The powder touched the water and exploded into tiny fragments, dissipating into the hazy smoky air.

Just as suddenly, Blake found himself freed from the tiger statue.

His field of vision widened and he found himself floating above the altar. Of Marvin and Maysie, he could feel no presence. They had been sent elsewhere.

He wasn't sure what had just happened, but it seemed as if since he was not part of the spellcast, he had been expelled back out of the tiger statue.

Being on top of the altar looking down at the man known to him as the Overlord was discombobulating and terrifying. Blake quickly moved to the right side of the altar and hid behind the huge pot of yellow chrysanthemums.

As he hovered, peeking between the yellow blossoms at Anh Hai, the tall elegant man stood there staring at the tiger statue with pursed thoughtful lips.

Suddenly, Anh Hai's eyes flickered over to the pot of chrysanthemums on the right side of the altar.

"You." He called out with his deep gravely voice. His pupils flickered back and forth between all the flowers. "I can sense your presence, demon."

Anh Hai took a drag of his cigarette and then blew it towards the chrysanthemums. The smoke wafted at Blake, vaguely outlining his body.

In the blink of an eye, Anh Hai had thrown something at the smoky shadow where Blake stood.

THUNK!!!

The object impaled itself into the wall behind the chrysanthemum. It was a fancy silver shuriken tied to a red silk tassel.

Embedded into the wall along with the shuriken was a small piece of paper. Blake glanced at the small writing on the paper. It looked like a note for a soul's ransom.

Anh Hai's eyes narrowed. It was the first time in decades that he had missed his target. It made him itch with anticipation.

Finally.

They say a Demon Master is only as strong as his strongest demon.

It was time to get a demon upgrade! He now had a new target prey, and this prey was crème de la crème.

Meanwhile, Blake was floating above the tiger altar near the rafters.

Damn. That was close.

In life, he had been a first-rate dancer, going from ballet to ballroom and finally, to first-line high-energy male dancer for some of the top singers in the industry. Agility was one of his few achievements in life. That and playing his bass guitar.

As soon as Blake saw Anh Hai reach into his jacket pocket, he had already begun to move. By the time the shuriken left Anh Hai's fingers, he was already standing on the rafter above the altar. The thunk of the shuriken on the wall was several milliseconds too late.

"Hmmm. You're a fast one. How about we come to a..gentleman's agreement, hmmm?"

Anh Hai took another long slow drag of the skinny brown cigarette. His dragon eyes swept out lazily, tracking various unimportant sprites floating around the room. His pupils momentarily flared, and then zeroed in on Blake.

For a moment, their eyes met.

"I can sense you are upset. Are you the one I just took out?"

Blake's rage boiled over.

CRASH!!!

With a single glancing blow of his hand, the large wooden sign above the ceramic tiger tumbled off the large hook and slammed down onto the altar below.

It hit the tiger statue, shattering the life-sized sculpture into several large ceramic chunks and bounced onto the floor, chipping one wooden edge on impact.

?Congratulations. You have gained a new weapon: Wooden Board, Sign. Level 1?. The mindless voice of the system droned into Blake's mind-ears.

'That's just fucking awesome.' Blake sighed with disgust. What the hell was he going to do with an old wooden board as a weapon? It was taking up a precious spot in his weapons cache and now he only had eight weapons left allowed.

From the corner where his weapons cache was located, the number below the sword icon was now 2/10. He would soon need to figure out how to delete stuff if everything he touched automatically went into his pouch or his weapons cache. For now, he had something more important to deal with.

Blake looked back at the Overlord standing before the destroyed altar and gasped.

A shard of ceramic had struck Anh Hai in the face, tearing a fairly large gash and drawing blood from his cheekbone.

The system's voice chimed in once more.

?Congratulations. You have gained 2 power points from: Anh Hai. Active Aggressive Transference.?

From the lower left corner of Blake's vision, the red energy bar showed a cumulative 7 points. The green energy bar above it was now back at 2 points.

By now, Blake could tell that any aggressive behavior bumped up the red bar and any donated good-will from the demons added to his green energy bar. That one rage-filled act of slamming the wood board onto the ceramic tiger had cost him 1 point from the green bar.

This was not looking good. He had very little green left and his red was growing with each aggressive action on his part. He had no idea what the red energy would do, but he was not keen on finding out. It looked and felt evil to him.

Anh Hai had turned his face away from the impact but he was now turning back to face Blake.

He slowly raised a hand, flicking the blood off. Raising his finger to his tongue, Anh Hai licked his blood with a lazy smile. This demon was seriously turning him on!

"Merde! You're a strong one." Anh Hai sighed with pleasure. "And now I wish to see what you looked like before you died."

Anh Hai scanned the chaotic mess before him. The destruction of his altar should have angered him, but Anh Hai was ecstatic.

In the room with him was a super strong poltergeist with the kind of agility that was supremely rare. One of him was equivalent to ten weaklings like the asinine demons he had been forced to work with for several years now.

"Come work for me. You won't regret it. I can provide you with plenty of gold that you can use to pump up your Demon System stats. With OP Demon System stat, you can lord over the demons in your realm."

'No deal. fucker.' Blake spat out mentally. This was the walking bung hole that had sent the demons to kill him. He was not just mad. This was deeply personal!

"Come now. You are no longer human. You have turned into a demon. You might as well take advantage of your new-found super-powers and rise to the top of your food chain."

'Fuck off!!!' Blake snarled.

In one quick jump, he had vaulted onto the roof. Within seconds, he had flown away from the temple, back to his old apartment.