55.

The kill notification dinged in his head as the woman died. Santi kept limping toward the VIP box, blood trailing behind him. The arena was deserted but the sounds of fighting outside were drifting in towards him. The primate screams and shouts mingling with the chaos of skills and spells going off in thunderous detonations. Santi kept a hand clenched around the dagger in his gut, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

The pain was starting to creep up on him, a blanket of agony that pulsed with every shuddering step. Santi focused on keeping moving, not allowing the thought of stopping to enter his mind. If he stopped, there’d be no way he could start moving again.

The doors to the VIP box were wide open and Santi staggered through them and into the room. The scent of blood was thick in the room, coating it like paint. Yesi lay in a curled up ball in the corner of the room, her sides hardly moving as Santi lurched toward her.

“Yesi, Yesi!” he forced himself to shout, praying his sister would stir. Something squeaked behind him and Santi reacted instantly. Spinning around even through the pain, Santi met eyes with Abraham as the man burst out of the shadows in the corner of the room. In his exhaustion Santi hadn’t realized his near constant spell had dropped.

Rage invigorated him as Abraham’s dark eyes met his own. The man lunged, extending a spear toward him in a blur of speed. Santi rolled his wrist in a quick circle, the morph blade cutting the head of the spear off. The now blunt end hit him in the chest near his hurt shoulder. He staggered backward, struggling to not fall down at the morph blade turned into a long needle.

He stabbed weakly at Abraham, the thin point piercing Abraham’s chest. The other man froze and looked down at the thin needle that was buried in his chest, blood just beginning to trickle out of the wound. He looked back up and met Sati’s eyes.

“Do it then.”

Santi had the morph splinter in a thousand hooks and ripped it free.

Another kill notification.

Santi stared at the man who had taken from him his hope of having another chance of a full family. There should have been more. More pain, more emotional catharsis, more everything.

Santi turned away from the corpse and went to Yessenia huddled up on herself in the corner. Her head turned and Santi could see the devastation inflicted on her for the first time. Her eyes were swollen and bruised, barely more than slits. Her lips smashed and blood dribbled from her mouth as she looked at him.

“Santi?” the whisper was half prayer and half question.

“I’m here, Yesi. I got you.” Santi went to a knee in front of her and almost fell over as she surged into him, her head burying itself in his shoulder. She leaned back instantly and looked down at him, fully taking in his wounds.

“Oh, Santi. No,no,no.”

“It’s fine. Tank will get me back on my feet. Let’s get out of here.” Santi struggled up, not releasing his little sister as they stood upright. Yesi looked down at the body and spat on it as they trudged out of the room and toward the front. They were leaning on each other, half supporting each other as they both were too injured to walk without help.

[Air Current] was cast around them the moment they left the VIP box. In his addled state it took most of his concentration to keep the flow of information from overwhelming him. There was little he could do if there was a foe, his limbs were growing numb and chill was creeping into him. The world was hazy as he focused on step after step, getting away from the monster den.

The sunlight hit him, the warmth of the sun a distant thing that seemed far away as Yesi took on more of his weight as they exited the stadium. A shadow moved and Santi turned to look as Daniel emerged. A gash was on his face leaking blood but the horror in his eyes as he took them in was evident.

“Here,” Daniel said, shoving a glass vial up to Santi’s lips. Santi swallowed automatically, the sweet relief of the healing potion trickling down his throat. A sharp pain burst through the fog in his mind and he looked down to see Daniel had removed the knife in his gut.

“Tank sent me ahead to try to find you. Shit’s bad, but we’re all still alive for the moment. The monkey’s went crazy a few minutes ago, started fighting those guys and killing them. Here, Yesi, I have another one.”

Santi could feel his wounds healing, but it was so, so, slow. Yesi shuddered and gasped next to him as she finished drinking her own potion. Santi wondered where the scout, or more likely Tank, had gotten the potions. Could have held them for an emergency or traded someone for them.

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“Where’s Hana?” Santi asked while Yessenia tried to recover. His own wounds were closing, the bones in his left arm grinding together. The tooth wasn’t coming back in even if he could feel it pushing against his gums. There wasn’t enough magic left in the potion to finish healing him all the way.

“She got hit in the head pretty bad by a [Bull Primus]. Tank has her and she’ll be fine but she’s a bit dazed.”

“Oh, that’s weird.” Yesi was touching her face with a delicate finger, tracing her now healed lips and face.

“Everyone else is ok?”

“Yeah, we didn’t get far into downtown before it started getting rough. We backed up and forted up. Brought everyone who’s evolved and we’re holding down a corner building. Had some injuries but nobody was too badly hurt.”

“Good. This is a monster’s den. I didn’t realize it at first, but it is one. I killed the den protector but it still needs to be broken up. I’ll deal with that, take Yesi and loot this place down to the studs.”

“How’d you not realize it was a den?”

“My mind was elsewhere. It’s more subtle than the others too, it helped reinforce my desire to protect my family, to exert my dominance on those who challenged me, everything that I was planning on doing anyways.”

“Alright, you go deal with that and I’ll show your sister around.” Yesi looked at Santi with a mix of fear and incredulous fury.

“Santiago, I don’t want to be shoved off to one of your lackeys.” Daniel wisely decided to take his leave and not protest being called a lackey.

“Daniel will keep you safe and I know. I don’t want you going anywhere without me either, but I have to break up this nest and it's not going to be pleasant. The pressure of it will press on you in a way you can’t imagine. Help Daniel and meet me back out here in thirty minutes.”

“Santi!”

“No. Just, please. For me. Just give me thirty minutes.”

“Daniel, come show me around,” Yesi said, flames of anger in her eyes as she walked away with the scout. Santi turned and walked back into the stadium. Now that he was in a bit better state of mind he could feel the pressure of the den on him more. A need to dominate, to protect, to control.

He was tired but still aware enough to work his way down toward the tunnels he had been in, following the faint feel of the den like a bloodhound. He passed by the bar he had killed the squad of out of towners. He walked in and grabbed another of the gas lamps and went deeper into the bowels of the facility.

Twisting and turning down the myriad of halls, he started to see signs of the ape’s occupation. Shredded clothing and bedding forming small nests along the edge of the hall. Santi found the heart of the nest in an abandoned weight room. The mirrors that lined it weren’t broken and reflected the light of Santi’s gas lamp.

Inside the room the feeling of protectiveness was enough to make him rethink about what he was going to do. Small forms were nestled around in bedding, light reflecting off their eyes. This was what the alpha had been willing to die for. Santi did it quickly and humanely.

The den broke and he heard more announcements in his mind as he earned more achievements. He didn’t bother looking at them, he couldn’t be bogged down in the minutia of his very long list of kills, achievements and levels. When he was somewhere safe he could check it.

He searched quickly and thoroughly the ruins of the nesting area. There were a few small small earth treasures which he balled up in some scraps of clothing and tied up before leaving the room.

The walk back up was slow as Santi needed to try to figure out what he wanted to do. With the potion in his system he wasn’t on death's door anymore, but he wasn’t far away either. Two potions in the same day, his body was worn out. His mind was frayed.

Abraham was dead. The [Primus Alpha] was dead. Yessenia was safe. Some parts of Santi wanted to go and keep hunting. Finish off the Apostate while he was injured. But, where did he go? His people had whisked him away and Santi didn’t have any skills or spells to track him down. There were plenty of small towns and even a city not far away.

Mom and Bianca.

That was where he was needed. He needed to go home and confront that horrible reality. Santi leaned against a wall for a few minutes, waiting for the appointed time. Breaking the nest had taken less than eight minutes and he wanted a few minutes to gather himself before seeing Yessenia again.

The image of her battered and bloodied face would stay with him. He had failed to protect them. Had dismissed Abraham’s incessant insubordination. Now he had to bury his father and look his family in the eye. Tears slid down his face as he cried quietly away from where the others could see him.

His hands trembled and shook as the adrenaline of the fight wore off. He allowed himself five minutes to experience it all. The pain, the hurt, the guilt, and then he boxed it all away. With every slow inhalation he packed it up and steadied himself. It took another three minutes before he was in control again.

He left the tunnels and waited up by the front doors, ignoring the corpses that decorated the area. Daniel and Yesi came around a few minutes later, both of them grim faced and silent even with Daniel having a heavy satchel of goods. Santi could feel the power wafting off of them even from where he stood.

“Did you find the riftheart?”

“No. Yesi said it was taken away while she was locked in here. They didn’t trust the monkey’s to not take it. They were going to bring it when the ritual was going to be completed.” Yesi just stared at him. She didn’t say a word but there was hurt written all over her face.

“Let’s go. Daniel, lead us out. We need to get back to Mom.” A tear trembled in Yesi’s eye.

“Dad didn’t make it, did he?”

“No.” Yesi straightened up standing to her full height as silent tears tracked down her face. Santi wrapped his sister up in his arms and she leaned into him as he led her out. She didn’t make a sound but he could feel the hot tears on his shirt.

“It won’t take us long. Seems most of everyone is running out of here.” Daniel said as he started leading them home.