II-48 Favored

System favored…

Well, I really wouldn't call myself that. See, I actually met someone who was system favored, and that poor bastard was always suffering some kind of quest or trying to survive a desperate fight. He also grew faster than anyone I've ever met in my life. His skills shot up to Master within the span of months. And that usually takes other people decades…

But I wouldn't even call him lucky. Not even close. Being system-favored means you’re always in deep shit. Guy I talked about got pretty strong pretty fast. And then, approximately a year later, he was dead. Because that's what it means to be system favored. Keep surviving, you'll turn into an absolute monster. But more likely than not, the system will end up murdering you.

In fact, there is nothing the system enjoys more than throwing one favored at another. It especially loves twisting people who have relationships against each other. So, as favored, you best keep your distance from people, too. Otherwise, most of the people you like will end up dead, or if they survive, facing you down some day.

Here's the deal with being system favored. It doesn't mean that you're just talented. It doesn't mean that you have some kind of special insight in a specific area, or a special predilection for some skill. System favored means that you have probably all those things, some more, and the willingness to throw yourself into the most brutal battles over and over again. And eventually it all sticks to you. The constant struggle. The endless war. The violence.

Make no mistake, the system wants us to struggle, to fight. All Pathbearers have to do a little bit of that in their life, martial or non-martial. But the ultimate thing that makes one person favored and another person just your run-of-the-mill Pathbearer is that sheer concentration of conflict, and the sheer unlikeliness of your survival. 

I am a soldier. For most of my campaigns, it was a hell of a lot of boring marching, training, trying to survive command screwing you over. Then, suddenly, more action and violence than you can possibly imagine for a few minutes to a day, and back to the boring shit: After that, more marching. Paperwork. Presentations and plans drawn on a board. There’s a period of peace. To be people. To live.

Pathbearers who are favored don't get that peace. Because there’s always another war coming, and the system will make sure its favorite monsters are a part of it.

-Memoirs of a Master-Tier War Mage

II-48

Favored

“P-please, wait… You— don’t have to… I can bless you with my bloodlin—” That was all the high vampire got to say before Shiv pasted the creature’s head with a descending stomp. A satisfying crunch followed a bit of twitching. Shiv harvested the high vampire’s lineage core before the body ever stilled.

“Got the last high vampire,” he muttered. His Biomancy field couldn’t sense anything other than corpses and allies in Leu’s building, but kept his guard high just in case. He wasn’t the one with the Heroic-Tier Awareness. When Adam said they were cleared and Uva backed him up on it, then that’s when Shiv would relax. Until then, his Silhouette stayed active and his Remember remained drawn.

They returned with the Guardshead through the waste chutes to retake her building. But by the time they arrived, things were already well and truly out of hand. Most of the tower was already crawling with the invading vampires, and there was no one left to save. But that just made things simple for Shiv in the sense that he didn’t need to worry about collateral damage anymore.

Silhouette > 73

A thought from Adam passed through the group. “Uva, there we have a final victim hiding inside a corpse on the eighth topside floor. Master-Tier Stealth and Biomancy Skill Fusion, I think.” 

Shiv paused and fully tapped into Adam’s perspective. True to the Young Lord’s words, there was the body of a Volteg on the ground, but Shiv couldn’t tell that there was a high vampire inside at all. “Are you sure? I couldn’t sense anything with my Biomancy.”

“Absolutely,” Adam said. “I think the high vampire dove into the blood. The Skill Evolution might allow her to hide in blood, actually.”

“And you know it’s a she?” Shiv asked, genuinely impressed. He focused his Biomancy on the body, and he still couldn’t tell anything was out of the ordinary.

“Look at the blood, Shiv. It keeps moving back and forth. Puddles don’t act like waves crashing on a shore. That, and if you listen very carefully, you can hear a voice carried by the vibrations in the blood. Our hidden foe is begging the Great One to preserve her.”

One of Uva’s mana strands speared into the blood without warning. Suddenly, a body exploded out of the corpse as viscera repainted the walls. For a moment, the high vampire struggled and wailed, but a dozen more of Uva’s Psychomancy strands tore into the Bloodspawn. The high vampire let out a wordless scream and splashed down into a gory puddle, her eyes vacant. “There,” Uva muttered. “She can dictate her prayers to the Great One in person soon. If she can still remember the words.”

Adam winced at the casual coldness of Uva’s remarks. Shiv just grinned. Hunting vampires was a hell of a lot more fun when you had your friends with you.

“Now, the building’s clear,” Adam declared. “But stay ready. I briefly scouted our surroundings, and they’re spreading building to building, infecting or slaughtering anyone they can get their hands on.” He sighed. “Damned good timing on their part, too. A good number of Adept guards are still down the super-dysentery they got from Shiv. A good number of them are lurking in the dark as lesser vampires now.”

Another distant blast shook the building. A second later, Adam provided another update. “And someone just detonated a Pyromancy mana bomb inside one of the mercenary barracks. It’s absolute, bloody pandemonium out there.”

“They’re conducting this invasion strategically,” Uva added. A snapshot of perspectives followed over from her mind, showing a gate in turmoil. Confriga and his available forces were constantly bombarding the bridge and Abyssal Gateway, but across the city, hidden dangers festered like an infected wound. Lesser vampires were spreading; high vampires sank their teeth into unaware victims from the dark; Aviary agents primed mana bombs at critical and lightly defended locations. “I’ve reached out across the city and scanned a few memories. The forces flooding through the Abyssal Gateway are a diversion. Confriga and his elites are driving them back slowly, but the true threat is already inside. I sensed another Master-Tier Psychomancer earlier, but they withdrew and evaded me. The vampires are also focusing on capturing buildings and infecting the local population. Even if Confriga manages to push the enemy back out through the gateway, he will have to contend with the infection festering within.”

A rush of loathing came from the Umbral. “This is the way the First Blood wage their wars. They throw tides of twisted monstrosities they deem worthless or expendable at you, while their true elites slip deep and poison your heart. And with Aviary aiding them, we are facing quite the potent poison at that.”

“It’s also damned clever and effective in a vile bastard sort of way,” Adam added. “If they focus on capturing most of the structures, they will force Confriga into a series of brutal close-quarters engagements in an enclosed environment. That, or just destroy the buildings outright, but that will just see him killing his own people as well, and eventually desynchronizing from the gate’s mana core as he loses his authority from the escalating chaos.”

Shiv took all that in as he stomped back into Leu’s apartment. The ground was covered in butchered monsters. Bobbing up and down in the pool of blood were also two dead crows, three high vampires with holes where their hearts used to be, and the pulped remains of what used to be a raven.

Standing ankle-deep in the blood was Guardshead Leu, now staring out the window of her home. Part of the room was coated in reinforced titanium after she detonated a mana bomb inside while faking her own attempted assassination just days ago. Now, more bombs were going off outside, and bodies rained down from the districts above, splashing down into the molten rivers as a desperate and sudden battle for Gate Theborn raged.

But despite her near-death experience, Leu seemed thrilled at the turn of events. “Look at it,” she chuckled grimly. “Look at what Confriga’s incompetence has delivered upon us. A hostile army to our very doorstep.”

Shiv came to a stop next to her as he noticed an entire building toppling over from above. Adam and Uva were right. While Confriga was busy fighting the First Blood’s army, their true Pathbearers were ripping this place apart from the inside. And part of why they were so successful was because of the instability and terror caused by Shiv and his group.

“I wouldn’t give Confriga all the credit,” Shiv muttered. “Hells. I wouldn’t give him any credit. The only reason the vampires and Aviary are ripping through this place is because of the beating we already put on it. On the outside and the inside.”

“I suspect you are correct, Master Shiv,” Leu replied. Her eye fell on the third gateway, and she scoffed. “Look.” She pointed at the gateway leading to Vulketh. “He still has not called for aid. He still refuses to surrender his pride. This is why he is damned. He is so desperate to reclaim his honor and retake what he believes to be his rightful place in Lord Scorn’s Fist that he will damn this entire gate to a slow death. Why, with a little more time, all the local elites of Compact will lose faith in Confriga. And then the core will be lost to him for good as well.”

“Yeah, that’s useful and all, but I’m not a fan of just waiting around for the vampires and Aviary to take this place. I think my preferred outcome is if they all lose.” And then, Shiv paused as he regarded Leu. An idea occurred to him—something that might just be to their benefit down the line. “And maybe have someone more capable replace Confriga.”

“Me?” Leu said. She sounded surprised. “I—I do not hold enough sway with the city.”

“You might if you save it,” Shiv said. “If you manage to stop the vampires when Confriga couldn’t. Or if he mysteriously dies in the process of defending the city.”

Adam cut into the conversation. “Well, before we consider who to anoint as the next Gate Lord, we have many other problems to resolve first. And openings to take advantage of.”

The Young Lord offered Shiv a bird’s eye view of the gate. The bulk of the fighting was concentrated around the Abyssal Gateway. There, Shiv saw waves of misshapen abominations rushing through. Adam Analyzed a particular monster that had mouths and teeth spreading around its body like some kind of nightmarish rash.

Name: Thing of Enamel Born
Age: 3 Months
Race: Blood Horror

Path:

Horror

Feat [0/0]:

None

Ski—

A concentrated beam of frost promptly blasted out from the gate’s mana core and smashed into the Thing of Enamel Born. It, along with a few hundred other Blood Horrors, froze and shattered into fragments of ice. But as soon as they fell, another tide of horrors surged through the gate, prompting the defenders to unleash their skills and spells in response.

Confriga loomed in the air above, launching screaming specters composed of Necromancy corrosion at the enemies. His petal like wings also caused the weaker among the invading forces to spontaneously combust. As he fought, he roared, demanding that his warriors strike harder and drive the First Blood back.

But while Confriga was focused on the problem at his front door, he failed to notice the blood-drenched bat-humanoids darting across his plaza, carrying pieces of the dead in their mouths.

“So, our previous plans are now completely in the shit,” Adam said emphatically. “All the groundwork we did basically made infiltrating and capturing the insides of the gate easier for Aviary. Also, their strongest Pathbearers are being teleported. I cast my Awareness through the gateway while waves of Blood Horrors are just rushing through. There’s also an owl-mask wearing Aviary Dimensionalist that’s actively shuttling high vampires off to system knows where inside this gate. I’m guessing they have more than a few of their own teleportation anchors active somewhere inside, but considering how many forces they’re dropping across the districts, they either have an anchor hidden inside every bloody building or a giant ”

A gut feeling came over Shiv. “I might know where they’re coming from. The Jealousy’s den. It’s functionally a colossal teleportation anchor. It also teleported the Jealousy directly as soon as it made contact with the gate.”

Adam hummed. “Good guess. I think we might just have discovered one of our first major objectives. You still remember the way there?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I think you should go there first. At the same time, Valor and I will prepare to seize the Animancy Core. I took a glance at its defenses and there is still a contingent of guardians there. Mostly dimensionals, a few Master-Tier Vultegs, and two elemental golems.”

Shiv frowned. “Just the two of you?” He looked behind him and saw Valor hovering within the slug enclosure, dragging the Graven Cage behind him using a corrosive leash.

“It will have to do. I’m not waiting for Confriga’s caution to finally win over his arrogance as he sends the core over to his home dimension. I’m also not looking forward to the felling New Albion birds getting to the core before us somehow. It will be a tight window to intercept the core once we sever the adamantine elevator shaft leading through the third gateway, but we should be able to do it. We must. Uva—”

“I am going to ensure both sides in this fight suffer as much attrition and damage as they possibly can.” Uva’s mind was ice-cold with focused hate. Vampires were her enemies of choice—were practically every Umbrals enemy of choice. “I am going to slip into vulnerable minds on the battlefield to make Confriga and his elites exhaust themselves. I will slay him if I can, and leave him diminished if I cannot. I will also steal what memories I can to get a clearer picture of the situation outside.” Uva paused. A slight trickle of worry escaped her mind. “My team should have seen an attack of this scale coming… Once the battle at the gateway reaches a point of conclusion, I will start locating and culling the vampiric outbreak.”

“Right,” Adam said. “That’s… better than what I was going to suggest. Once me and Valor have the core handled, I’ll come and assist you. I suspect that some of the more hidden Aviary assets will need a keen to root them out.”

As Adam and Uva declared their intensions, Shiv relayed the details to Can Hu, and the Penitent gave a high-pitched chime. “Shiv. My drones also have an opening. I will dispatch new orders to have them free the automaton slaves. I will then instruct them to free the organics and begin an uprising.”

Shiv paused. “Right now? The city’s under siege. The guards might slaughter them all if this goes wrong.”

“And if the vampires win, they will be used as subjects for experimentation or consumed as prey,” Can Hu retorted. “Or they will be sold again or kept as slaves. Some will always die. But should they struggle now and further inflict instability upon the gate, they might yet live. And more, they might regain their freedom. When this moment passes, should we fail, their fates lay between a slow death under a cruel tyrant or a faster, more brutal end between the jaws of human-skinned monsters.”

“Yeah. I see your point. Adam. Uva. You hear that?”

“We did,” Uva said. “I will target the slavers after I am finished exhausting both armies as well. The more things and essential personnel we can break within the gate, the better. The vampires might have taken us by surprise, but it seems the system has given us more of an opportunity than an impediment.”

“So let’s go make this count, get this damned quest done, and secure the gate for ourselves,” Adam finished.

Then, Leu’s mind slid into the conversation. “And when we are all done with that, when the gate is broken from within, the First Blood and the Lesser Marshal’s forces are spent against each other… When the Lesser Marshal finally loses the core’s favor entirely and begins the desynchronization, we will finally… finally have him. And I will finally whisper to him the truth of my hate before he dies.”

Leu was really looking forward to this. So was Shiv, for that matter. “Yeah. Personally, I’m kind of curious to discover just how deep that oversized sword of his can cut.”

“Alright,” Adam sighed. “Our plans are in ashes, but the preparations we did are still in place. Let’s go turn this damned war to our advantage and get the system to piss off for a little while longer this time.”

“I don’t think that’s likely, Adam,” Shiv grunted. “I think it likes us a bit too much now.”

“Let me have something to look forward to, Shiv,” the Young Lord groaned. “You’ve hurt me enough already.”

Just then, Shiv remembered there was someone else in their group. Someone else he brought back to the gate because she knew the underworld here. Considering how things were going now, however, the extended subterfuge plan was now dead. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t still get a bit more use out of the goblin.

“Siggy,” Shiv said.

The Adept-Tier mercenary jolted as in shock. She was staring at all the mangled vampire remains, and her dread was high. When she saw Shiv staring at her, she shuddered and took a step back. “Oh, ah, shit... You’re finally gonna do it, aren’t you? You’re finally gonna kill me because you know I’m useless now that the vampires are invading. That—”

“You’re going to Little Gomorrah,” Shiv started. “You’re going there, and you’re going to find every mercenary Pathbearer you can. You tell them that Gate Theborn is done—that it’s going to fall. Tell them that Gate Lord Confriga is dead, and that you all need to make a run for the surface or Abyssal Gateways soon if they want to live. If they don’t run, then the Corpse Shedder is coming for them after he finishes with the vampires. You got that?”

Siggy blinked. And then she began to nod vigorously. “I—yeah. Yeah! Confriga dead, gate fucked, Corpse-Shedder coming, and we need to go to the gateway.” Then, she frowned. “Wait, what about the light-cursed mercs? They can’t go up.”

“Then tell them to dive through Vulketh Gateway or hunker in place.” He lowered his voice. “Tell them to stay out of the fighting, because if they do, they’re going to die. One way, or another.”

“And… after?” Siggy asked.

Shiv shrugged. “See if we’re still alive first. Then we talk about after.”

Part of the goblin’s courage collapsed. But there was something else in her as well. Hope. Hope that she might just live through this mess yet.

“A-alright,” Siggy said. “I-I’m going to get going.”

But Shiv strode past her first. He had things to do: a teleportation anchor to secure, vampires and spies to butcher, and a Gate Lord to kill.

“Shiv,” Valor called out.

Shiv paused briefly. The skulls lining the Graven Cage were practically alight with corrosive energy, and the chain of Necromantic mana extending from Valor’s right arm crackled brighter than ever. “When you go seek the Gate Lord, make sure I am there with you.”

“Sure,” Shiv said, but he didn’t get why Valor sounded so severe. “Why?”

“Because I want to instruct him on the proper way to perform Necromancy. And I look forward to explaining everything he did wrong to what remains of him within his Risen corpse.”

That earned a feral grin from Shiv. “Then consider that his fate.” The Deathless continued on. He shot out from the room and immediately began picking up speed. “I’ll head to either the Abyssal Gateway or Confriga’s descending tower when I’m done the anchor. I’ll make this quick.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll see you coming,” Adam said. “The moment Valor and I secure with the core, I’ll be on immediate overwatch.”

“I’ll try to compile an intelligence update from the memories of my sleeves if I can,” Uva said. “The Composer warned us that the gate might be attacked. But I want to know why the First Blood is so brazen—and how they managed to pierce so deep so fast.”

Adam paused. “Uva, did you seriously just call the people you puppet with your strings ‘sleeves’?”

“Yes. It’s fitting. And no, I’m not interested in second opinions.”

“It’s disturbing, is what it is.” Adam paused. “But don’t overextend while trying to cause chaos. And don’t strain your mana.”

“And you keep your distance from the enemy,” Uva replied. “And Shiv—”

“I’ll be fine,” Shiv grunted. With a yank on his gravitic field, he blasted through several floors and walls before he emerged outside. The mana core was unleashing so much Cryomancy on the world that Shiv could barely see a few meters away due to all the condensation. The cold briefly flooded his limbs with a pounding ache before his body adapted. Another benefit to the invasion: He could fly freely through the air without ever being noticed. “Worst case is that I die.”

“You mean best case for you,” Adam grumbled.

“Sure. I’ll try my best to avoid getting another Unique Skill. Maybe if you’re lucky, I’ll just skip straight to Legendary after killing some vampires.”

“I hope they hit the left side of your body and only the left side of your body,” Adam spat.

Uva muttered something about them never changing, but then her mind softened. “Mind yourselves, boys. Neither of you has my permission to perish.”

So the team split four ways, toward four different objectives, and with that, a third force entered the battle for Gate Theborn, utterly unnoticed by the other two.

***

“She said she was going to be here! That the Gate Lord would be dead. That we would sweep through and take this place with minimal resistance?” Elder Novor Kraid roared in the owl’s face. The spy barely reacted at all, which only incensed the high vampire further. “Understand that if we are driven back here today, you will find yourself not as a useful ally but a wailing, screaming sack of flesh that we will abuse to shape new horrors for our hordes.”

“Calm yourself, Master Kraid,” the owl sighed. “You understand how these things are. The circumstances of a quest always changes. We simply have to accept and adapt accordingly.”

“Adapt?” Kraid snarled. Light flashed over both he and the owl-masked man as the teleportation anchor’s spells activated. Another eight high vampires and a blood golem emerged from a spatial bubble. The gore-forged monstrosity crashed down on the ground with a wet impact before it began gliding across the massive chamber. It headed off and was directed into a formation with the other five blood, flesh, and wound golems they were massing. “Adapt! Your Educator promised she would deliver this place to us. That we need only come with a heavy contingent of forces to overwhelm the feeble vermin that remain. Now, we are preparing to butcher half the population just to force the Gate Lord to desynchronize.”

“And it will work,” the owl said calmly. “They are not prepared for us. They do not know we are behind their lines. That, and this place is clearly frail. Whatever the Educator did here, it softened the defenders considerably. Such is why they are still struggling to push your forces out. We merely need to take this a step further. We merely need to see the quest complete. We are close, Elder Kraid. And even if the Educator has failed, we can still succeed. We must still succeed, for an opportunity at the divine prize.”

Kraid growled down at the owl. He wanted to rip the man in half. It would be so easy. The flesh was just clay to Kraid. And it was clay he could pull asunder at that. As another flash of dimensional mana painted the owl’s mask and revealed his dead, hazel eyes, Kraid scoffed and turned away.

“Fledglings! Neonates. Truebloods. Agents. Heed me!” The elder vampire extended a hand and all the seventy vampires, six golems, and twenty Aviary agents turned to regard him. Outside the lair of the now dead Jealousy’s, ten Blood Horrors stood on guard, their bodies painted by the remains of the slavers they tore through to seize this place. “Our objectives require a slight adjustment. The Gate Lord remains alive—but that will not last. Before we begin our pincer upon his forces, we should first indulge. Arrange yourselves by seniority. Infect those you can. Drink when you need. Destroy what you cannot hold. Drown this place in its own blood. We came for two cores! Mana and Animancy! The cattle present are secondary and can be replenished with ease.”

Kraid spiked his Dread Aura and tested the courage of his collective forces. The golems were like blank canvases, but the high vampires—especially the ones he personally sired—were like alloyed ingots besides the feeble agents of Aviary. But the owl bothered him. That one seemed to have no fear at all. Not of Kraid. Not of anyone. The owl’s calm was unnatural, and it bothered the elder vampire that he couldn’t shake the spy no matter what he did.

“For now,” Kraid continued. “We muster ourselves. Bite deep and drink your fill. For a hard fight stands ahead. But know that you are with me, and we will prevail! Know that you stand with me! Elder Novor Kraid! System-favored Hero! And before this day is done, you will all taste the flavor of what flows through the Gate Lord’s veins!”

A collective cheer went up among the gathered forces, but just as Kraid was about to dismiss them, a heavy weight crashed against his Biomancy field. Kraid grunted. Several of the other vampires wailed in agony.

Then, for no apparent reason at all, the cavernous ceiling burst outside their anchor. Massive chunks of stone came crumbling down. The Blood Horrors on guard were buried beneath the heavy rocks in an instant. Dust flooded into the anchor.

“Cave in!” one of the Aviary agents cried. He extended a hand and shaped a gray-colored spell as he began to work his Geomancy.

He didn’t get very far.

A flash of white and red tore out from the tumbling smoke that swept through the room. The blur punched clean through the Aviary Geomancer’s skull and he fell over dead. But the blur kept going. It punched through the heart of a vampire and beheaded another before Kraid seized it with his own mana.

The projectile trembled in the air. A drill shaped from… was that bone? Why did it gleam like adamantine? And why could he still control it? Bone adamantine was something only harvested from the bodies of colossal monsters. This was barely the length of Kraid’s arm.

A struggle ensued. Kraid growled with effort, but soon began to overpower his adversary’s spell. The enemy was strong, but merely a Low Master in Biomancy. And they recognized Kraid’s superiority as well, as they destroyed the bone drill and focused on hardening their field against him.

Then, a terrible grinding noise sounded. The sound of a heavy stone being dragged over jagged rocks. Through the shivering fingers of the smoke emerged a pale shape. For a moment, Kraid thought he was looking upon a Necrotech war construct, but as more of the strange adversary came into view, the elder vampire realized his guess was wrong.

A figure clad in dense bone adamantine armor came to a stop before the teleportation anchor’s entrance. As the dust settled, Kraid also saw how the man was somehow holding onto what looked like an entire wall. The enemy promptly yanked the wall hard and its edges broke apart. The intact portion of wall was promptly lodge to block the teleportation anchor’s entrance.

“That should keep this place blocked up for a bit,” the bone armored stranger muttered.

Kraid felt a shiver of slight fear rush through some of his forces. It broke within his vampires, but it lingered within the spies. The golems groaned and staggered forward, forming a frontline against the unknown threat. Kraid growled and tried to liquefy them with his Biomancy. His enemy pushed back with his own field. Kraid found himself struggling again. He was still stronger, but though he slowly drove the stranger’s mana back, they didn’t react.

And as Kraid unleashed his Dread Aura on them, they simply responded in kind, driving skill against skill.

He has Dread Aura too, Kraid realized.

“Who are you,” Kraid snarled. He unleashed more of his power, but the stranger didn’t even flinch.

The bone armored stranger just laughed. “You know, after the pain I experienced a few hours ago—and the pain I constantly feel right now—you squeezing my mana field feels like a rough massage.”

Outrage and disbelief warred within Kraid. “You—You wear the vestiges of death. You are not of Compact. You cannot be.”

“You’re right, I’m not,” the bone armored stranger replied. There was a low bite to the man’s voice. It was the same kind of noise a guard dog made before it tore into someone’s leg. Everything about the stranger screamed impending violence. And that’s when Kraid noticed the owl had gone completely still as well.

For the first time, the damned spy seemed uneasy—and it wasn’t even because of Kraid.

“Then, pray tell, stranger,” the owl spoke. “Who might you be. Are you… are you an illustration, perhaps.”

The bone armored stranger cocked his head in turn. “Are you asking me if I’m one of the Educator’s illustrations?”

“Indeed,” the owl said. “We understand that the Forgotten Artist might be diminished but—”

The owl's words were promptly interrupted as the stranger let out a bark of vicious laughter. “I can’t believe this shit. Ah. But I guess it makes sense. It was too convenient. Damn system’s just playing games with us.” The stranger let out an annoyed breath. “Well. Suppose I’ll be getting some answers from you. Congratulations, owl. I’m gonna try and keep you alive. There’s a certain lady I need to introduce you later. The rest of you… Well, this is going to feel just like old times for me.”

“Enough of this,” Kraid said, stomping forward. For the first time, the bone armored stranger seemed to notice him, and that just infuriated Kraid more. “I care not who you are. We are here for the gate, and you have just condemned your flesh to my palate.”

“And you weren’t listening to me,” the bone armored stranger chuckled. He pointed his kukri at Kraid. “This isn’t your gate to conquer.”

Then, he slammed the hilt of his knife into his chest. A shockwave spread over his body. For a split-second, Kraid saw how the very air around the stranger’s body trembled like he was about to explode—

Then, the bone-armored stranger reappeared, blade-deep in Kraid's right eye. A howling scream escaped the elder vampire's jaws.