Undyed, creme-coloured bio-cotton.

That was the material my Blood Magic was flowing through comparatively well. Why cotton, I had no idea. It might just be one of those things I shouldn’t even try to understand but simply accept that it was the material of choice for Blood Magic. It was far from perfect, making me think that any formation embroidered into it would destroy the material within a dozen or so uses, but it was the best I had found. Even the real leather I had tried had failed, at least if the tag had been genuine. The faux leather I had stumbled across had drained a lot of Astral Power and created incredibly odd puddles, after dripping to the floor. A part of me had worried that those puddles would start moving, just from the swirling colours within, but maybe I was simply unable to channel enough power to create whatever abomination would be spawned from the synthetic.

Either way, bio-cotton worked, I didn’t need to pay the five-times inflated price for it and now, I had a few shirts of the stuff to embroider later, even if I had to raid the children’s section to get a fitting size. There were times at which I hated being petite, though, at the same time, my physique was as much a part of me as my other quirks. They simply made me who I was.

In addition to the shirts, I had found a pair of scarfs of the same material and taken them as well. Those would eventually become equipment for Silva, allowing me to hopefully channel Astral Power into healing her from a distance but that wasn’t the project for the night.

I considered dropping in on the other survivors, just on general principle, curiosity to talk to a being that didn’t have four paws and regularly dropped enough hair to fill a pillow but there was a part of me that was hesitant. Mainly because I had no idea how to act.

Simply walk up, maybe call out a warning, going all, ‘Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but did you notice there’s an apocalypse going on?’

I could see that go over incredibly bad, especially given that I was completely unwilling to actually help anyone but myself long-term, simply because I wanted to use the Lone Traveller Perk as much as possible. I had no idea how it would work long-term, what sort of beings would remain possible companions, unless I decided to forgo the bonus and accept the reduction. Something I wanted to avoid, at least until I managed to reach a point where it no longer mattered. Likely a stage of power that rivalled the Gods, so a rather long-term goal.

Another option was to sneak up on them, simply look, just to see a few people who weren’t burned out by the flaring Astral Power, their minds or souls or something burned to a cinder. But would I be happy with it, would it help me any?

When Silva started to nudge my stomach with her massive head, I got the hint, shaking my head and continuing on my path. There were still a lot of Shattered that needed to be destroyed on my quest to awesome power and I needed to increase my Darkness Rune Mastery a little further and grind to level ten.

In addition, I should begin to keep an eye out for the best place to initiate a repeat of the great Snowbold genocide, only this time with sewers and rats. Sadly, unless I went into some sort of city planning office, I doubted I could glean any useful information from ground level but I would keep looking. Maybe I stumbled across a sign that said ‘Rat-Central, down this sewer!’ or something, but I doubted it. And if I did, I might be too spooked to attack them, simply because such a sign was a sign of higher intelligence and thus, in animals, of either incredible power or a spiritual nature, similar to Lenore. I wasn’t interested in replacing my avian friend, but attacking an entire clan of similar beings sounded like a rather bad idea. As in, getting hunted down and murdered, bad.

Back out on the streets, I continued prowling, searching for targets. Any Shattered were fair game and any lone Shattered turned into an experiment. Either in trying to figure out how their increase in level by Blood Magic worked, or in trying to push my Darkness Rune Mastery further. Given that there were quite a few Shattered around, their number didn’t seem to diminish much, as if Shattered from other places were moving into the areas I had cleared of them before, or I might simply have been imagining things.

By the time I settled down to have a late-night snack, what I now considered dinner, I had managed to get to level nine, but only just, while Darkness Rune Mastery, Blood Rune Mastery and Blood Magic all had levelled. My Darkness Rune Mastery was just lacking that last point to get the next rune, sitting at nine, while Blood Rune Mastery was at seven and Blood Magic only at four. But it was progress, something I was quite happy about.

My ears perked up when I heard an animalistic hissing noise, not coming from too close but further afield. Silva and I both immediately focused in that direction and started moving towards it, completely stealthed and hidden as we stalked through the dark streets.

What we found made me pause in surprise, it wasn’t anything I had expected but here they were. I had known that there were racoons in town, locks on dumpsters, signs to remove all foodstuff, things like that had been prevalent, but seeing a gang of them was a bit of a surprise.

But an even bigger surprise was what they were doing. I had always imagined racoons as the dumpster diving hobos of the animal kingdom but here I was, watching a gang of five take on a Shattered. And from the looks of it, they were winning quite handily, using a combination of hit-and-run tactics and even tools to their advantage. I had no idea how, why or where those black-faced furballs had managed to scavenge a few metres of clothesline but they had and were using it to entangle the Shattered’s legs, three of them distracting and harassing the Shattered while two were binding it.

For a moment, I considered attacking, simply taking down both sides, but before I could come to a decision, the two tying racoons were done, suddenly tightening the cord around the Shattered’s legs and bringing it to the ground. Two of the other racoons went for the Shattered’s face, only for one of them to get swiped by a flailing arm, the other jumping back in time to dodge. But their feint was enough to allow their last member to jump on its back, tearing through the spine with claws that seemed to be clad in some sort of magical enhancement and at that point, I wasn’t sure if I was under the influence of some sort of drug. I could accept many things, but tactical death-squads of magic-wielding racoons? That was… out there. At least they already had their masks, no need for bandanas.

Watching them made me re-focus on my rat-genocide plan, if racoons were starting to hunt and level, I was pretty sure rats were right there with them, if not ahead. Just like crows and ravens, those had been smart before and now, I was quite confident their status wouldn’t have diminished.

“Silent,” I admonished Silva, who was right next to me, almost vibrating with a need to pounce on the furballs ahead. But I had other plans, as I was considering going after the rats, I could just as well go after the racoons and for the best effect, I needed to know where to find them. Thus, we stayed in the shadow, watching as the racoons took their injured member in the middle of their group and started moving, with Silva and me now creeping after them.

A part of me wanted to laugh at the idea of a human and some sixty kilograms of canine sneaking after a mob of racoons, both of us outmassing them quite easily, but I wanted to find their nest. Or lair, or whatever one called the place where death-squad racoons were hanging out.

To my continued surprise, they were using magic to blend in with their environment, only that their ability was completely outstripped by my own. I could still follow the scent of their magic, even as Silva looked increasingly agitated, as if unable to smell them any longer.

Soon, they vanished into a drain, making further pursuit impossible but it was a target. Marking the place on my mental map, I began moving back, towards my own place, killing any Shattered I was coming across. I still needed some EXP and that last point in Darkness Magic, if I got those, the next night would be incredibly fun. Genocidal, murderously efficient fun.