Book 3: Chapter 67

Book 3: Chapter 67

The vampyr rushed at Kay screaming in rage, his words lost in the volume and rage of his voice. He tried to push Kay back by grabbing at his shoulders, but Kay knocked his arms back and kicked him away. In a display of how much stronger he’d become, the vampyr was sent rolling across the floor away from him. After tumbling a few times the vampyr pushed off the ground and flipped back to his feet, glaring at Kay in a rage.

“What sacrilege have you done here? What heresy have you contrived? You were given the ultimate gift of the light of the one lord above all, and you squander it? Nay, you contort it into a mockery of the glory you could have had? You are not the rival and friend who would have stood with me through thick and thin, only leaving my side for development and to learn deep truths about yourself and your goals! You are the very antithesis of the most holy one, the lord I serve! You are the epitome of darkness, born in the pits upon which the sun never shines! You shall fall this day, dark lord, your darkness consumed in the searing power of my light, as representative of the most glorious lord! My left hand is the left hand of-“

The vampyr kept ranting, his rage completely absorbed into the delusions that ran his world. Kay took the time to get a lay of the land. They were in a cave, one that had obviously had some work done too it. Most of the walls were still rough, unworked stone, but there were a few places that showed evidence of the vampyr changing the area to suit him. There was a roughly put together bed fashioned from pieces of scrap wood and some bedrolls and near the exit to the area he’d constructed an equally misshapen stage. There were foot prints worn into the surface of it, showing incessant use.

Lauren and Hunter Ravenhome were where Kay remembered, hanging from metal rods that had been jammed into natural arches in the cave. Both were stilled tied with red, magically conjured chains. They hung limply, no longer screaming in pains and they both looked incredibly pale. They occasionally jerked and thrashed, and when Lauren’s head lolled to the side he saw one of her eyes was partially open, and it glowed a nasty looking poisonous green that shimmered into a dark red before fading back to her normal brown eyes.

Kay hoped that he could use his Purify Blood Skill to save them from being turned into insane monsters, but he needed time to use the Skill on them. That meant dealing with the insane monster in front of him first. He didn’t want to fight where they could become collateral damage or hostages, so step one was getting the vampyr out of the area.

The vampyr was still ranting, now comparing Kay to villains in plays and novels that the vampyr apparently liked based on some of the comments, and repeatedly declaring Kay more evil than any of them, even the one that-

Completely blocking out the madman, Kay raised his arms and a font of blood erupted from his skin. The two geysers punched the vampyr backward toward the entrance to the cave and sent him tumbling once again. He hit the ground with the thud and slid backward, leaving a furrow in the dirt outside the cave.

Kay followed, armor forming over his body from the blood that leaked out of his pores. He hadn’t had time to read his new Class’ description, and he didn’t have time to paused and do that now, but the System had said it was harder to get and more powerful than the other option that he cold get through combining all his Classes together, and he could passively feel some of what it would let him do. The vampyr had removed his clothing and gear, which meant he didn’t have his enchanted storage containers filled with blood. But he did have his body, and he felt that one of his new Skills gave him a lot more blood to use just under his skin.

Kay stepped out of the gave completely covered in blood red armor, with a faceless helmed that slammed shut over his face as he strode to meet the vampyr, who was struggling to his feet. Only Kay’s eyes were visible through a thin gap.

“You dare-“

Barely managing to get his arms up to block, the vampyr was hammered back by a swing of Kay’s halberd. The first slash cut a line through the monster’s arms, the follow up smash downward put the halberd’s spike through his shoulder, the follow up to that, a backhand to the face, had the vampyr jumping back to dodge.

He snarled, his fangs descending and dripping a viscous, corrosive looking liquid that shimmered with unnatural colors. Red patterns formed across his skin, similar but not the same as the ones he’d conjured above the stage back in the village. With a roar he dove forward, trying to tackle Kay around the waist.

Kay turned and brought his elbow down to smash the back of the monster’s neck, but the vampyr slashed upward with claws extending out of the tips of his fingers, bone poking through the skin. Chunks of Kay’s armor got ripped off by the razor sharp extensions and the monster followed up with more of the same, gouging out pieces each time he managed to make a strike land.

Kay shrunk his halberd down into a sword for the closer fight and extruded a blade from his fist of the other hand. Small, shallow strikes got through on each side, but Kay was much more suited to an endurance battle than the vampyr. Each bit of armor that got removed immediately started repairing itself, slices and tears filling in as Kay merely willed the damages to fill themselves in with more blood, while each strike Kay got in left a visible wound that didn’t heal.

With a shriek the vampyr started trying to bludgeon Kay inside his armor, realizing the obvious fact that cuts and sharp strikes were doing nothing, but Kay was ready for that. Each time the vampyr’s blow landed the part of Kay’s armor being struck temporarily returned to a liquid state, absorbing the blow and dispersing it, each attack as pointless as punching the ocean.

“No!” The vampyr screamed as he started to be overwhelmed, leaping back and pointing at Kay with one hand, a single bony finger outstretched, “I am the hero! I do not fall to evil! Evil falls to me! You will-“ He stopped, mid-wail his his eyes drawn to the back of his hand. Kay had cut him there a moment ago. The small slice, a tiny inconsequential wound in most cases, was slowly growing. Where Kay’s weapon had struck him, his skin and muscle were starting to melt away. The vampyr stared at his hand, uncomprehending. He looked down at himself, and saw a dozen small wounds that he’d ignored, all slowly growing as his body vanished a fraction at a time.

“What have you done!? What is this!?” Earlier the vampyr had been a handsome man, if you looked past the uncanny valley his being presented to the human he’d been once before. Now he looked like the monster he was. Elongated limbs, barbed claws poking out of his wide spread bony fingers, his legs bent outward at the knees. His eyes were wide and unblinking and his lips were peeled back, showing off his massive fangs and incredibly sharp needle-like teeth. Purify Blood was burning away the eldritch corruption that made up the very core of the vampyr, and his body was no longer hiding its true monstrosity in the face of existential defeat.

Kay’s response was a volley of blades launched from his armor, aiming at each of the monster’s limbs. The vampyr leapt back, landing on all fours and charging forward like a beast in a werewolf movie. He tore up the ground with his claws as he pushed off from the ground, his arm outstretched to rip at Kay’s helmet, caution flung away in his rage and eldritch fueled instincts to destroy the threat Kay had become.

She stared at him for a long moment before dropping her head back against the rock wall of the cave, her eyes closed. “...”

“Lauren?”

“That’s... better than being an insane vampyr?”

He sighed in relief, “That’s what I said too, but neither of you would wake up to agree or not, so I just went with it.”

“I’d follow you anywhere at this point, Kay. You’ve more than earned my loyalty and friendship. Getting turned into a new species isn’t my breaking point.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“I want danger pay, though.”

“Lauren, you already get danger pay just from coming with me on this misadventure. You’re getting triple danger pay for the rest of it.”

“Damn straight I am. Who the fuck turns people into a new species?”

“I didn’t have any other choice!”

Lauren laughed then groaned, clutching at her chest in pain. “Ah, fuck.”

Kay patted her on the shoulder gently. “It’ll be alright. In the end, at least.”

“I know. But in the moment? This is crazy.”

“Oh, I totally agree with you.”

“What are we going to do when we get back home? You totally look like a vampyr, and I’m guessing I do too. I mean, you don’t really, not at close examination, but a quick look? People are going to freak out.”

Kay shook his head, “I have a plan for that. After everything that’s been happening, the fucking System owes me a few free oaths.”

“... What?”

Kay sighed and repositioned himself against the wall in between Lauren and Ravenhome. “It’s a long story, and I don’t even know if I know all of it. It started I think, when I was fighting that big Eldritch thing that possessed on of the Ritian cultists back when we’d just started on Avalon-“