Midday light spilled across the stone like it had been waiting all morning for her to leave. The inside of the castle had always felt dim in comparison, warm and alive but tucked away from the world, but out here everything was sharper. The air was thinner, colder, and carried the faint scent of pine and distant snow. Erica paused just beyond the threshold, blinking once as her eyes adjusted, the weight of everything settling in a way it hadn’t when she had been surrounded by people. This was it. Her first real step out. Behind her, the heavy doors shut with a low, final sound.
Teresa didn’t immediately speak. She walked a few paces ahead, boots scraping lightly against the stone path that wound along the cliffside, her posture tighter than usual. Not stiff, exactly, but restrained, like she was holding something back and hated that she had to. Erica followed her, trying not to stare too much at the drop beyond the edge of the path, though the forest below stretched out in deep green layers that made it almost impossible not to look.
“So,” Erica said after a second, glancing around with the kind of smile that usually showed up when she was nervous and trying not to be obvious about it. “No pressure, right? Just go down the mountain, don’t fall, don’t get eaten, find a vampire nest, destroy it, and be back before dinner.”
Teresa snorted quietly. “Something like that.”
They kept walking. The path curved along the rock face, narrowing in places where old stone had cracked away and left the mountain exposed beneath their feet. Below them, the forest rolled out in thick, uneven layers, broken occasionally by jagged stone and the faint shimmer of water cutting through it. From up here, it looked almost peaceful, which felt deeply unfair considering everything down there was probably designed to ruin her day.
Teresa slowed when they reached a fork that was barely visible unless someone already knew where to look. One path continued down, obvious and wide enough for travel, while the other was almost nothing, just a break in the stone where the rock dipped and twisted into something hidden. Wind slipped through it in a thin whistle, carrying a colder edge from the cliffside.
“This is where you don’t die,” Teresa said, gesturing toward the narrower path.
Erica leaned slightly, squinting at it. “That’s a path?”
“It is if you know it is,” Teresa replied. “Follow it, stay close to the mountain, and don’t rush. It looks worse than it is, but if you lose your footing…” She glanced over the edge briefly. “You won’t get a second chance.”
Erica stared down long enough for her stomach to tighten, then pulled her gaze back to the path. “…cool. Lovely.”
Teresa’s mouth twitched faintly. “After that, it splits again about halfway down. Left takes you toward the outer hunting grounds. That’s where you want to go. The reports came from there. You’ll know you’re close when the trees start thinning and the ground turns to sand. Then keep following the path we used before.”
“What if I suck at remembering the path?”
“You’ll feel it,” Teresa said simply. “Like something deep down. It’s hard to get lost.”
Erica nodded slowly, committing it to memory. Apparently NPCs had an inner GPS. The game part of her brain cataloged the directions Teresa gave her, placing them neatly into little mental boxes. Left at the split. Outer hunting grounds. Trees thinning. Ground turning to sand. Follow the old path. It all slotted into place like it was supposed to, but the rest of her felt different. The rest of her just felt like she was about to walk away from something she didn’t fully understand yet.
“…and if I run into something I can’t handle?” she asked.
“Run,” Teresa said immediately. “Don’t be stubborn. Don’t try to prove anything. Just come back.”
Erica glanced at her. “That didn’t sound very Van Helsing of you.”
“I don’t care about that right now,” Teresa replied, quieter this time. “I care about you coming back.”
That landed heavier than anything else she had said. Erica looked away, out toward the forest again, her chest tightening just slightly as the wind tugged at her hair and slipped beneath the collar of her clothes.
“…yeah,” she said. “I will.”
Silence settled between them again, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Just full. They reached the edge of the hidden path, and Erica knew without asking that this was as far as Teresa would go. She turned to face her fully now, taking her in for a second like she hadn’t really had the chance to earlier. The armor, the scars, the steady way she held herself like she was always ready to fight something, even now, even without her sword.
“…you’re really not coming, huh?” Erica asked, even though she already knew the answer.
Teresa shook her head once. “Orders. Plus, Dad didn’t let me take my sword to escort you down here.”
“Right. You would have run off with me, huh?”
“Oh, one hundred percent.”
Erica shifted her weight, hands sliding into her pockets, then out again because she didn’t really know what to do with them. The whole thing felt too big and too awkward, and she hated that there wasn’t some obvious right way to say goodbye when she barely understood what they were to each other yet.
“This feels weird,” Erica admitted. “Like I just got here and now I’m already leaving.”
“You’ll be back,” Teresa said.
“You say that like you’re sure.”
“I am.”
Erica studied her for a second. “…you don’t sound like it.”
Teresa exhaled slowly, her gaze dropping for just a moment before coming back up. “I don’t like not being there. That’s all.”
Something about that made Erica’s chest warm in a way that had nothing to do with the sun. She looked down, smiled a little despite herself, and nodded.
“…yeah,” she said softly. “I get that.”
Another pause stretched between them. Then Erica stepped forward. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t planned. She just closed the distance and wrapped her arms around Teresa, pulling her into a hug that was tighter than she expected it to be. For a second, Teresa didn’t move, but then her arms came up, firm and grounding, pulling Erica closer like she wasn’t letting go anytime soon.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Teresa muttered against her shoulder.
“That’s kind of my whole thing,” Erica replied.
“Erica.”
“…okay, okay,” she laughed quietly. “I’ll try not to.”
They stayed like that for a moment longer than necessary. Neither of them said anything, and the wind filled the silence for them, brushing cold over Erica’s back while Teresa’s arms stayed warm and steady around her. Then Erica pulled back just enough to look at her, and there was something unspoken there. Not complicated. Not heavy. Just familiar, in a way that didn’t make sense for how little time they’d actually known each other.
“Hey,” Erica said.
“Yeah?”
“Try not to flirt with anyone while I’m gone.”
Teresa blinked once, then scoffed. “You’re unbelievable.”
“I’m serious,” Erica said, fighting a grin. “I leave for, like, a day and suddenly there’s some mysterious dark-haired hunter in my spot.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“…okay, good,” Erica said. “Because I’d be really offended.”
Teresa shook her head, but there was a faint smile there now. “Get back in one piece.”
Erica nodded. “Yeah.”
She leaned in before she could overthink it, pressing a quick kiss to Teresa’s lips. It wasn’t rushed, but it wasn’t lingering either. Just enough to say something without putting it into words. Teresa didn’t stop her. Didn’t pull away. When Erica stepped back, Teresa’s expression had shifted slightly, softer around the edges, like she was holding onto that moment more than she let on.
“…go,” Teresa said quietly.
Erica hesitated for half a second, then turned. The path looked worse up close, because of course it did. The stone dipped sharply along the mountain, narrow enough in places that one bad step would leave her sliding toward open air. She took the first step carefully, testing her weight, then another. The stone shifted under her boot, uneven but solid, and she adjusted, finding a rhythm quicker than she expected. Behind her, she could feel Teresa still standing there, watching, and somehow that made it both easier and harder to keep moving.
She didn’t turn around. Not yet. A few more steps carried her along the narrow cut in the mountain, the path twisting along the rock until the castle started to disappear behind the stone. Wind slipped through the cracks around her, tugging lightly at her hair and clothes, whispering past the cliffside like it knew exactly how far down she could fall.
Then she stopped and looked back. Teresa hadn’t moved. She still stood at the edge, arms crossed now, watching Erica go with that same steady focus she had in a fight. Erica raised a hand. Teresa didn’t wave back, but she nodded once, and somehow that was enough.
Erica turned again and kept going.
The air shifted as she descended, warmer and thicker now, carrying the scent of earth and leaves instead of stone and cold wind. The sounds changed too. No more distant echoes through halls. Now there were birds somewhere above her, wind moving through branches, and something far off that shifted in the undergrowth before going still. Every step took her further from safety, further from people, further into whatever this world actually was.
After a while, the castle vanished completely, hidden by the mountain itself. It was just her now. Erica let out a slow breath, rolling her shoulders like she was trying to shake off the last bit of hesitation clinging to her.
“…alright,” she said quietly.
Quest accepted.
She adjusted her grip on the metal bat at her side and continued down the hidden path, disappearing into the forest below.
The path stretched on longer than she expected. By the time the trees finally gave up completely, the world had shifted into something harsher. The ground lost its softness, turning brittle and uneven, roots replaced by fractured stone and patches of sand that didn’t belong this high on the mountain. The forest didn’t end so much as thin itself into nothing, each tree standing farther from the next until the last few looked lonely enough to regret growing there.
Erica slowed as she stepped out fully from the last line of trees. The ground ahead was cracked wide open, but not naturally. The fractures were jagged, split outward like something had slammed into the earth and broken it apart. The stone around it was darkened, scorched in uneven patterns, and the sand that had settled between the breaks wasn’t clean. It was stained.
“…yeah,” she muttered. “This is it.”
She crouched, dragging her fingers lightly across the sand. It was dry now, baked stiff by the sun and wind, but unmistakable.
“…blood.”
Her eyes scanned the clearing again, slower this time. There were no bodies. No remains. Nothing but the broken ground and the dark smears baked into it. The fight replayed in her head, Teresa cutting through them, limbs torn apart, bodies collapsing, only for the vampires to drag themselves back together like it didn’t matter. Erica remembered the sound of claws scraping stone, the impact of bodies hitting the ground, the way their health bars had refused to stay down unless Teresa hit something that mattered.
“…so they all got back up,” she said under her breath.
That was almost worse. No proof except the broken earth and the blood baked into the sand. Erica stood, brushing her hands off as her gaze shifted outward. The terrain changed again further ahead, the broken stone giving way to a narrow, worn strip of sand cutting through the rocky ground. A path. Lonely, empty, and leading somewhere.
“…alright,” she said quietly. “Guess that’s mine.”
She stepped onto it.
The silence out here felt different. Not peaceful. Not calm. Just empty, like the world had thinned out and left only what mattered. The path stretched ahead in a pale line, half-swallowed by rock and drifting sand, with no trees left to soften the horizon and no castle behind her to make the danger feel distant. Erica walked for a while before the weight of that actually settled in.
“…okay,” she muttered. “Now I’m actually alone.”
The thought lingered. Then something clicked, and her focus shifted as she pulled up her interface.
The chat slammed back into existence. It didn’t trickle in. It hit all at once, messages stacking and overlapping, a backlog of everything she had missed dumping into her vision so fast she physically stopped walking just to process it.
“…what the hell?”
[xShadowLurker87]: WAIT SHE FOUND THE CASTLE??
MintyByte: THATS THE FAMILY HOME NO WAYYY
GrimViewer_13: bro she just walked into the endgame faction
[LilSunbun]: IS THAT THE MOM?? WHY IS SHE SO SWEET 😭
[NoScopeNate]: this is a trap 100% no way its this easy
Erica snorted under her breath, shaking her head as she kept reading.
[VelvetHex]: CHAT SHE GOT ADOPTED
IronClutch: VAN HELSING ARC ACTIVATED
[TeaSpillz]: nahhhh main character moment confirmed
“…you guys are insane,” Erica muttered.
The messages didn’t slow. If anything, they sped up, filling in hours of reactions she hadn’t realized she had missed.
[ByteBandit42]: WHERE WAS THE COUNCIL STREAM??
[GhostPing]: YOU TURNED CONFIDENTIAL MODE ON?????
SaltDealer: actually criminal behavior
[LurkLord]: we waited HOURS for that 😭
Erica winced slightly. “…okay, yeah, that’s fair.”
Immediately, newer messages started pushing through the old ones.
MintyByte: SHES BACK
[xShadowLurker87]: CONFIDENTIAL MODE USER SPOTTED
[TeaSpillz]: oh NOW she talks 😭
Erica huffed out a small laugh and started walking again, slower now, attention split between the path and the stream window hovering in her vision.
“I didn’t ghost you,” she said. “I just… needed privacy.”
SaltDealer: nah she definitely did something wild
[NoScopeNate]: 100% no doubt
She opened her mouth, closed it, then felt heat crawl up her neck despite the cold wind moving through the rocks.
“…nothing you needed to see.”
[VelvetHex]: CHAT CALLED IT
[ByteBandit42]: SHE DID SOMETHING
Erica rolled her eyes, but there was a faint smile there now. “Relax. I didn’t die. That’s the important part.”
That triggered a flood.
[LilSunbun]: we take those wins
MintyByte: W STREAMER
Then one message cut through the rest.
[GhostPing]: check your donos
Erica slowed. “…my what?”
She flicked her interface, pulling up the side panel, then stopped walking completely.
“…oh.”
The number sat there, bigger than it had any right to be.
Total Donations: $1,842.73
New Followers: +2,913
Total Followers: 9,447
Her stomach dropped a little.
“…wait, what?”
[NoScopeNate]: FOR SHOWING THE LAYOUT!
[VelvetHex]: worth every penny
[xShadowLurker87]: YOU GONNA INVADE OR SOMETHING
MintyByte: that was peak content ngl
Erica stared at the numbers for a second longer than she meant to. The wind moved around her, thin and dry, tugging at her clothes, but for a moment the only thing she felt was the strange pressure in her chest as the numbers settled into something real. That wasn’t just attention. That wasn’t just people watching her almost die. That was time. Time she might actually have.
“…you guys are serious?”
SaltDealer: we invest in survival
[TeaSpillz]: dont die = more content = stonks
She let out a slow breath and forced herself to keep moving. “…okay. That’s… a good start.”
The follower count ticked again right in front of her.
+12 New Followers
Total Followers: 9,459
“…that’s so freaking awesome, you guys!” she said, and this time the smile came easier even though the path ahead still looked like it wanted to kill her.
[LurkLord]: WE GROWING
GrimViewer_13: MC ARC IN PROGRESS
[GhostPing]: this is where it starts fr
Erica shook her head slightly, forcing her focus back ahead, but the numbers didn’t fully leave her. They stuck to the back of her thoughts. If she kept this up, if she didn’t turn, if she survived long enough, maybe this could actually matter. Her fingers tightened around the bat, and her voice dropped without meaning to.
“…don’t get bitten.”
[VelvetHex]: priority #1
[YourMom69]: WHAT WHY NOT, BEING A VAMP IS SICK
[VelvetHex]: She can't, if she gets bit, her character is useless. She took an experimental serum.
[YourMom69]: OH DAAAAME, YEAH DONT GET BIT
She huffed quietly. “Yeah. That’s the plan.”
Her eyes lifted from the interface. The path ahead had changed again, narrowing between jagged rock formations that leaned inward like they were trying to close the space. Shadows stretched longer there, darker and heavier, swallowing the sand beneath them. The wind moved through the gap in a low hiss, dragging grains across the stone in thin, restless lines. The air felt heavier, and Erica’s smile faded as her hand settled more firmly around the grip of the bat.
“…okay,” she said quietly.
The chat slowed. Not silent, exactly. Just watching.
“Back to the part where I don’t die.”
She stepped forward, and the world answered.
Something hit the ground behind her hard enough to crack through the thin layer of sand and into the stone beneath, the impact sharp and heavy in a way that didn’t belong to anything natural. Erica felt it through her boots before she even turned, her body already reacting, shoulders twisting, grip tightening on the bat as her heart jumped straight into her throat.
When she looked, it was already there. Too tall. Too long in the limbs. Built for speed and violence, hunched and wild, watching her in a way that made her stomach drop before the system even filled in the rest.
[Alpine Vampire — Lv. 50]
HP: 3,142 / 3,142
“…no,” she said under her breath, the word coming out automatically. “No, that’s not how quests are supposed to be.”
It tilted its head slightly, like it was trying to place her, and then it moved. There wasn’t a wind-up or a visible shift. One second it stood there, and the next the space between them collapsed completely, its body already in motion as it closed the distance in a way her brain couldn’t track fast enough to react cleanly.
Erica jumped. It wasn’t a good jump. It was panic. Her first push barely cleared anything, and her timing was off just enough that the second jump came awkwardly, her foot hitting the invisible platform at the wrong angle and sending her sideways instead of upward. It still worked, barely. The claws tore through the space just under her ribs, the air splitting with a wet, violent sound that made her chest tighten as she landed hard and stumbled forward.
“…fuck,” she breathed, catching herself. “Yeah, that would’ve killed me.”
She turned and saw the second one. It hadn’t rushed in. It hadn’t even moved. It just stood further down the path like it had always been there, watching and waiting, letting the first one engage while it closed the space behind her.
[Alpine Vampire — Lv. 50]
HP: 2,987 / 2,987
“…you’ve gotta be kidding me,” she said, the disbelief hitting harder now that it was real. “Two? Why two?”
SaltDealer: UNLUCKY TRAIT
[GhostPing]: GAME WANTS HER DEAD NOW THAT TERESA IS GONE
[xShadowLurker87]: THATS NOT EVEN SUBTLE
The first one lunged again before she could process it fully. She swung too early. The bat connected with its shoulder instead of its head, the impact solid enough to jar her arms but not enough to stop it. The number popped, visible and frustratingly small against the size of the bar.
Damage: 412
Alpine Vampire A HP: 3,142 → 2,730
It barely reacted. Its body twisted through the hit, momentum carrying it forward as its claws came around in the same motion, faster than she could recover from her own swing. She tried to jump, but she was too soon. The cooldown hadn’t cleared.
“Oh, shit.”
The claws hit her across the side and didn’t stop at skin. They dragged and caught, tearing through cloth and flesh in a motion that felt wrong and slow even as it happened fast, like her body was trying to process too many things at once.
Damage Taken: 284
HP: 873 → 589
The breath left her completely, her body folding for a split second as she stumbled back, the bat slipping slightly in her grip while her vision flashed white at the edges.
“…fuuuck,” she choked out, forcing herself upright. “That’s way too much damage.”
The second one started moving. Not rushing. Not lunging. Just closing the distance steadily like it already knew how this was going to end. Her chest tightened. They weren’t trying to overwhelm her. They were letting her mess up.
“…I already am,” she muttered, backing up.
The first one came again. She jumped, barely, the claws skimming under her boots close enough that she felt the force of it through the air. Her second jump came just in time, the platform forming under her foot and pushing her up and over its reach. She twisted midair and brought the bat down as she fell, the strike connecting with the side of its head hard enough to ring through her arms as bone cracked under the force.
Damage: 498
Alpine Vampire A HP: 2,730 → 2,232
Its neck bent too far, and for a second she thought she’d gotten some kind of instant kill shot. Then the bone shifted back into place with a wet grinding sound, flesh pulling itself together as the bar ticked upward again.
Alpine Vampire A HP: 2,232 → 2,328
“…no,” she said, shaking her head as she landed and stumbled back again. “No, that’s not… you don’t just… stop regenerating!”
It lunged. She didn’t get away clean. The claws caught her shoulder, not deep enough to tear through, but enough to send a jolt through her entire arm as her grip slipped.
Damage Taken: 141
HP: 589 → 448
The bat nearly dropped. Erica tightened her fingers around it, breath starting to break now as panic and pain climbed together.
“…I can’t kill these,” she said. “I actually can’t…”
The second one came in from the side. She didn’t see it until it was already there. The hit caught her across the back, not full force but enough to send her forward onto her hands and knees, the sand biting into her palms as her vision blurred again.
Damage Taken: 122
HP: 448 → 326
“Okay, okay, okay,” she gasped, pushing herself up too fast as her head spun. “This is bad. This is actually bad.”
They were closing together now, not overlapping perfectly, but enough that she couldn’t isolate one cleanly. Her chest tightened harder. They were too fast. She moved sideways, forcing space, her feet slipping slightly on the sand as she tried to break their line instead of backing straight into a corner.
The first one lunged. She jumped, and this time the second jump hit cleaner, the platform forming solid under her foot as she pushed off hard, forcing herself over its reach instead of trying to outrun it. She landed behind it and swung, the bat coming down hard across the base of its neck.
Damage: 521
Alpine Vampire A HP: 2,328 → 1,807
That one mattered. Its body dropped for a second, knee hitting the sand as its balance broke.
“…okay,” she gasped. “That did something.”
She stepped in again, forcing another swing before it could recover.
Damage: 548
Alpine Vampire A HP: 1,807 → 1,259
It started to get back up, and she didn’t give it time. Another hit followed, messier this time but still strong enough to connect.
Damage: 497
Alpine Vampire A HP: 1,259 → 762
The second vampire hit her before she could finish it. Its claws tore across her side again, deeper this time, the force enough to twist her body sideways as pain flared hard enough to make her vision stutter.
Damage Taken: 204
HP: 326 → 122
She choked on the sound, nearly dropping to a knee as the bat slipped again in her grip.
“…I can’t take another one of those,” she said, voice barely steady now.
The number sat there, too low and way too fragile, while the first vampire was already regenerating.
Regeneration: +85
Alpine Vampire A HP: 762 → 847
“No, no, no.”
She moved before she thought. Jump, then jump again. The platform caught her just long enough to carry her forward and inside their spacing, forcing both of them to adjust instead of attack cleanly. She came down right next to the first one and swung hard.
Damage: 612
Alpine Vampire A HP: 847 → 235
It staggered. That was it. She swung again with everything she had left in it.
Damage: 644
Alpine Vampire A HP: 235 → 0
The head came off clean enough. The body dropped hard into the sand, blood spilling out thick and dark as the regeneration failed instantly. The spinal cord ripped free from its connection to the body, slick and pale against the red-black mess beneath it.
For a second, everything stopped. Then the system struck her like lightning.
LEVEL UP
Level 45 → 46
Strength rushed back into her like someone had slammed a burning wire through her spine. Her muscles tightened. Her vision sharpened. The torn places in her side pulled together just enough to keep her upright, not healed or fixed, but patched in the brutal, efficient way the game allowed.
Level Increase HP Recovery Bonus: +50%
HP: 122 → 452 / 904
Air rushed back into her lungs. She sucked it in hard, coughing immediately after as blood wet her tongue and slid bitter down her throat.
“…oh,” she gasped. “Okay. Okay, that helps. Where was this in my fight with these things before? I guess I was knocked out before then…”
It helped just enough for the second vampire to nearly kill her.
It hit her full force. No dodge. No jump. The claws punched straight through her side, lifting her slightly before tearing back out in a spray of blood that hit the sand behind her in a dark, wet arc.
Damage Taken: 388
HP: 452 → 64
Her body dropped hard, the impact knocking what little breath she had left out of her again as the bat slipped from her hands and hit the ground beside her. For a second, there was no sound except the rush of blood in her ears, no chat, no wind, just her own body trying very hard to keep existing.
“…no,” she whispered, fingers barely responding.
The vampire stepped closer slowly. It didn’t need to rush anymore. Her hand found the bat anyway, barely. Her grip slipped once before tightening, and she dragged it toward her through the sand.
“…not yet,” she breathed.
It reached for her. She swung, messy and weak, but the bat connected with its leg.
Damage: 338
Alpine Vampire B HP: 2,987 → 2,649
It staggered just enough. Just enough for her to roll, pain ripping through her side hard enough that her vision blurred again. She forced herself up anyway, forcing her legs to move even though they didn’t want to. She jumped, then jumped again, the platform catching her long enough to throw her backward out of its reach. She landed badly, one foot sliding out under her as her shoulder slammed against the rock wall, but she stayed upright, or close enough to count.
The second vampire came after her. Now it rushed. Not careful anymore. Not patient. It had seen her kill the first one, and something about that changed it. Its mouth pulled open too wide, teeth bared as a sound crawled out of its throat, not a scream, not a growl, but something between them.
Erica backed up, almost tripping over the body of the dead Alpine behind her.
“Oh, come on,” she hissed, catching herself. “Not on the corpse. That’s how I die? Really?”
[VelvetHex]: HP 64 HP 64 HP 64
MintyByte: DONT GET HIT
[NoScopeNate]: BRO SHE KNOWS
“I KNOW,” Erica snapped, voice cracking as the vampire lunged again.
She jumped too early. The first leap carried her up, but not far enough, and the vampire adjusted mid-strike, claws sweeping toward her legs. The second jump saved her, the invisible platform appearing under her foot just in time as she kicked off and twisted over the attack, but the movement pulled at the hole in her side and blood spilled warm down her hip.
She landed behind it and swung at its back.
Damage: 471
Alpine Vampire B HP: 2,649 → 2,178
It turned before she could swing again, too fast for something that had just taken a hit like that. She ducked, barely, the claws passing over her head close enough to tear strands of hair free. The bat came up on instinct, catching the next strike across the shaft, but the force shoved the weapon back into her chest and sent her stumbling.
Blocked Damage: 72
HP: 64 → 12
The world narrowed. Erica barely stayed on her feet, staring at the number as if looking at it too hard might make it less real.
“…oh my god,” she whispered.
That wasn’t health. That was the system giving her a last chance. Someone was helping her, otherwise that hit, even blocked, should have killed her. The vampire stepped forward again, and Erica felt the fight trying to end. Not dramatically. Not with some grand finishing blow. Just with one more mistake, one more bad step, one more second where her body didn’t move fast enough.
She forced herself to breathe, once and then again. The bat felt impossibly heavy now, but she adjusted her grip anyway.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay. We do not get touched. At all. Very easy. Super normal.”
She moved sideways again, keeping the rocks to her back but not letting herself get pinned. The vampire followed, its health ticking up in small green pulses as the damage began to undo itself.
Regeneration: +74
Alpine Vampire B HP: 2,178 → 2,252
“Nope,” Erica said immediately. “No. No healing.”
She rushed it before her brain could explain why that was stupid. The vampire lashed out. She dropped under the strike and swung upward, the bat connecting with its jaw hard enough to shatter teeth and snap its head back.
Damage: 599
Alpine Vampire B HP: 2,252 → 1,653
Dark blood sprayed across her face and chest, hot and foul, and she recoiled on instinct, gagging as the taste hit her mouth. That tiny reaction almost killed her. The vampire’s hand snapped down, claws grazing across her upper arm instead of her throat only because she threw herself sideways at the last second. There was no technical hit, no clear impact from the system, so when her health lowered anyway, Erica felt panic rise cold and immediate.
HP: 12 → 4
The system screamed red. Her vision pulsed hard enough that the path seemed to breathe around her.
[GhostPing]: FOUR HP
[YourMom69]: ERICA MOVE PLEASE
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Her whole world had shrunk to the vampire in front of her and the faint glow of her cooldown timer.
Double Jump: Ready
The vampire came in low. She jumped, and this time, for once, it was right. The first jump cleared the strike, and the second launched her almost straight upward along the rock face. For one frozen second, she could see the whole narrow path below her, the dead Alpine bleeding into the sand, the second one twisting to track her, and the long smear of her own blood trailing across the ground like proof that she had no business still being alive.
Then she dropped. Both hands on the bat. The vampire looked up too late. The strike came down on the side of its skull with everything gravity and terror and every stupid stat bonus in her body could give it.
Critical Hit
Damage: 738
Alpine Vampire B HP: 1,653 → 915
Its skull caved inward on one side. It didn’t die, because of course it didn’t die. It staggered, blood pouring from its head, one eye hanging wrong as the bone tried to pull itself back together beneath split skin.
Regeneration: +62
Alpine Vampire B HP: 915 → 977
Erica landed beside it badly, nearly collapsing from the impact, but she didn’t let herself fall. She couldn’t. Falling meant dying. Stopping meant dying. Thinking too much probably meant dying too. So she swung again.
Damage: 508
Alpine Vampire B HP: 977 → 469
The bat hit the damaged side of its head and drove broken bone deeper. The vampire reeled, claws scraping blindly against the stone and gouging lines into the rock inches from her stomach. She screamed as she swung the last time, not words, not anything useful, just sound ripped raw from somewhere deep in her chest.
Damage: 561
Alpine Vampire B HP: 469 → 0
The head didn’t come off cleanly. The bat crushed through the side of the skull, caving it in until the body lost whatever thread held it upright. It collapsed sideways into the sand, twitching once, then again, before the health bar vanished and the green regeneration glow died with it.
Silence returned all at once.
Erica stood over the body, shaking so badly she could barely hold the bat. For a few seconds, she didn’t move, didn’t speak, and didn’t breathe right. Then her knees finally gave out. She dropped hard into the sand between the two corpses, one hand clutching her side while the other kept hold of the bat because some stubborn part of her still refused to let go. Blood soaked her clothes. Blood soaked the sand. Some of it was hers. Some of it wasn’t. She wasn’t sure there was a meaningful difference anymore.
HP: 4 / 904
The chat was moving again, fast enough that it blurred at the edge of her vision.
MintyByte: SHE WON
[VelvetHex]: FOUR HP
[GhostPing]: FOUR FUCKING HP
[NoScopeNate]: I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING
[YourMom69]: I AM NEVER MAKING FUN OF DOUBLE JUMP AGAIN
Erica stared at the messages through blurry eyes, then let out a breathless, broken laugh that hurt so badly she immediately regretted it.
“…yeah,” she whispered, voice shaking.
She looked at the two dead Alpine vampires, then at the path ahead, then back at her HP.
“…I’m walking back to Teresa after this and telling her she was right about literally everything.”
She swallowed hard, still trembling.
Then the system chimed.
LOSS OF BLOOD
HP: 4 → 0
Her vision blurred as she fell to the ground.