“Can you not bait it out?” Orion asked.

“You’re a bit of a dim one, aren’t you? Unless you’ve got tens of gold coins and a week of time, it’s impossible to bait out a Korshi so near the end of its transformation.”

He peered into the dingy hole and gulped. Had he really sunk so low in three months?

“Can we at least not get nose-plugs or something?” he tried.

“In!”

Tightening his nose, he gripped onto the railing and climbed down. The stench was atrocious; it reeked of shit, of piss, of rotten fish, and rotten eggs. And these were only the severely offensive ones, not forgetting the countless odours that nuanced the smell.

They hit the ground sometime later. Before anything else, he stumbled to the static liquid flowing through the middle and retched his vomit into the putrid mix. Oddly, he felt better because the stench no longer held his stomach in ransom, but also worse because his stomach had escaped by getting shot. Kora wasn’t as deeply affected, instead leaning on the wall with gloved hands. Soon, she regained her bearings.

“Come on, kiddo, we’ve got a vampire to hunt. The blood is strong here,”

“What? How can you smell anything past the Korshi’s shit?” he said while rising.

She walked past him into the unlit gloom as if she knew where she was going, as if she could somehow smell the Korshi in this stench. He didn’t care how and spent no time thinking about it, instead, trudging after her.

A mountainous hike seasoned with rats later, she stopped and began kicking at faeces. Or maybe not faeces. Where they stood, the sewer walls seemed to be plastered with grime, but he knew better. The smell of blood was distinctive.

She spun and faced him.

“It’s here,”

Their front was dimly lit by coppery-green beams. The sewage lake drew into a waterfall, a large brick wall hiding what followed. He would be able to see the rest of the stream if he dived past the wall, but he wasn’t curious. Unlike an actual waterfall, there were no sounds of rushing and crashing water, instead, wet slops that churned his empty stomach.

Suddenly, a groan bounced off the walls.

Orion wasn’t scared: if worse came to worst, he could still use Szu and live, although Kora would then have to die - a thought that stung his heart. Nonetheless, the echo made him tense.

Out of character, he put his hand across her back.

“We’ll be fine, easy kill,”

“Get your shit-stains off my cloak,” she grumbled back.

Tough love. Now, with the foul backdrop, he understood why she enjoyed poking him so much.

He pushed her forward and stepped around the corner.

When the sewers had first been built, there had been large hatches to enter it. But, over time, Lesan had learnt big entrances allowed monsters easy access in and out, so they bolted the hatches and dug smaller openings across the city.

A disused stone hatch lay over the Korshi, its countless stains the monster’s stars at night. The monster stood on a few metres long by a few metres wide concrete platform. There were tough weeds growing through the hatch, dropping sickly green hair onto the Korshi.

The Korshi itself looked like a naked, dishevelled man. It had a large nose and thin eyes, long brown strands filing the weeds. It was emaciated and had sallow skin. Around it lay blood stains and flesh, a lot of flesh. Despite this, it grinned, showing crooked, but otherwise normal, teeth.

“Human, you why here?”

Its voice was high-pitched like a woman’s screech and punctuated by squeaks. It clearly hadn’t completed its assimilation.

“Human, why…” it paused, searching its victims’ minds for the right words, “… with her?”

Orion gripped his sword and took a defensive stance. He knew Korshis were fast, but he didn’t know how fast. So, he’d let it teach him its flow before ripping it several new ones. However, unlike him, Kora strode forward, her sword still by her waist.

“Why… higher…” the Korshi said.

Kora shushed it loudly before beckoning it closer. It obeyed…

Orion knew she was well-read on many things, more so than him on monsters, so the naivety she now showed gave him the shivers.

“Kora, it’s dangerous. Don’t be fooled,” he warned, his voice quivering. Did she know something he didn’t? Or was his … next Seeker about to die as well?

The monster now stood two metres away, warily eyeing her, before taking another step.

“Did m—”

Kora swiftly flicked her sword out and slashed up. The Korshi leapt back with inordinate force but not before her blade gashed its shoulder, causing its arm to be bent across its chest. Its wound spurt blood and its mouth fizzled spit as it landed metres away.

“YOU… YOU!”

She didn’t allow it anymore words as she chased, her sword sweeping low.

The Korshi growled and bones ripped out of its skin, the dim light exhibiting a massive human-hound mutant. Its teeth grew finger-long and claws extended from underneath the nails. Black ovals replaced its eyes. Due to Kora’s strike, it crouched on three limbs instead of four but even that seemed of no effect to its speed as it exploded from its spot, sprinting to the sides.

The Korshi pushed off the walls and leapt at Orion, its maw gaping and its tongue lusting blood. It seemed to have deemed him the easier target, the fuel-box for it to refill its energy. In the face of danger, Orion sneered at this thought: a Zakari, an easy target?

He sidestepped and stuck his sword point into the Vampire’s path. Realising speed was no longer its ally, the Korshi used its remaining front limb to claw at the ground and alter its path. Despite its escape, it still lunged its foot at Orion as it went past, its claws ripping fabric.

Shocked by the sharpness, he hopped back and stood with Kora. Not for long, though, as she hounded after the monster, her cowl flinging off to reveal caramel-brown hair and glimmering eyes. She was… excited?

The Korshi’s black ovals regarded her and saw the same thing. It grew desperate - it growled, and its inky eyes lightened.

Orion, with his back to the stone hatch, saw blood rise from the half-eaten flesh around him. They sharpened like needles and began to quiver.

Kora glanced back as she ran and then stopped. She turned and cast her palm against monster: blood flooded out of its gash and circled its waist.

The Korshi screamed in anguish, knowing its demise. But it still didn’t give up, instead, grasping onto its sanity as more blood-needles rose around Orion.

Click.

The blood-needles shot out, dotting him with holes.

Click.

The blood-saw contracted and sliced the Korshi’s waist, its legs standing for a moment longer as the torso toppled onto concrete.

Kora looked back in dismay. Her eyes were pale.

Orion stood with an ice-shell covering him. It was cracked and full of holes. His eyes were pale.