1% Lifesteal

A small, isolated room lay deep within the Tomb of Harrkanna, down a meandering path and past a long line of corpses doused in black ooze. The only way to enter it was to pull on several hidden levers, and there was nothing of substance within.

In fact, the room was a trap. Around a minute after being opened, the massive stone slammed down and trapped anyone who had entered within. The only way to break out was by force, which would trigger another trap.

That was no problem for the people in that room—for they had stepped into the trap of their own volition.

The stone wasn’t too difficult to break through, and the subsequent trap—a volley of bolts—wasn’t an issue to dodge or defend against.

Jacob slumped against the wall, breathing out once the entrance finally closed. This place would keep them safe for the time being. He pulled a small crystal out of his storage ring. It was an amber color, fashioned in a diamond shape, and hung off a chain. With a finger, he manipulated the stone on the wall he was slumped against to create a small hook, on which he proceeded to hang the strange artifact.

While it hardly looked like it, it produced oxygen. It was used for delving into realms where the airflow might be restricted. Typically, it was hung around the neck. A cheap one wouldn’t have been able to support the small crowd in that room, but his would be more than enough.

The room was big enough for everyone present to rest comfortably but not nearly big enough to ensure any degree of privacy, leaving the residents with only around a meter of free space on either side.

There were 11 people in that room. Every single person there looked worn out and haggard. The only individual who looked even remotely fine was the armored man, but that was most likely because the heavy armor was hiding his actual condition. Still, he obviously hadn’t suffered any significant injuries during the fight, either due to luck or skill.

The hours passed. In a blink, those hours turned into days.

Nobody knew how long they would have to wait in that room, but it was best to stay as long as possible, preferably until a rescue team discovered them. But how long would that take? Days? Weeks?

Months?

They had discussed the possibilities several times, but conversations rarely lasted long and were barely initiated. Few among them were willing to speak for long, at least at the start.

But after more than a day in almost total silence elapsed, the quiet grew too heavy to bear for some of them. Phillip and Karen were the first to open up, followed by three of the four strangers—the Asian woman, the tall, tan man, and the bald, short guy. The armored man remained seated, enjoying his newly acquired personal space as the others bunched up and freed a good part of the room.

Beatrice and Theodore were located on the opposite ends of one another and doing their best not to look at each other. But less than two days into their isolation, Theodore moved over to her, and they started talking in whispers. Not that whispering did them any good—pretty much everyone there had hearing good enough to tell what they were arguing about.

Jacob spied on them rather often, trying anything to get his mind off what happened. He had to admit, it was quite the show. There was much fighting and stubborn insistence at first—blame, blame, and more blame being thrown back and forth like a hot potato. It was as if they were spilling all their anguish out on one another.

But… eventually, they started opening up. They talked about their dead friends, how much they missed them, how much they hated themselves, and all their regrets. Before long, they stopped throwing blame and started taking some instead.

Then, they started dropping some juicy bombshells.

Apparently, Theodore had proposed the divorce in the heat of the moment, lashing out when Beatrice reacted poorly to hearing the news. And who wouldn’t respond poorly? Theodore had decided to ascend and leave the party without discussing it with her, effectively backstabbing their closest friends and leaving them without a safe way to make ends meet.

Jacob didn’t give a shit about some random losers, but anyone with half a brain could have predicted that they wouldn’t be too thrilled to break their party up so suddenly.

He didn’t openly admit it, but Theo indirectly hinted that he had only suggested the divorce to win the argument.

Naturally, when his wife bagged another guy that same day, it became pretty hard to take the suggestion back.

At this point, pretty much everyone was just pretending to discuss other things while secretly paying attention to the conversation between the two of them.

Things got super heated at times, with Beatrice mentioning that time he cheated on her. Ouch. He tried pulling the “I’m a man, so it’s different” argument, prompting the Asian woman to step in, joining in on their fight. Little by little, the others got involved, too, and eventually, most of the group had a heated debate about relationships.

At a few points, people nearly threw hands, but when everything cooled down, it was as if an iceberg had been melted away.

Jack and Jean openly mourned the death of their life-long friend. Phillip professed how afraid he was and how traumatized this whole thing left him, even going as far as to openly declare that he was done with fighting for the rest of his life. Jacob wanted to call him a coward and a pathetic worm. But for some reason, he found it hard to even open his mouth.

Karen shared her tale of hesitation, confessing her inadequacies and shortcomings. But, despite the severity of her panic during the fight, it was evident that she was the least scarred among them. A clear resolve rang through her words as she declared her intent to pick her sword back up and move on.

Her bravery and resolve were inspiring, if even cheesier than Phillip’s attempts to flirt with the woman.

The three strangers added their own parts. At this point, their hideout became a full-on group therapy session, with only Jacob and the armored man remaining quiet for the most part.

While nobody paid much attention to the armored man, Jacob’s party members were glancing at him more and more often.

But his tongue felt like it was tied into a knot. Every time he opened his mouth, it was as if his throat was sealed shut. However, little by little, the thorns wrapped around his neck were pulled away, one expectant glance at a time.

He felt tears slowly pool at the edges of his eyes. He held them back, but he finally spoke. “I didn’t really love her,” he said, chuckling a bit. “I was with her because she was hot, and she was with me because I’m rich.”

That earned him scornful looks, but he laughed them off and continued. “Honestly, she was an annoyance. I had been hoping to find someone to replace her role in the party so I could finally dump her ass and get it over with.

“I just wish”—his voice broke, and he found it hard to continue—”I just wish I could have told her to eat shit while kicking her out of my place, you know? I wish she had angrily thrown my things at me while calling me an asshole.” He finally broke down, covering his face with one hand as he wept. “She didn’t deserve this, man. Fucking hell.”

The room grew still as people silently watched him break down.

“I couldn’t do shit in that fight,” he said, taking a deep breath and putting his hand down. “I fucking hate myself, and I hate this stupid talent. I don’t think I’m gonna be delving for a while. I’m not sure this is the life for me.”

Out of all the people there, Theodore got up first, walked over to him, and silently placed a hand on his shoulder.

Once Jacob was done, that only left the armored man.

After everyone had given him enough glances, he finally shrugged. “Do not look at this geezer, children,” he stated in a strangely aged voice, surprising the people present as nobody had heard him speak until then. “I have too many scars over my heart to cry any longer.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Take my advice—be prepared for the world to betray you. If there is any one fate we mortals share… it is to eventually stumble into misery.”

Internally, the man wondered what he was feeling through his main body. The realm was filled with turmoil, and an underlying… bloodthirst echoed in the background.

Could this be the phenomenon they call the Crimson Twilight…? he mused.

It had come inordinately early. But that didn’t matter.

It had no influence on his plan.

***

The sky above shone a crimson light. The sounds of gorel screams rang intensely throughout the realm as the monsters slaughtered one another en masse. Beneath the thin canopy of a sparsely overgrown forest, two people stood, observing the form of a giant, bloody skeleton.

Freddy watched the sinister object settle in Bloodshed’s open palm, gaping in awe and terror. It was a mummified arm with claw-tipped fingers. It almost appeared small in Bloodshed’s titanic hand, but it must have belonged to a creature multiple times larger than a human.

“What the hell is that!?” Sophia cried, shifting her gaze between Freddy and Bloodshed.

“Master!” Bloodshed’s voice sounded in Freddy’s head, more urgent than he had ever heard it. “I lost control over the summoned body.”

“You what!?” Freddy screamed. “What the fuck is controlling it, then!?”

“I do not know,” Bloodshed insisted. “The body was overwhelmed by the aura of bloodthirst coming from that limb. Master…

“Run.”

The bloody skeleton raised its head and screeched, emitting a sound akin to a collapsing building. The empty eye sockets inside the skull glowed red as the skull shifted to face Freddy and Sophia.

The two of them didn’t hesitate.

Sophia’s legs morphed, and Freddy used a Hydraulic Flex with both stars activated. The two of them dashed outside the range of a skeletal hand swinging down with the might of a titan. The arm made contact with the ground, lifting a giant cloud of dust as the earth shifted beneath Freddy’s feet.

Everything around him grew blurry as the floor fell from below him. The surface collapsed underground, falling into the depths of what had recently been a gorel hive.

As he tumbled around 20 meters down, a massive stone collapsed on the upper side of his body, breaking several bones and crushing his entire right arm. He barely managed to save his head.

He wanted to curse, but all that left his mouth was blood as he hacked, emptying his full lungs. A moment later, another massive impact sounded, and this time, a rush of healing pulsed through his body. “What the—” He didn’t have time to question it.

His mangled arm detached as a new one started growing back, and with another massive impact sending tremors through the world around him, the short, deformed stump lengthened, growing out just slightly past his elbow. The bleeding had halted all throughout his body, and the parts that had been damaged were patched over with pink tissue.

“What’s happening!?”

“Master,” Bloodshed called. “That creature is still a product of your ability.”

“Right!” he confirmed. His talent was still triggered by the damage it did. Thankfully, the rock had crushed his right arm. Had it been his left… He looked over at the two rings and the dagger, and a shiver went down his spine. He had to be more careful.

This turn of events complicated things, but their plan hadn’t failed yet. This would still work as a distraction.

“Freddy!” Sophia called from above, looking down the pitfall.

“I’m alive!” he yelled.

“Get up!” she screamed. “We have to leave!”

“No shit!”

He looked around, desperately searching for a way up. It was easier said than done.

He could hear the movements of the giant skeleton coming from the opposite direction of where Sophia stood waiting for him. It seemed to be busy slaughtering gorels. Still, its attack had collapsed a large section of land, and there were no easy ways up.

Freddy was located inside a section of an underground complex, with numerous tight holes scattered throughout the sides of the pit. The whole place aggressively stank of gorel poo mixed with the scent of wet dog and mold, but he wasn’t in the mood to care about that.

His neck whipped left to right as he looked for a perch. At the same time, another pulse of healing moved through his body, and more tremors shook the earth. A large part of the soil broke off and fell near him.

Groaning, he defended himself from an incoming boulder. His missing arm had mostly grown back, but it wasn’t all there yet. The tips of his fingers were missing, his skin was raw, and the healing quality was still just barely supernatural. His arm was a far cry from a fully functional limb, and his wounded back wasn’t helping, either.

Still, he gritted his teeth and leaped, feeling an intense burst of pain spread down the left side of his lower back and into his left leg as he caught himself on a ledge leading into one of the tunnels. He was still gripping the dagger in his left hand, and now, he used it to stab into the stone to keep him in place.

He pulled himself up and came face to face with an angry gorel guard. The monster tried assaulting him, but Freddy used his regrowing arm as a shield. The gorel bit into his wrist, and Freddy whipped his whole arm back, launching the monster down into the pit. It only tumbled a few meters, but it had no easy way to get back up to where he was.

With a grunt, Freddy pulled himself up into the tunnel and scouted his options. Left without much choice, he leaped again, reaching another tunnel and grabbing onto the brittle edge. The stone shifted beneath his arm, and for a long moment, he felt his perch loosen. Thankfully, it didn’t break.

“Wait!” Sophia yelled from above as she threw a rope down.

“Did you just now remember you had this!?” he complained, but—

“Shut up and climb!”

Growling, he put his dagger in his mouth and grabbed onto the rope with his left arm.

Sophia struggled mightily to lift him up. With his absurd muscle mass, newly acquired thick bone structure, and rather advanced Abyssal Depths, he weighed a considerable amount. He did his best to help himself up by supporting himself with his legs and the still-regrowing arm, and before long, he made it up to the surface.

He was greeted by the sight of Sophia getting slashed across her back by the gleaming claws of a berserk gorel, only for her to heal her injury and then kick the monster away.

Freddy conjured his spikes and crushed the creature’s head, killing it instantly. “Come on, let’s go!” he urged.

She nodded, breathing heavily, and followed after him.

Constant tension was absurdly exhausting. Being continuously ready for battle and making one’s way through a warzone like this was more exhausting than running a marathon. The enhanced physique of an archhuman helped dramatically to deal with this expenditure, but at the first star, an arch was barely more than an ordinary human.

Sophia appeared haggard, breathing heavily and barely keeping her head straight as she followed after Freddy, limping and stumbling. As expected, a situation like this was far too much for her to handle. They had overdone it, thinking they’d get a reprieve once they summoned Bloodshed.

Without hesitation, Freddy picked Sophia up and threw her over his shoulder. She didn’t even as much as twitch in protest, simply slumping over and coughing as she tried catching her breath.

He rushed forth, leaping wildly as he did his best to avoid the incoming attacks of rabid beasts. Mentally, he tried remembering exactly where they were and used the information to reorient himself. They had to circle around the massive skeleton to reach the closest passage.

The area closest to the strange artifact seemed to be most affected by its berserk-inducing properties, making it extremely perilous, but he didn’t have the luxury of picking which path they would go down.

Without further ado, he focused, holding Sophia tight as he activated Hydraulic Flex in passive mode and sprinted.

Pulse after pulse of healing flowed into his body, gradually reconstructing his arm until it was eventually perfect. Well, nearly perfect. Its shape was the same as it had been, but it felt… sore. The last time his talent regrew a limb, it had regrown his whole damn body, and he hadn’t had the contrast needed to feel anything off with his reconstructed physique.

Now that he had two arms to compare, he immediately noticed something disconcerting—the arm he had lost felt considerably weaker than its counterpart. No, that wasn’t the right way to put it. Their strength and build were identical, but the regrown arm was… empty. It was as if most of the energy stored within his muscle tissue hadn’t been brought back with the limb.

He had already known that his talent couldn’t undo exhaustion, but this was still a surprise. However, as he ran forth, he felt his sore limb gradually regaining some of its strength, most likely through absorbing sugar content from his blood. That was good, especially since his other arm was preoccupied with holding an adult woman in place.

For the most part, he only defended himself against incoming attacks, relying on the sudden source of healing to fix up any wounds that slipped through. Before long, he made it to a clearing that was close to the passage and swiftly looked for the path that would take him there.

He found it.

Pushing past a crowd of gorels, eventually, the population of the monsters thinned—but then he spotted something concerning.

A different type of monster appeared.