The greatsword-wielder swung at Marie with a swift swing, but the young vampire used every bit of her enhanced agility to get inside the blow. The was a loud ringing as the sword clanged off the shoulder of Marie’s maille, and then they were right up against each other. Marie was screeching as the waves of pain flowed over her senses repeatedly, and the night was shivering with the shrillness.

It was all too much.

A new world, a new life, pretty much dying, dealing with being reborn as a vampire.

Marie threw caution, and her martial arts training, to the wind and grabbed the elf by the neck and bent over her head. She could feel the corners of her mouth ripping a little as her jaws opened massively and then she was fangs deep in the elf’s neck and drinking. The blood sprayed out, metallic redness splashing all over both of them but Marie did not stop sucking it up like it was the nectar of the gods.

Marie looked up at the last remaining elf as she was drinking, locking eyes with the girl. She didn’t pause her consumption, even as she felt the elf under her collapsing. The magic-casting elf was standing there, completely paralyzed by shock as she witnessed something that was far beyond her ken, all the blood rushed away from her face.

Marie felt the elf in her jaws die, the sudden cessation of a heart beat was the first clue and then the blood turned rancid. That was the reason vampires always drank from the living, blood from dead people tasted like shit. She tossed the elf’s remains aside like a hastily discarded wrapper, dragged one of her fire-ravaged arms across her mouth and then threw the grisly scraps at the elf-witch.

“Not it’s your turn bitch! That fucking hurt! I just wanted to ask some questions, and you treated me so cruelly? Well…I’m going to get my answers.”

Marie was hunched over, her arms hanging down loosely and then she threw herself forward at the remaining elf. A well-aimed punch on the jaw dropped the stunned elf like a sacrificial bull, and she grabbed up the girl over her shoulder. She quickly slung the elves’ travel bags over her wounded shoulder and immediately started running for her tree-hideout.

By cutting across the forest using her AI’s map she was able to get to the tree within 45 minutes. Along the way she could feel the blood start to heal and regenerate the wounds of the fight, which was good because she was in bad shape. She quickly checked her information in the GUI to see how she was doing.

~SYSTEM~

HOST GAINED SOME VALUABLE EXPERIENCE IN THAT FIGHT! SOON YOU WILL IMPROVE YOUR RANK IN GRAPPLING, STRIKING, AND STEALTH…BUT NOT YET. PLEASE ENDEAVOR TO CONTINUE TO LEVEL UP YOUR SKILLS. YOUR STRENGTH HAS INCREASED TO 4.9, BUT YOUR [BLOOD] LEVEL IS ONLY AT 23% AND YOU ARE SEVERELY WOUNDED. PLEASE RESTORE APPROPRIATE LEVELS OF THE [BLOOD] RESOURCE.

Such a blasé way to describe killing creatures after drinking their blood, but fuck if my body doesn’t hurt. My skin burned away, lost a few fingers, and got really banged up. I can feel all that healing – the skin and fingers regrowing itches like hell! – but I need more blood. I need answers from this elf or that stupid trip was for nothing. I’m going to have to raid the goblin larder I think.

After she got back home, because that’s what it was now, Marie tied the elf to the tree with some ropes that she had acquired from the elves’ camp. She also carefully gagged the girl to prevent her from using any kind of spells, from what she had seen the spells required hand movements and verbal components so no point taking any chances. She punched the elf once more to try and keep her out for a while more, but also because it was really cathartic. She put all the elves’ belongings in the tree trunk until she had time to look at them.

With a tired sigh, Marie headed back out into the night towards the goblin village she had found recently, hoping she could find enough of the little shrimps to fill her blood levels. It was annoying but she hadn’t figured out how to sip yet, she could only gulp so far.

~SYSTEM~

HOST, THE SYSTEM HAS COMPILED SIGNIFICANT DATA ABOUT YOUR BODY FROM RECENT EVENTS. PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE I UPDATE YOUR PROFILE.

RECALIBRATING…

***

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Ja’ella woke up with a start, her head flying up and trying to drag in a raw, ragged breath but only managing to gasp around her gag. This motion proved quite painful as she discovered each of her hands had been bound and pulled taut with a rope wrapped around the tree trunk she was strapped to. Her head was ringing, and there was a sick feeling in her jaw where she got slugged that indicated at the very least severe bone bruising.

She was suffering greatly from shock, and she was feeling very muddle-headed and fuzzy. She and her friends had been bedded down from the night, tired from their walk from Elfhame and ready to get a good night’s rest, when a strange woman had approached their fire.

They had all been on edge, the stories come out of the Ancient Forest in recent days would have anyone ready to suspect the worst of any stranger. On seeing the skin, so much paler than she had ever seen any elf’s before, she had been certain that this woman was hiding a terrible secret.

She had been right. Oh, so very right, but she desperately wished she hadn’t been.

Ja’ella started crying, the shock wearing off enough that the sorrow of losing her close friends was finally tearing her heart in to bits. The crying turned in to wracking sobs, and she could feel her shoulders aching as her arms threatened to dislocate themselves due to the strength of her sobbing. This went on for how long she had no idea, but eventually she had no more tears for the moment.

Now she started to think about her own predicament, she was securely strapped to this tree by some kind of vampiric monster who could be returning at any moment. When she had seen that horrible dead-fish-pale-face, red eyes, and the mouthful of dagger-like teeth, she had known that all the horrible stories she had heard in her childhood, the ones that kept her awake at night, were true.

And now she was this monster’s prisoner, and likely meal, and as far as she could tell she was not going to be able to escape these bonds.

The elf bitterly regretted not learning any silent Spellcasting variations, even a simple [Spark] would let her burn the ropes and escape. No, she had better things to do than waste her time learning her spells to the Nth degree, and she was never going to be in a situation that was that desperate – She was the soldier of the Marshallate, who would be able to cause such a disaster for her?

It’s always the way that you see where you went wrong with perfect clarity right at the end, when you can do nothing. She lifted her head up and stared out in to the dark night, her eyes pulled wide as they tried to draw in every drop of starlight to power her low-light vision.

The wait for the vampire to return seemed endless, but it did end eventually. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching, casually and with no attempt at concealment.

The monster came in to her field of vision, and it was enraging to Ja’ella how calm the creature seemed to be for someone who had been burnt to a crisp a few hours earlier. Her skin now looked whole, still pale as cold milk but the burns seemed to be fading, and her black hair was back as a short buzz-cut but visibly growing. Ironically, it seemed that her clothes had taken the brunt of the damage, as the vampire’s apparel seemed to be more hole than material from her shirt all the way down to her boots.

“You know, I really just wanted to ask you all some questions. You brought this on yourself.”

The voice that came from the vampire’s lips, smeared with fresh blood, was cracking as if it was being forced through a charred throat.

“Mmmghwtzjhakl!”

Ja’ella tried to express her derision for this, but the gag reduced her eloquence to mere jumbled grunts and sounds.

The monster laughed, brokenly, and then raised a dark eyebrow quizzically. “Oh, so you want to talk now? Ok, I will take your gag off, but if you try to cast a spell or do anything stupid I’ll smash your teeth out and feed them to you.”

Ja’ella believed in her heart of hearts that this evil creature would do it, too. The elf nodded curtly that she understood the vampire’s warning, and would abide by those terms. She started trembling involuntarily as a pale hand reached up and pulled the gag out of her mouth. She coughed a little as the moist air of the night caused the dried out interior of her mouth to react.

“Excellent, glad we can all act like adults then. Now…why did you all attack me? I hadn’t done anything…yet.”

The monster plopped down on the ground, sitting in a relaxed looking lotus position as if she had all night to get her answers.

“Foul creature, we know that you have been killing many of the inhabitants of the Ancient Forest! The sheer amount of drained bodies that have been found is uncountable! You can kill me and my friends, but you will be stopped, I promise you that!”

If Ja’ella had the moisture in her mouth to spit on the creature she would have, but she didn’t so the best she could do was throw vitriolic words at her.

“Awkward…I didn’t kill any of those people. That was probably the work of the one who turned me. Glad to see that I am going to be doubly punished…”

The creature was mumbling to herself.

“Well, if it wasn’t you that doesn’t really matter. You are a vampire, a disgusting creature of the night. You should have the morals to kill yourself. No elf would ever allow themselves to be turned into such an abomination as you!”

Ja’ella tried to think of the words that could prick the conscience of this fallen elf, she still wanted to live afterall or at least have the least painful death possible. Preferably life though, if that was on the table.

The low laughter started as mere hiccups and then slowly built until the vampire was rocking back and forth cackling, black blood rolling from the corners of her eyes. Ja’ella felt herself descend back in to shock a little at this unexpected sight, it was clear that this elf had had a few blows to her sanity in this whole process. Hope that she might find some way to fool the vampire, or convince her to let Ja’ella go was rapidly slipping away.

“If you knew what I had gone through to get where I am now, you would know how foolish it is to appeal to my morals, or to expect me to lay down and die to please another. I escaped a gilded cage, fled those who set to protect me ‘for my own good’ and defied those who would weigh me down with golden chains. Yes, it is unfortunate that this happened. Unfortunate for me, and for you, and for the world. So very sad…”

The vampire began laughing again, as if something was breaking free inside her mind. It was very unsettling to see. And then, the monster stopped laughing suddenly, leaned forward with her face nestled in both hands as her elbows rested on her knees.

Her red eyes seemed to take on a deeper glow.

“Now, tell me about magic.”