They emerged into a small square nature strip bordered by shattered high-rise buildings. Their surroundings were tinted red with a bloody hue originating a distance away in the heart of towering, dark thunderclouds. Overgrown lawns around them surrounded a singular oak – the last vestige of nature that persisted in the midst of the desolate urban environment surrounding them.

  The leaves of the oak rustled in the wind preceding the ectostorm, creating a brief moment of serenity in the land of madness they had found themselves in.

  [Ritual of Veilsight]

  Veilsouls remaining: 1135

  Evantra focused on the outlines of the Veilsurge, watching grey mist peel from its edges, shifting in a particular direction. Evantra narrowed her eyes, attempting to search for the Veilcreatures in the direction the mist seemed to be pulling towards.

  There was a singular entrance to the courtyard. Its perimeter was surrounded with fencing comprised of metal bars at regular intervals housed within a brick-like structure, giving them a view out into the street around them. Pustules could be seen hovering over the remains of cars hastily abandoned in the streets. Drinkers prowled below them, scattered about the area.

  The creatures sustaining the Veilsurge must be on the adjacent street.

  Three other Demeteria operatives filed out of the Veilsurge behind them. Evantra and the other man that Jack recruited trailed after him at his signal.

  “Right then. We’ll advance as far as we can into the street. If we get overwhelmed, retreat back into the courtyard – we’ll make our final stand there. Worst case, we funnel em through the entrance, and you two take care of any stragglers that manage to break away. No dramas.”

  Evantra and the man beside her nodded.

  “If a ghost appears, retreat.”

  Jack withdrew his twin pistols and unleashed hell upon the bloodspawn. They flared to life, one after the other. The pustules hovering over the street in the distance burst apart like confetti faster than she could trace. She had no doubt that Jack likely had advanced optics paired synergistically with some heavier mods, which augmented his processing power and reaction time. Only the top Ghostslayers had the resilience to handle those without losing themselves to cybernetic dysregulation.

  She watched the man’s hands blur as he reloaded his pistols, resuming his salvo without missing a beat.

  The horde stirred.

  They dashed out into the adjoining street, taking cover behind the skeletons of abandoned vehicles. Together, they pressed forward down the street, the lethargy imposed by the pustules disappearing due to Jack’s diligence in clearing them out while at a distance away. Demteria’s operatives unloaded into the encroaching drinkers as they desperately leapt onto vehicles covering the road in an attempt to advance on their position.

  Evantra caught sight of a pustule floating in an adjoining shop a short distance ahead of her.

  “YAOGUAI!”

  Evantra felt a chill as the shout erupted from Ade.

  She desperately searched the wave of bloodspawn approaching them for the creature, but the mass of roiling blood and flesh concealed its presence. She turned to cast a glance to Jack, but Evantra quickly realised that he was dealing with a bigger problem.

  Another lumberer had emerged from the street beyond them, bringing up the rear. This one was at least twice the size as the creature they had encountered in the school, having gorged itself on the blood of Veilcreatures that roamed the lost territories. She watched as Jack put bullet after superheated bullet into the skull of the creature, slowing it in its advance.

  Then, the Ghostslayer hesitated. He twisted, his optics sighting something in the mass of creatures attempting to enter the courtyard. He lowered his Wraithkiller, raising a pistol which flashed as he discharged a single round into the mess of bloodspawn attempting to withstand their hail of bullets.

  Evantra returned her attention to the crowd and immediately deciphered what had demanded the Ghostslayer’s momentary attention.

  The yaoguai had grey skin and rose to about Evantra’s chest. Two tusks emerged vertically from its lower jaw, and the creature had a potbelly that would have been strangely humanising, were it not for its animalistic appearance. It seemed to be a cross between a man and boar, with large, round wooden rosary beads draped across its neck in a necklace that clattered as the wind sieved through it.

  Drool dribbled down the corner of the creature’s mouth as it hefted a large spear in its hands, which was at least twice its height. There was a large, red pulsing tumour attached to the side of the creature’s face, and Evantra could see bulging veins that seemed to spread over the creature's face, originating from the fleshy tumour. The creature was limping from the single shot that Jack had sent into its knee.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  They immediately refocused their attention on the Veilcreature, watching as bullets thudded into its fat belly ineffectively. The creature wound up its spear for a swing.

  Evantra heard a yell before the world around her twisted.

  What?

  She slammed into the ground, the [ritual of Veilsight] ending as she was rocked by a jolt of pain. She rose with a groan, watching as the other man beside her twisted to his feet, recovering extremely quickly after being knocked off-balance by what had appeared to be a wave of wind that the creature had called forth with a swipe from its spear.

  With a break in their gunfire, Evantra’s eyes widened as the bloodspawn began to make their way into the courtyard, as the yaoguai momentarily broke their stand. The boar yaoguai was limping from the wound Jack had inflicted to its knee. Despite its approach, the Ghostslayer was ignoring the creatures encroaching on their position, focusing his efforts on stopping the lumberer.

  Looks like he still has faith that we can deal with the others.

  “I’ve got the pig. You get the rest. My gun was hit.”

  Evantra couldn’t help but smirk at the incredulity of the young man’s statement as he rushed fearlessly to meet the yaoguai. His Nagantra machine pistol laid forgotten on the ground, rendered ineffective from a pustule’s shard. But without the time to retreat and obtain another weapon that packed more punch than Evantra’s spare EZ Defender, Ade advanced.

  He flowed smoothly around a horizontal slash of the yaoguai’s spear. He immediately detected the rhythm in the creature’s attacks and seemed to be more at ease in the dance of close-combat than he had been with gunfire.

  Ade pinned the creature’s spear to the ground with a foot as it reached the end of its swing, and smashed his fist into the creature’s snout. He nimbly stepped off the spear as the boar yaoguai unleashed a feral roar, and grinned as it expended more force than was necessary to recover its weapon from under Ade’s foot. As it stumbled back from the overextension, he administered more blindingly fast blows to its joints, face and other weak points.

  His footwork was impeccable, and he weaved circles around the beast, drawing its attention away from them while darting just out of the reach of its spear strikes at the last second.

  He’s leading it away from our position. By getting right in its proximity, he’s restricting its likelihood of unleashing anything similar to that wind attack, which takes time to prepare. The creature is being forced to use quicker strikes with less force.

  No time to waste.

  Evantra’s Nagantra rose, and she began sending precise bursts of rounds into the skulls of the encroaching drinkers. One of the drinkers leapt up onto the stone wall that she was crouched behind, and Evantra watched as the tendrils on its face flexed before diving into the skin of her forearm. She felt a wave of light-headedness as the energy was sapped from her body, before she grabbed the tendrils and pulled, yanking the creature towards her. She dropped her Nagantra in her other hand, placing her fingers against its skull before activating [razor claws], making sure to obscure her skill’s activation with her torso.

  Level up: Level 9 [Ghoul]

  She jabbed a stim into her arm and sighed as the analgesic properties took hold, grinning as she saw the level-up notification blinked into existence. When she rose again, she saw Demeteria’s operatives occupied with the other stragglers.

  Evantra quickly rushed into the store, sending a short burst of bullets into the floating pustule. She took cover and winced as some of the blood shards expelled from its death dented the metal shelving beside her. Casting one final glance outside and ensuring that both Jack and Demeteria’s operatives were kept busy, Evantra activated her [razor claws], pricking herself to draw a bead of blood, before executing the [ritual of consumption].

  She watched as the fleshy remains of the pustule disappeared in a barely perceptible black flash.

  Without wasting another moment, Evantra quickly exited the store, refocusing her efforts on the encroaching drinkers which were leaping onto and off of car roofs in an attempt to flank them. She winced as the bullets from her Nagantra ran dry. She extracted the Liberty EZ Defender that Amy had given her and started picking off Veilcreatures that Demeteria’s operatives failed to mow down.

  Turning briefly to check on the other man who had accompanied them into the Veilsurge, Evantra saw that he was still locked in battle with the yaoguai, somehow having managed to keep it occupied and from using its area of effect wind attacks with the spear in its hands.

  A gunshot rang out.

  The yaoguai’s head exploded mid-fight with the young man.

  Jack’s Wraithkiller fell, and it was only then that Evantra realised that the lumberer encroaching on their position had been killed. Ade finally gained a brief reprieve as the Ghostslayer felled the Veilcreature with a single, precise round. Given how close the man had been to his opponent, Evantra had the feeling that either Jack was apathetic to the man’s fate or utterly confident in his marksmanship.

  She was inclined to believe the latter.

  Ade lumbered over to her with a grin. His thigh sported a deep gash, the spearhead likely having nicked it during the course of the fight.

  From the brief glimpses that Evantra had managed, he remained admirably composed, dodging into and out of range of the creature’s spear strikes. The wound that Jack had inflicted had helped hinder the yaoguai, allowing him to keep it busy while they dealt with the rest of the blood spawn. It seemed like Jack’s decision to spare the shot had been deliberate, which spoke to the Ghostslayer’s expertise in assessing the threat that the Veilcreatures posed, along with their respective ability to deal with them.

  [Ritual of Veilsight]

  Veilsouls remaining: 1125

  Glancing at the Veilsurge, Evantra could tell that the telltale grey haze surrounding the tear had dissipated, which meant that the creatures sustaining the surge had been slain. Gradually, the sounds of gunfire drew to an end. Demeteria’s operatives went about ensuring that the Veilcreatures in their proximity were truly down and out for the count, while the rest of them returned to the courtyard.

  Jack clapped them both on the back with an easy grin.

  “Great shooting, Dora,” he said to Evantra, leaving her incredulous and self-consciously hefting her backpack. Then, he turned to the man beside her. “And you, good thinking occupying the yaoguai by fighting it close-up. Might just stand a chance against the kangeroos in—”

  Jack trailed off, his finger going to his cheek, where a spot of viscous liquid had appeared. The Ghostslayer’s eyes narrowed when his fingers came away red.

  They stared up at the thundering skies.

  Blood began to rain down upon them.

  “Spectre! GO!”