Lan wasn't kidding when he said he could travel faster with Acharon than he could with his car. Not to mention his skill allowed him to easily take me with him.

I sat on the scythe like a witch on a broomstick as it flew behind him. Apparently it only cost him SP to recall his Artifact or control it mid flight, so as long as he ran slightly faster than it could return to him, it wasn't costing him extra.

It was costing me my mental state, though. Lan weaved amongst the trees as the scythe tried to get back into his hands, and I had to duck as a branch almost beheaded me.

Okay, I'm exaggerating. Sure, a branch won't hurt me, since it's not an Artifa-

FUCK!

My world was suddenly spinning as I tumbled along the ground, and Lan caught Acharon as he skidded to a stop. A branch had come out of nowhere while I'd been stuck in my own thoughts, and now I was extremely dizzy.

"Ouch," said Lan, rather insincerely. "Come on, let's keep going." He gave me the scythe again and I took it.

"...okay, just ugh... give me a sec..." Everything was still spinning. "Okay, I think I'm good now." I stood up, and then took a step forward and crashed into the wall.

The wall? Oh. That's actually the ground. My brain is still shook.

Lan snickered as he watched me fall over. "Just hold on and... try to keep your head down, yeah?"

We cleared the forest by the first minute, and after ten, we hit town. We quickly found a nice little alleyway, hidden from prying eyes, and cloaked our Artifacts. My whole body ached when we did, and I hoped we didn't have to walk too far.

Turns out we were pretty close to a 7-Eleven, so that was the optimal choice for the hungry Lan and I. When we walked in, we saw a rather emaciated, homeless looking man sitting on the floor in the drinks section, staring intently into the refrigerators. This was weird, but it was made even weirder by the fact he was eating yogurt out of a plastic bag. With a... yep, that's a fork. What the hell?

Lan seemingly didn't notice as we walked inside, past the clerks at the register. One of them was obviously newer, and was being shown how the system worked by the other.

We both got something simple to eat, Lan getting a pie while I got a wrap. Too bad there was nothing with meatballs…

As we went to pay for our stuff, one of the guys at the cash register suddenly put his hand up, looking past me. "Wait!"

When I looked around, I saw the emaciated looking dude walking right out of the store, holding a bunch of packets in his arms. All of them hotdogs. That's a lot of hotdogs, I thought.

"Oh, don't worry man," the supervisor said. "That's Georgie. Real weirdo. Sometimes he pays, sometimes he doesn't… but when he does, he always puts way too much money down. We just let him…" The man trailed off as he saw us approach the counter. "Oh, sorry. Just those two?" he asked, referring to the food.

After paying, we made our way out of the store. Just as we got to the door, the emaciated man whose apparent name was Georgie, came running back into the store, bowling past us and almost knocking me over, almost tripping himself as he retreated into the store. His skeletal eyes were wide in fear.

He bumped into one of the shelves as he ran down an aisle, knocking various things off of it. And then he was gone.

I looked at Lan, who looked at me, and we both wore expressions equally bewildered. What is up with that guy?

I tore my gaze away from Lan, for it to settle on the thing that was outside.

A discarded plastic bag of yogurt and about a dozen packets of hotdogs lay before a twisted humanoid monstrosity, its body blackened as though it was completely charred. It twitched as it shuffled towards us, packets of hotdogs bursting open as it mindlessly stepped on them.

One of its human-like, red-tinged eyes opened, swiveling around before locking on us.

And then it screamed.

I gasped, and Lan immediately jumped back at the intense, high-pitched squeal, dropping our food. "What the hell is that!?" I asked, half exclaiming.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I don't know!"

The automatic door closed as I backed up, out of the sensor range. Behind the window pane, the monster's head tilted. Kinda like how a curious dog would, except more twitchy and way less cute.

It seemed to cautiously move towards the door, its one open eye frantically spasming as though it were constantly having a seizure on and off.

"What are you guys talking about?"

I slowly looked over to the clerks. One's forehead was wrinkled, while the other one looked genuinely surprised with wide eyes.

"They can't see it," I said in an undertone.

"Unveil yourself," Lan said to me. When I looked at him, he was already changed.

"What about…" I looked at the clerks, who were now wearing wildly different expressions from a moment ago. I'd probably have the same reaction if I just saw some guy disappear.

"Don't worry about them," Lan said, voice distorted. "Worry about this thing."

The sliding door opened, and the clawed hand of the monster grasped onto the doorframe, which splintered in its grip.

"Hide!" I yelled out at the two staff. I squared up as the black, twisted thing took another step forward.

"Unveil."

I almost pissed myself when it suddenly lunged at me before my gauntlet was even fully formed. I leaned back, avoiding its claw while crashing into a shelf and knocking even more things off as I stumbled into the aisle.

Pain pulsed through my head. Shit! My FP was still low. Only 7 points.

Acharon sweeped around, cleaving through the twisted, burnt-wood looking-ass motherfucker, and I bet it did a ton of damage, but I didn't see it. I did see a spray of pure black blood splatter on the ground, though. For some reason, I thought the cut would kill it in one shot. Apparently Lan did too, because his greenflame eyes were wide. He looked at me as he blocked a swipe from the creature, which knocked him back. "Run!"

I didn't think twice as I turned around and bounded down the aisle with enhanced speed. If Lan couldn't kill it in a single hit, it could probably do that to me.

I heard Lan grunt behind me, and then a massive crash. When I looked back, he was in the wall. Oh fuck… you gotta be kid-

My thoughts stopped in their tracks when the creature's eye turned to me.

Fuck!

I ducked behind a shelf just as the thing cleared the aisle in a single step, swiping the area I'd just been standing.

My worries about my FP were gone. I seriously didn't think I'd be having to worry about running out when this thing could definitely kill me before then.

I ran down the opposite aisle, back towards the door. I needed to get the fuck out of the shop. I passed by the register, and the idiots behind it were just staring around at the destruction, dumbfounded and half crouched behind the counter.

I looked back down the aisle as I skidded around the edge. The creature shuffled from around the corner, its eye locking back onto me again.

I seriously could not run fast enough. The thing was coming towards me though, and there was no getting away this time. I spun and managed to deflect its first swipe, but there was nothing I could do as it twisted for a second.

Acharon flashed in front of me. It reaped through the monsters arm before it could hit me, and the limb was sent flying.

Lan had thrown it.

And then it screamed, it's mouth tearing open like tar, black oil bubbling inside it. I was closer this time.

[You took 2 damage]

I heard nothing else as my vision shook, everything shook, my ears. My fucking ears. I definitely felt them bleeding.

And then Lan. He was next to me. He tackled me. Everything spun. I landed prone, by the door. I saw Acharon returned to Lans hand. He fluidly cut through the burnt twisted thing, opening a cut in its stomach, creating another spray of black blood which, this time, landed on the younger employee.

Who, in turn, started screaming as the oil colored liquid started to sizzle away at his flesh. The other guy screamed, and attempted to make a break for it.

Lan was pushed back again as he blocked another swipe, just as the clerk ran past. The shriveled things claw passed through the clerks neck and head like it was nothing as it threw wide at Lan.

The clerk's head had been sliced into three separate chunks, which fell to the ground in a mess of gore along with his body.

Lan was still fighting the thing, trying to push it back, but I was world's away.

All I could do was watch. They were so fast. I didn't know what to do. I looked at my FP, it had gone down to 6.

It had only been a minute. I got up. I still felt dazed as I turned around. I ran through the door, breaking through it before it could open.

I saw Georgie, crouched down by his ruined hotdogs. He was staring at them intently.

Wait, how did he see that monster?

The question came to me for a moment before I suddenly decided that I didn't care.

It then occurred to me that if Lan died, I would be completely fucked. I darted over to the emaciated man looking at his ruined hotdogs, my heart in my throat as I put my hand on his shoulder. "You should probably get out of here," I said.

Georgie raised his head suddenly, then nodded. "I was going to eat these hotdogs. Maybe cuddle a few."

I didn't think much of what he'd said, just started running away. It didn't occur to me until a few moments later that he was able to see me while I was unveiled.

Well, I guess that explains things.

—————

Artifact: Meatball, 3rd Level

XP: 28 / 300

HP: 24 / 38

FP: 6 / 35

SP: 9 / 29