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Claire couldn\'t be dead. It wasn\'t like he\'d known her for long. They\'d barely spent a few days together, but they\'d saved each other\'s lives more than once. As it turned out, escaping hell with someone else was a very effective way to establish at least a semblance of a bond with them.

His hands tightened through the pain. He pinned his shadow in place as he accelerated, his lips pulling back in a snarl. Shards of glass pressed free from his arms before he even called on them.

He couldn\'t save Claire. It was delusional to think otherwise. Even he would have been crushed like a bug beneath the monster, and his Mind Palace had been at a higher level than hers.

The Prowler turned, ripping Claire\'s leg clean off as it moved to face Alex. He still couldn\'t see the rest of her body beneath the monster, but he wasn\'t so sure he wanted to. Anger burned in his chest. It worked up his neck and heated his ears, a burning fury that permeated his entire being.

He was halfway across the market square when a scream ripped out from the Prowler\'s mouth like a soul fleeing the depths of hell.

The monster\'s pupils shrunk in agony and it thrashed back, the scream intensifying. Alex missed a step as a spray of blue fluid arced out as if it had been shot from a fountain and splattered across the ground.

Lurching to its feet, the Prowler staggered to the side. It twisted and dropped itself back to the ground. It seemed to have completely forgotten about Alex\'s approach. The monster jerked back to its feet and bucked, screaming in pain for the second time. It slammed itself into the side of a building. Dust rained down around it, and it slammed itself into the building again.

To the side, the huge Boneraptor that Claire had previously been fighting turned toward Alex. It didn\'t seem concerned with its fellow monsters\' plight. It lumbered toward him, extending a huge hand as he grew closer.

Alex bounded into the air with strength that he hadn\'t realized his legs possessed. He landed on the monster\'s arm, sending a powerful vibration running through his entire body. Mirrored blades carved out from beneath his feet.

They sliced through the Boneraptors translucent blue flesh and scraped against bone. Alex snapped them off, even as the monster screamed, and dug his hands into the creature\'s flesh as he scaled it like a stone wall. The climb sent spikes of pain tearing down his arms and into his shoulders.

Every movement he made ripped huge, weeping furrows into the Boneraptor\'s body. It reached for him, but it wasn\'t nearly fast enough to stop him from reaching its head.

He leapt.

The Boneraptor\'s mouth opened, aiming to swallow him whole.

Alex thrust his hands forward. Mirrors exploded from his palms, rivers of glistening silver that slammed into the monster\'s eyes and penetrated into its skull. The monster jerked to a halt.

Spurts of blue liquid erupted from its face. Glass shards sprouted from within its head; rose like blooming flowers as they pushed their way free.

The Boneraptor collapsed. Alex pushed away from it, barely even noticing the agony ripping through his arms as he landed on the ground beside the dead monster. The pain was nothing but a candle to the wildfire of his anger. His chest lurched. Something impossibly dense pulsed in his stomach. A flicker of energy tickled at Alex\'s chest, the power from the monster entering him.

And then there was something else. A pull at the back of his head, as if something was tugging on his brainstem. His mind instinctively responded, yanking on the sensation like a loose string in a jacket.

There was a sharp snap. A whiteish blue flash of energy streaked out from the Boneraptor and into the deck at Alex\'s side.

He didn\'t have time to consider it. Alex was already turning to the monster that had killed Claire. He couldn\'t bring her back to life, but at the very least, he could avenge her. He called on his magic and prepared to kill the last living thing in the square, and that was the point in which he realized there was a problem. He couldn\'t kill the Prowler.

It was already dead.

Blue blood coated the ground like a scene from a poorly done slasher movie set in an alien universe. One of the Prowler\'s legs had been ripped clean free and laid in a pile of rubble near a crumbling house.

Its head laid ten feet away from its body, skull caved in and flesh ripped to shreds. The spines that had covered the creature were littered around the ground, forgotten cigarettes in a filthy city street.

And, standing over the monster\'s body, blood dripping from the stumps at her wrist and waist, painted blue with blood like a psychopathic Smurf, was Claire.

A black protrusion had burst from her back. The dark bones of a bat wing extended over her right shoulder and curled around her arm. Her yellow eyes had dilated like those of a cat, going completely vertical. The veins all throughout her body were pitch black. Claire\'s fangs jutted from her mouth, soaked through with blood, and she swayed unsteadily on her remaining leg.

"Claire!" Alex exclaimed, his eyes going wide in disbelief. There was no way she could have survived an impact like that. She should have been dead.

"Get me my leg," Claire rasped, blood dripping down the side of her mouth. "I can\'t hold this much longer."

Alex burst into motion. He hurried over to the missing limb and scooped it up. The motion flicked blood across the ground like he were swinging around a grotesque paintbrush. Pain pulsed in his broken arms, but he ignored it. He hurried over to Claire, nearly slipping on the blood, and handed her back her leg.

Claire looped her arm — the one missing a hand — around his neck for support. She used her remaining hand to grab the leg and, after nearly losing her grip on it, she jammed it back into place.

A pained hiss ripped free of her throat. Her grip on Alex tightened, nearly choking him for a moment as her entire body stiffened. Sickening squelching noises rose up from her leg. Thin ropes of blood wove around the severed limb, sewing it back on.

Claire swayed. Her eyes fluttered.

Alex grabbed Gentlewind\'s katana and caught her before she could pitch forward.

Her eyes snapped back open and she let out a low groan of pain. It was nearly completely muffled by the sounds her leg was making. She let out a slow, shaky breath.

"Hand," Claire said.

"You need a hand?" Alex asked, still trying to figure out how Claire was still in one piece — relatively speaking. Literally, she was still in two. Possibly three.

"I need my hand," Claire rasped. "Quickly. Please."

Alex glanced around the ground. He spotted her hand, along with her sword, lying at the edge of the blood. It was cracked and chipped, more than a half-step into its death bed. Gritting his teeth, he practically dragged Claire over to it. He hooked a foot under the sword and kicked it into the air. He went to grab it, but his hand slid off its slick surface and it fell back to the ground.

She coughed. Alex hooked the sword a second time. This time, his attempt was more successful. He grabbed onto her hand and shook it until the sword slipped from its grip. It clattered to the slick ground. Alex smacked the hand back onto Claire\'s stump where it belonged.

More squelches filled the air. Claire stiffened once more, and Alex supported the Dhampir to keep her from falling flat on her face. After a few moments, she relaxed and let out one last groan.

"Thank you. That bleedin\' hurt."

"How the fuck are you alive?"

"You don\'t have to sound so hurt about it," Claire said through a grimace. She tested her weight on her re-attached leg, then released Alex and took an unsteady step back. "I got some blood to work with. Fortunately, my body was all pumped up and empowered when that damn thing sat on me."

"You had blood? From who?" Alex asked.

"The monsters. Do you not see the blue shit everywhere?" Claire wiped her face, succeeding only in smearing the blood across it, and let out a defeated sigh.

"But… they\'re bones. And blue."

"That was already established. What, you think blood is only red?" Claire let out a pained laugh. The wing protruding from her back crunched and withered in on itself, retreating back into her shoulder. She didn\'t seem to notice. "The only blood I can\'t eat is the shit in the Mirrorlands. These things are fair game. I\'m really damn glad I upgraded Flowing Blood."

"That\'s one of your Auxiliary Skills? Does it let you stitch your limbs back on or something?"

Claire snorted. "I don\'t think that was the intended purpose for it, but yes. It gave me improved control over my body because of how saturated with my own blood it is. Was meant to let me pull off faster reactions. Move quicker. That kind of thing. But it also means I can re-attach shit, knit it on with blood, and hold it there until the System patches me up."

"You mean you\'re literally just holding your leg in place and hoping it\'ll fix itself?" Doubt seeped into Alex\'s voice.

"Doing a bit more than that, but pretty much. I\'ve got it real pulled together. Feel the sensation coming back with my improved internal body-sense. Can\'t say I like it. I\'m going to need to use up a lot of blood to keep everything on. If I run out, I might be fucked."

Alex blew out a relieved breath and shook his head. Claire was going to be fine.

"I thought you were dead."

"Start missing me already?" Claire asked, a pained grin pulling at her lips. It quickly turned to a grimace. "And were you missing me enough to donate? I\'m really low."

Alex rolled his eyes and started to raise his wrist, grimacing slightly as he aggravated his still-throbbing arms. Then he paused. Claire\'s fangs were still soaked with blood.

"Clean your mouth off first. I do not want whatever awful combination of shit you\'ve got in there getting into my bloodstream."

"My saliva is a poison, remember?" Claire asked. "It\'s all inert. Dead. Nothing to worry about."

Alex scrunched his nose. Then he lifted his hand again. "Fine."

Claire bit down on it, her throat bobbing as she drank. She pulled away several seconds later and ran her tongue along her lips, giving him an appreciative nod.

"Thanks. Saved my ass."

"A hand and a leg, actually," Alex replied. He looked over to the dead Prowler. "And I don\'t think I did much of anything."

"I more meant the blood bit. Also, the Boneraptor. It would have hurt like hell if I had to wait for that thing to get closer to bite it. Might have not been fast enough to stick my missing bits back on. I reckon I might have won with my full Awakening active, but it would not have been fun."

"Full Awakening?" Alex tilted his head to the side.

"That\'s what I\'m calling it. It\'s when I have enough blood to completely shift my body. It draws a ton of energy," Claire explained. "It\'s a mixture of Energy Thief — the ability that lets me steal attributes from things I drink blood from — and my normal Awakening skill. When I\'ve got my stores full, I can use up all of it at once to get a lot stronger."

"What kind of attributes? Strength and speed and the like?"

Claire nodded. "That\'s how I got so hard to squish. These monsters are pretty resilient."

"That\'s a strong ability," Alex said.

So that\'s where the wing came from. Claire\'s no pushover. I suppose that should have been apparent enough with her spot on the —

"Bleed me," Claire whispered, her eyes going wide. "What have you been up to, Alex? Is that you at Rank 1 on the leaderboard? How do you have so many kills?"

Alex coughed. "Long story. I killed Diego. Also Gentlewind, but he attacked me first."

"Hell." Claire swallowed and shook her head. "Well, I suppose you win. Nobody\'s beating that."

"There\'s still the rest of the day. I\'m not done fighting," Alex said. "There could be more rewards for getting higher. But if you need to sit out—"

"Don\'t even think about it." Claire\'s leg squelched and she winced. "Egh. Gross. But don\'t try to shake me off. I\'m copying your ass. If you aren\'t done, then I\'m not done either. I might just need a few moments to recover."

"Yeah," Alex muttered. "Me too. Ten minutes, then we get back to it?"

"Sounds like a plan." Claire said bent down and grabbed her sword, flicking the blood from it as best she could before studying its blade. The weapon was ruined. She grimaced. "Damn. This might be done for."

"You can use that one," Alex said, nodding to the katana he\'d dropped on the ground. "Took it from a crazy bastard."

Claire discarded her old weapon and picked up Gentlewind\'s sword. She held it up, testing its weight in her hand. The blade glistened in the light, even through the blood splattered across its surface. "Huh. This is pretty nice. A little heavier than I thought."

"I think it was his class weapon. Don\'t think its magical, though." Alex looked up at the sparkling night sky. The stars still hung far too low in the sky. They blinked like eyes staring down at them, burning with silver moonlight.

Claire straightened and joined him in looking up at the sky. "Wonder how many more monsters can get. And what the reward is."

"Suppose we\'ll find out."

"Think there\'s a big bastard that\'s going to pop up at the end of the event to cap things off?"

"Oh, almost certainly."

"Figured. You\'re looking forward to it, aren\'t you?"

"Yep."

"Figured."