Kaine circled the Marcus-thing slowly, studying it like a mechanic examining a particularly confusing engine. The creature—his creature now—stood perfectly still in the center of the chamber, pale eyes tracking his movement with the attention of a well-trained dog waiting for commands.
The thing that had been Marcus looked almost normal if you didn't look too closely. Same expensive clothes, same aristocratic features, same general build. But the details were all wrong. The skin had taken on a grayish pallor that made it look like carved stone in the firelight. Dark veins were visible beneath the surface, creating a web-like pattern that pulsed faintly with each breath it didn't actually need to take.
Most unsettling were the eyes. Where Marcus had possessed the burning red orbs typical of his generation, the Ghoul's eyes were pale and cold—like moonlight reflected off ice. They tracked Kaine's movement with perfect attention but absolutely no personality behind them.
"So you're a Ghoul," Kaine said, stopping in front of what used to be one of the most dangerous vampires in the city. "That's... anticlimactic."
Marcus's head tilted slightly at the sound of his voice, but there was no recognition there. No personality. Just empty attention and the kind of patient stillness that suggested it could stand there for hours without moving.
[TUTORIAL COMPLETION DETECTED]
[UNLOCKING SPECIAL ABILITIES...]
[CONGRATULATIONS! You have gained access to your Grave Knight abilities.]
[SPECIAL ABILITIES UNLOCKED]
Blue text flooded Kaine's vision, displaying information that felt like it was being burned directly into his consciousness.
••DEATH SIGHT•• [Level 1]
•Passive Ability•
- Identify undead types and their approximate power level
- Detect hidden supernatural entities within 50 meters
- Cooldown: None (Always Active)
- ME Cost: None
•"The eyes of a Grave Knight pierce through flesh to see the soul beneath. Very useful for knowing when something's pretending to be human."•
••SHADOW STEP•• [Level 1]
•Active Ability•
- Instantly teleport through shadows within 10 meters
- Silent movement - leaves no trace of passage
- Cooldown: 15 seconds
- ME Cost: 20 ME per use
•"Sometimes the direct approach isn't the best approach. Sometimes you need to appear where your enemies least expect you."•
••UNDYING RESILIENCE•• [Level 1]
•Passive Ability•
- Immune to poison, disease, and fear effects
- Reduced damage from non-magical weapons (-25%)
•"Death has already claimed you once. It's going to have to work a lot harder to do it again."•
"Okay strange computer screen, I like this..." Kaine muttered, processing the information. The abilities felt like knowledge he'd always possessed but had somehow forgotten until this moment. Like muscle memory for supernatural powers he'd never used before.
[GHOUL ANALYSIS REQUESTED]
[DISPLAYING SERVANT PROFILE...]
[SUBJECT: Marcus (Ghoul Variant)]
[INTELLIGENCE LEVEL: Basic Animal Instincts]
[COMBAT CAPABILITIES: Enhanced Strength/Speed, Retained Muscle Memory]
[SPECIAL TRAITS: Rapid Regeneration, No Pain Response, Absolute Loyalty]
[CONTROL RATING: Perfect - Will obey all direct commands]
[WARNING: Ghouls require clear, simple instructions. Complex orders may result in unpredictable behavior.]
"Perfect," Kaine said, studying his first creation. "I've turned the city's most arrogant vampire into a supernatural golden retriever with abandonment issues."
He was about to experiment with some basic commands when the sound of weapon discharge echoed through the stone walls. Not the sharp crack of gunfire—these were the distinctive energy signatures of Shadowguard equipment. Solar-charged plasma bursts, crystal-powered projectiles, and the high-pitched whine of magitech weaponry engaging supernatural targets.
Multiple weapons, sustained engagement, the kind of tactical situation that meant professional hunters were either winning decisively or dying messily.
The weapons fire was coming from somewhere above them, probably street level. Close enough that the building's foundations carried the vibrations down to Marcus's underground lair, along with the unmistakable sounds of humans screaming.
Kaine felt something activate behind his eyes, like a switch being flipped in his brain. The world suddenly shifted into something resembling x-ray vision mixed with thermal imaging, showing him heat signatures and energy patterns through solid matter.
[DEATH SIGHT ACTIVATED]
Through the walls and ceiling, he could see bright human auras scattered across what looked like a warehouse complex. Their life signatures pulsed with the rapid heartbeats of people in combat, fear, and pain. Moving between them were darker, colder shapes—supernatural entities that registered as voids in the normal flow of life energy.
Seven vampires. Maybe eight. The signatures were hard to distinguish when they moved that fast, but three of them burned with the stronger, more defined auras that marked higher-generation bloodsuckers.
And at least a dozen humans who were very clearly outmatched and losing ground rapidly.
As he watched, one of the human signatures suddenly dimmed and went out, snuffed like a candle flame. Someone had just died up there, probably in a way that involved significant blood loss and creative dismemberment.
"Well," he said, watching another human signature flicker and fade as something cold and fast tore through it, "looks like it's time for your first performance review."
Kaine headed for the chamber's exit, a stone staircase that led up toward street level. The steps were worn smooth by centuries of use, and the walls were lined with torch brackets that suggested this place had been in operation long before electric lighting became common.
"Come," he said simply.
The Ghoul followed with movements that were both fluid and somehow mechanical—like watching a sophisticated robot that had been programmed to mimic human motion. Its footsteps were unnaturally quiet for something that had to weigh close to two hundred pounds, barely making a whisper against the stone.
They emerged into an alley behind a warehouse that looked like it had been abandoned since the last economic collapse. Broken windows stared down like empty eye sockets, rusted fire escapes clung to brick walls like metallic ivy, and the kind of graffiti that covered every available surface suggested the local gang members had given up trying to claim territory from the bloodsuckers which inherently was a smart move as dead gang members didn't collect protection money.
The weapons fire was louder now, interspersed with screams and the wet sounds that bodies made when they stopped being people and started being chunks of meat scattered across warehouse floors. Somewhere in the distance, Kaine could hear the distinctive whine of a plasma rifle cycling up for another shot, followed by the sound of something exploding.
He moved toward the noise silently with the skill of someone who'd spent twelve years hunting things that could hear a heartbeat from three blocks away. His boots found the quiet spaces between broken glass and debris, following routes that kept him in shadow and away from direct lines of sight.
Behind him, Marcus moved with the same quiet efficiency, though whether that was retained vampire instincts or ghoul programming was impossible to determine. The creature's movements were perfectly silent, like it was floating just above the ground rather than walking on it.
They reached the warehouse's loading dock just as something came crashing through a second-story window in a shower of glass and twisted metal. A young man in Shadowguard tactical gear hit the concrete hard enough to crack it, his body making the kind of wet impact that suggested multiple bones had just discovered they weren't as durable as advertised.
The kid rolled twice and didn't get up. His neck was bent at an angle that suggested his career in vampire hunting had just come to an abrupt and permanent end, along with most other activities that required a functioning spinal cord.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 45 ME]
The ghostly number appeared above the corpse, glowing with soft blue light.
"Waste of good training," Kaine observed, stepping over the body without breaking stride.
The kid couldn't have been more than twenty-two, twenty-three at most. Probably fresh out of Shadowguard basic training, equipped with gear that cost more than most people made in a year, and thrown into a situation that his instructors had assured him he was ready for.
He found an unlocked service door and slipped inside, Marcus trailing behind like a particularly lethal shadow. The warehouse interior was a maze of shipping containers and industrial equipment—conveyor belts, loading cranes, and the kind of heavy machinery that created perfect ambush points and killing zones.
Perfect for the kind of urban warfare that got inexperienced hunters killed in creative and messy ways.
And judging by the bodies scattered across the concrete floor, that's exactly what was happening.
Three more Shadowguard recruits lay in spreading pools of blood that reflected the industrial lighting like dark mirrors. Their high-tech weapons were scattered around them like expensive paperweights—a solar rifle with its crystal core cracked and leaking energy, a plasma pistol that had been literally twisted into a pretzel shape, and what looked like the remains of a blessed silver net that had been shredded into metallic confetti.
They'd been torn apart with the kind of casual brutality that suggested their killers hadn't even been trying very hard. One of the bodies was missing its head entirely. Another had been opened from sternum to pelvis with surgical precision. The third looked like it had been used for batting practice by something with superhuman strength and a complete lack of concern for proper body disposal.
[MORTAL ESSENCE ABSORBED: 135 ME TOTAL]