Dinner...?

Two Monster Race Upgrades Remaining

She informed me that dinner was ready and I tilted my head at her. "I'm not interested in your food."

She looked down. "Of course. I'm sorry." She looked at Lyla, curled up on the floor before me. Her gaze lingered on the brand new black mark on her daughter's shoulder, but she didn't comment.

I waved a hand. "Yes, take her. Leave me be."

She obliged, helping Lyla to her feet and they left the room to eat somewhere else. As they cleared out of the room, I noticed two things. First, I could feel Lyla as she moved throughout the house. Her Mark made her known to me even where my other senses couldn't detect her. If I concentrated on her, I could almost visualize her sitting down to eat. Second, it was very quiet. Henri wasn't still chopping wood. He could be anywhere. I rose to my four limbs and explored in a low stance. I'd learned that the hide and fur of my underbelly was softer and less protective than the rest of my body, and I didn't want to be reminded what it felt like to be gutted like a fish.

It was probably nothing, but I preferred to be certain about men I'd wronged who wished me dead. I reached for the shadows to hide me as I searched for him.

Assassin Skill: Shroud

Stealth 00:59:59
Adrenaline Surge: 00:00:59

The power filling my body was a rush. I'd already forgotten how great it felt to harness that surge. In a flash I darted silently out of the house and climbed up the side of the building to the roof. The yard was empty. I kept low on the roof, not wanting to present a silhouette against the sky by poking above the ridge. No activity anywhere. The curing shed, the workshop. I crawled down the side of the building to peek through a window into the room I knew Lyla was, thanks to the mark she bore. She and her mother sat together, eating. Henri was nowhere to be seen.

He must have gone to rally men against me. Reinforcements.

That could be trouble. I wasn't ready for a full scale battle with the local law enforcement. And if word of a devil reached the right ears, I'd have aspiring heroes breathing down my neck. No, I wanted more time. I'd been a fool to let him live.

I dropped to the ground and strode over to the block where he'd been chopping wood. The ground was packed hard from constant use. It would have been almost impossible to leave a footprint in it. I could smell him, but only barely. He hadn't touched anything but some of the stacked firewood, directly. His axe was missing. I was no bloodhound, besides.

Then it dawned on me. Could I actually...

I closed my eyes and focused deeply on my core. Past the bells and whistles of my monster powers, down into the more basic aspects of my physical form. Yes, I could. I wrapped one of the dark points in effort and wrestled it into my Core, willing it into shape.

New Monster Trait: Enhanced Senses - Track by smell
New Monster Trait: Enhanced Senses - Infrared vision

The change worked in me immediately. My environment shifted from a simple scene of dirt and firewood into a colorful array of information. The path Henri had taken lit up to my senses and sure enough it led away from the house.

I snarled. I was going to kill him. He had become a loose end.

Stealth 00:52:55

I took off at a run, easily tracking the man thanks to my new senses. My Shroud ability wrapped me in shadows and silenced my footfalls, so I moved quickly with confidence. I hadn't gone more than two miles before I found him. Based on what I knew from the terrain, he was headed for a nearby village.

I shook my head and closed the distance to him to fall in step mere feet behind him. It was laughably easy to sneak up on people with this Shroud ability. Very handy. With some experimentation, I found I was able to turn off my infrared vision and mute my smell down to more normal levels.

But how to deal with him? I weighed my options. I still had a handful of powers I'd never even seen before. I walked behind him for at least a full minute, contemplating how to end him. Two options stood out in my mind. Priest Elemental Smite, or my new Assassin ability.

I decided that the answer came down to whether or not I wanted to have a conversation with him before he died. Eh, I honestly wasn't sure, but could always change my mind. I moved in close to him.

Assassin Skill - Blood of the Martyr
Mana 36/90

Stealth 00:37:18

I slashed him across his thigh in a long arc that wrapped from inside his knee to his outside hip. He dropped with a cry.

When he saw me standing over him, however, he cursed and stood despite the obvious pain it caused him. "YOU!"

I grabbed his axe and wrenched it from his grip, kicking his bad leg out from under him so he fell again. "Yes, me. Hello Henri. Odd time for a walk to town, isn't it?" I hefted his axe. It had a good weight and balance to it.

He spit at me. "You piece of shit. Dark-born scum. I will rip you apart for what you did."

I sighed. "You really need to let that go. It doesn't even have anything to do with you. I saw a female, I took it."

Henri **** himself to stand again. Blood soaked his pants leg and more seemed to flow out of him steadily. "You and I both know you made it personal. We're good, Light-loving people. We don't deserve—"

I slammed the haft of his axe into his gut, driving the wind from his lungs and pushed him down again. "Let me stop you right there. Deserve has nothing to do with any of it. This life isn't about what's fair. It's not about what we do or do not deserve."

He shifted to his good knee, supported by a hand in the dirt.

I swung the axe haft again, cracking it against the side of his head. He dropped to the ground, groaning. "You think this is some kind of fairy tale, Henri? Where the good folk get to live happy little insignificant lives and nothing bad ever happens to them? You think you're entitled to happiness?"

"This is a shit world, my friend. The gods don't care about you. I know; I've met them. They hate you. The Light has made you humans soft. They sent me here to set things right. And I'm going to start by erasing every fool who runs around crying about what is or is not fair about being weak in a world that despises weakness."

With considerable effort, he pushed himself upright again. I reached out my hand.

Priest Skill: Dark Magic - Mark
Mana 33/90

The mark burned into his forehead as he gritted his teeth and snarled at me through the pain.

"Say hi to Melanoche for me." I cracked him upside the head again with the axe haft, knocking him to the ground in a heap. He was still breathing, but from the looks of his leg, he wouldn't be for long. There was no way in hell he would make it to the village in his condition.

I turned and started walking back to the cabin. By the time I'd gone a mile, I felt the mark fade from the world and a nice chunk of Class experience enter me.

Humans were so fragile. Now I had no one to watch over my mothers while they bore my children. Such a pain. Maybe I should have just **** him like the rest. But without the promise of offspring it just wasn't that appealing.