The district was a silent graveyard. Buildings with shattered windows, cars piled up forming accidental barricades, poles bent at impossible angles. The Dragon's Tail mist hovered above the rooftops like a layer of static smoke. Invisible and undeniably present.
Ashe walked a few steps ahead. The metal cane hung in her right hand, the tip occasionally dragging on the cracked asphalt. Stephen held the Sulfur box in his pants pocket, fingers brushing the cold surface.
Alert: movement detected. One hundred meters ahead. Milla informed.
Ashe stopped. Stephen stopped behind her.
Analysis complete: Designation: Bloodite. Rank C. Affinity: Cinnabar. Behavior: territorial predator. Alternation between passive and aggressive states.
"Bloodite," Ashe repeated quietly. "Never heard of it."
Harvis answered through her panel. Limited records. Cinnabar monsters are rare due to the scarcity of the alchemical ingredient.
"Cinnabar monsters are the worst," Ashe commented without looking back and resumed walking. "Unstable. They alternate between behaviors. One second they're fleeing, the next they're hunting you."
"Personal experience?"
"Killed two in the first week. Almost died both times."
They reached the Bloodite.
Stephen peered over an overturned car. The creature was crouched over the ruins of a pharmacy, its body partially hidden by shadows. It looked like a deformed feline, the size of a lion. The skin was dark red, almost black in some areas, with silver veins pulsing beneath the surface like exposed arteries. Its head turned in abrupt movements, sniffing.
"Did it see us?" Stephen whispered.
"Not yet."
The creature emitted a sound.
Grrrk-sshk.
Viscous and sharp at the same time. Like something wet being torn. Stephen reached the side of the car to get a better view.
"Plan?" he asked.
"You attack first. Sulfur Spark to get its attention. I circle around and attack from behind with my PoisonCane. If it shifts to passive state, we take the chance to cauterize a vital point."
"And if it doesn't shift?"
"Improvise." She shrugged.
Ashe moved away, circling the debris in silence. Stephen opened the metal box. The Sulfur was there, vivid yellow crystals, resinous shine. The smell rose immediately. Rotten eggs and phosphorus. He pressed the crystals against the exposed palm of the Conductor.
The heat came first. Familiar as Jenny's loud voice. Then the tingling climbing up his arm, the blood warming, the air around his hand beginning to shimmer.
Chk.
Blue flaming sparks were born between his fingers.
The Bloodite turned its head toward him.
Grrrk-sshk.
Stephen ran.
The monster leaped from the debris and crossed the distance in three seconds. The silver veins in its skin pulsed faster, the red color intensifying. Aggressive state.
Stephen pushed the sparks.
Fss!
The tongue of fire struck the creature's flank. The impact produced a white flash and the smell of burnt metal. The Bloodite roared, a sound that seemed like two overlapping voices, high and low at the same time. The struck area darkened, but the silver veins around it converged toward the wound. The skin rippled. Partially regenerated.
Hybrid, Stephen thought. Sulfur and Mercury together. The Mercury part is healing.
The creature advanced. Stephen threw himself to the side. A paw passed inches from his face, red claws leaving a trail of heat in the air. He rolled, hit his back against a bent pole, groaned.
Alert: the Bloodite alternates states in intervals of twelve to twenty seconds. Recommendation: attack during transition.
Ashe appeared from behind. The metal cane—which she named PoisonCane—glowed with a silvery liquid layer that moved like living mercury. She twisted her torso to gain more force and ricocheted, striking the creature's side.
Vrrm-CLINK.
The sound was metallic and fluid, reverberating like a thum. The Mercury penetrated the Bloodite's skin like acid, spreading through the silver veins. The creature shuddered. Its eyes, two crimson slits, lost focus for an instant.
"Transition!" Ashe shouted.
Stephen understood. He grabbed more Sulfur from the box and pressed it into his palm. The heat returned, more intense this time. He focused. Concentrate, don't disperse. Heat that penetrates, not fire that spreads.
Hss.
The point on his palm glowed orange-white. He advanced while the Bloodite still trembled in the transition between states. He found an area where the silver veins were denser. The neck.
Stephen closed his hand around the creature's sticky neck and burned.
The heat crossed through the red skin. The silver veins resisted for one second, two, then began to darken. The Bloodite convulsed. The two overlapping voices became a single, desperate screech.
Tkk.
The sound of something sealing. Tissue being cauterized.
The creature tried to pull away. Its hind legs gave out. Stephen didn't let go. More Sulfur. More heat. Three seconds. Four. He pressed his burning fingers, wanting to explode the monster before alchemy could do it.
The Bloodite collapsed.
Stephen fell to his knees beside the body. His left hand throbbed, the skin red from excess heat. His breath came in short gasps. The Sulfur box had fallen to the ground, some crystals scattered on the asphalt.
"It wasn't elegant," Ashe commented, approaching. The cane still dripped Mercury residue. "But it worked."
"Thanks for the compliment."
"Not a compliment."
Stephen looked at the Bloodite's body. The red skin was losing its color, the silver veins fading one by one. Cracks of light began to appear, pressing from inside out. Disintegration.
The body fragmented into smaller and smaller pieces. Red, silver, yellow. The ingredients separating by type. Cinnabar precipitating into scarlet crystals. Small drops of Mercury. Sulfur residue.
Ashe extended her left hand. Her fingers trembled slightly. The ingredients on the ground began to vibrate, then to move, drawn toward her like iron filings to a magnet.
"Still training," she repeated as the crystals floated to her palm.
Stephen watched. Most of the ingredients reached her. Some escaped, rolling into cracks in the asphalt. Maybe eighty percent recovery. Better than the thirty percent without a Hydrarch. He watched Ashe grab an ampoule from her jacket pocket with her free hand and stored the Sulfur first.
He stood up and walked to the case fallen on the ground. His legs still trembled. He opened it and grabbed an empty padded container, bringing it to her. He helped store the Cinnabar.
"Thanks," she murmured and let out a long sigh when she finished, sitting on the dirty asphalt.
Stephen went back to the case and stored the containers. Closed and sealed the latch.
Kill count updated. Milla informed. Bloodite, rank C, one kill. Total: four.
"There's your kill," Ashe commented, sliding a finger through the reddish trail on the ground.
Stephen returned to her and also sat, crossing his legs.
"It's not a Rank A," he retorted.
"Oh, don't worry. Many Rank A monsters await us in The Crucible."
He didn't respond.
The countdown, as silent as the Dragon's Tail, had begun. They needed to be strong enough before becoming Heptabound.
Four. Stephen glanced at the panel briefly. Four was not enough. He was craving for more.
He wanted four hundred.