9. Vantage – 50 // 50
“Is he dead?” Jake poked at my face, but I was way too tired to form a coherent response. The answer fell off of my lips as they moved, unable to put the vibrations behind them to push it out into the air. My world had gone hazy some time ago, lost in the smoke of the building as it bubbled up from liquid fire.
“Not yet. But with him being such a godda-… a big idiot, he might be soon.” I was hanging down from Stephen's shoulder, but not even that small embarrassment would drag me out of an all-consuming torpor.
I was gently set into a chair with a pleasantly warm breeze and the sound of a too-full creek rushing past. Must be an unusually warm day. All of the snowmelt was coming down the range.
My eyes stung, forcing me to shut out the soot that kept trying to invade them. My thigh throbbed, the gash hurting like nothing else. Well, it was similar to another time… but the circumstances were a bit different. I was glad I’d gotten the Hellion back for it in retaliation.
Even if it was in a freak display of magical ignorance.
I leaned deeper into the sunwarmed metal of a patio chair, drowning out the twinging pains with a small measure of comfort. Every sense calmed and dulled from the spike of chemicals that had been forced through them.
“What were you thinking?”
I cracked my eyelids open for a moment to see Marie bearing down on me, hands on her hips. I winced at the acrid smoke still filling the air before offering her a weak thumbs up in defense. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but from her tone it wasn’t going to be a particularly pleasant verbal beat down.
“You can't just—We were about to--… First thing’s first. Put all of your points into Vitality. Right now.”
Yes ma'am. I didn't even need to flick open the System's menu, a small mental whim all that was required. An unfamiliar chill spread from my cracked core, slowly creeping through my body as sharp needlepricks. Strange. That hadn't happened when I increased Willpower the first time. Maybe the body-related attributes worked on a different level. Or maybe the damage to my core was the culprit. Would perception move the chill to my eyes? What about—
“Did you spend them?”
I nodded.
“Good… you'll still be off your feet for a while, but you'll be back faster than you would've been. Now. I should've told you a few things earlier, but since we never really planned to have you fight anything… let's start with that. Killing demons? That's usually Moore’s job. He has a gun, but we can't use it except as a last resort. It's about to break at any moment as-is. But it could've popped that demon like a balloon. Moore’s better at fighting than all of us, but Stephen could’ve engaged it too, just as soon as we got Sarah and Jake away from it. He's faster than he looks. But then you went and refused his help, almost getting blown up in the process, it sounds like.”
I tried hard to make myself smaller, but there was only so much I could shrink into the chairs. Marie's voice wasn't loud, or spewing toxins, but instead was… hard, but gentle? More firm than I expected a mom like her to be. I needed to figure out what she’d been doing for work, before this.
“This wasn’t the first magic-based demon we've seen, Will. But it was your first, right? Why did you try to take it on by yourself? And while we're on that, how did you actually do it?”
Because it came after me, and only me, first. Everyone else was just collateral damage. It felt wrong to just hide and avoid it. And as for how? I had no idea. Not really. It made sense in the moment, but I was throwing out power so haphazardly it was more of a miracle that nothing exploded in my face. Actually, it kind of had. I really wanted to sit down and practice. There was a lot of potential there, just no time to build on it. Not when another demon could crawl out of the woodwork at any moment. Marie didn't expect an actual answer, and I wasn't able to explain it in the first place. If you couldn't feel mana, the explanation wouldn't make sense even if I had one. Thankfully I was saved from Marie's intense stare by another arrival.
Moore stepped into the patio, holding the—
Why was he holding the Hellion? I bolted upright in a rush, which was in hindsight a terrible decision. Felt like smashing my head through a brick wall. I caught sight of a small object in Moore's hands though, inwardly relieved when I realized what it was I’d felt.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Got it. [Fiery Core]. F-grade core that's ‘slightly tinted’ with a fire element... that was slight? Two credits.”
“Only two?! That really doesn't put us any closer…”
What? What are they talking about? Credits?
“We still need, what, a thousand more? How is anyone supposed to kill a thousand Demons!”
“Five-hundred, if we find more weak guys like that!” Sarah helpfully chimed in from her own patio seat, smoothly propping her head on her hands and kicking her feet back and forth, swaying the table with her. What are you, five?
“We’ll die before we get into the double digits.” I could feel Stephen plop into a seat with some exasperation behind the action. His brother was fidgeting next to him, the small movements of the chair giving him away.
“Quiet, both. And how is anyone supposed to eat an elephant? One bite a a time, right? Don't worry Marie, we'll get there eventually. You've got a patient to deal with there first.” Moore tossed the core over to me, and I managed to catch it from a blind angle, relying on my unfamiliar sense for mana and only barely managing not to fumble it. That small feat wasn't lost on either of them though, as Moore whistled softly with the display.
“Was kinda hoping that would bop you on the head. You really can see something the rest of us can't, can't ya?”
“Wait, no, why are you giving that to him in the first place? We need that more than he does.”
“His kill, his loot. That's how this sort of thing usually works, yeah? We're lucky to have him, but we aren’t exactly a whole unit yet. Besides, he’s a mage. Figure a mage might be able to use it better than us.”
The core was warm in my hands. Hardly a surprise, but noteworthy enough for a bloody pebble. The core wasn't exactly located in an easy-to-reach spot. It didn't even look overtly magical, just an uncommonly hard bit of bland stone.
A quick [Inspect] revealed that Moore had just gotten a [Knife Handling] skill. Must not have been pleasant. Where’d he even get a knife for it? Also.
How did they even figure out that some demons had cores? I vaguely remembered feeling one on the Cadaver Collector as it was chasing us, but nobody would've gone down a cliff to collect that anyway. I probably wouldn't even if I could. It felt filthy to me. But they clearly knew more about them than I did.
He’d said it was a Fiery Core? I rattled off an [Inspect], but only came back with a bland panel of light.
[Fiery Core (F)] – Damaged.
No real description, no indication of how much it was worth or what it did. Moore had an [Inspect] skill that was pretty far and above mine. How he'd gotten it to that level, though, was a different question.
I stared closely at the core, feeling it out and trying to pry out its secrets with a gaze alone.
Nothing. There was more to it than just staring. If I got the opportunity, I should ask for tips. The slightly warm mana it steadily emitted felt a lot like the mana leaking out of my own broken core. Not a great sign, with the original owner being dead. I started to pull in the barest trickle of mana to my core, trying to feel out the restrictions forced on it by the spiderweb cracks. It wasn't a comfortable feeling.
“Hey, still with us?” Maybe she'd seen my expression suddenly sour, but Marie snapped her fingers in front of me.
I gave her a nod and sighed, the sound forming into a hacking cough by the end, clearing out the smoke from my lungs. Ow, my everything. Jake pushed out of his chair, coming over to pat me on the back, looking at Marie with a pleading kind of concern.
“He’ll be fine, Jake. You did a good job patching him up. Look, Will, just… stay in the back lines for a little bit. We've gone through this a few more times than you. Help where you can, but… The first couple of fights were the hardest. We’ll get you back in the truck and find a--"
“Nope. Truck’s gone. Tiny-little-pieces gone.” Moore gave me an impressed smile and Marie froze in place, then rubbed at her temples, trying to process.
“…We still need to get out of Evergreen. Whatever took all of the bodies from around town, it wasn't that particular demon. Think you can find us a different car to use?”
Assuming there's still a battery that survived, sure. But that wasn't likely. Maybe one of the parked cars wouldn't have drained out if it wasn't being used, but that was silly. All cars had a slight drain to them at all times, even if it's just to the dash clock. Which didn't bode well for our chances.
I pulled out my phone, ready to give a more detailed answer than a half-unsure nod. Only to get a black mirror showing off some fresh scratches on my face. It had died already. I folded back into the chair, finally rubbing the last smoke from my eyes. It would only get harder from here.
Marie saw the dead screen and shook her head.
“Mine too, a while back. Do you have to be driving?”
Not necessarily.
“Then just point us in the right direction, and we'll get what we need to. Can you stay here with Stephen and Jake while we go search the town?”
Gladly. The vigorous nod strained me a bit, embarrassingly. Yes and no questions and little bit of pointing I could definitely do.
Marie Corinth – Human [Initiate Leader (G) Lv. 4] (Level Up!)
Attributes:
Strength – 14
Vitality – 16
Dexterity – 18
Perception – 20-30
Intelligence – 20-30
Willpower – 20-30
Skills:
[First Aid (F) lv. 8] [Surgery (F) Lv. 2] [Biology (Human) (F) Lv. 2] [Comfort (G) Lv. 4] [Teach (G) Lv. 3] [Basic Coordination (G) Lv. 2] [Inspire Subordinate (G) Lv.2]