With my terrible trap as ready as it was going to be, I just needed to attract some attention. As dumb as it might sound, I didn’t want to yell- I was quieter by nature and circumstance, so even if I wanted to scream, it just would feel right. Instead I took the biggest- now empty- bottle and threw it into the puddle as hard as I could, hoping that would be enough to get the demon’s attention. When I released, I once again felt the flow of magic coming out of me- and when the bottle impacted the ground it was very easy to hear.

In the brief moment before all hell broke loose, I put two and-two together. The first time I had empowered a ‘weapon,’ I had silently hoped to catch the demon with the door- and it opened with much more force to facilitate that. Now, I had hoped to have my ‘weapon’ be more noticeable, and it had rang much clearer than I would have expected. With  my amazing sample size of two, I figured that if I wield a potentially dangerous object with intent, it will slightly alter to fulfill it and use some of my magic- or was the proper term ULE?

I was broken out of my musing by some very annoyed huffing that turned into wet coughs when the dog-demons rounded the corner and saw me. All five immediately charged while I was still registering that I should be fighting, and made it to the edge of the puddle. With how bloated they were, their bellies would smack into the ground with every hop- and with the slickness of the alcohol, they face planted. That very much didn’t stop them, but it did give me enough time to press the lighter’s wheel hard and flick it down.

Nothing happened.

By now the front-most demon had reached the edge of the puddle closest to me, only a few paces away. Luckily, that part was where most of the glass shards were- so when its belly flopping slammed it down hard, they dug deep. The momentary pause of its advance gave me another chance at igniting the lighter. This time I wordlessly prayed for it to ignite properly- and with the assistance of my mana, it did.

I chucked the lighter in a small arc towards the puddle that still contained four of the five demons before pushing my hand with the ‘shield’ out to intercept the last one. I had adopted a wide stance in preparation for the demon’s leap, but the bloated stomach must have added much more force than I expected and I staggered back a few steps unsteadily. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash as the trap ignited- followed by what sounded like air being released from a balloon, which was not the noise I expected the burning demons to make.

I didn’t have to wait long for the source of the noise to show itself as the remaining four dog-demons came hurtling out of the small inferno looking much more like those weed killing, propane powered flamethrowers than burning dogs. I guess that instead of burning all over or exploding, the energy they were so filled with was being released from their mouths in a continuous stream of fire.

In light of this new discovery, I made the executive decision to not fuck with that and booked it down the hall.

I’m sure from any other point of view the short chase would have been hilarious, but for me it was like nightmares come true. The flaming demons were much slower than their just alcohol soaked counterpart- which is to say I was about as fast as them. The one that had made it through before I set off the trap made repeated leaps at me, only missing from losing traction or well-timed instructions from Cleo. I probably could have stood my ground and fought it, but the thought never crossed my panicking mind. 

Halfway back to the stairs, I realized the pitch of the noise the flaming ones were making had gone up a lot. A few ideas crossed my mind as to why before a “boof” echoed down the hall. As I turned to see what had just happened, another similar noise followed. The flames coming out of the two remaining flaming demons were noticeably shorter and shrinking. When the flame disappeared down one of their throats, it glowed slightly before popping like the meat-balloon it was. The last one made a valiant leap in my direction, but exploded midair- the force pushing the mostly fine one over right before it was about to make a similar leap. As I was still trying to process what was happening, the fine one not being able to jump saved me a lot of pain.

Coming back to my senses, I fell upon the last demon. After two encounters I had learned that both of us wanted to pin the other, and that whoever could stab better once that happened would win. Given that they rasped away flesh with their weird mouths, only I was stabbing- so I always won.

“Only the trapper one left,” I muttered- hit by a sudden exhaustion. I worked to stifle a yawn and push myself up, resolving to just cut the last demon’s throat while it was still pretending to be a human.

{While I would recommend resting immediately, I agree you should kill the last one. However, after that is done you need to rest. Fighting takes a lot of energy for trained people, and you do not have such training. While resting I would recommend looking at potential perks to either acquire now or when you have enough experience.} I had forgotten about Cleo in the madness, but their soothing voice coming into my mind helped me motivate myself to action.

“Right. Speaking of, how much are each demon worth?”

{The basic collectors are worth 3, the basic trapper should be worth 4. You have killed eight of the first, and with the second you will have 28.}

As I walked back to the foyer I let out a sigh- which I quickly stopped and whispered, “That doesn’t seem like much. Isn’t that a bit stingy?”

{The experience allotments are designed based on the number of them killed and the wave they start to show up at. Seeing as this is the first wave and both are killed in droves, they are worth only enough to make them worth killing but not farming. Both are relatively easy for lightly armed civilians to deal with- as your unfortunate condition has proved- and to MGs they are not a threat.} 

That sobered me up. Of course proper MGs would be able to deal with this kind of thing easily. They dealt with later waves- and I could only shudder at what those might bring. 

After an uncomfortably slow walk, I also started laughing at the sound of groaning. It might have been because I knew the source, but the noise triggered the feeling of an uncanny valley- and the look of it only increased that feeling. Now that I had eyes on its ‘disguised’ form, I had to convince myself it wasn’t actually someone that was hurt. I couldn’t see its face, but the shape and motion was almost too perfect an act- creating a conflict between my unease and sympathy. 

That didn’t last long. I was tired and just down off an adrenaline high, which makes me pissy at the best of times. And let me tell you, this was not the best of times.

I crouched over the figure and rolled it onto its back. I was putting a lot of trust into Cleo’s information- a first real test for them- and it acted as they said it would. It didn’t grab me or jump up at me, but simply laid there and groaned. As soon as I started to cut its throat it writhed. It was lacking the tendons and spine, so the knife slipped through easily.  Watching it flail around and grasp at its throat made me a bit queasy, but without the scent of blood it was easier to look at then the bodies of real humans I had seen upstairs- which was a little disturbing to realize.

{I recommend going back into one of the empty rooms. From the limited knowledge I have of your skills, the locks on any of the doors should be trivial,} Cleo reiterated.

At this point I was really tired- both physically and mentally. Luckily all the locks in the place were cheap but nice looking things and offered no resistance. Once I was in the room- basically an empty high end hotel room- I locked the door and sprawled out on the ground.

“So what’s your plan? It's… basically 11:00. The rift’s been open for, uhh, twenty minutes? I know our contract screwed with the first wave- but I really want to get out of here before the second hits. Right now we’re a flight or two of stairs away from the garage. Once we get there, I can probably steal a car or something.” After taking a deep breath I added, “and I really want to take a nap right now.”

Going back to speaking out loud, Cleo replied, “I would estimate that we have ten minutes before the demons are able to trigger the second wave. In general, the second wave takes ten minutes to be summoned after the first, the third is twenty after that, the fourth another thirty, etcetera, etcetera. Stalling the first for almost twenty minutes extra has likely saved you from having to deal with many more and worse demons. 

“However, that doesn’t matter if we are able to solve the current biggest issue. While there are many perks that could permanently cure your condition, under the current circumstances, two stand out. Both branch off the MG Suite and would require activating that before taking them and starting the curing process. The first is called ‘Perfect Cleanse.’ It is essentially designed for this case, but has a high experience cost. One which you might be able to reach with the remains of the first wave, specifically 60. As to why it has a relatively high cost for a beginner-support perk… it is a one time use, full aliment, poison, and disease cure and if not taken early can easily save you at a later date.

“The second solution is a bit more clever and achievable. You would take the ‘Bio-Aug Initializer’ perk- 45 experience- and use some of the tokens you are likely to gain from saving people in order to have our computer take over the process and also fix you. The other benefit to this path is that you will be ready to accept smaller genetic, grafted, and implanted augmentations. One caveat, this choice does depend on you not being too much of a natural-body-puritan.”