Chapter 8: ~Team Killer~

Everlasting, that's what she had called it. Syd was still staring at the vampire blood nearly half an hour later. Her swinging had stopped by now, more important things were racing through her mind. In stories about immortals you always hear the woe is me bullshit, and think, what an idiot. Now here she was, the ticket in her hand, and she was hesitating.

Although, this wasn't immortality, this was becoming everlasting. If she ever got tired of life, then big deal, she could off herself. In fact, Syd wasn't sure why she was hesitating, until one glance in the direction her wolfy seductress had prowled off to reminded her. With a lofty sigh, Syd popped the cork and downed the entire vial of steely liquid.

Syd's entire body surged with adrenaline, her mind couldn't help but compare it to an orgasm, all the powerful feelings without the ecstasy. Seriously, she felt like she could lift a car for a few seconds, then it faded.

"Huh," she mumbled. "I don't feel very different..."

*Ding!*

Your blood has cannibalized the vampiric DNA. During assimilation every negative trait was systematically destroyed! Using the experience stored in your genetic memory, abilities suiting your lifestyle have manifested.

A new Passive Skill has been generated: Vampirism!

Vampirism (Passive) Lv.1 ~ 0%Your blood houses the disease known as vampirism within it. Through the use of vampiric abilities your vampirism will grow stronger. As vampirism becomes more powerful, new abilities will begin to emerge.Abilities:

-Fangs

-Everlasting

-Daywalker

-Enhanced Intellect

-Prehensile Tongue

Genesis : ???Sometimes you meet someone with a mysterious past. Sometimes, you realize that person is yourself. Who the hell are you? Who were your parents? Why is this happening? You've been left with too many questions, and no answers. Life isn't always fair, but in this case, life made you its bitch.

- You've discovered that you're not human. That begs the question, what's higher on the food chain than a supernatural predator who preys upon human beings?

-???

Completion award:

-???

Syd's rapid critical thinking had picked up on the 'not human' bit as soon as she read the first window. That really didn't help her figure out what the hell she is, but she had sort of expected this, it was one scenario after all.

For some reason, Syd felt like she should be insulted. Of all the abilities she could have gotten, one of them was to make her tongue long, and really easy to control. She promptly whipped it out Freddy Krueger style and almost bit the damn thing off. Syd's tongue had shot out like a three foot missile then jerked her entire head forward. That was gonna take some work to get right, but she really couldn't fault the gamer system for giving her this ability, she had spent a lot of time using her tongue after all.

Enhanced intellect made her jump up and let out a small cheer. She'd be able to stack up a few more sustained skills now. The ability was a simple bonus of another twenty points to her base mana pool per point of intellect.

Speaking of intellect, her gamer sense was telling her that there was something important she should do. Without even considering the consequences, Syd turned her head left, then licked the hickey Lucia had left on her shoulder.

If she had been thinking more clearly, Syd may have remembered that there is a good reason why vampires and werewolves are natural enemies. What happened next was pain, pure unadulterated pain surging through every nerve in her body. Syd fell off her swing and began to convulse on the sand. Whatever was in Lucia's spit did not like what Moira's blood had done to her body.

*Ding!*

Your blood has cannibalized the lycan DNA. During assimilation there was a violent reaction resulting in near total death on a cellular level!

Three passive skills have been forgotten. [Vampirism] [Fangs] [Daywalker]

A new Passive Skill has been generated: Supernatural Being!

Supernatural Being (Passive) Lv.MAXYour blood houses the DNA of multiple volatile supernatural creatures within.Abilities:

-Everlasting

-Enhanced Vitality

-Enhanced Intellect

-Prehensile Tongue

A Sustained Skill has been augmented: [Magic Sense] has become [Enhanced Senses]!

Enhanced Senses (Sustained) Lv. 23 ~ 7.43%Boosts magical perception with all senses. Draws a small amount of ambient mana into the user's own reserves. Augment: All senses — sight, touch, smell, sound, and taste have been boosted to superhuman levels.-Passive mana regen +2.3%

-Effective Range = 3.2m

Syd cursed like a sailor as she deactivated [Enhanced Senses], that was going to take some work. All of a sudden her world had exploded from pain to confusion. So many things she couldn't even describe had assaulted her senses. The bad part was she really liked the mana regen that sustained skill had given her. Now that she'd taken it off for the first time since learning [Mana Sense] the world looked duller, less... bright.

As soon as she could catch a break to get some training done there were three things Syd knew she would do first. Learn reinforcement, control her tongue, and figure out the enhanced senses. Because of her latest screw up Syd was feeling a bit nervous. She could have gone to either the wolves or vamps and had safe haven for a while. Training as one of them would have helped her along immensely.

Now that seemed like a bad idea, for all she knew they'd be able to tell she fucked up. Maybe she ended up tasting and smelling like high grade sushi, that would seriously suck. So, with no other safe options, Syd checked her world map, and slipped on her skates. Riley's lessons would save her ass here, gods she loved that woman. Within ten seconds Syd spotted a safehouse on the outskirts of town. It was time to get the hell out of dodge.

Syd's new skates were really getting a workout already. It took her nearly an hour of skating to make it to the waypoint, that's right, waypoint. With the compass option on she could see any markers left on her world map. Really nice when you don't feel like staring at a transparent map all day.

Just as Syd was getting used to the chill morning air breezing by her at high speeds, she spotted her destination. An abandoned farm house, or at least, the overgrown field behind that farmhouse. After making sure she was all alone out in the countryside Syd began to wade through the growth. If it wasn't for her compass she was sure it'd take hours to find what she was looking for, but luckily, she did have a gamer compass.

Four minutes, plenty of annoying scrapes, two frickin' snakes, and an anthill later — Syd was staring at the reinforced door to a bunker. Syd used the combination of numbers on her world map to unlock the hatch. Inside the narrow tunnel entrance was very poorly lit, and very musty smelling. Biting the bullet, and killing her nerves, she descended into the unknown.

If Riley wasn't yanking her chain, then at the end of this long narrow tunnel would be an emergency bunker. A safe place for operatives to escape to, always fully stocked, and supplied with power. Riley had also made sure that Syd knew how to call it in after she was done with the bunker so that they knew to restock it. Didn't want to get any operatives in trouble for not following protocol.

So here she was, at the end of the tunnel staring into a surprisingly well equipped facility. Showers, toilets, bunk beds, mess hall, gym, shooting range, and enough space for at least twenty people to live comfortably for a while. Damn, she hadn't expected all of this, nor had she expected the five field operatives, plus one, pointing guns at her right now.

Syd gingerly held up one hand and gave them a wave. "It's a really nice day outside, don't ya think?"

Four completely serious glares and one laughing idiot was all the thanks she got for her trouble. "Identification code," A rather stern, large, and possibly German man said in a tone the brooked no room for argument.

"Any of you know Riley Tombs?" she asked hopefully.

Three of them had a brief moment to stare at her in shock before the big asshole cocked the hammer on his pistol. "Keep talking girl."

Syd composed herself and asked a question instead of explaining why she was here. "Do all of you know about the 'other side' of Scottsville?"

The man's pistol lowered just enough to not be aiming at her knee, yes, the son of a bitch was gonna shoot her in the knee. "The abyss, yes."

Syd sighed in relief, that meant she wasn't totally boned. She could also tell that the three who knew Riley were putting one and one together already. "I'm a recent natural born power user that Riley found. Kinda ended up with every changer clan in Scottsville trying to recruit me, so I got the hell out of dodge."

The big man disarmed slowly, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "An agent gave you access to one of our safehouses?"

Syd nervously rubbed the back of her head. "I may have taken a peek at some maps that I had no right memorizing," she lied. 'Better not get Riley in any trouble here.'

Once again, she was getting the flat looks. Thankfully, the young blonde American idiot who had been laughing asked a good question. "Why were all of the changer clans after you?"

"Not for my power, if that's what you're asking."

"What is your power?" A rather sadistic looking, also possibly Russian woman asked sharply. This woman still had a gun pointed at her, but it was aimed at her head. Still better than the knee in her opinion, seriously, who kneecaps people?

"Gravity manipulation, wanna see?" Syd asked hopefully.

Her lucky American idiot played along. "Do it!"

With a flick of her wrist she sent out a spell that manipulates mass in order to replicate a wave of force. In less than a single second all six people other than her were kissing asphalt. Syd took that moment to whip out her own pistol and keep it on the plus one in the room. Riley had made sure she knew that her abilities needed to be kept secret, so she'd have to try to expose the elephant in the room, without exposing herself.

"Gravity control is all about manipulating mass," she began as the spies got their bearing back. "Why is that person's mass nowhere near what it should be?" Syd actually couldn't tell what the hell its mass was, but this seemed like a good excuse to her.

Guns that had once been pointing at Syd, were now aiming at the ground. They each took turns glancing between Syd, then at the person Syd was aiming at. Slowly but surely, every gun in the room was pointing at the blonde american idiot.

Lv. 23 - Ao Nii

It did not seem like a human name at all, and it definitely was not an agent.

"Rick, what the hell is she talking about?" The gruff hardass that had questioned her originally seemed to be their go to leader.

'Rick' smiled bemusedly, suddenly his size shrank by a few feet as his head blew up like a balloon. Staring back at them now with the most unnerving set of teeth and tusks she'd ever seen, was a creepy little fuck she could definitely see being named Ao Oni. Large glassy eyes looked directly at Syd as it spoke. "Aw shucks, ya caught me."

Then all hell broke loose. The little monster turned into a whirlwind of blood and gore as it tore through the nearest three agents, the three she hadn't really paid any mind this whole time. Bullets were being fired into the bloody mist that was a source of dying screams, but Syd doubted that was doing any good.

Just as the bloody mist began to dissipate a bluish streak went soaring through the air towards the Russian woman. Just before it hit her Syd fired off what her mind liked to call 'force push'. With a sickening crunch the little bastard slammed into a wall, hard. Another mental command fired off her well practiced grav ring.

The tornado of death began to crawl towards them in a very tenacious display of willpower. By now the big guy was walking back towards it with a shotgun in hand. Ao Nii barely had time to snarl at him before its big head exploded. Syd found herself having thoughts of creating her own zombie apocalypse instant dungeons for fun someday.

"So," Syd commented blandly, "that just happened."

"Put your gun down Natasha, we may need her." The big guy seemed to be a voice of reason at the moment. Was that chick really pointing a gun at her again?

Syd turned around and sure enough, there was still a gun aiming at her. Thankfully, the voice of reason had done its job, because the gun was soon down.

"We had been investigating rumors about a very violent strain of demons arriving in the area. Normally, that wouldn't be our job, but these ones seemed to prey only on humans, so the clans didn't feel like it was their responsibility if we could handle it ourselves." Syd cringed, the man sounded very bitter.

"By the time four of our ten man team was dead, we decided to call it in and head back to headquarters for a debriefing. We hadn't gotten a single clue, and we were bringing the creepy little thing with us," he grumbled.

Syd was half listening as she poked the dead monster with her shoe. Thank god for gamer's mind, or she'd be freaking the fuck out right now.

The man looked up at her and Natasha seriously. "Grab what you can, and get ready to leave. That thing was in here with us and we've no way to know if others know where we are right now. I do not like our chances out there in the overgrowth if there are more of them in it."

Quest Alert!

The Gamer: Slay the Horde of Ao Oni waiting in ambush at the old Carlson fields.Ao Oni are vicious little demons that move quickly and tear their prey to shreds with teeth and tusks. Their little bodies are weak, but actually hitting one can be a problem. Few things are as scary for a novice as facing down a pack of Ao Oni.

- Ao Oni (0/7)

Completion award:

-Exp 10000

Completion failure:

-Death and dismemberment

"Fuck my life," she muttered helplessly.

Natasha had heard her though. "What is it?"

"You know how my gravity manipulation works with sensing mass right?" she lied again.

Natasha and leader both nodded, not liking where this was going.

"I didn't think of it on the way in, thought they were wildlife, but I definitely felt seven others just like this," she kicked the dead body, "out there."

The leader, as she liked to call him since he hadn't introduced himself, looked suitably grave. Natasha was just pale as a ghost. "We need a plan," he said.

Syd cocked her head sideways. "Got anything that can start a fire... no wait, don't want normal people running this way to put out the fire."

Natasha gave her a strange look. "You're thinking about the safety of others in a situation like this?"

Leader clapped a proud hand on her shoulder. "That is a good habit, never lose it."

"Uh, thanks," Syd tilted her head back for a moment. "I don't actually know how to shoot a gun, I've only read books about them so far. I had planned on learning soon, but that'll have to wait. If I sit up on the bunker and flatten the surrounding overgrowth, think you can shoot seven of them before they get to us?"

Leader grinned as he cocked his shotgun. "You fuck with gravity, we'll fuck them up."

Syd smiled warmly at the two agents. "Names Sydney Kael by the way, if we survive this put in a good word for me with your bosses."

"Logan," leader responded. Finally she got him to introduce himself. Even if his real name was Peter Aristov.

"After you," Natasha said, urging Syd on. "Let's do this now before I lose my nerve."

Syd knew she could probably improve their chances by pulling out the big guns in her inventory, but she was confident enough that gravity spells flying around them would be enough. There was also the small fact that both of these people's names were in red to her, so for some reason her gamer sense was saying enemy. Syd had trusted it so far, she'd even killed that assassin over her gamer sense friend or foe identification. These two were dead, even if the Ao Oni didn't get them, she would.

The only reason Syd didn't think that her gamer friend or foe system is based on her own intuition, was because two of the dead agents inside had been yellow the whole time. Only Natasha had been red the entire time, and 'Logan' turned red the second she mentioned Riley. If this asshole had a beef with Riley, then he was dead.

So here she was, sitting on top of the bunker entrance with two hostile trigger happy spies. As soon as they were in position she covered all directions with grav rings. For over ten meters in every direction the overgrowth hit dirt. Three yelps also alerted her temporary allies to their targets. Within ten seconds her quest counter popped up with a three out of seven kill count.

The other four realized that stepping into a high gravity area was a bad idea, but she could see them out there, moving through the grass, screaming angrily about their dead. Syd intentionally didn't recast one of the grav rings and sure enough. One of the little guys noticed her trap, although it wasn't a trap for the oni.

Logan spun on his heel as soon as he heard Natasha scream in fright. A mouth of tusks and teeth connected with her neck as two of the oni pounced her. With a force push Syd shot all three, Natasha and two demons, into one of the grav rings. The little things were crawling quickly towards Syd, but Logan was already on it. Five seconds later and there were only two left.

"Dammit," he cursed, "how did that happen!?"

"They jumped over my grav rings," she lied. "Watch the sky for the last two, just in case."

With a nod Logan kept vigilant. Syd on the other hand had already spotted the last two Oni. Floating names really helped in situations like these. With a long time to prepare it, she overpowered a force push right into Logan's back sending him flying at the last two Oni with a scream of terror. Syd nodded grimly as a single shot, followed by dying screams could be heard.

From her position she cast another grav ring on the final two Oni. She could almost feel pity for the things as they crawled towards her. They were definitely faster than the first one, since that one had been smashed into a wall, but still, the things were slow like this. With a bit of overly dramatic finger swiping, Syd began to rain down force push spells on the Oni. It took seven overpowered pushes to squash the demons.

*Ding!*

Quest Complete!

Level up!

"Ah," Syd sighed, "the smell of blood, death, and a level up. Good times." She curiously looked at the two people she'd just fed to demons. "Does this count as murder, or self defense?"

Syd shrugged and yanked her cellphone out.

"Hello," came Riley's voice.

"Riley, I kinda got into some trouble."

"Already?"

Syd chuckled ruefully as she scratched the back of her head subconsciously. "Well, every changer clan in Scottsville was after me from day one. It would seem that my reputation as a lover is to thank for that."

She could literally hear Riley's face meet her palm over the phone. "Only you Syd, only you."

"Let me cut to the chase. My parents weren't real, they're gone now so I'm pretty much free to do as I please. I wanted to lay low for a while so I headed to one of the safe houses you showed me. It was... occupied." Syd explained contritely.

Riley ignored the bit about her parents for now. "Define occupied."

"Five agents, one monster that had been killing them off."

Riley groaned at that point. "What happened?"

"Well, we came to an understanding, I showed them who the monster was, then things devolved. In the end, all eight monsters and five agents ended up dead. I'm sorta sitting here now with my thumb up my butt, considering my options." Syd sighed with relief when a gust of wind blew away the smell of smoke and blood.

Riley briefly considered what would be best for Syd now. "Tell me the safehouse you're at and take off for another random one. Hope you get there, and hope it's empty. I'd say come here and stay with me, but there's no way I can protect you from seven clans trying to change you."

"Carlson field's safehouse," Syd immediately stated. "Gonna report what happened now?"

"I don't have to, my phone is tapped and keywords always set off alarms. Even if no keywords are used, the tapes get listened to once a week." Riley sounded a bit contrite.

"Oh," Syd blushed furiously. "So all those sexy messages, and that time I told you that I wanted to know what phone sex was like, then tried to get you into it?"

"Yup," Riley blandly admitted. "My husband and I catch a lot of flak because of those."

"Sorry," Syd laughed. "Bunch of pervs, listening in on us."

Riley sighed in frustration. "You can hang up now, Syd."

Syd couldn't help herself. "Love you sweetie, bye."

Just before she snapped her cell phone shut Syd could hear Riley growling. Turning around, Sydney called out to the nearby overgrowth. "Hello again, Lucia."

Name: Syndra Shyael

Class: The Gamer

Title: Goddess Slayer

Level: 19Health 1020/1020

Mana 5148/5148Strength: 29

Vitality: 34

Dexterity: 24

Intellect: 117

Wisdom: 57

Luck: 16Points: 44

Money: $4,800

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