Emily looked at the notification screens showing her new Myst Connections and Abilities with a grin on her face.

New Myst Connection:

Control

New Myst Connection:

Archery

New Control and Archery Ability:

Perfect Shot

You can make any shot that you can imagine.

New Control Ability:

Control Projectile

You can take control of any projectile.

New Archery Ability:

Create Arrow

Create an arrow made of light.

Your Depth has increased by 1!

Emily reached out with her spirit in attempts to create an arrow. Her spirit throbbed with pain from the effort. The pain wasn’t debilitating yet. Her spirit still felt in better shape than her body. It was similar to a headache, or like trying to grab something in a thorn bush. It stung, but it was manageable.

A moment later Emily was holding an arrow. To her surprise the arrow wasn’t made up of the same golden substance that Jeff’s was. Instead it was made of a ghostly blue light similar to her tail. The arrow barely weighed anything, but she could still feel the balance lean a bit heavier toward the tip allowing for stable flight. Emily turned off the bathroom light and let the arrow shine like a bluish white LED night light. The light was bright enough to fill the room with a ghostly blue light. Emily’s teeth glowed a bit under the effect of the light as her smile broadened.

This is amazing! I am doing magic!

It took everything she had to keep her celebration in her head. She wanted to shout, whoop, and holler. First she had been really concerned that she would become a monster, and second, that she would die immediately, and third that her connections and abilities would suck. She was feeling now like everything was finally looking up, like everything was finally falling back under her control.

She had no pretenses that she was fully in control of her situation, but at least she wasn’t completely lost and without direction anymore. If she had a fight, she now had tools to work with.

“Don’t forget you have the Sleep abilities too,” Strai’ze spoke up.

“OH RIGHT!!” Emily said a little too loudly. She quickly covered her mouth, hopeful that the outburst didn’t attract monsters.

She had totally forgotten about her Induce Sleep and Light Sleeper abilities. She probably could have used Induce Sleep against the bees. And she could definitely use the healing from Light Sleeper now. She wasn’t sure if she trusted her safety while she was sleeping though.

It was ironic that she had connections to Sleep and Control. Sleep had always been the one thing she couldn’t control in her life. No matter how much sleep she got at night she would still fall asleep at inopportune times. No matter what tactics she used to keep herself awake she would find herself nodding off all the time. Jeff laughed at her when she would ask him a question and then be asleep by the time he began his reply.

Maybe with the Myst I can finally gain the power to control Sleep?

Emily waved the arrow around in the mirror seeing how the light created streaks of light. The extra points she had in processing made the blur effect of moving lights change a bit. She knew if Jeff was here he would go off on some scientific reasoning for it, but she never had the same tendencies for research he had. The glowing arrow made her happy and that was all that it needed to do.

A loud howl pierced the night reminding her of the chaos reigning outside. She jumped into the tub and pulled the curtains closed as she lay down. The extra measure of protection helped calm her nerves.

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Now Emily had a decision to make. Her body was hurt badly and her spirit was strained. Going out seemed especially foolish right now, even if she could gain more levels. But was she really safer being stationary here? The bees seemed to find her only due to spiritual senses, or perhaps the light from her skin shining through the window. As long as she stayed away from the windows she shouldn’t attract any monsters. Even if they did sense her there were likely much closer things to fight. She was on the second story and behind several walls from outside threats. Any monster that went after her had to deal with getting high enough and making it through several doors. Only humans that became monsters were likely smart enough to figure that out.

The only thing that could kill her now were more flying monsters like the bees. The number of monsters should thin out over time, but that also meant that the monsters were getting stronger. The blood bath happening right now was strengthening the few that pulled through. If she waited too long to leave she would probably be facing monsters at level 10 or higher. She already saw how fast monsters can level from saplings Jeff faced.

Maybe there was a way she could keep fighting from her house. She could throw arrows off the balcony and direct them at whatever monster she could see. Then she’d hope that there were no more flying insects… Emily already attracted mosquitos like a magnet, that wasn’t likely to go well.

The idea of being attacked by more insects terrified her. Her thoughts turned to the few flies she had seen in her house the other day. Would they attack her soon? Spiders occasionally crawled up the drain… Emily reached over and plugged up the drain. That should at least help. Not all insects would fuse with a spore that turned them into terrifying monsters like the bees.

How had the bees all become the same monster? Maybe it was just the queen bee that became the monster? Maybe—

Emily fell asleep before she could finish her next thought.

*********

A loud scream woke Emily from her slumber. She jerked herself upright in the bathtub trying to orient herself. More screams and fighting came from the wall behind her. The couple she had sensed in the apartment on the other side of her bathroom wall were fighting something. Shouts and crashes could be heard from the other side of the wall. She distinctly heard a man and a woman's voice.

Her senses had been right, and now there was nothing she could do. She should have tried communicating with them before. Maybe they could have…it didn’t matter right now.

A loud thud against the wall made her jump back in surprise. She tried reaching out with her senses again. She thought she could make out another large figure, but her senses still felt more like her imagination than anything real.

The loud screams cut off and Emily felt one of the people wink out from her senses. That felt more real. She was trusting what her senses were telling her more and more, but what she was sensing horrified her. Between the noises and her senses the picture of what was happening beyond the wall became clear.

The husband yelled out at his wife's death and he threw himself at the massive beast. Emily could feel the difference in Myst between the man and monster. The monster had clearly leveled up much higher than the man. The man's blows barely staggered the monster. Then the monster retaliated and her neighbor was launched back into the wall. Emily yelped as the wall was dented in on her side. The man didn’t move and the monster approached slowly.

Emily felt like she needed to help, but how? She could tell from where the man dented the wall that there were no studs in that section of the wall. Maybe she could throw the light arrow she was still holding through the drywall. Did she have the strength to make it matter? She didn’t have enough time to think it through. The monster was about to kill the man and she had to help.

Emily tried to imagine the arrow piercing through both walls and into the monster's throat. Then she threw the arrow as hard as she could. She felt her spirit strain as Perfect Shot was activated. She also took control of the projectile and pushed it through the wall as hard as she could with her willpower. The arrow sped up into the wall and quickly disappeared from her sight.

A loud piercing shriek came from beyond the wall. With her senses she could feel the monster stagger back from the man. She didn’t have enough points in her Sense attribute to see more than a blob in her mind. She wasn’t sure where the arrow had struck it, but her plan had worked. Still, the monster wasn’t dead. She still needed to help somehow.

She conjured another arrow and followed the same steps to launch another arrow at the monster. This time Emily aimed higher hoping to hit it’s head. The strain of activating Perfect Shot struck her harder this time, but the arrow blasted through the wall and the monster staggered back again.

Did I do it? She wondered.

Suddenly the monster rushed right at the wall. Emily shrieked as the monster drove its head straight through the wall. She never turned the bathroom light back on after playing with the arrow, so she couldn’t see the monster very well. Luckily, it got stuck partway through. Emily created another arrow and threw it with all her might at the nasty looking head.

The light arrow stuck into the head and she got her first good look at the monster. The thing had definitely been human before. It had eyes and a mouth that looked human, but the head had turned completely around to look at her. It had a slime-like look to the skin and ooze came from the wounds on its neck and head. The monster let out one last pitiful cry as Emily struck it with one last arrow.

Finally, the kill notification came.

You have defeated:

Human Abomination - Level 8

Abilities:

Rush

Backhand

Absorb

Accept Myst Rewards? (Yes/No)