Byan crouched down, pushing his hand into the soft jungle loam. 'Feels just like what I had been walking on earlier.'
Then he raised his head and looked forward. The darkness was heavy, almost as if he could squeeze it in his fist.
"Byan!"
A little whisper drifted over from the side, making him pause and smile slightly. 'Even in this darkness, I find her blinding.'
His eyes widened, and the hand that had been unknowingly travelling toward her halted. Flashing a wry smile, he whispered in turn, "Her-ee."
"Can you see anything?" Myaz cautiously crouched down and moved closer to the voice.
"Barely... bu-t, I can, I t-think, feel something." The muscles on Byan's face stretched oddly as his squeezed eyes trudged into the darkness.
"Life... you are sensing life." Myaz asserted, a smile blooming on her face, "It's a skill of the undead, they can sense anything that lives."
Byan's face tilted, as Myaz had just bumped into him, he could barely see her next to him. But, the odd thing was that, "If what you say is true then... why do I not feel similarly toward you?"
Myaz's face slanted down, baffled by the question, "Y-you can't sense... me?" Her eyes thinned, cold sweating secreted out of her pores. 'What could it mea—'
Her breath halted abruptly, like a speeding car braking suddenly upon seeing a foolish child come in its path.
Her eyes zigzagged between the small scintillating red dots that began to pop out one after the other and stare in their direction.
"Shit... wh-what are they?" Myaz chocked on her words.
Seeing her cowering in fear, Byan hurriedly moved in front of her and brandished the rapier that he hadn't relented from his grip once.
"What's the plan." The silence grew so much that even his gently beating heart began to scream.
Myaz trembled hearing his words, 'Plan? What's the plan?'
Byan looked back at her from the corner of his sight, 'Truly a novice... I doubt she has ever laid eyes on a fly, much less monsters... interestingly enough, how did she even get herself in this mess? I have to ask her after this.'
A smile slowly tugged his lips back, he could see, no, he could feel they were approaching.
It was a weird sensation. It was different and new, but it was definitely nothing he was unaccustomed to.
It was as simple as how he could think. He could just feel that the monsters had began to approach, rapidly too.
The silence was chewed alive by their muffled, thudding soles. The bright sparks produced from their unsheating weapons danced up, illuminating their grinning, dirty fangs, before jumping into their graves in the dirt.
Byan's fist rolled tighter on the handle, his eyes dancing incessantly between the many sources of life drawing his way.
He raised the rapier, his legs squeezed tight. Then with a "hiyah" he swung down.
It was a pathetic swing, making him slightly lose his balance.
The blind swing was dodged swiftly by the monsters, Byan could even hear their cheeky cackles before their blades, thirsting for blood, drove through him.
His expression was unrelenting, unfazed. He tightly riveted one of them with his hand and slowly stretched his neck till its face became visible to his curious eyes.
It had one large eye and a noseless oval face. Right at where its chin should be was a parting— revealing its disgusting sharp fangs
"Now I s-see," His smile receded, "You guys aren't th-aat frightening. And, looking at your twisted, confused faces, y-you can see in the dark p-p-pretty well, rig-ht?"
His voice shook Myaz back to her feet. Her hand shuddered as she felt many sharp blades gently poking into her stomach.
'I would've... been impaled had not for him.' Her hand traced back the blade to Byan's back.
She placed her palm flat against him. It was cold, dry, even mushy.
But beneath the cold surface, she could feel a gentle knock. It was peaceful, even somewhat warm. It was his heart.
'Undead... this is the back of an undead.' Her eyes shivered, feeling the many blades threatening to pierce through her as she neared a step. Her face paled, and a line she once read in a book about undead sprung out of her mouth.
"Though dead, but still dying!"
Her throat turned dry, her voice booming out hoarse and quavering, "BYAN! YOU MAY BE UNDEAD, BUT YOU CAN STILL DIE!!"
Byan's head flung back, the words giving a new taste to the metal drilling through him.
'What kinda logic is that? Aren't I already dead? How can I die?' His face turned nasty, "S-So, what to d-oo?"
"Kill them!" Myaz stepped closer, the blades puncturing her dress and licking her smooth, milky skin.
Her hand pushed him from behind, giving him a jolt, giving him a command, "CLEAVE THROUGH THEM ALL BEFORE THEY CLEAVE THROUGH YOU!"
There were no buts, not even a deciphering of what she had said.
His body moved on its own, like a puppet manipulated by strings.
The rapier in his hand didn't have the strength to cleave through them. But that wasn't what he needed to do.
His hand swung neatly to the right, grazing all the monsters at once and making them retreat in wails.
Then he quickly flipped his grip and dragged the blade back and past its track.
It was a swift and precise swing. He wouldn't have had managed it with his amateur skill, but the cut didn't even feel to have come from his desire either.
He stared back from the corner of his eyes, 'Wha-t... did she do?'
All the monsters shrieked, creating a horrendous symphony as they fled back.
But the one he had been unfortunately holding firm in place had been cleanly cut through the nape, causing a gruesome shower of blood to bloom and soak his face.
It was another interesting thing, he didn't feel disgusted as it sprayed all over his face. Or even horrified at the nature of what he done.
The monsters were hollering unabatingly. Their desperate guttural wails reminding him of the scene the Venator had been killed by.
As he was thinking so, the blood had began to slide down his face. A particular streak had weaved down his creased forehead and on to his left eye.
As the blood trickled down, and dripped onto his eyeball, it got soaked as a drop of water gets soaked into a ball of cotton.
His dull, dead eyes brightened in a reddish sheen that matched those of the monster's, and the darkness of his surrounding began to crawl back under the magical effect cast on him.
The previously drab place and suddenly became visible to him. The scene of the monsters slamming their bodies in the ground and punching their claws in their flesh to scope away a bunch of maggots momentarily unnerved him.
It wasn't the darkness that had vanished... but his eyes that could effortlessly see past its veil!
'FINALLY! DID I EVOLVE AGAIN?' Byan's eyes curiously drifted away from the dying monsters and down on his hand. But soon a voice began to marvel at him.
[Congratulations! You have levelled up!]
[You have performed an extraordinary feat, your prowess have shot exponentially.]
[You have been affected by Degger's blood, temporarily gained skill 'Night Vision'.]