone. When Luke took a step, a softened thud could be heard each time. Beyond these features, the most notable thing to Luke was the extreme darkness of the cave. Unlike before, there was no light source here. His range of vision became half of what it was usually; if it weren't for the passive of Wayfinder, Luke likely wouldn't even be able to see in front of his nose.
The feathers of Sooty stiffened. She became alert of something that Luke had not sensed. Instinctively, Luke put Infusion on both of them, ready to move or flee at a moment's notice. The area they stood in became frigid cold. Even with no light, shadows began to dance around them. The source of this melded out the darkness into the range of his vision. It was a large group of Wraiths. A group of thirty had decided to grace him with their presence. Sooty flew over before Luke could say a word. Their information took over the left upper corner of his vision.
[Shadow Wraith]
Level: 8
HP: 92
Ruined spirits forced to roam the shadowed cave.
"You've got to be kidding me," Luke said.
Complaining wouldn't solve the issue in front of him, however, which was an overwhelming amount of ghostly wraiths. Taking out one or two wouldn't do a thing in this situation. He immediately thought of trying to upgrade a skill. Infusion couldn't be upgraded. So what did that leave? Essence Lance and Essence Bond.
Luke hesitated for a moment. Skill points weren't exactly easy to come by. He forced the feeling aside. He'd rather be empty on skill points and alive than full on them and dead. With Essence Bond not being as effective versus a large group compared to Essence Lance, Luke poured all his points into Essence Lance, successfully upgrading the ability up one rank. He felt the three skill points being used and didn't take the time to look at the upgrades he received. All that mattered was that the ability became much more deadly.
Much like his last fight with a large amount of monsters, Luke put Essence Bond in the middle of all of them. Sooty used her Essence Screech, applying the effect to roughly 25 of them. With the number being as large as it was, they were too spread apart, not allowing her to apply the Bond to all wraiths. Luke used Reaver's Link communication with Sooty and told her to run.
Sooty flew off at her increasingly high speed and passed Luke, leaving an Iron Feather on him as she did so. The phantoms had already begun to chase after them. As Luke was going to use an Essence Lance to slow them down more and use the AOE effect of that ability, his interface flashed red.
[You have been silenced for five seconds]
Luke's expression immediately turned ugly. He couldn't even yell when he started to run back the way he came, with Sooty still flying away. Thanking all that was holy for the 50% speed boost he got from putting Infusion on himself. Luke managed to outrun all the wraiths. Five wraiths started to pull away from their pack as they didn't have an Essence Bond on them and, therefore, had all their agility.
"Send the murder maker at one of them trailblazers, eh? The wee birdie will outwit the lot before they know what's striking them." Wayfinder said, his brogue thick with excitement.
A cacophony of sonic blasts ripped from the mouths of the wraiths, almost in unison, as if they had planned it ahead of time. Having no other way to avoid the hit, Luke rammed himself against a wall, avoiding it by the skin of his teeth. Slowing down to do that dodge gave time for the wraiths at the helm of the pack to start slashing their ghostly nails at Luke.
Sooty had been speeding over before Luke had even gone against the wall. The five Wraiths faced off against the bird, and then each tried to get past. She risked using Talon Strike on one Wraith without a slow, halving the critical strike chance. With the enhancement of Infusion, the Talon Strike, even without the critical effect, took down the wraith, albeit barely. Sooty, not one to overthink, seamlessly threw Reaver's Beak on the next wraith closest to her; the ability pierced the ghost, taking its attention.
Trading blows, the two entered into a rough fight for a short period before Sooty extracted herself, flying after Luke, who still had three wraiths chasing after him, with one in particular closing in. Luke was breathing hard; his endurance still hadn't caught up. Even with the extra speed, the wear and tear from that speed didn't go away, making abusing Infusion for mobility a necessary but taxing move.
Still not wanting to risk taking too many strikes, Luke had Wayfinder become his eyes while he focused on running forward.
"Lad, this ghostly lass is nipping at your heels. Veer left, quick!" Wayfinder bellowed.
Rushing forward to the left, Luke felt a gush of sharp wind scraping his back. His eyes stayed forward. He did his best to ignore his protesting heart from all the running. Going at speeds his body wasn't naturally capable of strained him. He had gone enough distance at this speed to step outside the cave's threshold. His eyes were on the stone platform he had a trial on yesterday. Finally, the notice he had been waiting for in his battle log came up.
[You are no longer silenced]
Sooty was right behind him, fighting off the wraith. As he turned, the crow coldly finished it off. She let out a ghostly caw as she charged the next wraith. With only two left, one behind the other, Luke wasn't worried about Sooty finishing off the other two. He gave her an Infusion again, and since he was still at full stacks, he decided to make Wayfinder the second target for insurance. Sometimes, he wondered if his class should be renamed Essence Buff Bot until he remembered Essence Lance again.
With her superior mobility—boosted even further by a new Infusion—Sooty quickly tore the two isolated wraiths apart. They could barely fight back. Finishing off the final one with an Infusion-backed Reaver Beak, Sooty flew back to his side.
The temperature, which had begun to warm, dropped to a dreadful level once more. A surge of stress hit him, and Luke readied an Essence Lance. The other twenty-six wraiths would be here at any moment. Luke took in deep breaths, trying to regain his energy. The large group was easy to spot without the overwhelming darkness to reduce his vision and cover the wraiths.
Before they could leave the cave, he threw the Essence Lance at the front of the group, shattering and damaging the ten up front. The rest still became slowed by the frosty aura coming from the Essence Lance. The wraiths seemed to shrug off some of the slowing effects of the Essence Lance, moving faster than Luke had hoped. Luke thought frost resistance must affect it. To Luke's surprise, the wraiths closest to the center of the AOE effect died on impact, reducing their number by six immediately.
One lance taking down so many came as a surprise to him. Luke waited half a second for the wraiths to bunch up at the threshold of the cave. Seizing the opportunity, Luke used his Essence Fissure, having the remaining wraiths slam against the cave roof. He missed one, which Sooty dashed off to take care of. It had a strange color to it, which Luke barely noticed before using Temporal North to gain another use of Essence Lance.
Having a moment to aim, Luke had the lance go perfectly into the center of the temporarily immobilized wraths. To his surprise, only the outermost four survived the lance's shattering AOE, killing the other fifteen.
Tired of running, Luke let Sooty take care of the odd-looking wraith; with Iron-Feather still around him, he rushed forward to the four weakened wraiths. He was using Wayfinder as his makeshift weapon once more. As it turns out, a Wayfinder with Infusion could be a deadly weapon to a low physical resistance monster like a wraith. It became a wrecking ball- or compass, smashing against two and killing them before one even got a slash at Luke. With the Iron Feather taking most of the blow, Luke returned its greeting with a smash of Wayfinder.
Deciding he had enough gas left in the tank, he took Wayfinder against the last wraith, trading a strike. After dodging the next claw of the phantom, the compass took its life.
Wayfinder started ranting about his shiny exterior, only to let out a confused noise. "Oh, lad! What's this now—hold your horses... I'm fine, aye, no harm done. Those wraiths have gone and given me a bit of an icy dip, but it's nothing I can't handle. Don't go thinking this means I'm your personal wraith-whacker. I'm a compass, not a battle-axe. Time to find yourself a proper tool for the tussle!"
Luke half paid attention to the words of the compass, too focused on the battle Sooty was having. To his disbelief, she was losing. Shocked, he took a quarter of a second and looked at the information the interface gave him about the wraith.
[Silent Night Wraith] (Rare Elite)
Level: 11
HP: 390/600
The Silencer of the Night. Rarely spawns in large wraith packs.
Luke's expression morphed visibly on his face, with his facial muscles becoming taut. Damn, Sooty is in trouble.