Sen stared into the barrel of a gun.
The long, graysteel barrel stabbed out of the darkness, inches away from his face. The shotgun barrel’s two dark pools seemed to suck the light in, drawing all his attention towards the gun’s deathly gaze. Sen heard a step—tap. A figure stepped out from the darkness, closer. It was an Emirati man with a neat beard, his eyes tired and red under deep, dark bags.
His finger rested on the trigger, grip tight and knuckles white. It was only then, looking between the man and the gun, that Sen fully registered the situation he was in. Two questions came to his mind.
One—could he move fast enough to dodge a shot from what was basically point-blank range?
Probably not.
Two: could he survive a shotgun blast to the face?
Definitely not.
Sen slowly raised his arms.
“Let’s not do anything we’ll both regret,” he said. The man stared at him, his eyes steel, and Sen swallowed. “My name is Sen. I’m a survivor looking for shelter in Maladh down East.”
The Emirati kept staring, his finger tightening subtly around the trigger. “I am Amir, and this is not Maladh. This is my store.”
Sen nodded very, very slowly. “Right. It’s yours. I didn’t know it was. My—” he bit his tongue, stopping himself from mentioning the rest of his group. Sen felt cold sweat roll down the side of his face as his thoughts whirled. “…My bad,” he continued, correcting himself. “I was only looking for shelter. The moon’s almost out, and when it’s in the sky, the monsters are out of the ground. I just wanted to find a safe place.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re wearing bone on your skin.”
“It’s a Skill Orb. You should’ve gotten one if you killed monsters, right?”
“I have, but it doesn’t matter. It says you’re Tier 1 to me. I killed several monsters and I’m not even close to that,” the man said, his eyes narrowing further. “A stranger appearing out of nowhere, like you? I don’t buy it. Almuhtal. You’re a monster wearing a human’s skin—that is what I believe.”
Sen shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you. Look—I have a student ID in my bag. I can show it to you, if you—"
He reached for this pocket, and the man tensed. Sen grit his teeth.
“Just an ID. I’ll grab it. OK?”
The man stared at him, then nodded. He stepped forward, pressing the gun closer, and Sen met it with his forehead, letting the icy cold of the barrel land against his skin. The Emirati motioned to Sen’s bag. “Fine. Get your ID,” he said. “But if I see anything even a little suspicious, I pull the trigger. Speak no words, move only to prove your identity. Or I kill you. Now move. Yallah!”
Sen hurriedly bobbed his head.
The man stared in silence, and Sen pulled his bag forward.
Sen licked his lips as he unzipped the front pocket of his bag, trying to buy as much time as he could. In his head, a whorl of ideas buzzed in his brain. He didn’t have an ID. He didn’t think to bring his. But right now, the man was entertaining his attempt at stalling, but Sen couldn’t be sure. He didn’t like being at the end of a gun. He didn’t enjoy having no control over his situation, like what was happening now.
So he was going to put things in his favor.
He felt the cold of the gun against his forehead. Mortal Commandment could do it. But it was slow—enough that suddenly invoking it might get him shot.
Sen needed it to be faster. Easier to activate.
He reached his hand into the bag, but his mind was elsewhere. Sen focused on the gun. When he used Mortal Commandment, he always specified a target. Sen needed it to direct the Flow towards the right source; by placing a target in his mind, it was like linking a straw between himself and the target of his Ability.
But it was a crutch. And if the man in front of him had increased Mind at all, he would react fast enough to Sen speaking a command to shoot him in the head.
So Sen focused his intent on the gun. All of it.
For the first time since he gained his Ability, Sen didn’t just follow the set of rules and directions in his head. He directed his Flow manually, pushing it out from his heart and out from his forehead. It latched onto the gun, waiting. All it needed was a push. A command.
And now that the target was set, Sen pulled all his focus into the utterance of a single, life-saving word. He stared up at Amir, and the man noticed the look in his eye and he moved to pull the trigger as Sen opened his mouth—
“Liquefy.”
Flow surged and invaded the gun. It infused itself into the very metal, down to the last atom, as the bonds between each particle loosened.
The man pulled the trigger.
The shotgun barrel splashed down to the floor.
In the same moment, the man reeled back and Sen lunged. He reached out and Amir screamed and Sen was there, grabbing his collar and pushing, hoisting up. The man threw a heavy kick that landed on Sen’s leg. It hit bone armor. Sen didn’t budge, and the man slammed against the wall.
The man reached for his pocket. His hand grasped the handle of a pistol and Sen focused—his Flow tried to invade the man’s body, but Sen felt a resistance; a push of wills, and it delayed Mortal Commandment by a fatal instant.
The Emirati’s pistol blurred up from his pocket. Sen caught his wrist. The man pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet smashed a hole into the wall with a deafening boom. Sen squeezed and wrenched the man’s wrist and the pistol clattered to the floor. He kicked it. Amir screamed. “Bite, yallah!”
A blur rocketed up the stairs and slammed into Sen. A gigantic German Shepherd rammed into him in full force as massive jaws clamped against Sen’s shoulder. He staggered, imbalanced. Amir shoved him and Sen crashed to the floor as growls and barks filled the rooftop. Teeth scraped against his armor and Sen growled as Amir sprinted for the pistol on the floor.
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Sen reached his hand towards the gun and pulled. Psionic Force tore it away from Amir’s grip and sent it blurring towards him. Sen caught it and grabbed the German Shepherd by the neck. He tore it away from his shoulder and hauled it up like a child, its yelping cries mixed with barking as it ineffectually clawed at his chest.
The man stared at him. Sen pointed the pistol his way as the two of them stared at each other, panting.
“OK,” Sen said. “Now the tables have turned.”
The man nodded slowly. Sen held his dog up by the scruff like an oversized puppy, the mutt barking and snapping inches away from his face. The man raised his arms, his lips trembling. “Please don’t hurt her,” he said.
Sen glanced at the dog, then back at him. “I won’t. What’s her name?”
“Misha.”
“OK. Order her to stop trying to tear my face off, and I’ll put her down.”
The man nodded quickly. “M-Misha. Heel.”
The dog calmed, growling. She glared at Sen with vicious, brown eyes, but the growl rumbling through her throat ceased. Sen put the dog down slowly, and as soon as she was free, Misha scampered away, back to her owner's side. There, the Emirati hugged her tightly, planting a soft kiss on the dog’s forehead.
Sen lowered the gun and sighed. He threw the pistol to the side and it clattered across the rooftop, stopping only as it clattered against the indoor AC’s exhaust.
“No more guns,” Sen said. “Now we just talk, okay?”
“…Okay.”
“Let’s start over. I’m Sen. Your name, again?”
“Amir.”
“OK. Good. I’m looking for a place to hide for the night, since I don’t want to be out there when the monsters come out. Can I stay inside your building, Amir? And just to be clear, you can say no. Say the word, and I fuck off. We good with that?”
Amir nodded. “…Okay. Are we cool even after I pointed a gun at you?”
“It’s OK. You were just scared. I came on your rooftop with my badass, spiky bone armor and you thought I was a monster. I get it.”
The man nodded again. He glanced at the shotgun by the door, a few feet away. It was whole again—the liquefied metal flowing back to reform onto its original shape. Amir stared at it, hesitating. “...was that the effect of a Skill Orb as well?”
“Ability. I can command stuff to do stuff. Cool, right?”
“Um… yeah. It is.”
Sen nodded. “It is. Can I ask to stay at your place, then?”
Amir hesitated. He gave Sen a reluctant look. “No?”
Sen gave him a flat stare. “You pointed a gun at me,” he said. “You almost shot me. But I didn’t do anything to you or your dog because I’m a good person. And you’re gonna turn me away? Really?”
“You said I could say no.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t argue with your decision.”
The man gave Sen a look, and then his shoulders slumped. He just hugged his dog, burying his face into the German Shepherd’s side. “You’re human alright,” Amir said. “Only people are this pointlessly tiresome to deal with. Fine, then. I don’t seem to have a choice. You may stay.”
“I have a group with me, by the way. Two other adults and one child. They’re staying too.”
Amir stared at him. Sen stared back.
“…Al’ama,”he muttered, cursing. Amir released a breath and glared at him. “Fine. Go, then! Take your entire group inside my building. Just claim the place for yourselves, why don’t you? Ayreh feek!”
Sen smiled at the obvious profanity.
“Thanks. Can I pet your dog?”
Amir glared at him.
“She will bite you.”
“I don’t recommend it. She’ll break her teeth on my armor.” Sen strode up to the German Shepherd as Amir eyed him, the man’s glare looking to kill. Regardless, Sen petted Misha on the head. She growled—
…But she didn’t bite. Sen’s smiled widened. “Good girl. Did you train her?”
“No. I paid for a trainer.”
“You hired a good one.”
"It would be a waste not to."
Sen stood up and walked back to the metal ladder hugging the side of the building. He scooped up the pistol and the shotgun on his way back, stuffing them into his backpack. He gave Amir a look. “Are these all of your guns?”
He nodded. "Please don’t take them.”
“I won’t. I’m just confiscating them until I come back with the rest of my group. Make sure the front door’s unlocked when I get back.”
The man sighed and stood up. “Come, Misha.”
Misha followed him with a low whine, and the two disappeared down the stairs. Sen nodded as he climbed back down, his steps quick. The embermoon was higher up, now. Enough that in the distance, Sen could see shapes climbing down from the taller corals. The glowing fauna slowly faded, the lights dying, as a dreadful orange glow fell over the coral forest. Sen found himself frowning as he jogged back to Em and the others.
He found them there, sitting together behind the corals. Bali sat with Tasha in his arms, the two of them looking around with wary eyes. Em stood nearby, slowly burning away at her Flow reserves as she maintained her Ability’s transformation. Around her, the sliced-up bodies of more lesser deephunters laid sprawled across the ground.
The hound-like beasts would almost pass for dogs, if it weren’t for their sleek, scaled bodies and anglerfish heads. Sen looked around and found another corpse—a larger, sleeker variant.
[Elite] Alpha Deephunter – Tier 1
He turned his eyes to Em, who nursed a shallow cut down her forearm. She poked at it and winced as Sen approached. “You okay?” he asked. Em sighed.
“I’m tired. And bleeding. Everything sucks. But I’m okay.”
“There’s a guy in the building I went to,” Sen said, jerking his thumb towards the guns on his back. “He pointed a shotgun at me.”
“Did he shoot you? You don’t look like you’ve been shot.”
“I’m not dead, so no. But I pretty much forced him into letting us stay the night there, so I don’t think he’s very happy with me. One of us might have to keep watch when we’re in there.”
”Might?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we got off to a bad start and he’s actually a good guy. I’m sure you could charm him into liking us more.”
“Would I want to do that at all?”
“He looks thirty. Maybe an eight-out-of-ten.”
“But he’s thirty.”
“That’s a no, huh?”
She walked up and cuffed him on the shoulder, sighing as her Ability faded away with a flash of red sparks. The magical girl regalia sputtered away. Em returned to her normal appearance as she gave Bali and his daughter a glance. “Are you sure it’s safe enough for us to bring them in there?”
Sen hesitated, then shook his head. “Not at all. But it’s safer than out here, and I’m not taking my chances with those other buildings.”
“The KFC doesn’t look too bad, does it?”
Sen glanced back at it and found one side of the building completely obliterated by corals. Giant, horn-like growths stabbed out from inside of it, barely holding up the rest of the building. And even with that, it was the building that was left most intact. Sen gave Em a look and she winced.
“Right,” she said. “Okay. So we’re staying with the shotgun guy.”
“Well, he won’t have his shotgun as long as we’re still in there.”
“So he’s just the guy, then. Good. I can deal with that.”
“You’re still bleeding, though.”
Em gave him a tired smile. “When are we not?”
“That’s true,” Sen nodded as he signaled Bali and his daughter to get up. The man in question carried her in his arms as they came together as a group, wading through the corals and towards Amir’s office down the street. By the time Sen reached the front door, Amir was already there waiting. He stood with his arms crossed, but the glare on his face softened as soon as he saw Tasha in Bali’s arms.
He sighed as his eyes flickered to Em. “I have a first aid kit inside,” he said, turning away. “Come in and lock the door behind you.”
Sen and Em shared a glance as they followed him inside.
“You’re right,” she whispered. “He is an eight-out-of-ten.”
“Right,” Sen grinned. “He’s almost as good-looking as me.”
“You keep telling yourself that. I’m going to… huh.”
Em trailed off. She stared around inside the building, and Sen blinked, before following suit. It was then they realized that this place wasn’t an office, but a store. A game cafe. A sparse collection of large tables dotted the first floor, circled by a collection of shelves along the walls. There, books and boxes were stacked along in towers, all of different brands and logos.
Board games. A whole collection of them.
Amir caught them staring as he pulled a first aid kit out from one of the drawers. He set it down on the counter and crossed his arms. “It’s thirty dirhams a person to play for four hours,” he said, as Em reached for one of the boxes. “But if you bleed on any of my games, you pay for it.”
Em’s hand stopped. Meanwhile, Bali and Tasha took a seat in the corner of the room, his daughter looking around curiously. Tasha gave her father a look, and he gave her a tired shake of the head.
Her eyes slowly swiveled to Em.
Em smiled and pulled out three crumpled twenty-dirham bills.
"Can't say no to that."