Tamer Jia Li Wang (P.O.V.)

Day 6 A.F.P. (After Fluffals Pillars) 10: 15 PM

Pain... darkness... freezing temperature... the smell of seawater... the cawing of crows in the distance... no, that doesn't sound like a regular flock of crows... monsters!

The sound of the metal crow monsters cawing injects a rush of adrenaline into Jia's bloodstream that kick starts her brain to wake up.

Jia finds herself floating flat on the surface of the freezing sea near Kotlin island that still had smoke and flames rising from the explosion of the Transport Drone they had parked on the island.

Jia turned her head around to search for Zao and Commander Ethan, but all she could find was floating debris from the boat they had used to escape the island before the Transport Drone exploded.

The metal hulk of the speed boat they acquired from the small harbor had been overturned, and the gear Commander Ethan had loaded onto it had either sank into the sea or managed to stay afloat.

Jia forced her body to right itself and swiftly stroked over to a nearby floating container. She pulled herself over it to get her body out of the freezing sea and tried to warm up before checking if her phone had survived contact with the seawater. It was supposed to be completely waterproof, but like everything made in China, there was a chance that corners were cut. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, and the phone was working fine.

According to the time on the phone, Jia had been unconscious for three minutes after the explosion occurred. The sound of cawing of Crows grows louder as the flock approaches the vaporized crater that was once Kotlin Island.

They were supposed to reach the mainland shore before the timer was set to explode, but it detonated five minutes prior for some unknown reason. The shockwave turned their boat over and threw them all out into the sea. Luckily they were far enough away not to be burnt to a crisp by the mushroom cloud-like explosion.

Jia couldn't risk yelling out for Zao and the Commander, nor could she use the phone's flashlight to look for them in the dark without alerting those monsters to her location.

Jia's body temperature dropped by the second, and time ran out before the Crow monsters arrived at the island. She needed to enter her combat style as quickly as possible and find the others by using her monster's passive skill of Echolocation.

Jia. "Bianfu, I need you!"

Summoning Monster: Poison Vampire Bat (Bianfu)

Type: Body, Sky, Vitality, Beast, Poison

Mastery: Ranged Attacks

Skills: Blood Bow & Arrow Manipulation (Beginner), Blood Transfusion (Beginner), Regenerative Healing Factor (Beginner), Blood Sucker (Beginner)

Skill Features:

Blood Bow & Arrow Manipulation - The monster draws upon the Blood pool within its body to create solid bows and arrows. Opponents hit by the blood arrows will be infected with Blood Poisoning that damages their internal organs and causes delirium over time if left untreated. This skill can only be activated if there is a sufficient blood pool.

Blood Transfusion - The monster can inject regenerative blood into others by biting their necks. For 10 minutes after receiving the bite, wounds will be healed, and lost limbs will regrow. There is no risk of blood poisoning for the receiver with this skill. This skill can only be activated if there is a sufficient blood pool.

Regenerative Healing Factor - The monster's blood is heavily enriched with regenerative properties, which will heal wounds and regrow limbs. This skill will be deactivated when the blood pool is lower than ten percent or the heart stops beating for any reason.

Blood Sucker - The monster can restore its internal blood pool by extracting blood from victims through a direct bite to an artery. There is no risk of blood poisoning for the victim with this skill.

The Monster App materializes a five-foot-tall skinny dark Purple Vampire Bat with two massive wings on its shoulders and two smaller ones fused with its hands. The membrane attached to the wings is light purple in color, and its face looked like the blue alien from Lilo & Stitch that belonged to the Nation of Disney.

It almost resembles a realistic version of Crobat from Pocket Monsters fused with the body of the Alien Stitch.

"Monster-User Fusion, activate!"

Bianfu disappears, and a sphere of white light envelops Jia before it shatters to reveal a nightmarish Humanoid Bat whose skeletal-like body is made of Dark-Purple skin. Jia's neck, shoulder, and chest are hidden by thick Light Purple fur that almost resembles a mane of a Lion.

Two massive bat wings sprout out from behind her shoulder blades, the wing membranes are Light-purple, and the blood vessels appear white. A smaller set of bat wings fused with her long arms and hands. However, these wings are covered in holes and are too torn up to be used for flight.

From a 6 foot three height, Jia now towered seven feet tall. Her elongated bat ears poked out of her head like a two-pin plug, but they could rotate independently. Her eyes, nose, and mouth are hidden under a thick white veil decorated with embroidery found on Brides at a wedding. Only the length of this fabric fell down to above her torso and ended with two Lunar Talismans beads.

Jia's legs were elongated and composed four joints instead of three in a sharp 'S' shape. Her hands had increased in size and now looked like they belonged to a Ghoul than a human.

Jia hears two heartbeats underneath the sea's surface using her sensitive hearing. Both Zao and Ethan had been caught by sinking debris that had pulled them under.

They were still struggling to get free but almost reached their limit before all the air stored in their lungs was used up.

Jia let out some clicks to echolocate their position before activating the 'Blood Bow and Arrow Manipulation' skill. From the wrists of her arms, slits appeared, and blood quickly flowed from them. They floated in the air around her as if the space had no gravity before they combined and solidified into a Giant War Bow.

A malleable string of blood connected the two ends of the bow. Jia used her left light purple ghoulish hand to grab the bow and her right to pull the bowstring. When she pulled to the maximum draw, blood poured out of the slits on her wrist to create an arrow ready to be fired.

Jia aimed the bow's crosshair toward the sea and fired the arrow, which flew through the water without meeting any resistance.

The Blood arrow cut through the chains that tethered Zao's body to the sinking debris. Once freed, Zao used all his remaining energy to swim to the surface.

Jia then aimed towards Commander Ethan's location, drew back the bowstring, reloaded a new blood arrow, and fired. This one, too, freed her comrade from a watery grave. But before she could relax, Jia noticed Ethan had run out of air and did not have the energy to swim up. Her combat form was not suited for diving in the water, so all she could do was watch as Ethan used his now free hand to slap on the phone strapped to his shoulder. He opened his mouth to scream for his monster, but the seawater made all the words come out as bubbles.

Luckily for Ethan, the butler inside his phone activated the monster app and relayed the orders to summon Sobek.

Summoning Monster: Reincarnation of Sobek (Sobek)

Type: Body, Mountain, Strength, Reptile, Metal

Mastery: Unarmed Combat

Skills: Primal Instincts (Beginner), Berserker Madness (Expert), Primordial Roar (Intermediate), Sobek's Armor (Intermediate)

Skill Features:

Primal Instincts - The Monster's senses can process the world in the most efficient manner possible to find practical solutions to all kinds of problems. It can use its jaws, claws, and tail to fight logically or illogically.

Berserker Madness - The Monster will lose its sanity, but its strength will triple in exchange. It can be activated, but deactivation will require it to be exhausted or knocked out.

Primordial Roar - The monster unleashes a quaking roar that strikes unnatural fear into the enemy. Leaving them unable to find the courage to battle for one minute. This skill will not work on life forms that are deaf or soundproof.

Sobek's Armor - The scales on the monster's body become Indestructible Gold for five seconds at the cost of movement.

A Dark Green six-foot-long Crocodile that looked like the ancient paragon of all Crocs & Gators emerged from the monster app and swam around Ethan. Sobek was shocked to be summoned underwater and by the sight of his Tamer drowning in front of him.

Sobek's Primal Instincts were activated, and he opened his jaws to bite around Ethan's broad torso to drag his Tamer's body to the surface. Blood poured out as Sobek's sharp teeth had to dig deep enough into Ethan's flesh to secure a grip.

Ethan groaned in pain, which released the last air in his lungs, but he was not angry or scared. He knew Sobek was only trying to save him but had no time to find another solution.

Ethan lost consciousness before Sobek managed to pull him out of the sea and fling him into the air for Jia to catch as he dropped back to the surface. She had already placed Zao on top of the overturned hull of the Speed boat to recover and came back to help Ethan.

But as she carried Ethan over to Zao's location, she could sense Ethan's heartbeat was too weak, too much blood had been lost, and his lungs were full of freezing seawater. As she landed next to Zao and laid Ethan's body on the hull, the man was dying in her arms.

Zao. "What happened to the Commander? Why is he covered in blood?"

Jia. "His monster tried to save him by pulling his body up with its jaws. But the, blood loss is not the main issue. The Commander's body is suffering from Hypothermic shock, and his lungs are filled with cold seawater, so he can't breathe."

"Grrgggrrraaaahh!"

Suddenly both Zao and I heard the arrival of Sobek, who had followed Jia to their location. The ancient crocodile let out a low growl of pain, thrashing its tail and twisting its body, sending water splashes into the air. Pieces of Sobek's hide and metal armor were disintegrating slowly. His hind legs were now missing, along with half the tail.

Zao. "Why is Sobek disappearing?"

With her hyper-sensitive hearing, Jia could sense the heartbeats of both monster and Tamer were synchronized. She had never noticed this peculiarity before, but Jia never bothered to give it much attention in her previous fusions.

Jia did not understand how it was possible, then she remembered that the App had technology far beyond human understanding, and the monsters were more than digital constructs. Her acute senses could identify the fear in Sobek's growls as he thrashed around in the seawater in pain.

These were the death throes of a creature's last moments.

Jia. "The Commander is dying... I think the two are linked. If the Tamer dies, the monster will disappear."

Zao. "We need to give the Commander C.P.R right now, stop the bleeding, and warm his body quickly before worsening."

Jia. "But I can also hear the Metal Crow monsters are on their way here. So we have to defend ourselves! There is nothing more we can do for him."

She pointed her right hand towards the direction of Kotlin Island, where the Metal Crow monster flock had expanded their search radius and spotted the trail of debris left in the wake of the speed boat.

Some must have had an excellent vision as the alarm was raised and the flock began flying towards Jia and Zao's location. They numbered at least three hundred Crows of all shapes and sizes.

Most had white armor, while others had every color you could imagine in every armor style known and unknown to man. They each held blades or metal blade weapons. Some even had projectiles like muskets and crossbows.

The monsters would reach their location within several minutes if Jia and Zao didn't move. The cawing of those crows, along with the scraping of their metal armor and weapons, created an intimidating sound. It even causes Zao to question his ability to hold back their forces.

Zao. "Don't you have the skill 'Blood Transfusion'? Use that to heal him quickly before those monsters get here."

Jia. "My blood pool is not unlimited. So if I use it on the Commander, I am afraid it will drain everything I have in me. Plus, it won't cure his body temperature."

Zao. "I will keep them busy while you heal him. We can't let him die like this."

Jia. "Chairman Zao! I swore to Mistress Fei Hong that I would only use that skill to save your life. To do that, I must reserve my blood pool for blood arrows and emergency healing if you get hurt."

Zao. "I don't care what promises you made to my aunt. You have sworn a blood oath to follow my commands!"

Jia. "No! My Oath is to keep you alive above all else, even at the cost of my life. You are the last son of heaven, Chairman Zao Han Fan! You cannot die here because I was busy trying to save someone else."

Zao. "If I can't help save the life of one comrade in arms, then what good am I as a leader of over a billion comrades?"

Jia. "But there are too many of them! This is not like the monsters you fought in Alaska. All of them are covered in Titanium grade armor."

Zao. "If your Son of Heaven can't handle a flock of Crows, China needs a new leader. Don't you think?"

Zao pulled wiped his phone screen and launched the Monster App.

"Barbatos!"

Summoning Monster: Bee Knight (Barbatos)

Type: Body, Sun, Attack, Insect, Metal

Mastery: Melee Weapons

Skills: Cross-Slash (Expert), Lance-Dance (Intermediate), Drill Lance (Expert), Metal Brazing (Intermediate)

Skill Features:

Cross-Slash - Monster executes two consecutive slashes with dual weapons on one opponent.

Lance-Dance - Monster performs a complex series of movements with a lance to increase the penetration power.

Drill Lance - The Lance can rotate at high speed, which will turn it into a drill temporarily.

Metal Brazing - Cracks on the metal body can be mended after one minute of rest

Barbatos appears over Zao's shoulder before he activates the combat style. First, his monster disappears, and then a white sphere of light covers his body before it shatters to reveal Zao equipped in Golden Armor with black stripes, fiery thrusters on his back, Black Lance Concial Swords in each hand, and a Bumblebee Helmet in battle mode.

Zao ignited his thrusters and hovered over the ground before turning to Jia.

"Give him your blood, and then take him away from here while I hold them back. I won't let anyone come after you, so don't look back until you find a place to hide."

Jia. "Please don't-"

Zao turned back to the incoming flock, ignited his thrusters, and pushed them to their maximum thrust possible. Then, he shot into the sky like a missile with his lance swords pointing straight ahead. The flock scatters to avoid being impaled by his lances and begin a counterattack with long-range projectiles.

Jia lost track of Zao's figure as the flock blocked her line of sight. Thankfully they all focused their attention on him and didn't move further towards Jia and Ethan.

Jia lowered her gaze back to the Commander, whose heartbeat was ready to stop. Sobek had lost most of his body, and only his head remained floating on the water.

She bent over, lifted her ghostly white veil, and revealed horrific Vampire fangs before biting on Ethan's throat. Then, instead of draining his blood, she activated the Blood Transfusion skill to inject her rejuvenating blood into his veins and arteries.

As a result, Jia's figure loses all its muscle tone, and the bones on her body become more visible to the eye. In addition, the loss of her blood pool directly impacted her strength, and she had to stop when she reached ten percent.

A few seconds pass and the bite wounds left behind by Sobek start healing, and Ethan's mouth spits out all the seawater that entered them. His body was still suffering from hypothermic shock, but at least his heart didn't stop.

Sobek's body began to rematerialize slowly, which was a good sign for Jia that her skill had worked. But now, she was too weak to fight, and Ethan was still incapacitated. She had to carry him to the mainland before the Crow monsters targeted them.

She couldn't stop Zao from heading into a suicidal charge, but she could honor his last wish to save their Commander before heading back here to meet her end with the man who was supposed to become her husband.