Apex Predator

Alex

Alex crouched, ready to spring forward at any moment. Behind him, Stella held a stopwatch. They were in the middle of the woods, where Stella was currently forcing him through an obstacle course she had designed.

"Ready... go!"

As Alex pushed against the ground as hard as he could, he turned his entire body into smoke. He launched off the ground at several times the speed of sound.

When I really think about it, it's less that I turn into smoke, and more that a become impermeable, with smoke trailing behind me. Although I can't pass through a material that smoke couldn't pass through. His trajectory was directing him towards a tree. He twisted around in midair, pointing his foot at the tree, and making only the sole of his foot physical. He pushed against the tree and launched himself through a hoop. It also allows me to manipulate my mass, giving me more control of my trajectory. I can also twist around and maneuver without any footing. He jumped against another tree. To top it all off, my perception of time changes, giving me a reaction time surpassing even most vampires.

He jumped from tree to tree, jumping through all of Stella's hoops. As he flew through the air, he realized one of the hoops was directly above him. He made his hand physical, grabbing a passing branch. His momentum swung him around the branch, launching him straight up, perfectly passing through the hoop.

Ah, that was a trap. My momentum will carry me above the tree line, and I'll lose time as I fall back.

He twisted his body in midair, managing to catch his foot on a branch at the last second. He slammed his other foot onto the branch and launched himself back towards the course. Eventually, he reached the end, spotting the flag he was supposed to bring back to the start. He grabbed it, then launched himself backwards, turning back around in midair.

I don't have to go through any hoops on the way back, I just have to run along the ground.

He extended his ability to the flag in his hand, turning it into smoke as well.

I don't really get how that works...

He ran through the forest, faster than any living animal or man-made machine, while still remaining completely silent. He passed through countless bushes and branches, without disturbing a single leaf on the ground. From the start of the course to the end was about five miles. He jumped up onto the hill where Stella was waiting and hit the stopwatch's timer himself.

"You did it in under a second." She said, taking the flag from him. She looked up with a smile. "You pass. Let's summarize your abilities, then."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"I'm strong enough to destroy large boulders with my fist, I can grow back an arm in three seconds, the only thing that's been able to damage me is your whip, and even that was difficult." He sat down on the toppled tree they'd been using as a bench. "My senses are enhanced to the point that I can see well even in the dark, hear a whisper in a crowd, and track someone like a bloodhound." He leaned back. "That's not even mentioning my sixth sense, which is strong enough that I can catch bullets blindfolded. And finally, I can run ten miles through an obstacle course in under a second." He looked back up at her.

"Very good." She stepped right in front of him. "Now, there's only one thing left to teach you." She held her hand out, and a gash opened on her palm, leaking a steady stream of blood. The stream formed a hard handle, with a liquid blade writhing like a snake. She turned away and swung it around a bit. "I've already shown it to you, but this is Bloodwhip, my sanguine armament. Every vampire above a certain level of strength can create one."

"Create? It isn't random or inherited?" He looked down at his hand.

"That's right." She nodded confidently. "You come up with a basic structure, and then give it several traits. Mine is the shape of both a whip and a sword. It has three properties: First, its blade is liquid, meaning it can extend and morph as I wish. Second, I can control the blade. And third, the blade is extremely sharp, despite being a liquid." She retracted her weapon, absorbing the blood back into her body and closing the wound. "Since everyone designs their armament themselves, there are as many different types as there are snowflakes. Some people make claws, some cover themselves in armor, and some enhance their eyes, allowing them to sense things they normally couldn't."

Alex thought for a moment, his hand on his chin.

"Is it possible to have more than one?"

"Hm?" She looked at him quizzically. "Technically? But most people don't." She turned back to him. "When you have more than one, each of them gets weaker. It doesn't necessarily have to be a fifty-fifty split; you could have two that are seventy and thirty for example. But altering them is difficult and time consuming, so you can't change them on the fly, and even a five percent decrease in power could mean the difference in a fight. Why do you ask?"

"Well... I was just thinking, I'll probably have to fight a lot of vampires, right? Since they all have different weaknesses, I was thinking I could enhance my eyes to see their weaknesses, and then make a versatile weapon that can strike any weakness."

"Hmmm..." Her face slowly turned into a grin. "That's actually a good idea. I didn't mention it, since it's rarely relevant, but there are actually two ways to enhance a sanguine armament, which can make up for a weaker weapon and then some." She summoned her whip again, just the handle. "Tell me what you see."

He leaned over and examined the weapon. The handle was covered in strange shapes and symbols.

"You mentioned that you were a mage; did you use magic to enhance your armament?"

"That's right. It wasn't as sharp as I wanted it to be, so I looked for non-vampiric solutions. Most of mine is liquid, so there isn't much space to carve arrays, so it only enhanced it to about a hundred fifty percent." She retracted her weapon again. "But, depending on what weapon you choose, we might be able to double or even triple its power."

"And the second method?"

"Just like having too many armaments weakens each of them, adding too many traits to one weapon will cause the same problem. So, some people give their weapon a weakness, overall raising its strength. The greater the weakness, the greater the boost."

"That makes sense." Alex held his palm out, opening a gash. He began molding it with his mind.

As he started working, she checked the date on her phone.

"Three more days until the full moon." She turned to him and grinned. "We made it just in time."