Morgan had decided to return to VISTA and spent twice as long as he had originally intended fighting battles against groups of everything he had ever fought before. Well after midnight, a deep foggy darkness shrouded the city, and Morgan made his way to the Academy. The night air was cool, damp, and biting, dragging on him as he leapt from building to building. The Academy and the surrounding area were dimly lit. There were large clusters of crystals around the walls that emitted small beams of light into the streets.

  The areas in shadow left wide swaths of open avenues for sneaking. Morgan was able to approach and leap onto the walls without making a sound or getting into the light. The smell of unwashed bodies and alcohol permeated the air. Morgan was able to discern different people’s body odor, and it wasn’t pleasant. The increased sense of smell was not a blessing here. He moved like a shadow, silently bounding twice across the large lawn and then onto the roof of the west wing. Sophia had helped him plan out his infiltration, avoiding the guards as they patrolled.

  The supplies might be in the same storeroom they had been removed from. The closest and easiest entrance into the Academy was an interior courtyard. The area inside the walls was covered in an even deeper darkness than the streets had been. Morgan had just planned his drop into the courtyard when a fanfare and fireworks in the sky made him stop.

  The puppet man walked through a shimmering curtain of lights and tipped his top hat towards the camera.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, the survival of your species is going spectacularly.” The figure pulled an abacus from behind its back. “You have reached the beginning of phase four, and you still have millions of people left alive.” The figure sped through calculations on the abacus as he continued. “Since you are down to 14.6785% of the population, we will not be accelerating any more of the phases.” The figure held up the abacus proudly showing its work, then tossed it over its shoulder. “Phase four will start shortly. This phase will last for 30 days, and then phase five will last until your year is complete.”

  The figure made an exaggerated heart with its two hands together and then pushed them out towards the camera. A heart formed of red lights shot out and disappeared. “In acknowledgement of your amazing achievement thus far, you will all receive a boost to your health for the next four days. Use this advantage wisely.” Now the figure sat in a high-backed chair and twirled a long cane in his right hand. He then thrust the cane above his head, and images of the top ten humans with a list of their achievements and levels scrolled by just like before.

  The first four names on the list were some asian symbols that Morgan couldn’t understand, followed by a few russian names and then two that he could read, one was in London, and the other was in Texas. “These are the best your planet has to offer. Try to emulate their achievements. They will each be getting a special reward.” He reached behind the shimmering curtain and pulled out a wrapped Christmas gift festooned with a giant bow. “Everyone, in congratulations for making it this far, will be given a very special skill. Best of luck in the coming month.” With that, the images and the puppet man started to fade away. When he was barely more than a flicker in the sky, the man turned and, with an exaggerated wink and a toothy grin, faded away.

  ::Phase Four commencing. Monster spawns increased. Monster difficulty increased.::

  ::Skill Granted - Threat Scan::

  Morgan thought.

  Sophia responded, perturbed.

  Morgan thought with a shrug.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Morgan slunk along the roof and dropped into the inner courtyard closest to the storeroom. The door was unlocked, and thanks to his skill, opened silently. Morgan stopped, listened, and sniffed. Directly in front of the storeroom door, twelve feet away, was a guard sitting in a chair. From the scent of him, he had not had a bath in a few days. Missing the increased hearing from his broken helmet, he could barely hear the man snore softly.

  Thankful that he wouldn’t need to start fighting, he slipped past him and into the storeroom. The door closed with a resounding clunk. Morgan cursed the skill that only worked when opening doors. He heard a huff and a scrape of the chair on the floor, through the door as the guard started, but nothing else. In front of him were stacked possibly hundreds of ration packs. Before the bandits had attacked, Katherine had been stockpiling every extra token as rations.

  Mixed in were a few suits of armor and other special materials and weapons. With a quick scan, Sophia informed him they were all common, so Morgan ignored those. He stuffed as many rations as he could into his pouch. The process was amazing. He would touch a stack, and with a thought, it would vanish. He had removed two stacks when Sophia informed him that his pouch now contained 118 rations and that it was full.

  Now, Morgan was in the storeroom, which had only one door, and he had just woken the guard up outside less than two minutes ago. He was arguing with Sophia about how long it would take for him to cut a hole in the outer wall when an alarm bell started ringing in the foyer.

  Morgan cursed, then focused for a second, Broken Fang appearing in his hands. The cleanly severed handle of the weapon was still a little too large for his hands, but the hours that he had spent in VISTA practicing with the weapon made it feel like an extension of himself. His mind knew the way it should feel; now he just had to get his muscles used to it.

  He assumed a relaxed but ready pose. A double-handed grip with the blade angled down and just resting on the ground in front of him. He waited, then heard a scream of pure terror from the hallway.

  Sophia said, breaking the shock Morgan had felt.

  Then the sounds of explosions and yelling made it to them. Morgan dismissed the blade and opened the door. The chair in the hallway was lying on its side, and no guards were in sight. He dashed to the door to the courtyard he had entered from and leapt to the roof.

  Morgan crested the roof and peered into the main lawn in front of the Academy. It was a battle like he had never witnessed before. Nearly two dozen bandits were fighting a figure in a black cloak. The man in the black cloak moved with supernatural speed, darting from enemy to enemy. Six of the bandits had formed a strong defensive group surrounding Johansen behind a four-man phalanx. The man was picking off the ones unlucky enough to be outside the phalanx. The man was casually tossing his victims into a moaning and writhing pile at the edge of the lawn, some of them 30 feet.

  Once he had picked off all the easy prey, he walked over to his pile. Even when walking slowly, he had an eerie grace to his stride. He casually strolled toward the pile of dead or wounded men, ignoring a fireball and other such projectiles launched at him. Once he arrived at the pile, he glared at the phalanx with a toothy grin containing too many sharp, needle-like teeth.

  Sophia said.

  He grabbed a squirming man with one hand by the neck and raised him to his mouth. There was a squelching, sucking sound for five seconds, then the vampire tossed the dessicated and drained corpse to the side, where it landed with a hollow thud.

  “I have an offer for you.” The voice was low, harsh, and wavering in tone. The vampire continued, “I will have three of you as familiars.” He pointed at the group of bandits sheltered in the phalanx. “The rest for dinner, you choose. You have thirty seconds…” He looked down quickly at the squirming pile, counting by pointing at each man. One man was trying to crawl away with an obvious spinal injury. “Make that a minute,” he said with a dry chuckle as he scooped up the man and drained him, adding his corpse to the first.

  Johansen and two of the phalanx guards emerged from the brutal, cutthroat battle just as the vampire was finishing off the last victim from his pile.

  The vampire walked forward, confidently assessing the three men up and down.

  His deep voice resonated through the entire yard, “Very well, you three will be my familiars. I will begin by…” The vampire trailed off, then inhaled deeply through his nose. “There is someone nearby who has a deliciously vital essence. It is calling to me.”

  Those words made Morgan’s heart skip a beat. The vampire turned his head and looked right into Morgan’s eyes.