Chapter 6: First Ability

BOOM!

His body crashed through the wall. The impact was bad enough that the walls of his house broke into pieces, and he landed outside in the snow.

For a moment, Caelan couldn’t breathe at all.

"Caelan!" He heard Eveline scream his name.

Caelan slowly opened his eyes. He had just gotten yeeted out of his own house, but he was still alive.

He looked down at his body, and his eyes widened. There wasn’t even a scratch on him.

"That should have injured me."

The Bloodfang jumped through the hole it had made and landed in front of him. Its red eyes stared directly into Caelan’s eyes.

[Hostile entity detected.]

[Name: Bloodfang.]

[Level: 9.]

[Threat Level: Medium.]

[Available ability: Shadow Armament.]

[Warning: Target possesses abnormal dark energy.]

An ability? Caelan swallowed. So monsters could have abilities too?

The creature suddenly disappeared from his vision. Caelan barely had time to react when it appeared directly in front of him. He instinctively raised his hand to protect himself, but its claws only struck him.

*CLANG!

Caelan was thrown aback. He rolled through the snow and crashed against a stone wall.

Fuck... His arm hurt a lot. There was a deep wound on it, but for some reason there was no blood.

[Injury detected.]

[Life Thread’s protection has momentarily stopped.]

"Damn!" He cursed when he saw that the Bloodfang slowly walked toward him once again. Caelan tried standing, but his legs shook.

He was clearly not strong enough, and the creature was too strong too. Then he noticed something.

[Foreign ability detected.]

[Ability: Shadow Armament.]

[Do you want to use 1 Hollow Fragment to acquire this ability?]

[Yes] [No]

Caelan stared at the message in confusion.

"I can acquire this ability?"

"So, this is how I can get other people’s abilities..." His eyes moved toward the Bloodfang before returning to the message.

"Well, if this is the only way I can survive, then I might as well use it." Caelan took a deep breath and nodded.

"Of course. Let’s activate it."

[Yes]

[1 Hollow Fragment has been used.]

[Foreign ability acquired.]

[Shadow Armament: Creates a temporary weapon using shadow. The more it is upgraded, the more weapon selections will be available.]

[Current weapon available: Dagger.]

[1 Hollow Fragment is needed to unlock: Short Sword]

A strange feeling suddenly spread through Caelan’s right arm. Black energy gathered around his hand. It looked like smoke, but the smoke hardened, and a dagger appeared in his hand.

The weapon didn’t look normal. Its blade was completely black, and faint silver lines ran along its surface in intricate detail.

"Okay." Caelan stared at it before gripping it tight.

"This is more like it."

The Bloodfang charged again, and this time, Caelan didn’t run. He waited as the creature jumped toward him. At the last second, he moved to the side.

Its claws missed his chest but he took it as an opportunity to swing the dagger in his hand.

*SLASH!

Blood sprayed across the snow, and the Bloodfang landed several feet away.

Caelan looked at his blade, then at the creature. He had actually hurt it. The Bloodfang looked at the wound on its side before looking back at him.

For some reason, it looked like it wasn’t angry anymore. Instead, it looked afraid. Caelan took a step toward it and shook his head.

"You picked the wrong person." That was a line he had been dying to say since then.

The creature growled at him in response. Then it suddenly turned around.

Caelan saw that it wasn’t running away from him. It was running toward Eveline.

"Eveline!"

Caelan immediately chased after it.

The Bloodfang was about to leap forward when Caelan jump in between to stop it. The Bloodfang swung its leg, his claw getting scratched in between.

Pain exploded through his body, but Caelan gritted his teeth and swung the blade upward.

*SLASH!

The Bloodfang’s front leg was cut. It made a loud horrifying sound before falling to the ground.

"Stay back!" Caelan quickly looked up to see Eveline still on the floor of his room.

Eveline nodded quickly and followed his order.

The Bloodfang struggled to stand on its four legs. Then something strange happened. The red glow in its eyes disappeared as blood rushed out of the wounds on its legs.

Its body began shaking, and for a moment, it fell to the ground.

Phew... Caelan let out a breath.

Eveline quickly jumped to the ground after the Bloodfang died. She ran to him worriedly, "Are you fine?"

"I am," Caelan glanced at Eveline afterward.

Eveline let out a sigh of relief at that.

"I am. I guess it’s done now." He felt relieved now that it was over. He looked at his wounds and shook his head.

"I guess it’s just alone," However, when he glanced back at Eveline, he saw that she was looking at the distance far away from them.

"Caelan, I don’t think it’s alone..." Her smile disappeared.

Caelan looked toward the direction where she was looking. That’s when he saw what she was looking at. There were silhouettes of wolves in front of them.

[Multiple hostile entities detected.]

[Bloodfang pack approaching.]

[Estimated number: 4.]

"There’s four more?" Caelan stared ahead with his jaw falling to the ground. He counted the shadows, and there were really four more.

However, instead of being brave and pretending he was still fine, Caelan grabbed Eveline’s hand.

"What are you doing?" Eveline swallowed.

"We better start running."