It wasn’t long before I felt like something was about to go terribly wrong. We’d just gotten to the bottom of the switchbacks that led from the EDGE Force facility down to the bottom of the valley without incident, but out headlights would have been on show for all to see.

Edgebreaker, Trajan’s monsters, we had no clue who might have seen us, but there was no way our presence hadn’t been noticed. Balaur’s anima signature showed us which way to go, but the dark of night was treacherous. Zooming between trees, they seemed to materialise out of shadow just in time for us to swerve out of the way. We couldn’t hit the top speed of our snowmobiles without risking a slam into a massive old growth tree.

All the while, I swear I could hear more hyena-like Upyr laughing at us from the treetops. Branches swayed as they came into our field of vision, marking the passage of something that had just leaped out of the lamplight’s reach.

I slowed my snowmobile enough to be heard over the road of the engines.

“There’s something following us,” I said. “Be ready for anything. I fought these things called Upyr in the forest. They’re tree climbers.”

“You remember those funky monkeys I told you I saw?” Stiletto shouted. “I told you I wasn’t crazy!”

“They must have thought our group was too much of a threat,” Xiphos said.

“They waited for me to show up at the supply drop,” I called out as I picked up speed again. “Just keep your eyes open!”

I almost wanted Trajan’s monsters to take another shot at us. It had taken everything I had to kill the last pack that tried to pick me off, but this time the numbers favoured us. That all but guaranteed that they’d not attack us unless they had the advantage.

I was halfway through a thought when something massive slammed right into me from the side. My snowmobile, Kaiser and I went flying off the path and into the darkness. Our vehicle came to rest upside down, headlights pointed up into the nearest trees, revealing a pair of grinning upyr laughing at me.

But I had no time to even formulate a response before a huge clawed hand grabbed at me from behind. Those savage claws were thankfully resisted by my newly upgraded jacket as the monster grabbed me and threw me backwards.

Spinning through the air with moving beams of light as your only points of reference was quite a disorienting experience. I landed hard on my shoulder, which exploded with pain. Then the thing was on top of me again, breathing hot foul breath right into my face.

Shots rang out as the rest of my team opened fire. Light beams flashed into the trees, into the sky, then back down to ground level as they tried to follow the fast upyr with their flashlights.

We were more likely to shoot each other in the blackness than we were to hit the enemies.

I activated my claws and slashed at the monster that had me in its clutches. The claws illuminated everything around me for a few metres in luminous green anima light. The light dimmed as I tore into the monster that held me, but grew brighter against as I sliced through its hide. It snarled as it dropped me, but I wasn’t going to let it get away that easily.

I activated Man’s Best Friend and commanded Kaiser to attack the creature. A purple portal opened behind the wolf-like monster as Kaiser leapt through. He landed on the monster’s back and sunk his teeth into the back of its neck.

“Good job!” I said as I pulled my SMG from its holster. I peppered the hide of the beast with SMG burst fire, trying as hard as I could to control my shots so I wouldn’t hit Kaiser. Most of my shots hit it in the chest and legs as it reached back at Kaiser.

This monster was identical to the huge wolf creature we fought back in the first village. It was another prykolic, but this one had been herded towards us to ambush us on behalf of the upyr pack.

Khopesh cried out as an upyr landed on his back, but Stiletto emerged from stealth a moment later and drove his daggers into the creature’s back. He’d landed a good blow, but the upyr was on its feet and back up in the trees a moment later.

Xiphos and Naginata fought back to back, utilising Naginata’s bonus.

Kaiser let forth a howl, giving us all a boost. Xiphos activated All For One at the same time, making us all deadlier for the next few minutes.

The prykolic snarled as it almost grabbed Kaiser.

“Kaiser, away!” I called, and Kaiser obeyed.

I watched the hide of the prykolic eject the bullets and heal fresh skin over the wounds as it reached its gangly hands back down to the ground and stalked towards me.

The holes from the bullets healed over, but the jagged hole I’d cut with my claws did not.

Bullets alone weren’t going to cut it here.

Holstering my SMG and pulled my tactical hatchet with one smooth motion, I called forth a challenge.

“Come on, you bastard! You want me, come and get me!”

Claws blazing, anima light reflecting off the silvered edge of my hatchet, I waited for the prykolic to launch itself at me. It was bigger than me, and much bulkier. It leapt at me, but I easily evaded it by rolling to the side. It turned around in a circle towards me, but I was already within slashing range. I gave it a flurry of cuts alternating between my claws and my hatchet.

The monster’s skin audibly hissed as the silvered edge sliced into it.

Thank you Naginata.

The upyr around us were discovering our newly forged weapons at the same time. Sizzles of burning flesh rose around me. The laughs of the upyr turned into snarls of surprise and agony as they went down one by one.

“Don’t kill them if you can manage it!” Xiphos called out as she stabbed an upyr through the leg. “Leave them for Hatchet to drain.”

“Thanks, Cap!” I called out as the prykolic went for another run at me.

Leaping aside again, the bastard was ready for me this time. It followed my dodge and raked a massive hand across my back. My class skill had regenerated enough to be used again, so I activated it. Kaiser leapt out of a portal behind the prykolic and chomped down on one of the monster’s ears.

The prykolic tried to shake Kaiser off, but my partner was full of new tricks. It looked like Kaiser had been expecting it. He used his weight and momentum to pull the prykolic’s ear down, causing the monster to stumble off balance.

Which gave me the opening to attack.

I slashed my claws into its belly, then brought my hatchet down. Next time I thrust my claws into the prykolic’s flesh I drew on the anima that coursed through its body, which coursed into me, filling my anima tank. I immediately converted the anima to experience points and repeated the process two more times before the fight started to go out of the prykolic.

The upyrs fell at the hands of the rest of my team. Their gambit hadn’t paid off, but their deviousness was stark reminder that these were not just mindless monsters.

Two upyr had fallen in battle, but four more remained maimed and waiting to be harvested.

I didn’t take pleasure in watching the lights go out of their eyes as I drained their life energy away, but watching my experience bar rise and fill certainly was satisfying.

I rocketed past Level 14, and all the way to Level 15 in the space of a few minutes. I still hadn’t spent my skill point from Level 13, so I had three to allocate.

My options were pretty terrible. Alpha Dog made enemies attack Kaiser instead of me, and I didn’t want to do that to him. Pack Dynamics increased our health regeneration and movement speed, but the Forest Strider anima power would have a similar effect on our movement speed. The only viable option was If You Want Blood… which was very similar to a skill I had on Mori Island. It gave my edged weapons a chance to cause my enemies to bleed.

At Level 17, I’d be able to invest in three ranks of this skill, which meant a 15% chance to cause enemies to bleed, and also opened up the fourth tier of skills to invest in next time I levelled up.

I let Xiphos know my options and my choices, and she agreed. Especially because my new claws were also considered edged weapons. I sunk two points in, and then pre-planned to sink my next point into the same skill.

“You’re Level 15 already?” Khopesh asked with an edge of jealousy in his voice.

“Don’t worry, big guy. There’s a skill in the next tier that’s going to make you real happy,” I said, then read it aloud to him. “Wanderer’s Wisdom increases the experience earned by my team mates by 2% per rank, and reduces my own experience gains by the same. There are five ranks, and I plan on sinking four of my next five points into that. Hopefully that’ll give you all a boost.”

Khopesh beamed at that.

Xiphos chuckled to herself. “I doubt EDGE Force foresaw this eventuality when defining your skill tree.”

“Let’s just hope they can’t patch your systems on the fly,” Stiletto said.

“They can’t,” Xiphos confirmed. “Any changes to the EDGE Force augment can only be done while you’re in stasis. They can’t make changes once they’ve deployed you on a mission.”

Well that was one thing that separated these entities like Altrighus and Balaur from EDGE Force. They weren’t constrained by the same restrictions as EDGE Force and could use their anima whenever they wanted to.

Something tugged at me during that thought.

Why had Altrighus and Balaur been drawn to our world? Mnemnhion too. Then there was this other unknown entity that used red anima to corrupt Trajan Cel Tradat and those kept under his control. There had to be a reason why so many of these anima-manipulating beings were drawn to us. To Earth.

That line of thought was quickly cut off by the sound of trees being torn in half somewhere very close to us.

We all focused our torches on the direction of the sound as something primal and monstrous pushed its way through the trees towards us.

Black lips stretched back behind savage teeth the length of my head. Drool ran a thick goopy red between fangs drawn back in a snarl. Beady black eyes focused on us as huge human-like hands pushed trees aside to make room for its massive frame.

This creature was as big as a capcaun, but with the lupine grace of a prykolic. It stood there at the edge of our torch light, eyes reflecting the light back at us. A window appeared just as it had with the upyr earlier. Intel straight from Balaur.

Varcolac

Danger: Extreme

When a prykolic kills enough humans and absorbs their anima, they can grow into the frightful varcolac. Blessed with the intelligence of man and the savagery of the wolf, a varcolac is a deadly opponent. Its appetite grows with its size, and it wants nothing more than to consume more anima. Avoid at all costs.

“This thing is called a varcolac, and it gives Balaur the willies. It says we should avoid these creatures at all costs,” I said as I knelt down and gave Kaiser a treat to bolster his survivability.

“I don’t like our chances against this thing,” Xiphos said as she took a few steps back towards her snowmobile.

My snowmobile was still upside down. Damn it. There was no way I’d be able to right it in time.

“Ride with me, Kaiser!” Naginata called out and motioned for Kaiser to join her.

I nodded. “Go with her buddy. I’ll call you with a warp portal if I need you.”

Kaiser leapt up in front of Naginata.

“Ride with me!” Xiphos said. “Come on, Hatchet!”

I bounded across the snow at Xiphos just as the varcolac fell into a four-legged wolf-like stance and rushed towards us. It moved so fast that I barely had time to get out of the way. The air moved behind me as it raked claws where my head had just been. The stink of rotting meat followed it as I leapt onto the back of the snowmobile.

Xiphos gunned it and we sped off into the night.