Blood Shaper

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.

With no focus on his defense, it was easy for Kay to extend a spear out of his chest piece, impaling the monster mid-charge. He slammed to a halt on the cross piece, only a few inches from Kay’s face. Kay dropped the haft from his chest into his hand and tilted the weapon toward the ground, slamming the blade down and pinning the vampyr to the earth. Blood rushed into the monster from the weapon, all of it filled to the brim with Purify Blood.

“You should have used more blood magic.”

The vampyr coughed, black fluid leaking from his mouth, “It takes too long to set up the more powerful effects.” He held up his arm and they both watched as the arcane sigils faded from his flesh. “The physical enhancements are usually enough in one on one fights, since vampyr are usually stronger than the average fighter at the same tier.”

His head rolled back on his neck, his body rapidly dissolving. “I see it now. I wasn’t the hero, serving the holy lord who would bring salvation to us all.” He coughed and hacked, more vile fluid spraying from his mouth. Some of it landed on Kay’s armor and began to steam. “I’m just a poor fool who was deceived be someone more powerful than him, and roped into their schemes.” He stared up at Kay’s expressionless helmet. “You truly his antithesis though, the opposite of him.” He held up his melting arm again and watched it dissolve down to the bone, which flaked away like ash and vanished in the air. “Apparently in more way than one.” He chuckled, “I guess, that makes you the hero then…” He brightened, mania returning to his eyes. “That means I’m not some poor fool! I’m the tragically misled villain who could have been a hero without the machinations of the evil lord! I’m the character who shows you the true danger of the final evildoer you must face!” His face fell just as quickly, his expression bleak. “Dammit!” He croaked out as the rest of his body began to flake away, spreading from his chest to his neck, “That means everything up until now had been backstory! I barely got any time on stage at all!”

With those words as his last, the vampyr vanished into dust. Kay swept up that dust with some blood and surrounded it, crushing it down and blasting it with even more Purify Blood. The mass started swirling and bubbling, looking like a mass of piranhas fighting each other for a piece of flesh, before settling. The noxious feeling he got in the presence eldritch essence and corruption faded away.

Kay stared for a moment at the spot where he’d destroyed the vampyr that had just changed his life forever, then drew his weapon back into his armor. I’ll deal with that later. He thought to himself, I don’t have time to deal with another existential crisis and the related trauma right now.

He ran back into the cave to Lauren and Hunter Ravenhome. Both were unresponsive, only grunting and whimpering as they struggled against an unseen enemy.

“I’d love to ask for your consent,” Kay muttered to them as he made tiny blades on two fingers, “But you’re not conscious and I don’t know how long we have. Alive and something new is better than functionally dead as an insane monster I’d have to kill.”

He made an incision on each of their chests, just above their hearts, and started to send his own blood into them with Blood Transfusion, actively using Purify Blood on them in order to burn out the vampyric contamination in their bodies.

They began to thrash wildly and scream in pain and Kay could only hold them down and apologize as their agony increased.

“I’m sorry, but it’s all I have.”

Their suffering continued for hours, significantly longer than Kay’s had, but they didn’t have the assistance of the System, purchased through a boon it owed them, to speed up the process. Kay had hope though, even as they screamed. The visible signs of their descent into becoming a vampyr faded away as time passed, their unnaturally sallow and pale skin becoming just pale, their eyes turning back to their normal colors permanently, and the roiling feeling of eldritch unpleasantness burning away. The jagged bite wounds on their necks that had been leaking puss sealed up with fresh unmarked skin as Kay sent healing energy their way with Healthy Blood.

Her screaming having stopped hours before even as the change continued, Lauren woke up with a groan, her eyes fluttering open. She looked up to see Kay still holding onto Hunter Ravenhome’s clavicle. “My lord?”

“Lauren! You’re awake! How are you feeling?”

“Sore. And a little nauseated.” She looked around with a furrowed brow, confusion obvious in her gaze. “What happened?”

“Well, we got incredibly lucky in a number of ways,” Kay scooted closer to her, keeping his grasp on the hunter firm, “I managed to survive what the vampyr was trying to do to us, broke free, killed it, and then came back and hoped what I did to myself would work on the two of you. It looks like it did, so after all that, I’d call this a win.”

Lauren squinted up at him. “Kay, why are you so pale?” She reached up and rubbed her jaw. “And why do my teeth hurt?”

“Well… congratulations? You’re the second member of a brand new species!” Kay shrugged with one shoulder and gave her a helpless grin, “It was the only thing I could do to save you. Or me. But that’d already happened at that point.”

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-“