Fex had managed to attach his string to Erin and drag her behind the remains of a building right next to the storage hanger. Calling it a building was perhaps too generous of a word as there were barely any walls, much less a roof. Either way, she wasn't in the deathbat's vision anymore.
Comparing how Fex and Erin looked, he was in much more pristine condition unlike Erin who looked like she'd been hit with a bus. The most damage Fex had was some small scuffs and dirt on his uniform. His hair also wasn't as slicked back as his hair gel had naturally worn off.
Despite being saved by him, Erin's natural instinct was to get back at the guy who had strung her along without her permission.
"Get your strings off of me!" Erin whisper scolded as she swatted them away.
Fex held his hands up as he had an unamused expression, "You're welcome for saving your life."
He removed the strings off of Erin, and she readied her sword again. She was about to prepare herself to fight against the deathbat when her eyes had widened.
"Wait, I need you to give me your fl—!" Erin quickly realized as she was about to turn around.
Before Erin could finish her sentence, a rattaclaw had shuffled itself out of a pile of old wood, and started squealing. Erin quickly stabbed it, but it had already made its noise.
[Basic tier beast killed]
[+100 EXP]
[8,475/12,800 EXP]
The deathbat heard this, of course, and flew towards the sound. It was flying a few feet above the crumbling walls and opened its mouth. With it about to fire, Erin jumped in the way of Fex, and tried to slice the super sonic blast with her sword.
Her sword had managed to hit the blast, but it was only intermediate tier. The sheer power of the blast caused it to crack, and the blast had caught Erin's arms.
[Your sword has broken]
[Your sword will be at 50% capacity]
[-10 HP]
[HP 16/50]
Suddenly, Erin felt something grab her by the waist as she was suddenly being lifted under Fex's arm. He jumped out of the ruined building, and quickly sprinted down the street.
Fex looked around frantically, looking for somewhere safe. He spotted a large rectangular building, a dome, and a tall rectangular structure, but he opted to go to the first one he saw since it looked to give them more cover.
The large rectangular building was a bit less broken than the others, and it had two floors. It wasn't a very tall building, and was large from its width. Looking around, they both saw that there was an old sign that said "Parking Garage" right outside the entrance.
Despite it still standing up, they knew that if the pillars throughout the open area were to be destroyed, then it could collapse. Thankfully, the only way those pillars would come down is if there was enough force to take them down, meaning it wouldn't collapse any time soon. Compared to the previous structure, this one provided them cover on all four sides.
Erin struggled out of Fex's arms, and got on her own two feet.
"What did I just say about touching me?" Erin yelled.
"That's the second time I've saved your life!" Fex quickly replied.
Fex's eyes were constantly darting around, and he looked to be very on edge. It would make sense given that they had just nearly died from a strong beast, but there was something familiar about it. It bothered Erin because she knew it all too well.
He was scared of the Deathbat, the kind of scared that had experience behind it. She knew this feeling as it was the same way she felt whenever the Dalki were brought up.
"I don't know how many more times I can save your life," He said with a tired smile as he tried to laugh it off.
Erin gripped her sword tightly, but she knew it wouldn't last much longer.
She pointed at the general direction of the deathbat, "We have to defeat that thing or else we're going to die."
"Come on, I was only able to defeat one of those in better circumstances," Fex replied nervously.
"You beaten one of those before?" Erin hissed, "Then why aren't you doing that? Stop running around and actually do something!"
"Well you see the circumstances were actually quite different when I first defeated my 10 deathbats— I was in peak condition and didn't have any injuries— I slept in a nice bed that morning— and I had passed by the 9th family's castle, so y'know—" Fex started rambling.
"Yeah— I don't care," Erin interrupted, "that thing will still kill us."
That was when Fex realized that he was standing in front of a pretty strong individual, "Although…" A faint creepy smile curled his lips, and Erin started at him confused.
"…What I didn't have back then was a puppet," Fex said as he flung out several strings at Erin.
The strings attached to Erin, and at first, she tried to smack them away, but his mastery over the strings were hard to fight against. She could physically feel his strings embed into her body.
"What are you doing to me?!" Erin yelled.
"What part of being my puppet do you not understand?!" Fex yelled back as he yanked his strings.
Erin was about to protest, when her body started to move on its own. She initially tried to fight it off, but her body's movements became fluid, and light. She started swinging her sword in the air, and fought a non existent enemy that felt like a graceful dance. It was a level of skill she had only seen once before. Initially, she tried to fight it off, but she couldn't deny that Fex knew a thing or two about swordsmanship.
"Yeah, you'll will do," Fex mumbled as he stuck his tongue out focusing on controlling her movements, "You won't mind right?"
Erin's movements suddenly stopped, and she was being moved outside into the open street. Fex was following a few feet behind her as he puppeteer her.
(Chapter Art)
"You're using me as bait?" Erin complained.
Fex couldn't respond, as the deathbat came into view again up in the sky. It had shot out another supersonic wave, but Fex made Erin roll out of the way to dodge it easily.
"Do you know how to use a blood swipe?" Fex called out, "I want you to use it as soon as I swing your sword."
Erin didn't have time to protest as the deathbat shot another sonic wave. She jumped out of the way, and as she landed, her sword arm moved on it's own. Erin embued her red aura into her sword, and a red line had swung at the beast just like Fex instructed.
[-1 HP]
[HP 15/50]
It hit the wing and the beast started fluttering, uninjured, but definitely bothered. However, that wasn't the last of it as Erin threw out 4 more blood swipes with her sword.
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[HP 11/50]
All 4 had hit the beast's wings, injuring it and causing it to falter. It frantically flapped around before crashing onto the ground. Using his strings, he made Erin dance around the deathbat, creating a small cut every time she passed by it.
With how Fex was controlling Erin, he was able to draw out more of her power, pushing her beyond her limits. She was faster than before, and her footwork was so efficient, the deathbat couldn't aim its attack on Erin in time. It wasn't something he could maintain for long fights as their body would grow sore, but that didn't matter now.
Erin made sure to keep in mind the movements Fex was creating with her body. It was like a dance where she would need to remember the steps for it. Once she was free of his strings, she wanted to be able to replicate all of this, and more.
The deathbat was starting to memorize Erin's patterns, and noticed the thin string controlling her movements. Right as Erin was about to create another cut, the deathbat opened its mouth and shot out an explosion right at Fex, who had been standing there unguarded the entire time.
Fex thought with the beast focused on the person attacking it, it wouldn't go towards him. With only so much time to react, he was about to move Erin in the way of the explosion, but then a thought about how injured Erin looked caused him to hesitate.
'Didn't she ask for my flask earlier?' Fex thought for a mere moment.
The deathbat's explosion hit Fex, and his body crashed into the side of the parking garage. The strings previously attached to Erin had disconnected. While she was being Fex's puppet, she allowed her body to go limp so Fex could have better control, leaving her needing to readjust herself.
Right as she did, the deathbat lunged with its mouth wide open at Erin. She had to block with what was left of her sword. It bit hard at the blade and crushed the already cracked blade into pieces.
With no weapon, the strain of Fex pushing her past her limits, and being pinned down, all she could do was either be killed, post pone the inevitable with her new ability, or use her health for blood skills. She much preferred the latter.
The deathbat opened its mouth, and Erin could see its throat lighting up. She jammed her arm in it's mouth and as expected, the beast bit down on it.
[-5 HP]
[HP 6/50]
Erin had to fight through the pain as she spread her hand wide deep within its throat.
[Blood spray]
[-5 HP]
[HP 1/50]
The deathbat's head flung back from the sheer power of the blood spray. Black blood exploded from within it's neck, creating a slippery mess of everything. It collapsed on Erin's body, and she was weak from it all.
Using whatever energy she had left, she shoved the deathbat's barely living body off of her. Erin had just barely scrambled onto her fours when she fell onto the ground. Enduring one fight after the other with no way to heal herself was taking its toll.
Erin's breathing became ragged, and her vision was getting blurry. She didn't know how much longer she had left, and she was loosing blood. The strong hunger she got an hour ago suddenly became torturous, and she clenched at her stomach.
'After surviving all of that, I die to hunger. I couldn't even kill a single…' Erin thought as she closed her eyes.
{Erin} I'm sorry.
[-1 HP]
[HP 0/50]
[HP has reached 0 due to hunger]
[Transformation will now begin]