It was Tomas. My brother looked more like a corpse than a living soul, although his chest was moving ever so slightly. He looked like he could die any second, and even as I looked, a shimmering, ghostly form materialized above Tomas’s bed. It condensed into a slightly blurry twin of my brother.

“Hurry. Over here,” Crystal called, but I was already moving.

Enraged, I rushed into the room, but even as I did, another entry from the dictionary popped into my mind and cold dread splashed across my thoughts and broke through my rage.

“Once Lifebane Phantoms have collected enough victims to begin producing clones, the location will transform into a nest where every victim will spawn a new Lifebane Phantom to continue spreading the species.”

Oh, hell no. I’d just lunged into the middle of a nest of invisible parasitic life-draining monsters.

“Crystal, get out of here!” I shouted as I triggered Energy Ward and spun, slashing my blade blindly in a complete circle around me.

“What?” Crystal complained, then she stumbled, her face growing pale. Alice, who had stopped in the doorway, took a step forward, but I shouted, “No! Seal the door! There are other phantoms in here.”

I didn’t know if closing the door would actually stop ethereal monsters, but I didn’t have time to care. Soulrend cut through something invisible that offered a bit of resistance. It had been directly behind me, heading for my back. The Lifebane Phantom shrieked in pain.

Energy Ward appeared around me and instantly the shimmering defensive aura prickled at my right side. It was deflecting an incoming attack.

Thank Cyrus I’d gotten the upgrade to block spiritual attacks. It seemed to work on the phantoms. I spun along with the impulse from Energy Ward, slashing through the space where the incoming monster would pass, and my blade again cut through some ethereal resistance. Another phantom shrieked.

I spun back around to slash at the first phantom I’d just injured, but didn’t feel anything. It had moved. How many were there?

I kept spinning, trying to move toward Tomas’s bed to protect him, but Energy Ward started pinging rapidly as several of the monsters converged on me from three sides. I wanted to dive and roll away, but then I wouldn’t know where the enemy were.

So I forced myself to stay in place and spin, blade flashing toward empty spots in the air following Energy Ward’s hints. I caught two of the monsters and their shrieks of anger and pain filled the little cabin. My bracelet grew warm as it absorbed power, but I did not receive any notifications of kills.

So I kept spinning, slashing wildly and blindly, straining every sense for any indication of the monsters. I’d managed to glimpse the nearly invisible rents in space to those pocket rooms. There had to be a way to sense the monsters.

Several more pings from Energy Ward indicated targets. I spun and slashed, but felt nothing. Were the monsters getting smarter?

Then I felt a drain on my life. I felt no pain or injury, but I was so hyper focused at the moment, the tiny drain caught my attention instantly. One of the monsters had slipped through Energy Ward somehow.

“Eat this,” I growled, slashing Soulrend down my back. The angle was awkward, but I managed to catch something that time and the monster shrieked.

I spun and slashed in a frenzy, my blade blurring until the glowing blue after-images of its motion seemed to form a solid wall in front of me, right where that monster had been.

“Congratulations, Lucas. You have defeated Lifebane Phantom, level 18.”

I barely noticed the notification before Energy Ward pinged again, this time both high and low. The monsters were trying to dive in from different heights to avoid my blade.

I ducked and spun, catching the low monster, then returning with an overhand to hopefully catch the tail end of the one diving from above. Two shrieks of pain marked my cuts and I grinned viciously.

More pings from Energy Ward. Time ceased to exist and everything outside of the range of Energy Ward faded away as I focused every point in Perception in trying to find the phantoms as I poured every bit of Agility and Dexterity into a spinning, rolling dance of death back and forth across the room.

The phantoms poured in, far more than I would have expected from such a new nest. Had others followed the sick in here to set up camp? It didn’t matter, I would purge them all.

Every muscle moved in sync as I fell into a battle trance deeper than anything I’d ever experienced before. My heightened Intelligence and Perception pushed against the limits of my vision, syncing every move with the tingles I felt from Energy Ward.

The cabin filled with the screams of invisible monsters as I cut through them, my body blurring, wielding death in the form of a glowing blue blade. Kill notifications started trickling in and with each one, I triggered Soul Feed to replenish my pools and keep me fighting at peak form.

Then another notification popped into my mind before I could wave it away.

Stolen story; please report.

“Congratulations, Lucas! A new synergy has been unlocked between Energy Ward, Soul Feed, and Wolf Sight. Wolf Sight upgraded to level 2. Life force absorbed from a monster using Soul Feed will resonate with you, allowing you to more clearly sense similar monsters and see through illusions or invisibility obscuring them from your sight.”

“Yes!” I laughed as my vision cleared and suddenly I could see half a dozen ethereal shapes flitting all around me. They looked like children with skeletal limbs capped in long claws and snakelike heads tipped with 8-inch mosquito beaks.

They did not know I could see them, so kept sweeping in, trying to plunge those deadly needle-like beaks into my back. I leaped to meet them, my strikes sure, and before they could escape, I slashed every last one of them apart.

Then I scanned the room, spotting more phantoms clinging to the backs of every victim. Crystal was lying on the floor not far from the door, clawing at it weakly, with 4 Lifebane Phantoms all clinging to her back.

Alice had ignored my warning and rushed in to help. She huddled over Crystal, trying vainly to heal her, even with 3 more monsters sucking her own life dry. She looked ready to keel over any second.

With a shout of rage, I lunged and tore apart every last monster on the two women, then rushed to every patient, flipping them over onto their stomachs so I could kill the monsters draining their life away.

High-pitched shrieks punctuated every slash as I tore the invisible monsters apart. Only when I got the final notification did I sag to my knees next to my brother’s bed and place a hand to his throat. His pulse was weak and thready.

“Lucas?” Crystal coughed as she and Alice helped each other to stand. Color returned to their faces, and they both stood taller, either from Alice’s healing spell, or from healing potions.

“Hang in there, Tomas,” I told him as I pulled off my Tesla Coil bracelet and fastened it to his wrist. Immediately color started flooding back into his cheeks. He’d be okay.

The missing Beth returned with armed men. She’d seen Lily’s clone appear and had fled to get help. She too was a healer. With their spells and several healing potions, all the victims soon recovered.

Crystal finally stood from her sister’s side. Without a word, she walked up to me and threw her arms around my waist, burying her face against my chest. I held her awkwardly as she sobbed into my shirt.

Finally she pushed away and swiped at her eyes. “Thank you, Lucas. I’ve been horrid to you and you saved Lily’s life.”

“You are pretty terrible,” I said with a smile, making her laugh weakly.

Tomas shouted, “Hey, I just got 2 levels! How does that work?”

I turned to find him sitting up, looking like himself. He wore a leather jacket, gray t-shirt and tactical pants. His brown hair was disheveled, and he still looked too thin, but healthy.

“Tomas Walker. Baby human level 14. Team Fast & Furious.”

“Where am I?” he added, then spotted me and waved. “Hey, Lucas! When did you get here? Where is here, by the way?”

He jumped out of bed and promptly collapsed to the wooden floor with a grunt. I hauled him up and hugged him.

“Ah, Lucas, you’re crushing my ribs,” he coughed.

“Sorry. It’s good to see you recovering.” I lowered him to his bed where he plopped onto his backside.

“Why am I so weak? What happened? How are we inside an actual house? Where’s my team?”

I recounted what I knew and he glanced around the other recovering patients. Word was quickly spreading, and friends and teammates were starting to pour in. “Invisible parasites? That sucks.”

I snorted. “Lame joke, bro. But yeah, you’re lucky I realized what was going on, or you would have died.”

“Thanks.” He lifted his wrist and examined the Tesla Coil bracelet. “And thanks for the sweet item.”

“Yeah, I’ll need that back.” I held out my hand for it.

“Indian giver,” he grumbled, but took it off and handed it over. It had given him a lot of energy, but I’d absorbed a ton from killing so many Lifebane Phantoms.

I told him about the bracelet’s powers as I accepted the prompt to loot the monsters. “It’s saved my life several times.”

“That’s incredible. How can you be only level 7?”

I sighed. Here we go again.

Across the room, Lily shouted, “I got 2 levels too, and a gold Lazarus loot box!”

“I got one too,” another victim exclaimed.

“How about you?” I asked Tomas.

He checked and laughed. “I did.” The loot box appeared in front of him, then vanished as he opened it, revealing a single scroll. No one but the owner of the loot box could claim it, and it soon flashed, then disappeared as Tomas read it.

He grinned. “Scroll gave me plus 10 to magical resistance.”

“Appropriate.”

I checked my own messages. In addition to the notifications of killing the monsters, I got a silver Bouncer loot box for breaking Crystal’s wrist. Inside was a scroll that upgraded my hand-to-hand martial arts ability one level. I got an even better one next.

“Congratulations, Lucas! For solving the puzzle of the ghostly parasites, defeating the Lifebane Phantoms, and saving all the victims, you receive an emerald Doctor Quinn loot box.”

The huge, glittering emerald appeared in the air in front of me, generating a lot of excitement. Most of the people packing the little cabin had never seen an emerald loot box before. It held 3 scrolls.

“Scroll of upgrade. Plus 10 to magical resistance.”

“Scroll of upgrade. Upgrade Wolf Blood to level 2. Each level increases health and mana regeneration by 10%.

“Scroll of upgrade. Upgrade Soul Feed to actively drain power from monsters on contact.”

“Whoa!” I explained the upgrades to Tomas.

“Those are amazing. I’m surprised you didn’t get a level.”

I gave him a shortened version of the same line I’d given everyone else. Tomas frowned as he listened.

“How many monsters do you need to kill to gain a level?”

“A bunch. I’m working on it.”

“You’ll get there,” he told me with an encouraging smile.

I could tell he still didn’t understand. Like just about everyone else, he still thought it was just a matter of focusing and not slacking off. I didn’t bother arguing about it. Cyrus wouldn’t let me tell the entire truth, so what else could I tell him?

It didn’t matter. I’d found him. Tomas was safe! I relaxed in a way I had not managed since waking up on this death world. Now I felt like I could take on any insanity Cyrus chose to drop me into.

“Hey, you can absorb energy from monsters?” Tomas asked. “What if one of those parasite monsters tries stabbing you? They drain life, but now you drain it back. Which of you would win?”

“Good question. I have no idea.” I glanced up and asked, “Can you clarify?”

“I should have expected great questions would run in the family,” Cyrus answered immediately. Tomas jumped, but no one else around us did. Apparently Cyrus was talking only to us. “Indeed, your upgrade trumps most life and energy draining abilities that require a monster to touch you.”

“That’s an even better upgrade than I thought. Thanks.”

“You’ve developed a knack for taking on ethereal monsters. I’ll have to see about adding a few more to keep life interesting.”

“You don’t have to do that.” I shared a look with Tomas, whose eyes had gone wide.

“Don’t be so modest, Lucas. I’m here to help challenge everyone to reach their ultimate potential.”

I sighed and dropped it. Then I grabbed Tomas’ shoulder. “Hey, did you know Jane is in town?”

“Where? Let’s go!”