Amon was depressed. Very depressed...
In the last four days, he hadn't come across a single monster that could provide a Level 9 Core. Not even one.
To make matters worse, every Tower he chased kept disappearing before he reached it.
Now, thousands of miles away from Winter Manor, he stood on a quiet beach, watching raindrops hit the sea and explode into small bursts of purple light. Like miniature fireworks.
He sighed and sat down on the soft sand.
Amon turned the dial on the watch around his left wrist. A holographic map flickered to life, showing the long path he had travelled through the darkness.
The satellites were gone now, but they had been replaced by something better.
He turned the dial again and zoomed out. One hundred and eleven blinking red dots appeared across the map, in the darkness he had not explored yet.
Towers.
The closest one was two thousand kilometres away.
He didn't feel like going after it.
More importantly, he was hungry. Very hungry.
Amon looked behind him at a tall tree with golden coconuts. Without getting up, he sent out a Psionic Blade, cut two of them loose, and caught them in a Psionic Basket.
The moment he held one, information surfaced in his mind.
[Seaside Golden Coconut]
[Rare Fruit]
[Edible and Delicious]
His mouth salivated. He made a small hole and used a Psionic Straw to drink its water. The flavour was tangy at first, but then a soft sweetness flowed down his throat. He drained both fruits, then cracked them open to eat the flesh inside.
It was the most delicious fruit he had ever tasted.
Feeling better, he lay back in the sand and smiled.
Then his eyes drifted to the watch again. A new Tower had appeared, only two hundred kilometres away.
He got up on his feet, picked up his backpack, and ran towards it. He did not want to lose this Tower too, and as he got closer and closer, he started growing a little excited.
Sadly, his excitement faded as soon as his Bloodsense kicked in. He picked up several life signatures near the Tower. All Aeons. He could sense their rage and cruelty, and when Clairvoyance flickered, he saw some of their faces twisted in malicious grins.
Some were furious, the others calm, and they were waiting for something.
He slowed his pace and circled uphill, moving through the dark forest to get a clearer view.
From the cover of the trees, he saw the group of Aeons surrounding the tower. The entrance curtain was closed. Someone was inside, claiming the chest.
With his heightened hearing, he caught bits of their whispers. Two sisters had rushed into the tower before them, and now these Aeons were waiting to kill them and steal whatever they received.
Amon didn't want to get involved.
But just as he turned to leave, the Tower began to disintegrate.
The sisters appeared in his sight and he was stunned.
The older one looked about thirteen years old. The younger one could not have been more than Ash's age.
Children.
The older girl quickly grabbed her sibling and blinked them past the ambush, not wasting any time after sensing the danger.
"Don't let her get away," the leader of the group, a powerful young man, calmly said.
As soon as his order came, an Aeon transformed into a Weretiger and sprinted after the young girls, tracking their scent. Another Aeon grew eagle-like wings and shot into the sky, a Werehawk bristling with electricity.
The girls had no chance of escaping, especially from the Werehawk. He was fast enough to keep up with the Blinking.
Amon didn't move right away. He simply followed, staying hidden, keeping track of the sisters with his Bloodsense.
The older sister pushed herself hard, Blinking again and again, trying to protect the crying child in her arms.
Half an hour passed. The girl slowed, exhausted, and the chasers closed in, but she had already led them far away from the rest of their group.
It was then that Amon stepped in.
He appeared between the girls and the pursuers without warning, catching them both off-guard.
"Rest," he said to the older girl. She blinked at him in shock, noticing the same kind of backpack on him that she was wearing.
The Weretiger and Werehawk flanked him, circling carefully.
"They're with me," Amon said. "Walk away."
The Weretiger narrowed his eyes. "And who the hell are you?"
"Death," Amon replied, but they did not take him seriously.
They glanced at his gear. The Weretiger sniffed the air, checking for others.
"Hand over the bags," the Werehawk said from the air, fingers sparking with electricity. He had already taken the position to prevent them from escaping or to chase them if they managed to slip past him.
Amon's tone stayed calm as he glanced at the two of them. "Don't waste your lives. Go away."
The Weretiger laughed. His claws extended. The ground beneath him cracked slightly as gravity began to build. Amon felt the pull grow stronger around him and the girls.
He reached for his sword.
The Weretiger charged first, claws flashing, and the Rayne met him head-on, blade ringing against metal. Each swing from the beast was heavy and fast, but Amon kept up, ducking and countering with clean, sharp strikes.
From above, lightning shot down. Amon dodged, but the bolt grazed his shoulder. He flung his sword toward the Werehawk, missed, then used Phantom Step and appeared behind the hawk in mid-air. One clean slash cut through his wing, making the man scream and sending him crashing through the trees.
When he landed on the ground, the Weretiger turned and rushed again. Gravity surged. Amon's movements slowed again. The beast went low, claws aiming for his legs.
He jumped back, slid over the ground, and then drove a Psionic Blade into the Weretiger's knee. The roar that followed was loud enough to shake leaves loose from the trees.
He followed with a punch to the gut, then a strike to the jaw.
However, just when he was about to end things for the Weretiger, the hawk rose to his feet, lightning building for another shot. Amon caught the bolt on the flat of Red Rain, then vanished once more and appeared behind him.
The Red Rain pierced into his heart as if he were made of butter, not flesh and bones, and within moments, the Werehawk lost his life.
The Weretiger suddenly expanded the gravity field. Pressure slammed into Amon's body, but he pushed through it as he got away and used Phantom Step to slip in close to the beast, slashed across the tiger's chest, drove a knee into his ribs, and then slammed the hilt of the blade into his skull.
It all happened so fast that the man could not even react. It was almost too unfair a fight.
Amon stood still for a moment, listening, sensing, and making sure how far away the rest of their group was.
He turned to the girls. They were still standing, eyes wide in shock at what they had just witnessed.
"You're safe now," he softly said.
The older one nodded. The younger just stared.
The next moment, he saw the older blink next to the dead Weretiger's body, just in time to absorb the green Aether that escaped the corpse.
She tried to do the same with the Werehawk's body, but the Aether simply dissipated.
"What did you get?" he curiously asked.
"Boost to my Endurance. I'm no longer tired," she said with a smile, not hiding the detail from him.
"Nice. You should run away. The rest of the group will soon reach this place."
Without saying anything else, Amon turned and walked into the woods. Another Tower had just appeared, five hundred kilometres east.
He was already moving but stopped when the girl blinked in front of him, carrying her sister, who he knew was not related by blood to her.
It was something he could simply sense.
"Take us with you."
He stared into her eyes, sensing her emotions.
She was hoping he would let them come.
"Is there anyone out there waiting for you?" he asked, and watched her shake her head.
"What's your name?"
"Sophia. And this is my little sister, Zoey."
"You promise you won't disobey me?"
"We promise!"
There was no time to think. The group was closing in, so Amon took Zoey and a harness on his chest for her with his Psionic Control.
"Let's go. We're heading to another Tower." He rushed towards the east and Sophia kept up with Blink, though only because he was moving slower.
He was already questioning how they had survived so far. But he didn't ask. He was not willing to evoke any of their sad memories.
"How do you know where the next Tower is?"
He raised a brow at her question, a little curious now.
"How did you find the last one?"
"It just appeared. We were hiding in a cave..."
He cut her off, signalling her to keep quiet, and then turned the dial. The blinking red dot appeared on the holographic map for her to see.
"I found the watch inside the backpack," he informed her after a while.
She almost stopped to check hers, but he did not let her do it. There were a lot of Monsters and even some Beasts trying to chase them right now.
In his heart, he was already agitated. They might fail to reach the tower in time at this pace. And importantly, they could fall into a lot of trouble.
But now he was responsible for these two girls, and he could not push them harder than they could bear. Sophia was fast, but even with her Blink, she could not keep up with his speed.
On the other side, the group of Aeons finally reached the clearing where they found the bodies.
The woman in front, likely their scout, saw them first.
"Kael... they're dead."
The man, who was their Leader, stepped forward and crouched beside the Weretiger. The exoskeleton was split cleanly as something sharp had pierced the head. No roughness. No wasted motion.
Kael ran his fingers near the wound. Nothing. The body was dry, and when he checked the ground, he did not see any blood either.
He moved to the Werehawk, whose heart had been pierced from behind. And just like the first body, he too was drained.
"There's barely anything left in them," he muttered.
"They were drained?" someone asked.
Kael stood and glanced around. "No struggle. No delay. The girls were protected. And whoever did this took all the blood. Why?" He frowned.
No one spoke.
"A group?"
"Too clean of a battlefield for a group. Also, they did not need to run away if they had the numbers."
"Should we go after them?"
"No." He shook his head, and then darkly whispered, "Not unless you want to die."
"Captain, a new Tower has appeared. Five hundred kilometres to the east." The girl with white cropped hair suddenly shouted, showing no sadness over seeing two of her comrades dead.
"Let's go."
"The bodies?" the newest member of their group nervously asked.
"You can stay here and bury them if you want," the woman who was the vice-captain of their group flatly told him and followed Kael into the woods.
The rest of the group followed him as well without a question.
Getting to the Tower was important. Very important.
Unbeknownst to them, Amon knew they were heading to the Tower as well after his Clairvoyance flickered again.
He frowned, glanced at Sophia, and grabbed her.
She cried out in surprise but turned very quiet as he used Phantom Step.
Her mouth hung open as she sensed how fast they were moving now, and her heart started beating in excitement.
Five hundred kilometres was a lot for others, but Amon reached the tower in under an hour. He slipped right into the curtain and quickly opened the chest that was resting inside the pedestal.
It was another backpack, and he did not waste any time as he grabbed it with his left hand and shot out of the disintegrating wall.
"You are super fast!"
"Quiet," he gently said to her, and then spoke right into her head. "You don't want to attract the attention of the monsters who have already locked onto me. They are too strong."
Her face paled at his words, and she obediently shut her mouth.
Even though the way he was holding her was very uncomfortable, she did not utter a complaint.
What was some discomfort when your life was on the line?
Another hour later, Amon finally stopped, having brought them to the cave he had stayed in the day before yesterday.
He sat down on the cold ground after he put the girls and all the bags and the sword down.
Closing his eyes, he rested his head back and then took a few deep breaths.
A maddening thirst suddenly gripped him, especially since he sensed Sophia's warm blood, and after making up his mind, he beckoned her to come closer.
"Don't panic. I need to recover my strength. It will sting a little, but you will be fine."
She confusedly looked at him, but then found herself in his arms as he sank his teeth into her neck.
Her face went pale in horror, but when the sting went away, a soothing feeling washed over her.
Only half a minute later, Amon separated from her and licked the two puncture marks that instantly healed.
Sophia stayed in his arms for a few more minutes and then silently stood up from his lap and touched her neck, surprised to find it smooth.
"You are a vampire?" she nervously asked, and he nodded his head.
Thankfully, little Zoey had no idea what vampires were, so she just curiously looked at him with her doe-like eyes.
"Nice..." Sophia whispered and then quickly opened the bag she had collected from the tower.
A bright smile bloomed on her face when she found a similar watch to the one Amon was wearing and quickly put it on her wrist.
She went through the functions and found the map which was all black except for a spot of a hundred-metre radius. And in its centre, she found her signature.
Zooming out, she found lots of red dots, but the closest one was well over three thousand kilometres away.
"No more Tower Hunting unless they appear very close to us. We are heading home."
"Home?" Zoey perked up her ears at his words, and Amon gently smiled at her. "My home. You will find a friend your age there."
"A girl?"
"A boy. His name is Ash."
"Boys are mean."
"He's sweet and fun. You will like him." He chuckled and then took out a ring from his waist bag and threw it to Sophia, who caught it with curiosity.
She noticed that he was wearing one as well, so she quickly put it on her finger.
Amon was very amused at how her mouth hung loose again at what she had just discovered, but he did not pry into the details she had learned about herself.