A Villain's Survival Guide

Hazel’s POV:

Hazel found herself in a situation she hadn’t encountered before. Before her stood a red-haired woman in her late twenties. Vera.

Before her floated a grey creature she controlled, vaguely rubber-shaped and elastic, its eyes covering every inch of it, its countless symmetrical teeth clenching perfectly together, visible even from a distance. She moved it with care and precision. Like bending water.

The mouth opened at her gestures, the teeth clenching only when she permitted it. And worse, the creature hadn’t been fully summoned. Its body was no different from a genie in a jar.

Hazel had seen her share of summoners, but never one who used a creature this way. Most summoners let the summoned do the fighting. Vera fought as though she and the creature were the same thing entirely.

Nothing in her arsenal was working, and she wasn’t glad about that.

She put distance between herself and Vera and watched as Ren closed in with determined speed.

Ren came in with a dagger in one hand, revolver in the other. The creature’s teeth snapped at her, but she cleared it by a close margin. Her dagger scraped the creature’s skin and bounced straight off. She countered immediately.

She pulled the trigger twice, two bullets of different shapes and sizes. The second struck the first mid-air, driving it forward with more speed and power. The bullet tore through the creature’s body, forcing it to recoil.

"Now. Hazel!"

Seizing the advantage, Hazel dashed forward and pushed her illusions directly into Vera’s mind and senses. She conjured a simulation, Vera’s mind convinced it was suffocating underwater, her senses falling for it just as completely.

Vera went slack, and Hazel took the opportunity to pull the trigger, going straight for the headshot. The creature repositioned and swallowed the bullet.

Worse still, the damage Ren caused had healed. Its head was already heading for her, trying to swallow her whole.

Hazel didn’t wait a second. She closed in on Ren, who had lost her footing from her initial maneuver, grabbed her by the collar, and retreated to a safe distance the creature’s elastic body couldn’t reach.

Soon enough, Vera regained her senses and spoke.

"Your ability is impressive. Terrifying, even. Too bad your imagination can’t keep up."

Hazel’s eyes found Ren, already tiring from the prolonged fight. She’d traded her kidney to use the revolver, and it had heavily affected her stamina. With Ren at her best, Hazel would have been a little confident. Now she wasn’t too sure.

Physical illusions were useless against Vera, and worse, one of her allies, Cian, could identify and destroy them with a snap. This forced Hazel into using psychological attacks.

Even though the attacks worked, Vera’s contracted beast was capable of attacking and defending on its own. This made the situation more complicated.

’Unless I create an illusion powerful enough to destroy her mind, this will go on forever... or we’ll die first.’

Ren got to her feet, and the moment she did, blood came with it. She wiped it off nonchalantly.

"You don’t want the Young Master to die here, do you? Then figure something out while I hold her off."

Hazel frowned. "But—

Ren turned to her and flashed her a forced smile.

"Compared to Sebastian, this girl is a joke. You know that... I used to fight the Master all the time. Besides, this is the debut of Lady Raine’s clan. What kind of second-in-command would I be if I couldn’t crush someone as pathetic as her?"

Ren didn’t wait for a response, and she was already charging toward Vera.

Not only had she sacrificed her kidney to use the revolver artifact, but the dagger could take its price conditionally as well. Once she wielded it for a certain period, her muscles were bound to go slack and unmovable for a few hours.

Hazel sighed. There was no way she could stop Ren, and if that was the case, she had to think of something fast, before Ren got injured.

’Focus. Don’t look at the young master.’

She couldn’t bring herself to look in any direction for Vera. Her current situation was a failure. Something Leomaris didn’t have to see, and if she didn’t see him, she wouldn’t know whether he’d realised or not. Denial was her strongest armour.

But the constant sight of Vera, the smile, the taunting words she always let out, was getting on Hazel’s nerves. Slowly, it was enough to bring her to a conclusion.

"I can show her exactly how it feels to be a failure in the Young Master’s eyes."

Her ability, Perceptive Illusion, allowed her to create illusions that affected the mind and senses, sight and touch included. The catch was that creating illusions required attention and focus, and her price for the ability was precisely that, a lack of focus.

She couldn’t focus on anything for too long without being distracted by even the slightest thing.

Even so, she believed in one thing. The feeling of failing Leomaris wasn’t something her attention span could affect. It was terrifying, and even thinking about that sensation now gave her more than enough reason to be scared.

She wanted nothing but to give Vera a glimpse of it. Even for a moment, she believed wholeheartedly that it would be enough to wipe away that mocking smile she wore.

A bit later, she was at work. She left them unfiltered, dry and thick, her personal fears, horror, and pain pouring throughout.

It lasted three seconds and was enough to bring Hazel herself to her knees. She’d had to imagine it just to implant it into Vera’s mind, and despite herself, three seconds was the longest she’d been able to hold it.

But to Vera, that appeared to be plenty.

Even Ren had to force herself to step away from her.

Vera’s screams were no longer human. They tore from her throat in ragged, animalistic shrieks as her nails raked across her face, peeling skin and drawing blood. Fistfuls of hair came away in her hands, yet she barely seemed to feel it.

Tears streamed down her ruined features as she writhed on the floor, looking less like a woman in her late twenties and more like a child trapped in the worst nightmare imaginable.

Blood ran from the deep gouges she’d carved into herself, but it wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough. Her fingers clawed desperately at her skull, digging and scraping as though she could break through bone itself. As though, if she tore deep enough, she could rip whatever horror lurked inside her mind out by force.

Ren hurried over to Hazel, confusion written across her face. "I don’t know what you did, but it’s working. We just need to hold the creature off until she kills herself."

Hazel heard her but couldn’t react. Her own terror was still fresh in her mind.

But just then, as if consumed by sadness, the appearance of Vera’s creature began to change.

Something completely and utterly terrifying took hold. Its body stretched like starch, the eyes along its body bulging and popping, slowly turning crimson as though consumed by blood.

The creature seemed confused, torn between shapes, and that made it more insidious, more brain-wracking.

Ren took a backward step and her throat went dry. She knew immediately they’d tapped into something they shouldn’t have.