Humanity: Evolve

Zhang Long held his quarterstaff by his side, staring warily into the fog. The greyish white fog-like substance had appeared out of thin-air, immediately cloaking everyone in the store with a dusky veil.

Alan also wielded his blade artefact. He hadn't activated it, perhaps to save spiritual energy, or maybe he was afraid to show off his grade in front of a potential- no, definite enemy.

A somewhat high pitched chuckle came from in front, no doubt the blurry green figure who was lit up by Zhang Long's talent.

It carried an elegant lady-like tone, yet it also felt like a sharp steel blade grinding against a whetstone, cold and unfeeling with a slight gritty tone.

The quiet laughs echoed around them, creating a disorienting effect and causing everyone's hairs to stand on end.

The green figure walked calmly forward, high heels clacking against the wooden floor. The woman's footsteps gave Zhang Long a feeling of clarity, much like their clear and steady rhythm.

The blurry green figure started to become blurrier and blurrier, the bright green dissipating and twisting away into swirls of grey fog.

Zhang Long's mind became hazy, just like the fog around him. He suddenly longed for a comfortable bed. Maybe a two person bed that he could sprawl on alone, perhaps with a cosy and soft Egyptian feather pillow- one which would have cost him a lot back on old Earth but not so much over here.

An abrupt feeling of weight pressed against his back, pulling him from the hazy but not uncomfortable day dream. Zhang Long groggily shook his head before jolting upright and raising his weapon again.

Alan had fell under the woman's sleep inducing attack, a lot worse than Zhang Long had since the former was only grade one.

Upon falling against Zhang Long's back, Alan was startled awake too. They glanced at one another with worried expressions.

Zhang Long even caught sight of a solitary bead of sweat making a pilgrimage down Alan's forehead, clearly indicating the gravity of the situation.

'According to what you told me...' Alan whispered.

Zhang Long frowned and nodded. 'The assailant is without a doubt grade three, if not grade four.'

He wiped sweat off of his forehead. 'If she were any lower, we wouldn't have been so strongly affected by that sleep-inducing attack.'

Zhang Long felt the urge to activate his quarterstaff, however the fear of giving away their location convinced him not to.

Then he shook his head. 'If the assailant is using vision obscuring tactics, then she must definitely have some sort of method to bypass it-'

His thoughts were interrupted by a second warm feeling. His mind instantly went fuzzy and he almost fell over. Luckily, he was able to lean against his quarterstaff in time and steady himself.

'Shit, she plans to stay there and put us to sleep!'

Zhang Long struggled to stay awake, the lull of sleep like relentless tides crashing upon grains of smooth sand.

'Winter!' He called, grasping toward the hazy consciousness resting within his own.

His mind and focus wavered, rendering him unable to summon his spirit beast. No matter how hard he tried, Winter seemed to be like a slippery eel, sliding through his grasp as if he were a liquid.

Upon feeling that he wouldn't last much longer, he made a final, desperate bid to save himself.

He roared out loud as he f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y and recklessly pulled spiritual energy from his soul stone and into his quarterstaff.

He heard his own voice being drowned out by the myriad roars of various ancient sounding spirit beasts, each one bearing down on everyone in the room with the pressure of the world behind them.

Zhang Long's mind was once again dragged back to reality, where he was in mid fall several metres away from his previous position.

Confusion stained his thoughts however he quickly used his staff to thrust backward and regain stability, with the deftness of a monkey.

A dull pain throbbed across his face and he faintly heard a pitter-pattering sound on the ground before him.

Looking down, he noticed that a blood red liquid was dripping down his face and onto the scorched floorboards.

'Blood? How?'

He dabbed his face, wondering how he had suddenly become injured.

'Hahahaha! The information I acquired on you was so totally correct!' A silky and alluring voice drifted into his ears.

It made him want to trust it's owner and lay down his life for her like a servant would his master.

'Again, this damned sound attack!' Zhang Long cursed, preparing to activate his quarterstaff again.

'Oh, I'd stop right there if I were you honey.' The woman said, her carefree but attractive tone causing Zhang Long to stop.

He cleared his throat before responding. 'Why shouldn't I do that?'

The woman chuckled coquettishly. 'You really haven't understood, even after a live demonstration?'

Unconsciously, Zhang Long's brows furrowed. 'Pray tell.'

The woman sighed, betraying her disappointment. 'You really don't know?'

Just as Zhang Long was about to agree, she continued talking.

'Disappointing, really. Well, there's no harm in telling you before I both you and your friend over there to sleep.

This fog around you is actually a special gas- one which is completely flammable. It bears a similarity to napalm, but it instead reacts with fire and high temperature to combust.

In layman's terms, activating your little staff gimmick in my fog will create an explosion next to you, just like the one which threw you all the way back there.'

Zhang Long paid no heed to her patronising and somewhat arrogant tone, instead paying attention to her words and gleaning as much information from them as possible.

'This fog-like substance is no doubt a result of her talent. This means she must have some control over it, such as it's movement or combustion.

The fact that she was able to tell I had been knocked several metres away from my previous position shows that she is able to sense my location, not too strange considering this fog is part of her talent.'

He expended a minimal amount of spiritual energy to heal his facial wounds. He had a light concussion but it was healed almost immediately, such was the strength of a grade two talent.

Zhang Long looked around after activating his spirit vision, quickly spotting and mentally noting each person's location.

Although he couldn't really tell the difference between each person's colours, he could roughly estimate off of his previous position.

There were three smudged green blobs in the corner, no doubt the ginger man and his friends.

Just a few metres in front of him was Alan. The stony-faced man was slumped against the wall, slowly and blinding moving his arms and legs in a bid to stand back up.

And finally, the assailant. A grade three or higher assassin, belonging or working in league with the Hymnist Orc.h.e.s.tra. She possessed a sound based attack like the Hymnists and control over a combustible fog which she could move at will.

'Then the first order of business... To work out how she can see or at least feel me move.'

His forehead scrunched up in consternation as he considered multiple scenarios and methods to make the woman reveal her way of sensing him.

After a few minutes of occasionally drifting into sleep, he had an idea.

'Before, she was able to sense when I was about to activate my quarterstaff. The process of transferring spiritual energy is very quick, only a few milliseconds, so even if she has eagle-like eyesight she wouldn't be able to react quick enough to stop me.'

He fell forward onto his front, deliberately making a loud noise as he hit the ground. Zhang Long weakened his breathing and feigned sleepiness, emulating the state of body and mind which plagued him when the woman lulled him to sleep.

After a few seconds, he carefully used his spirit vision to confirm her position.

'Only about 10 metres ahead, very slowly closing in on me.'

He then pulled spiritual energy from his soul stone in a weak manner. He deliberately let at least 50% of it scatter and dissipate into the air as he slowly willed it to travel toward his quarterstaff.

Much to his expectation, the woman had noticed.

'I already told you twice, idiot! Do you really want to kill yourself?'

She spoke in an annoyed tone, yet it still sounded sweet and lovely in Zhang Long's ears.

He ignored her, however, adamantly continuing to pull spiritual energy into his staff.

The woman spoke once more, in no doubt a pissed off frame of mind.

'Ill tell you right now. I've set the fog into it's most combustible form, the mere activation of your staff will blow your head off of your neck and all the way across the room! Do you really want to die?'

Contrary to Zhang Long's seemingly weak state, he was internally cheering the woman on.

'Go on! Reveal more about your talent!'

As she continued to threaten him with a colourful variety of outcomes if he activated his quarterstaff, he was thinking of how to escape with Alan.

'She has already told me that she can control the flammability or the reactiveness of her fog at will. This could most definitely branch toward being able to use it to feel, like a sixth sense or special organ.

She also doesn't want me to die, for one reason or another. Perhaps she plans to capture me alive and bring me to her organisation for questioning. Either way, escape is the most appealing option.

My best chance to run would be to disorient her and get rid of this fog which is acting as a sonar device.'

He looked toward the green blur representing Alan's body.

'I also need to be able to pull him with me in the small time frame after I disorient that woman.'

Alan was currently to his right, whilst the woman was now 5 metres to his front.

Zhang Long began to channel a sudden burst of spiritual energy into his staff, shuffling forward slightly as he did so.

'STOP! I told you already, stop that!' The woman cried.

She ran forward with a short cry of anger, hands outstretched.

Zhang Long grinned and immediately activated his staff, the bestial roars engulfing his entire being with primal fury.

'I won't kill. However I won't hesitate to preserve my own life if the situation calls for it!' He muttered with determination, channelling the remaining spiritual energy in his soul stone throughout his body.

'HEAL!' He yelled.

The woman let out a scream of realisation as she struggled to pull herself away from the mad doctor before her, seemingly determined to commit suicide by combustion and drag her to hell with him.

And in that instant, the world flashed a bright white, random zigzagging patterns intertwining within Zhang Long's vision.

Pain flared across his body, as if needles were freely weaving their way in and out of his flesh. An itching feeling accompanied the heart wrenching pain, indicating the rapid healing capabilities of Zhang Long's talent.

It lasted for a second. A second was all it took for the woman to blast backward into the wall opposite, whilst Zhang Long landed in a heap of charred but safe limbs.

And he had positioned himself so that the explosion would knock him back toward Alan.

The fog began to clear, it's sleep inducing qualities evaporating with it. With a sudden start, Alan had leaped up and landed in a combat ready pose.

Only, a look of pure confusion plastered his face as he realised the blinding fog was gone and the assailant, a woman apparently, was embedded several inches deep into the wooden wall opposite him.

He sent Zhang Long an inquiring look.

'No time to explain. We need to get the hell away from here.' Zhang Long barked, pulling Alan by the arms.

The latter nodded, but then hesitated.

'What is it? We need to go now!' Zhang Long urged, this sudden development in his personality contrasting his usual cold self.

The fact that they had been found, even though they were situated on the the side of the city opposite the place where Pale Face had committed suicide.

This meant that many more could be coming after them, no doubt just as powerful as the fog lady before them, if not even stronger.

He was met by a wide grin starkly contrasting their grave situation.

Alan brushed away his blonde fringe and grinned. 'Spoils of war.'