I fell to the ground with the creature, my body aching from the exertion. My muscles hurt as if they had been used for hours instead of the couple of minutes that I had exerted them for.
Still there were more of these creatures and even then the person that had killed the leader of those elves.
I did not know where they were, their intentions, or if they were even hostile to me to begin with.
My face turned into a frown as I assessed my situation. My body was exhausted, more than possible for the amount of effort I had put in and I had enemies in front of me while some phantom lurked in the shadows.
It was not a good situation to be in, exhausted with known enemies in front of me and unknown enemies lurking in the dark.
I ripped my sword from the flesh and watched as the others staggered back for a moment. This was an opportunity and even through the pain I realized it.
A dash forwards and I was in front of them, my eyes scanning their movements and analyzing where they would go.
I found the nearest one and stabbed at the closest face. It screamed in horror, a scream that echoed through my head.
But by now I was already used to it, it would not stop me. A couple more wild slashes and it was dead.
Mere moments after the others had died too. I sat against a building and caught my breath.
It hurt to breath, my exhaustion catching up to me. I didn't know what had caused this as I was perfectly fine before this whole fiasco.
Was it some ability of theirs, to sap my stamina.
My hand reached to my chin as I gazed around to their dead bodies. Watching the screaming faces set in horror.
From what I had seen of them there were two forms that they could take, one where they were an amalgamation of faces where they could regenerate every time a head was killed.
And the other which could set its fist ablaze and seemingly sap my stamina.
The last conclusion was one of suspicion rather than fact but it was better than nothing.
"You're human, yes?"
My eyes opened wide as a figure appeared in front of me.
They were veiled in a cloak that covered their whole figure, enough that I could barely even make out the color of their eyes.
The only reason I even knew it was a girl being because of the distinctly feminine voice.
I sat my hand upon my sword's hilt as I stood from where I was sitting.
"Yes… what of it?"
She seemed almost smug under that cloak of hers even if I could barely see her.
"Not many newly ascended species have such powerful newcomers. Not as much as the earlier species. And to be able to defeat that two pointer puts you in the upper range of the new climbers."
"And…"
"And it means that you have excellent potential and so become mine" She took off her hood at those words, fluffy white ears peeking from her head and twitching with her words.
A cocky smile was on her face as her golden eyes gazed into mine.
For a moment I just stood there before I shook my head and started to walk away.
"Hey!" She yelled, "Give me an answer!"
"No… there you go you have an answer now stop bothering me."
With that last sentence and my stamina recovered I crouched before leaping to the nearest roof and then hopping through the city-scape.
Minutes passed by before I found myself panting for breath, watching as more of those creatures found there way towards living beings.
It was while I was watching them that I spotted it, a dead body. Seemingly consumed almost to the bones. Yet it still twitched as if it was still alive.
I neared it, avoiding the creatures attention for now as I tried to inspect it.
The body stilled as I approached, the fleshy parts still radiating heat. I placed a hand upon it.
Despite the heat that I found it was cold, cold enough to form frost upon my hands. I stopped touching it and brought the same hand to my eyes.
With my other hand I brushed the frost off and found it sticking to me. It just wouldn't come off.
"Frost eh."
I jumped back at the familiar voice, the same girl inspecting my hand in hers. A moment later the frost that was stuck to my hand fell off like water.
"Nothing dangerous if you don't let it stay."
I ignored her remarks and glared up to her.
"What was this… frost"
She smirked for a moment before reaching her head closer to my own.
"Accompany me for the rest of this trial and I'll tell you about it and much more."
My head recoiled from her breath, her mouth breathing her words directly into my own ear.
I jumped away for a moment before hesitantly nodding. There really wasn't a downside other than her annoying personality but I could endure for the information that she would give to me.
"Fine…" I grit out.
She pumped her fist into the air with a whoop of joy. It was then that I noticed the fanged teeth of hers and the clawed nails.
It seemed that she was more feline than she let on. And now that I was thinking that I couldn't help but compare her to an overactive puppy.
"Great! Oh the frost yeah," She tapped her fingers on her chin as she closed the gap and took hold of my hand with her other hand.
"It's a side effect of some drug. When they die while on it they rapidly decompose and produce a frost-like substance that sticks to living beings. It feeds on the life essence of that being and grows itself."
I nod before allowing myself to be dragged wherever she was going.
"This'll be great, now come on let's go find some Masks to beat up."