Chapter 12
Blood Tools
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A multitude of stars shone down brightly from above, illuminating the cornfield which had sprung up to the right side of the path that Kail and Lunis rode down. They’d been going for quite some time and so decided to dismount to take a quick break from the saddle and allow their horse to rest.
Kail helped Lunis down from the saddle, though her gaze seemed focused on something past him. He turned, spotting a rather large scarecrow crucifixed to a wooden cross outside the cornfield.
“That wasn’t there a moment ago,” said Lunis.
“Are you sure?” asked Kail.
“Yes, we would have noticed it.”
Kail stared at the scarecrow, it looked perfectly harmless. That assessment changed as blood gaze activated.
RACE: Farmyard Horror, SPECIES: Scarecrow, CLASS: Executioner, LEVEL: 4.
Kail’s blood scythe formed in his hands as he stepped toward the scarecrow.”It’s a level four farmyard horror executioner.”
The scarecrow’s head snapped ninety degrees to face him like something straight out of a horror film. It’s hands burst free from the cross as it dropped down from it, scooping it up and swinging it back over its shoulder in one fluid motion. The scarecrow stood a solid foot taller than Kail, its body was straw and mottled cloth and what looked like an upside down sack covered its head. Straw poked free from twin slits in the sack where eyes should have been and a jagged gash in the sack formed a strawy mouth.
Fear flooded through Kail but he worked to suppress the sensation as he stepped forward between Lunis and the bloodless monster. Wait… no… That assessment wasn’t accurate either, he could sense a weak pulsation of blood within the scarecrow’s center. A morbid sense of horror sent a shiver down his back but he held his scythe firmly in his right hand as he extended his left toward the monster, reaching for the blood within it.
The scarecrow raised an arm, a straw finger bound in cloth pointing directly at Kail as it slowly approached him, massive crucifix held menacingly over its shoulder.
“Come on,” growled Kail, gritting his teeth with effort as he attempted to grasp the limited blood pulsing within the monster’s center.
Getting a hold over his own blood was easy, like grasping a slice of pizza. Grasping for the scarecrow’s blood was like trying to penetrate a closed pizza box with his hand and rip free a slice from an uncut pizza. The monster stopped a mere half dozen feet from Kail whose mana was rapidly draining away as he failed to reach the scarecrow’s blood.
Giving up on the motion he threw himself forward and to the side as the executioner’s crucifix came crashing down, smashing into the earth where he’d been standing and sending drift flying. His right arm extended out to the side as he used his momentum to propel himself past the scarecrow, his scythe sweeping into its abdomen.
DAMAGE DEALT TO SCARECROW = 54
Kail stumbled forward, doing his best not to fall as he ripped his scythe free from the monster and reeled about to face it. The scarecrow turned to face him, crucifix already positioned back over its shoulder in preparation for a second devastating strike. The cloth where his scythe had struck was torn and bloody straw was protruding from it and littering the ground beneath the scarecrow.
Even as the monster pointed its finger at him he gained a sudden awareness that the wound inflicted by his strike had made the scarecrow’s blood much more accessible. Attempting to access it was a massive risk but he wasn’t confident in his ability to avoid another strike either way, he only hoped his remaining mana would be sufficient for what he was about to attempt.
MP 39/130
He reached out for the pulsating mass of blood, latching onto it and yanking. The scarecrow’s cross rose, reaching its zenith above the monster’s head just as a stream of blood burst forth from it, like puss from a pimple. Kail’s sense of achievement turned to pain and disgust as the blood impacted him, splattering across his body and into his eyes.
HP 119/130
MP 0/130
DAMAGE DEALT TO SCARECROW = 74
EXPERIENCE GAINED = 300/SCARECROW DEFEATED. LEVEL UP! YOUR HP and MP HAVE BEEN RESTORED! +1 CONSTITUTION, +1 WISDOM. YOU HAVE 1 FREE STAT POINT TO ALLOCATE! RUPTURE HAS INCREASED TO THE RARE RANK! Rupture - Rare: You may extend a variable amount of HP and or MP to discharge a concentrated burst of blood and deal a variable amount of damage. Discharging your own blood costs a proportionate amount of HP and MP and inflicts H +M xI %10 -R Damage. (Where H = Health, M = mana, I = intelligence, and R = enemy resistance.) Discharging a target’s blood has a variable chance to fail, and costs variable MP and inflicts M x2 xI %10 -R damage.
BLOOD GAZE HAS INCREASED TO THE RARE RANK! Blood Gaze - Rare: Staring obtrusively at an entity will allow you to discern its Race, Species, Class, and Level if applicable. Additionally, you may discern the percentile chance of rupture’s success rate when cast against the target.
The notifications appeared before Kail’s vision as he rubbed the blood from his eyes. He was just as shocked that he’d survived as he was at the sudden bombardment of obnoxiously complex math placed before him. The bloody straw strewn remains of the scarecrow lay crumpled before him, crushed by the crucifix. The whole scene evoked an oddly biblical appearance. A wooden cross laying atop bloody straw and ripped bits of brown blood stained cloth.
“Kail,” gasped Lunis, and his attention instantly turned to her. Tears were streaming down her face and he searched for any visible wounds on her as he rushed to her side. “I’m not hurt,” she sniffed. “I tried to put him to sleep but instead I saw his mind. He was a person, a farmer with a family, he, he was ripped apart then remade into that.” Her voice broke and she leaned into him, her tear stained face pressing into his chest as he held her.
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His eyes strayed to the bloody pile of straw beneath the crucifix. That had been a human heart he’d ruptured. A shiver ran through him. What type of monster could have turned a person into that?
Lunis inhaled deeply, her cheek still pressed against him as she spoke. “There’s a house in the center of that field. That’s where the thing who did this to him lives. Kail, it, it reminds me so much of The House of Haunted Memories, as if it’s chasing me.”
“You're safe from it, I promise.”
She sniffed, then spoke, her voice stronger with only a hint of the quiver that had consumed it. “When Veltis summoned me there. I had so little agency, he controlled me and Solice controlled him, and the house controlled Solice, but you freed me. You saved me, and now we have the chance to destroy what's in that field and stop it from hurting anyone else.”
Kail looked toward the corn field, the tall stalks seemed to sway menacingly, almost as if they were alive, even if he knew it was only from a night breeze, the thought of entering that field still terrified him.
Lunis stepped back, looking up at him with wide watery eyes. Kail inhaled deeply. “Okay. Do you know anything else about what’s in there?”
“Likely more people who that thing has twisted into monsters. In the center of the field, there’s a house with a wooden porch. I saw glimpses of the thing, a wrinkled white face with brown eyes and a hand holding a bloody wand.”
Kail opened his status, allocating his free stat point into dexterity:
NAME: Kail Valien, RACE: Human, Class: Blood Preacher, LEVEL 6, EXPERIENCE: 1,750, Subclass: Blood Reaper. HP 140/140, MP 140/140. STATS: Strength 9, Constitution 14, Dexterity 13, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 14. Skills: Rapid Regeneration - Common, Pure Blooded - Rare. Abilities: Free Flow - Common, Blood Gaze - Rare. Spells: Rupture - Rare, Blood Scythe - Uncommon, Blood Calling - Uncommon.
“I reached level three after you killed him,” said Lunis. “What level are you?”
“I just reached level six. The sun will rise soon, I think we should wait until then before going in there.”
“Do we really want to just wait out here though? Shouldn’t we get this over with.”
It was only then that he realized she was just as scared of going in the field as he was, she was just a better person than him, perhaps because this was somewhat personal for her. He hated the fact that he knew if not for her he would have just moved on, leaving the thing within that field to torture more people. He wanted to make the right choices and be a good person, this world was just so messed up and filled with so many horrors that he kept finding it increasingly difficult to convince himself to face more peril in service of others.
That was part of why he was so grateful to have Lunis by his side. She helped him make the choices he needed to. Few people had bothered to help him get a leg up during his life on Earth, and even fewer had since he’d arrived here. He wanted to be a person who could help others, it was just that that want was sometimes outweighed by his fear of risking himself for someone who in all likelihood wouldn’t have bothered to help him if their roles had been reversed.
“You're right, let’s go,” he said as he stepped toward the cornfield.
The corn stalks parted around them as they pushed through the field, the normally comforting sounds of crickets, cicadas, and other nighttime insects sounding eerie and even deranged. Kail considered conjuring his blood scythe and simply cutting through the corn, but he feared the attention that might draw to them. So they pushed forward through the swaying stalks which stood several feet taller than him.
The corn ahead parted, revealing a towering crucifix pinned to which was a scarecrow that appeared identical to the one they’d fought earlier. “Wait here,” whispered Kail as he conjured his blood scythe.
“Can’t,” whispered Lunis. “I think glimpsing into the other’s mind slowed it down.”
Kail glanced back at her. “You don’t need to go through that again. I can handle this one.”
He turned back to the scarecrow to find that it had dropped down from its cross and was staring at him as it swung the crucifix over its shoulder.
RACE: Farmyard Horror, SPECIES: Scarecrow, CLASS: Executioner, LEVEL: 4. ESTIMATED RUPTURE SUCCESS RATE = 22%.
Kail sheathed through the remaining stalks in his way with one fluid motion as he entered the small clearing. He allowed his mana to continue flowing into his scythe which grew larger and larger, its weight barely increasing as his mana points drained away.
MP 63/140
The scarecrow raised its left arm, a finger extending to point at him. Kail’s eight-foot-long scythe arced through the air, slicing into its neck but failing to decapitate it.
DAMAGE DEALT TO SCARECROW = 86
Then the scarecrow’s crucifix came crashing down, obliterating Kail’s hope of dispatching it in a single glorious attack. He sidestepped, but he’d over extended himself with his attack and a sudden horrific pain smashed through his right shoulder as the rightmost extension of the cross slammed down upon him.
DAMAGE SUSTAINED = 78
HP 62/140
He collapsed backwards, falling to the ground beneath the weight of the strike. He could feel his blood rushing out from him and knew he was screaming in agony as he forced it to remain within him. He kicked into the ground, propelling himself back as the scarecrow yanked its crucifix back up and over its shoulder. His back impacted a cornstalk and he bit his tongue as he scrambled to his feet, his left shoulder torturing him as he tried to fight through the pain and focus on the scarecrow. His left arm hung limply and he firmly rejected any consideration of attempting to move it. He gripped his scythe firmly with his right hand as the scarecrow pointed at him. He was going to die, he only hoped the strike would hit his head directly and be as instant and painless as possible.
Then the scarecrow hesitated, straw falling from its jagged mouth. Kail was nearly too resigned to his fate to take advantage of the opportunity, nearly but not completely as the thought of abandoning Lunis spurred him into action. He stepped forward, his scythe sweeping up toward the scarecrow’s injured neck, cleaving through straw and sending the filled bag which was its head toppling to the ground followed by its body.
DAMAGE DEALT TO SCARECROW = 63
EXPERIENCE GAINED = 250/SCARECROW DEFEATED.
Kail stepped forward so that he wouldn’t collapse, dismissing his blood scythe and casting blood calling on the corpse. A stream of blood flowed from the pile of cloth and straw, impacting his ruined shoulder and sinking into it as he gritted his teeth, attempting to focus on the taste of blood in his mouth rather than the pain pushing him toward wishing the scarecrow had just finished him off.
The last of the blood entered him, mercifully diminishing the raging pain and confining it to the left region of his collarbone.
MP 53/140
HP 97/140
He’d been so focused on the blood in his mouth and pain in his shoulder that he hadn’t noticed that he was leaning against Lunis who was supporting him and likely the only reason he hadn’t yet collapsed.
“You made it hesitate?” he wheezed, attempting to make his tone sound light hearted.
“It wanted to die,” she said, her words heavy with sorrow.
“Let’s end this,” he said, standing upright as his rapid regeneration and pure blooded skills worked to restore his health.