A stalemate. A moment of peace. The calm before a storm.
Vincent's hairs stood on end as denial crept into his mind, telling him that no dog should be able to reach them—that they were safe.
But this was no ordinary dog.
Even now, it was showing how aware it was of the situation by staring straight into Vincent's soul, snarling at a low frequency.
"We may have to kill it," he murmured.
"Kill it?! It regenerated its limb in three seconds, dude!" Daniel cried, clutching his shotgun.
"He's right, though. We could starve here. You don't actually think we're the main characters of a story, right? No one is coming to save us. Besides… There's no immediate military in Regina." Angel frowned, her lips bloody red from all her unconscious biting.
Daniel inhaled until his chest ached, releasing it with a sigh. "Damn, I know you're right… but fuck—!"
The hesitation lingered even in Vincent and Angel's hearts, but soon they would have no choice.
Like the sound of a churning stomach amplified, along with the crunching of bones, the bulldog's body was reshaping itself, molding into a more humanoid shape.
Vincent was alarmed.
Bang!
The shot went through its head, a hole formed. But in an instant, it was healed.
"It's evolving?!"
Limbs coiled together to form its arms and legs. Its head, along with its teeth, downsized to a more proportional size, and the rest of the extra appendages cluttered on its back, its fingers turning into claws.
"Empty your clips!"
It was a split-second decision on Vincent's part.
They managed to squeeze together, shooting through the hole, rapidly firing at the still-transforming bulldog.
Ears started ringing, the smell of gunpowder thick in the air. But they had no room to care about it.
As soon as Vincent's gun was empty, the firing paused.
The bulldog had stumbled back a few steps from the force, its body bent slightly backward. Holes riddled its body, and the regeneration seemed to have frozen.
It twitched.
And it glitched.
Vincent gasped. His mind clicked. Following his instincts, he dropped down into the studio.
"Cents!"
"Dude!"
But Vincent was reloading, calm enough to keep the empty clip in his pocket before raising the gun again.
"Come down here! I don't know how long it's stuck! Look at it!"
Even he himself couldn't believe the words he was spouting. But he had no choice but to trust his gut this time. And he had kept the glitch in his vision earlier in the back of his mind.
Blind trust took over in a second. All hesitation vanished at his words, and the siblings dropped down.
The bulldog twitched again.
And Vincent emptied his clip right away.
"Angel, get your homemade cocktail ready. Dan, how many gauges do you have left?"
"Eight."
Angel bolted for the door, jumping over the toppled table, running straight to her room. Her mind was tethered to Vincent's orders.
"Stand here and shoot it if it twitches. You're not hiding any more ammo, are you?"
Daniel's muscles were taut, but he listened and shook his head. "I swear. If I had known, I would have bought all of it!"
Vincent didn't have time to share his regrets. His head spun, looking for a weapon he could use. His gun was useless now.
Then his eyes lit up when he saw a portion of the pole had broken off. It was at an arm's length. He held it in his hands, tested it, and though it was heavy, he could swing it easily with both hands.
"Alright, stay clear for a bit."
Daniel moved, and Vincent ran, using that momentum to strike.
Thud!
"Argh–!"
Vincent swore he hit flesh, but the sound reverberating in his mind was sharp and high-pitched, invading his senses. His grip loosened, the pole hitting the ground. Static noises soon followed, and his vision was cut into four.
His head ached as if he hadn't slept for days.
Daniel's call was drowned out in the background.
And in a split second, an orange name tag appeared above the bulldog's head.
[Revenant Bulldog lvl 2]
Then his vision turned normal.
The pain, the static, and his loss of hearing vanished simultaneously.
Daniel fired his shotgun. Seeing it twitch again, he didn't hesitate to fire again.
"Cents! Talk to me!"
Vincent groaned, reeling from the headache. "It's called Revenant Bulldog, and it's at level 2."
"... Excuse me?"
Daniel wanted to jerk his head in shock at Vincent's direction, but seeing the Revenant's finger bending up, he focused on his role, firing the rest of his gauges.
"I'm out!"
"I'm here!"
Angel carefully went over the table this time, holding a Molotov cocktail in one hand and a lighter in the other.
"Light and chuck it!" Vincent grabbed Daniel's arm, moving backward.
The Revenant's glitchy form was moving, attempting to normalize. When everything aligned, the holes started disappearing—healing at an alarming rate.
Angel lit the cloth, moved her hand back, and heaved the concoction, aiming for its sharp teeth.
The Revenant snarled at them, ready to strike. But the bottle was faster, shattering upon impact, engulfing it with fire.
Their ears rang with its cry right away, screaming in a low, guttural sound, while clutching its head and stumbling back and forth.
Chills ran down their spines. Subconsciously, they started stepping back.
Fire was fighting its regeneration. Its blood appeared to be fueling it. Its agony turned raw.
Enraged, it sharply looked left and right, searching for the source of its pain. Even with its impaired vision, it managed to narrow it down to Angel.
It roared in anger, and lunged forward.
The world slowed down in the face of death. Angel knew she had to dodge to the side, but her knees locked up in fright.
Her gaze was fixed on the jaws of the Revenant, and instinctively, she shut her eyes.
Pain wrapped around her arm abruptly as her body was yanked to the side.
Vincent had pulled her away in time. The Revenant crashed into the toppled table, breaking it in two.
Angel blanked, staring at Vincent's profile. Even Vincent himself was in disbelief, his hands gripping Angel's arms tighter than they should be.
The fear of losing her had taken hold at that moment. His body moved on instinct.
But the Revenant wasn't done.
Its target now shifted to Vincent.
And Vincent understood.
Without hesitation, he pushed Angel away.
The Revenant now lunged at him, using its head to tackle him. It had the body of a human, but it had yet to have the time to get used to it.
Air rushed out of Vincent's lungs, his ribs fracturing upon impact. His body was flung straight into the wall.
He blacked out for a second, slipping to the ground while the concussion took hold. It felt like an eternity passed before he could breathe again, spitting out the blood that choked him.
But even through the pain and dizziness, he knew that the glitch he was seeing for the third time wasn't an illusion.
The static came back, only to fade into an androgynous monotone voice.
[Digitization successful. Welcome, player 5,555th!]
The words were jarring, floating fixedly in the air.
But Vincent didn't want to acknowledge it. The burning Revenant had turned its head to his friends again, maddened by its agony.
He tried to move.
But he was painfully made aware that his lower half was paralyzed.
[Emergency Characterization Initiating. The Hunter class has been assigned to the player. Searching for the highest compatible skill…]
Vincent continued to ignore it. Pushing himself into a sitting position with all his effort, his body screaming in protest, sharp pain wracking his form.
Daniel managed to dodge the Revenant without his help.
Vincent smirked, pride surging, knowing how bad Daniel's reflexes were.
[Player is fully compatible with three skills. Please choose a skill in 3 seconds, or the system will randomize it.]
That caught his attention.
As a hardcore gamer, randomization was his greatest nemesis. Inevitably, he focused on the skills.
-----------------------------------
Palm Strike | 100 mana | 3 seconds cooldown
-> Wind Attribute
-> Melee
-> Silent
-> Weak to earth and ice
Bonus Passive: Increased speed.
-----------------------------------
Searing Enchantment | 300 mana | 6 seconds cooldown
-> Fire Attribute
-> Requires any weapon
-> 1 hr duration
-> Weak to water and earth
Bonus Passive: Resistance to fire
-----------------------------------
Shadow Bullets | 100 mana | 3 seconds cooldown
-> Dark Attribute
-> Requires a gun
-> 1 hr Shelflife
-> Weak to light
Bonus Passive: Night vision.
-----------------------------------
Vincent's heart shook, his mind locking in on the last skill, and the system responded.
The change was instantaneous.
Night became clear, as if time had turned to a cloudy afternoon. No darkness was pitch black, and shadows were more of a faint outline.
But Vincent was focused on the gun next to his feet. It had fallen while he was airborne.
He gritted his teeth, grunting as he moved closer to the gun.
Angel's scream for her brother rang in the background. Daniel's neck was caught by the Revenant's hands, dangling off the ground.
Vincent fell over, exhausted.
But his hand rested on the gun. And the system confirmed the installation of the skill.
His breath hitched. Shadows coiled around his arms and into the gun, the skill manifesting.
Bang!