The lone vampyr making it’s way in the general direction of Avalon’s border was unmistakably an “it”. Dehumanizing the enemy was an old tactic to make it easier for your soldiers to be able to kill other people, it’s not “murder” it’s “putting down dangerous animals” and such. Kay hadn’t been huge on real life military history and tactics back on Earth, he’d mostly focused on fictional military history and tactics, but he was pretty sure he remembered it being generally discouraged, and it had been heavily discouraged by Eleniah and other teachers of specific topics that had been brought in to help him become a well rounded King. In was somewhat useful in the short term, but in the long run it encouraged your military to underestimate the enemy, which was always a terrible idea. It also gave your enemy a driving reason to fight to the death without surrender. Treating people like animals meant you had no reason to stand by treaties or hold back from war crimes, so why would they surrender or stop fighting and why wouldn’t they escalate to atrocities of their own, maybe even before you could?
Vampyr as a whole lacked the intelligence to make that kind of logical leap and once the infection reached a certain point a vast majority of vampyr descended into something less than true sapience, their bodies and minds twisted into a state so feral they really did stop being people. The purpose of dehumanizing them was also to make it easier to kill them, although for a different reason. The person that had been warped into the monster was dead, even with the ones that still looked like the same person, and putting down the vampyr they’d become was a mercy, not murder.
This particular vampyr didn’t need any extra dehumanizing, it’d already become something so monstrous that there was barely anything left of the person it had been. It was still vaguely humanoid, with four limbs, a head, and a torso in roughly the right configuration, but the legs had shriveled and partially melted together into a small tail that dragged behind the body, two ignored feet bouncing off of the rocks and roots the vampyr dragged itself over. It’s upper arms had pulled back and solidified into wider shoulders, and the forearms had stretched out in jagged growths that made them both longer and covered in thorns of bone. It’s hands Were covered in smaller bone spikes and it had more growing from the tips of it’s fingers like claws. The head was the most unsettling part. The neck had shrunk back and pulled the head back into the torso. It was flat, like a lizard’s head, with the eyes where the poor person that had been killed and turned into this thing’s temples would have been. The two empty eye sockets in between where the eyes now sat quivered like nostrils as it swung its head back and forth, questing for the trail it had been following.
“That is the most warped vampyr I’ve seen that hasn’t actively seemed to dive into its corruption to try and kill me.” Kay muttered quietly, resisting the persistent urge to go over to the creature and stamp it out.
“Inspecting it doesn’t say too much,” Lauren told him from where she was crouched next to him. “But it is interesting and mildly informative.”
Kay looked for himself.
[—————————————
Twisted Vampyr Spawn
Tier ? Equivalent Monster
- A vampyr that failed to retain any semblance of intelligence as it was warped by the eldritch corruption that creates vampyr from sapient being, it’s body was further twisted into a new form by a large quantity of eldritch essence that was far too great for it’s body to contain. It has become a monstrosity of unknown power, potentially having abilities beyond those of the being it was created from. Caution is recommended.
[—————————————
“That does tell us something new.” Kay stopped for a second and scoffed lightly. “The Shatterplate or Crusade might already know that’s a possibility, but learning it is good either way. Anything else we need from it?”
“No, your majesty.”
“Then here.” Kay floated some of his blood up to her and let her take control of it.
“Fool!” The lanky one cried back, “You number your alligators before they hatch! Don’t assume that all will be well before it is done!”
The swelling paused in a single second and the body of the changing vampyr began to literally twist as their limbs cracked and broke. Their arms and legs tried to make spiraling shapes but couldn’t as the bones supporting the limbs broke into tiny pieces. They then began to compress inward toward the torso and it’s head shifted to sprout from the middle of its chest. Large vent-like openings rent themselves in it’s skin and began leaking brown and green smoke that was timed with each labored breath that the newly corrupted creature took.
“There!” The tall vampyr cried, “It is useless as a soldier now! It best if we harness the power of the relic in bursts not in a single application!”
The female vampyr sneered at the twisted monstrosity in disdain. “A weakling! One of the stronger ones would be changed into true weapons with ease!”
“It matters not! You have had your chance, so now it is my turn!”
“Fine!” She spat at him. She gestured dismissively at the twisted spawn. “Herd that toward the enemy, same as the rest.”
Kay pulled back from the window and gestured at Lauren to join him. “I think that’s more than enough. There’s a level of planning involved, and whoever’s doing the planning considers Avalon an enemy. Turns out that any bargaining anyone wanted to try and drag us into this mess has been a moot point, we’re already involved whether we like it or not.”
“What next, your majesty? Straight back home?”
“No, I think we’ll stop to grab Zeia and bring her back with us. We’re going to need her for any real planning what’s next. Do you want the lanky one or the one with the white hair?”
Lauren glanced in the direction of the window. “I’d prefer we see what they’ve got before we make any permanent decisions about who takes which one.”
“Practical, if a bit boring. Anyone got any issues to bring up before we start?”
The Blood Guard all shook their head, weapons already out and ready.
“Fantastic. If anyone runs into one that’s particularly strong make sure to take it together, I’d prefer if no one got infected or dead while we’re here.” He turned and held up one hand toward the wall. A pressurized blast of blood erupted outward and destroyed half of the building they’d been hiding in and sending the vampyr closest to it sprawling. The entire congregation of vampyr watching another of their kind get warped by the obelisk being repeatedly pressed against there chest spun toward the commotion.
“Kill them all.” Kay ordered calmly. “Try not to touch that thing they’re using on each other while you’re at it.”