The movement was blazingly fast and perfectly controlled. Only Mile’s wrist and forearm moved, his shoulder motionless as he pulled something black and carbon from his inventory and pointed it at me.

Time slowed down.

Muzzle flare flashed three times.

It was likely only due to <Probability Cascade> that the first few shots missed. Something too fast to perceive struck my shoulder armor and knocked me off-balance.

Simultaneously, there was a metal blur as <Broken Legacy> freed itself from the pit and shot toward me.

I activated <Page’s Quickdraw> mid-fall. My hand crossbow leapt into my grip and I aimed for the meat of Miles’ thigh. Then squeezed the trigger.

He screamed and fell. We hit the ground moments apart, but the hand crossbow’s pain effect didn’t stop him from leveling the shaking muzzle of a stockless submachine gun directly at my head.

Blackness overtook me. Smothered me.

And for a moment, I thought it was over.

But the gunfire continued, and the blackness that covered me emitted a harsh growl, radiating pain and anger. Rage overtook me as my mind caught up with my body. Miles had brought a fucking machine gun to a crossbow fight. He’d be penalized if he killed me with it, same as I almost was at the beginning. And now Talia was paying for my shortcomings, shielding me with her own body.

“No!”

“Stay,” Talia rasped. Her body shuddered as she took another bullet.

An unbearable rage welled up from my core.

I’m going to kill him—

I felt the breath of her muzzle as she nipped my ear. “Don’t… get distracted… pup.”

The meaning of her words hit like a bucket of ice water, bringing everything back into focus.

“Okay. I’ll bring you back as soon as I can,” I said, my voice hoarse.

Click. Click. Click.

Across the gap, Miles swore, and there was a loud clatter. From the grunts of pain, he’d run out of ammo. Was trying to get the bolt out of his leg and failing. I forced myself up on an elbow and peeked over Talia.

Sprawled out on his ass, Miles leveled a Glock at my head, and I ducked back behind the wolf just before he fired. Staggered, panicked footsteps trailed away from us. Talia’s body dissipated, leaving me with a clear line on Miles, hauling ass deeper into the ripple. A series of notifications popped.

<Local User Notification:>

Rogue Bounty at the Gilded Tower, Floor 28 and 1/2

Threat Level: High

Time Limit: Until a condition is met.

Conditions: Neutralize or Terminate.

Reward: EXP (L), S100,000 - 200 Rare User Cores

<Notification End.>

God fucking dammit, Miles.

He’d tried to kill me with a blacklisted weapon. Put it all on the line. Instead, he’d “harmed” me and killed Talia, which was apparently enough for the system to flag him. The bounty was no joke. Now, if I left him injured and running scared, I might as well be signing his death warrant.

If I said it didn’t tempt me, I’d be lying.

But looking at everything from a purely rational perspective, nothing had changed. The trap he’d laid had failed, and he was in more trouble now than when he was pretending to be.

Don’t get distracted.

I set after him, running at a slow jog. The injury would slow him down. Now it was just a question of how many bullets he had left.

* * *

The answer was many.

Many bullets.

I followed from a distance, exposing as little of myself as possible. He tried another ambush, but the pain from the bolt had unsettled him. Mostly he just ran, limping painfully with every step.

I’d picked up a few vampires in the interim, used one to keep watch and the others to pull away the attention we were drawing. So far, it was just vampires on vampires.

I took cover behind a cluster of beams and called out, “Getting tired yet?”

A bullet answered. It went far wide, glancing off the stony ground and ricocheting off, meters away.

“Guess that’s a no.”

I staggered as a soul-rending screech, loud and unbearable, chilled me to my core. A massive shadow flitted overhead, and I instinctively ducked. Seconds later, an impact large enough to be a bomb shook the entire dungeon, sending bits of detritus skidding past where I lay prone, my entire body shaking.

Every vampire in my awareness blinked out.

Once rife with the noises of monsters and squalling, the ripple fell silent.

Fear coursed through me, fear more raw and real than any I’d felt before. Fear that made me feel like I was a child who just discovered how terrifying the world really was.

I forced my eyes open.

Nearby, one of the overhanging bridges collapsed, crumbling into the abyss. It’d been shredded in half. Hole running clear through it.

And far off, in the direction Miles was running, there was an angled crater. Miles was a bloodied mess, facedown, motionless. And above him a lone figure stood, completely still. Its skin was crimson, its body sleek and thin, with arms that ended in claws.

A voice that slithered and pervaded everything, coming from everywhere all at once, filled the ripple.

“You… want him? Come… take… him.”

The Crimson Nosferatu matched Azure’s description perfectly. My body trembled. And somehow, with monumental effort, I pushed myself up to my knees. It hadn’t moved an inch and didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

I reached out to Miles with <Suggestion> and felt significant pushback.

It was confirmation he was still alive, still conscious. Didn’t solve the problem. The Nosferatu felt absurdly powerful, but that didn’t mean it was intelligent. Maybe I could influence it. I reached out with <Suggestion>—

The connection snapped, and my vision dimmed to almost nothing. When it returned, I felt shell-shocked, hollow.

Numbly, I tried to mentally review the resources I had, placing them on the ground in front of me.

The common silver knife and the arrowheads.

My crossbows, bow, and potions.

My mana was dry.

GET OUT.

No. I could come up with something. I just needed a plan. Some way to distract it long enough to grab Miles and get out.

How. It’s faster than you. Smarter than you. If you’re lucky as hell, maybe it’ll even let you go.

The Crimson Nosferatu’s voice silenced my inner thoughts. “How long do you intend to make me wait?”

Helplessness overtook me. The same helplessness I’d felt in the tunnel. Maybe Kinsley was right. Maybe we were better off with Miles gone. He’d come within seconds of killing me, and this thing had manhandled him like he was nothing.

Another voice radiated in my mind. One I hadn’t heard in a very long time.

You have to choose what you want to be. And you have to keep making that choice.

For perhaps the first time, I listened to my father’s words. This didn’t feel like a fight I could win. Everything in my rational mind was screaming at me to run. But if I ran, my actions spoke for themselves. I would have pulled Miles into a situation he couldn’t handle and abandoned him when it got hard.

And maybe it was Hastur’s revelation of what my life could have been, or maybe I’d changed. I didn’t know.

Regardless of why, I gathered my things and stood. Crossbow in one hand, dagger in the other.

The Nosferatu cackled and its aura pressed down on me. “Finally. I hope… your power… exceeds… your stature.”

That was an odd taunt. Power aside, it was half a head taller, if that.

Someone cleared their throat.

I started and turned, blinking several times, unable to believe what I was seeing.

Ellison was standing next to me, his arms crossed. His stoic face held a hint of a smile. “Sorry you had to find out this way, Matt. But it’s not always about you.”