“What do you want us to do?” Pierre asked as they trekked through the woods.
The cool breeze that drifted between the trees ruffled Aldrin’s hair, the night encompassing him like an old lover as he returned. Relishing the feeling of his strength returning with the night he let a smile slip across his face.
“Well do you guys want levels?” Aldrin asked, peering back at them over his shoulder.
“Who doesn’t want levels?” Jared piped up, laughing at himself.
“Then just follow my lead,” Aldrin said, refusing to admit he had no plan.
Jared and Pierre looked at each other briefly before shrugging their shoulders and following along.
“From here, we must be quiet, there are people ahead,” Aldrin warned them, pointing to his vampiric ears.
A group of the bandits were huddled around the campfire, laughing and eating unaware that a predator and his newly made minions stalked these woods again. Identify labeled the group as having two Level 8 Tier 1 Fighters, one level 12 Apprentice Geomancer(T2 Mage), and one level 11 Tracker(T2 Rogue).
Aldrin took one look at Pierre and Jared, nodding his head towards the unsuspecting group. Jared readied his bow, knocking an arrow and taking a stance as a warm green glow began to surround his arrow tip. Pierre unsheathed his daggers, moving up with Aldrin as they stalked towards the group. Aldrin gestured at Pierre to take out the Tracker(T2 Rogue).
Aldrin got out his Iron Spear and prepared to throw it at the Apprentice Geomancer. Taking a deep breath he waited for Pierre to strike.
In a splash of light, Pierre struck the Tracker in the kidneys causing him to cry out in pain alerting the others to the sneak attack. Jared and Aldrin released their attacks at the same time, Aldrin’s spear ripping through the Apprentice Geomancer. Jared’s arrow struck the back of one of the Fighter’s shoulder bones.
With their sneak attack done, Jared knocked another arrow and sent it flying while Aldrin moved up to be with Pierre as he danced around a Fighter that was left unharmed in the initial attack. Bulldozing his way through the trees, Aldrin let out a blood stopping roar causing all the bandits including Pierre to freeze. Raising his blade, Aldrin activated Cleaving Strikes, his longsword taking on a sickly yellow color along the blade, striking through the Fighter that occupied Pierre and onto the next Fighter that stood next to him. The first Fighter was bisected at the waist and the second had his shield obliterated into pieces, his arm a mangled mess of sinew and bone.
Cleaving Strikes is on cooldown for 45 seconds!
Without missing a beat, Aldrin rushed towards the Apprentice Geomancer when his hands glowed with a green mist that started flowing into the gaping hole in his stomach from where Aldrin’s spear went clean through. Healing as much as he could, the Apprentice Geomancer looked up to see a monster trampling towards him.
Aldrin used Shapechange to turn into a swarm of bats when the Apprentice Geomancer started to cast and sling rock spikes at him. Terrified of the new threat, the bandits were in disarray as one lay dead already and two were crippled if not outright dying, leaving only the Mage to deal with the threat.
Pierre wasted no time as he rushed over to the Tracker that started to uncork a red liquid potion and chug it down as quickly as he could. Tackling him back to the ground, Pierre and Tracker wrestled for dominance, each grunting in exertion trying to gain the upper hand. Jared shot arrows from his cover of darkness turning the Fighter with a mangled arm into a pincushion of arrows. Seeing Pierre in a struggle, he aimed at the two, turning his newest arrow into a brightly lit glowing white arrow.
“Cover your eyes!” Jared shouted to his comrades. Pierre immediately disengaged the grappling match while Aldrin had flown upwards.
Releasing his Blinding Shot, the darkness around them was briefly bathed in searing white light. The remaining two bandits were blinded as they stumbled around. Pierre slit the neck of the Tracker while Aldrin pierced his sword through the heart of the Apprentice Geomancer.
Huffing from the adrenaline, Pierre looked around at the carnage. Aldrin slowly walked up, the smell of different foods driving his desire for blood driving his senses crazy. Gurgling could be heard as the Tracker struggled for life still. Within seconds, Aldrin was latched onto his neck, draining him of the little life he had left.
“I apologize for that,” Aldrin sheepishly said, looking down at the dried husk while wiping his mouth with the remains of the Tracker’s shirt.
Jared made himself known again when he came through the bushes with his bow slung over his back, his eyes shone with wonder as he stared at Aldrin.
“Oh my gods. . . THAT WAS INSANE! What are your stats Mr. Vampire, Sir?” Jared excitedly pleaded running up to Aldrin and Pierre.
“Pierre! Did you see how fast he was? AND how strong he was?” Jared continued, shaking his friend by the shoulders.
“No one is going to be able to touch us!” He added in his excitement.
Pierre ignored Jared shaking him, looking at the back of Aldrin who still did not turn to face them.
“Whatever loot we find on them is yours to keep,” Aldrin said, finally turning around to face them after cleaning himself.
Aldrin could have sworn he had seen dollar signs briefly glaze over Jared’s eyes when he began to unceremoniously loot the bodies of his once comrades in arms.
“Sir, with all due respect, don’t you want some of the loot?” Pierre said, lightly kicking Jared to stop him from getting too greedy.
“If there is something I like I will but there is nothing here for me already,” Aldrin said, not wanting to reveal that he was once again disgusted at himself at how easily he let himself get swept up into the heat of the battle.
It was strange to him, Aldrin had thought that once blood was spilled he thought he would lose his mind but apparently the blood of the dead loses whatever tantalizing food smell compared to fresh blood of the living.
“Something to definitely think about more in depth later,” Aldrin mentally said.
Pierre and Jared looted the bodies as fast as they could while Aldrin listened for any patrols of bandits in the area with his hearing. With none in the vicinity, he allowed Pierre and Jared their moment of respite to catch their breath before moving on further towards the bandit camp.
“You must be someone who chooses to focus on stats rather than skills?” Pierre inquired.
“No, my race and class just give me a lot of buffs and passives,” Aldrin half lied.
“Look, you don’t have to trust us but if we are going to be working together you can be assured that we will not betray you. Not after seeing you cut a man in half without any struggle,” Pierre said, flinching at the memory of seeing the man cut in two right before his eyes.
“I suppose that’s fair,” Aldrin shrugged his shoulders.
Turning to them, “My name is Aldrin,” He said, sticking his hand out.
Pierre and Jared glanced at the hand then at each other, shrugging his shoulder, “I’m Pierre,” shaking Aldrin’s hand first, giving him a small smile.
“Jared,” Shook Aldrin’s hand next and quickly pulled away.
Pierre frowned at his friend when he broke off from the introductions.
“So what is your goal for doing this?” Pierre asked.
“Doing what?” Aldrin answered
“Killing the camp? You’re a vampire right and an ancient one at that if you are the Vampire Progenitor? Not an adventurer so we shouldn’t matter to you,” Pierre suggested.
“Unless. . .” Horror dawned on Pierre’s face.
Jared perked up as did Aldrin at the sudden pause, "Pierre? What is it?” Jared put a hand on his shoulder.
“We are food,” Pierre whispered.
Aldrin wanted to guffaw at the thought as the truth of matter wasn’t entirely for food but more so for him gaining an understanding at how his new abilities and body operate.
“Think about it Jared, we are on the outskirts of where an undead Dungeon is that has never been cleared because the Holy Order uses it for training grounds on new recruits and supplies right?” Pierre said, puzzling it out in his mind.
“Someone goes in that is not affiliated with the Holy Order, let alone either stupid enough or had another super organization backing them to go against the Holy Order since they have a claim on the Dungeon, clears it and in doing so, released what stands before us now,” Pierre gestured to Aldrin.
“Which leads to the question of what organization would want to bring Vampires back that aren’t feral because some ritual or potion for eternal life backfired,” Pierre tried to piece together the budding mystery.
“It wouldn’t be any organization that-” Pierre started.
“Demons.” Aldrin summed it up, making Pierre and Jared look at him like he had grown two heads.
“What?” Jared asked in disbelief.
“Demons did this to me,” Aldrin admitted.
“What do you mean they did what to you?” Pierre asked.
Aldrin cleared his throat and explained his encounter in the dungeon with his group, meeting Kilinos, and then the ritual that he assumed turned him into what he is. Pierre and Jared stared in disbelief at the whole story.
“I can’t imagine that,” Jared empathized, warming up to him now that he understood that not too long ago Aldrin was just a human like him.
“So what’s his goal then? Kilinos I mean,” Pierre asked.
Aldrin frowned when he thought about what Kilinos meant about having big plans, “I honestly do not know but all I know is that I am looking for a cure and you guys were unlucky enough to be close enough for me to get a hang of this before I walk into a town and likely slaughter everyone there,” Aldrin admitted.
“Wow,” Jared breathed out.
“You guys don’t seem like the typical bandits anyways,” Aldrin said.
“Well we weren’t even trying to be bandits, they just assumed we were when we came upon them by accident and we have been looking for a way to escape them for a while,” Pierre explained.
“They just assumed you were?” Aldrin questioned the plausibility of it.
“When we came here from Earth-” Jared said, Aldrin’s eyes widening at the statement.
“You guys are from Earth?!” Aldrin tried his best not to scream so loud.
“Yeah, are you?” Pierre asked skeptically.
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“Yeah, but I have been here since I was 8 years old so I guess I am more from here than Earth,” Aldrin dimmed down.
“We were in college when it happened and it was terrifying to see chunks of the world vanish in flashes of white on the news all of a sudden so I can’t imagine how it must have been for you to see and the Vitality stat does wonders for our skin,” Jared rubbed his hands down his face.
“Where were you guys when your area vanished and reappeared here?” Aldrin asked them, feeling more comfortable now that he found some familiarity with them.
“Most of the city we were in reappeared on the island chains of Imawas? I think that is what it’s called?” Jared looked to Pierre for confirmation
“Yeah, we were in Imawas and of course we were immediately conscripted into the civil war there between the warring clans vying for control of all the island chains,” Pierre added.
“At first it was fun because the world was like a game and we were gaining levels as they trained us on killing monsters,” Jared excitedly said.
“Then they took us off of killing monsters and towards killing people and that's when we really got a taste for the life and the death that resides on this planet,” He added quietly.
“So we smuggled ourselves off the island to here in the main continent of Dremetica,” Pierre picked up as a haunted look formed over Jared.
“What about you? Where were you teleported to?” Pierre asked Aldrin.
“The main continent of Dremetica but we were far from the cities and didn’t know where we were,” Aldrin started.
“It was my parents, my older brother and sister, and my grandparents,” Aldrin said.
“Orcs found us and took us in but the initial shock of it all gave my grandmother a heart attack which shattered all of us even more. My grandfather and mom weren’t themselves for a while, we were also under the care of the Orcs so that didn’t really help the situation,” He continued.
“Eventually the Orcs led us to a human town and dropped us off there but by that time we had already spent two years with them and understood how the world worked and that the system wouldn’t bloom for us until we were of age whatever that meant at the time,” He said, losing himself in the memory.
“My dad was a Tier 3 Hydromancer and my mom was a Tier 3 Pyromancer that were treated as nobles once we got into town and the populace had asked them to deal with local problems; which they did,” Aldrin remembered as a prideful smile graced his face for once.
Jared and Pierre were so enthralled by the story that they failed to notice a shadow flit across the top of the trees. Aldrin immediately stopped, his sensitive ears picking up the swaying of the leaves, the scent of a freshly baked chocolate cake drifted into his nose rousing the hunger in his stomach, his fangs elongated again as he sniffed the air. His senses blaring to him that someone was either here or left a second ago.
“What-” Pierre started then shut up when Aldrin shot him a glare.
Aldrin closed his eyes, focusing on his hearing and smell to track the shadow that spied on them. The freshly baked chocolate cake scent had moved away from them.
“When the bandits go on patrol how many are there per group?” Aldrin asked, eyes still closed.
“About 4 or 5,” Jared thought.
“We missed one then so we need to move. Our element of surprise is no longer to our advantage,” Aldrin said, standing and walking to the direction of the scent.
“Hey! Wait up!” Jared said as he quickly picked up whatever loot was left with the help of Pierre.
“We need to hurry and finish the camp before the sun comes up or I’ll be limited to the cave,” Aldrin clarified.
“Catch up when you can!” Aldrin said using Shapechange for easier travel.
“That is so cool, kinda scary but still cool,” Jared admired Aldrin’s retreating form of bats.
Wondering if Aldrin could activate his predator vision while in the form of a swarm of bats he tried it and was woefully surprised that it did work. From his vantage from the sky the usual glowing white silhouettes of living things alighted his vision from the little gaps of trees. Internally smiling to himself he flew straight for the bandit camp noting how spread out the few patrols were.
Landing at the warded entrance to bandit camp, Aldrin had a realization that he did not know exactly what he was walking into. The new powers he gained had gone to his head when he heard his sister’s voice in head scolding him for letting the power get to him.
Sighing to himself he stepped past the wards, alerting whoever was in the camp to his presence. The air around him shifted to reveal rows and rows of tents that the wards hid. A lodge with antlers above the entrance sat in the middle of the camp. Two guards stood by the entrance, their weapons directly pointed at Aldrin.
He Identified them as Level 25 Tier 2 Shield-Warriors. He guessed that their defenses might be higher than what he was ready for judging from their class path that focused on staying alive and taking hits.
“Are you what lurks in this forest?” One of the guards asked.
“I am,” Aldrin replied without hesitation.
Sheathing their weapons, “The boss wants to see you,” The same guard answered, jerking his head to enter the lodge.
Aldrin warily stepped past them and into the lodge that was dimly lit with torches that were socketed into the wall at even distances. Taking note that it was filled to the brim of trophies and treasures taken from the people they have preyed on. A hulking brute of a man stood in the center of it all. He was dressed in animal leathers and skins that gave him a primal look. His shaggy blonde hair was matted and dirty, cold gray-blue eyes stared daggers at Aldrin as he in turn observed him. Hefting what looked like an oversized two-handed Iron Warhammer on his shoulder, he stepped forward, the rippling muscles gave room for no imagination that Aldrin did not want to receive a hit from him.
“You’re the scourge of the forest?” The man’s voice sounded like two stones grinding together as he eyed Aldrin up and down, his scarred mouth dropping down into a frown as he was unimpressed with Aldrin.
“I am,” Aldrin replied coolly, Identifying him as a Level 34 Tier 3 Hulk-Berserker.
“Well I’m dead as dicks,” Aldrin mused to himself.
“You cost me quite a few of my men, which I don’t appreciate,” The hulking man said.
“What is your name so I may etch it with your blood on the outside of my lodge,” He demanded, taking another threatening step towards him.
“Only if you introduce yourself first,” Aldrin said, as they started to circle each other, readying themselves for the oncoming violence.
“Gýt Vamrson,” He introduced himself.
“Aldrin Ravindra,” Aldrin replied.
Eyes bulging at the name, “A Ravindra? Way out here? No matter, I’ll send them your head.” Gýt growled out.
“You didn’t Identify me did you?” A slight smirk found its way across Aldrin’s lips trying his best to exude false confidence.
“No need, there is nothing in the forest that can stand up to me,” Gýt confidently replied, exploding into motion.
Faster than Aldrin thought he would be, his Supernatural Reflexes activated slowing down Gýt’s incoming strike to crawl as a timer with 14.5 seconds appeared in the corner of his vision.
Dodging out of the way, time resumed to normal as another timer had a one minute cooldown on Supernatural Reflexes showed itself. A loud crash exploded right where Aldrin used to be as the door turned to dust blowing the two guards outside a few feet away. Gýt looked around as Aldrin looked at the massive crater that used to be the front of the lodge.
Not one to be outdone, Aldrin pulled out his steel longsword, activating Cleaving Strikes, he moved in to lash out at Gýt. His blade sank maybe two inches before Gýt turned around, his huge meaty hand grabbing Aldrin by the front of his leather armor and flinging him through the hole of the lodge. Weightlessness greeted Aldrin as he flew through the air. Shapechange saved him by turning himself into fog and pooling around the ground he was going to land at negating the potential damage.
Reforming his body, Aldrin whipped around and ran towards Gýt. Their strikes clashed, Aldrin being the loser as the shock and vibration traveled down the sword length into his arm causing it to go numb briefly. Pivoting on his right foot, he used the momentum of the clash to flick his blade around in a diagonal slash causing Gýt to lean back.
Aldrin continued to apply pressure to him knowing full well that a Warhammer wasn’t the best at blocking attacks. Blocking with his weapon shaft, Gýt grunted as Aldrin kept dancing around him and striking the same spot on his Great Warhammer. His Charge ability was on cooldown since he used it to open the fight.
Tired of Aldrin weaving in and out giving him small cuts, Gýt used his pushback ability, Whirlwind, his hammer taking on a mind of its own as it left his hand to spin around his body knocking Aldrin away at the unexpected ability.
“You fight well, I guess the tales of the Ravindras aren’t to be exaggerated,” Gýt complimented, a vicious smile forming across his scarred mouth.
Using Shapechange he flew above him, knowing the Hulk-Berserker was unable to combat the ability. Reforming in midair, Aldrin plummeted towards Gýt with his sword angled in front of him. Gýt smiled at the challenge and bunched all of the power into his legs as he leapt upwards towards Aldrin, surprising him at the sudden offensive. Before they clashed again, Aldrin activated Blood Rage doubling his stats for 30 seconds as well as Cleaving Strikes letting his blade take on the sickly yellow glow of the skill.
Cleaving Strikes is on cooldown for 45 seconds!
A shockwave resounded out as Gýt and Aldrin met in the air. Bypassing Aldrin’s strike, Gýt’s warhammer shattered Aldrin’s arm causing him to wince as he continued to let his blade sink into the gap in between Gýt’s chest piece and into his neck. Both falling to the ground with grievous wounds, Aldrin’s arm slowly began to piece itself back together. Landing with a loud bang, Gýt stood looking unharmed as blood seeped from the wound on his neck. He held his hand over it as he glared daggers at Aldrin.
“It seems you’re a little out of your depth,” Gýt cruelly laughed as the wound in his neck regenerated, his skin taking on a reddish hue, his muscles bulging beyond their normal mass, his eyes turning from a cold blue to a seething red..
Aldrin didn’t give a reply, noticing that he had 20 seconds left of Blood Rage. Unsure of how he would win this one he debated fleeing, killing some more bandits and leveling, then coming back to take out the bandit leader. Granted, he should have done that, as once again, power had gone to his head and came back to bite him in the ass.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t given that option when Gýt made his move, appearing before Aldrin with his warhammer already raised. His Supernatural Reflexes was just about to come off cooldown so if he could dodge this he would be able to save himself the next time with the skill.
Attempting to roll out of the way, Gýt’s smash clipped Aldrin’s ankle turning it to mush. Screaming out in unbearable pain, Aldrin scooted away as Gýt turned his menacing gaze on him, relishing the squirming and fear on Aldrin’s face.
With a grunt of pain, Aldrin Shapechanged again, fleeing the battle entirely.
“I’ll find you out there and when I do I will break every bone in your body then have one of my guys heal you when you’re on the brink of death so I can do it all over again!” Gýt madly laughed at the fleeing form of Aldrin.
Looking for any source of blood as he flew as fast as he could away, he picked out a trio that were trekking back towards the bandit camp. Dropping on them from above in his bat swarm, he materialized half his body, gripping one of the panicked bandits as the beast inside of him took over, draining the bandit into a husk.
That didn’t stop him as he gripped the second of the group draining him to a husk as well. The third however, had thrashed away with his battleaxe hoping to hit one of the bats. With his arm and ankle healed he reformed part of his leg, kicking the thrashing Fighter knocking him to the ground as he gasped for air. Aldrin then too, drained him replenishing his lost reserves from the Blood Rage and from the healing.
Rolling over to his back, Aldrin let the brief brush with death settle over him, letting it humble his mind that he wasn’t as strong as he thought. Replaying the moments of the battle with Gýt he understood that while he was a match for a Tier 2 and Tier 1; he was no match for a Tier 3 yet. Using that math he assumed he would have to get to Tier 2 or at least the middle of it to get new abilities and stats to match. The revelation caused a sour taste to form in Aldrin’s mouth since that would lead him further down the Vampire path. Something he was loathing to even think about.
Sitting up, he needed to find Pierre and Jared before Gýt found them first. He Shapechanged filling the night sky with his swarm of bats looking for the two. He had found them cleaning their weapons and looting after taking out a bandit patrol. Dropping down to greet them, Jared let out a small scream before realizing it was Aldrin.
“What happened?” Pierre was the first to notice the aftereffects of the battle.
“Gýt the bandit leader and my own cockiness happened,” Aldrin sheepishly said.
“So do we need to leave the area then?” Pierre pressed.
“Probably? Or we could level some more?” Aldrin offered.
“Either way, I have to get stronger and kill him. I made the terrible mistake of thinking I could beat him and told him my name,” Aldrin admitted.
Pierre and Jared blanched at the revelation.
“Yup, time to go,” Jared was the first to start walking in the opposite direction.
“Jared, wait, we could level like he said,” Pierre tried stopping his friend.
“He is a Tier 3 Hulk-Berserker,” Aldrin added.
Wide eyed, Pierre turned around to gape at Aldrin as Jared began walking faster than before.
“And you antagonized him? And lived?!” Pierre asked in disbelief.
“Kind of?” Aldrin said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Wordlessly, Pierre followed Jared as they both did not look back to see if Aldrin was following.
“I don’t have much time, the sun will be up soon. I feel it on my skin that it’s almost time.” Aldrin said, taking notice of the small pin pricking sensation that began to encompass him.
“Then I suggest you go back to the cave and lick your wounds and whatever else you need to do then leave when the sun is down,” Pierre shot back without looking.
“Wait, you guys are leaving?” Aldrin asked, standing up to follow them.
“We didn’t sign up to be turned into paste so yeah,” Pierre spoke for them both.
“Well I went in there by myself but if I had you guys with me there might have been a chance,” Aldrin suggested.
Jared stopped walking to whisper something to Pierre who listened with rapt attention. Aldrin chose not to listen in.
“Alright, we will help you take him down AFTER we get you to reach a decent level in Tier 2,” Pierre turned back.
“What’s the catch though?” Aldrin warily asked.
“There is none but the treasure that is in the lodge and hopefully an item that Jared needs for one of his quests for a potential mutation class at Tier 3,” Pierre explained as Jared kept a lookout.
“Those are rare especially for a Tier 3 class,” Aldrin commented on the class mutation.
“Exactly, so we are hoping that Gýt’s treasures have what he needs,” Pierre said.
“I can agree to those terms then,” Aldrin said.
“Great! To the bat cave for plotting and scheming then gentlemen!” Jared joked, marching off to the direction of the cave.
Pierre groaned and ran a hand down his face at Jared’s terrible joke while Aldrin chuckled as they all walked back to the cave. Hopeful that they could survive the oncoming night.