Waking up that Tuesday morning, Emily had expected her body to be sore from yesterday's fight against the Hunter, but thanks to her now supernatural body she felt good as new.
Quickly getting dressed to keep up the ruse of going to school, Emily headed to the fridge. It seemed like she had only recently filled it up completely, but as she thought about it, that was one week ago. She wasn't the only one who had access to it, so right now it was rather empty. It had an opened milk carton, some juice, eggs, butter and jam, but she craved something else right now.
Trying to think of something positive was a nice little escape from reality, but eventually she left the high street and started to head to the parks where there was a nice woodland area nearby. She had chosen this area for a specific reason.
After entering the woods, ahe looked around her to see if she could spot anyone, but it didn't look like there was anyone nearby. Despite all her setbacks yesterday, her system had surprised her with one good reward at the end of the day.
[Showing skills that are available to be unlocked at current level]
[Shadow Bind]
[Skill Reset]
Don't you usually get presented with a choice of three? Whatever, I can't really complain about getting a free skill. However, this system could have at least given me a slight description. I have only the name to go off of to guess what they do.' Emily had thought to herself.
From the notification, she could infer that her skill choice was limited by her current level, so there was a chance that whatever she didn't choose might become available later. Shadow Bind sounded like a good skill, Skill Reset sounded like... I don't know.
[Are you sure you would like to select the skill 'Shadow Bind?']
[Yes / No]
After selecting [Yes] on the menu that had popped up in front of her, a certain set of information had entered her head. She knew she would just need to think of the skill name and it would allow her to use it, but she needed to know how it worked first.
[Shadow Bind(Level 1)]
[Once activated the user bind the shadows of others, preventing them from moving or speaking]
[The skill will take 15 points of Energy to use.]
[The skill will last 2 seconds.]
'This is awesome!. It would have been even greater if it had some function to boost my strength lik Rage, but that might have been a bit much to ask. Still, now I think I like this skill.
'The only downside seems to be the rather short duration… and the Energy cost. If I use Rage and Shadow Bind together that's 25 points of Energy, which is nearly a quarter of my overall. Looks like skills, although helpful, really have quite the burden.'
Emily wanted to test out her new skill, which was why she had come to the woods in the first place. The only problem was that she was now worried about her Energy bar. Was it really wise to experiment with it? On the other hand, not experiencing the skill seemed dumb as well.
As she was debating whether she should or shouldn't test it out, she felt a vibration from her comm. Grabbing it from her pocket, she saw a notification about breaking news.
'Shit, so this time a university student has been killed, and it says their body was mauled.'
Emily had a bad premonition that it was Dire fang. Putting her phone away, she was going to try and attempt to solve her Energy problem, but in that moment her comm vibrated and it was someone she didn't want to make wait, especially after he had helped her recently.
[ we need to meet up ASAP and discuss something. It's about Dire fang!]
**********
After reading the message, Emily had worrying thoughts going through her head. Why would Daniel bring up Dire fang now of all times? Had he somehow discovered that all of those recent murders might have been his doing? Or could he have encountered a hairy creature at night and linked the whole mess back to him?
'Hang on, if Daniel has actually found some lead on Dire fang, then that would be a great thing! I might finally be able to track him down and stop him before he can do any more harm!' Emily thought, pacing up and down in the woods.
She looked at the clock on the comm. It was nearly lunch time and although she was only allowed in school for club practice, which would be at around 3PM, she just couldn't wait that long. Daniel's message sounded pretty urgent and if he reached out to her about Dire fang then it was vitally important to hear what her upperclassman had to share.
The high schooler managed to arrive quite quickly at school, it was quiet so the lunch bell didn't seem to have gone off yet. Given her uniform, it was unlikely that someone would report her if they saw her. Even if someone did recognise her, they would likely just think that she had been called in by Headmistress Young.
After all, who would use the 'free holiday' that was exclusion, to get back to the school ground?
Rushing through the gates, Emily hurried through the hallways while trying to avoid the few teachers and students who were outside. Everyone was busy with their own thing, but it couldn't hurt being cautious. Right now she was following Daniel's instructions and was heading to a certain storage room.
Emily had expected that Daniel would call her over to the school's roof, but with the bell ringing any moment now, there would be students who would go up to the school roof to enjoy their meal up there. Given that Daniel seemed to care about secrecy in the matter concerning Dire fang just added to Gary's worries.
She texted Daniel that she had arrived and was now pacing up and down in the small storage room. Unfortunately, she could only make four steps before having to turn around. This 'room' was basically an oversized supply closet, filled with cleaning supplies and piles of toilet paper. A few pacings later the school bell had rung and students had begun running through the halls, yet Daniel had yet to reply.
There was a sudden knock on the door. Emily panicked, looking left and right, trying to search for a hiding spot, but there was nowhere to hide apart from a mop sticking out from a bucket. For once it didn't seem like any of her Ghoul powers were going to help. As it slowly opened, Emily moved behind the mop and turned around, stopping her breathing.
"Yeah, you might wanna try that again when you don't have White hair. It sticks out like a sore thumb, and what was the point of turning around? 'If you can't see me I can't see you', what are you five?" Daniel held back his laughter as he closed the door behind him. "I knocked to let you know that it was me. I mean seriously, who else could it have been? The only ones visiting this room would be either the janitor or some horny teens looking for some quiet time. Do you think either one would have knocked?"
Realising how stupid she had been, Emily felt a little embarassed about what had just happened. Standing up, she brushed off some dust from her clothes.
"So, how come you have mentioned Dire fang so suddenly? Have you seen him lately? Did he look any different?" Emily asked, wanting to change the subject, hoping that Daniel would soon forget her earlier actions. Daniel thought that it was a pretty strange question to ask off the bat, but decided to tell her the reason why he had called him in so suddenly.
"No I haven't, otherwise I would have already reported him to the police. Anyway, just be quiet for a moment and listen to what I have to tell you. Also, try not to panic since it won't help you and I would like you to help me figure out what to do next." Daniel answered, looking into Emily's eyes.
The former didn't miss that the latter was gulping just from his warning, so Daniel didn't have high hopes about Emily not panicking. However, he couldn't exactly fault her for that. Emily had already tried to reach out to him about Dire fang, yet Daniel had shot her down at the time, believing that Emily had just been looking for trouble.
"You know about all those murders that have been happening on the news lately? Well, I'm convinced that this is Dire fang's doing.Heck, I think you figured that out when you sent me that text."
If you've watched the reports you should know that the victim of one of the recent murders in our town was a high school student like us, whereas the most recent one was a university student… and wouldn't you know it, both had connections to our fugitive friend."
Hearing this, Emily felt relieved. She had strongly suspected that Dire fang was the murderer, yet learning that his victims were people he knew meant that at least her family members were likely safe.
"What are the links, and how did you figure all of this stuff out?" Emily asked.
"To be honest, that was a bit of a coincidence. I was actually looking for a link between you and Red Sunn. You remember the new guy that recently joined our gang?" Daniel asked and Emily just nodded. She had only seen their newest gang member once though, so she wasn't sure what exactly kind of link they could have had. Most importantly, how did Dire fang fit into all of this? Or the murders for that matter?
I did a little digging into who exactly would do such a thing. Unlike you, Red Sunn doesn't really have any connection to the white swan nor does he have beef with any of the other gangs. The only thing that I could find that the two of you shared, apart from both being in the same gang now, was that both of you participated in the Underground fighting club."
"You know who else was participating? That's right Dire fang… and so were his two latest victims. Now, here's where things get interesting. Not only were the deceased high schooler and university student both fighters, both of them fought against Dire fang!"
"So does that mean he's after everyone he ever fought?" Emily asked. "Say, how do you know their names? I don't recall the news mentioning them. Heck, didn't the family of the high schooler even request for it to be scratched from the records?"
"Does that really matter now? Just be glad that I did find out and that I discovered the connection. As for your first question, it's not as simple as Dire fang going after those he fought."Daniel replied. "In fact, he seems to target those he lost against!"
Having Daniel figure out all of this, Emily started to wonder. Was there actually a way for Dire fang to track her down? Emily had never found a way, but Dire fang had somehow found the houses of all of those he had lost to.
That information had to come from somewhere!
Emily hesitated a little before asking the question that was on her mind: "How many people did Dire fang lose to?"
"Four, including you. Two of which are already dead and you can pretty much guess who he had lost thrice against, right?"
"Red Sunn"