211 Vampirism 101 VI : Total Recall

Aura was freaking amazing! Not that I've mastered it or anything, but the effects brought about from using it, for just a few minutes was amazing. I didn't just get the memories of my sword skill back, I got back all my memories. Every minor or major detail that has been missing in my life, all came back full force almost as if they were never missing in the first place. I remembered faces, contacts, enemies, assets, and most importantly skill,and also my first soul rune [Summon].

I was excited, and somehow, I felt complete. Baeki looked up at me, completely surprised by the move I just displayed with the staff. Then right in front of her, I placed the staff over my knee, and broke it into two equal halves. I held one of them above my head, and placed the other pointing at her, it's tip angled vertically, while the other end was just below my waist. Sword skills were flashy, and more often than not unrequiredin a fight, but apart from the fundamental moves of swordsmanship which included the slash, pierce, and parry sequence; more advance moves and variations could be made by combining the fundamental moves into various sequence, supported by body movement and strength and speed allocation and finally energy pattern and mental visualization.

The nine gates of the ether sword skill, now the nine gates of Aura sword skill, placed emphasis on this, in a variety of ways. There were two traditional moves of pierce, two traditional moves of slash, and two traditional moves of parry. The final three moves are blanks, left up to the swordsman to create and form according to his preference by combining any of the six traditional moves to make three killing sword moves. But the thing is, every sword move, apart from a parry, was a killing move, and this skill helped swordsmen to understand it. Too bad it's a skill that's entirely unique to the Cor family.

It only took a moment for me to remember that we were still falling from the sky, though that moment cost me a bit of my concentration, causing me not to react on time when Baeki smashed her staff on the balcony we were on, blasting it to pieces. I jumped and landed on a tiny piece of balcony, and looked up to see Baeki falling towards me. I pushed off the patch of concrete, and swung both halves of my broken staff in a X formation, utilizing the first move of slash [Whip Cut]. I swung both rods from my back, infusing them both with my aura, as I flicked my wrist. The rods became like the handle of a whip, and my aura flashed out of their ends, extending like a whip as they sliced through the air at Baeki.

She crossed her staff in front of herself, spinning it a bit to create a whirling shield of aura. Both aura whips cut into the shield and pushed her upwards, forcing her to summersault backward through the air, going back up rather than down. I kicked off another falling piece of debris, and another, climbing upwards like some sort of retro game, building momentum to carry out the second move of pierce, but this time I was going to use it in tandem with the sword skill that always seemed to place a burden on me mentally. I really should give it a name though.

The [Rhythm Needle]was a move that gathered your energy to a single point, and released it in overlapping waves, each wave more deadly and sharper than the last. In hindsight it was like shooting a gun, and it was a move that could only be used with one blade. I jumped off the last piece of debris in sight, and turned my rod so that my clenched palm faced up towards my face, and it was drawn close to my chest. [Rhythm Needle] was a lounging or pouncing move, and at this point I had already gotten the momentum I needed. I don't know much about aura, or how finite of a resource it was, but I made the best of what I had by pushing all of my emotions into the body of the meter long rod in my hand. It vibrated so much as aura filled it to the point of bursting.

Then I closed my eyes for a moment, drawing on that mysterious sword skill that could cut through anything, then I stabbed forward. I was still relying on the momentum of my jump to fly towards the now falling Baeki, and for a vampire, such a jump would be ten times as powerful as a rocket blasting off to space. The air in front of the rod seemed to be parted and disturbed, it was like watching a missile break the sound barrier. There was shimmer that started from the bottom of the rod, all the way to the tip, and then.

BOOOOM!

The rod exploded into pieces, causing a shockwave that pushed me backwards with such speed I was like a rock thrown from the sky. A beam of blue and red energy flew towards Baeki, blasting apart the air and releasing subsequent booms until it got to her vicinity. And then I saw something I don't think I'll ever be able to forget in my entire lifetime. The giant head of a demon made of flames of myriad colors appeared behind her, but not just that, there was also a figure of a tiny ghost like woman sitting cross legged on the demon's head, her palms clasped together. Her figure was ghostly, but she was glowing with an intense golden light like some sort of Buddha. For such a sight to appear, I knew it was because Baeki apparently felt threatened by my attack. Then she swung her staff down, creating a stream of fire that engulfed my attacks, and rushed downwards to encompass me. I covered myself with my aura,but even then, all I could see were flames, and it burned. Suffice it to say, I've lost this round.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"There may be hope for you yet." Baeki said to me as she escorted me outside of her castle.

"You burnt me until every inch of my body was charred and crispy, if I was not a vampire I would have been scarred for life! So yeah there's hope, hope that I never get to train with you again." I said to her with a straight face. However her voice took a pitch as she replied in a sing song voice.

"Oppa! Don't be mad. I was just trying to help you. There's still many things to learn you know."

I couldn't help it, I shuddered. If I've not just seen this crazy woman manifest the head of giant demon made of flames, and experienced what it was like to be barbecued alive, I would have thought she had the cuteness factor down to a T. But this woman was the highest grade of sadist I've ever met, and that bright smile all over her face, just made her seem all the more terrifying.

"Sure whatever you say Baeki. Anyway I'll be taking the fight to the green district next, however my aim won't be conquest for the whole district."

"Really! Why? I though your grand plan was to unite the entire pit under your banner. It would help you face the incoming darkness and the council of light."

"That's true. While sovereign rule sounds good and amazing, if there's anything earth's history has taught us, it's that there would always be people dissatisfied that one man held all the power. So my plans is to divide the power in the pit into three groups, with a single collective council. The first group would be yours, I don't think your vampires would be happy if you serve or follow me. Our duty, when the time comes for it, will bring us together with the rest, who leads or who doesn't shouldn't matter. I've every intention of not doing things the way Earth wants us to. Think of it as me throwing a temper tantrum and going through my rebellious phase, mother Earth can suck my D**k if she doesn't like the way I choose to live my life. I'll do what needs to be done, but it'll be on my own terms.The next group would be what's left of the bloodline council, their influence stretches across the green and red district, so that should be enough for them, at least until there's a change. And finally there'sme and my city, I have the entire blue district, and that's more than enough space for me to build a freaking kingdom. However I still want to know what lies on the other side of that canyon's pass, to see Transylvania. So right now, my aim is not to conquer the green district, it's to get rid of the council of light's influence, and find the array that they use in placing seals on new born within the pit. But after that, it would be a full blown war, especially with the other prisons, and I'll need your help to get every major player into an alliance. There's no need to drag our feet any longer, let's kick the guards out, get our dragons and prepare for a war."

Baeki was silent, her gaze serious and focused. I knew she was thinking about what choice I would be making and how she could benefit from it. Or I could just be wrong, I honestly had no idea what went on in that crazy head of hers, but I had this lingering feeling that I could trust her. Unlike those novels where the main characters would keep the secret of their reincarnation to themselves, here; though it was not a publicly known fact, it was also not a secret either. We both had people who accepted us regardless, and now we sort of had each other. We're stuck in the same boat, being ferried across a turbulent sea by the same scheming captain. We had no choice but to stick together.

"I'll support you no matter what you choose. You can count on me, and as an added bonus, when you're done with Adein and the guard tower, come back here, and I'll show you how to increase you rank as a vampire. And if everything goes according to plan, after your fight with Adein, that's a knowledge you'll really need. See you later Kael Oppa."