My newly formed alliance with Kevin Zhang felt less like a partnership and more like a field promotion from "designated victim" to "essential bait." It wasn't exactly a confidence booster, but it was infinitely better than being on the menu. The sun had finally dipped below the horizon, and the Lily Pool was now shrouded in a deep, oppressive twilight. The only light came from the distant glow of the city and a few dim, strategically placed landscape lights that cast long, dancing shadows, turning the serene garden into a place of primal fear.
"Okay, steak dinner," Kevin began, his voice a low, urgent whisper that cut through the manufactured tranquility of the splashing waterfall. "Here's the plan. That thing—the Hungry Shade—it's old. It's mostly instinct. Right now, its instinct is telling it that you're an easy, high-value meal because of your passenger. We're going to use that. We need to lure it out of the water. Its power is strongest when it's connected to a dark, still body of water like this pool. On land, it's vulnerable."
"Vulnerable how?" I whispered back, my eyes darting nervously towards the inky surface of the water.
"It has to manifest a physical or semi-physical form to attack you on land," Kevin explained, his focus absolute. "When it does, it's exposed. That's my opening."
He unzipped his duffel bag fully. It wasn't full of high-tech ghost-hunting gadgets like in the movies. There were no PKE meters or proton packs. It was filled with objects that looked ancient, almost holy. He pulled out a series of small, wooden stakes, each one intricately carved with characters I didn't recognize. He also produced several small, silk pouches that seemed to hum with a faint energy, and a coiled rope made of what looked like braided red thread. But his main weapon, the object he handled with the most reverence, was a sword.
It was a jian, a Chinese double-edged straight sword. It wasn't ornate or flashy. The hilt was simple dark wood, the guard a small, unadorned brass oval. But the blade itself… it seemed to drink the dim light. It was crafted from what looked like peach wood, the grain glowing with a faint, golden luminescence. It seemed more like a sacred relic than a weapon.
"You're going to fight that thing… with a wooden sword?" I asked, my voice cracking with disbelief.
Kevin shot me a look of pure, unadulterated annoyance. "It's a consecrated peach-wood sword, passed down for twelve generations and soaked in blessed salts and purifying mantras. To a spirit, this is the equivalent of a lightsaber. Now, stop asking stupid questions and listen."
I snapped my mouth shut. Inside my chest, I felt Jessica's fear mix with a new emotion directed at Kevin: a grudging respect. He was arrogant, but he knew what he was doing.
"I'm going to set up a containment array," he said, handing me one of the small silk pouches. It felt strangely warm to the touch. "This is a salt-and-ash pouch. It'll mask your ectoplasmic signature slightly, keep the Shade from getting a lock on you until we're ready. Don't open it. Just hold it. I need you to walk to that open space over there." He pointed to a small, circular clearing on the grass about twenty feet from the water's edge. "Stand in the middle and wait. That's all you have to do."
"Just stand there? While a soul-eating monster tries to attack me?"
"I'll be right here," he said, gesturing to the shadows of a large oak tree that flanked the clearing. "The moment it fully manifests, I'll move. It won't have time to react." His confidence was unnerving. He spoke about this creature with the clinical detachment of an exterminator discussing a cockroach infestation.
With no other options, I did as he said. I walked to the clearing, my legs feeling like lead. The silk pouch in my hand was a small, warm comfort, but it felt woefully inadequate against the immense, hungry presence that I could feel watching me from the pool. I stood in the center of the clearing, my back to the water, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I felt completely, utterly exposed.
Kevin moved with a silent, fluid grace. He darted between the trees and stone benches, placing his carved wooden stakes into the ground at precise intervals, creating a large, invisible circle around the clearing where I stood. He uncoiled the red rope, stringing it between two of the stakes, creating a shimmering, almost invisible barrier. The air inside his circle felt different, charged with a strange, static energy. He was setting a trap.
He gave me a sharp nod from the shadows. It was time.
"Okay, bait," he called out in a low voice. "Drop the pouch."
My hand opened, and the small, warm pouch fell to the grass. The second it left my hand, the atmosphere shifted. The masking effect was gone. The full, undivided attention of the Hungry Shade fell upon me like a physical weight. The primal hunger that had been a general thrum now felt like a laser beam focused directly on my soul. My Ectoplasmic Empathy skill went haywire, flooding my mind with the creature's single, overriding desire: CONSUME.
The surface of the Lily Pool began to ripple, even though there was no wind. Dark, oily bubbles broke the surface near the drooping willow tree. A low, guttural hissing sound slithered through the air, a noise that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
It's coming, I felt Jessica's terrified thought shriek inside my mind. She was pulling her energy in, trying to make herself as small as possible, like a child hiding under the covers.
I wanted to run. Every survival instinct in my body was screaming at me to flee. But I was frozen in place, paralyzed by the sight unfolding before me.
A thick, black tendril, like an appendage made of solidified shadow and foul water, rose from the pool. Then another, and another. They weren't solid, but they weren't gas either. They moved with a hideous, serpentine grace, whipping through the air, testing their surroundings. More and more of the creature's mass began to rise from the water. It didn't have a defined shape. It was a chaotic, amorphous blob of darkness, a living oil slick adorned with shifting, temporary mouths that gaped open and snapped shut, revealing rows of needle-like, spiritual teeth. This was the Hungry Shade. This was the thing that was going to eat me.
It slithered out of the water and onto the grass, its shadowy form leaving a trail of dead, blackened vegetation in its wake. It moved towards me with an unnatural speed, its tendrils lashing out, its many mouths hissing with anticipation.
"Hold your ground, Alex!" Kevin's voice yelled from the darkness. "Let it come closer! It needs to cross the line!"
It was fifty feet away. Then forty. Then thirty. The hunger it radiated was so intense it made my vision swim. I could feel it probing at my soul, trying to get a taste. The cold in my chest, where Jessica was hiding, was now so intense it was a burning pain.
The creature reached the edge of the clearing. Its foremost tendril slithered forward and touched the invisible line of Kevin's containment array. There was a bright flash of red light as it crossed the threshold, and the red rope between the two stakes flared with a brilliant, fiery energy. The Shade let out a piercing, psychic shriek of pain and rage. It had taken the bait. It was in the trap.
"Now!" Kevin roared.
He burst from the shadows, no longer a quiet, unassuming young man, but a figure of immense, focused power. He moved with a speed that didn't seem human, the consecrated peach-wood sword held in a two-handed grip. The blade itself seemed to come alive, glowing with a soft, golden light that cut through the oppressive darkness of the Shade.
The Shade, realizing it had been tricked, turned its full fury on Kevin. Its shadowy tendrils whipped towards him, faster than the eye could follow. But Kevin was faster. He weaved and ducked under the attacks, his movements economical and precise. He wasn't just fighting; he was performing a deadly, intricate dance.
With a final, powerful step, he closed the distance. He raised the glowing sword high above his head and brought it down in a clean, vertical slash, right through the center of the Shade's amorphous body.
There was no sound of impact, no clang of steel on flesh. There was only a blinding flash of golden light and a deafening, soul-tearing scream that was both audible and psychic. The Hungry Shade's dark form seemed to ignite from within. The golden light from the sword spread through its body like a fast-acting poison, breaking it apart. The shadowy tendrils dissolved into black smoke. The hissing mouths melted away into nothingness. Within seconds, the entire creature had been utterly, completely, and violently purified.
The oppressive hunger vanished. The air in the Lily Pool was clean again. The only things left were the smell of ozone, the dead patch of grass, and a profound, ringing silence.
Kevin stood over the spot where the Shade had been, breathing heavily, the golden glow from his sword slowly fading. He had done it. He had neutralized the threat.
I finally let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and promptly collapsed onto my knees, my entire body trembling with post-adrenaline exhaustion.
A notification pinged on the black phone. With a shaking hand, I pulled it out.
[Priority Assignment Complete: Threat Neutralized.] [Performance Review: Successful assistance to a sanctioned third-party agent.] [Reward Issued: +20 Merit Points.] [Thank you for your service to Eternity, Inc. 😊]