Chapter 93

Vampires, Because Yeah, That’s Original

  Each of these Prolaxian Heralds has a niche, a certain field that they cover. Well, all but the puppet master. There was the Endarian Secretary Wild Stag who controlled darkness. They controlled darkness so much that they were able to create a near impenetrable dome of darkness around us while we battled. There was the Beastkin Admiral, I still have a hard time remembering his name, maybe Panda something? Or is that racist to think that? Anyways, he was a disease spreader that could get a mechanoid suit impounded for incineration details. Next was Mave who was similar, but hers dealt with rot, and applying rot? Still not entirely certain what the distinction was, but there might have been one.

  There was the Puppet master, who I gather was some sort of boss and therefore outside the normal scope of the others. We also are fairly confident that we know what the Dwenvarian’s Queen Bro Consort has, the ability to kill all first-born children.

  All that is to say, that whatever this monster before me has is entirely unknown. Who knows, maybe he can cause strippers to appear out of nowhere? Or maybe he can cause any object touched turn to gold?

  What, you don’t think it would be anything that cool? Well, me either.

  Knowing my luck, even if it was strippers, they would all be old male mimes, stripping. Or worse, doing their silent impersonation of stripping. Shudder.

  “So, do you have some type of special power? Some last hidden ace up your sleeve?” I ask.

  Meanwhile, I am mentally hoping that it is not mime strippers. Anything but mime strippers.

  “Muwahahah!” The monster cackles.

  Yeah, cackles. Suddenly I feel like this a bad action sitcom. But on the bright side, bad action sitcom likely means no mime strippers, so I’ll take it.

  “I am the Herald of Blood.” The monster begins, then they begin to cast a spell. If a spell is even what you could call such an act. One second, they are introducing themselves. Then the next instant their power has manifested.

  The only thing I can tell is that this power, whatever it is, is not controlled by either Mana or Psychic energy. Instead, it exists on an entirely different power structure. Not that this makes it more powerful, just that it makes it more unpredictable.

  “So, you’re a vampire?” I ask, not feeling like getting into an altercation with the worst of the worst types of cosplayers.

  “No. I am beyond your comprehension.” The beast states.

  Then with that, there is a pulse, as suddenly their power goes off. Just like that, red drops of blood appear in the sky. Slight condensation from the humidity in the atmosphere turns a dark blood red color.

  “Behold my power. I have turned water into blood.”

  “So you are Hazmat? Can we just call you Mat for short?” I ask.

  The monster looks at me with a sense of confusion filling its eyes that are rapidly changing from the sickly glowing green color to a deep blood red color.

  “What?” The monster asks, genuinely confused.

  “Hazmat? You know, as in Hazardous Material?” I then huff. “You know, if you have to have it explained to you, then the joke probably wasn’t for you anyways.”

  Then shaking my head. I just go with the old classic Pyrokinesis-X this has been a good one to use against all the Heralds so far and should be twice as effective against this vampire wannabe.

  Whoosh.

  Hiss!

  Yeah, the monster hisses, actually hisses. Then holding out a hand, the monster summons the blood in the room directly to him, covering his body in a protective barrier.

  “Behold. My minions!” The monster yells.

  Snap.

  Yeah, they snap their fingers. The same way someone might try to summon an obedient animal companion. Though, their snap does produce immediate effects as several Endarians come from the numerous rooms around us. They are all armed and seem to be equipped for battle. Worse, I think that if I am somehow able to break this vampire herald’s hold over them, the soldiers will be released. The only problem is how do I get to the monster, without killing everyone. This is when I move from what I collectively call Plan A, and Move to Plan B. What the differences are between the two plans? I don’t know. Just nice to note when you think your current situation should be changed.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “So, are these Ghouls or Revenants?” I ask, trying to delay for time while I come up with a plan.

  “They are not Ghouls, nor Revenants. These are my minions.”

  With that his words get a tone of anger to them, as all the minions under his control begin to raise up their weapons. Me, not wanting to have any part of this, I duck back into my room with Jess.

  “Okay. Okay, I get it. You are one of those people.” I say, as I shut the door, right as the sound of automatic weapons fire erupts.

  “Kyle, come in. Kyle Goldman.” A voice calls out from my communications clamp.

  “Yes, a little busy here.” I reply, as I quickly disable the lock to the room.

  “Kyle. We have reports of small arms fire, in your area.”

  “Confirmed. Small arms fire is happening.” I answer.

  Wham! Blam! Thud!

  The minions are pounding on the door. I don’t quite know how powerful these doors are, but they do not seem to be made of the sturdiest of materials.

  I run to Jess when I notice an encryption array on the table. Wondering why an encryption array would be on this random table in the disused part of the office. I look at the device, then on the spur of a moment decision I reach down to grab the device. Then running to Jess, I grab her and hold her tightly, as I use Total Recall to transport my Jess and I to a place where I feel safe.

  We are transported right in the middle of the training room that we just vacated.

  Fortunately for me, my Jess either doesn’t notice the fact that we appeared next to Alien Jess, or blessedly chooses to ignore that situation for now. Instead, she is focused on the more pressing aspect.

  “What do we do?” My Jess asks.

  “Just what is going on out there?” General Fellina demands, her question cutting off Jess and any reply to her.

  “So, remember that data leak. Well, I found it. Another Herald in your midst.” I say, as I place the encryption array in the General’s hands.

  “So, what do we do now?” Alien Jess asks.

  “Well, this Herald seems to have some control over people. He seems to have roughly a few dozen soldiers and staff under his control.” I admit.

  Hearing this, Alien Jess adds. “Yes, the Herald of Blood. They can control anyone they have given their blood to.”

  I cringe at the idea of so many people randomly sharing blood with one person. The whole thing just seems off, but Endarians, what can I say.

  “The only way to break the Herald’s hold over the minions is to kill the Herald completely. To do this, we need to completely eradicate the head where the reproductive sacs are, and the heart where its current body is able to live from.” Alien Jess states.

  “So, treat them like you would any ancient vampire. Got it.” I answer.

  “No, this is a Herald. The Herald of blood. Have you been listening to me?” Alien Jess demands.

  Her universe clearly is lacking some of the most basic tales of horror. Perhaps that is not a bad thing, I mean no tales of vampires means no vampire cosplayers, right? Can a universe like that, truly be so bad?

  “Focus, so what do we do?” General Fellina asks.

  “I have a plan, that is, if you don’t mind hearing it.” Rayquel says.

  Then just like that, the three little butterfly winged guardians assembled for their first, and quite possibly their last mission together.

  “Oh, shut it. My plan is not that bad. Also, that was rather rude.” Rayquel says.

  And suddenly I realize I likely spoke that last line out loud.

  “Yeah, sorry. Let’s go. It’s been a long day.” I admit, as I am still feeling drained from not having had a second to rest. There has been so much going on, that I almost missed the part where it seemed the teams were being made.

  Bang.

  The sound of dozens of hands hitting and pounding against metal doors began to echo throughout the training room. Then, just like that, the minions of this herald found our training room. Not that the big gymnasium was hard to find, but we are now effectively sealed into this chain of events, one way or another.

  Rayquel was busy directing the rest of her elite team and the others on their tasks.

  “Everyone know their plans and objectives?” Rayquel asked, her eyes focused directly on me, even though her question was seemingly meant for everyone.

  I nodded, “go in make a lot of noise. Distract the main boss. Get them to monologue, then save the day.” I answered.

  “No, not even close. Weren’t you listening?” Rayquel asked.

  “Hah! Fooled you. Of course, I know. I go out, do the thing. Fight the main monster by myself, then wait for backup.”

  “Still no.” Rayquel said, then turned to Alien Jess. In that gaze so much was exchanged that I couldn’t quite pick up most of it.

  “Okay, you will follow Jess’ lead on this.” Rayquel states.

  “Wait, I thought we already decided I was leader?” I ask.

  “Yeah, but unlike you, she can actually pay attention for more than two seconds.” Rayquel all but shouts.

  I want to argue, but then realize I am running too low on blood sugar right now to be too effective at coming up with my own plan. Then part of me wonders if my being low on blood sugar is a good thing or bad thing with a potential vampire mastermind out there. Will they become diabetic with low blood sugar? Or will low blood sugar help diabetic vampires? Can vampires even become diabetic?

  So many thoughts going through my head. After this, I realize one thing. These marathon training scenarios, followed by back-to-back monster attacks are just too much for one body to take.

  “Here.” My Jess says, handing me an earpiece.

  I take it and put it in my ear. It is clear that she is excited by this.

  “You, okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah, it’s just that. I get to test out whether my being your handler will work. This will be a first for me, but it might mean we can be together… when you are on missions.” Jess stammers out the last part.

  At that last part of her thought shared, I relax slightly.

  Then I pull her in tight for an embrace. God, no, not embrace, that sounds too much like a vampire thing. No, this was just an intimate hug. One where she felt so warm within my arms.

  After a few seconds she pushed back and stared up into my eyes.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “What? Who me? Sure, never felt better.” I admitted.

  “You know, maybe you should try to level up a bit before you go to combat.” Jess offers helpfully.

  “Oh yeah.” I say, then mentally do a quick check of the certs Jess and I have earned as a team. There are a lot of certs available.

  But I pause before I go any further. “Wait, aren’t you going to unlock your final spells?” I ask.

  Jess just smiles brightly at me. “I already have. The rest are either going to your level or to a retirement account.”

  “Retirement?” I ask.

  “Yeah, might as well start planning for my future without you. If you don’t go ahead and level up.” Jess says.

  “You would be one of those crazy rich ladies who fills their house with hundreds of cats.” I say, as I look at the thousands of certs that are available to our team. That is a lot of certs.

  “You know it. I would also save your ashes and let the cats use it for their litter box.” Jess adds.

  “Yuck.” I say in mock disgust. There she is the sick morbid girl I always seem to fall in love with.

  “Well then don’t die on me.” Jess quips.

  “Don’t die, listen to the instructions I’m telling you. Why don’t you level up. Blah, blah, blah. You all are so pushy.” I say.

  Then with that, I do just as Jess instructs. I increase my two class levels with all the remaining certs we have available between us. In order to pull off the kind of stunt Rayquel is posing; I will need to be a lot more power than I have currently.

  “Don’t die, or I’ll use your ashes for kitty litter.” I mutter to myself, shaking my head, as I begin leveling up. “That has got to be the best non-death threat I’ve heard this week.”

  Even while leveling up I am already following Alien Jess to our staging point. This is going to be a major operation. We also need to be prepared for possible breaches to our facilities by other Prolaxians, which is why we are all splitting up into different teams now.

  Alien Jess and I are one team. Rayquel and her elite soldiers are a second. Then, finally the General and my Jess are going to take up the command structure. Each of us has our objectives. Now all we must do is execute our commands. Well execute our commands without bleeding, getting cut, or otherwise inhaling blood form this herald in any way. What could possibly go wrong?