Eliot returned with Anubis to the main room where his family was waiting, with all his weapons properly placed in their holster or sheath, and an old messenger bag to hold the book; he held a small duffle bag with some clothes and other essentials; ready to go to the old summer house.

“Alright, let's go everyone. I don't want to get stuck in traffic.” Vivian said as she lead the Blakesley family out the front door.

Eliot noticed something different about her, she had slightly paler skin with a greenish tint, and on her forehead where two weird looking protrusions; She also carried a large gnarled wooden staff, looks like she went with a magic route of some kind.

His dad on the other hand carried a sophisticated looking assault rifle that looked similar to his plasma pistol, he also wore a metal gauntlet that emitted a soft humming noise that was almost pleasing to the ear. ‘I wonder what it does’ Eliot couldn't help but think.

“Stop staring and let's get a move on.” Katherine grunted shoving Eliot out of the way.

“...Prick” Elliot whispered and followed everyone into the car; Anubis following close behind, he didn't see Kat with any new items on hand, so she probably got an ability or at least he hoped. She's a pain in the ass but he doesn't want to see her get hurt.

His dad started the car, and they made their way to the summer house out in the woods.

****

Not even ten minutes into the drive was when Eliot felt the first rumble. He pulled off his headphones to ask if anyone else felt it, but from there facial expressions he knew they did. Then before he knew it the rumble turned into an earth shattering tremor. James instantly pulled over to the side of the road, and turned the car off, waiting for the shaking to stop, and that's when they saw it.

Black pillars growing out of the ground at breakneck speeds, there was dozens of them spread throughout the horizon. Dust and debri surrounding each pillar as they destroyed whatever was above it as it rose.

“Holy shit” Kat mumbled

She took the words right out of Eliot's mouth, the spires were unbelievably big, all of them seem to vary in size, some of them barely reaching the clouds, while others cut through them and didn't seem to stop.

Once the trembling stopped, there was just a deafening silence, people started getting out of there cars to get a better look at the spires. James had other ideas, he could feel something was incredibly wrong, he needed to get his family to safety. He turned the keys in the ignition but nothing happened, he tried one more time before he realized the car was dead.

“Everyone get out the car now, leave your clothes, just bring what's essential.” James commanded in a low voice.

No one questioned him, not even Vivian, she knew when her husband was serious, and this was one of those times. Elliot looked up once he came out the car and saw what he believed was snow, slowly falling to the ground.

“Is that snow?” Eliot questioned

“No, snow is white, not red and it's not the size of grapes.” James answered while pulling his plasma assault rifle at the ready.

“Maybe we should get out of here then?” Eliot asked mimicking his dad and pulling out his plasma gun.

Kat seemed to want to say something, but before she could, one of the grape sized things landed on the floor. Everyone's satellites lit up and a single message was shown.

Mission

Spires and Spores

  Leave the city with your life

Reward: 1000 pts

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The first spore that landed started to grow and pulsate into a grotesque version of a human, it looked starved with its ribs poking out and long bony arms. Its skin was bone white and it had no eyes. Before anyone could reacted to the message or the creature before them, James aimed his rifle and shot the creature in its head with a beam of light.

“Run!” James screamed

Panic gripped everyone, after they realized how dangerous the world just became. Everyone took off into different directions. The creatures started spawning all around them. Some of them howled as they were born, and started running towards Eliot and his family.

Eliot felt his heart drop, he didn't feel nearly prepared for something like this, he started running alongside Anubis as fast he could; following his family from close behind, panting and realizing he was a complete moron for not getting a more powerful ability.

He saw a women in his peripherals get mauled by one of the beasts, he instantly smelled the metallic smell of blood. He cringed when he heard her scream, begging for help, he wanted to assist but before he could turn around the screaming stopped, all there was was the crunch of bones and chapping of lips.

“Holy shit! Holy shit!” Eliot wheezed as he tried to keep up with his family, but he was slowing down fast, this is what happens when you're blind your whole life. Zero exercise, always moving slow, to make sure you don't hit something. Then he heard it's hard breathing right behind him.

“Fuck”

He felt the cold fingers of the creature dig into his scalp and grab his hair yanking him off his feet backwards. Eliot screamed at the top of his lungs as he felt his feet leave the ground. He landed on his back hard, pushing all the oxygen out of his body in one fell swoop.

The creature threw itself on top of him trying to bite at his neck but before it could a white blur tackled the grotesque creature off him.

Eliot quickly got up to see Anubis ripping out the creature's neck, but he was taking to long to finish it off. The monsters friends were still spawning around them and they looked hungry, they would be officially surrounded in a matter of seconds.

Eliot rushed up to the creature and pushed his plasma pistol right up to its head and clicked the trigger. A beam of light shot out of the gun instantly vaporizing the creature's skull.

Thrall x1

20 pts

“You have gotta be shitting me, this is a fucking game!?” Eliot exclaimed as he saw the small message appear next to the satellite.

“Come Anu, let's go!” Eliot ordered as he began heading back to his family who were way too busy fighting their own fight to worry about him. He also put a mental note to find or buy some treats for Anubis, he was a literal life saver.

All three of them was surrounded by a dozen thrall, with at least another dozen dead on the floor, oozing black blood. His mom had some wooden humanoid next to her that reminded him of the thralls, but the way it was defending her by ripping the creatures apart, it was safe to assume it was on our side.

James was shooting multiple of the creatures back to back but his muzzle began to turn a glowing red, his gun would have to cool off soon. Kat was wearing a metal gauntlet with a blade at its end but she seemed to be afraid to get to close to the thralls.

Eliot screamed as he neared the small horde and started unloading his plasma shots into any part of the thralls body he could aim at. The smell of burning flesh hit him like a brick wall but he ignored it and kept shooting.  Anubis would grab any of the ones who didn't die from the initial onslaught and tear out its throat with brutal efficiency. ‘Where the fuck did he learn how to do that?”

After about twenty shots of fire, his gun overheated and became useless, he put it in his holster and pulled out the large darksteel dagger. There was two more thralls in their immediate vicinity, but his dad's weapon was out of commision and the wooden creature seemed to morph back into the staff his mother was carrying. His sister stayed frozen in fear, ‘Pussy’.

“Anu, get that one over there.” Eliot motioned to the one closest to them, Anubis took off with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. Once the thrall was trapped under his jaw, it started to thrash spraying black blood everywhere from its wounds, but Anubis didn't let go until it was dead, licking the blood off his drenched muzzle. ‘Good dog’

“Kat you think you can kill the last one on your own?” Eliot asked in between pants as he tried to catch his breath. He didn't sound judgmental and he didn’t force her. This shit is crazy, anyone would freeze up, Eliot was just surprised it was her and not him.

Kat eyed him for a second and then whispered, “Can you help me?”

‘Who is this and what happened to my sister?’ Eliot couldn't help but think to himself but he just said “sure”, maybe this would change her mind about all that revenge talk she was talking about earlier.

Their parents just watched and surveyed the area, he can tell that they agreed in making Kat kill the thrall, not only for the points, but because it had to be done eventually.

They both flanked the thrall, Eliot with his dagger in hand and Kat with a bladed gauntlet. The creature hesitated for a split second trying to decide which meal it fancied more, than it turned to Kat and ran towards her. She yelped but didn't back down and got in a fighting pose.

Eliot ran after the creature so that he can help if anything went wrong, but he worried for no reason because at that second she threw a killer right hook slicing the creature's head into two. Spraying black blood all over him.

He looked at her in disbelief, she looked at him smiled and winked.

‘I should have seen this coming.’