9 Days out of Kret
“So? What’s your opinion?” Alec asked Alexandar as the two of them walked along the worn path, having left the territory of Kairahl a day ago.
“Hmmmm.” Alexandar hummed, scratching his chin as he held his arm up by supporting his elbow.
Alec just waited silently for the older, more experienced, adventurer and mage to reach his verdict. The teen trotting along peacefully as he looked around at the trees around them, unable to fully wrap his head around the fact that he was actually outside of the country that he had been born in for the first time ever.
He never would have thought that this day would actually be upon him so early into his adventuring journey, let alone travelling without Peter, Felicia and Angelica…
Both of Alec’s hands clapped into his cheeks harshly, getting an amused hum and raised eyebrow from the elderly mage besides him.
‘No. I can’t keep dragging myself down with that thought process. I’ll catch up and join back up with them, that’s all there is to it.’ Alec thought to himself, idly rubbing one of his cheeks when the stinging sensation finally got to his conscious mind.
Perhaps he hadn’t needed to slap himself that hard.
“Well, Mr Dius. I’d say that your control of your magic is about average given your level of experience with using it. But compared to your awakened flare…both your output and attribute potency are only at about ten percent.”
“Only ten percent…?” Alec asked, looking rather annoyed at the prospect of only being able to access a tenth of the damaging potential that he had displayed five days prior.
Though he wouldn’t lie to himself, in the depths of his heart there was a part of him that was actually glad he couldn’t access the full might of such an indiscriminatory offense. Such a power without control was nothing but dangerous, both to Alec and to those that he called friends and allies.
“I wouldn’t be so disheartened if I were you, Mr Dius. Ten percent is actually surprisingly high. Most who need to have their mana awakened are lucky to have six or seven percent after the initial flaring.” Alexandar informed him, getting a surprised look from Alec, his eyes blinking rapidly for a moment as he tried to come to terms with that information.
“Oh. I see. Thank you for letting me know then…I guess.” Alec muttered, not sure how to continue the conversation from here, which only got a small chuckle from underneath Alexandar’s breath.
“Just keep channeling and using your mana, eventually not only will your control of it grow, but so will your output and attribute potency. Practice makes perfect after all!” Alexandar announced in a grandiose fashion, summoning his staff specifically so that he could strike a pose while raising it high in the air.
His expression was full of nothing but child-like glee as he struck his pose, clearly enjoying it more than Alec was ever expected to. Which only made Alec snort and roll his eyes at the older man’s exuberance.
“And what’s so funny, hm?” Alexandar questioned, relaxing out of his pose with a mirthful grin and a raised eyebrow.
“You.”
“Why thank you for noticing, Mr Dius. I’ve been practicing my comedy routines.”
“It’s not your jokes I was laughing at, Alexandar.” Alec replied with a hitched breath, trying to stifle the laugh that threatened to bubble up out of his lips.
“Hmmmmm. A funny memory then perhaps?” Alexandar kept up the act, leaning close with his grin only growing wider as he nudged the teenager with his elbow.
“Not quite. Keep trying.” Alec egged him on, a small grin of his own beginning to appear.
“Oh! I understand! It’s- Oh dear.” The immediate change in the older man’s voice made Alec’s hand snap to his blade, his eyes beginning to move from left to right.
The last time the man had been serious like this, the Dune Worm had appeared. Alec wasn’t exactly in a rush to relive an experience as terrifying as that had been.
“Oh. No no, Mr Dius. This time it isn’t anything for you to worry about. Pardon the panic I caused. This time it’s more… annoyance, than worry.” Alexandar tried to placate the teen, making a small pacifying gesture with his hand even as he picked up the pace of his walking.
“Annoyance? Why? An ex-girlfriend nearby or something?” Alec needled the elder man dryly, only grinning when the man turned towards him with a strange look halfway between scandalized and elated.
“That was a good one Mr Dius! But no, not quite. You could call them a rival. I forgot that his bloodline lived in the wilderness outside of Kairahl and Xyrtah. I tend to spend most of my time within the countries borders or teleporting, you see. Travelling like this is a joy that really only lower ranking adventurers get to experience on this level, though it does have the downsides of experiences like this.”
“Teleporting around? Must be nice…”
“Oh, it is!” Alexandar chirped brightly, snickering at the facepalm he managed to elicit out of the teen.
Though the exuberance of the elderly mage slowly bled out of him as he relaxed his body and turned his head to stare north-east of their current position. The wind picked up almost as if it had a life of its own and birds left their perches, flying overhead the two adventurers with frightened squawks and echoing caws.
“…This is your rival’s doing, isn’t it?” Alec asked, rolling his fingers over the hilt of his blade as he felt his body tense up against his own will.
Regardless of how much Alexandar stressed that his rival was an annoyance and not a true threat, Alec’s instincts didn’t seem to agree with the man. And neither did the scent of iron on the air and oppressive weight that suddenly began to try and crush the teen, a staggered gasp leaving his lips as his legs shook and twitched in an effort to collapse from out under him.
“Mr Dius, push some mana throughout your body. Flare it if you have to. It will aid in fighting against the atmosphere.” Alexandar advised, standing casually as if the oppressive weight on the teen’s shoulders was a figment of his own imagination.
‘The difference between our ranks is ridiculous…’ Alec thought, pushing his mana through his body and instantly feeling the weight pushing down on him begin to lessen.
It still felt like he had five or six sandbags resting on his shoulders but at least it wasn’t outright crushing like before.
“Thanks for that. But this is nuts.”
“He likes to make an entrance, that’s for certain.”
“He really is your rival.”
“Yet again, such a sharp tongue Mr Dius.” Alexandar snorted, giving the teen his props for the quick comeback. “Oh! Though there is one thing I should inform you of.”
“And that is?” Alec asked, turning to look over at Alexandar.
In the instant that he turned his eyes away from the road, the instant that he let his guard down even somewhat, it occurred. The weight in the air crashed down on Alec like a shockwave and sent him to a knee in an instant, dust and wisps of dark red mana billowing out of the epicenter of a cacophonous impact.
“ALEXANDAR MY GOOD FELLOW!”
“Tyrius. It’s always great to see you, do you mind not crushing my charge?”
“Char- Oh! I see! I had no intentions of harming your apprentice, my bad!” The exuberant, yet high-class, voice exclaimed in slight embarrassment right as the weight on Alec’s entire body left him in an instant.
Another surprised gasp left the teens lips, but this time in relief. With a small hum he rose back to his feet and looked over at the impact-zone with a wary look, beginning to see the man that was no doubt Alexandar’s rival and…a teenager of his own?
The man himself had shiny blonde hair slicked back with a single long lock tumbling down his face in a way that was far too aesthetic to be natural if Alec had to guess. His eyes were sharp and a resplendent gold in colour with more ovoid pupils than the average human would have, but not quite slit like the reptiloids and dragokin. He stood taller than average at about 183cm and the clothes adorning his slender, and remarkably pale, frame were lavish and fancy in a way Alec had only ever seen from nobles in the books that he would read in the orphanage but, just like with Alexandar, the teen was able to tell the occasional magical matrix embraided into the material.
Though what really caught his eye was the thin but long blade at the man’s, Tyrius’, side. Sheathed as it was, he couldn’t see the blade itself, but the handle alone spoke of the blade’s craftsmanship, with silvers and golds carved in intricate patterns and figures. Yet while all of that may have caught the eye of the average person, what Alec noticed was the small grooves in the hilt that weren’t factored into the design, and the rounded handguard that had small dents and grooves that marred the otherwise polished metal.
‘This guy isn’t just throwing around power for the sake of throwing it around, he really is experienced with that blade at his side.’
The teen at his side, while wearing clothes just as lavish, minus the magical matrix embraided within, was almost as far from Tyrius in appearance and vibe as it was possible to do given the circumstances. Standing at 174cm with spiky-black hair tamed into an imitation of Tyrius’ own slicked-back hairstyle, equally as pale skin, and deep black eyes that oozed cruelty; the distinction couldn’t be any more apparent to the blue-haired teen.
And that wasn’t even taking into account the spear held at his side like a ruler’s staff.
No, the difference was easily evident. Tyrius was a nobility born of battles and experience, akin to a military general elevated to nobility through his great achievements and successful battles. This teen at his side was nobility born of bloodline, someone who was born into the high-class life without any struggle needing to be achieved beforehand.
Alec would be lying if he said that the thought of such a thing angered or incensed him, but it was just the slightest bit annoying to think about.
“Apprentice? No no. Mr Dius is just my ward that I’m helping to bring to Zenik as part of his own Quest.” Alexandar explained, getting an amused hum from the blonde-haired man as he tilted his head to the side.
“Yet you’ve awakened his mana?”
“I have! The poor thing had gone this whole time without having access to his magic at all. Isn’t that right, Mr Dius?” Alexandar waxed, turning towards the teen to back him up in his dramatics.
“I’m not apart of this.” Alec denied quickly, not wanting to get between [Tungsten-rank]’s, regardless of how friendly Alexandar claimed Tyrius to be.
“But we’re talking about you!” Alexandar cried, flailing his arms childishly.
Meanwhile Tyrius just held his chin in his long fingers and hummed while tilting his head a little, his gaze locked directly onto the blue-haired teen as he continued to play the straight-man to Alexandar’s exuberance. Something about the teen intrigued the man, even if Alexandar said that the teen wasn’t his apprentice.
Tyrius couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was that drew his attention so strongly to the teen. Though, before he could spend much longer studying the teen, his apprentice seemed to run out of patience and flared his mana in a petulant display of displeasure.
It was in the resulting instinct fueled reflex of the blue-haired teen that it finally clicked for Tyrius. The metaphorical lightbulb flaring to life in his mind at the exact moment that Alec’s fingers clutched the hilt of his blade with a white-knuckled grip.
‘Ahhhh. So that’s what it is, his instincts as a warrior.’ Tyrius realized with a wide-eyed gaze of excitement.
“Crowell, that’s enough. We wouldn’t want Alexandar and his apprentice to be uneasy.” He tried to soothe his apprentice, only getting a scowl and a dirty glare pointed in his direction that he ignored with the ease of a man stepping over a dying ant.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Oh, come on Tyrius! I just told you he’s not my apprentice. I just awakened his mana and have been giving him some tips for adventuring, my apprentice would be someone half as dashing as myself and far more of a mage-type than young Mr Dius here.” Alexandar puffed himself up self-confidently, only getting a small grin from the pale-man in return.
“Half as attractive? I think I saw some malformed half-turned back at the castle-grounds I could introduce you too.”
“UUAHGH!? How dare you!” Alexandar cried, somehow more offended than Alec had ever seen him in their nine days of travelling together.
With a comically large step forward, Alexandar pointed an accusatory finger at Tyrius and began to fire back an insult, but Alec had already zoned out. The teen too busy working through the information he had just been handed.
‘Half-turned? That’s a vampiric term, right? Are these two vampires?’
“Ugh. Enough of this tomfoolery. Are we here to drain these two or not, Tyrius?” Crowell snapped finally, getting a frown from Alexandar and Tyrius and a full-blown glare of wariness from the human teenager.
“Crowell, we’re here simply so that I can say hello to my one and only rival. Patience is still something you have to learn, it seems.”
“Mingling with humans like this? You bring shame upon the Von Lung household.” Crowell shot back with a dark glare and a baring of one of his elongated fangs that seemed to grow and sharpen right before Alec’s eyes.
“I’ve brought more accolades to the Von Lung’s amongst our kin than you’re likely to see in thrice my lifetime, little Crowell. I’d wait to comment such harsh judgement in the future if I were you.” Tyrius spoke humorously, but the warning in his tone was clear to anyone that was even remotely listening to the powerful man.
Unfortunately, it seemed Crowell was not one of those people.
In a blur of motion, a spear was in motion towards the throat of Tyrius, its edge honed to a razor-finish and its aim true, until it wasn’t. In a display of speed that left Alec in genuine awe, Tyrius grabbed the younger vampire and hurled him towards Alexandar, an almost bored expression adorning his features as he manhandled his apprentice. And with an expression equally as bored as his rivals, Alexandar waved a hand and seemed to telekinetically alter the trajectory of Crowell towards Alec himself. The elderly man only seeming to realize his actions a moment too late as his eyes widened and his head snapped towards Alec and Crowell.
Alec had spent this entire conversation ready for a fight but hoping one would not break out. Yet through the actions of his own helper, he now found himself with an absolutely pissed vampire flying at him while wielding a spear that he really didn’t want to test the edge on.
With the thud of two bodies colliding, both the males were sent tumbling back along the ground in a tangled mess of clothing and limbs. Surprised cries and yelps leaving the both of them as they tumbled before sliding to a stop with Crowell on the bottom and Alec lying horizontally atop him.
“God now I’m dizzy…” Alec mumbled under his breath in annoyance as he tried to get up as quickly as possible.
“You…You dare to dirty my clothing!?” Crowell’s incensed shout was accompanied by a quickly chambered and released kick that echoed with the dull clang of leather on metal.
The vampiric young adult, only a child of seventy-three years, had meant for the attack to easily and instantly incapacitate the human that had dared to dirty his clothes and humiliate him in this manner. Yet his kick hadn’t even struck the weak flesh of the human themself, only striking the flat of the human’s blade they had maneuvered into the perfect position to block his strike. Such an injustice –A human believing they could ever match up to him– couldn’t be allowed to continue. Forget Tyrius, this human had to be taught the pecking order.
Of course, Tyrius would get his just comeuppance for beginning this scenario in the first place, but he had all the time in the world to deal with him.
With a small twist of his wrist and flick of his fingers, the vampire’s spear flipped and twirled in his grasp he grabbed it firmly with the edge pointed forward and launched himself towards the freshly landed Alec.
“Oh, so we’re doing this now. Great. Cool.” Alec griped, hardening his gaze and parrying the lethal thrust to the side with his blade.
The strike was strong and fast, but nothing Alec couldn’t handle if he was on guard and didn’t slip up.
“Who gave you the right to deflect my attack?” Crowell growled, spinning his spear with the momentum Alec himself had given it and bringing it back up and around to try and gouge out the teen’s eyes.
A brief feeling of weightlessness flitted through Alec’s mind as he purposefully buckled his knees to drop below the strike before it could blind him and entered a prepared crouch. The sound of Alec’s blade cutting through the air was the only warning the vampire had to move his spear to block the reflexive strike at his midsection with the metallic shaft of his weapon, stumbling back a few steps and allowing Alec to stand and level a cool gaze on him.
“Who gave me the right? You can’t be serious. Attacking me out of nowhere like that. It's natural I would defend myself.” Alec shot back, refusing to take any of the arrogant vampire’s attitude after the sudden attack.
Neither of the elder combatants were stepping in to do anything, whether that be to aid in or shut down the fight, which evidently meant that it was up to Alec and Crowell to end this fight themselves, for better or for worse.
“You are a human standing before the rightful heir to the Von Lung bloodline. At your strength you are nothing more than a substandard drink, you are not allowed to deny your place.” Crowell growled, spinning his spear and beginning to stalk around Alec as the teen stayed in place, only his eyes moving to follow the vampire as he moved.
“You think I care at all about whatever pecking order you’ve created in your mind? Alexandar is stronger than either of us, vampire and human alike.”
“He is but trifling before a true vampire. The fact that Tyrius has allowed him to live so long is naught but misplaced pity, of that I know for a fact.”
Alec wasn’t so sure about that particular comment, himself, but he’d allowed the vampire to keep talking.
“He’s still stronger than you.”
“For now. At the end of the day, you are lamb before the slaughter. A source of sustenance and loathsome repopulation to a vampire, and nothing more. And with my qualification I will prove the inferiority of humanity.”
‘Major red flag. I thought this guy was just egotistical, but he may genuinely have a few screws loose…’ Alec thought to himself, fighting not to show a reaction as Crowell stalked behind him once more in the large circle he was tracing around the teen.
“With your qualification? What’s that meant to mean exactly?” Alec probed, adjusting his grip on the hilt of his blade.
“My qualification, [Warmaster] is proof that I am going to wipe the slate clean! Once I am done only one race will stand atop the pinnacle of strength!” Crowell stalking back into Alec’s view, his eyes blown wide and a wide, bloodthirsty smile stretching his lips. “And that will be us! THE VAMPIRES!”
There was the briefest echoing ‘pong’ from over by Tyrius and Alexandar before it was drowned out by the sound of shattering earth and a cataclysmic shockwave that threw both Alec and Crowell far into the air. For a moment all that Alec could comprehend was the ringing in his ears and the intense, all-encompassing sensation of pins and needles throughout his entire body.
Though after a moment, before he’d even reached the apex of his flight, the mental shock subsisted just enough for him to actually get some baring on where, what, and why.
The answers to those questions, summarily, were: About a hundred meters off the ground, give or take a few meters; He was flying through the air alongside a fair few tons of earth, trees, and one half-insane egomaniac of a vampire; And finally, because Alexandar had erected a domed defense against a piercing thrust from Tyrius that looked downright lethal.
‘Knowing Alexandar and who he would call a rival, that probably is lethal even to him.’ Alec thought dryly.
Though before the panic of being a hundred meters in the air could fully set into his mind and consume his every conscious thought, the teen managed to catch sight of one last thing from Tyrius in particular.
The vampiric man hopped a few meters back from the dome barrier of Alexandar and seemed to almost strike a pose. The man half-crouching with all his weight on his back leg and his forward leg almost perfectly extended before him. His blade not only drawn but held beside his head with the tip pointed directly toward Alexandar, a thrusting pose if Alec had ever seen one.
And had that been all that Alec had perceived he would have simply just chalked it up to a similar sense of dramatics to his ‘one and only rival’ Alexandar. But it was not the only thing that Alec perceived.
Barely a fraction of a second after taking the pose, a pulse of mana unlike anything Alec had ever sensed in his entire life flared out of the esteemed vampire and the point of his blade tore through the barrier of Alexandar. The few meters between Tyrius and the barrier closed faster than Alec could even begin to comprehend.
It was only the smaller shockwave of the barrier shattering that dragged Alec out of his mind and back into reality. The panic beginning to finally set in even as a part of his mind, starving and feral, latched onto the memory of Tyrius’ strange pose and strike and beginning to tear it apart from every angle that it could possibly comprehend.
“HOLY CRAP!” Yet with that part of his mind mollified, the rest of it was free to stew in the fresh batch of panic and life-threatening danger he currently found himself in.
“HAH! YOU ARE SO WORRIED ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THIS!? HOW HUMAN OF YOU!” Crowell cawed from nearby, his body entirely lax as he clutched the branch of a tree with one hand and his spear with the other.
Alec just gritted his teeth and ignored him as they fell, grabbing a large enough chunk of earth with arm’s reach and using it to move himself to one of the largest chunks. The teen quickly maneuvered to be on the top of the chunk of earth and flared his mana as much as he could within the confines of his own body to try and harden himself as best as possible. He knew that the landing was going to be rough and would hurt like a motherfucker but at least this would give him some chance of getting out of it without mutilation…hopefully.
The earth and trees thrown up by Tyrius’ initial attack finally struck the ground, with Crowell and Alec in tow. Dust was thrown high in the air; birds took flight and animals began to flee to the background music of shattering stone and snapping wood.
It was only once all the debris had struck the ground, and ruined a good chunk of forest, that Alec dared to do more than suck in and hold anxious breaths. Slowly crawling out of the stone rubble of his landing boulder, he looked around himself in the fog of dust for any sign of dangers or life of any kind.
“What an annoying cockroach you are.” Crowell commented from within the thick dust before Alec was raising an arm on pure instinct.
Yet with the time he had to prepare himself he wasn’t able to stop the kick that had been thrown at him from breaking clean through his guard, striking him in the side of the head and throwing him off the small hill of broken stone.
Hitting the ground and bouncing a few times, Alec reinforced his hand with mana and dug it into the ground, slowing himself to a halt while simultaneously swinging himself upright onto his feet. Something which definitely helped with the slight dizzy feeling that echoed through his head after such a hard kick.
“A sneak attack? Doesn’t seem very ‘superior’ to me.” Alec laughed as he tilted his head up to stare at the hill of stone that he had just stood upon, just barely able to see the outline of Crowell through the thinning dust.
And outline which clearly showed the missing right arm of the vampire, but also the faintest red glow from the stump of said missing right arm.
“What you believe to be superior and inferior doesn’t matter to me.” The vampire retorted uncaringly, throwing himself down the hill and towards the blue-haired swordsman.
Alec said nothing and only brought his blade up to parry the one-handed thrust of the vampire’s spear before tucking his blade in to bring it into a perfect overhead swinging position. Swinging his blade down and dragging some dust behind it as Crowell used his singular hand to pull the spear in closer and tilt the shaft to let Alec’s blade slide down it in a shower of sparks.
“Is that all you-“ Crowell began to gloat, only for Alec to slide his left foot forward and take his left hand off the hilt of his blade to grab Crowell’s spear and force the blade down and into the earth.
It was only the instincts of Crowell himself that turned a sword-tip through the ribs into a mild cut along the front of his chest as he jerked his hips back to avoid the blade as best as possible. The blood that left his wound seeming to cling to the edge of Alec’s blade and form a small line in the air before gravity took hold of it and brought it splattering back to the earth.
With a flare of mana that completely blew the nearby dust away, Crowell lifted, chambered and let fly a kick that would have surely fractured a rib or two had it struck. Yet Alec managed to dodge it through a quick hop to the side, only to be forced to let go of the shaft of Crowell’s spear as he used his mana-reinforced strength to bring the blade of the weapon back in close.
The tip of Crowell’s spear pointed at Alec as he held the spear at about chest height and twisted his hips to bring his right foot forward and his left foot back.
‘Another pose!?’
There was a pulse of mana from the vampiric spear-wielder, and he shot forward. His spear-tip stabbed forward three times with more speed than the teen had seen Crowell move in the entirety of the fight.
Faced with such an unknown, and such an explosive boost in speed and striking power, Alec was able to do nothing but simultaneously dodge and parry the strikes as best as he could. A long cut along his right forearm, his cheek and the side of his ribs being the best that he could manage; the spear-tip having gone straight through his cuirass like it was made of paper.
To Alec, such injuries were a failure: a sign of weakness and lack of knowledge.
To Crowell, such injuries were also a failure: a sign of weakness and a lack of power.
And the thoughts of both combatants showed on their faces. A grimace on Alec’s face as he tried to shake his right arm out and a deadly glare on Crowell’s as he tried to imagine the worst possible death he could give the blue-haired swordsman.
“You…you drew my blood.” Crowell growled, his eyes beginning to take on the slightest hint of red, “You make a mockery out of me, and you refuse to go down like you should.”
‘What are those poses they’re doing before these powerful attacks? I’ve never seen or heard about anything like this. Is it a vampire specific ability or did information of it just not reach our orphanage?...’
“I will make you pay a thousand-fold, human. Even as you lay bleeding out and gasping.”
‘And here I was thinking that just because I had learnt magic that I had nearly caught up to the other’s, what an idiot I am.’
“No thanks, I’d rather not.” Alec shifted the angle of his blade just slightly, letting his mana flow throughout his entire body like Alexandar had been teaching him.
He’d need every trick he knew for this fight, of that he was absolutely certain.