“Are you shitting me? How can it not work?” Smoke Pac was shocked by this discovery. “This is supposed to be my most powerful technique.”

He didn’t have enough time to figure out an answer, not in his current predicament. Hence, he spat the Devil’s Cigar out of his mouth and searched for other means to defend himself. In the midst of doing so, he incurred several minor injuries from the sneaky Smokepires that caused his interface to go crazy with health alerts.

“These bastards are getting on my last nerve. I will have to bring out the big gun.” Saying this, Smoke Pac’s chest cavity widened again. This time, more magical cubes came out that coagulated into a single object.

“Oh yeah! Time to blast some ass!”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Smoke Pac wasted no time shelling down the Smokepires around him. He was blasting large holes in their bodies on a vicious scale. One such unfortunate foe of his got its head blown away along with its lower torso and legs. Only its wings survived the catastrophe.

“GRAAAH!” The rest of the Smokepires started retreating a few paces upon witnessing their familiars getting torn to shreds.

Smoke Pac gave his opponents the middle finger while saying, “Yeah! You fuckers aren’t so cocky now that you’ve gotten a taste of this primaeval monster.”

His boastful manner lasted for the extended period he had Rubik’s Blood Cubes in stock. This elapsed quicker than he expected.

Amid his brutal carnage, Smoke Pac ran out of ammo for the Dinosaur Shotgun. He was forced to de-equip it to save on his Blood Bank.

“Damn! I’m out of Blood Cubes.” Just after he discovered this issue, a wild Smokepire came rushing toward him with a large chunk of concrete aimed at his head.

“Huh!” Smoke Pac’s quick response to this imminent threat made him unleash his Neck Strangler ability. That specific Smokepire collapsed on the bloody floor before it could reach him.

“GRAAAH!” The other Unclaimed Souls took advantage of Smoke Pac’s distraction to launch a series of attacks at him. He was only capable of targeting 1 opponent at a time with his Neck Strangler ability, hence, he was quickly overrun.

The Smokepires increased their power drastically by siphoning the vapours from the surrounding fire that was blazing within the mansion. This fire was caused by Smoke Pac shooting up the place with his Dinosaur Shotgun and his Fire Sight skill.

“These bastards are absorbing the smoke rising from the fire to use to their advantage.” Realizing what was going on, Smoke Pac acted swiftly to put out as much fire as he possibly could, he even tried mitigating the use of his Fire Sight ability but to no avail.

“GRAAAH!” The Smokepires were now powered up and ready to claim his heart.

“I won’t let either of you get your filthy hands on my power!” Smoke Pac rebuked them vehemently. However, mouth badness wasn’t enough to save him from what was about to occur.

Whoosh!

Smoke Pac was taken over by a strong wave of vapour that assaulted him from all angles—internally and externally. He was experiencing more damage than he ever had in his lifetime. The Smokepires capitalize on his stream of hurt to crowd him with their malice. They were eagerly piling on top of him until he was lost beneath a sea of corpses.

“Jesus Christ, those things are vicious.” Said Mazzan while peeking through the crevice at the main hall.

Ken touched his shoulders and told him, “Bro, now is our chance to get out of here. While those monsters are busy focusing on that guy, we can get away without being noticed.”

“He’s right.” Bensen agreed with Ken’s suggestion. “We should go while we still have the chance.” He looked at his niece. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Ok.” Razi followed Bensen and his henchmen toward the rear exit. They arrived outside without any fuss. On their way to the driveway where the vehicles were parked, Razi stopped moving all of a sudden and held her bosom.

“My chest is…?” The Enslavement Rubik’s Cube was preventing her from leaving. Her master was in serious danger and need of her help.

“Huh, Razi why have you stopped?” Bensen noticed that something was wrong with her.

“Uncle I have to go do something. Leave without me.” She immediately turned around and started running back inside.

“Hey, get back here!” Bensen wanted to go after her, but his men prevented him from entering the haunted mansion again.

“That stupid little girl.” Although he resented Razi for what happened to his son, Bensen felt emotionally tethered to her. Reluctantly, he joined his men in the vehicle that was reversing in the driveway.

“Come on! Get us out of here, Ken.”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

The driver had to be careful not to swing too close to the blazing car, otherwise, the flames might have bled across onto theirs. They looked back at the mansion, during which they heard and also felt a dreadful vibration.

“What the heck is that?” Inquired Pepsi.

“I don’t know and I’m not sticking around to find out.” Ken placed more pressure on the gas pedal after he shifted the vehicle into drive. He ran over the broken gateway and made his escape out of there. Bensen and his men were now safe from the source of danger or so they thought.

Back inside the mansion, Razi was forcing her way through a storm of blistering smoke to get to the main hall. She had to be smart about her approach or else risk being discovered by the large Smokepires that were eating a chunk out of Smoke Pac’s health. He was seeing numerous flashing alerts.

Perceiving her master's emotional distress via the Enslavement Rubik’s cube, Razi asked herself, “What can I do to help him?” After a few seconds of pondering, she thought of something that might help.

Razi ran into the storeroom to retrieve a hose. She brought it back to the kitchen where she connected it to the faucet. “If those monsters are empowered by heat and smoke then water might just cool them down.”

Razi dragged the other end of the hose into the main hall. She made sure to keep a safe distance as she released the latch keeping the water retracted. “Here goes!”

Splash! Splash!

Razi’s idea was ingenious. The spraying water was doing much to lessen the Smokepires wild vapour output. The water was stinging their bodies like a swarm of bees. It affected them to such a degree that the Smokepires at the very top of the pile were compelled to dismount.

“Yes, they are scattering.” Razi smiled when she saw this and continued to manipulate the hose.

As for the Smokepires who were still on top of Smoke Pac, they maintained their overbearing pressure until his health fell into the red zone.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAH!” As the System began changing his physicality, Smoke Pac started releasing a vehement death cry that travelled miles away to where Bensen and his men were currently on the road. His chest was giving off a repetitious drumming sound that made not only Razi frightened but also the surrounding Smokepires. Yet they ignored their fears and continued to bombard him.

“Something tells me that I should run away from here.” Razi’s instinct made her vacate the main hall just in the nick of time to avoid getting blasted away by a powerful gust embedded with traces of steam.

Whoosh!

“GRAAH!” The Smokepires who got hurt in the blast released charring grunts that made their vapours darker than usual.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

At the source of the drumming sound, Smoke Pac’s normal character was replaced with a blood-craving monstrosity measuring over 16 meters high. His new appearance of steaming flesh and dread was mostly comprised of rarefied vapours that had partial intelligence.

Staring dead centre at this monstrosity, the Smokepires were fearful. They acted cautiously to avoid making an unnecessary move that could have resulted in their swift death. Even without doing anything drastic and maintaining their distance, they still fell prey to Smoke Pac’s beastly influence.

“Bleed!”

Just 1 word alone was all that it took for Smoke Pac to execute his vengeance on his monstrous adversaries. Seconds after his utterance, the vapours oozing out of the Smokepires fell within his control. He manipulated the vapours to siphon their blood from the inside. The more he took, the more they shrivelled quite rapidly.

“GRAAH! KYAH! WAAH!” This wailing horror was coming from the affected Smokepires. As for those who didn’t get possessed, they fled the scene en masse. Because they knew their feeble vapours were no match for the Alpha Smoke Overlord!