Vince was confused when he heard the third rule and couldn't understand why Vic needed to make something like that for the third rule.

But as an arrow grazed his left thigh, he understood what kind of shit he was in.

After the encounter with the first group of survivors, which Vic killed without wasting time, shit went south too quickly.

Vince felt his heart beating crazily as he heard another whistle of an arrow. He ducked to the ground and saw the arrow pass through the spot he was standing and nail into a tree.

When Vince looked at the source of the arrow, he saw two groups of death-rowers fighting with each other. One of the men with a bow grabbed another wooden arrow from the quiver and shot again. This time, the arrow missed the mobile target and hit a woman who was supposed to be on his team.

Yeah. Damn, bastard didn’t even aim for Vince.

“Move, kiddo!” Vic, who was decimating another death-rower, yelled and started to run south.

“Fuuck!” Vince cursed under his breath and quickly lifted himself from the ground and ran with everything he had.

He kept his head low and paranoidly looked at the shit show going around.

Mayhem.

It was pure mayhem.

Vince saw people fight each other, either solo or in groups, as they lusted over each other’s loot. He even saw a couple of crowded three-way fights. Two death-rower groups fight each other while drowners, which have slowly drifted at the source of the sounds, pop out of nowhere and bite the death-rowers.

Screams and curses echoed, people fell to the ground to never rise again, and drowners feasted on fresh corpses, but the fight continued no matter what.

And everything for what?

Vince’s eyes were subconsciously drawn to the woman who was absorbing the monster cores she looted from the death-rower she killed. The woman gleefully smiled as the cores in her hand slowly lost luster and turned to dust.

The woman stood there with her disturbing, gleeful smile for a couple of seconds before coming back to reality. What was more disturbing was the moment she came to herself, she turned to attack another death-rower.

These people were addicted to the rush.

Vince heard another wind whistling sound and wanted to leap forward, but a stone hit his right leg and made him wince with pain. He rubbed the place as he pushed himself to continue running. That would leave a bruise behind.

What was the third rule?

Watch out for rogue elements.

Damn it! Vince cursed again as his body protested against his reckless run.

He picked up one of the three monster cores left and absorbed it. The same rush refreshed Vince’s body to an extent, but he didn’t feel the craving anymore.

Which was a good sign after he saw the addicts.

As Vince chased Vic's distant back, he saw the man slow down and run beside him.

Vic glanced at Vince to check his body and grimly said, “Did you drink another core?”

Vince only nodded as he fought with his breath to keep up the tempo.

“Good, and get ready to use your invocations. There is an ambush ahead.”

Vince frowned and said between his breaths, “Can’t… take…out?”

Vic didn’t speak for a moment before replying, “I can, but those two are nasty cockroaches. It will take time. You will be on your own until I take down one.”

Vince's mood soured as they continued to run. He didn’t like a bit of the sound of that.

He had no way to fight back against humans as his invocations were mostly useless in direct confrontation. If he wanted to fight back against some drowners, then sure, he was good enough to come out unscuffed. They were mindless, moving predictability and only wanted to take a sweet bite from him.

But humans were a different matter.

The only real fight he had against a human was a fistfight against a moron who said some nasty thing about his family.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He didn’t really hurt anyone.

Not to talk about every fucking person here was a criminal with a death sentence.

How could he stand a chance against a killer?

“Get ready. We are entering the range.”

Becoming incredibly tense, Vince looked around. Without noticing, mayhem grew distant as the fights left behind. Most of the drowners ignored them and went to the fresh blood scent. When Vince looked closer, he saw corpses around as either they had slitted throats or nasty holes in their body.

Vince felt goosebumps as he heard the same dreaded whistling in the air. He was about to duck, and Vic threw a knife to the coming projectile. Two projectiles clashed in the air as sparks flew, and an iron clashing iron sound echoed.

A big stone crashed into a tree nearby.

“Look at that! Victor Skalev in the flesh!” A skinny man with a hooded mask appeared before the duo and exclaimed in fake surprise.

Vic’s face became more serious as he replied with a knife. The knife appeared just before the hooded man, but the hooded man leaned right then his figure became blurry. While leaving a blue hue behind, the man appeared a couple of meters to the right.

He just teleported. No, shifted through space.

The hooded man held his heart in pain and heartbrokenly said, “Aww. That hurts me, Victor! You know, I am a fan of your research. The way to the—”

Another knife cut the man short, but the hooded man shifted again and appeared above a branch on the tree.

The blue hue left behind by the man helped Vince to follow the man.

The hooded man shook his head in disappointment, “He is not in a talking mood, Clary. Just make sure he is alive enough to torture information out of him. I remember Gourmet promised a plentiful reward to any hint of a way out,” then he turned toward Vince, “I will secure the walking bag of lifespan here.”

“Run, kiddo!” Vic yelled as he pulled out four knives and threw them at the coming projectiles.

Knives collided with projectiles as Vince ran for his life. The hooded man looked at him with gleeful eyes as he watched his run.

Vince heard the bombardment and the colliding all around the place as some trees were destroyed in the process. He didn’t dare to turn back to check out Vic.

It was only a matter of time—

“Whatcha doin'?” The hooded man appeared next to Vince and curiously asked.

Vince cried out in horror as he saw the man’s curious brown eyes up close. His footing became messed up, and fell to the ground.

As soon as he could, Vince pushed himself from the hooded man as the man crouched before him, leveling their eyes.

“I am not gonna hurt you, ‘kiddo.’ Not when you are worth more alive than death.” He whistled and continued, “Actually, I am rather curious about your story, like how the heck you survived Doom Bringer. That filthy creature destroyed my crew except for Clary. Most of them were Kindled on the verge of becoming Emberling. Even I was lucky to survive.”

Without paying attention to the rising Vince, he rubbed his chin and muttered, “Actually, you don’t know the rank system. But as your new caretaker, it is my duty to enlighten you. That is tons of shit to explain, dude.”

Vince started to run again as he left the man muttering behind. He didn’t give a damn about what the hooded man said as he just focused on running faster.

“Why are you running? I need to explain…”

The hooded man appeared again next to Vince, but he ignored him and continued to run.

“Stop running, already…” The hooded man appeared again while hanging from a tree.

“You are being annoying…” This time, he appeared before Vince while shaking his head in disapproval.

Vince ran and ran, but fucking psycho appeared again and again, but more annoyed every time.

When the hooded man saw they were getting too far away from the battle and getting bored of the treatment, he appeared next to Vince and tripped him. Vince rolled a couple of times and hit his back to the tree to stop.

Vince felt his ribs groan in pain as breath was stolen from his lungs. He desperately tried to breathe again as the hooded man, hands in pockets, slowly walked closer.

The hooded man stood before Vince and pressed his body to the ground with his foot while saying, “From now on, you will listen to me. If not, as the customs of Twilight Shores allow, I am allowed to beat some sense to your head when being uncooperative. Did you understand?”

Vince cupped his fist as he muttered weakly, “Rosh.”

The green wisp changed places with the orange one.

The hooded man frowned and leaned closer, “What did you say? I didn’t understand.”

Vince looked at the hooded man with hatred and pointed his left hand while speaking the forbidden language.

“Pulse!”

Vince felt his mental fortitude drain as a force field appeared around his left hand and traveled in the direction he pointed. The hooded man widened his eyes in surprise as he felt the change. The force field pushed him back and forced him to take a couple of steps back and then to the ground to balance the momentum.

“What the—” Hooded man was still stunned when Vince bolted into action.

Vince, in one hand, reached for the throwing knife Vic gave and, in the other, threw the soil he grabbed. The hooded man subconsciously lifted his hands to protect his head as Vic swung his knife.

He didn’t aim for the man’s chest or throat, as he had no confidence to kill a man. He only aimed and stabbed the knife at the man’s wide-open legs, like how Vic predicted in this kind of situation.

“AGH!!” The hooded man howled with pain as the throwing knife dug into his right calf.

Vince didn’t need to kill or decimate his opponent. Vic and he spoke about it while they were discussing his [Talent] and how to utilize it best.

He just needed to run until Vic catches up.