As soon as I saw that Nick Pankratz was hale and hardy and completely free of our influence, I immediately realized the full scope of my error.

I’m an idiot. There are no other words for it. An oblivious buffoon walking blindfolded through life with as little awareness of the world’s potential dangers as a toddler in a sand box.

“Surprised to see me?” Pankratz smirked. “Looks like you didn’t take Cassie into account, huh?”

That was exactly what I’d failed to do. I’ve been so taken with my own class and progression that I didn’t pay enough attention to the trouble that other classes could present. Specifically, Cassie’s. All along I’d been referring to her as a healer, thinking of her as nothing more than a mere mender of wounds. But healer isn’t a class, is it?

It’s a role.

Her class title was priestess. As in a practitioner of divine arts who used her prayers to bring succor to the injured and ailing. She wasn’t much of an offensive powerhouse, but she was literally blessed by the heavens. And that came with considerable bonuses, one of which was immunity to mind control and the ability to cleanse diseases.

Technically, becoming enthralled by our blood arts could be considered an infection. Something that Cassie could counter perfectly. She’d faked being mesmerized by Rachel and lay perfectly still while Schulz watched over her, waiting for an opportunity to heal Pankratz and escape. And that moment had come while Rachel and I had slept under the effect of the siren’s blood we’d ingested.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Where’s the dog?” Pankratz asked as soon as we were cuffed, and our weapons had been secured.

Schulz stood invisibly to our side, waiting patiently for me to give the order to attack. His animal instincts, untainted by siren’s blood had warned him that something was amiss, and in his alertness, he’d activated [Stealth] before exiting the fracture.

Wasn’t he just a clever little thing?

“I didn’t see him when we came out,” I said sorrowfully. “Poor guy must have been caught in there when it collapsed.”

“Shit,” swore the gunman standing beside Pankratz. “I wanted to see how big of a gem we could carve out of that thing.”

Rude.

In addition to that fellow, there were four other fresh faces here. I recognized some of them from the day of that school outing. Three of these people had been in Pankratz’ four-man squad. That meant the extra must have been one of Cassie’s teammates.

Interesting. I’ll have to make a note of that for later. In the meanwhile, time to play the part of a helpless prisoner.

“Excuse me?” I said, using an offended tone of voice. “That thing was a friend of mine.”

“My condolences, asshole,” he said with a sneer. “Next time I suggest you buy a cat. They’re easier to take care of.”

“Coop, be nice,” Pankratz said smugly.

“Yeah, Coop. Be nice,” I said with a frustrated glare. In response, the boy flipped his middle finger my way. I grinned and bore it, certain of the knowledge that by the end of the day our positions would be thoroughly reversed.

This was the second time that Pankratz and Cassie had caught me unawares and bound me like a common criminal. Mark my words, there would not come a third time. I had thoroughly learned my lesson, and the time would soon come to impart one to them in return.

Rachel picked up on my confidence and seemed to calm down. The adrenalin that had surged throughout our bodies when we were caught had cleared away any of the remaining fog in our heads left over from last night’s deeds. Now she was staring intensely at Pankratz and Cassie, with wide, urgent eyes that could be mistaken for being fearful at first glance.

It was the very opposite of that emotion, however.

That was going to be a problem.

“Be very careful with these two,” Cassie warned the others as Rachel, and I were pulled roughly to our feet. “These two are aberrant. They can deliver some kind of infection via blood transmission that overwrites free will.”

As Cassie spoke, Rachel continued to stare at her. I could feel the hostility my daughter exuded almost as though it was a physical force. As I thought before, this was absolutely going to be a problem.

Rachel was deliriously angry with the other girl. If it continued to build, she’d be as drunk on rage as she had been on that siren’s blood. All her ire was focused on Cassie, and I could tell from the way my daughter was gently running her tongue along her teeth that she very much wanted to tear the healer’s throat out with her bite.

“Stay in the moment, Rachel,” I urgently whispered to her while our captors engaged themselves in conversation. “Keep your anger in check.”

“She stole him from me,” she replied hatefully. “That little cow took what was mine.”

“Rachel, you’re in human form now,” I said in a futile effort to placate her. “There’s no reason for you to feel so angry. Remember, we’re beneath a sunny sky…”

“She needs to give him back. I’ll kill her slowly if she doesn’t return him at once,” Rachel growled.

Ah, vampiric hierarchy. What a time for you to show up again.

I’m being sarcastic. This is actually horrible timing.

I believe I’ve mentioned vampiric hierarchy before, yes? Our innate compulsion to dominate our surroundings and bend others to our will. Weeks ago, it compelled me to slaughter a Goblin lord for refusing to bend his knee to me. Now, it was compelling Rachel to murder Cassie for cleansing Pankraz of his enthrallment. I’ve known for centuries how powerful our need for hierarchy was, but before this moment, I never realized it was strong enough to influence our behavior even when we weren’t using our Vampire Lord class.

Although Rachel was perfectly human at the moment, she still felt the loss of having her lesser kin taken away, and because of it, she wanted Cassie’s life as payment. Our vampiric hierarchy was clearly something that went beyond the boundaries of mere flesh. If we had them, I’d say it was imprinted on our very souls. A fascinating development to be sure, but the timing for this realization was beyond inconvenient.

“Rachel, it was Pankratz. Does he really seem worth all of this?” I asked her. “Just look at him! What a dope!”

“He was still mine. She had no right! I have been slighted,” she replied tersely.

Damnation. The thing about it, you see, is that Rachel was perfectly correct in her sentiments. Her rights as a creator had been encroached upon. It didn’t matter that Pankratz was a fool and that she hadn’t wanted him to begin with. The fact remained that he had still taken her blood to the point where they had bonded. He had been hers. And Cassie had unthinkingly used her powers to destroy that connection.

As Rachel’s lord and creator, I had no right to intervene. My child wanted justice, and it was hers to pursue. By human logic, this would probably sound thoroughly insane, but more often than not, Rachel and I were monsters. Our ways are not exclusive to one path.

Cassie had inadvertently started this feud, so she’d have to deal with the repercussions. My hands were truly tied. In the meanwhile, I had to direct Rachel’s focus toward our more pressing needs.

“Rachel, save it for later,” I urged her. “Now isn’t the time.”

“I want her now,” she said.

“Control yourself!” I snapped at her. “Timing is everything. Go for her now, and we’ll both die. I need you to take a breath and be ready to act, okay?”

Rachel closed her eyes and breathed deeply for a long count of ten. When she reopened them, she nodded at me. “All right. Okay, I’m good. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I replied. “You’ll get what you want soon enough. Just wait for my signal…”

__

“Blood-based mind control. That sounds disgusting,” said one of our other new escorts as they marched us into the center of town to await transportation to Gardenia. The speaker was a sour-faced brunette who looked as though she wanted to use her pistol to put a hole through both of our foreheads. “I really hate dealing with freaks.”

“Keep it cool, Cindy,” said Pankratz. “The payday we’ll score off turning in a couple Abbies will be worth it.”

Aberrant. A term I would later learn meant that we were hunters who possessed unique classes that were uncontrollable. It’s not the nicest thing I’ve ever been called, nor is it accurate. Well, for myself anyway. Rachel still had some issues with her temper. But she was working on them. That mattered, right?

“They better keep their plasma to themselves then,” grunted Coop. “If I see one move that I don’t like, it’s click-click-boom.”

“You don’t need to worry about our blood,” Rachel retorted. “Worry about yours, once it’s pouring out in the dirt.”

“She squeaks pretty loudly for such an itty-bitty mouse,” snickered the spearman, a muscular fellow who equaled Pankratz in height. “Where do you get your confidence, little girl?”

“Don’t tease her, friend. She bites,” I warned him.

“We’re not your friend, aberrant,” said the swordsman. “Keep your mouth shut.”

“Why don’t you want to be friends?” I asked. “I’m an interesting guy. Ask anyone. Well, don’t ask Nick. He’s biased because I beat him up one-handed.”

“Shut up,” Pankratz said without turning around.

“True story,” I said. “One hit. I nearly broke every bone in his body. Thank goodness his girlfriend is a healer, right? That was clutch, wasn’t it, Cassie? Oh, wait, was I not supposed to mention that part? I keep forgetting the rules.”

“You and Cassie?” asked the spearman. “Wow.”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” I said. “If you don’t believe me then why not ask Nick? He was feeling it with his own hands.”

“SHUT UP,” Cassie yelled at me, infuriated.

“It was a joke,” I replied. “It’s a tense situation, I’m trying to lighten mood.”

“Evans, I don’t care how much they’re paying out on aberrants, if you insult her one more time, I’m breaking your jaw,” Pankratz said threateningly.

“Who told you I was an aberrant?” I asked him, even though I knew there could only be one possible answer. I just had to be certain before I acted.

There was only one person in the narrows who had their finger involved in everyone’s business. But she told me that she was my friend, so out of respect for that I was hoping to be proven wrong.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“You think I’ll talk?” Pankratz smirked. “Sorry for your bad luck, Evans, but the word’s come down. The Narrows don’t need the kind of trouble that freaks like you and Rachel will bring in.”

“Freaks?” I asked him quietly.

“Freaks,” he gleefully emphasized. “But Gardenia is paying top dollar for any abbies they can get their hands on. They’re always running experiments, trying to understand the system better. So at least this way, you can be of one final service to the people on your way out.”

In the Narrows, the word from on high only came from one person.

This revelation actually stung a bit.

I had genuinely enjoyed her company.

__

In the center of town, an armored vehicle awaited us. It was smaller than the one used to transport the academy students back and forth during the school outing, but it was still a deadly looking little number. It seemed like a pitch-black merging of a tank and corvette, bristling with potential menace. I whistled at the sight of it, impressed by this model of futuristic engineering.

Did I want it? Yes, I did.

Was I going to take it? Yes, I was.

“Dibs,” I said, cementing my claim.

“Shotgun,” echoed Rachel, momentarily distracted from her desire to murder Cassie.

“These two are hilarious,” the swordsman said with a grin.

“You wouldn’t say that if you had to put up with them for as long as we have,” Pankratz said before turning to face me. “All right, Evans. Clear out your storage.”

“I beg your pardon?” I asked.

“Clear out your storage,” Pankratz repeated. “We know you finished the fracture, so that means you’re carrying some decently valuable loot right now. You won’t need it where you’re going so you may as well turn it over to us.”

I could only laugh at his arrogance. “Nick, are you robbing me?” I asked.

“It’s in support of a good cause,” he insisted.

“Somehow I doubt that,” I said. “The deal with Jaime was to split the proceeds evenly according to everyone’s contribution. You didn’t contribute at all, so why should I give you anything?”

“That’s because you attacked me as soon as we stepped into the dungeon, you bushwhacker bastard,” Pankratz snarled. “You were too afraid to fight me fairly!”

“I can’t fight you fairly, Nick,” I informed him. “We’re nowhere close to being equal.”

“So that excuses cowardice? Just because you can’t match me?” asked Pankratz mockingly.

“Goodness, you are completely hopeless, do you know that?” I said with genuine exasperation. “You took what I said and you’re about to score an own goal with it.”

“Kyler, just hand over the equipment please,” Cassie said. “Whatever this little game has been about, it’s over, all right? Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

“Meaning what?” I asked curiously. “Are you implying that you can force me to cooperate if I don’t wish to? Because I don’t believe that you can.”

“Even to the end, you choose to be difficult,” she said angrily. “I wish you’d stop this posturing and just accept reality. If you try to fight us, you’ll only embarrass yourself.”

“I’ve embarrassed myself more times than I can recall in front of audiences far greater than this motley assembly,” I said with a shrug. “And in the long run, it’s never mattered in the slightest. Whether someone loves you or hates you, the value of their opinion plummets once they’re dead and forgotten.”

“Yeah, yeah, more deep thoughts from Kyler the psycho,” Pankratz said impatiently. He then pointed a finger at Rachel. “Coop, put a round through this bitch’s leg.”

“Are you sure?” Coop asked uncertainly.

“Yep,” Pankratz said. “She did something to me yesterday. Something really fucked up. If it wasn’t for Cass, I wouldn’t be myself right now. So, I’m more than happy to see the favor returned. Don’t worry Evans, Cassie can keep her patched together for as long as it takes for you to give in. But it’s gonna hurt a lot.”

“Well, if you say so,” said Coop as an eager smile slowly began to spread across his face. “Never shot a civvy before. Always wondered how it’d feel…”

“Should we be concerned about that?” asked the spearman with a chuckle.

“Don’t ask me,” replied the swordsman. “I’m just here for the free entertainment.”

“Nick, I understand that you’re embarrassed about yesterday, and I don’t blame you for it,” I said. “That kind of helplessness, once experienced, it can break you. Realizing just how weak and defenseless you are in the face of genuine power…it’s destroyed the peace of mind of many a proud warrior.”

Coop cocked his pistol.

“And you’re a young guy,” I continued. “A child really. You need all the confidence you can get to build a life for yourself. A life that includes Cassie as well, right? And I not only disabused you of the notion that you were strong, I humiliated you in front of your girl. And once more, I understand why that bothers you…”

Coop raised the pistol and pointed it at Rachel’s leg.

“But what I need you to know right now, is that there comes a time when a child must set aside that which comforts him and accept that there are forces in the universe that he can never hope to overcome. Because when a child learns acceptance, he truly becomes a man. Do you understand Nick? You need to accept your loss, right here, right now, while I still consider you a kid. While I still view you as a child, okay?”

Nick stared me in the eye and spat at my foot before replying.

“You’re so full of shit, Evans,” he said.

“Nick, if you refuse,” I continued. “If you take this first terrible step into adulthood by letting your friend maliciously wound my companion, then from this moment on, I’ll treat you like a man. I’ll treat you like every other adult who ever dared to cross me. It’ll be goodbye to childhood and hello to reality for you and everyone else in your little gang. If you’re okay with that, then tell Coop to pull the trigger.”

“Pull the fucking trigger, Coop,” he snarled.

BANG!

With a piercing cry of pain, Rachel fell to the ground with a wounded thigh that gushed forth a stream of blood that poured into the dry soil of the earth.

“Dang, I might have nicked an artery,” snickered Coop. “Hey, Red, didn’t you say something earlier about me bleeding out into the dirt? Seems like you might have gotten your prophecy backwards.”

“You better hurry, Evans,” Pankratz said. “The longer Cassie waits to give treatment, the closer your little pal comes to breathing her last—”

“No, it’s fine. I’m all right.” Rachel said as she stood up. “I heal really fast, see?”

She spat on her palm and rubbed it against her thigh, cleaning the blood away and showing that there was no longer a wound.

“Looks like you wasted a bullet, bitch,” she said chidingly to Coop.

[Fast Regeneration] the healing skill slotted in my Gore Grimoire had saved the day once more, allowing Rachel to recover almost immediately. Which I knew would happen, allowing me to take advantage of the hunter’s stunned surprise to use my storage skill to swallow up a massive amount of soil from the earth they stood upon.

As the ground shifted beneath their feet, causing them to lose balance and fall, I released all the stored dirt above us, scattering it in a wide arc that darkened the air around us and momentarily blocked everything from view.

While the hunters coughed and shouted their threats, I turned to Rachel and asked her to release Sir Euon’s armor to me. She did so at once, placing the spoils of my victory over the paladin at my feet: his enchanted armor.

It was originally called: [The Blessed Armor of Sir Euon] in purple highlights.

+12 to strength.

+25 to defense.

+15 to Constitution.

Set Bonus: You have a ten percent chance to reflect a ranged attack at the one targeting you.

Sir Euon was a faithful knight of a great kingdom, who dedicated himself selflessly to his duty. With his tragic loss, the world may never see a warrior of his caliber again.

As soon as I touched it, it renamed itself: [The Corrupted Armor of Sir Euon.]

Same stats. Same set bonus. Just a new name to accompany it. Oh, and the flavor text describing the armor’s original owner had changed.

Sir Euon was a faithful knight to a great kingdom, who fell in battle thanks to the trickery of a fiendish coward. Surely the one who slays the new bearer of this armor will earn the grace of heaven itself.

Interesting rewrite. It was almost as though Sir Euon was looking down on me from paradise and wanted me to know that he hated my guts and hoped that someone would soon kill me and avenge his defeat.

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

By using the fast-equip option that the Alpha Administrator had taught me, my old, poor-quality equipment was replaced by this splendid new gear. With my body now safely protected from the sun, I was free to transform back into my vampiric form without fear.

The first thing I did was use [Transfiguration] to adjust the appearance of my new equipment. There was a set of black armor I’m very fond of that I wore centuries ago in my days as a wandering black knight. It was old and battered, but still very effective. Wearing it made me look every inch the shadowy knave that I was.

Being back inside it made me feel reborn. I felt young again.

I raised my arm and summoned Spiteful to my hand. The cursed blade seemingly leapt into it, eager to spill blood once more. I held it over my shoulder and patiently waited for the wind to clear the dust away. Once it did, the fun truly began.

“So, you want to be treated like adults,” I said. My words echoed out from beneath my helmet, hollow-sounding and slightly distorted, making me sound as though my voice were being filtered through grave soil. It sounded rather ominous, and it had the intended effect on the hunters’ morale.

“Death Knight!” shouted Coop, his eyes wide with fright as he held a pistol in each hand and began rapidly firing at me, growing increasingly distressed as his shots bounced off my armor, one after the other.

“Not quite, but close,” I said. “Hey, you might want to slow your shots, friend. The quicker you go, the worse it’ll be.”

Coop screamed something incomprehensible at me and continued plugging away. Just as I began wondering how many rounds each of those things held, his luck gave out when my armor’s ten percent chance to reflect his shots finally kicked in and left the poor guy with a gaping hole in his forehead.

“Click-click-boom,” snickered Rachel unsympathetically. Then she ran after Cassie.

The spearman suddenly shouted and was dragged to the ground when Schulz had grown tired of waiting and decided to join in. The big man desperately tried to free himself from the invisible force that had seized hold of him, all to no avail. My last sight of him was of the dog dragging him behind the transport out of the sight of others. Then I heard a final plea for mercy that quickly became a scream of terror that was silenced by the sound of crunching bones.

I guess it had been a while since Schulz had been given a snack. I couldn’t help but appreciate the self-reliance he showed in acquiring one for himself.

“You bastard! Fucking monster!” screamed the swordsman as he came in fast, wielding a curved blade skillfully which he aimed at my joints, hoping to find a vulnerability in my gear. I think he expected me to be a slow target. However, due to my immense strength and speed, wearing heavy plate affected my reaction time about as much as being stark naked would.

He stared blankly at me in surprise when I easily caught his blade with my left hand and snapped it in half with a twist. Then, while he was still stunned, I swept Spiteful across his neck and turned his shoulders into a fountain head.

There were only three of them left. One of them had been another gun wielder, as I recalled. What had her name been? Kelly? Cindy? Something like that. I was wondering where she’d disappeared to when I heard the transport power on. Suddenly it raced toward the town exit leaving Pankratz and Cassie behind.

So, that was where she’d gone. What a sensible girl. A bit of a coward, but I admired her instinct for survival. However, I clearly recalled being the one to call dibs on that vehicle. Therefore, I could not abide her theft of it.

I quickly created a blood orb and sent it flying after her, fast as a bolt of lightning with the mandate to return the transport to me.

As I stood there wondering how that chase scene would play out, I stumbled forward when I felt someone smash into me from behind. I turned around in agitation and was unsurprised to see Nick Pankratz standing defiantly before me with his shield in hand, ready for the fight of his life.

“You killed them all,” he said with furious tears of anger streaming down his cheeks. “God damn you, you killed them all.”

“Not…all of them,” I whispered in my hollow voice as I tilted my head in the direction of Rachel and Cassie. Cassie had been battered unconscious and was hanging limply in my daughter’s grip, while her other fist dripped with the healer’s blood.

“LET HER GO!” Nick shouted as he attempted to intervene. I cut him off before he could and kicked his legs from beneath him. Before I could stomp his head flat, he rolled away and managed to regain his feet.

As we circled each other, I continued mocking him.

“I gave you a chance,” I said to him. “I gave you a choice. Were the lives of your friends worth that one moment of power you enjoyed?”

“T-that wasn’t me!” he yelled; his voice heavy with denial. “You killed them, not ME!”

“We did it together, Nick,” I said. “You enabled it, and I delivered. You had to have known what I was capable of if I could defeat a C-rank dungeon, but you still had to test your boundaries, didn’t you? Despite the warning you were given, you just had to prove it was a fluke. But it wasn’t, was it? And now your friends are dead and it’s all your fault.”

“Stop it,” he said.

“All your fault,” I repeated.

“STOP IT!” he yelled.

“We’re going to eat Cassie alive in front of you and it’s all your fault!”

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” he shrieked with a voice filled with unhinged, desperate fury.

He then came running at me, shield extended, no longer focused on the fight, forsaking his training to close in with me like a wild brawler, throwing useless punches and shield slams that bounced harmlessly off my armor while I carefully lined up a perfect downward stroke and chopped both of his hands off at the wrist.

Pankratz squealed when he beheld his new injuries and dropped to his knees, holding them before his eyes.

“What?” he asked in a dazed voice. “What does this mean?”

“It means you lost,” I said to him patiently.

“Oh,” he said. “Well, that’s interesting.”

Then he passed out.

I gazed down at the boy whose life I had just ruined, and wondered what I should feel in this moment. Triumph? Sadness? He’d tried to rob me. He’d also tried to sell me into some sort of scientific slavery. If he’d somehow succeeded, my life might have become filled with torture and misery.

He’d also attempted to hurt Rachel. Just because he didn’t know that was impossible didn’t excuse him of his guilty intentions nor did it absolve his friends of their complicity. I had simply delivered the justice that was their due. There was no cause for me to feel regret.

And yet, despite his misdeeds, he’d only been a boy. The true fault lay with someone else entirely. Gardenia was an entire day’s ride from here. While Rachel and I slept in the fracture, my familiar Schulz had kept watch over Pankraz and Cassie for most of the time we spent there, before leaving them to seek us out.

That meant that even if those two called their teammates for assistance as soon as they escaped, it would have been impossible for reinforcements to arrive quickly enough to set up an ambush. Logically, that could only mean that they were already here.

Waiting for me.

Cassie and Pankratz had been planning to betray me from the start. But those two didn’t do anything without Jamie’s permission. They were firmly under her thumb.

Sighing, I stepped away from the wounded Pankratz and left Rachel to vent her anger on Cassie. Whether the two of them lived or died was of no interest to me. The Narrows itself was no longer my concern. We would leave this place at once, come the evening.

But before we did, I was going to have a final word with the Witch of Appraisal.