The rain fell like fire from the sky.
Each drop struck the earth with a violent hiss, turning the ground into dark mud that swallowed footprints and blood alike.
The forest trembled under the storm.
And beneath the burning rain — The shadows moved.
The black mist slithered between the trees like a living creature, thick and restless, swirling around the clearing where the Lupercalia's Artifact lay wrapped in dark cloth beside Cole's fallen body.
Cole was still on the ground, breath uneven, chest rising and falling with painful effort. Something inside him twisted violently, like a beast clawing at a cage. He was trying to fight it or perhaps it was fighting him.
But it wouldn't come out. He screamed out of pain. His fingers dug into the wet earth as he tried to rise.
Nothing happened.
Outside the tent — Kevin stepped forward. Already transformed, his golden eyes burned through the darkness, glowing like twin flames beneath the storm clouds. His muscles were tense, veins darkened beneath his skin, and his claws extended like curved blades dripping rainwater. Beside him stood Joyce.
Her crimson eyes cut through the mist like blades. Her fangs were bare. Her claws flexed slowly as if eager to taste blood.
Behind them, Lenora spun her dagger once in her hand. The blade gleamed cold under the lightning flashes. She stood close to 'struggling' Cole and Lupercalia's Artifact, which was covered in cloth.
"Stay behind us," Kevin muttered without looking back.
Lenora scoffed quietly.
"I didn't come here to watch."
The mist suddenly thickened. A low whispering sound filled the clearing — voices overlapping, distorted and ancient. Then the shadows exploded outward.
The dark spirit emerged. Its form twisted violently as it shifted from smoke to flesh, struggling to stabilize into something human.
Pale skin stretched over a skeletal frame. Black veins crawled across its neck. Its mouth split open — Revealing vampire fangs. But the creature was unstable.
Its body flickered between solid flesh and swirling black mist. And it wasn't alone.
More shapes peeled themselves from the shadows — Half-formed vampires. Eyes hollow, bodies half smoke, half corpse. Because of the Unstableness of the creatures, the teens couldn't quite capture their faces.
Kevin growled low in his throat. "Here they come." The first spirit lunged.
Kevin met it head-on. His claws slashed through its chest with brutal force, tearing through ribs and flesh — but the creature instantly burst apart into black fog.
Kevin cursed.
"Damn it!"
The mist rushed behind him —
Reforming.
Joyce was already moving.
She launched forward with terrifying speed, her claws slicing through the air before the spirit could fully stabilize.
Her strike carved across its throat.
Black blood sprayed across the rain.
The vampire shrieked. She has been trained for that — For years in Nyxoria.
Joyce grabbed its head and bit down viciously, her fangs piercing its neck.
The creature howled before its body dissolved into smoke again, slipping through her grip like liquid darkness.
"They don't stay solid!" She snapped.
"You won't expect them to!" Lenora replied. More spirits rushed them.
The clearing erupted into chaos.
One vampire materialized behind Kevin — Too slow.
Kevin spun and drove his claws straight through its stomach, ripping upward with savage strength. Flesh tore open like paper. He had long been waiting for this
But the body collapsed into mist again.
Another appeared above him—
Claws aimed for his face.
Joyce intercepted it midair, slamming the creature into the ground hard enough to crack stone beneath the mud.
Her claws plunged into its chest again and again.
"You picked the wrong hunters tonight!" she snarled.
The spirit dissolved beneath her hands.
Lenora darted between them like a shadow with precision A spirit formed in front of her.
Lenora stepped inside its reach before it could strike.
Her dagger flashed once. The blade sliced clean across the creature's throat.
Black blood poured out — but the body immediately began to break apart.
Lenora stepped back.
"Great," she muttered. "They're ghosts that bleed."
The spirits attacked together.
Five at once.
They surged from the mist like predators breaking through water. Kevin roared and crashed into them. His claws ripped through one's jaw. Another leapt onto his back—
Its fangs sank into his shoulder. Kevin snarled and slammed backward into a tree, crushing the creature against the bark until its spine snapped.
It dissolved instantly.
Joyce fought like something born from the night itself.
One spirit lunged for the artifact—
She intercepted it with a brutal slash that split its face open.
"No one touches it!" she hissed.
Lightning flashed across the sky.
For a split second, the clearing lit up—
Revealing dozens of dark shapes swirling in the forest beyond.
Watching.
Waiting.
Lenora saw them too.
"…Kevin."
But before she could finish, three spirits burst from the mist and attacked Joyce simultaneously.
One clawed across her arm.
Another lunged for her throat. Joyce roared and sank her fangs into its shoulder, ripping flesh away as she hurled the creature aside.
Kevin tore another spirit apart beside her. They fought back-to-back now.
Claws....
Fangs...
Blood and smoke
Every strike destroyed a body. Every body returned as mist. The open space had turned into a battlefield that felt endless.
On the ground, Cole's breathing became even more shallow. His vision blurred. The world spun slowly.
He could see Kevin and Joyce fighting through the rain. He could hear the screams of the spirits.
But his body refused to answer him.
Something inside him felt… locked. Heavy or perhaps dark.
His fingers twitched weakly.
"Move…" he whispered..... Nothing.
"It wasn't like this!" Still nothing happened.
A shadow formed above him.
One of the spirits solidified slowly, its hollow eyes staring down at him.
Its claw lifted.
Kevin saw it too late.
"COLE!" He ran — Super Fast.
The spirit struck downward Lenora's dagger flashed. She drove the blade straight through the creature's skull from the side.
The spirit froze. For one brief second, it stayed solid.
Kevin seized the moment. His claws punched straight through its chest.
The spirit exploded into mist.
But more shadows surged forward.
Joyce stepped over Cole's body protectively, claws dripping black blood.
Kevin stood beside her.
Lenora tightened her grip on the dagger. The crescent symbol on the artifact glowed faintly behind them. The storm roared above.
And the spirits kept coming.
On the ground, Cole's eyes slowly closed. He was losing strength..... Losing consciousness
The last thing he saw — Was Joyce tearing through one of the spirit with savage fury while Kevin ripped another apart beside her.
Then darkness swallowed him whole. Cole passed out. And he never saw what happened next.
But the night did. The other three did. And the shadows… Were still bleeding.