There was something weirdly satisfying about throwing a Shattered off a roof. I wasn’t sure why it felt so damn good, if there was some strange, primal sense of dominance that I got from taking the high ground and, quite literally, standing tall as king of the hill or if it was something else. Maybe it was the satisfaction that, for once, I could look down on somebody else, instead of being the smallest person in the room, I wasn’t sure. But whatever it was, each time I kicked one of them down, draining the magic from their blood as they fell, my lips curled into a wide smile.

But throwing Shattered off buildings wasn’t just to satisfy my inner Napoleon complex if that is what it was. It allowed Silva and me to use them as bait, my Blood Magic saturating the area with the miasma that they seemed to crave, allowing me to attack them from a secure position with a large amount of cover available. And drawing them out seemed to be necessary, the stronger Shattered, and Scorched, were smart enough to remain hidden, not wandering the roads to get picked off. Or they might simply be incredibly rare, but when we had cleared out the building earlier, it had drawn another one. It had been enough to get me to level sixteen while adding another point in Blood Magic and Unarmed Combat, bringing them to seven and three. Not the greatest advance, but given that it had only taken about forty minutes, it wasn’t too bad.

We continued through the city, with me mostly remaining hidden and letting Silva fight and train her skills. She needed the training and, in some ways, it would also help me to train my Blood Runes, if she ever got hurt. Not that I wanted that, but I knew that she would be, at some point. That was simply part and parcel of this new life.

It took a while until I decided on the next building I wanted to clear out, yet another apartment complex that would hopefully bring out another high-level Shattered or Scorched. While they were rare, they also were the only enemies that gave a reasonable amount of EXP, compared to the pittance I gained when killing individual Shattered.

But looking at the levels I gained and comparing it to my past experience levelling on Mundus, I realised that it actually wasn’t that bad. It seemed that there was some force at play that allowed for faster levelling, maybe in reaction to the change, maybe due to some other reason. Or Shattered, simply by virtue of some special characteristic, gave more EXP. I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember just how many EXP one enemy on Mundus had given me, in order to compare it. I remembered killing many enemies, enemies that deliberately ran away or hid, making the search and hunt often take longer than the actual fight, but that might be the reason for the perceived faster levelling. That the Shattered didn’t try to run or hide, they came at me, almost like zombies, and died for it.

Just like the two times we had cleared an apartment building before, we quietly made our way to the roof, avoiding combat as much as possible, until we reached the adequate choke-point. Once we were there, and I had fortified the position further by icing up the stairs to make them extra slippery, Silva let out a loud, angry growl, making sure that every Shattered in the area noticed us. With my heightened Intuition, I was able to feel an almost imperceivable tinge of magic on the sound, a faint scent of blood travelling with it. Without really noticing, I drew one of my blades, making myself ready to fight when I realised what I was doing.

Looking over to my canine companion, she was completely focused on the stairs, her hair standing on end, and I could hear why. Shattered were coming, quite a few of them, just like we had planned.

With the narrow stairs and the slippery ice, I sat back, watching Silva deal with the Shattered. Just like before, she focused on separating individual Shattered out, making me realise once more just how smart she was. She was deliberately trying to let them through one at a time, so I could incapacitate them for my Blood Magic.

Once the first got through, I decided to add my own lure to her earlier taunt, carving the runes I used for my Blood Magic into the crippled Shattered before ripping the life and magic from its body. The resulting miasma spread out, driving the Shattered on the stairs a little wild, but Silva managed to withstand the pressure.

I was just about to ask her to let another one through, after checking the surrounding area to see how many more were on their way, when Silva let out a warning growl, catching my attention. Moments later, the Shattered that had crowded the stairs were viciously shoved aside, some of them falling, one of them even falling over the railing and another Shattered made its way up the stairs. This one used to be female and was, amusingly, not that much taller than me, if a little on the chubby side. What made it stand out was the fire in its eyes, a deeper blue compared to all the others, more of a royal blue, compared to the cerulean of the others.

And with the change in eye-colour came an increase in power, that much was instantly obvious.

“Let it pass, Silva, keep the rest back,” I ordered her, already striking with my Frozen Shuttle. We needed to make use of the choke-point, or we would get swamped. To increase the chances of the Shattered ignoring Silva and coming after me, I used Observe on it, learning that it was a level thirteen Shattered, stronger than any I had seen thus far.

And my scheme worked, the Shattered happily bypassed Silva, while she focused on keeping the others back. Sadly, that meant I now had to fight a physically stronger foe with limited space to dodge. Luckily, I had my second thought-stream, allowing me to fully focus on defending myself with my butterfly blades while the Frozen Shuttle was harassing my enemy, carving bits and pieces of flesh off its body. It slowly advanced on me, swiping with hands that had, just a few days ago, been similar to mine but now, those hands had turned to wicked claws, the nails growing longer and encasing the fingertips completely.

Carefully keeping my distance, I dodged and used my blades to redirect its blows, making sure to never take on head-on. Just from the way it had shoved the other Shattered aside, I knew that trying to block would just wrench my weapons from my hands, or possibly break my wrist, the thing was that strong. I made one attempt to cripple the Shattered by taking out the knee but sadly, it looked like the Shuttle lacked the punch to manage.

Luckily, while it had massive strength and formidable endurance and vitality, it was lacking in agility, maybe also in dexterity. It was faster than I was when it came to straight, linear acceleration but when it came to turning and redirecting its momentum, it was far weaker.

Letting its claws scrape along my blade once again, I stepped further back, dodging around one of the air-conditioner units on the rooftop in an attempt to gain an advantage. Even I had to move sideways to fit through the gap and I hoped that it would the Shattered would either try to follow or move around, giving me valuable time that might allow me to use my rune magic. Even a simple, three-rune spell would be incredibly useful, as the blunt impact of a hailstone might be enough to break bones.

It chose to move around, a smile growing on my face as I drew out the runes I was planning to use to cripple it, when I noticed its muscles tense in an extreme way. Bullet Time activated by reflex and it was a good thing it did. Instead of moving slowly and deliberately as it had done the whole time, the Shattered leapt forward, its speed far beyond anything it had shown so far. There was no way to finish the rune circle, even if I tried to instantly project the third rune, so the only thing I could do was jump aside, away from its trajectory.

To my surprise, it tried to correct its course mid-air by kicking against the air-con unit, but that gave me an opening, too. It was already moving towards the edge of the building, so I happily activated Overflow, channelling a chunk of Astral Power into my Frozen Shuttle, letting it crash into the Shattered’s stomach, digging in deeply. And shoving the thing across the edge, letting it fall to the ground far below. To make sure it wouldn’t get back up, I immediately followed up and started to draw another rune triangle, ignoring the potential waste of Astral Power.

The conjured Hailstone slammed down, accelerated further by my Ice Magic, striking the Shattered in the head and once that stone fell, there was no question that the Shattered was dead, its head was cracked open against the sidewalk. Now, I just had to help Silva finish the rest of them and decide whether or not we wanted to fish for more.