Darkvision (Tier 0 – Blue) [Mind]

Passive. The user’s eyes adjust to the darkness. Darkvision is improved. Vampiric origin; future skill augments affected.

Available Augments:

Improved Darkvision [0/250]

Passive. The user’s eyesight in darkness improves further. Dark areas may now be viewed normally. Eyes become passively infused with Flow, allowing the user to see through even pure darkness as if it were dimly lit. Passively increases resistance to blinding effects induced by foreign entities.

Blinding Stare [0/500]

Active. Moderate Flow cost. Upon making eye contact with another entity, the user may activate this Augment to temporarily inflict blindness against the target. Effect and duration scales and is contested with Spirit.

Vampiric Gaze [0/1,000]

Passive. Advances the user’s vampirism to a higher stage. While this skill is in effect, the user’s gaze permanently gains a slight hypnotic effect. Creatures with lower Spirit than the user are more susceptible to the effect of the user’s words for one minute after establishing eye contact. Changes Skill Orb [Darkvision] to [Vampiric Gaze] and allows for the selection of a new Augment for the new skill.

Sen stared blankly at the last upgrade. If there was ever going to be a sign that the world would now have mind-fuckery in its list of things to screw humanity with, it would be this. If a passive effect would already alter another person’s mind, what would an active do? What would an Ability do?

A small shudder crawled up his spine. Sen envisioned himself enslaved to some terrifying Ability, unable to even resist as a Spirit more powerful than his forced him into permanent servitude. With how absurd the interface had become, Sen didn’t dare assume something like that was impossible. No—it was already present, even in him. With Mortal Commandment, Sen could issue a limited number of commands to another person as well. Even if it was just for ten seconds at a time.

If he could do that, then why not other people? If he had the ability to make someone his puppet, then it was entirely possible for him to fall under a foreign influence as well. Sen wiped away the sweat on his palms.

Raising his Spirit Attribute further suddenly seemed like a much bigger priority.

With a single glance at his essence count, Sen was quick to come to a decision. He opened his status, ready to purchase his new upgrades to Mind and Darkvision, when—

Insufficient essence.

He froze. Sen stared at the golden letters in front of him, slowly moving his gaze down to find a number next to his essence. Thirty-seven. That was all that remained, after he had impulsively spent his essence on upgrades when they had been on the road. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem. After all, essence was meant to be spent. It was his only way of leveling the playing field between him and the monsters outside.

But today was an exception. And it was because he had been stupid enough to forget about one of the most concerning things in his status.

The curse.

Blood Curse of Kulv’arash [Stage 1]

After sufficient exposure to ambient Odd, foreign energy begins to change the user. Vampiric Transformation ongoing. Slight increase to the effect of all Attributes. Flow costs slightly decreased. User consumes 50 essence a day to feed the growth of the Blood Curse, increasing with each successive stage.

Failure to meet this requirement within 24 hours will result in the user’s death.

Blood Curse of Kulv’arash [Stage 1] will progress to Blood Curse of Kulv’arash [Stage 2] after consuming [150/1,000] essence.

He hadn’t been thinking. He’d been too distracted. Running from monsters, stressing over where to go, searching for any advantage he could get—it had blinded him from the fact that once a day, he had to pay a toll to stay human. It was such a small amount, after all. Just fifty essence. When had he ever had less than that for an extended period of time?

It had slipped his mind completely until now. Sen glanced at the clock, ticking away.

1:21 AM.

The last time the curse had removed essence from his was around seventeen hours ago, give or take a few minutes. Six hours to go until he was charged again. Sen glanced around the room—people sleeping, him awake. Sen had planned to simply keep watch all night to let the rest of his group sleep a little more, but it seemed things weren’t going to go the way he planned. Chewing on his knuckle, Sen decided to bite the bullet.

Fuck it. He’d just wake up Em. With a few long strides towards her table, Sen put a hand on her shoulder and shook her awake. Em squinted up at him with tired eyes, a small groan rasping up her throat. She deflated in her seat.

“My turn to keep watch already?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Sen replied. “But a little change in plans. I might have to go out by myself for a while during your watch.”

“And why the bloody hell would you do that?”

Sen scratched the back of his head and explained the situation to her, and in response, Em gave him a blank stare. It took her a second to process what he’d told her, until the look on her face slowly turned into disbelief.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You forgot? About the vampire blood curse trying to turn us into blood-sucking prunes?”

“Well, I was aware of the curse. I didn’t just forget it completely,” Sen said, sighing. “It’s just that I bought my upgrades when we were on the road. You know, when we were expecting to be attacked at any time? I thought I’d regain the essence I need for it if we killed any more monsters, but…”

“Right. I was the one who ended up fighting them, while the hot boardgame café barista pointed a shotgun at you.”

“You sound jealous about that and it concerns me.”

“Don’t judge me. You’re the one who forgot about paying off his Dracula-fee,” she muttered, getting up from her seat with a big yawn. “So what now, then? We go outside and do a little monster hunting?”

“I go outside and do a little monster hunting. I think it’d be better if you stayed here, in case anything happens with Amir. It’s not like I’ll be out hunting for Tier 3 monsters, anyway. I’ll just step on a few Tier 0 crabs and come right back. Easy.”

Em narrowed her eyes at him, doubtful. “Are we forgetting the shotgun incident that happened the last time you split up with me?”

“What do you propose, then?”

“We wake up Bali and go together.”

“He might end up too tired for the road tomorrow if we don’t let him sleep. I don’t want to risk an exhausted driver out there, you know?”

“Better than letting you risk yourself alone,” she said, shrugging. Em raised her arms over her head and yawned again. “Worst case scenario, we delay going to Belmont by a day. If the people there can survive a week without us, they’ll be fine for a little longer.”

Sen sighed. She was right, of course. He was fully aware that it was some stupid pride thing that made him want to go out by himself. It was his dumb mistake. He didn’t want to drag her out into danger to kill monsters with him just because his essence count slipped his mind. But that was a dumb way of thinking. One that would get him killed. So, Sen gave up. He stopped the protest before it could leave his mouth.

“Fine,” he said, his shoulders dropping. “I’m just not thinking clearly. It’s…”

Em put a hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. She gave him a small, tired smile. “You’re drained, yeah,” she said. “We all are. But things like this are why we’re a team. If you decide to do something dumb, it’s my job to do it with you.”

Sen nodded, and that was that. They woke Bali, who was sleeping over a table, and Sen gave him Amir’s shotgun and pistol. It was loaded with four shells, and the pistol only had one round missing from his earlier scuffle with Amir. With the two, it would be more than enough for Bali to defend himself should the café’s owner try something while they were gone.

Bali accepted the weapons with a strange look, his face set into a frown as he held the guns with a familiarity Sen didn’t expect. He didn’t waste time asking inane questions about the man’s past, however. He and Em headed for the roof as soon as everything inside was settled.

With a light push, the door to the rooftop creaked open, and the two of them stepped out into the dim light of the moon. Fog shrouded the eternal night.

And yet, the world around them glowed in shades of orange and green, flickering through the blanket of mist. The smoldering celestial body in the sky felt like a giant, scorched eye, peering down onto a coral-infested wasteland. As Sen and Em peeked over the side of the roof, they saw shapes stalking into the darkness of the gas station outside. Silent, lithe predators with paper-crumple skin.

Desiccated Vampire – Tier 0

A swarm of them patrolled through the darkness like the soldiers of an ant hive. Exiting from the jungle of corals, they didn’t so much as sweep but swarm the area, moving in strange, jerking paths through the buildings. Several entered a restaurant and scoured the darkness, while a group outside dragged a massive corpse out of the corals. It was a huge cuttlefish, its body marred with crisscrossing wounds soaked in ink and blood.

The lesser vampires brought it to a big shape at the head of the group—towards a vampire leading the formation. It stood out in the dim of moonlight, the orange glow reflecting off of the dark scales growing out of its flesh.

Unlike the other vampires, the creature had an elongated snout lined with smaller, more needle-like teeth. Long, lanky arms and legs propped it up from the ground with a lazy, hanging gait. A bone-plated tail swayed behind its body. The thing looked like the horrific lovechild of a scorpion and a xenomorph; something straight out of a horror flick. And yet, Sen found himself tensing up for another reason entirely.

It wasn’t the creature’s appearance that scared him.

It was its presence.

The sensation was difficult to describe. It felt like looking at a mirage—the shadow of a shadow, unsure of even its own existence. Even when Sen stared directly at it, his eyes tried to focus on something else. When it clicked its claws against the ground, the sound felt distant. And even in the middle of other monsters that looked nothing like it, Sen had almost missed it entirely.

[Boss] Vampiric Foghunter – Tier 1

It was as if the monster was trying to erase itself in front of his eyes. Sen and Em stared at it, frozen, and the wind blew. Cold. Like the glance of steel against skin. It rolled over the rooftops, and the fog forming in the Flow-saturated air billowed across the parking lot.

The mist thickened ever so slightly. The foghunter flickered.

And then it disappeared.

Sen and Em ducked behind the rooftop parapet. Cold sweat beaded on Sen’s forehead like little drops of ice, stinging its chill into his skin. The cold fog only seemed to make it worse. As they sat there, hidden, Sen and Em shared a look. He could read the emotions plainly on her face—hesitation, fear. The same no doubt showed on his.

They were not going to fight it. Not in its territory. Not ever. It was one thing to fight an enemy that roared and screamed and charged. It was another to fight something so… eerie. So quietly vicious. Its entire form promised a subtle violence; a swift, bloody sweep of a claw, followed by the sound of disemboweled guts spilling onto the concrete.

Quick, efficient death.

Its prey wouldn’t even see it coming.

For a moment, Sen debated simply turning back inside. Or telling Em to return without him. But he was cursed—there was a timer, and while the curse would only kill him after another day had passed, that didn’t mean it would have no effects. Sen felt his skin prickle. Would it speed up his transformation? Would it weaken him?

He didn’t know. And that was far more terrifying of a thought than the monster below. With a gesture, Sen led the way down the roof. They took the fire escape down—a ladder, behind the building. It was out of sight and nestled in an alley. In darkness. There, they would stay unseen.

As they entered the alley, Sen crouched down beside Em. “Is your Skill Orb telling you anything?” he whispered, and Em slowly shook her head.

“Supernatural Instincts isn’t reacting. I don’t feel any gazes on us.”

“Okay,” he nodded, squeezing down on his backpack’s straps. “Silent and fast, then. Let’s leave through the other end of the alley. We can look for essence in the corals, where we have a lot of places to hide. Worst comes to worst, we camp out until morning.”

“If it spots us, we run away from the station. I don’t want to bring that thing anywhere near Tasha.”

“Agreed. Even with an Ability, she won’t be able to do anything against that.”

Em gave him a surprised glance, then pursed her lips. Sen watched her refrain from asking questions, but he knew the implication was there. She’d ask more about it later—once they were alone and safe.

Trying to stay as quiet as possible, Sen and Em crept towards the alley’s mouth. It was already infested with corals; the limestone growths infested the moss-laden concrete, spilling into the alley from outside. A big chunk of coral blocked the way, and Sen leapt—latched on. He climbed up a ledge and Em followed after, her own Body Attribute allowing her to keep pace with him.

Together, they sneaked into the thick of the coral forest. It was almost like exploring a cave—openings and passages, up and down and through. The only difference was the canopy of limestone looming overhead.

They covered good ground, distancing themselves from the parking lot. But just as the two of them climbed up a coral the size of a lamp post and ten times as thick, there was a sound from overhead.

It came from the East. Away from Dubai, from the outskirts of the city. It was the sound of wind being displaced repeatedly—a chugging, whipping gash of movement.

Sen looked up and saw it: the dark, flying shape in the mist. His eyes widened.

A helicopter was cutting through the sky.