Blood Shaper

Book 3: Chapter 64

“Oh, what a terrible fate!” The vampyr threw an arm against his head and mimed fainting, his back bending to the point that his head almost touched the floor of his stage. “Raised in villainy, saved by the light of my lord’s most holy gift, only to fall in battle against the cruel despot!” He threw himself forward, landing next to the Water Manipulator pirate who was still robotically obeying his orders, “Worry not fair maiden, dear, sweet magus, lover of he who has been lost, You will still be glorified in the light of my lord, no darkness shall take you again! Your lover shall forever be memorialized in the songs of heroes and in your heart!”

The pirate woman stilled, her water tentacles that were thrashing people stilled; one Sentinel who had started to drown in the grasp of one of the strands of water dropped to the ground and heaved deep breaths. The pirate slowly turned her head to stare at the vampyr next to her. “Fuck you.” She said in a surprisingly clear voice.

The vampyr looked down at her with a shocked expression, “Pardon me?”

“Fuck. You. This is real life, not some shitty play. You aren’t a hero; you’re a fucking monster. You can-“

Her head vanished, and a shower of gore and red droplets burst over the area, dripping viscera and blood over the nearby combatants. The vampyr stared at the corpse as it collapsed to the ground, his expression completely blank but his eyes glowing like headlights. The light bathed the pirate’s body in even more red, making it look like some kind of gory surrealist art. After a moment of tense stillness, the vampyr began to dramatically pose again, ignoring the blood and bits of brain that dotted his hand.

“What a cruel fate!” He shook his head and placed his palm to his forehead, holding one hand up as if beseeching some unknown deity. “To be torn from you lover by the machinations of evil, to lose him after you together were only a short time away from salvation only to lose him, then die yourself to an attack from the malicious autocrat you came to defeat at my side!” He twisted his back unnaturally as he pointed one finger back over at Kay, his neck turned farther than humanly possible to look at Kay over his shoulder. “I shall destroy you, evil one! I shall destroy your evil with the power of my lord’s purifying light and power!”

Kay glanced around and saw the battle being finished up; the various people-shaped zombies were being routed, with most of them too slow to really do anything and really only having death-related toughness going for them. The massive toad zombie was impaled on a number of spears from various Sentinels, and there was a group with axes hacking at its body. Kay formed a volley of blood projectiles and launched them at the vampyr, trying to take him off guard as he continued to pose and mutter nonsense that sounded like… stage directions?

He vanished, moving faster than Kay had ever seen Eleniah move, leaving a slight afterimage as he jumped back to pose on stage. “Ha ha! Your treacherous surprise attacks will not defeat me, villain! I hoped that the power of friendship I gained from my new allies would see me through, but instead, I shall use the power of friendship and the awesome magic my lord granted me!” He bit his finger and started drawing magic circle looking symbols and other shapes in the air around him out of red light that leaked out of the drop of blood he shed.

Everyone started launching attacks at him again, which continued to bounce off of the original barrier he’d set up. Kay and several others started smashing attacks at one spot in particular repeatedly, attempting to smash through with continuous damage to the shield. It started working as cracks started to form in the light that flashed and revealed the magical barrier each time it was struck.

“Yes! Yes!” The vampyr actually stopped drawing for a moment to fist pump as he cheered them on, “This is it! The climactic battle! The hero,” He laid a hand on his own chest as he posed again, “Stands surrounded by a failing barrier he threw up to protect him from the evil minions of the monstrous tyrant who seeks his head! Can he complete the final magic that will save him and defeat the darkness in this decisive moment? Find out now, right now!”

And then he stopped, completely motionless, as he watched them batter at his protective magics.

“He’s… not actually…?” Kay muttered incredulously as he slammed another spinning spear of blood into the shield and tried to rip it apart.

The barrier shattered soundlessly, shards of flickering light dispersing into the air as magical attacks and weapons from all directions flew at the vampyr. With a dramatic flourish to his movements, the vampyr finished an arc of what must have been the last shape he needed to draw right as the closest attack started to pierce his skin. The magical-looking shapes and symbols he’d drawn in the air, all connected with lines and flourishes, pulsed like strobes lights, changing from an almost pink color to the reddish-black of dried blood.

A wave of force, visible from its effects, radiated out from the site of the magic, slamming arrows, spears, throwing knives, and other weapons into the stage and the ground it sat on, dispersing magical attacks and pushing combatants to the knees or completely to the ground in some cases. Kay staggered as the wave started pushing down on him, feeling like gravity had suddenly magnified in a local area.

“In the last moment, the hero successfully completes the magical ritual given to him by his most holy lord, ruler of truth and light, and saves himself from the wicked barbs of those who would strike him down in the name of evil!” The vampyr crowed, his arms stretched up into the air as he basked in the adoration of an imaginary crowd. “Now, triumphant, he will take his prize, the dread lord himself, and return to his lord so that the dark one may be redeemed in the holy light!” He started sauntering to the edge of the stage.

Kay’s style, based mostly on Eleniah’s teaching, was “no banter”. It didn’t serve a purpose in combat, not really. An attempt to distract an opponent could just as easily distract you, and people that were going to talk and tell you their plans were probably going to do it anyway without you getting involved in the talking part. But at this moment, Kay couldn’t help it. As dangerous as the vampyr was, the sheer ridiculousness of the monster’s insanity was prickling Kay like a nettle in his socks. As the vampyr dropped down from the edge of the stage, Kay asked, “Why did you switch from third-person narration to first-person?”

“What?” The vampyr froze in mid-step, his foot hovering above the ground. His face had that same empty expression as when the pirate woman talked back to him.

That wasn’t what Kay was looking for, but he wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity. A flood of blood rushed up from the ground around Kay and formed into a colossal pillar that rammed into the vampyr as he stood there unmoving. Kay kept the flow going, rocketing the monster into the edge of his stage and pinning him there, recycling the flow back into itself to keep it sustained.

“If you can move, start dragging people back!” He shouted, arduously stepping closer to keep the attack focused, straining against the magic force that still tried to force him down, “The effect can’t be all-encompassing, so we just need to get out of it.”

Struggling, bit by bit, people started crab-walking or crawling away, some helping others as they moved.

The vampyr’s head peeked out over the edge of Kay’s column, his head tilted inquisitively to the side. “You’re resisting the effects that well? Intriguing! I wonder if that means you’re less of a sub-villain and more of an interesting character… Could you perhaps be part of the main cast and not just a throwaway that gets redeemed and is never seen again…?” He trailed off into low muttering, staring at Kay without blinking.

“My lord.” Lauren staggered over to him, the arm of Hunter Ravenhome over her shoulder as she helped the other woman walk.

“Lord Kay, that’s some variant of blood magic,” The Hunter indicated at the still-floating collage of red shapes in the air over the stage, “If you can keep the vampyr pinned, I have some items that might help with alleviating the pressure. It could even potentially dispel the magic.”

“I’ll keep him… Wait, of course, it’s blood magic!” Kay internally cursed himself for stupidity, then started flowing mana into one of his less-used Skills. Domain of Blood had stagnated at level five; no amount of training against his students had helped it move beyond the gap that would let him get a Class for the Skill. But it still worked, and he felt the pressure gets pushed up and off him, as his domain spread out a few feet around him.

Lauren, Hunter Ravenhome, and a couple others nearby staggered as the force suddenly lessened, and they overcompensated mid-movement.

Lauren grinned and re-formed her bow, immediately peppering their enemy with arrows. “Of course! That should help considerably!”

“Make your move, Hunter.” Kay growled, mana depleting quickly as he used large amounts for both the tasks he now had to concentrate on, “I can’t do this forever.”

She looked at him in shock and confusion for a brief second before her gaze sharpened, and she reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out an object. She started pouring mana into it that lit up some kind of gauge on the side, a tiny blue glow lighting up her fingers.

Sentinels, soldiers, Blood Guard, and vampyr hunters helped each other pull back a few hundred feet outside the zone of force the vampyr’s magic created. Those who had the range started helping Kay and Lauren keep the monster pinned, who was completely ignoring them as he muttered to himself. Kay couldn’t hear much over the rushing noise from his pillar of blood, but the vampyr seemed intent on it, ignoring them even as visible wounds started to appear on his shoulders, neck, and face.

“Almost… there!” Hunter Ravenhome strained out, her face now lit by the flickering light blue glow. She stretched her arms out toward the magical display, the small cylinder in them pointing at the array.

The vampyr’s eyes snapped up as a wind blade sliced a cut along his cheek, and he started to actually pay attention to what was going on. “What?” He looked between Kay and the hunter, his eyes wide, “No, that’s not allowed! How are you actually resisting the magic of my lord? Unacceptable!” A red glow spread from his eyes around his head and down his body. He thrust his arms out, diverting Kay’s continuous cylindrical flood to each side of him and breaking the stage into massive splinters from the force.

The monster vanished in a blur, and Kay turned as he heard a pained exhale from next to him. The vampyr posed there for a moment, Lauren hanging from his fist against her diaphragm, before he vanished again, and Hunter Ravenhome gasped as she was batted down into the mud. Kay diverted his column to crash down on the vampyr again, but it was only part of the way across the distance when he choked as the monster grabbed him around the neck and held him aloft.

The steel grip the monster had on his throat tightened as the monster stared at him, ignoring Kay’s swings at his arms and attempts to break his grasp. The monster completely ignored Kay’s follow-up attacks with a wave of blood, which was much weaker than normal on account of the choking.

“I’ve determined who you are!” The vampyr exclaimed, mania in his eyes, “You’re not a throwaway villain destined to no further showing after you’re defeated and redeemed; you’re a rival! Initially evil, shown the light by my actions and the will of my most glorious lord, you will join me in glorious holy service to the light, always antagonistic to me, but a true friend underneath! We need only to show you the truth and the glory of my lord, then we can journey to find a tough warrior to solve problems of brawn, a master strategist to complete puzzles and solve mysteries, and a charismatic visionary who will show us time and time again that our problems are no match for our true bonds together as servants of the holy lord!”

Hunter Ravenhome spat out mud and straightened her arm with a pain-filled groan, her arm obviously broken as she pointed the cylinder at the magical array above where the now shattered stage had sat. A beam of light shot out from the tip and pierced the magical symbols, which started to peel and dissolve. As they fell apart, the pressure started to lift, and Kay’s forces started to press in, ranged attacks intentionally light to keep from hitting Kay.

“What should the hero do here?” The vampyr muttered, staring at the oncoming attackers. “Oh! He should retreat to show his new rival the truth of the light! The minions of evil are merely misled fools who will return to the den of evil to spread the news of the oncoming doom to all dwellers in darkness!” He glanced down at Lauren and Hunter Ravenhome, who were trying to struggle to their feet. “These two can come too. Maybe they’ll be useful.” An insidious grin spread over his face as he looked up at Kay, “You’ll need something to drink after you wake up, after all.”

The last thing Kay saw was the monster’s free arm blur towards him, then a massive blow to the head knocked him into darkness.