Chapter 14: Blood and Stone
The flames engulfing the northern and southern sides of Crescent Fox Village drove half the fearful players to hide indoors or flee, while the rest either served Han Bin's faction or seized the chaos to hunt for points. Bai Er had vanished, but Jason spotted Sherry cornered by two Level 3 players greedy for her credits.
Jason charged, kicking one attacker aside before swinging his Six-Sided Mace to shatter the other's spine. The fallen man scrambled to flee but collapsed under Jason's precise neck strike.
Sherry gasped, "If I could kill them, they'd already be dead."
"Stick with me. We'll fight as a team," Jason said. He knew the pain of being unable to retaliate freely—without level restrictions, Zheng Wei might have died in his hands. But now, with only 126 credits left, Jason needed to grind for upgrades.
"Watch out!" Sherry shouted, but her warning came too late. A glowing arrow pierced Jason's shoulder, its neurotoxic venom searing through his veins.
He turned to see a Level 4 sniper with a silver ice device coiled around his serpentine neck, retreating behind a house.
"Pull it out!" Jason growled.
Sherry, steady despite the sweat on her brow, yanked the arrow free. Jason consumed a healing scroll, stifling the agony. Rage boiled within him as he charged the sniper.
Dodging bullets with stolen cover, Jason reached the sniper's perch. A crossbow volley forced him back, but Sherry flanked their target. Together, they cornered the sniper—Jason's mace shattered the man's ribs, Sherry's blade severing his spine.
"Level up?" Jason asked.
Sherry nodded, her face pale. She wiped her blade on the corpse's robe, her eyes hollow. Jason recognized the expression—he'd worn it himself after his first kill.
"What's the point of all this?" Sherry muttered. "In another life, we'd never harm each other…"
Jason clenched his teeth. "We're here to survive."
As explosions rocked the village, they searched for Bai Er. The leaderboard showed him at Level 5, matching Sherry. Han Bin's villa lay in ruins—Zou Yidao, the "Beast" who'd chosen Aberration, had blown it sky-high.
But where was Han Bin?
Surrounded by Han Bin's remnants, Jason and Sherry fought like cornered wolves. Jason's mace cleaved through Level 2 and 3 players, each kill fueling his rage. When a sniper's bullet grazed his helmet, Sherry dragged him into the shadows as bullets rained down.
"Use the bomb!" Sherry yelled.
Jason hesitated—killing a lower-level player would wipe his gear. But a grenade was their only escape. The explosion tore through attackers, leaving one Level 3 player gasping. Sherry exhausted her healing scrolls to save him.
"Level 4… 5…" Jason muttered, his vision blurring.
A roar shook the air. Han Bin, now a Stone Golem, swung his fist. Bai Er emerged from the smoke, his sniper rifle silenced but Zou Yidao—now a towering Beast—climbing Han Bin's arm to deliver the killing blow.
"Aberration lets you mutate into beasts," Bai Er explained, his eyes glowing faintly. "Han Bin chose stone. Zou Yidao…"
Before he finished, Zou Yidao leaped onto the rubble, vanishing into the flames.
The village burned. Han Bin's Soul Purification had transformed him into a colossus of stone, but Zou Yidao—a shapeshifting Beast—had shattered him.
"Five kills," Jason said, his mace slick with blood. "But we're stuck at Level 5."
Sherry stared at her reflection in a shattered mirror. Her face, scarred from self-inflicted burns, mirrored her soul. "Revenge won't bring my brother back."
Bai Er, ever enigmatic, loaded his sniper rifle. "Han Bin's dead. Zou Yidao's gone. Let's loot the boss."
In Han Bin's corpse, they found a Soul Core—a key to escaping the village.
As dawn broke, Jason tossed the core into the void. The game's interface flickered: "Congratulations. You've escaped Crescent Fox Village."
Sherry sighed, her blade still in hand. "What now?"
Jason grinned. "The real game begins."