He’d done it.

  He had summoned a Duskblade.

  The smoking dagger materialized in Ace's outstretched hand, coalescing from shadow matter that rippled and bled from between his fingers. It gleamed with dark purpose, its form unstable at the edges where reality and shadow battled for dominance. The blade wavered between solid and vapor.

  From what he had read in the Skills screen, the dagger at its core was night given form. The nine-inch length of void-black metal drank in ambient light rather than reflecting it. Ribbons of shadow energy coursed through the blade like veins, feeding the weapon's semi-sentient hunger.

  Those same veins extended partially up Ace’s wrist before fading into his skin, creating a disturbing connection between wielder and weapon.

  The hilt had no guard—only a grip wrapped in leather that adjusted effortlessly to his palm. When he tightened his fingers, the material tightened back, as though the weapon was gripping him in return.

  It wasn't pretty. If he had to guess, nothing born of the Shadow Realm would be, but that hardly mattered. The blade's beauty lay in its lethal functionality—the way it could apparently slice through physical matter with contemptuous ease, ignoring a significant portion of any armor it encountered. Its true value resided in the disturbing ability to mark targets, tagging them with a shadow-brand that made subsequent attacks unerringly accurate.

  And this one wanted blood.

  Even now, the dagger seemed impatient in his grasp. It wasn't fully formed yet—he could feel the potential energy coiled within it, waiting for more shadow essence, more kills, more blood to complete his—and its—evolution.

  He flipped the blade experimentally, feeling how it corrected its own trajectory mid-air to land perfectly in his palm. No doubt about it—this thing would make killing easier.

  And in this world, easier killing was the only currency that mattered.

  Time for a bit of murder, then.

  Ace took aim at the beast’s heart and hurled the blade with all the strength he had left in his body. The weapon wobbled slightly, almost missing its mark before embedding itself in the creature's bark-like hide. A violet glow spread from the impact point. The creature screamed in agony and stumbled backward.

  That one blow awoke something deep within.

  A connection formed, and it felt like a live wire in his mind. He could feel the creature now, sense the marked area like it was an extension of his own body.

  The second blade came easier, his hand already moving through the summoning motion as though he'd done it a thousand times before. This one flew straighter, struck harder, and burned brighter than before.

  By the third blade, Ace had found the rhythm—the mental flex that pulled weapons from shadow, the twist of focus that sent them flying true. Each one embedded in the Fiend's wooden flesh, violet energy spreading like toxic veins across its surface.

  The monster roared in rage and pain, its attention fully locked on Ace. Toxic sap dripped from its wounds, burning small craters in the forest floor.

  Perfect.

  "Status report!" Ace shouted as he ducked beneath a whipping branch.

  "Poison neutralizing in Victor's system," Tara called back, evidently awake.

  He risked a glance over one shoulder and spotted her beside Victor, her hands glowing with crimson light as she channeled her new magic. The healing energy pulsed erratically at first, then stabilized as she muttered something about "proper casting rotation" and "cooldown management."

  Whatever the hell that meant.

  Victor, sprawled against a fallen log, coughed up black fluid but raised his head with renewed focus.

  "I'm not dead yet," he snarled, eyes burning with humiliation and rage. “Much to its disappointment, I’m sure.”

  Ace rolled his eyes.

  Drama queen.

  Rachel, sheltered behind a massive root, had her eyes closed in concentration. "Primary weakness detected in central trunk structure, secondary vulnerabilities in ocular organs."

  "English, Rachel!" Ace shouted as he narrowly avoided another strike.

  "Eyes and chest!" she translated, her voice cracking. "Hit it more in the fucking eyes and chest!"

  Marcus staggered to his feet, blood trickling from his nose as he focused his Mind Leech ability. More ripples of light radiated from him as his magic took hold.

  "Establishing connection," he grunted, wincing as psychic feedback threatened to overwhelm him. "It's... angry. And hungry. So goddamn hungry."

  Ace felt the creature's attacks becoming more focused, more deliberate. His Lifeforce Siphon activated almost instinctively, drawing energy from the areas where his daggers had sunk deep into its hide. The stolen vitality coursed through him like liquid adrenaline, healing wounds he hadn't even registered in the chaos.

  "Rachel, summon whatever the hell you did before!" Ace ordered, recognizing the potential synergy. "You and Marcus merge attacks! I’ll finish it off!"

  Rachel and Marcus locked eyes, and a second later, Rachel set her palms flat in front of her. More ripples of light radiated from her hands, blending with the purple waves from Marcus, and the effect was immediate.

  The Carnage Fiend's movements slowed as its attack patterns became predictable, countered before they even formed.

  "It's working!" Marcus shouted, exhilaration mixing with strain. "I can see what it's planning!"

  "Form up!" Ace commanded, feeling the tide turning. "Positions!"

  The team moved with newfound coordination – not according to Victor's earlier demands, but falling naturally into roles dictated by their abilities and instincts. Even Olivia found her rhythm, though her approach remained unsettling. She wove between the creature's strikes like a dancer interpreting death, each movement precise and almost reverential.

  "The anatomical symmetry is quite magnificent," she observed with yet more clinical detachment as she evaded a potentially fatal blow. "Notice how it redistributes its energy during each attack sequence—there's an artistic quality to its violence."

  "Less art critique, more killing!" Ace shouted back.

  As his team kept it suspended and distracted, Ace summoned a final Duskblade and took aim. He paused, careful this time, and locked on the glowing yellow target in the center of its chest. Its pulse raced, stronger and brighter now than before, and he couldn’t miss.

  He threw the blade with every ounce of his energy, the motion bringing with it the muscle memory of a thousand rifle drills and grenade throws. The Duskblade shimmered through the air, its shadow-forged edge leaving a momentary afterimage as it cut through reality itself. Time seemed to slow as the blade found its mark, sailing through the small opening that betrayed the creature's heart with the inevitability of death itself.

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  For one suspended heartbeat, nothing happened.

  Then came the scream.

  The blade sank to its ethereal hilt in the pulsing yellow core, its violet energy colliding with the creature's life force in a catastrophic way. The Carnage Fiend's scream transcended sound. It wasn't just heard—it was felt, like a psychic shockwave that hammered against Ace's mind with physical force. Blood vessels burst in his nose, the crimson droplets spattering across the ground as the monster's shriek grew louder. Around him, his teammates clutched their heads, their own blood leaking from ears and eyes as the creature's death throes overwhelmed their senses.

  The monster's wooden body contorted in impossible angles, its bark-like skin splitting along fault lines that weren't visible seconds before. Yellow sap bubbled from the cracks, hissing and steaming where it touched the ground. The forest floor beneath the creature began to blacken and wither, vegetation dying in expanding rings around its thrashing form.

  Its entire body swelled, audibly fracturing with wet, splintering cracks. Wood groaned and twisted under the pressure, the sound reminiscent of ancient trees being torn apart by hurricane winds. The texture of its skin rippled with unnatural motion, as though something else was trying to burst free from within.

  The Carnage Fiend's eyes now blazed with the intensity of dying stars, so bright that looking directly at them left afterimages branded on Ace's vision. Its jaw dislocated as the scream continued, stretching wider than its skull should have allowed, revealing row upon row of wooden teeth that hadn't been visible before.

  Ace realized, with distant horror, that the monster wasn't just dying—it was transforming. The System's cruel game had one more surprise, one more twist of the knife. Death here wasn't an end, but a transition to something worse.

  "Something's happening!" Rachel screamed.

  "It's going to explode!" Marcus shouted.

  Before he so much as finished the word, the monster's body ruptured outward in a shower of poisonous splinters. Thousands of deadly wooden shards hurtled in all directions.

  "DOWN!" Ace bellowed, his body already in motion.

  The air exploded with a lethal storm of sap-covered shrapnel. Since he was only within reach of Rachel, Ace tackled her, and they hit the ground hard. He covered her body with his own, feeling the impacts as a few of the wooden missiles ricocheted off his back.

  Marcus, though, wasn't fast enough. Three splinters caught him—thigh, shoulder, and forearm as he tried to shield his face. He collapsed with a strangled cry, his blood mixing with the Carnage Fiend's yellow poison.

  Olivia, displaying inhuman grace that bordered on premonition, simply pivoted between the trajectories of the deadly projectiles. Where others scrambled and dove, she danced, her class abilities manifesting as a lethal ballet. Not a single splinter touched her, though several passed so close that her hair trembled in the aftermath.

  The barrage lasted only seconds, but it felt like an eternity. When it finally ended, the clearing resembled a war zone. The ground was carpeted with wooden shrapnel still hissing with toxins. Trees were impaled dozens of times over, their bark bubbling and dissolving where the poison made contact. The air filled with acrid smoke.

  At the epicenter, nothing remained of the monster but a smoking crater and scattered ichor.

  As the kill hit him, he felt a rush of energy course through his undead veins. It was hard to describe, other than a sense of calm that settled on his bones. An odd contrast to the chaotic explosion from moments before.

  The scratches across his body began to instantly stitch themselves back together, and he wondered if his EXP Solute from the beast was an evolution in his regenerative abilities.

  He shrugged. He would find out eventually.

  "Status report," Ace demanded through gritted teeth, pushing himself up from Rachel's trembling form. Blood soaked the back of his shirt where at least five splinters had cut open the fabric, and though they were just scratches, the wounds still burned.

  "I'm hit," Marcus gasped, his face already flushing with fever as the toxin spread. "It burns... fuck, it burns..."

  Rachel remained frozen for several seconds before her brain reconnected with her body. "Everyone's vitals are compromised," she finally reported, her analytical abilities functioning even while her emotions shut down. "Toxin appears to be hemotoxic with neural components. Accelerated heart rates will speed dispersal."

  "In English?" Ace demanded, wincing as he reached behind himself to extract a splinter from between his shoulder blades.

  "Don't panic and don't run," she translated mechanically. "It'll kill you faster."

  “Noted,” Ace said with a grimace as a bolt of pain shot through him.

  As if on cue, a high-pitched scream erupted from the dying monster's remains. The shriek rippled outward through the forest like a physical wave.

  Seconds later, multiple answering calls echoed from deeper in the forest—similar in tone but deeper. More resonant.

  More powerful.

  "We need to move," Ace ordered, the brief satisfaction of their victory evaporating as he helped Rachel to her feet. "Now."

  Before they could take even a step, a familiar blue interface materialized before Ace's eyes:

  ———

  Shared victory detected

  Congratulations! You killed something. Well done.

  EXP allocated across all Party members.

  ———

  Ace felt the now-familiar rush of power absorption, but it was different somehow—more focused, as though the energy knew precisely where to go.

  "What the hell?" Victor demanded, staring at his own status notification. "I didn’t get anything!”

  “Should’ve joined the Party, then,” Tara snapped.

  Ace glanced over his shoulder to find the two glaring at each other, but he decided not to intervene.

  "Everyone okay?" he asked, scanning his teammates.

  Marcus nodded weakly, his psychic abilities temporarily depleted. Rachel was trembling but standing, her panicked gaze still processing data from the battle. Tara pushed to her feet and headed for Marcus first, her intense expression already focused on his wounds as her hands glowed with magic.

  "Tara, make it quick,” Ace ordered, the brief satisfaction of victory evaporating. "We need to move ASAP."

  The ground beneath them began to tremble, small stones bouncing with each impact. The rhythmic vibration of approaching movement sent ripples through puddles of the Carnage Fiend's spilled fluids.

  Ace shifted his attention to his exhausted team, their brief moment of coordinated success now overshadowed by the approach of something else that wanted to eat them. He met Tara's gaze, her healing magic still flowing weakly from her fingertips as blood trickled from her nose with the effort.

  He wanted to order them to run, but Marcus was in no condition to move—besides, Rachel had said the poison would kill them faster if they sprinted out of here. They couldn’t leave. Not yet, anyway. They had to wait for Tara to heal them all.

  Just great.

  Instead, Ace shifted his weight anxiously between his feet, his focus on the gaps between the trees where he had heard the answering screams of more monsters.

  Footsteps crunched across the ground behind him, and he peered over one shoulder as Victor joined him.

  “We need to regroup,” the merc said. “Preferably somewhere safe.”

  “It’ll take time to find a safe zone,” Ace countered, his attention shifting back to the forest.

  Time they didn’t have.

  Before Ace could say anything else, his blue stats screen appeared again in front of him.

  ———

  NAME: Logan ”Ace” Blackwell

  LEVEL: 8

  CLASS: Dusk Emperor

  RACE: Vampire (Nightseed)

  TITLES:

  Eclipse Predator

  Void Hunter

  Behemoth Slayer

  Prince of Blood

  STATS:

  Strength: 27

  Vitality: 29

  Dexterity: 28

  Intelligence: 33

  Wisdom: 35

  POWER:

  HP: 125/684

  SM: 252/759

  UNALLOCATED AP: 27

  EXP SOLUTES:

  Human: 0%

  Vampiric: 81%

  Monster: 19%

  Dragon: 0%

  ———

  As much as he wanted to use his AP, he would have to do it later—but hot damn, he knew exactly where it would go.

  He needed to boost his HP, for starters, and he wouldn’t mind boosting his Soul Meter, either.

  The ground beneath them began thundered with rhythmic vibrations, each impact stronger than the last. Small stones danced across the forest floor while dead leaves shook loose from branches overhead. Ace's enhanced senses detected a pattern in the tremors—not random movement, but coordinated hunting. The smaller impacts flanking the larger ones weren't echoes. These weren't just monsters approaching. They were predators executing a search grid with military precision, and his team was standing directly in the kill zone.

  Beside him, Tara yanked the last spike out of Marcus’s body, and the man stifled a scream as it fell to the forest floor.

  They needed to get the hell out of here—but it didn’t look like they could do it in time.

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