I didn’t do anything after that except stand there a few feet from his tiny head, chewing what was left of his ice. He gave up.
Without even changing back, I spun to face Manu in my dragon form. Only then did I start to revert to a vampire. I stared at him with a deadpan look. Once I’d taken my Vampire Form, I smacked my lips a few times as I finished what was left over of the ice in my mouth and swallowed. I think he got the point.
I walked halfway to the stairs then decided against walking. Recasting my wings was also too much effort, so I jumped. I didn’t even throw out my arms to keep my balance. With my current stats, I didn’t have to. I was like a wooden post flying through the air. I touched down at the top of the stairs.
There had been some applause when I won the match, but many people had been sitting in silence since I revealed my Metal Dragon Form. Looking toward them, that suddenly changed. I first felt the zeal of those in the central arena, then like the roll of a storm, the howl of the outer coliseum arrived a few seconds later.
I bowed my head multiple times in many directions as if to thank them all. I didn’t really have anything against Eshana, so I lowered my eyes as soon as I faced her and nodded my head.
Back at my seat, Jale quickly congratulated me, but also asked through mind-speak with obvious concern, “Isn’t it too early to divulge your strength?”
“Letting them devise their strategies to defeat this form means they won’t focus on much else,” I replied. “I still have a few secrets left. If I’d revealed everything to you then it would be no fun to watch.”
“Oh, so you’re doing this for my sake? Don’t forget that if I see everything now, you’ll have no secrets left for when we fight.”
“I’m more fearful that you might get bored. Though that’s a viable strategy if I wanted to hide something from you, I’d rather compete with skill and not surprise.”
“Fair enough. If you can scare the wits out of that dark elf in the same way you did the last guy, then I’ll be thoroughly impressed.”
Speaking of Eshana, she was up next. I’d like to say I’d shaken her confidence, but instead, she played off the show I had started and leaped from the stands without even bothering to head toward the stairs. She glanced back at me. She’d landed about twenty feet from her starting position and was walking in that direction.
I was in too good of a mood after my last fight. Seeing her response to my fight, I laughed out loud. When I felt Shamash’s gaze, I cut it short.
Chapter 25 – Family Ties
The man who faced off with Eshana wore a black plate armor similar to what I’d seen some of the guards wearing. He may have been one of the more talented youngsters in their ranks. When the fight started, Dark Magic lightning streaked from him toward the dark elf. She danced to the side, but he didn’t drop the spell. Instead, he began channeling even more mana into it and simply redirected it to follow after her.
Seeing his magic was only growing, she raised a stone wall between them.
Every other opponent would have dropped their spell to save mana, but not this guy. He aimed straight for the wall and poured even more mana into it.
His purple bolt became a beam of Dark Magic thicker than a man’s torso with Dark Lightning snaking along its surface on every side. He meant to penetrate the defense of her stone wall and finish her at the same time. It really wasn’t a bad strategy—to use excessive mana. The longer he channeled, the stronger his magic would get until he ran out of mana. He’d be spent quickly, but if she couldn’t make up for the sudden force, it was over.
Eshana seemed to understand what was happening, so she cast a dome of rock that soon swallowed her up to fend off attacks from all sides.
I was left scratching my head as to why she’d put herself in a position where she couldn’t run. Though her opponent wasn’t some genius duelist, she was playing right into his strategy. With enough mana, his Dark Magic could punch a hole in her defense. Was there something I was missing?
Seeing that she had decided to hunker down, the Dark Mage widened his stance and sent all his mana flooding into his one powerful spell. It beat against the stone like a high powered pressure washer. Chunks of rock were cast aside at an increased rate. What was she doing? At this rate she was going to lose. Death was even a possibility if she took a direct hit.
I watched the Dark Mage carefully with Mana Sight. His mana was definitely draining, but he still had approximately half his mana left. I had a bad feeling about this.
There was a moment where his Dark Lightning seemed to hit its limit. He held it in place. It seemed to only be a matter of time until Eshana’s defense collapsed.
As the seconds passed, I expected her stone wall to give way at any time, but it stubbornly held him off. Was I underestimating her?
I wasn’t the only one that felt that way. The Dark Mage pushed even harder, breaking past his limits. His beam of Dark Lightning expanded to double its size and sent pulses of dark mana surging out. I could feel its pressure on my face from the stands. He forced all of his remaining power into a single second’s burst, and then suddenly, it was cut off as if someone flipped the switch.
The Dark Mage barely kept his footing. He’d emptied his tank of mana.
A cloud of rock dust had developed where his Dark Magic had met Eshana’s dome. Slowly it started to settle. Had she already lost?
When it finally cleared, the entire side of the dome that had taken his attack directly was charred black. The Dark Magic residue seemed to swallow the light, so I couldn’t tell if his magic had penetrated her defense or not.
I saw movement at the bottom of the dome. It was hard to tell where it was coming from, but a puddle started to form. The dome was leaking?
A space appeared at the dome’s base, and water began rushing out. Then the crack grew, like a door opening from floor to ceiling, and the water escaped. It seemed Eshana hadn’t just covered herself in rock, but also filled the dome as well.
After the flow of the water slowed, Eshana walked out with a basketball-sized water glob floating above her palm. She looked completely unharmed.
She placed it before her and blew. Her water glob turned into a fine stream that shot toward the Dark Mage.
He panicked when he saw it and tried to throw out his arms while crying that he gave up. It came out as a whisper and his arms barely moved.
The water flew through the air too fast. When it reached him, it didn’t have the effect he imagined. It was little more than a splash to the face, but it was enough to put him off balance. He fell back like a stiff board.
The human inside of me wanted to smack myself on the forehead, but that was unvampirely so I had to hold back. If I had to guess, Eshana’s Water and Earth Magic reinforced one another in some way, which gave her the ridiculous defensive ability that I’d just witnessed. I still believed I could defeat her, but it might be a real drain. She might force me to waste a lot of my refined mana. If that happened, there was no way I could recover it all in a day to face Manu at my peak strength. I had no choice but to finish her quickly.
I almost booed as Eshana was returning to her seat, but I’d seen little sign that vampires had a good understanding of sarcasm. I was genuinely impressed, so I applauded.
Sai was up next. He was still sitting in his predetermined seat in the first row. As he headed toward the stairs, he shifted his weight from foot to foot in an exaggerated manner while amping himself up. Unlike most of the casters, he was the closest thing the competition had, besides Gansuk, to a real prizefighter. His opponent was an Earth Mage that had made it this far. They should be pretty evenly matched.
Before he’d even reached the stairs, the announcer had a mana tablet delivered to him. After a quick scan, he lifted his voice and said, “There has been a forfeit. The win goes to Sai Darvish. He will continue on to the semifinals!”
No one seemed to have expected it to happen. In place of boos was an irritated silence from the crowd. If the guy would have just
shown up, he would have received a large amount of VT just for putting up a small fight before forfeiting. Was he really that afraid of facing Sai, or was he hurt? That didn’t make sense either. Even among the Dark Aligned healers, there were few injuries that couldn’t be taken care of quickly. Unless his opponent had died, but then wouldn’t the mana tablet have said so?
I started to suspect something was really wrong. Meeting Sai’s gaze, I shook my head as if to say ‘I don’t know what’s going on either’. I posed the question to Jale.
“If I had to guess, he’s been swept up into our Tir family troubles because of his loose connection to us,” she said without a moment’s hesitation. In other words, it was because of his friendship with me. I was getting ready to ask how letting him win was a negative, but then I saw the direction she was looking. Manu Shah was glaring back at her. “Manu probably has the intention of killing him in the next round to make an example of him.”
“He has me,” I replied with more bite than intended. “Sorry,” I added.
“You have my understanding. And since he is being threatened because of the Tir family, you won’t have to act. We will make sure he’s taken care of.”
“Thank you, Princess Jale.”
“Your friend has a lot of promise, so we aren’t completely acting with selfless intent. His type of talent makes for a good beast-feeder. If he can get his hunger under control then he’ll become much more powerful than he ever would on a normal vampire diet. After the announcement for the semifinals, go to him and tell him to come see us later today.”
I thanked her again. There was only a few minutes’ wait until the last announcement was made. It was exactly what we feared. Sai was to face Manu Shah, and I was to face Eshana in the semifinals. With Jale’s promise of protection, I could focus entirely on my fight with her. I went to him as she asked, and his eyes went as wide as I relayed her message.
“You really thought I wouldn’t put in a good word for you?” I said with mock offense.
“No, I just thought they’d say no,” he replied. I could tell he wasn’t bluffing.
Using mind-speak, I told him about Manu and his likely intentions.
“No surprise there,” he snorted. “I wonder how much money my opponent made by not showing up today. How much do they think I’m worth…?”
“Maybe 10 VT,” I said, watching as his face scrunched up into a grimace. “At least.”
***
I escorted Sai to the Tir residence later that day and let him enter on his own. I wasn’t able to be there for my friends in Sanctuary at the moment, but I could watch Sai’s back—whether he needed me there or not.
Afterward, I returned to my own apartment. Shamash was there waiting for me. He’d been giving me more and more freedom to deal with the constant influx of trouble that seemed to be piling up. I didn’t have to ask him why he’d stopped giving me as much advice as he had before. I was sure, at least in part, he thought I would fail, and he wanted me to have to face the consequences. The worse things got, the more likely it would be for me to turn back to doing things his way. But it wasn’t going to happen. My days of mass murder in ignorance were behind me.
Shamash and I went through our plan of escape. I’d resigned myself to having to leave after the preliminaries. My winnings plus the Half-blood I’d get from my transaction with Parth Gul would give me enough vampire blood to reach Trueblood, or close to it. I’d purchase some extra just to be safe. If I could defeat Manu without killing him, that would help Jale and the Tir family. If I disappeared afterwards, the Tir family should avoid the dishonor of having a beast-feeder becoming Trueblooded among them. I’d also wait until leaving to actually Drain the blood itself. Getting them to take in Sai would give him a place to start over. It was the best I could do for them. I also planned on leaving them both some of my extra Dark Orbs. Since I could practically create an endless supply, they would get more use out of them than I would.
With less than 24 hours before my fight with Eshana, there wasn’t a lot I could do to prepare. Practicing my Metal Dragon Form wasn’t exactly practical in my apartment, or within city limits for that matter. I spent some time creating more Master Dark Orbs, but my supply was already far beyond what I’d need if the Trueblood and Half-blood fell into my hands. After a while, I stopped making them and just spent time getting my mind right.
In the end, I thought of Aeris and the sacrifices she was making. It was all in hope to be able to protect the others. But it was more than that really. We needed them as much as they needed us. I better understood that now after having to deal with the loneliness of the last few weeks before Sai and Jale came along. Leaving them, I’d find myself alone once again. It would be so easy just to stay. I could stop worrying and rely on Jale and the Tir family if I could only forget. But forgetting was not something I could allow. How could I possibly live with myself if I gave in to such temptation?
I could already feel the memory of my friends fading. Truly forgetting was impossible with my mental stats, but the saying was true. Out of sight, out of mind. Everything that pulled my attention and offered a distraction felt like a betrayal. They were depending upon me to protect them, but also to get the girls back from the Head Mistress. If I decided to do as Shamash recommended and spent decades growing as powerful as possible, my affections would have long grown cold. Even if my every desire ran contrary to it, being apart for such a long time would make it nearly impossible to stay focused. And wouldn’t my long departure bring mourning or bitterness? If they knew I was staying, how could they not feel betrayed?
I shook my head at myself because of my thoughts. Russ would understand and batter me with a vicious pat on the back as a rebuke. What of the others? Aeris would probably even try to talk me into it and insist she could handle a couple more decades of the mental torture she was putting herself through.
Letting my thoughts wander was fruitless. Gritting my teeth, I cleared my mind of all that was worthless and set my mind on what I had to do. Tomorrow, I’d face Eshana and I needed to defeat her without wasting too much mana. The time for perfecting my casting was long past. I even had the thought to extend the fight longer than necessary to make her look good. I had to remove such thoughts from my thinking. Misplaced compassion could cause as much damage as callous bloodlust if I wasn’t careful. I didn’t owe her any favors and she would likely give me a harder time than any of my opponents yet.
Chapter 26 – Crack
With only two big fights left until the finals that would take place tomorrow, the central stage was also being used for the top ten placement matches. They took place earlier in the day which placed my fight late in the afternoon. There were a number of good fights I watched sitting with the Tir family. Shamash was there with me, and so was Sai. He was now officially a trial member.
There was something different about him. I noticed it as soon as he arrived that morning. He was still quick with the wisecracks, but he shared most of them through mind-speak and was even putting on a less-expressive front. It was something that would have bothered me about any other vampire, but seeing it coming from him, I understood that he was acting that way out of thankfulness toward the Tirs. I couldn’t fault him for that. If I was honest, I was no longer on my best behavior because of Shamash, but because of Jale. She was actually less strict than the lich, but I still was far more willing to act appropriately for her sake.
I couldn’t help but find it funny. If anything, I would have guessed that vampire society depended upon absolute power to force people into obedience. With Jale, that was the furthest thing from the truth. Even Manu was more honorable than a simple tyrant, or at least better at hiding it and willing to provide some incentive. I wondered if the reason for this was because we were in Hallow and not in a place governed by any specific vampire family…
With all the good fights, there was one that stood out among all the rest. Gansuk against Lusa Egotak—basher versus Nature Mage.
It began as I sus
pected it might. Lusa summoned her tree defense, and Gansuk rushed in while sending blasts of energy from his axe. It seemed like it would be a classic battle of axe against tree, but the moment Gansuk reached the base of the trunk, his axe effortlessly sent wood chips flying. He held the tool that was her greatest weakness.
As he was hacking and splitting great quantities of wood with every swing, the roots and branches of Lusa’s tree began to surround him.
He wasn’t oblivious to his predicament, but he simply didn’t care. Instead of fleeing, he planted his feet and began to widen his every slash, attacking the branches and roots as they closed in. His attack speed increased, and with it, wood flew in all directions.
I almost stood from my seat as I imagined myself in the same scenario. The muscles in my arms twitched as I watched him swing his axe. It wasn’t the wisest strategy to take her full assault head on, but it was as if he saw the challenge and couldn’t back down. I had no direct reason to favor her, but I still hoped she would win because I’d had dealings with dwarves, even if it were mainly through that granite-headed guy that had joined us after we defeated Lady Contessa.
Seeing his colossal effort, I couldn’t help but to start rooting for the orc as well. I wasn’t the only one. Sai was gripping his pants as if he were the one holding the axe. I could also feel the tension build amongst the crowd.
Gansuk fought off the roots and branches for a few minutes before they were able to completely surround him. When they did, they closed every gap as if they were going to cut off his air and ultimately strangle him.
He’d disappeared for more than a minute when there was finally movement. At the furthest point on the wrapping of branches, opposite the tree’s trunk, a few woodchips and small branches flew outward. A moment later, more took to the air. Everyone was dialed in on that exact spot.
Underworld - Scorching Sun: A LitRPG Series Page 21