Faster and Faster

Stella

In the halls of a luxurious mansion, a grotesque creature prowled, searching for intruders. It had pitch-black skin covered in quills, stretched over powerful muscles. Along its spine were six whiplike tendrils, each ending in a racer sharp blade. There was a thick, strong tail at the end of its body. Its head was cone shaped, with its mouth opening four ways, like a flower bud. As it searched the area, it occasionally opened the edges of its mouth and smelled around like a bloodhound.

Suddenly, the beast reacted to an unseen presence. It tried to make itself look bigger and made a sound similar to growling. A loud burst rang out several rooms over, and the creature tried to jump into the air to dodge. A glowing red line of blood crashed through the wall, turning it into rubble. The beam curved through the air towards the monster, impaling it through the heart. The beast's torso exploded into millions of pieces, staining the ground with purple blood. It's mouth opened wide, and four more bladed tentacles shot out, preventing the head from hitting the floor. A single purple stone rested in the middle of its mouth, where there should have been a throat. Its body began to grow back from its neck stump.

"Ahh, that's a shame." Stella said as she stepped forward. "I was hoping your weakness would be in your heart."

The area around them, which had previously been a maze of intersecting hallways, was now a wide-open area, littered with rubble from collapsed walls. The moonlight was pouring into the room through various holes in the roof, created by a lack of supporting structure. The creature fully reformed its body in a matter of seconds.

Its regeneration is faster than mine. Its body isn't that durable, but the core might be a different story.

Stella got into a low stance and created another orb of blood. She aimed the small, pointed blade coming out of the sphere towards the creature's face. The monster crouched as well, ready to spring to action at any moment. Stella launched the attack, which rocketed towards it. The monster had been waiting for her to attack and timed its jump to avoid the attack. It pounced towards her over the whip. Stella turned the end of the whip near her hand into a handle, and pulled it back behind her, prepared to swing it horizontally at the monster. The creature watched her hand carefully, ready to avoid the attack. Stella charged an attack in her left hand, releasing it as soon as she could. The whip was only charged for half a second and was noticeably smaller and slower than the other. Nonetheless, the monster was distracted, so the attack still landed. Her whip bounced harmlessly off the creature's core.

Damn it. I've always known that my armament has a weakness. She swung the whip in her right hand at the monster's head. The attack hit the core, but failed to slice it, instead slamming the creature into the ground. The charged attack was the original design. But if I wanted enough power, the charge time was too long. I modified it into a whip so I could attack without charging and designed it to tangle up enemies so I could hold them in place while I charged it. But...

She stabbed her whip into its torso. It split inside the creature's body, launching ancors into the floor around it. The beast's tentacles began swinging wildly, carving up its own body. It cut around the armament inside its body, freeing itself from Stella's grasp, then quickly healed from the damage.

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I thought so. I'll just have to charge my armament faster. She laughed to herself. If only it were that easy.

It ran towards her, swinging blades at every part of her body. Her sixth sense told her not to get slashed by them, so she deftly avoided the attacks one at a time. As she dodged, she charged another attack. She shot it as soon as she could, and it bounced off again. She repeated this process several times, never succeeding at damaging the core.

No improvement. Well, it's not like I'm surprised. I was frail when I was human, and I don't attack people, so I'm weaker than other vampires. She continued avoiding blades and launching attacks. I tried training when I was younger, but it didn't work. Humans get stronger when they exert themselves because their body heals the minor tears in their muscles and makes the area stronger in the process. But vampires regenerate back to their default state instantly. We can't get stronger. An image of someone's face flashed into her mind, and she stopped in her tracks. Who was that again?

She split her whip into five blades and swung it horizontally. The creature jumped backwards and out of reach of the wall of blades. Stella jumped back at the same time and stood still, thinking to herself. The beast eyed her warily.

Was she the one who taught me magecraft? What was it she said to me? She dismissed her armament and stood completely still. Ah, that was quite a long time ago, wasn't it? She saw a memory of herself and three humans, walking along a quiet forest trail.

"I've seen a few mages and sorcerers with the same weakness as you. Their attack takes too long to charge." The girl walking next to her explained. "Normally, they just train to charge their attacks faster, but that isn't an option for you, right?"

"Yeah. Armaments can only be improved by drinking blood."

"Well, don't do that." She put her hand on her chin and thought for a moment. "I've got nothing. I don't know enough about vampires."

Stella looked disappointed. "How did you get stronger then."

"Hm? I just wanted to really bad, so I tried harder."

The two walking in front of them laughed, and the one with a sword on his hip turned his head. "I think that only works for you."

Stella was snapped back to the present as the monster charged her again. As it was about to collide with her, she suddenly disappeared from its field of vision. It looked around frantically, and realized she was standing a few feet behind it.

What is it that I want, anyways. She thought about everything that had happened recently. She was defeated by a fledgling, ran out of her territory, created an even stronger fledgling, and barely held out against a group of humans. Now she was struggling to defeat a mere familiar. Her first defeat in centuries had turned into a losing streak. I want to get stronger. I've been exactly the same for centuries. I'm tired of being stuck in place. She laughed softly. She was always weird. I'll do it faster because I want to, huh?

The monster pounced at her again and she pointed the palm of her hand at it. She closed her eyes, changing her perception of time to give herself more time to think. She focused her entire mind on the palm of her hand, gathering vampiric energy in the orb. She began to feel a burning sensation in her chest. She charged and released the attack instantly. It shot out at the speed of sound, piercing the creature's core and shooting off into the sky. She looked down at her hand.

"Huh, it worked." She walked away from the evaporating corpse, trying to find her allies. I feel kind of... weird, though. She looked up at the ceiling. I wonder what her name was.