Duskbound

Velik didn't remember much about how he'd gained the racial subtype, [Duskbound]. More specifically, he didn't want to remember. It marked the start of his life unraveling at the seams, and that very few good things had happened to him since then. When it came down to it, there were only two important facts to consider: [Duskbound] had marked the advent of the rise in monster populations in the area, and it had given Velik a way to fight back.

He ghosted through the trees, far faster and surer now than he'd been just a few hours earlier. All sorts of monsters were bedding down for the night, almost as many as were just beginning to crawl out of their dens.

Velik began his normal nightly circuit, starting down near Alnsberth and racing through the woods until he reached Dry Perch. Years ago, he'd camped out there with his father many times, but that was before the monsters came. Now it was no longer safe, especially since colonies of silk weavers were constantly webbing up the whole area. No matter how many he killed, there was always another colony ready to set up home there next week.

Fighting them was a pain since he had to do it while clinging to the sides of the buttes that littered the area. The weavers liked to spin their webs a hundred feet off the ground to catch birds, but they weren't averse to filling the nearby trees with their traps as well. As far as monsters went, they were incredibly territorial, but also rarely left those territories. If not for the fact that they kept breeding more of themselves and expanding to cover new territories, Velik might have ignored them completely.

Instead, he swung through a few times a week, cut down their webbing—a surefire way to draw them out of hiding—and massacred a few dozen of the spiders. They rarely got over level 10, making them easy pickings. The worst part was how time-consuming it was climbing up and down the buttes to get the ones who'd made their homes up there, but when Velik was done, there wasn't a silk weaver left alive in Dry Perch.

There were a half-dozen similar stops on this route, each one to a gully, ravine, grove, cave, or field that a particular type of monster liked to inhabit. Whether they flew, dug, or crawled on the ground didn't matter. Velik killed them all. At night, he was unstoppable.

It was well past midnight when he ended his run about twenty miles north of Deshir. Of all the frontier towns he worked around, that was the one he made sure to steer clear of. The folks there didn't like him, and the feeling was mutual. They'd been the first town hit by the monsters, the ones to lay the blame on Velik and his subtype, like he'd had any choice in the matter. It wasn't like he'd asked for it.

Regardless of his personal feelings on the town, he still hunted the monsters around it. Not everyone had been in favor of his exile, such as it was, and they deserved to be safe from the things that lurked out in the wilds just as much as the people in the next town. So he killed the monsters and restocked his supplies elsewhere when he needed to.

Having just leveled up earlier, Velik knew he'd have another month or two of nightly killing sprees before he gained another one, but he was hoping the new hunters would stick around for a bit. The old one might push [Stealth] up another rank, and Velik was hoping to merge it into [Predator's Visage] soon so he could free up the skill slot.

A faint scream cut through the air, maybe half a mile away. Velik paused in his run and frowned. That sounded human. Young, too. Someone dumb enough to be out at night? Or someone dragged out of their home to be devoured?

Not all of the monsters were on the same level as stupid beasts. Some of them were quite clever, human-like in their cunning, and utterly malicious. It was quite possible one of them had snuck into town and evaded the night watch to steal a meal out of its bed. If that was the case, then even as fast as Velik was under the moonlight, he probably wouldn't get there in time to save the person.

But he'd avenge them.

The dark shadows of trees flew by in a blur as Velik rushed toward the sound. Could be a wood wraith or a flesh snipper. Either could get past the watch if they were high leveled. Might even be an elite. It's about time for another one of them to show up.

A second scream came from ahead, this one louder and distinctly feminine. It was followed immediately by the blood-curdling screech of a monster. Even hundreds of yards away, Velik could feel the magic in that noise roll over him. Monsters like these were the reason he'd invested points into mystical instead of dumping it all into physical and mental. Without those points, he'd be unable to withstand their attacks, just like whoever was about to become that monster's meal.

Two voices. A thousand feet to go. Trees thins up ahead near the hills. Probably a night screamer that found them. Idiots wandering in the woods at night. Might be quick enough to save them if they can keep it together for another thirty seconds.

As he ran, he willed the spear curled around his arm to shift form. Like a snake, it slithered down into his hand, hardening into a solid, straight shaft that looked like wood, but was stronger than steel. Velik could, and had, stopped swords swung at him with his spear. It wasn't ideal to have the weapon drawn while crashing through the underbrush, but he knew this area well and was confident it wouldn't slow him down now that the trees were thinning out.

Thanks in large part to [Duskbound], and also in some small part to the [Perceptive] enchantment on his [Hunter's Cowl], Velik could easily see through the dark and navigate while running at full speed. Keeping track of things while taking full advantage of his high physical stat was actually the primary reason he kept putting free points into mental, just to keep the world from turning into an unintelligible blur around him.

So, he wasn't particularly surprised when he burst through the tree line and saw two people a hundred feet away. One was on the ground, wounded and bleeding. The other was standing over him with what looked like a thick branch, pointing it at the largest night screamer Velik had ever seen. The tip of the branch wavered as the woman's hands shook, but she kept it trained on the monstrous bat as it circled around in the air.

That's a damn elite if I ever saw one, he thought, trying to size up its wingspan while it flapped crazily around. Got to be at least thirty feet. I bet I could ride that thing and it'd stay up in the air.

He could feel the magic building up the monster's lungs, filling its chest as it prepared to release another of its disorienting screeches. As soon as it did that, it'd swoop in and gut the woman just like it had done to her friend a minute ago. Then it'd be time to eat. Night screamers preferred their victims to still be alive while they feasted.

Velik wasn't going to make it before that screech went off, and he didn't try. Even for him, a hundred feet in a single second was pushing it. Instead, he watched the woman falter under the magical attack, her mystical stat clearly too low to protect her, and timed his approach to leap out of [Stealth] just as the elite monster swooped down, rending talons extended.

His spear slammed into its face, driven forward with all Velik's strength and the [Sharp] enchantment woven into its blade. It split the bat's pig nose in two, sheared across the top of the monster's mouth, and kept going until it pushed out the back of the monster's skull.

For all that Velik had beaten it in strength and speed, he lost out in sheer mass. That meant that as the two came together, he was the one who was thrown backwards to land in a tangle of limbs with a thousand pounds of monster crashing down on him. Thankfully, somewhere between hitting the ground and it landing on him, he got the system kill notification.

[You have slain an elite night screamer (level 20).]

[You have been awarded 2 decarma.]

Ow.

With a groan, he heaved the thousand-pound corpse off of him and stood up. That's not how you kill those, idiot. Should have let it kill the girl and done it right.

Despite his internal scolding, he was still smiling. Whoever these two were, they were both still alive because of him. Though the way the man was thrashing and whimpering, he either had incredibly low physical or a class that gave no actual toughness from the stat. The pain had at least helped him snap out of the disorienting effect of the night screamer's magic, which was more than Velik could say for the woman. She was still swaying on her feet, her eyes unfocused and her makeshift club held loosely in her fingers.

Stopping only to retrieve his spear and loop it back around his arm several times, he marched up the side of the hill to the two humans there. "Hey, what are you doing out here at night?" he demanded. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Huh?" the woman asked, her voice slurred.

"Oh, snap out of it already." Velik grabbed her shoulder to spin her to face him, but froze. Those eyes… I think… It couldn't be.

The woman's eyes came back into focus. "Velik?" she gasped.