162 Campaign II : Quoranis Orates, The Figure Head

I felt the world slow to a snails pace, my perception so frighteningly fast I could perceive things I wouldn't be able to normally. The ripple of energy spreading with me as it's epicenter, and tiny frames of numerous spider like robots whose limbs began to interlock over my skin, creating an armorthat was unique to me and me alone. Their crawl over my body was like the caresses of doting lover, and their advent filled me with a confidence that was unlike anything I've ever felt before.

Each and every single one of those nanites became one entity, meshing and sliding over each other, until there was no way to tell where one started or the other ended. And they fit me like a second skin, or to be more precise it felt 'like' my own skin, a skin that I had more control over.

I felt the helmet fully cover my face and had to close my eyes because this was where it got weird. I felt the nanites crawl into my eyes, and place themselves over my pupils. It went on to cover my hair and head. And then it was over.

By virtue of my enhanced senses, it made it possible fore to see a reflection of myself from the eyes of everyone around.

My armor was different, it was more like a skin tight body suit, or to be more precise a ninja's uniform. I had on a sleeveless black vest, and fingerless gloves that stretch from my hand to the middle of my forearm, radiating a metallic sheen as a blue band stretched through the middle.

The trousers down to the boots were also black, and that blue band line, stretched from my ankle to my knees, and my helmet covered my entire face, clinging close to me like a ski mask, leaving my piercing blue eyes exposed, but even more so was the fact that there was a runic pattern on both my eyeballs. And to top it all off, I had a special gift from Malek, and early upgrade if you will.

And that was the hooded cloak/jacket that was a deep midnight blue on the outside and crimson on the inside. In a field of armored Envoys, I was the only one who looked as if he was just wearing a very fashionable battle suit.

The hooded jacket came down to my calf, and every time I moved the edge of the cloak seemed to be leaking soul energy. I think at this point I looked intimidating enough to shake my opponent's confidence.

I shot towards him, leaving a sonic boom in my wake, his Avatar was a humanoid figure with a snake head, but it's limbs were also snakes, ending with four ferocious looking energy snakes that radiated a red glow. His associate's was just a simple man with four arms, each holding a two pronged fork like some sort of titanic devil.

They attacked me at the same time, but the short distance teleportation of the power Crest brought me straight into the avatar of his associate, completely bypassing any sort of defense the Avatar might have provided.

Then I swung my sword down at the completely unprepared vampire, chopping of his head as the rune for [CUT] lit up at the side of my blade. His Avatar burst into a shower of light and disappeared as his headless body fell to the ground.

The entire battlefield was silent, I don't blame them for that because anyhow you looked at it, I just beheaded an elder in one strike. I was strong, and I had equally strong skills to back it up. But the truth is that it was just a matter of chance and luck, because even I was surprised.

In a drawn out fight, the amount of power I could muster would not even come close to what that elder could achieve, but I was a weaver, I lived to defy the odds, to make the world bend to my will. Being a weaver granted me abilities that could literally shape a world. The fact that he died so fast was a mercy.

Quoranis took the initiative to attack, whipping his snake limbs at me. The huge energy form of his Avatar slammed into my hastily raised shield, as I was thrown backwards, but utilizing my teleportation abilities negated that sort of momentum as I appeared ten feet above him, with my sword poised to let out a strike.

But Quoranis was a sharper tool than his dead friend as his avatar became compact, it's limbs curled up around his body like the coils of snake. Even with the rune for [CUT]on my sword I couldn't penetrate that barrier as a dull metal clang signified that my strike had been stopped.

He took a chance to retaliate immediately and whipped the snake limb into my chest, but since it was so big, it was my entire upper body that was impacted, including my head as I was thrown backwards a little disoriented. I would have crashed into the ground, but I felt someone catch me, and from our bond I knew instantly that it was Xaseah.

We landed on the ground, with Xaseah using her own body to stop my momentum, she was pushed back a bit, her legs digging furrows into the ground, as we came to a grating halt.

"Are you okay?" She asked in worry. I turned to her and smiled, though she wouldn't have been able to see that through my helmet.

"Don't worry, I'm just getting started."

Then I turned to Quoranis and raised my sword up, a golden glow began to crawl over the frame of the blade, moving from the hilt all the way to the tip. Then I swung the sword at Quoranis, calling out the name of this skill in my mind.

[Perception Cutting Gleam]

A beam of golden light shot at Quoranis, and he couldn't dodge it. This sword skill did not cause any damage......well not physically at least, but it attacked the perception of an opponent.

Which is to say the mental acuity, and concentration of an opponent during a fight can be tempered with. At it's current low level, all Quoranis would suffer was a loss of concentration and a little headache. But at higher levels, I would probably fry half his brain if not the whole of it.

Quoranis prepared his defenses, but this attack went past this defenses to explode in his face. Since I've never been on the receiving end of this skill, I couldn't exactly say I knew what it felt like, but I reckon it's like having a very bright light flashed in your face, and a loud gong going off inside your head.

The coils made from the energy form of his snake like Avatar flickered a bit, and then suddenly disappeared with Quoranis loosing control over his Avatar and unable to sustain it due to a lack of concentration.

I took advantage of his lull in concentration and teleported to his side. With my armor on, my teleportation effects were slightly different.

Everywhere I appeared there would be a rune circle beneath my feet, and a cloud of dark blue fog, littered with golden runic words. I appeared in front of him, and angled my shield, and shot it upwards, catching Quoranis under the jaw with an uppercut.

His jaw was probably made of tougher stuff, because while I did hear and feel the sound of it dislocating, my shield was dented badly, becoming a half moon shield rather than a full circle shield. Even confused and partially unsealed, the prowess of an elder could not be underestimated.

Before he came crashing to the ground, I swung my sword at his left foot, experiencing no resistance as I dislodged it from the rest of his body. I let his body hit the ground as he let out a scream of agony, and then he pointed his right hand at me.

An illusory energy snake flew out of his palm and hit me in the chest, driving the air out of my lungs. I took three steps backwards, feeling blood in my mouth as I watched Teluna appear and use a lance of darkness to pin the offending hand to the ground.

The very next second Kodak appeared and smashed his left hand to pieces, using all of his strength behind the strike. However even though his used all his strength, most of Quoranis's hand was still intact, having the strength and vitality of an elder vampire let him withstand quite a lot of punishment.

Teluna was able to achieve the results he had because he was at the Shadower rank, he's strength was way beyond was a BloodChild or Nosferatu could summon. But in order to completely pin Quoranis down, I had to use another more lethal skill.

[Sanguina's Crystal: Crucifixion]

The blood that had poured out of his body rapidly pooled around his four limbs, or what was left of it, and pierced through, turning into six foot long blood crystals that kept him tethered to the ground like the peg of a tent, or like someone who was crucified. The ability for a vampire to have the blood they control, take on differing properties was quite a rare and hard feat to achieve.

Not to mention the skill [Sanguina's Crystal] was very adaptive to situations, letting me create a variety of skills or attacks that utilized blood as a weapon by actually crystalizing it. I don't care how powerful Quoranis was, but he was not getting up from there anytime soon, at least not by himself.

With Quoranis captured the fight came to a stop as whatever was left of his guests and lackeys surrendered. For our first operation I'll say we did an extremely good job seeing as none of my Envoys were injured.

Maybe I was just being overly cautious, but this was a completely one sided victory, and for the first step in our campaign, this was something that would do wonders for our morale and credibility going forward. Now it was time to locate the trigger to the magical bomb this sick bastard had put in this children.

I walked up to Quoranis, pointed my sword at his face and said.

"You know exactly what I want, and what I'm going to ask for. But for reference sake, I'm going to say it out loud so your stupid brain can pick what I'm saying. Let them go!"

I said pointing at the kids that Teluna and the other Shadowers were now leading out of the tower. The children looked bloodied, gaunt, famished and sick.

This was not the kind of look you would like to see from a child, and most especially not from a vampire child. Their ages ranged from six to seventeen, and each and every single one of them had a hollow look in their eyes, as if they had completely given up hope on survival. Quoranis started laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked looking fiercely at him.

"Do you think it's up to me. Are you stupid or something? Look at the people who serve me, and look at where I live. You must have information on me, so you should know I'm not affiliated with any bloodline coven or gang. The guards would only ever work with a gang with a certain amount of credibility, which means that I don't call the shots. I'm just a figure head. Your stupid actions and lack of proper information has brought this poor kids to an early grave, you should have left well enough alone."

I was shocked, and I was panicked. I moved my sword closer to his throatand pushed it deeper drawing blood from his skin. Then I asked him.

"I'll deal with whoever pulls your strings later, but how do I deactivate the magic bomb. Tell! Me!" I yelled in urgency and panic as I was rapidly loosing control of the situation.

"Like I said, it's not up to me, but rather...…itsup to him."

After he finished talking, he pointed his fingers at the air, and there standing on a disk made from darkness was a person I hadn't seen in a while. Shamir the unsealed. I had almost completely forgotten he existed, but the sinister smile on his face was a big testament to the fact that this guy, was off the edge. He looked at Xaseah and licked his lips, drawing blood as his fangs poked into his tongue. Then he looked at me and said.

"Your move" then he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

And then the world lit up with a shower of sparks, and a rain of blood......…and death.