Enough
I was back in the gray world, a plaque with words written on it in front of me alongside a chest. I approached, taking a look.
Congratulations for finishing the Trial of the Tower! You’ve conquered floor 79!
You’ve finished in the 1st spot and were rewarded 60,000 points. You will be transported back to the Trial entrance after collecting your reward.
Well, I was glad that I was in the first spot. The points along with what I gathered on my climb, should be enough to cement me as the first spot on the challenge list. Now, we only had to ensure that Earth won too, especially since we didn’t have much more time. If my count was correct, we had less than a day left until the challenge ended.
The ranking did make sense though. Especially if others had to fight with copies of Masked from Kirios, I doubted that any would’ve been able to get past the Fourth Investment one. If their climb was similar to mine, that is.
I walked over to the chest and slid it open. From what I understood the rewards were based on how high I climbed and what position I attained, so I was hoping for something good.
The first thing I saw was a folded clothing item. I pulled it out and frowned when I realized that it was a shirt, black with a low cut and long sleeves. I turned it around, but so nothing that would indicate anything about its purpose. The fabric was soft to the touch, but didn’t feel particularly tough.
Saia flowed from my body, leaving only the thin suit covering my torso, and shaping her drone form with the rest. “Statement: I don’t detect any Source-Weave from that item.”
My frown deepened. “So, it’s a… shirt?”
Then I remembered the last time I was in this place getting a reward. I was topless and joked out-loud about about the Grand Spell not giving me a shirt. Did you hear me? I didn’t know the limits of the Grand Spell’s gaze, but here was a proof that it did monitor us. Or this was just a complete coincidence.
I tapped the parts of Saia that covered me. “Can you take this off?”
The rest of her flowed and joined the drone, and I pulled the shirt over my head. “Thanks,” I murmured to the nothingness around us. I got no answer.
Before I rummaged through the rest of the chest I pulled my revolver out and pushed the cylinder open then offered it to Saia.
“Can you reload?”
“Feedback: Of course.”
I turned back to the chest as she manufactured more bullets. There were two items next to the usual pouches of gemstones and coins. The first was a sheathed dagger, with the hilt wrapped in orange cloth. I pulled it out and as soon as it was out the blade caught fire. I blinked, leaning back and looking at the crimson blade and the wavy patterns I could discern on it through the fire. The heat wasn’t too intense, but it was still on fire. I pushed it back into its sheath and it went out.
The second item was a twin of the other dagger, except this one had a white hilt. I pulled it out of its sheath and immediately noticed the cold.
“How long do you think these daggers can use their effects?” I asked Saia.
“Feedback: Indefinitely.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“Feedback: They are drawing Source from around us.”
“Huh, I guess that they are going to be useful then.”
I slid them through my belt, replacing the ones Shadow had gifted me and my own, putting them in my backpack.
With that, I recovered my gun from Saia and had her flow over me so that I was sure the Grand Spell would transport her with me.
As soon as I had taken all the rewards from the chest, the teleport happened. I was deposited back into the forest, next to the shrine that I used to register for the trial.
I turned, expecting to see my friends, but instead I was assaulted by the sound of battle in the distance. I frowned, gripping my weapon as I scanned the surrounding.
The remains of our camp were nearby, the fire still burning, but supplies were left abandoned, signs of a struggle were present.
I saw a form in the distance with the corner of my eye and turned, recognizing Aurora running toward the battle. She had to have come out just before me and heard the battle just as I have, then started heading that way. It was foolish, she didn’t know anything, I nearly cursed, but knew that I had to follow after her as I lost sight of her behind a tree.
“Saia drone,” I said and she flowed from my body completely. “Go.”
She flew ahead, faster than me. I ran after. I focused my senses on trying to piece things together. I hear a lot of feet moving, clangs of many weapons, sounds of bullets flying.
I arrived in the clearing just in time to see Aurora coming up on the side of it. My party members were on one side, clearly in the process of running. The four newcomers, Jason, Diana, Matt and Mark, were firing their guns as Daehyun, Jiyun, and Khalil stood behind them.
A group eight humans were rushing at them, with a large beast running ahead of the group and soaking up all the bullets. I recognized a shifter’s true form, and the scent identified him for me—Li Guo, Zhang’s grandson. The group of ragtag humans were behind him, and an armored form leading the charge, holding a hand up and a glowing medallion that cast a protective barrier around them. I recognized Dubois immediately. Anger rose up from deep within, they had decided to try and hunt us down. I didn’t even know how they managed to find us, though Li was a shifter and his senses were capable of it—I should’ve thought of that.
But what turned my anger to wrath was the presence of a third group. Six Suul charged with the humans, obviously working together, one of them was taller, darker in color—one of their greater variants.
How Dubois managed to convince them was beyond me at the moment. All I could see was them attacking.
Before I could reach them, Aurora raised her staff then slammed it against the ground. The Earth sundered in between the two groups, opening up into a chasm and forcing them the attackers to stop. The shifter though didn’t, he leapt over it and despite bullets ripping through him, he slammed into Jason, his jaw closed around his head.
He snapped it off then leapt toward Diana, intent on killing the now screaming woman too. Mid leap, Saia dove, a silver shape that smashed into him and sent both tumbling.
I reached Aurora, grabbed her around the waist and ignored her yelp and attempt to elbow me in the face, then leapt toward our group.
I landed next to Khalil, and dropped Aurora.
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“Mari!” Khalil exclaimed as he ducked behind a boulder along with the rest of my team, hiding from the flying bullets, some on the other side had guns too.
I saw Matt take a bullet in the side and fall as Diana emptied her magazine into Guo Li, who wrestled with Saia on the ground, biting and tearing at each other.
Diana and Mark dropped their weapons as they spent their ammo and ran toward our hiding place. On the other side of the chasm, the Suul rushed around, heading toward us, while the humans took shots from across.
Khalil stepped close. “We need to—” I pushed Aurora behind the rock then turned, cutting him off.
They had incurred a debt toward me, and now it had risen, they had killed a piece in my sphere of influence. Jason was not a particularly important one, true, but he was still mine, he had traveled with my team and held his end of the bargain with me. A price had to be paid for his death. And more than that, they stood in my way, and I was done being the reasonable one. There was no room in this new world for it, not anymore.
I stepped out of cover, a bullet found my chest, but it had no trace of silver. My body pushed the slug out in span of a single step.
The shifter threw Saia from his body, her claws ripping long gouges in his shoulder and snout, Saia for her trouble lost a wing—but that was fine, it was only her drone.
The shifter turned his attention on me. It would seem that I was being underestimated. Masks, magic, skills, and an alliance with the Suul, had to have gone to the peoples heads. One look at my eyes should’ve told them everything they had to know, but still they came at me. They should’ve remembered the old stories better. I might not be as experienced as most other vampires with my power, but there was a reason Elder Vampires were feared.
My muscles burned, bulging beneath my skin, the sensation of tautness across my whole body was rising again as thirst woke from the scent of blood in the air and my anticipation.
For a moment, it was as if I could feel alien emotions in addition to the whispers, somehow even though I couldn’t quite parse them, I knew that they aligned with my own.
Blood of lost kin sings, feed, drain, rejoin.
The shifter, Guo Li, stood and glared at me with red eyes. His true form was massive, as tall as any human and twice as wide. He stood on four limbs, his skin covered in short and fine gray hair. His body looked more like that of a bull than a wolf, or perhaps one steroids, wider, appearing more stocky than lean, with powerful limbs that ended in spread out fingers ending in hooves shaped like claws, thick and imposing. They didn’t cut through flesh, they rent it apart.
His head was wide, surrounded by a brownish mane. Elongated snout with a wide jaw filled with thick sharp teeth, looking like a cross between an alligator, a wolf, and a bear. He was a monstrous beast, powerful and terrible.
He growled as I stepped forward. Suul ran toward us, but paused. They spoke, then half went around me, heading for the boulder where the others were taking cover. The rest spread out, watching me and Guo Li. Humans were crossing around the other side of the ravine Aurora made, heading our way too.
The nearly a ton of muscle and flesh trampled the ground as it headed my way. I pulled out my revolver, and fired, emptying the drum. Eight bullets found their mark, one hit his head, flattening against his thick hull, three found his shoulders, and the rest his limbs. He didn’t even falter, the bullets might as well be bee stings. I dropped the gun and extended my hand making a gesture.
Saia responded, the command was instant, this time pushing the bullets further in. Li stumbled as he flinched.
[Mist Step]
I reformed next to him, on the side of his head, I swiped my weapon up slicing open the side of his neck. He crashed to the ground, the wound already closing, but I followed up with more attacks, stabbing, slicing, cutting. He rolled swiping with his claws, but he was slow.
A shifter he might be, but he was not his grandfather. Zhang was stronger. He lashed out, attempting to bite me, but I danced out of the way, then I jumped on his back.
I rammed my serpent-tongue spear through his neck, slicing through the spine. He fell to the ground, twitching. I left the blade in, preventing him from healing, and reached down, biting through flesh and drinking.
Blood flowed through me and the thirst rejoiced. The taste was divine, the same as Zhang had been, though less intense. My body spasmed and memories flowed through my mind.
Dubois and Li tracking me by scent, finding the Suul and negotiating with them. Dubois offered them a win in the entire challenge, a chance to kill the person on the top of Earth’s list—me, and get all of my points, enough to give them the win.
The thirst rumbled inside of me, my skin felt like it was about to burst.
Mask of the Blood Reaver — Second Investment; Tenth Carving
Mask Consolidation
Ornament of the Revelator of Secrets — removed
Ornament of the Practical Student — removed
Mask of the Blood Reaver > Mask of the Sanguine Reaper; Revelator Seeker
Mask of the Sanguine Reaper; Revelator Seeker — Third Investment; No Carving
|Potential Augmentation| trait — Evolve Skill gained.
[One Truth Verified] > [Smell Lie]
[A Lesson Remembered] > [Memory Like Blood]
[Practical Learning] > [Learning Through Blood]
[Channeled Blood—Essence Door] skill gained.
I rose up, sitting on top of the corpse of the shifter. I took a deep breath, agony spreading through my body. The pressure built and didn’t abate, it felt like it was going to swallow me whole.
A sharp pain made me look down at a new wound in my chest. My eyes found a human with a gun pointed at me, firing again. The next bullet hit me in the cheek, I felt it flatten against the bone of my jaw.
I tensed, about to jump and rip him in half, but something pressed on the Way. A sphere of water hit him in the chest.
[Binding of the Ocean]
My muscles seized up as the skill hit me. I felt like every part of my body had just suddenly cramped up. As if I was under an ocean of pressure. The skill held me in its grip and I didn’t even know its source. From the corner of my eye I saw the Suul running up, their weapons leveled with my chest. Three of their thin spears pierced straight through me.
Then a golden light shone down on me from above.
[Act of Faith]
It filled me with warmth, and the binding on me shattered. The sensation within me reached a crescendo, for a moment the world froze, time stopping entirely around me while my mind whirled, the thirst spoke.
The world is a feast laid bare before us, ripe for the taking. We shall drain it dry, leaving nothing but husks in our wake. Our hunger knows no bounds, our thirst no end. Wake.
Everything crashed down on me. I rippled and grew as I started to shift.
----------------------------------------
Khalil bashed away the Suul’s attack, then dashed in, using his skill. A disk of yellow light appeared above the Suul then came crashing down on top of his head, it bowed the Suul, straight into Khalil’s sword.
He cut out of his foe’s throat, then stepped back, taking stock of the situation around him. He saw the Suul attacking the rest of his team. Jiyun and Daehyun were being pushed back by three Suul, Saia had her jaws around one of their calves, and Aurora had one of them trapped in a small fissure of earth, crushing his legs as spikes of stone pierced through his body.
On the other side, Marianna sat on top of the shifter her eyes closed and looking almost in bliss as blood trailed down her chin. Then he heard gunshots and startled, they hit Marianna, but she barely seemed to notice. The rest of the Suul went at her from the side, and Khalil started running, knowing that he wouldn’t reach her in time.
He saw Dubois point his harpoon at her and launched something at her. It hit her in the chest and she seized up, then the Suul reached her.
They pierced her with their lances, and behind them he saw one of their leaders, the dark colored Suul, towering over everyone else on the field. He charged and raised a massive wooden cudgel tipped with sharpened bone like a pick, preparing to strike Marianna and finish her.
They were a human and a vampire, friends, but with a chasm of secrets and worry between them. Still, he believed that their friendship was genuine, despite everything.
Khalil raised his arm.
[Act of Faith]
His skill rippled out into the world, manifesting what was needed. A golden light fell onto Marianna and broke the skill’s hold on her.
Marianna’s shirt ripped open on the back as two limbs pierced out. Khalil froze, memory assaulting him. He could smell the smoke, feel the heat of the flames. He could taste the blood on his tongue, and the scent of death.
Images flashed through his head. Dead bodies in the streets, men, women, children—elves. Limbs torn from bodies, corpses drained of all blood. The beat of fleshy wings and a monster in the sky.
He snapped to reality as Marianna straightened, she roared in a deep voice that reverberated through the world in an absolute tone.
Khalil’s heart froze in his chest, preparing himself to see the same kind of monstrosity he had watched burn an entire city in its wake.
Then, instead of fleshy bat wings, the two that grew from her back erupted in black feathers. Her skin changed tone, instead of a ghastly and pale tone of the monster in his memories, it turned azure, a deep blue. Her brown hair turned pitch black.
The Suul reached her, his weapon coming down. Her wings beat down, shooting straight up into the air, sending everyone around her to the ground.
Khalil raised his shield to cover his eyes as the wind nearly bowled him over. Then he recovered, his head turning up, searching.
She floated above them, her hair billowing around her, black wings spread wide. Her eyes glowed with an emerald light, and her blue skin contrasted against the sky. She looked like an avenging angel, lances still piercing her body, blood staining her visage, and no less beautiful for it. In a blur, she pulled the lances out of her body, glaring down at their foes.
Then she moved, a sonic boom followed her descent, and he was reminded of the horrors and the monster he watched commit them.