Some of the buildings had tall, old and rusty metal fences around them, while some of them just had some trees and old wooden or plastic warning signs either staked to the ground or hanging the the sides of the buildings or trees.

The artificial flowery scent in the air grew slightly more intense as they walked closer into the area in which the abandoned warehouse buildings and data center buildings resided. There were also some traces of ashes on the ground, some burned up pieces of rags, plastics and even broken metal scraps. And for some reason, their sights seemed to fog up and get blurry when they proceeded - as if they were walking into a field of fog and mist.

“What is this - mist? Fog?” Detective Kuhn asked while wiping his eyes and looked around: “Is it just me or your visions are getting foggy as well?”

“Not just you.” Thomas blinked hard a few times: “This is definitely not natural - something is weird about this place.”

Caroline twirled her left hand fingers, then cast a spell on herself, Thomas and Detective Kuhn. An invisible red line appeared in between the three of them, connecting them together, “Don’t wander off, let’s keep it together. If there’s something dangerous, we fall back and regroup, okay?”

“Yeah, of course. ” Detective Kuhn nodded: “I wouldn’t know what to do anyway.”

Caroline waved her hand in the air, and a bubble appeared in her left palm, inside which was a blob of condensed air separated by a ball of wind created by her Xuanli. Then she gently and firmly clenched her left hand, the bubble gradually became smaller. And with the bubble becoming smaller, the air inside of the bubble became less and less transparent, and eventually when the bubble became around a quarter of its previous size, the air inside was entirely fogged up like it was filled with some kind of white smoke.

“What is this?” Detective Kuhn stared at the bubble: “Is that harmful to us?”

“So far I can’t tell.” Caroline shook her head: “But still, let’s be cautious and watch out for anything weird. The spell I casted on you could help you deal with any toxic effects if there is any as well.”

“Let’s take a quick look, and get out as fast as possible.” Thomas nodded.

Caroline casted a True Sight spell and started examining the bubble of fog in her hand while they tread forward with caution and care, but she was not able to discern anything specific about this fog - aside from the fact that it was some kind of solution containing water, with very weak and non-threatening energy signature.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I’ve gotta practice this some more.” Caroline sighed and looked around while her True Sight spell effect was still active, and just in a few seconds she noticed something unnatural just under a tree in front of them - it was like a small long bag with a color-shifting exterior

“Found something?” Thomas and Detective Kuhn noticed that Caroline’s eyes were fixated on something under a tree in front of them - but from what they could see, there was nothing there beside some fallen leaves and burnt rags and a small piece of wood.

“There’s something there.” Caroline said and sped up her steps forward and changed the direction to aim for under the tree. Thomas and Detective Kuhn immediately followed - the environment they found themselves in seemed to be just way too quiet and way too calm and empty that they started to feel a little unease, and it was somewhat reassuring that someone actually found something unusual.

When Caroline got to the tree, she looked around one more time to make sure that no other people were around, then extended her hand at the pile of fallen leaves. Her fingers got into contact with something raggidy and soft, then when she grabbed onto what she touched and lifted it off the ground, a bloodied man with ample facial hair appeared beneath it, still breathing but looked like he had passed out.

Caroline took a look at the enchanted piece of cloak/rag she pulled off from the man - what was left of its power had started to fade away at an increased rate, and in just half a minute it became nothing more than a regular piece of rag.

“He’s still breathing.” Detective Kuhn tested the passed out man’s breath and said: “Looks like something happened here? There’s bruises and cuts on his arms and his face.”

“And he’s a bit… too furry?” Thomas picked up the man’s right arm, showing the thick layer of silver grey hair on his forearm and asked: “I’ve seen hairy arms - I’ve never seen THIS kind of hairy arms.”

“Let me see.” Caroline grabbed onto the man’s right shoulder and waist, then flipped him over with ease flipping over a pillow, then placed her palm onto the man’s chest: “Can you check his teeth?”

When Detective Kuhn and Thomas opened up the man’s bloodied lips, the first thing they saw was a mouthful of sharp teeth and two long fangs. Caroline saw this and lowered the energy input of her healing spell - she did not want to heal him by too much yet, not until they could be sure if this lycan was friendly or hostile.

As the Flame of Vitality spell took effect inside of this lycan’s body, he woke up with a string of coughs, spilling out blood and spit. Then he looked at the three strangers standing around him with his yellow-green wolf eyes and asked: “Who - who are you?”

“You can worry about that later.” Thomas said: “What happened? What is this place and why are you here?”

“I - I must go.” the lyca’s ample facial hair started retreating while he tried to sit up, but he was not able to move an inch - partially because of his still serious injuries, and partially because of Caroline’s palm on his chest pushing him back down: “I must - I must report ...”

“Report what? Talk!” Caroline asked.

“We’re not hostile to you. We just want to know what happened.” Detective Kuhn said with a soft and calming voice: “Maybe we can help you as well.”

“No! No!” the lycan’s eyes went entirely red, and he started growling from his throat: “I need to go! I need to report ...”

Sensing a sudden rush of energy that was going through the lycan’s body, Caroline immediately jumped forward and dragged Detective Kuhn and Thomas behind her, then conjured up her translucent shield.

“Boom!” a blood red energy wave exploded from the lycan and shrouded him in some kind of blood red mist, he then crawled up from the ground and transformed fully into the shape of a wolf. But just when Caroline was ready to engage, the wolf leapt towards the side, and started rushing towards the direction of the residential area nearby.