Down to the Felt

"Eira, are you okay?"

I look toward Eden with a confident smile, "Ha! Of course, I am."

'I'm not. I hate this situation, and I'm especially cranky right now.'

"Eira, are you going to go to the engine room even with all those things out there?"

"Yes, I need to go before the ship stops completely. I can't say for sure, but it seems likely someone is probably following or chasing us, so we can't afford to stop."

After we received that message yesterday, the Staff Captain told me that the engines lost a portion of their power, causing us to slow down a bit. Also, whoever is in the engine room has kept sending us messages the entire time. Sometimes the message made it sound like they were threatening to stop the ship until someone came to save them, and other times it sounded like the Crawlers were going to stop the ship. The entire time the Staff Captain had a hard time deciphering the messages, and sometimes he said the messages were just gibberish.

Eden looks at me with firm eyes, "...I'm going with you."

I give Eden a complicated look, "But I was going to have you stay here and watch the crew."

"...Eira, I don't think you understand how afraid of you they are."

Hearing Eden, I glance at the crew, immediately the Staff Captain asks in an abnormally high voice, "Is...is something wrong, Captain? Is something not to your liking!? Just tell us if something is wrong!"

"Uhh, no, it's fine."

Eden continues, "Also, I know how to get there, so it will save you the trouble of having to find it yourself."

I look at Eden, "I guess it's fine if you come, but...it's going to be very dangerous."

"I know. That's why I'm going with you."

"...Anyways, I appreciate that you are so willing to stay by my side and come with me, but just so you know, you'll need to listen to whatever I tell you."

"Sure, as long as you aren't trying to get me to leave, I'll listen."

"...you know what, just whatever."

I turn toward the crew, "Listen up! Eden and I are going to go to the engine room, but don't get too comfortable we are going to leave Kanna here watching you whether or not you realize she is actually watching."

I focus my talent and make banshee Kanna appear near the Staff Captains' face for a split second.

He jumps back and grabs at his chest, "AH! We understand!"

"Good, a fine crew if I do say so myself!" I snicker and start getting ready to leave.

'Basic status.'

Name: Eira Callista

Gender: Female

Race: Vampire {Pseudo True God}

Level: 3 (0/50)

Health: 328/330

Mana: 139/150

Essence: -286

'Should be fine.'

I take out the saber, "Here, Eden, use this. I'll use my scythe if I need it. Let's go."

**Click**

We open the door and peer down the partly destroyed hallway. It's eerily quiet, and most of the fluorescent lighting has been shattered. The few lights left are just barely still working and blink on and off periodically.

I resist the urge to sigh and slowly walk down the hall that looks to be straight out of a zombie movie. Together with Eden, we slowly make our way down the long halls. On occasion, we can hear Crawlers moving about or shrieking in some other area of the ship.

Time passes, and when we are about midway to the engine room, we enter the casino area of the ship. According to Eden, if we cut through here, it will be faster, so we decided to try our luck to save some time. The casino seems oddly untouched; there are a few broken lights, but other than that, it's pretty normal.

'Maybe, because everyone was in their rooms when the Crawlers were set loose, the casino didn't get destroyed?'

While trying to stay alert, a sound catches my attention, and I glance to an area between slot machines. There I see three Crawlers surrounding a corpse. I motion to Eden to step softly.

We walk slowly between the bright flashing lights of the machines trying not to attract any attention.

**Bang**

A loud sound rings out, and I stop and hold my breath. I slowly turn my head and look to my left, where I find a face less than a foot away from my own. The face has the word "revenge" written in it.

'...I forgot to check the ceiling.'

"Mother! It's so good to see you up close for the first time!" Revenge says.

I glance to my right, and upon seeing the three other Crawlers also now walking this way, I frown, "I can't say the same for you. You look like someone left a piece of bologna out in the sun for too long."

"Don't be like that, Mother! You know, Mother, fun fact, it's not unheard of in the animal kingdom for children to eat their own parents!"

I ignore his stupid comment and use <Analyze>.

Name: Revenge

Gender: None

Race: Human Crawler

Level: 1

Health: 200/200

Mana: -/-

Strength: 14

Endurance: 11

Agility: 13

Intellect: 1

Constitution: 20

Talents: -

Skills: -

Titles: -

'He seems to be around twice as strong as a regular Crawler.'

Revenge laughs with glee and continues, "I just want to be together with you, Mother. Forever!"

Revenge starts to take a step forward while at the same time, the three other Crawlers also begin climbing over the slot machines.

I slice my left wrist and let it start running down my palm, "Eden, be careful."

"Mother! Mother!" Revenge and the three Crawlers charge me.

"Blood Spike!"

Just as I fire a blood spike, Revenge hits my hand to the side. The blood spike shoots behind Revenge and pierces the 'shoulder' of one of the Crawlers. The injured Crawler screeches as Revenge slams into my stomach. At first, I manage to hold my ground, but almost immediately afterward, the other two Crawlers crash into my sides. With the momentum of the other two Crawlers and the force of Revenge, I'm pushed back into a slot machine.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Big Winner!" the slot machine blares.

Ignoring the coins shooting from the slot machine, I form chains with my slit wrist and wrap them around the neck and mouth of the Crawler on my left. The Crawlers shrieks and bites at the chains; meanwhile, Revenge moves to bite my neck.

"I don't think so, you filthy idiot."

Leaning my head back, I aim for the bridge of Revenge's nose and headbutt it at full force.

**Bang**

Revenge staggers back in agony, giving me some wiggle room. I turn to my right to try and deal with the Crawler on my other side, but I am surprised to see a piece of sharp metal sticking through Crawler's neck. I look behind the Crawler to see Eden with her saber stuck through the back of the Crawler's neck. She twists the saber, causing the Crawler to howl in pain and collapse to the ground.

"Thanks!" I yell.

With my right hand now free, I form a knife with my blood magic reach back and smash it into the eye socket of Revenge.

"AHHH! Mother!"

"Stop calling me Mother, and get your beef jerky face away from me." I make a fist and punch the end of the knife, pushing it so far into the socket that it's no longer visible. Revenge begins rolling around and shrieking on the ground.

'How is he still alive?!' I shout in my mind.

Moving quickly, I tighten the chains around the Crawler on my left as much as I can manage.

**Crack**

[8 Essence Acquired]

The Crawler's neck cracks, and with its death, I finally fall back to the floor. I form my blood into my usual scythe and approach Revenge while Eden surprisingly goes to finish off the Crawler I hit with the blood spike initially.

"Mother, why, mother!" Revenge screams.

I ignore Revenge, raise my scythe, and bring it down on his neck.

**Swish**

[22 Essence Acquired]

'Essence, sweet essence!'

Not stopping for long to enjoy the moment, I grab Edens's hand, "Let's go! That was too loud; there is probably more heading this way."

I glance back down the dark hallway and see dozens of red eyes peering at us; a loud shriek enters my ears as the eyes start bobbing up and down.

"Let me lead the way we can lose them through the employee corridor in the theater," Eden says.

I nod, and we sprint through the casino entering the lobby; a few Crawlers sit in the middle of the room, sharing a corpse as a meal.

Not bothering to hide any longer, they quickly notice us and screech at us, "Don't stop Eden; just keep running."

The distance between the Crawlers and us is closing quickly. I release Edens's hand, swap my scythe to my right hand, and lift my blood-covered left hand. I fire two blood spikes; one explodes through the leg of one Crawler disabling it while the other enters the throat of another Crawler, causing it to collapse.

[8 Essence Acquired]

The last Crawler ignores its fallen comrades and keeps charging. When we are a few feet apart, I raise my scythe and smash it into the side of its head.

[9 Essence Acquired]

We disregard the one injured Crawler and keep running as fast as we can. Soon we come across the theater, I glance at the sign out front, "Now Showing: Buccaneers of the Caribbean."

I throw open the doors to the theater and check the situation behind me; the dozens of eyes have become hundreds. I push the doors shut, and using my blood magic, create a set of blood chains to shackle the doors closed. I run into the theater, where it seems that the movie has been continuously playing on loop.

**Boom**

The Crawlers bang into the shackled theater doors. The chains hold, but the wood around the door handles do not, and the doors quickly explode open.

"In here!" Eden scans her employee badge and shoves open the door.

I fire two more blood bullets in hopes of slowing down the Crawlers if even a little.

[8 Essence Acquired]

I sprint past the door and find myself in a small passageway. I hurriedly turn to slam the door shut just as a few Crawlers crash into the other side. The hallway is just small enough for me to prop myself against the wall and door, so with my back against the wall and my legs pushing the door, I use my body's full strength in an effort to seal the door. Eden quickly joins me as several Crawlers stick their appendages through the gap. Using her saber Eden hacks at the appendages and hurridly severs them.

"On three push with everything you have! One...Two...Three!"

At once we both push with all of our power, over the shrieks of the Crawlers I can faintly hear the movie, "That's gotta be the best buccaneer I've ever seen."

**Click**

The door finally closes.