Novels2Search
A path to ascention. Soul lords trials.
Chapter 47. A master and The master.

Chapter 47. A master and The master.

Stretching his muscles, Rex slowly walked outside, anticipating the actions of the aproaching group, each and every one of them notably filthy, with savage glint to their eyes. Some within the aproaching group were mumbling incoherently, drool dripping down their lips, staining their unkempt beards. As Rex observed the group, his brows furrowed more and more, his senses screaming of something wrong, yet he could not quite place the reason. At least not quite yet. It was on the tip of his tongue, a memory just beyond reachfor the moment, yet almost deeply familiar, as if he was an old friend with it.

Rex stood next to the village elder, Zenas grandfather as they awaited the aproaching brigand group, though Rex supposed they were nothing more than lowlife bandits, untill finally, the group had reached the sad excuse of a fence, surrounding the town. And, noticing Rex, standing right next to the older man, clearly a stranger to this place, both his near two meter height, as well the well defined and muscled build, alongside the sword strapped to his side indicating at the very least an attempt at resistance, the leader spoke, clicking his tongue in dissapointment.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You dissapoint me old Berg." the leader sighed, shaking his head and then locking his gaze on the village elder "We had such a good thing going. Why you had to go and mess it up. Now, we will have to make and example out of you, lest the other villages get some funny ideas into their empty little heads. Huhhh. And I liked Zena quite a bit too. I would have offered her the chance to serve me as a favour. A pitty, trully."

He then turned his head towards Rex, evaluating him for a moment, before continiuing ."Foolish mercenary. You have no idea what you have walked into. My new lord is not something you could ever hope to comprehend. He gave me power, and I will use it to make and example out of you. No one. NO ONE WILL MOCK ME AGAIN!" he screamed, clearly taking Rex's rather relaxed stance and villingness to confront him so openly as the highest insult there was. And it seemed that the man had had more than his fair share of those, if his sudden outburst was any indicator.

"Thas it. I remember now!" Rex exclaimed, finally the thing bugging him coming to light. "How could I forget? Dumbass." he scolded himself, clearly still not deeming the bandit leader, or his group for that matter, important enough to grace them with his undivided attention. And that, clearly, was not something the already ticked off bandit leader could take, a roar of madness followed by an order to kill everyone, followed. And with the order, with groans and almost feral savagery the bandits charged, only to be stopped by a chilling, deadly aura suffusing the air. Even in the trance that they experienced, their baser instincts screamed at them to run away, the compulsions sounding in their heads heavily muted and drowned out.

"There is no going back for you lot. Too far gona already." Rex spoke with finality, his blade leaving its sheath, the shield expanding from teh braclet on his left hand. With a single strike of his sword against the shield, a metalic sound reverberated across the fields, as Rex walked forward. "Hide away, people of the village. Only monsters fight on this side of the fence. Monsters and their minions." Rex spoke, the next moment dissapearing, and in just a blink of an eye, he was among the bandits, his sword singing as it sliced through the air, leather armor, clothes, flesh and bones, blood spurting in every dirrection with each of his swings.

The bandit leader, did not remain in his enraged state for long, the sight before his eyes clearing his mind with suprising ease. Even with all the power he had earned from his master, he could barely keep up with the movements of his opponent, his tralls falling like some badly controlled puppets, their strings cut, though in their case, it was more along the lines of their body parts. Be it arms, legs, heads, or even half their bodies, split at the waist or anywhere higher, they were dismembered with terrifying efficiency. Even with the hobbies that the bandit leader had, he could not boast such exquisite skill and precision. Whoever this mercenary was, he was bad news. Bad news indeed.

And yet, he was a little too late to make his escape, as the moment he tried to, he left a tug at his leg, a dark red chain wrapped tightly, pulling him to the ground and dragging in the dirrection of the monster, that was just a bout finished with the snack before it.

"Come now, you can't be thinking of leaving so early. We have so much interesting things to talk about." Rex spoke, goosebumps forming along the back of the unfortunate, last living member of his group. "I cant help but be interested in this lord of yours. Mind telling me in what kind of cave, or crypt he has holed his sorry pale ass? I cant have some half baked amateur mesing around with such a delicate art."

At the mention pf his master, and in such a deplorable way, he was brought back to relit, replying in almost a hiss, his tone venomous and vile. "You dont get to talk of his like that. He is beyond your comprehension. And dont worry. He will come for you, and there is nowhere for you to run or hide. Your days are numbered. HA ha ha ha." the bandit started to laugh maniacally, clearly not all there.

"Hmm? Is his blood trully so thin? Or it was simply a faulty ritual?" Rex mused for a moment, moments later returning his gaze to the madly cackling bandit. "Worry not, I dont actually need your cooperation to get what I want. This is gonna gurt though. Sorry for that." Rex noted, his hand pressing on the mans chest, his blood chain already having restrained the bandit most heavily. As his hand touched above the man's heart, his five fingers dug in, a painfull and desperate scream escaped the poor soul, a green, sickly light eliminating from the puncture wounds. And, as hort while later, silence descended over the clearing, the bandit leader slumping down, his lifeless body being released from the chain and crumbling like a piece of charcoal, ground into dust.

"What was t-that?" in a trembling voice, the town elder asked, his eyes darting between the place where the bandit leaders corpse should be, and the remaining group of deceased men, a stream of blood courisng in Rex's dirrection, dissaepearing without a trace as if the chain that was dipped in it was absorbing it all.

"Some things are better left unknown. You will sleep better at night. I need to prepeare. I will set out slightly befor dusk. Their leader is still out there. I advise you to gather the men with the strongest guts, collect the corpses and then trow them all on a pyre, leave nothing but dust behind. Trust me on that. You dont want to deal with the consequences otherwise."

"U-understood." stuttered the man, tales about evil and bloodthirsty fae coming to mind from his childhood, and with that terrifying image in his mind, he was quick to gather a crew to do just as Rex had ordered. Still, more than one of them lost their breakfast, vomiting at the sight of the carnage that was left in Rex's wake. And yet, with their own horrific visions of the tales imbedded in their memories, they too soon got to work, their women and children kept inside to avoid the bloody sight that coloured the entrance of the village red in blood, guts and body parts. Zena, as an addult, an one present when Rex did his work, was more than just slightly shocked. The words about her serving at his home ringing in her head, contradicting the calm and collected man she had come to consider Rex as.

Rex, in the meantime, cleared his mind, a light smile on his face. He had a rather interesting encounter ahead of him. Dooubly so because the entity seemed to be something of an annomaly among its kind. How else could the sloppy and amateurish acts that had been performed on the bandits could come to pass. And so, he prepeared and schooled his mind, though the slight giddiness never went away. And, just as he had stated beforehand, slightly before dusk he left, a large bonefire and the smell of burning flesh acompanying him for quite a time. He spent another hour or so walking, untill, finally, he reached an old, run down manor of sorts, hidden within an outgrowth of trees, clearly left to be devoured by nature.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

As he walked past the once impressive, yet now half crumbled property wall, now overgrown with wines and weeds, a few, pitch black hounds came at him, their maws gaping, trying to tear chunks of flesh from either his arms or legs. Rex though, was well prepeared for the ambush, his shield swung to bash the lunging creatures and his sword swinging swung to end their lives. Red blood splashes and whimpering of dogs followed as Rex dispatched the creatures, their blood red, scalding eyes slowly loosing their shine as life left their bodies.

"Come now, do you really plan on wasting the life of your familiars? Not coming to greet me yoursel?" Rex asked, his gaze locked on a few bats hanging from a tree in slight distance, their own, blood red eyes locked on his form. "How rude. Guess I will be the one goint to you then." he continiued, not entirely sure if the current master of the house could even hear him. Sure, he was seen, and while that too was because he himself allowed for it, he was not so sure about the auditory input. Slightly sighing, he proceeded forth, walking towards the main villa of the compound.

As he aproached, he had to dispatch a few more groups of hounds, the creatures ever agressive adn almost feral, their bid to stop his aproach almost desperate. And with each step further ahead, he could feel the desperation of the familiars grow more and more,, untill, a few dozen meters before the main villa, it all stopped, all but the bats having been sent over and consequently wiped out. Rex had been particularily carefull, not employing any other of his tricks beyond the two weapons at his disposal. He had not even absorbed any of the blood of the slain creatures, trying to actually see the expression of his opponent when he would make the grand reveal. A grin rose on his face at the mere thought of it. 'That expression should be comedy gold.' he thought, his hand pushing open the main door of the mansion, creaaking sound permeating the air as the door gave way, clearly not been used for years, if not decades.

'A window's user, apparently.' Rex snickered, making a word play, only understandable to himself, at least in this world.

As he stepped inside, teh creaking of the wooden floor gave his position and movements away, though it mattered little, the owner no doubt could both smell him as well as sense his pulsing heart aproaching. Rex too, was not any less aware of the one awaiting him further, inside a rather large guest room. And so, his steps straining the half rotten away wooden floor with each move he made, he reched teh room in question. Upon entering, the first thing that gained his attention was the rather decorated and oversized chair, located right in the middle of the room, a coffin situated right next to it. 'Really? That cliche?' Rex sighed exasperately, clearly not expecting such a turn.

The man sitting in the chair was quite young, at least from his visual appearance. He looked some twenty years old, black, shoulder lenght hair, combed backwards, revealing his rather handsome features. Sharp, manly chin, pale sking and red, almost glowing eyes stared right at him. An arrogant smile on his face, clearly the creture had no idea what kind of monster had entered it's supposed territory. Somewhat long, pointy ended elf like ears poked through the well combed hair, though not long enough, or soft enought to move upon the movement of the head.

"My, my. How rude." the pale figure chuckled as Rex slowly aproached, his step confident and relaxed. "Not only did you enter my home without invitation, but you also slaughtered my precious pets and minions. The audacity." he scoffed "No matter. I will enjoy breaking you untill nothing else remains. I might even use whatever remains of you to purge the village you oww so valliantly protected."

"He he he he." Rex started laughing, and then spoke, infuriating the pale hunter with his words. "Get on with it then, I have other things to do after this. You blabber and blabber, yet what exactly are you? No proper vampire would be so pathetically weak, even if just as pompous or arrogant."

With an angered hiss, the pale vampire shot towards Rex, its nails elongating into claws, and its sharp canines doing the same. Just moments later, it was upon Rex, slashing down, intent on ripping pieces of Rex's flesh from his arms, to have a taste and start the round of torture that would surely last untill the first rays on daylight. As Rex would eventually learn, while quite unpleasant and generally unliked, teh vampires of this world did not combust in dirrect sunlight, though they did experience notable amount of pain.

And yet, as the claws descended, Rex face morphed into vicious grin, his sword rising to meet the incoming claws. The vampire, to his credit, noticed the facial change on his opponent, loud and blaring warnings ringing in his head, and so he twisted his body, just barely rolling out of the way of the incoming blade, cold sweat rolling down its forehead. He left as if he would have lost both arms, had he kepy on with his innitial move.

"Where did you get that sword?" he hissed, his danger sense going through the roof. "ANSWER ME!" he screamed once he understood Rex had no intention to do so.

"Heh. Why dont you make me? Little bloodsucker." Rex sneered, quite amused by the situation.

"SCREW YOU. GO DIE IN HELL!" the creature screamed, swiping his claw horizontally in front of it, creating a line of blood that morphed into spears and shot towards Rex the next second. And yet, to the absolute confusion and disbelief of teh vampire, the spears did not pierce his opponent. They did not even cause him to parry or block. As if reverting to their original state, the spears, like ballons filled with fater, exploded against the raised shield, splashing to the sides.

"Figures." Rex smirked "Cant even do that much right. A failiure indeed."

Rex's taunts turned out to be super effective, yet another sentient creature that had its fair share of self esteem problems, sucumbing to the rage it felt. Swipe after swipe of its arms sent numerous blood spears towards Rex, seeking any sort of purchase against his flesh, each and every one failing just as misssserably as the ones beforehand.

"DIE! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE!" frantically screamed the vampire, each action more desperate than the last, the last semblence of sanity and stability dissipating more and more.

"You pittifull creature. Dont worry, I will release you from your suffering." Rex solemly spoke, untill a grin once again spread across his face "Do make it fun though. Not every day I get to encounter such unique and damaged specimens."

Then, yet another few minutes later, employing a short opening between the blood spear salvos, Rex moved forward, almost like blinking, appearing right to the side of the frantic vampire and delivered a gut wrenching, bone breaking kick to its abdomen, raising it from the ground a meter or so and then another, straight pung to its face, also breaking at the very least its nose, sent it flying through the rather large ballroom, imbedding the vampire into the wall.

With a painfull groan, the vampire extracted itself from the wall, falling to the gound and quickly rising back up, only to be met by yet another punch to it's face the moment it had stood up, sending it flying once again and imbedding it in another wall. The same pattern repeated several more times, untill the monster could not take any more of that, releasing a burst of blood spears from his body as he extracted himself, preventing a yet another repeat of the same process.

Humiliation. That was what the vampire felt. Utter and complete humiliation. This human, thid damn blood bag, this damned cattle was wiping the floor with him, crashing him into wall after wall. And HE WAS SMIRKING! Rage, uncontrollable and all consuming rage permeated from him, and, in one final attempt, he summoned the greatest maagical feat he had ever managed, a literal blood serpent materializing in front of him, causing quite a lot of his blood in the process.

Laughing like a maniac, he sent it forward, its jaws spreading, revealing rows upon rows of large, jagged teeth, ready to rip and tear appart the damned human bastard in front of it. Yet, what it witnessed, sent a chill down its spine, along with pure disbelief. Its most powerfull attack, stopped just steps before the human, and like a lost puppy, rolled around his feet, its head nudging the human leg, as if asking for pats.

"Not a bad construct. You even infused some, pet like tendencies in it. I will use this in the future. Thanks. Though it seems that this is about as much fun as I can get out of you. It was fun while it lasted. Have a nice whatever it is you bloodsuckers have after the final death." With those words, he dissapered from his position, only to appear behind the stunned vampire, his sword piercing its heart, devouring what little blood remained. Soon, the vampire faded into eternal, final sleep, never to wake again.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter