The Bottom Floor, After Scarlet Leaves

When Collin was told that he’d have to babysit a newly contracted Guardian who had only just joined the Association a couple of hours ago, he was pissed. Extremely pissed.

After all, this was his first Demonic Assault since reaching Class II, and he’s stuck fighting in a Class I Fracture still with a newbie?

Not what he was hoping for in the slightest.

And his first impression of the girl wasn’t exactly a good one either, considering that she arrived at the Fracture wearing a pair of regular pants, a shirt that looks like it’s from some random school, and a black and red jacket that you could find pretty much anywhere. Not a single piece of defensive equipment. No armor, no magi-tech, no nothing. Not even a weapon.

But now that he’s seen her using some sort of blood magic on the demons despite having been told to sit back and watch? Collin isn’t sure what to think anymore.

Is she a kid who deserves babysitting?

He can’t help but wonder this as he watches the girl quickly enter the stairwell before climbing the stairs without a hint of fear.

After a few seconds of silently watching her until she vanishes from sight, he thinks back to what he was told when Sage had assigned him to this task.

“You are assigned to watch over the new recruit as you both clear out Class I Fractures. This job is of the utmost importance, and if you’re caught slacking and she gets hurt badly, you will be fired. But you are not to let her know you are watching. Nor are you to baby her. Let her do her thing while you do your own.” Sage’s eyes on the call narrow as she pauses and adds, “Beware of treating her poorly, as she will be someone to fear in the future.”

Sylver shakes his head after a second, deciding not to put too much thought into it. After all, the girl’s only now being contracted despite apparently being the same age as him. There’s no way she could become strong enough to make him worry even the slightest bit in the future.

But… Sage’s warnings have always been pretty accurate…

After a second, Sylver ignores the demons in the first floor to send a bolt of silver lightning straight to one of the security cameras, giving him the ability to see through every camera in the building. But he focuses solely on the stairwell where the girl is before she stops leaping straight up the stairs at around the twentieth floor and heads in.

She’s stopping on the twentieth floor? Shouldn’t that still be too close to the Fracture Core for a brand new Guardian?

Sylver tenses slightly in case he needs to save her as he watches her enter the floor before facing off against the demons inside. And what he sees after that has him reevaluating the girl entirely.

Scarlet

This prickling sensation in the back of my neck is really getting annoying. Just how long is he going to watch me?

When the sensation first appeared while climbing the stairs, Tar mentioned that it was some sort of instinctual feeling that blood lycans have when they’re being watched by something stronger than themselves. Which was nice to know, but the sensation constantly being there is just a little unnerving, to say the least.

It’s obviously Sylver watching me, seeing as Allen already headed off to another Class II Fracture a while ago, but how is he doing it? Doesn’t his power control simple lightning that ignores physics? Or is it something more?

I let out a sigh as I walk into the main room of a gym full of workout equipment and demons. A strange combination.

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Imp – Level 11|

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Imp – Level 10|

|Demon Spawn – Subspecies: Imp – Level 11|

|Demon Hound – Level 15|

The hound looks just like the hounds from the other Fracture, but the imps look rather odd. They are about three feet tall and are somehow flying through the air on red wings that are only a foot in length.

Is it the red glow emanating from the wings that’s allowing them to fly?

Some sort of magic?

Putting aside the imp’s breaking of the laws of physics for a second, the things have completely pitch black bodies except their wings, with incredibly long and sharp talons on the ends of their four fingers. And for some reason they don’t have a mouth.

Doesn’t stop them from shrieking the moment they lay eyes on me though.

“You shouldn’t expect demons to follow humans’ sense of normalcy,” Tar suddenly says, his voice echoing in my head as I activate blood claws.

Yeah, but that doesn’t change how unnerving it looks.

I try to test out blood siphon on them, but my control over the blood in their body is too weak to even break past their skin. So I switch over to blood boil instead, which has an immediate effect unlike how it affected the demons on the first floor.

The four demons all slow down immediately with small red spots beginning to appear all over their skin as they let out low groans of pain.

Interesting.

I rush forwards while they’re distracted by my skill before ripping my claws straight into the hound’s side, tearing a trail of blood through its fur. And without wasting a second, I use blood siphon on the hound’s blood now that it has an open wound, drawing it out of the wound and into my claws with a grin.

This I can get used to.

Although the mana cost on keeping all three skills active at once is pretty harsh compared to any of the mana usage I’ve had before now. To the degree that I don’t think I’ll be able to keep this particular strategy up for long.

But while I have it active, might as well take advantage of it!