~The Sanguine Lord~

Using a messenger automaton we received from Rue, we sent it to Frank. This head sized; dragonfly shaped model would play a recording of their voice upon reaching the desired recipient using an implanted memory of the recipient and/or location. We were letting them know of our successful trip along with the announcement that we would take a few days longer to return as we were taking a detour to gather supplies.

We decided that visiting the hospital first would be best as not only would we be able to pick up supplies should anyone back home be injured, but the longer route should be a good test of our budding companionship with the spy Eliara Helfist. She only introduced herself with her first name, but when questioned she said most people called her Helfist due to her strange right arm. To put it lightly, she was hesitant about discussing that particular topic, so I didn't push. Asha tried to, but a glare from me shut her up.

A good portion of the day after meeting Eliara was spent traveling to the hospital. We were able to see Eliara's combat style once during our travels. We stumbled upon a pack of Gobkin. The flat faced monsters were squabbling over the corpse of a deer. Two of them were playing tug of war with its entrails.

The winner's triumphant cry was short lived as it lifted the claimed offal above its head. The toothy grin frozen on its face as a bolt fired from Eliara's arm pierced its forehead. It fell stiffly to the ground, eyes going glassy. The loser of the tug of war leapt at the intestines. As it paused, its primitive brain processing what happened, Eliara fell on it from a running leap.

Now in the form of a narrow blade protruding from her forearm, her arm severed the Gobkin's head from its shoulders. There were roughly twelve monsters left. Asha was keen to sit this one out, analyzing Eliara's skill. I summoned my scythe and misted over to the nearest Gobkin.

I would take a support role for Eliara. This was her time in the limelight after all. I slammed the butt of the scythe on the back of the Gobkin's skull, caving it in. It crumpled to the ground, and I surveyed the situation. Eliara was already on her fifth victim. I made an impressed grunt. She focused on speed and lethal strikes. If she couldn't land an instant kill, she would maneuver the target into interrupting another's strike.

A trio of Gobkin fired arrows at Eliara's back. I misted over to intercept them. Two shattered across my armored chest while the other sailed over my shoulder. I glanced behind me; it would hit her dead center in the back as she landed from a pirouette.

I gestured with my right hand and the blood from the Gobkin she just disemboweled flowed behind her in a small wave and crystallized just in time to catch the arrow before falling to the ground. I grinned, proud of my progress, and turned to the trio of archers as another round of arrows pinged off my blood armor.

I wagged my finger at them and swung my scythe cutting them down like wheat. God, I love this weapon. I turned and snapped my fingers, solidifying the pools of blood around the few Gobkin that surrounded Eliara. Screeching and clawing at their trapped feet, Eliara swiftly finished them off with fluid strikes to their hearts.

In the aftermath I took a deep breath, drawing in the pond of blood into my meridians. Turns out, us Vampires have a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to cultivation. Since we can only get our mana from blood as opposed to the environment like other mages, I have to hunt in order to not only refill my reserves, but to progress my core as well. Thankfully, it's a little easier to compress and draw out impurities as a bit of the universe balancing things out. Unfortunately for me, however, I have to do things a little different for a while.

I grimaced at the uncomfortable bloated sensation and stretched in a vain attempt to alleviate the discomfort. I approached the lightly huffing Eliara, "Geeze, I'm glad I managed to take you by surprise. You might have kicked my ass in a fair fight."

She arched her brow, "Might have?"

I shrugged with a grin, "In a fair fight, yeah. If the ambush was the other way around, then I'd have bet on you. Though don't forget, I've got my back up over there."

"I would have been done and long gone before she woke up." she retorted.

Asha spoke from her approach, "You assume that you would be safe. You would have lived the rest of your short life in terror from my hunt, little spy."

"And you assume you could find me, little servant." She spat back.

I glanced between the two terrifying women. The sparks shooting between them were of a woefully different kind than between Maya and Rue. Before they went from verbal blows to physical ones, I stepped between them, "Well, let's move on. I want to hurry and return home and make sure our guys are safe."

They glared a moment longer before relaxing. Wanting to change the subject, I asked, "So what's next for my cultivation? Do I just start working on making Pillars?"

Eliara raised a brow, "Truly? Even children know this."

I crossed my arms feeling oddly defensive, "Give me a break, my world didn't have any magic, should I make fun of you 'cause you ain't got any knowledge about how a car works or a plane flies?"

She raised her hands in surrender while Asha answered, "No, you must first prep yourself. The power of the next stages will shatter you. You must feed your core as much mana as it can handle and compress it further. Once it cannot take anymore you will be ready so long as you increase your understanding on the Dao as well. If you work on the next step with an unsteady groundwork, it could all fall apart at worst and be severely weakened at best. This is especially important for the Pillar stage as the Pillars are built from Dao directly related to the Foundation."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I scratched my head, "Huh, I guess that makes sense. But if I've got a good Foundation, which I think I do, how does my core getting compressed help with that?"

"To put it simply, the Foundation prepares your soul to bear the weight of the Dao while your core strengthens your body using dense mana. If the mana is uncompressed and diffused, your soul will handle the strain but your body won't."

As I chewed on the information a thought popped up. I looked at the girls, "I never asked, but what stage are y'all at?"

Eliara stayed silent while Asha answered, "It is generally rude to ask others who aren't close to you about their strength. You can learn how to get a rough sense of their stage, however. I am at the Bastion stage. I have four Pillars," she tossed a thumb at Eliara, "she feels pretty close to the Bastion stage, but I can't tell how many Pillars she has."

"Damn, so you're both pretty strong huh? What was it you said about the Bastion stage? You can destroy a hill with that level of power?" I widened my eyes, understanding how far I had to go.

Grinning smugly, Asha replied, "Depends on the person's abilities, but yeah, that's a good way of visualizing the power differences. A person like me who focuses on illusions is unlikely to deal that level of damage. On the flip side, my illusions are damn good."

Finishing our conversation, our group trekked onward until we stopped halfway through the night to allow Eliara to rest for an hour, but quickly continued. Finally, the sun rose as we crested a hill. I couldn't be sure since I didn't count each second and minute individually, but I believe the nights are roughly three hours shorter than on Earth.

Any thoughts on doing the same for the daytime left my body as I spotted the sight on the other side of the hill. I let out a whistle and said, "They're moving in herds, they do move in herds."

Asha rolled her eyes, recognizing this reference but Eliara glanced to me and said, "Yes, is this your first time seeing cloud grazers? With little defenses, groups help scare off threats."

I simply nodded, not bothering to explain. I was too enraptured at the sight before me. In a small valley formed by the surrounding hills was a small lake; more like a big pond. It was quite the scenic view, however, what seized my focus were the enormous, dinosaur like creatures that were lazing about the body of water.

Most were laying like a camel with their four legs folded neatly. Based on the few that were standing, they must have been about sixty feet from the ground to their heads; possibly a hundred feet if you count the strange feathery appendages sprouting from their necks.

They looked like someone fused together a brachiosaurus with a camel. It had a long neck to a stubby head. They didn't seem to have mouths, simply a small hole that they used to drink from the lake. They had three sets of eyes with horizontal pupils like goats. Running down their neck to their chest were large holes that acted like nostrils based on the way they opened and closed in tandem with their breathing. Protruding from either side of where their necks met their head were four of the aforementioned feather-like structures. It looked similar to axolotl gills. They waved lazily in the wind. From this distance, I could barely see small objects buzzing around them.

Like camels, they had long, thin, and knobby legs that ended in splayed fleshy stumps of legs. They supported a humped abdomen and a relatively short tail. Despite being short compared to the rest of its body, it was thick with muscle in order to act as a counterbalance. Some of the herd sported a fin-like crest on their heads that occasionally flushed blue in contrast to their greyish-green skin. My guess was that they were the males if they followed typical trends with Earth animals.image [https://i.imgur.com/hPc1Ecv.jpg]

Eliara broke the silence with a smile, "Beautiful, aren't they? Cloud grazers are gentle giants. They simply wander around, using their gills to take in mana and particulates in the air to feed. Make no mistake, however, they may not have many options, but they do defend themselves. See that hump on their back? Inside is a tough sack filled with toxins they filter from the air. When threatened, they squeeze that organ and a cloud of dense deadly fumes flow from the lower air holes. They close off the exposed holes while breathing from the higher ones."

I shook my head, "Amazing. I wish I had a camera. I would love to show the rest of our group. Show them that this world isn't all apocalypse and monsters."

Eliara glanced at me, her eyes softening a touch, "What's a camera?"

Asha spoke up, "A device from Earth. Basically, a nonmagical version of a snap-sphere."

Her eyes sparkled and she straightened, "Oh! I have one." She took out a rune engraved sphere from a dimensional bag on her belt. It looked like a magical prosthetic eye with a jewel as the pupil. She leaked mana into it and an honest to God hologram about the size of a tablet appeared in front of Eliara. It projected whatever the snap-sphere was pointed at.

"No shit?" I whistled.

Eliara blushed slightly, "It's just a hobby of mine. I like to travel, and I don't get too often, so I like to record what I see." She snapped a professional quality shot of the cloud grazers. "I wouldn't mind showing your people, I think it's a lovely sentiment, Victor."

I smiled, "Thanks." There was a beat where we were simply smiling at each other when Asha cleared her throat.

With a sarcastic wave she said, "Hi, third wheel here. I can see the top of that hospital poking over the hill there. Let's hurry up and get there so we can head back to base." She smirked.

Now both of us were blushing a bit and I grinned cheekily, "Third wheel? More like the sister who our parents forced to join us to keep an eye on the date." She rolled her eyes and I continued, "But yeah, let's go."

We descended into the valley and walked past the cloud grazers who watched us curiously. There was one close enough, lying down. A female craned its long neck down to get a better look at us. I nudged Eliara and gestured at her bag. She got the message and removed the sphere. She took a photo of the up-close behemoth.

I approached the grazer and placed my hand on her surprisingly smooth skin. I was expecting a pebbly skin like a reptile or elephant. But it was almost like touching a dolphin. She twisted her head that was as tall as I was before my transformation and her enormous eyes looked into mine. It let out a content rumbling hiss. I could feel the bassy purr deep in my chest and I laughed before giving her one last pat and leaving to the hospital.

I sidled up to Asha and said, "Yeah, that's gonna be a core memory."

"Definitely an unforgettable experience." she replied.

We climbed over the final hill and revealed the hospital. A partially filled parking lot had a large sign that proclaimed, "St. Rita's Medical Center."