Fex stood there, panting after taking out so many rattaclaws. He got mildly injured, but managed to heal just fine.
Currently, there were several dead beasts surrounding him, and he was contemplating going onto the roofs of the city and traveling there. The building structures were severely damaged. They didn't have very structurally sound roofs, and he didn't want to risk being in view of the deathbat.
Eventually, Fex decided to go onto the roof of a building. It would allow him to avoid the beasts that roamed the streets, and he saw the deathbat go elsewhere.
'I should be able to spot it easily, if it does come,' Fex tried to reassure himself.
Flashes of what happened last time went in his mind, and he shivered thinking about how close to death he was. He then looked at his ring on his hand. Fex spent a lot of his family's money on human travelers, and it took a while before they returned back with the crystals needed.
While waiting on his commissioned travelers, he would constantly look online to see if anyone sold the crystal itself just in case. It was definitely lucky that someone was selling a deathbat crystal. Fex didn't recall who sold the crystal, only that it came from a guest account from some sort of postal shop.
Fex was getting lost in his thoughts, when he spotted a beast walking on six legs like an insect. Looking at it closer, he noticed it had a humanoid body for its top half. As humanoid as something with a large mouth, and four arms with sharp claws at the end of them could be. It's legs looked like a scorpion's legs with a nasty looking tail to match.
Fex's face scrunched up looking at it.
'That's one hideous beast if I've ever seen one.'
It walked further away from him, and turned a corner so he couldn't see it anymore. Judging from what Fex could guess, it looked like it was intermediate tier, but he couldn't always be sure.
Fex ignored it, deciding to travel in the opposite direction of the beast. It was better for him to not pick fights when he can help it.
He traveled on the rooftops, using his string to swing in the air like a character from one of his favorite human stories. Fex was constantly looking upwards in the night sky only to see the two moons barely illuminating the planet. It reminded him of home in a way.
"I hope dad and Silver aren't too mad…" Fex whispered to himself.
His sister was a very rules bound person, following the law constantly. He did love her, but living that kind of life was restrictive. At least, it was for him. Fex was sure that if the circumstances of his birth were different, like if he were a girl, and his sister was allowed to take the family head position, then he would've been happier.
Being the family lead meant he wouldn't have the freedom that he did now, and he would be stuck dealing with the politics of his home planet.
Fex traveled across the roofs, deep in thought, when he spotted a tall structure in the distance. He landed on a small structure to look at the taller one. It was three stories high and wasn't as destroyed as the others. He was about to go inside when something suddenly exploded right next to him.
The roof collapsed and he fell inside the small building. He was nearly covered in debris. Shaking his head to get rid of the dust, that was when Fex could see it.
The deathbat, flying right above him.
"Crap!" Fex cried, and scrambled out of the debris.
He ran outside of the ruined building, and away from the less destroyed structure. Another boom went off right behind him, and he nearly screamed.
This was what he was afraid of. The deathbat was a silent beast that made almost no sound while flying, and was inaudible when it let out a sonic blast. Despite how good a vampire's hearing was, it was simply a frequency that vampires couldn't perceive.
Fex sprinted through the street, and the beast was right behind him, flying low. He frantically looked around, searching for something— anything— to use. He spotted a small transmission poll up ahead, and shot his strings at it. Once he ran past it, he yanked his strings, causing it to topple down. Looking behind him, the deathbat fluttered frantically around it, giving him some distance.
He turned a corner, then another, running between the buildings. He saw an archway and ran underneath it. The deathbat tried to follow him, but it led to a narrow hall of walls. Instead, it started to flap its wings and went up.
Fex let out a small sigh of relief now that he couldn't see it. When he made it to the other end of the hall of walls, it led to an open area. He thought the coast was clear, when another explosion went off right in front of him. Fex looked up and saw the beast flying high and out of reach.
He kissed his teeth, and ran down another street. On his left, he spotted a staircase that went into the ground. When he was up close, he saw it lead to an underground room. There was a door that looked to be sturdy enough.
Without further thought, he went in and shut it behind him. Seconds later, the deathbat furiously clawed at the entrance. Sweat formed on Fex's forehead. He ran up to a large shelf, and pushed it against the door just to make sure it stayed shut. If the deathbat decided to let out its super sonic explosion again… Fex shook his head, he didn't want to entertain the thought.
He wasn't sure if the deathbat gave up as he didn't hear it scratch at the door again, nor did he hear it leave. When Fex didn't hear anything for a good while of time, it seemed like he would be free to move.
He sighed, and noticed he was in some sort of archive room. It was disheveled just like everything else on this planet. The lights didn't work, and the papers were a little crusted, but in surprisingly good condition all things considered. Walking between the tall cabinets, careful not to step on the strewn about papers, he was thinking about how long he was going to need to wait until the deathbat was far from him.
'Maybe an hour? two hours? What am I thinking, it's not like I have a clock to tell me the time,' Fex thought.
On the other end of the room, there was a table with a tipped over chair. He set it upright and looked at the documents on the table. It seemed like mostly boring reports about the colony's progress as well as requests for workers.
Fex didn't like reading formal papers, he got enough of that at home, but unfortunately, it appeared to be the only thing he could do until the coast was clear.
He sighed and sat down looking over the text.
"Hmm… Progress on the colony is exceeding expectations…. The beasts discovered are not higher than intermediate… Requests for more constructors have been sent…The day cycle is far longer than that of planet earth's and has lasted for more than a week… calculated day night cycle is approximately one earth year."
Fex skimmed over the documents until he noticed something a little more interesting.
"The planet has been marked safe and has been set to be a green portal planet 10 months into colonization. Public buildings are being ordered as humans from earth are being sent to inhabit this place."
He remembered the broken down and destroyed city that was right above him. Fex almost couldn't help but laugh a little.
'So much for safe.'
Fex got up and looked around for something that wasn't just a stack of loose leaf paper. It was honestly really archaic how humans were using paper of all things to send and record messages to other people. Despite how short lived they were, they sure did pick the most inefficient route sometimes.
He spotted a worn leather bound book that was opened downward on the floor. He picked it up and saw that it had a handwritten title in it.
"Swap ability."
It wasn't something he could learn since Fex already had an ability, but he looked inside anyways. The beginning few pages appeared to be a handwritten ability book that was done unprofessionally. At first it seemed to be teaching about how to use and learn the swapping ability, but later evolved into more informal notes about the author's life.
He had seen his own fair share of ability books, both of human and vampire origin, but he had never seen one stop becoming an ability book half way through. Fex went back into the chair and started reading.
"Screw this whole ability book nonsense. I was going to try to see if I can sell this online for a quick buck but NOOOOOOO, someone put a copyright on the swap ability and now I can't sell it anymore without getting into legal trouble. Seriously? Who cares about that? There's dalki knocking at the door, and some company would rather make a quick buck than care about spreading knowledge on how to save our sorry asses."
Fex was rereading the line about legal trouble, and he couldn't help but be confused. What did the author mean by 'copyright'?
"Honestly, this whole planet's day schedule is really annoying. They said that it's meant to last for another month, but it's messing with my sleep schedule. God, I wish I wasn't kicked off from earth. I miss Martha."
'Who the hell is Martha?' Fex thought to himself, but continued flipping through the pages.
"Finally! The sun is setting, and I can get some goddamn sleep, holy damn. Some higher ups said that the sunset is going to last for a week and then we're going to get into pure night time darkness, but I don't care. Suck it Martha."
He flipped another page.
"They say that night time is going to last another year, or whatever. There's a lot more beasts roaming the area now, which is kinda crazy. I thought we marked this place as a green portal planet, but all of a sudden there's these giant bats and freaky pale looking monsters. The military is holding up fine right now, but I'm just trying to do my job. I don't wanna worry about these things, I'm too busy thinking about the new work load they're giving me with all of these papers. I thought this job was supposed to be easy…"
'Giant bats and freaky pale looking monsters?' Fex thought, 'Now that I think about it, there was that whole thing with the 5th family members. They were being gathered to head to this planet and scare the humans away. How long ago was that?'
Fex continued reading.
"It's been about I think a few months into the night? And we had our first breach in the walls. Thankfully the military was able to put up a wall quickly, but it sounds kinda nasty up there. The beasts apparently wont stop coming to this base. It's scary, honestly, how they're arriving in waves…"
He looked around the archive room. Did this book belong to someone who used to work here? With the mention of paper and something happening above, he couldn't help but wonder what happened to the author. Fex looked at the last few pages.
"I tried to leave. I'm stuck here. God everything hurts. I heard the alarms that this place was compromised and I tried to leave but there was just so many monsters. I was only able to come back here because I swapped myself with one of these STUPID documents. Why didn't they tell us where the portal room was? I don't know whats in there. Why? Why did this happen? If I had just known what they had in there, I could've swapped with it and left this god forsaken hell hole."
Fex flipped the page again.
"I'm fine for now, but I'm just stuck here. I'm too hurt to leave, and I keep hearing beasts right outside the door. I haven't eaten in a long time, and I'm thirsty. I'm not sure if it's still around, but one of the last things I heard on the intercoms was that an emperor tier beast attacked us. I think… I think I am going to die here."
The entries end abruptly then, and Fex skimmed over the next few pages, but they were all blank. He got up and looked around. He passed by a wall of cabinets on the far end of the room, and spotted the thing he suspected was there.
A rotting human corpse wearing old worn clothes. Old blood stained a few spots around it, he knew it was blood because of the smell.
"Damn… Poor guy… Glad I'm not human."