Emperor
I was pissed.
No, I was beyond pissed. My skin was raw, barely healed, my throat hurt, and I didn’t think that I could even speak if I wanted to. One of my eyes was all blurry and it ached. The fucking tortoise had nearly killed me. A fucking tortoise! Me, an Elder Vampire.
My emotions were so far beyond something simple like anger that I didn’t even have the words to explain them. And here came three Suul, and their dumb holier-than-thou attitudes and their stupid faithless shit. They were dumb stone age cave-people, stupid ignorant zealots that believed in the same nonsense that half of humanity believed in and used as an excuse to wage war for thousands of years on one another.
“Lay down on the ground faithless,” the Suul said, as if he was being merciful. “Bare your throat and take your place in the dirt.”
Ignorant fucking malparido pieces of shit.
My sire’s words echoed in my head. Endeavor to never start anything. But if you have to, if your hand is forced, or matters of honor demand it. Then end it quick; we do not play with our prey.
“Mari what are we—”
I didn’t listen, I threw myself at them like a rabid fucking monster that I was. Forced hand? Hah! The fucking assholes threatened us, threatened me with death. It was the matter of debt, there was no honor in any part of their worthless bodies.
I didn’t think, I just acted. The Suul were surprised but reacted quickly. A spear stabbed through my stomach attempting to stop my reckless charge, it failed.
I kept going, breaking the weapon with my weight even as it impaled me straight through. I swiped with my hand, faster than it could even follow and opened its throat up with my nails as sharp as claws.
The thirst sang its encouragement, but I was in control now, I just let loose. The Scarlet Moon Style sang in my mind. The other two Suul attacked, and I let them, their skills gave them speed that wasn’t great enough to match mine, I still let them hit me. Not because I couldn’t avoid them, but because it didn’t matter.
A stab through my shoulder didn’t even slow me down. I grabbed the spear and pulled, bringing the Suul close enough that I could grab its neck and pull it down to my level. I bit into its throat and drank as it thrashed against me, trying to stop me.
I heard a gurgle from behind, a yell of warning, but it didn’t matter. Acid splashed against my back, but after the agony of the fire it barely tickled. I threw the drained husk aside and turned.
The last Suul turned to run, but I didn’t let him. [Mist Step] sent me through him and on the other side where I reformed and turned, taking a spear straight through the heart. I swung my hand down, breaking the shaft then in a single quick step got close enough that I punched straight through his torso.
I tsked to myself as I missed the heart, I could hear it pumping just next to my forearm, deep in the chest cavity. I pulled out my arm then caught the falling head and sat down with it in my lap, my teeth sinking into the throat. Then I started drinking.
I still felt drained, I still felt like I was burning, I was raw. The blood flowed down my throat and I moaned in ecstasy of it, there was nothing better in the world than this feeling. It was life itself.
“Okaaay,” I heard Aurora say nearby.
“Get away from her,” I heard Jiyun add in a whisper, fear made her voice trembly just a little bit.
“You don’t think that she’s going to, uh, attack us? Right?” Aurora added.
“Report: Marianna’s biometrics are returning to normal.”
I felt a tiny twinge of regret at the fact that they were afraid.
Mask of the Blood Reaver — Second Investment; Fifth Carving
My carvings jumped ahead again, still no new skill though. I hoped that I would get something good soon.
I opened my eyes and looked at them over the corpse in my lap, still drinking blood.
They exchanged looks, but then continued watching in a kind of morbid fascination.
I sighed and pulled my teeth from the rapidly cooling flesh beneath me. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and threw the Suul off me, then stood up.
The way they took a step back made me wince inside.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said slowly. “I was injured and hungry. I wasn’t going to harm you,” I didn’t know if I was lying. At the time they had been just bags filled with blood to me, and yet I wanted to believe that I would’ve gone for the tortoise whether Jiyun had opened its throat or not.
Aurora gave me a long look, then nodded to herself. “I trust you,” she said and took a step forward.
Jiyun swallowed, then followed. “I do too. We are a team.”
“Yeah,” Aurora said, now smiling. “Team Sunny!”
I groaned but allowed a smile to blossom on my face.
Aurora got close to me, and looked me over, a faint blush on her face. “Uh… are you all right, your skin is kinda… pink? And I don’t think that’s because of all the blood.”
I looked down. She was right, my skin was pink in places, freshly regrown, and it was still regenerating and regaining its darker tan. She was also right about the blood, it covered me. I was also topless. Looking around I located my ruined vest and shirt.
“Ugh, that was my last shirt,” I grumbled, I should’ve packed more, but I hadn’t anticipated going through them that fast. I shouldn’t have let my sire have one.
Aurora cleared her throat. “I can give you my gambeson if you—”
I waved my hand interrupting her. “Nah,” I shook my head. “It’s fine, you need it and it’s not like anyone will look at me and think about doing anything, I’m a vampire.”
Aurora shifted and bit her lip, her eyes were stuck on my chest. I narrowed my eyes at her, and somehow, she noticed my attention. She turned away, a blush spreading over her neck and cheeks.
I rolled my eyes. “Saia,” I called to the dragon. “Can you help me clean up? And maybe cover me up a bit?”
“Feedback: Of course, because this unit is your personal cleaning service.”
“Don’t be a baby,” I chided as she flowed and spread all over my body, including my face, again.
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“You killed it,” I said a while later as Saia swarmed over the body of the tortoise, consuming it.
Jiyun and Aurora both looked at me with proud expressions on their faces.
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“Yeah!”
“Aurora flipped it over with her earth moving skill, then I attacked its weak spots while it was immobilized.” Jiyun added. “It tried to breathe fire at us again, but after what happened to you, we were more careful.”
I nodded. I had to admit that I had underestimated the two of them. I thought that I had to protect them, to be the one to take the brunt of the effort in the challenge. I was wrong, they didn’t need my protection, they were sufficiently capable by themselves. In fact, they’d protected me instead. I made a mistake that nearly cost me my life.
Being an Elder Vampire gave me power, but even vampires had weaknesses. The sun used to be one big weakness, even for older vampires. But fire was one too. Not because we were somehow weak to it, no more than a human or a shifter was, but because it sent our system into a frenzy. Our bodies tried to regenerate the damage as soon as it happened, and burning was the worst kind of injury to suffer. Especially if we didn’t quench the flames quickly. It drained us rapidly and prevented us from healing properly.
It was also agonizing, as I had just experienced.
“Thank you for helping me,” I told them finally.
The girls gave me soft smiles.
“We are a team, it’s what we do,” Aurora added.
That we were.
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“Report: This beast’s Source-Weave infused biomass is familiar to me,” Saia said once she finished consuming the tortoise’s body.
I frowned from my spot nearby where I was finishing up drinking the Suul.
“What do you mean?”
“Feedback: Some elements seem to resemble of my [Plasma Shot] engram.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You mean like the fucking fire blast that I took to the face?”
Saia’s eyes flashed. “Feedback: Yes.”
“Can you use it?”
“Feedback: It will prove beneficial in repairing my own engram.”
At least getting nearly burned alive wasn’t all for nothing.
“Okay, hop on and cover me up please,” I told her.
Since I’ve lost my shirt and vest, Saia flowed over me and dressed me in a long-sleeved tunic-like garment. Like her surface, it was silver with tiny hexagons etched on the surface. It was also extremely skintight. Since I still wanted Saia to have a drone out, she couldn’t use a lot of herself for my clothes. From what she shared; it was part of the undersuit that the Ke Erzi would wear beneath her full armor mode. Apparently, it was supposed to regulate heat, though that wasn’t necessary for me.
I looked down and grimaced, it was form fitting in the extreme, completely hugging each contour of my body. And it wasn’t restrictive at all, meaning that I could move as freely as I wanted. It looked almost indecent on me, even more so somehow than if I was just nude.
“Couldn’t you, like, make a plate and cover my chest or something?”
“Feedback: I could, but I would need mass from the drone.”
I grimaced; the utility of her drone was too much. She still came up to my hip at her current size, which made her capable of being a bigger threat in combat. I decided that lowering her combat ability in return for my modesty wasn’t that important.
I turned to where Jiyun and Aurora were taking a short but much needed little nap. They were humans after all. The end of the second day was approaching and tomorrow we would need to make the last push for points.
But, as much as I’d like to let them sleep, I needed them awake. I walked over and jostled them out of sleep. Jiyun had advanced into the Second Investment, which put her on equal footing with Aurora now. But there was more for us to gain here. We gathered our things then headed out in search of more monsters.
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We hunted monsters for several hours, each getting another carving, and hitting high 40,000 points from just beasts. My points were far higher, as I had killed the three Suul. I realized that the winners of this trial were going to be the people that had killed the other challengers. It was inevitable. The three Suul had barely 200,000 points all together, which was less than what I had total. Though this trial boosted my points by a lot.
I knew that the main reason why their numbers were that low was because the Suul probably worked together a lot more, so they split the gains.
Still, the only way someone was going to catch up to my numbers now was if they killed other challengers. Which made me a bit paranoid.
I had Saia watch out for any other challengers and helping us avoid them as we focused on killing beasts. While that might not give us the win outright, the beasts in this trial gave more points, and those counted toward our main gain for the entire challenge. It also helped us gain more Investment. By now, I was fully healed and recovered, the blood from all the beasts working wonders.
“I think we should head that way,” I pointed as we took a short break after killing a beast.
“Why?” Aurora asked.
“We haven’t been able to find any other beast kings, despite heading to different biomes. Most likely others got to them before us. I think that we should go for the emperor.”
“You think that it’s that way?” Jiyun asked.
I nodded. “From the memories I know that there is a river that way, and the beast has “River” in its name. It’s our best shot at finding it.”
“You really think that is necessary?” Aurora asked. “You killed the Suul and got their points, unless someone else kills more than three other challengers it’s unlikely that they have more than you.”
I waved my hand. “It’s not about winning. I mean, sure, I’d like to win the trial, but it is more about the opportunity for growth. I’m sure that the Fourth Investment beast would push us ahead by a lot.”
Jiyun tilted her head. “Isn’t it too dangerous? You nearly died from the tortoise.”
I grimaced. “That was my mistake, and if I’m being honest, I feel like that beast was at least mid-Third Investment. No way was it on the same level as the ferrorn. But it is your choice, we are a team and we’ll do it together or not at all.”
For a moment I considered telling them that I needed its blood, that my Mask required it to advance, but I didn’t.
“You think that we can handle it?” Aurora asked.
“I do,” I nodded and smiled. “We might not know what it is, but I’m sure that we can rise to the challenge.”
Aurora and Jiyun looked at each other and then agreed.
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We found the river in a couple of hours, killing beasts along the way. I had Saia scout ahead down the river as we walked its banks searching for our target. We had to step away and hide among the trees when other groups came through as we didn’t want to deal with them after what happened with the first one we encountered.
It turned out that assholes that didn’t want to work together at the start of the challenge were still assholes. Thankfully, once I showed myself their attempts at intimidation vanished and they executed a hasty retreat.
We walked for hours, and I was starting to fear that we wouldn’t find it in time as the trial slowly drew to a close.
Then Saia flew back.
“Report: I have found the Calm River Ungoir Emperor.”
“You sure?”
“Feedback: As much as I can be. It is a powerful large beast.”
“Let’s go.”
We walked down the river, ready for anything while Saia filled us in on what the beast looked like. It didn’t take us long to find it. It was sitting on top of a rock next to a shallow ford.
The Ungoir was a reptile, with blue scales and fins over its spine and on top of its head. It was large, about the size of a full-grown elephant, except it was lithe. Its head reminded me of an eel. It was long and curled up on itself in a weird way so I couldn’t see all of its body, so it could be larger than it looked. The most important thing was that it was sleeping.
Which was the most perfect opportunity for us to ambush it.
“Okay,” I whispered as we hid behind the tree. “I say we try this the quick way.”
“And that is?” Aurora asked.
“The stab it while it sleeps way,” I clarified.
“It has long claws,” Jiyun commented, and I glanced back at the beast. She was right, it was curled up but I could see one of its limbs, it was tipped with wicked claws.
“Don’t worry, we’ll just drop from above kill it in one shot and we won’t ever need to see it use them,” I said with a grin.
Aurora sighed; I cringed. “Why Mari, just… why?”
I closed my eyes. “Fuck, I know.”
Jiyun looked at Aurora and me like we’d grown an extra head. “What is happening?”
“She jinxed us,” Aurora told her.
Jiyun blinked once, slowly. “Aha.”
“Let’s get to it. I don’t want it to wake up,” I continued, hoping that fate wasn’t going to be laughing in my face soon.
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We had a plan, now it was all about executing it. I didn’t want to mess up like with the tortoise, so I made a mental note to not be an arrogant vampire.
The fact that the beast was sleeping on a rock made Aurora a lot more dangerous to it, so her job was to stay hidden and deal the first blow.
Jiyun was near her, her job was to keep Aurora safe and help where needed—in case that they fucked up royally that was, as the plan was still to kill it in a single strike.
Fourth Investment beast meant that its skin was a lot more durable than the others, the fourth tier was a big leap ahead. Invested became more at that point, their bodies denser, more powerful. I remembered the powerful beasts that I faced on Ish Vimza.
I had the physical strength to injure them, I only hoped that it would be enough.
My job was to deal the killing blow, preferably in a single shot. I climbed the tree directly above it. My trusty serpent-tongue spear tied to my back, and I had already used [Quick Swap Slot] to replace [Dodge] with [Slash]. Saia was sitting on a nearby branch, waiting in case she was needed just like Jiyun.
I crawled along a branch until I was directly over the beast. Then I got ready.
I pulled my weapon from my back and once I was in position I waved at Aurora.
She waved back, then pointed her hand at the beast and focused. I waited. There was the impression of the skill being used, as Aurora shaped and blasted out spikes made out of stone directly from the rock the beast was sleeping on. It yelped in pain, and I dropped down, triggering a skill.
[Slash]
My weapon blurred down and cut clean through the beast’s neck just as it was attempting to rise. The head toppled to the ground, blood splashing out of the wound.
I grinned like a maniac and turned around to look at Aurora and Jiyun who grinned right back at me.
“Ha! It worked.”
Their expressions turned from mirth to panic as their eyes widened.
Instantly I turned around. The beast kept moving, uncoiling from the rock even as its head remained on the floor. Three stone spikes were clearly visible on the rock beneath, but only the tips were bloody, they hadn’t penetrated deep.
I watched in total disbelief as from next to the cleanly cut neck that I had just slashed through, two more heads rose up to glare at me.
“Ah, fuck.”
I was so shocked that I didn’t react in time as one of the beast’s two remaining heads lashed out and hit me across the chest, sending me flying into the ford. I landed in the water hard, hitting my back against the hard rocks.
The beast roared, and then the ground shook as the now two headed beast charged at me.