The harsh fluorescent lights burned Wisp's retinas, imparting to him a great hatred of the standard boring tubes used to brighten the lobby interior, now that all windows were broken or simply shuttered off by metal.
Almost everyone else had departed for their rooms by now. Using the external CCTV cameras revealed no clues as to what time it was, or whether it was even day or night. Black dust blotted out the sun, engulfing the whole city in its wrath. The audio logs recorded only the omnipresent static noise of heavy winds and the occasional growl or roar, barely audible in the current conditions.
Perhaps he should check up on the state of the hotel…
Venturing upstairs, he knocked on the doors of the people he knew.
Snake answered the door in only the buttoned up lab coat and nearly blew his head off with a Potion of Violent Reaction. A whole new meaning to "diffusing the situation".
Vola cursed him with misfortune for waking him up. It resulted in the door handle breaking off when Wisp shut the door, locking Vola inside. He decided not to mention it to him, as payback for the curse.
Dime slid a coin under the door. Picking it up caused it to stick to his skin, weighing him down significantly. He cut his electricity until he apologized.
Acid threatened to fill his lungs with acid gas for banging on doors in the morning and he responded calmly with tact by punching a hole through the door and miming doing it to her next.
Moments before he could knock on Mei's door, there was the sound of metal creaking, being deformed under strain, and an unholy screech typical of any horror flick. Using the master key to unlock the door afforded him the luxury of witnessing a wavering hound, jet black in appearance and eyes neon purple. Mei's handgun was useless, the bullets bouncing off its skin. The timely help of Den was barely enough to hold it back, growling in rage.
The situation was unstable, but he needed to act quickly…
Wisp swiftly pulled out his PA radio, pressing the broadcast button on the side.
"Attention all hotelgoers we have an emergency at Wing 5 PLEASE SEND HELP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!"
The volume of his yelling, pumped through the network of connected speakers in the hotel, appeared to wake everyone who was still asleep and bring them to full alertness. The beast of dust and void recoiled at the sudden audio burst, giving Den precious moments to sink its teeth into the enemy, eliciting a terrifying howl of anger.
Hound uses: Piercing Wail.
Mei and Wisp are afflicted with Scared.
Mei loses initiative.
Due to the effects of Deathless, Wisp is immune.
He shuddered, the effects of the skill passing through his body without grasping his soul. Mei, skilless as far as he could tell, was not so lucky. Her muscles locked up, paralyzed by adrenaline and lack of direction, frozen as Death stared her in the face.
Wisp leaned forwards, taking a deep breath.
You prepare yourself.
The beast threw Den to the ground, tearing off a robotic limb in a bloody rage. Mei's hands shook, clutching the gun, working up the courage to fire...
The door was thrown open with a bang louder than any gunshot, and the beast experienced what it felt like to be struck by a compressed air bullet, thrown back against the far wall. Acid, gauntlets on, grabbed Mei by the hand, dragging her out of danger temporarily.
Acid joins the battle.
Acid uses Air Burst.
Void Hound is Stunned.
He followed the two girls, right on their heels. Running down the hallway only gave him a moment's respite, before the monstrous hound burst through the doorway, terribly determined to claim their lives.
...Did he just hear a second growl? Another set of pounding footsteps? Another wolf to support the first?
Your will stands steadfast.
Wisp charged around the corner, where he knew the elevator and stairs were, coming face to face with Unze, Snake, Rico, Dime, and Dave (who was clad in armor and clutching a laser pistol of his own design). Acid and Mei leaned against the far wall, taking a breather after dashing down the hallway. Unze turned to him, his breath crackling with energy.
"What's the situation?"
"Two dark dogs. Giant. Immune to bullets."
"Shit. Could really use Vola right now. Where the fuck is he?"
And Wisp remembered childishly accidentally getting him stuck in his room, and regretted it. A little.
Both hounds crept around the end of the hall, smelling flesh, delicious and tasty in consumption. Mei flinched at the sight.
Mei is afflicted with stress. Breaking Point approaches capacity.
Unze inhaled sharply, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"H̸̞͒͊̎̀̍̐̇͋͠͠A̴̡̨̱̼̟̜̝͂̀̅́̓̃̈́͗̒̕͘͜͠͝͠L̷̥̝͒̓̀̀̅̎̄̽̀́͊̕T̴̜̳͓̝͖̞̜̥̈́̽̚͠͝!̸̛̰͔̹͋̆͑͑"
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Both hounds take psychic damage and are afflicted with Dazed.
Rico leapt forward, slamming the dogs with a powerful overhead strike, cracking the ground. Unlike the bullets, his punches did hurt the oversized mutts. His skin grew harder, resisting the claws and jaws of these dusty dogged deathbringers. Dime, small in size and agile in build, danced around the beasts, raining coins upon their massive forms.
Both hounds are afflicted with many stacks of Gravity Coin. Light slowing effect takes place.
Snake, now covered head to toe in heavy clothing, handed Acid and Mei a Booster Potion. Acid eyed her unnecessary layers, bordering on winter clothing.
"What's with the getup?"
"It's armor. Some of my potions you don't want to get on the skin."
Acid eyed the potion Snake held out in mild parts fear and apprehension.
"Not this potion. You can drink this one."
"What does it do?"
"Boosts your strength. Take it and you'll definitely be able to help the others finish those monsters off."
Mei grabbed her hand as she reached out for the potion, gripping it with such strength she couldn't move an inch.
"Please don't go."
Snake glanced at the battle taking place mere meters away, within a rock's throw distance.
"Rico's starting to have trouble. Quickly! Drink it!"
She turned to Wisp with a pleading gaze, wordlessly begging him to do something.
Wisp picked up the vial in two fingers, handing it to Mei.
"If you want something done right, Mei, you have to do it yourself."
The Booster Potion filled her vision as he held it in front of her and she fixated on it, feeling her fear and dread slip away in the face of this promise of power. Dave aimed and fired his energy pistol in short bursts, searing skin from hound and beginning to draw their ire. Emboldened by everyone else's support, Mei drank the whole thing, Unze trying to stop the dogs or at least force them to pause with his psychic voice.
Mei consumes Booster Potion.
Mei reaches Breaking Point.
Her mind was filled with thoughts of bravery, courage, protectiveness, and a desire to experience the Thrill, the concoction flowing through her blood stream and bringing its liquid potency to every part of her body. The large beasts did not care that Mei was charging them both until her skin disappeared beneath an apparition of some unknown feline warrior.
She slammed into them with the force of a careening car, breaking their guard. In sync, they swiped, clawed, and snapped their jaws together, trying to catch Mei in a pincer trap. With a wave of her intensely sharp nails, she threw one away with severe wounds, grabbing the other by the mouth and tearing its "head" open, splitting its skull apart. A sooty breeze flowed from the fatal rent, the slain foe falling to the ground in pieces.
The other hound, despairing at the death of its comrade, squeezed out its remaining reserves of willpower, daring to remain conscious long enough to bite down on Mei's arm, digging into and shattering the limb of the ghostly being.
New Skill: [Feline Fine] has ended. Entering cooldown period...
In those slow final moments, the people could do nothing besides watch the scene unfold before their eyes, time crawling forward at an agonizing pace. One tenth of a second. Then two. Then three, Dave flicking off the safety restrictions on his gun. Four-tenths. Five-tenths. The gun leaked from its a form a beautiful lightshow, integrity crumbling.
Six-tenths. Seven-tenths.
Boom.
The gun exploded in a shower of luminescence, its last projectile zooming down the hallway and colliding with the Void Hound, causing it to fracture at the seams and confront the feeling of being torn apart into a million trillion little fragments, blown away by the wind with the corpse of the dog Mei torn apart, out the window into the storm. Dave's emergency repair bots swiftly plugged the sundered metal shutters with liberal application of industrial QuikSeal, preventing any more enemies from exploiting the lapse in defense.
Booster Potion loses effect.
Mei collapsed, the high of the fight pulling away from her. All she was left with was the pain of having her arm crunched under the beast's prodigious might. Acid dashed forward in a moment's notice, catching her and lowering her to the cold tile floor, gesturing for Snake. A few seconds of fumbling yielded a wealth of healing and regeneration salves good for oral or external application, as she took on the task of First Aid and First responder.
Dave sprinted down the hall to check Mei's room, ensuring no one else would get in. Unze kneeled next to Rico, sitting against the wall, Dime worriedly squatting down next to Acid, still holding Mei's hand as Snake slipped on sterile gloves and mana began to channel through her body...
Wisp stood there staring for a while, unspeaking. The scene of the tired, beaten hotel residents seared itself into his mind.
“And that’s what happened.”
Chasma listened carefully to the whole tale, not once moving or moving to interrupt, waiting until he was finished to speak.
"So basically you were checking up on everyone when suddenly you saw Mei being attacked by two monsters, and then after you called for help Mei was hurt fighting them with Snake's assistance, and Mei manifested some sort of spirit and finished the dogs off?"
“That’s the long and short of it.”
Chasma paused, spindly arm sticking out of the vent in Wisp's penthouse suite.
"I suppose having something to fight for can really bring out the best in people."
Wisp nodded in agreement.
"Where were you when it all went down, by the way?"
"Sleeping. All creatures need their rest to live satisfied."
"Really? I thought you were just a blurry monster thing with the ability to create matter."
"I feel insulted, but yes. That's my only ability. I am not too far from your normal that I could go without sleep."
"But you don't abide by other laws. You are the only one of your kind, so you say, which means no matter what organs you may have you are sexless. And you refuse to dictate yourself by any gender."
"And cage myself in a stupid false fabrication of what it means to live? To live by rules that mean nothing? I would rather stay genderless, if that is what it means to be free."
"You would protect my freedom, right? You would always do your best to help me?"
And Wisp could not see it past the black mist, but Chasma was smiling.\
"Always. Because that's what friends are for.”