POV — Lira / Sector 12 / Level 1

The eighteen creatures came in two groups.

The first from the front — six of them. The second from above.

Lira looked toward the ceiling.

Twelve smaller creatures were descending the vertical walls of the corridor, their limbs ending in suction cups that adhered to the black fortress material with a wet sound.

They were thin, elongated, their bodies the length of a human arm but without clearly differentiated parts — no head separate from the torso, no limbs other than the four they used to adhere. At the end where the head should be was a circular opening surrounded by small, inward-curving teeth.

’Parasites.’

’Designed to latch on and perforate.’

The six in front were different.

Bipedal, roughly five-foot-eleven, their bodies covered in short, dense dark gray fur.

Long arms that reached the ground when they walked upright, ending in hands with three fingers each — two opposable and one central, all with hardened flat nails.

The face was flat with eyes on the sides of the head, granting nearly complete three-hundred-sixty-degree vision.

No visible nose.

The mouth, when the first one opened it to emit the sound they used to coordinate, showed three rows of flat, wide teeth.

’The bipedals coordinate. The parasites execute.’

’If I eliminate the bipedals first, the parasites lose direction.’

---

[DraconicLegacy: LIRA ANALYZING THE SITUATION WITH A FACE OF TOTAL BOREDOM]

[Wolf1179: parasites that adhere to surfaces and perforate. that’s specifically designed for vampires that move along walls.]

[Mist_Of_Death: the bipedals have 360-degree vision. can’t be attacked from the back.]

[CTU1024: first stream. someone explain what’s happening.]

[Mana_of_Void: @CTU1024 SS vampire in a labyrinth created by the world administrators. the creatures were specifically designed for each participant.]

[CTU1024: ...I’m going to need more context but this looks good]

---

Lira didn’t move from the spot where she had appeared.

The twelve creatures on the walls descended the last three meters and lunged.

Lira extended both hands.

Twelve currents of blood magic shot out simultaneously — not the thin ones for precise combat, the wide ones, covering the area.

Each current met a creature in the air before it reached the ground.

The currents coiled.

The twelve creatures fell wrapped in solidified blood magic, immobilized in the moment between leap and landing, their suction cups opening and closing without finding anything to adhere to.

Two seconds.

Twelve parasites out of the equation.

The six bipedals stopped.

’Without the parasites, they’re recalculating.’

Lira lowered her hands.

"Next," she said, in the tone someone uses to indicate they’re ready for the next item on a meeting agenda.

---

The six bipedals didn’t recalculate for long.

The one in the center emitted the coordination sound — a low, continuous frequency that the other five responded to by adjusting their position.

They split into two groups of three, different flanks, the flanking tactic their bodies with three-hundred-sixty-degree vision made especially effective because they could execute it without losing sight of the target at any moment.

Lira let them surround her.

The first of the left group attacked with its long arm — the impact of the three flat nails aimed at Lira’s shoulder, the kind of strike that doesn’t seek to cut but to hit with mass. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Lira dodged it by leaning her body back exactly enough.

The arm passed.

Lira closed the distance in the same movement — inside the creature’s guard, where the long arm was a geometry problem because it couldn’t bend enough to attack at that distance.

Blood current straight to the chest.

The creature went backward.

The second of the same group came from the flank while Lira was finishing with the first.

’Four fingers. Three fingers. Four fingers.’

Lira blocked with her forearm, turned with the impact, and used the momentum to place herself behind the creature.

’Three-hundred-sixty-degree vision.’

’No blind spot.’

’But there’s a slow spot.’

The nape. The only angle where the visual information arrived from both eyes simultaneously but processed by the side that didn’t initiate the movement. Half a second of response delay.

Half a second was enough.

---

[DraconicLegacy: LIRA FOUND THE SLOW SPOT IN THE 360-DEGREE VISION IN THIRTY SECONDS]

[Wolf1179: the bipedals have complete vision but there’s an angle where processing is slower. she identified it in two exchanges.]

[Mist_Of_Death: eight hundred years of combat. that’s what you see when she fights seriously.]

[CTU1024: that vampire is incredible. and she has a face like everything is a minor inconvenience to her.]

[Mana_of_Void: @CTU1024 welcome to Lira.]

---

The six bipedals took four minutes.

Not because they were difficult — but because blood magic in wide currents consumed more than the precise combat currents, and Lira had used twelve for the parasites before starting on the bipedals.

When the sector fell silent, Lira assessed the state of her available blood magic.

Seventy percent. Enough.

The smell of the eighteen incapacitated creatures around her hit her then — when the combat ended and the vampire sense of smell stopped prioritizing the immediate threat and processed the full environment.

Lira wrinkled her nose slightly.

’Horrible.’

’Absolutely horrible.’

’What do they feed these things?’

The opening to the next level was at the end.

---

[ACTIVE VOTE — VIEWERS FROM OTHER STREAMS]

[Modification: Level 2]

[Option A: Armored creatures — 52%]

[Option B: Magic suppression — 31%]

[Option C: Increased density — 17%]

[Result: Option A]

---

[DraconicLegacy: armor. reasonable against blood magic.]

[Wolf1179: 52% chose the most logical thing against a vampire who uses magic. physical armor that magic can’t easily wrap around.]

[Mist_Of_Death: Lira doesn’t know what’s coming. that bored face is going to change.]

[CTU1024: wait she can change her face?? I thought that was her fixed expression]

[Mana_of_Void: @CTU1024 it changes. rarely. when it changes it’s important.]

---

Level 2

The creatures of level 2 were shorter than the bipedals of level 1.

Four-foot-seven, robust, their bodies covered in natural metallic plates — not bone, not scale.

Real metal, the tone and texture of iron, that completely covered the back, the shoulders, and the arms.

The underbelly and legs were still skin, but the legs were short and thick, designed for stability, not speed.

In compensation, the two arms were disproportionately long — five feet each — and ended in closed fists the size of a human head.

They had no separate fingers. The fists were solid masses of the same metallic plate as the rest of the body.

Lira extended the first current of blood magic.

The current struck the shoulder plate of the first creature and slid off.

It didn’t penetrate. Didn’t wrap. Slid along the metallic surface like water on glass.

Lira withdrew the current.

’Ah.’

’Armor that doesn’t allow adhesion.’

’Blood magic needs something porous or flexible to wrap around. The plates are smooth and rigid.’

She looked at her own hands.

’Wide currents won’t work.’

’Precise currents to the underbelly or legs will.’

’But they require an angle. And these creatures are short.’

The first creature raised its long arm and brought it down on Lira with the full weight of its metallic fist — not a fast strike, one that used gravity and the mass of the entire arm.

Lira moved.

The fist struck the corridor floor where she had been and the impact made the black material vibrate beneath her feet.

’Slow but heavy.’

’If one of those connects...’

Lira didn’t finish the thought.

She activated blood magic in a mode she hadn’t used in level 1 — not currents, not spheres. Mist. Fine, distributed, the kind that slips into the spaces the armor doesn’t cover.

The underbelly. The leg joints. The zone between plate and plate where the metal needed mobility.

The blood mist solidified at those specific points.

The first creature tried to raise its arm for the second strike.

The arm moved three centimeters and stopped.

The shoulder joint blocked by the solidified mist in the space between plates.

’There it is.’

---

[DraconicLegacy: BLOOD MIST. NEW TECHNIQUE. LIRA ADAPTED IN ONE EXCHANGE.]

[Wolf1179: the armor doesn’t allow currents but it does have spaces between plates. Lira found them immediately.]

[Mist_Of_Death: "if one of those connects" — Lira acknowledged the danger. that doesn’t happen often.]

[CTU1024: the blood mist slips into the joints and blocks them. that’s brilliant and horrible at the same time.]

[Mana_of_Void: @CTU1024 eight hundred years of combat has its advantages.]

---

Level 2 took six minutes.

Longer than the first — the mist consumed more blood magic than the currents because it required keeping it distributed across multiple points simultaneously while each creature moved and the spaces between plates changed position.

Blood magic available: fifty-five percent.

Lira calculated it while looking at the opening to level 3.

’I dropped fifteen points in level 1.’

’I dropped fifteen in level 2.’

’If the pattern continues...’

She didn’t finish the calculation. She already knew the answer.

’The labyrinth isn’t trying to overpower me.’

’It’s trying to wear me down.’