The boreal forest was a battleground of temperature. The Keelut, an Inuit spirit dog of the frozen wastes, stalked the treeline. It was hairless and pale, radiating an aura of absolute zero. Glacial Howl. It hated the living warmth.
Perched in a spruce tree was the Aswang. The Philippine vampire was far from her tropical home, shivering violently. But hunger is a powerful motivator, and the dog below, though spectral, emitted a strange kind of energy.
The Thermal War
The Keelut sensed the heat above. Heat-Siphon Maw. It leaped, jaws snapping, intending to freeze the vampire solid.
The Aswang reacted with desperate speed. Viscera-Detach Flight.
Her upper body tore away from her legs, trailing glistening intestines. She flew upwards, dodging the icy snap. The Keelut landed, confused by the sudden split.
While the dog snapped at her abandoned legs, the Aswang struck from above. Her long, proboscis-like tongue shot out. Proboscis Fetal-Siphon.
She wrapped the tongue around the Keelut’s neck. The dog thrashed, unleashing a blast of cold that frosted the Aswang's wings. She shrieked but held on. She found the spirit's core—a nugget of stolen warmth kept in its spectral liver. She pierced it.
The Keelut howled as its stolen heat was drained. It turned brittle, then shattered into ice shards. The Aswang, warmed by the meal but still hating the snow, quickly reattached herself and flew south as fast as her wings could carry her.