"I-I was guarding the signal room as per my assignment when the a beep echoed from within the location." The disciple took in mouthfuls of air, recovering from the pressure.
Replying respectfully, he continued. "And when I went to check, I saw it was the life sign of fourth brother that disappeared. I immediately came here to report the matter."
His head was lowered to the ground when he respectfully answered.
The clan leader seem to have calmed down by now. The undulations emerging from him also stopped, the hall regained its peaceful outlook.
But his eyes blazed in a deep sort of contained anger.
"Tell us the location the marker showed, we need to go investigate the matter." One of the 12 elders in the room said with a frown.
"We should have made more preparations. It might be an attack from the other clans if they somehow got hold of the information that the fourth son knows the whereabouts of the Nightcore." The seventh elder suggested.
"We shouldn't jump into conclusions yet. Let's investigate the matter, then we can decide how to move forwards." The ninth elder suggested and then turned towards the disciple still kneeling on the ground.
"Tell us his last seen location."
The disciple quickly nodded his head and replied. "It was at the Blackdorm forest." He quickly answered.
"The one at the Seadorm City?" another elder asked aloud.
"Yes." The disciple reported with a nod.
"There shouldn't be anything or anyone in that small city that could eliminate the fourth prince which rules it down to the attack of the other clans. But we didn't follow the fourth Prince in order for the other clams to get suspicious but it seems that we've been outsmarted." The second elder speculated.
They were about to argue when the clan head's deep voice resounded in the hall.
"Second elder, and fourth elder. Go and investigate the matter and make sure to bring his body to me. If its the other clans, we should be prepared for war. We can't allow the Nightcore to fall into the other clans hands. But if its someone unrelated to the clans, bring me their head!" The clan head's words were forceful and deep. His words rumbled and echoed through their ears like thunder.
"Yes clan leader, we will do as you say." The second and the fourth elder immediately replied to his words solemnly.
• * * * * * * * *
Groaning painfully, David felt as though someone had sucked him into a bath of sticky fluids. He felt extremely sluggish and felt it slightly difficult to move a muscle.
"Ah, what happened?" holding his head, eh rolled over with his back on the floor.
Opening his eyes slightly, it was dark but somehow, he could still see everything as clear as day. And even better than the day actually. But David was too preoccupied to notice this.
Grunting slightly. His muscles felt incredibly sore like he had gone through several sets of exercises. This made him frown slightly.
He couldn't remember doing something very exhausting. The last thing he remembered was, was. His faced instantly paled and he spread his shirt wide, looking at the location where his heart was at.
He couldn't find a single scratch in his skin. Confused, David checked the other side of his chest to see if he had mistaken the sides. But it was still the same old skin.
"Didn't I die?" David muttered to himself.
In fact, his skin was even more glossy and pale compared to before except for the blood. That caked his skin, everything was normal. The confusion in his mind didn't clear one bit.
Standing up from the ground, he dusted his body only to realise his sore muscles were decreasing slightly. Although slow, he could still notice the small differences.
Taking a step forwards, he paused when he saw a dead body in front of him. Going closer to the body, he checked and he could recognise the person. It was one of the five second year students.
And he was literally mummified. It was as though he had been sucked dry by something.
Raising his vigilance, he went into combat mode as he gazed at the surroundings carefully.
"Hazel, what happened? I thought I died." The only person that could explain what had happened to him was Hazel.
"Oh, you are YOU now. That's good." Hazel's voice seem to contain an expression of relief which David immediately found odd but refused to point it out.
"What do you mean by that?" David asked in a daze. He couldn't help but notice Hazel's words contained some deeper meaning.
1. "I don't really understand what's going on myself but you seem to have turned into some sort of undying blood sucking monster. You killed every single one of the students. And literally sucked them dry of their blood. It was horrible." Her mechanical voice answered.
David's mind went blank and he seem to have gone into a daze. Pieces of memories flashed in his head. Fragments of images came to him one by one and when they finally seem to have created a perfect image, David mumbled. "Vampire."
He was now a vampire. In a daze he felt his teeth with his tongue. They were longer than usual.
His hearing ability has also improved as he could hear things at far distances. And his eye sight seem to have gotten better.
This made David grin. He had finally activated the vampire body. Now, what was left was the Werewolf body. He just didn't know the requirements for it.
He could somehow remember how he had turned into a vampire. He had always being one ever since he successfully practice the weakened version of the vampire body tempering exercise but was unable to activate it.
He needed blood of a powerful person to fulfil the requirements for activating it.
And the blood of the third year student seem to perfectly fit the criteria.
Suddenly, a piece of memory flashed in his mind. It was the memory of him gulping down a heart.
David felt his stomach lurched and he vomited to the ground in disgust.
Cleaning his face, when he checked to see the content of his bile, he stomach lurched even more. He had vomited pieces of red flesh. The fragments of the heart he had eaten.
"It's best you leave this place quickly. The blood of Phasers all over the forest would certainly attract a powerful mutated beast."
Hazel's voice woke him up. He struggled to compose himself in the end. Focusing on the matter at hand. He needed to get out of the forest. And although he didn't know how long he had being unconscious for, if he were to be surrounded by the beasts in the forest, there was no way he would be able to survive.
But first, he needed his bagpack. "Dammit, how will I find it?" he cursed as he could barely remember the direction he had come from.
"Hazel, can you guide me to the place I left my backpack?" David asked since he had no idea what to do.
"Yes, just follow the holographic arrow, it will guide you there." As Hazel replied, a sky blue transparent hologram flew out from his imprint in the night sky.
Replying with an 'Hm' sound, David stomped his feet slightly to the ground.
The ground instantly shattered like glass as cracks spread like spider a web.
Stunned, David looked down at his legs. Blinking his eyes, he let it go and assumed he had mistakenly activated four-fold strength and didn't take it to heart.
Moving forward, David felt his whole world turning to a blur and he smashed into several trees, tumbling and rolling as he fell to the ground.
"W-what is happening?" David wanted to cry but no tears came out. Glancing at where he had been standing before, several larges trees had a man shaped hole between them while the smaller ones had been smashed into pieces.
Feeling a slight pain on his thigh, a five inches iron was deeply embedded Into his left thigh.
"That's gonna hurt a lot." David mumbled. Gritting his teeth, David grabbed at the thick iron rod and pulled out. Groaning in pain. Blood pumped out like water from his thigh. He tore a piece of his clothing and padded the wound, stopping the blood flow.
Done with that, he stood up from his sitting position and stared in confusion.
"My speed seem to have grown faster?" his words betrayed his hesitation as he only felt the world to be a blur only when he activated Six-fold strength.
But he was sure he didn't circulate the technique as of yet.
"It's true, your speed's comparable to when you activate that strange technique of yours at full power. And it's even more stronger." Hazel's voice told him things were really happening.
This made David grin and he laughed madly in the forest. "Hahaha! I'm even stronger now!"
He clenched his fist tightly. And power he had never experienced flowed from within him. He hadn't noticed the first time as he felt incredibly sore.
But the soreness had disappeared, revealing a type of strength he himself wasn't sure he could control.
The strength flowed within him like a tsunami, threatening to burst out with the slight exertion of the muscles.
If it weren't for his absolute body control, he would definitely have struggled to keep his strength under wrap.
The only thing running through his mind was what if he activated one-fold strength technique to the power he currently has.
Or even Two-Fold strength, doesn't that mean he could literally crush everyone and everything blocking his path?