[Bloodlust status in effect.]

[Sanity debuff activated as a result of Bloodlust status. Sanity level decreases at a 100% faster rate.]

[Cumulative Bloodlust and Influence debuffs: 200% increase in Sanity reduction rate.]

[Sanity: 82%]

I gasp in a breath as my surroundings return to me. Had I stopped breathing? Perhaps I couldn’t while wrapped in such bliss. There are people screaming, but they are distant and unimportant. Ambrosia wafts through the air, and I try to find its source, but there’s something hampering my breaths. I claw at the obstruction covering my nose and mouth, and rip it away. Better.

“Nye! No, don’t take that off—Shit. Come on, Quell. We have to run.”

Us, run? No! We will stop them here so the others can run. We will fight and win!

Yes. Yes, I am full of so much energy, all pent up and twisted inside me, like a spring desperate for release. I need to move. I need more of that sweet high that’s already, faintly, fading.

[Sanity Level: 77%]

“I can slow them down.” Light flashes behind me. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here!”

“No! We can’t leave them. They need my help. Nye, please. Listen to me!”

I look for the voice, and find a wall has appeared behind us. A few of the approaching soldiers are on our side, glancing around in surprise, but the rest are out of sight. A girl has her hands raised, pointing toward the wall. But she’s not the source of the voice I’m looking for.

I find the prince. Quell. He looks relieved when we make eye contact. I frown. What is he holding?

My blood whips around me, parrying a blow that had been aimed at the back of my head. I glance back, curious. A soldier stands there, spearhead caught in a nest of bloody lines. He’d clearly recovered from his surprise while I was distracted. The Aegis nudges my mind. Now is the time for fighting, not standing!

I snap my hand out and grab the attacking soldier’s chest piece. There’s not even time for him to gasp as I go down to a knee, flipping him over and slamming him into the ground. He doesn’t get back up. Words and numbers fly through my mind, but I ignore them. When I let go of the crumpled soldier, my hand is covered in blood. I run my tongue up a finger, and am rewarded with another addictive burst of energy, strength, and hunger. The Aegis revels in the taste, too. We need more.

[Sanity Level: 72%]

“Fuck. It’s too late, Quell. They’re gone. If you try to help, you’ll only get caught in the middle.”

The middle… we were in the middle of something. I try to remember what I had been doing before this. I tilt my head up, and a purple symbol is painted in the night sky overhead. The Moonfall sigil. Ah, yes. I look back down; the others are staring at me with fear. Why? There’s… something not right. Something itches at my mind.

My gaze returns to Quell. He looks so worried. I don’t like that. The thing in his hand is… a knife. Right. I’m supposed to protect him. That must be it. That must be the source of the wrongness I’m feeling. I need to eliminate the threat to him. The Aegis agrees with this. Eliminating threats is good!

Then that’s what we’ll do.

I leap into action, cracking the stone as I jump. Liz shrieks as we blur past her, but we pay her no mind. Quell is the only one who matters.

He lets out a startled squeak when we land in front of him. I wrap my shield arm behind him to catch him before he falls back, at the same time plucking the blade from his throat and tossing it away. The dagger clatters to the street somewhere behind us.

“Careful,” I say. “You might cut yourself.” And for some reason, the words make me laugh.

“Nye?” Quell stammers. His complexion obscures his blush, but I can still feel the heat of the blood spreading through his face. His neck. “You’re—this is a bloodlust. Okay? We need to get out of here.”

“Yes. A bloodlust. I know.” Maybe I should care, but I don’t. I like this feeling. I don’t want it to end. My eyes are locked on Quell’s neck. A small line is cut across his flesh, blood only just starting to bead. The knife must have nicked him after all. It isn’t deep. But the smell is intoxicating.

“You know?” Quell trembles. He’s trying to act stoic, but his body betrays him. I can feel the pulse of his heart as it beats faster. “Yes, you’re coherent. That’s good. But we really should, ah. Get going. And you can let go of me while you’re at it. You know, you’re, ah, very close.”

And leaning closer. A single drop of blood spills from the wound, trailing slowly down his neck. The world narrows to that cut. His drumming heart. I breathe deep, and am rewarded with the heady, tantalizing smell of blood. “I don’t want to.”

“O—oh?” Quell grabs my arm, and I can feel him attempting to push me away while he tries to retreat. But the Aegis is a wall at his back, and I’m much stronger than him. “What is it you want?”

It’s driving me mad. My breath prickles the skin on his neck. “I want to rip your throat out.”

Blood rushes through his body again, and his Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he swallows. “I’d really rather prefer if you didn’t.”

Quell tenses up as I lean in. I run my tongue up his neck, and he gasps as I lick away the drop of blood.

The hit is instantaneous, filling me with more of that jittery, overflowing energy that only makes me hungrier. And it would be so easy to take it. Only the most insubstantial film of skin separates me from what I want. Quell’s fingers dig into my arm as my fangs graze his throat.

“N-Nye, don’t!”

My mind is buzzing. A pain behind my eyes is growing sharper by the moment. Words are dancing in the peripheral of my consciousness. Something about a role.

My Role Requirement. Yes, that’s the source of this pain. But it shouldn’t be punishing me. He’s not in any real danger. I’m his Knight, after all.

“I wouldn’t.” I huff out a laugh, pulling away. “I can’t.”

Quell’s teeth are clenched, his body tight, hands braced against my arm and chest. His fear stirs something in me. Wanting his blood and not being able to take it fills me with a possessive desire. It’s driving me crazy. This building energy is begging to be unleashed, and I’m desperate for more.

But there is more, of course. No one’s as enticing as Quell’s, but it will sate my thirst all the same.

“Run,” I tell him, and for a moment I picture him fleeing like prey, me chasing after, and I’m filled with the thrill of the hunt. But that’s not what I meant. I try to focus.

“I’ll stop the soldiers here.” I let him go, and he stumbles back. I smile ironically. “After all. I must protect the Prince.”

“Nye—”

A sword crashes into my side, and the Aegis only partially deflects the blow. There’s more strength behind this attack than the last one. As my attacker yanks their sword back, a hot line sears across my side, and then I smell my own blood. I snarl, turning to face my opponent.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Darian faces me grimly, stance low, grip tight. “I guess now we’ll find out how you fight when you’re not holding back.”

“Darian, stop!” Quell cries. “Don’t kill them.”

“They just tried to kill you,” she growls.

“They’re lucid,” Quell says. “They held back. They can break out of this!”

The captain eyes me uncertainly. “Earnest, Xamireb—take the prince and go.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Wait—no! Let go—Darian, please! Don’t kill them. I owe them my life—I owe them—”

I dispassionately glance his way as Earnest and Xamireb drag him down the street. They’re not a threat to him. My Role isn’t stabbing me into action. Good. Now I can—

Darian attacks again, while I’m not looking, but I see it through the Aegis. It lashes its whips around her sword, but she cuts through them, sending a splattering of blood to the street. My blood. An eager fire sears through me; the Aegis and I are burning for a fight.

I grin as I turn back to her. “That’s twice you’ve tried to stab me in the back. Not very sporting.”

She narrows her eyes. “You are lucid. Then you should be able to end this.”

The Aegis scoffs. Why would we want to end a fight? Let go of such power?

“We don’t want it to end,” I say, agreeing with the Aegis. Why had I ever disagreed with it before? I can’t remember. This is what both of us are made for.

“It will end,” Darian says. “By your own willpower, or my force. Now is the time to choose.”

I laugh. She actually thinks she can beat us. Sure, she has training and a higher level on her side. But I have the Bloodlust and the Crimson Aegis.

Impatient, the shield urges me on. Enough talk! It wants to fight—I want to fight. We lunge at Darian.

It’s nothing like our sparring sessions. The Aegis’s blood comes at her from every angle, and she’s a blur of movement, cutting them away like vines in a jungle. She knows to avoid my shield, so she keeps trying to come at me from the side, wheeling, spinning in different directions, consistently keeping me on my toes. She’s so fast, I barely have a chance to land a hit. She’ll go for the feet, just to turn it into an arc toward my head. She’s not fighting to win: she’s fighting to kill.

I activate Repel, a pulse of energy knocking into her. It barely has any force—it’s only absorbed a couple hits from the previous guards—but it’s enough to make her stumble. I use the opportunity to close the gap.

The stone shifts beneath my feet, and I crash to the street. Darian steps over me, sword raised.

Two can play at that game. I call my Attuned blood back to me, lifting it from where it splashed over the street when Darian had severed the Aegis’s limbs. I turn them into darts using Hemetic Hardening, and spear them through Darian’s side.

She shatters like a pane of glass. The fractured pieces of Darian scatter into motes of light, winking out before they’ve even reached the ground. I roll onto my side to see Liz and the real Darian sprinting away.

Rage boils up inside me. Tricked! They tricked us! How dare they? Cowards! They’re running when they should be staying to fight. Have they no honor? We won’t let them escape. We still need our victory.

A shadow falls over me. Someone steps in the way of the receding forms of my opponents, and I bare my teeth, looking up.

A group of soldiers has surrounded me, weapons leveled toward my head. The wall that had bisected the street is now gone. Another illusion.

“Lay down your shield, Duneshade,” one of the soldiers says. “Surrender yourself, and your life will be spared.”

Surrender?

Something in me snaps. Blood slices out from the Aegis—it lances up from the street—it stabs from the open wound in my side. I flip the shield over me as all of their weapons come down, and I hear screams as my blood hits its mark. One falls. The others reel.

I sweep the Aegis around me, cracking into shins as I spin to my feet. My Attuned blood spins around me as I seethe, orbiting red razors mirroring our anger. They wanted us to surrender. To surrender!

The soldiers try to fight back. The Aegis Devours any weapons they throw at us, and I cut through flesh with my Attuned blood. I’ve never moved like this. I’ve never practiced this kind of magic. Everything I do is on instinct, driven by the Aegis’s thoughts, following its direction, buoyed by its desire for victory. It becomes hard to tell if I’m really moving my blood, or if it’s the Aegis. Maybe there’s no difference. I lose track of where my mind ends and its mind begins. The shield feels like an extension of me, our moves synchronized. We’re of one mind, one body, one soul.

I crush the Aegis into the chest of a soldier, and the Aegis drinks in the blood that bursts forth. The Aegis severs a sword arm before it can strike me, and I grab the weapon, throwing it back at its owner. There’s blood on my tongue. Someone’s neck in my mouth. Bliss pouring through me as I slaughter the last of them.

The Aegis crows at our triumph. I stand there, basking in the warmth of our victory as our enemies lie at our feet. The streets are covered in gore. People are shouting and screaming. There’s a commotion down one of the streets. Oh, are there more coming to challenge us? Let them come!

But a weariness is settling in my limbs. For all the ecstasy of the blood, I can still feel the tolls of the battle on my body. I’ve closed my wounds, scabbed over my cuts. But pain and fatigue is threatening to creep in.

The Aegis pays this no mind. We can still fight! Nothing can stop us.

I wearily agree. But my enthusiasm is waning.

The Aegis presses against my mind. No! We can’t give up. Blood. More blood will help!

Of course. Blood. I love blood.

The Aegis shares some of the blood it’s absorbed, pushing more into me through the lines it’s stabbed into my arm. I gasp, electric euphoria coursing through me once more. I straighten, reenergized, ready for another fight.

But… is that what I want?

Of course! Of course, we want to win!

I shake my head, but my mind is full of static. My skin crawling like it’s covered in ants. I step back, and my ankle rolls on the limb of a slain soldier. I catch myself before I fall, but my head is tipped toward the ground; I’m confronted with the horror of my actions.

I did this…

We did! We should rejoice!

Oh, God. I can’t get in another fight. I have to get out of here. I have to run.

The shield’s urging turns to frustration. We can’t run. To run is to admit defeat!

“I already lost,” I croak. I blink rapidly, trying to break through the Bloodlust. Quell said I could choose to end it. Darian said it just takes willpower. I press back against the Aegis, forcing its oppressive presence away. As its influence peels away, I gradually become aware that its will has been clouding my mind. Forcing its desires onto me. The shield tries to fight back, but it’s not as strong as it was before.

[Bloodlust status effect ended.]

“It’s over,” I say, panting. I feel weak. Physically, emotionally. But I fought it off. “You lost.”

No! The Aegis thrashes in my mind like a toddler throwing a tantrum. No! It can’t lose. It doesn’t lose. Victory is everything!

Desperately, it pushes more blood into my arm. I roar as the Bloodlust reactivates and hits me again, dizzying, scattering my thoughts.

See? We are of one mind this way. This is how we should operate! At peak strength. With the same goal—

“My goal is not the same,” I hiss, clawing at my head. The new wave of soldiers has reached me. They’re fanning out, giving me and the gory streets around me a wide berth. There’s so many. If I fight, I’ll kill a lot of them. But I’m tired. I’m battling the Aegis. This time, even with the Bloodlust, I’ll be taken down. And I can’t fall here.

The Aegis latches onto that thought. Yes! We will not be defeated—

I can’t fall here, I think, latching onto that thought. I have other people to live for. I need to find my brother.

I have to protect Quell.

I crouch, scraping my claws across the bloody ground.

“Steady,” one of the soldiers calls.

I wipe a smear of blood across my tongue, and another spike of energy hits me. I fixate on the numbers and words in the corner of my vision, forcing them back into my awareness, clawing my way through the mental fog to make them make sense. There. The arrow.

“On thr—”

I burst into motion before they have a chance to count down. The soldiers in front of me are so startled that they stumble back, clearing a path. I race past them, fighting the instinct to draw my claws through their flesh as I go. I run, pouring everything I have into each step, leaping inhuman lengths, cracking the ground where I land, pivoting and wheeling down side streets.

My movements are not subtle. People scatter before me—scream after I’ve passed. I take a turn too wide and crash into a stand, obliterating the wood like it was toothpicks. The Aegis is mad, trying to retrieve its control, but it spent too much of its energy in the fight. Its influence is dwindling.

I don’t completely fight it off, though. I let it keep its grip on the Bloodlust, I let it continue to feed my frenzy. If it ends now, I’m not sure I could go on.

The arrow takes me to the city walls. No exit in sight, and I don’t have time to look. I keep up my speed, then jump. I don’t make it all the way to the top, but I slam the Aegis into its surface, embedding it a foot deep in the stonework. I draw my other hand back, hardening the Attuned blood in my hand, and stab it into the wall.

Skin splits, and so does the stone. I wrench the Aegis from the wall and stab it back into the masonry above my head. It takes three more times to reach the top. Pain is lancing up my freehand, but I don’t look at it. A nearby guard lets out a startled cry, but I ignore her. I jump, and when I come down, it’s back in the desert once more.

They’re not far ahead of me. I’m not sure how much time has passed, but they’re on foot, which means they might as well be crawling. Following the arrow, I leap over a cluster of boulders, skid down the side of an earthen hill, and stumble through loose sand, which eats up my waning energy with every step. I’m breathing hard now, my head swimming for an entirely different reason.

The arrow is leading me to a sandstone formation. There are voices. Someone steps from behind one of the rocks. I can’t even make out who it is, but it doesn’t matter. I wrest the last vestiges of control from the Crimson Aegis, and I stomp the last of the Bloodlust out.

Pain and exhaustion rush in to fill the void. I hit the ground, and then I feel nothing at all.