Scarlet

It only takes me getting sliced up three more times by the wraith to realize just how weak I am, and how futile it is to fight back at my current strength. Even if I’m not actually trying to kill it and only delay it right now.

And right when I’m on the brink of collapsing from blood loss, the creature’s life energy not proving to be much due to our significant level difference, the thought of one of the skills I passed over a while back resurfaces.

My eyes widen and I immediately jump back a couple meters while opening the skills store and purchasing blood sacrifice. Then without hesitation, I begin using it while also pumping the rare skill straight up to level five, spending a total of thirty-eight Skill Points in the entire process.

Not even a second later, I begin to feel a burning sensation spread throughout my body, mixed along with a surge of strength that I didn’t have before. A large one. But when I see the wraith rushing towards me again with its blade-like arms crossed in front of it, I grit my teeth and push the blood sacrifice further, making actual red steam leave my pores.

The burning sensation grows stronger, but I at least manage to back up quickly enough for the two blades to only barely skim me, cutting across the sides of my waist and opening up my shirt and jacket in the process. And I continue to burn my own blood to increase my physical strength through blood sacrifice to barely avoid the worst of each strike, slowly getting myself cut open in the process as we continue backtracking our way through the hall.

“Shit, come on! You’re almost there!” I vaguely hear Tar shouting his encouragement in my head, making me briefly question what he’s talking about only to realize that we’re almost at the bunker.

A spark of hope lights up in my eyes and I continue pushing myself, increasing my pace backwards a bit in the process. But the hope doesn’t last long as even with blood sacrifice – no, probably because of blood sacrifice combined with the many wounds I’ve sustained – I begin to feel my body growing weaker and weaker from blood loss. And by the time we actually get close to the bunker, I can barely even remain standing.

Despite this, I continue pushing back, getting hit more and more with each swing of the creature’s blade. To make matters worse, I’m having more and more difficulty keeping track of any of its movements, and the corners of my vision are starting to grow blurry.

I cough up a mouthful of blood on the equally red carpet of the hallway.

Everything begins to grow dark, and I feel the strength in my body fading away, my skill no longer having much blood left to burn.

“Use the damned potion you idiot!!!” I vaguely hear Tar shout in my head, giving me enough of a push to reach into my pocket in between strikes of the wraith to grab the potion before raising it to my lips. But right when I’m about to tilt my head back and drink it, I hear a shattering sound, and then I stumble forwards slightly, my head going straight into the falling liquid from the bisected glass holding the potion. Or that used to be holding the potion before the wraith cut it in half.

I barely manage to get a mouthful of it in my mouth before catching myself on my foot thanks to the warmth it immediately spreads through my body.

“Duck!!!!” Tar shouts as if his life depends on it.

And so I do.

Then the most horrifying shrieking sound echoes through my ears, making me immediately wince and jerk my head to the side, some of my strength returning to me even if I don’t have blood sacrifice active anymore.

And what I find is the sight of the wraith’s blade locked against the shield with volts of electricity running through it. Then I collapse backwards, landing flat on my back as everything begins to grow dark again.

“Not yet!” Tar shouts, appearing in the corner of the room despite the danger. “Get up! Now! Get up or you’ll die!”

I can’t help the faint smile that appears on my face.

Aww, he actually cares after all…

Then the shrieking sound comes to an end, bringing my still fading attention back to the wraith to find it having dislodged its blade from the shield. The creature is currently letting off steam, with what looks like lightning burns – burns in the form of several interconnecting lines kind of like a tree and its branches – extending from its blade-like arm through its shoulder and into the rest of its body.

Huh. Guess it survived.

And it looks pissed.

My pride burns away at me that I wasn’t able to kill it, and that it’ll even kill me, still believing me to be its prey. But I guess there’s not much I can do about that. Not when I can’t even lift my head at all. Not even an inch. Not even a quarter of an inch.

It was fun while it lasted Tar.

“You damned, insufferable, idiotic, wolf girl!” Tar shouts out loud, not caring that the wraith is glancing at it, still pissed off as ever. “Get your furry head out of your-”

A loud crashing sound cuts him off, followed immediately by the sounds of stuff frosting over.

Oh, hey. Looks like I might not die after all.

“How dare you,” a rather cold and quite familiar voice echoes in the hallway, each word pronounced rather slowly as I watch the frost spreading to the wraith, gradually freezing it solid from the feet up. “You won’t be touching another hair on her head.”

Then – after the entire wraith is frozen solid – the sound of shattering ice echoes in my ears. But by now my vision has already gone mostly dark, so I can’t see anything. And the last thing I could see before that was not a very nice one, considering how angry Cynthia looked.

Almost as if on cue with the sound, I feel the rest of my consciousness slipping away, likely due to my lone source of life energy – the wraith – dying.

And everything goes silent. Right, of course, after I hear a dinging sound play in my head.