[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 25 - Afterparty

Freddy had lived his life believing that, for men, looks were completely irrelevant. If you were poor, you were unattractive, and if you were rich, you would never struggle with women.

Be you an ugly bastard or a manifestation of handsomeness and masculinity, in the end, the number in your bank account, as well as your status and the property you owned, mattered the most.

However, his interaction with the girls at this party forced him to update his worldview slightly. Freddy wasn’t rich. These girls most definitely were. But that didn’t seem to be an obstacle.

Even after he said awfully cringy stuff, some of which had caused him to physically recoil, they simply giggled it away and changed the subject.

Recently, Freddy had grown aware that he had become drastically more handsome, even if he wasn’t all that pretty face-wise. But as the night went on, he realized he had underestimated his attractiveness. By a lot. Whatever these girls wanted, he had it, and no matter how hard he tried to fuck it up with his awkward behavior, they were going to get it.

The anxiety was forcing Freddy’s hand, and he reached for a drink every so often to take the edge off. This soon culminated in having to go to the toilet, but getting there wasn’t easy. John, who was also busy doing his thing, did his best to explain how to find the bathroom to Freddy.

Freddy excused himself and got up, shoving his way through the crowds as he went on the mission. Pushing past the mass of people was damn tricky, and his size didn’t make it any easier, but he seemed to be making progress—

Until a sudden, powerful strike to the back of his head made the entire world turn black.

***

Mark returned home only to find his family there, surprised that he had returned so soon. They seemed relieved that he had returned and tried comforting him, but he barely heard anything they said.

He walked to his room without looking at them, went inside, and locked the door behind him. It felt so empty. The large bedroom echoed with the locking of his door, and he walked over to the bed. Having pulled his blankets over his head, Mark felt suffocated, but he couldn’t take them off.

The endless pounding of his heart was the only thing he could hear as the mountainous weight of his sin settled on his back.

“Oh, God…” he said. “What have I done?”

***

Matt Canstone appeared in the private booth where Madam was seated, and the guests were already dispersing as Madam held her ear to a contact crystal, listening to a message.

“Madam—” he said, but she interrupted him.

“Where is Freddy?” She asked curtly.

“He went to the toilet but disappeared among the crowds. None of the guards spotted him leaving the premises.”

Madam scowled. “I just got news of several men breaking into the apartment we provided him with. They flipped the whole place upside down and even went through the woods where he exercised.”

Matt pondered it for a moment. “I believe they—”

“It shouldn’t be with him,” she said, sounding as if she were convincing herself more than anything. “I had checked personally. But they wouldn’t have done this without solid enough evidence—unless they’re after something else.”

Matt stood silently, keeping his posture straight and waiting for Madam to decide. Soon enough, she pulled a communication crystal out of her storage device and selected one of the contacts.

The crystal buzzed briefly until a casual voice spoke through it. “Madam! Dear! To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Hello, Harold. I have some news that might interest you.”

“Oh?” He said. “What happened?”

“Are you familiar with the name ‘Freddy Stern?’”

A few moments of silence elapsed until a sigh came through the crystal. “Let me guess, this involves the Kraven?”

“Basilisk, dear,” Madam said with an edge to her voice, ”I thought we were allies. You must have known I had taken Mr. Stern under my wing, yet you failed to notify me about his circumstances.”

“Au contaire, Madam,” he said, maintaining a casual tone. “This is the first time I’m hearing of your involvement with the lad. And I do have to say, what a damn coincidence!”

Madam gritted her teeth hard enough that her jaw creaked but forced herself to relax. This was 100% a part of some scheme of his, but alas, she had no choice but to play into it. “Well, then,” she said. “I surmise you would be willing to uphold the law?”

“Well…” he said, “I did promise that bastard that I would act if he did this.”

“How’s five minutes from now sound?” Madam asked.

“I’ll be waiting in front of the Kraven premises. See you there!” And with that, he hung up.

Madam gripped the crystal so tightly that it shattered, and with a perfectly calm smile, she looked up at her assistant. “We are leaving immediately.”

She left her seat and rushed toward the nearest window, showcasing superhuman speed. With a grip, she tore the entire window off and jumped out. Matt seemingly disappeared behind her as he shifted into the darkness of the night, moving across the buildings.

On the other hand, Madam morphed her arms into gigantic wings and took flight, soaring above the skies as she beelined straight toward the headquarters of the Kraven clan.

***

Janhalar stood beside three of his elders. A tall, lithe woman and two men, one bulky and young in appearance, the other elderly and frail. All of them were hardened warriors of the Kraven clan, donning similar clothing and tattoos to his own. He had just updated them on the situation and warned them that intruders would appear soon.

A slight tremor shook the ground beneath him as if on cue, and the echoes of their front gate landing in the middle of the courtyard followed soon after.

***

If there was one thing Madam excelled at, it would be controlling her body. If her facade ever slipped, it was entirely intentional, designed to guide whoever she was talking to into believing they could get a read on her.

But even she could barely keep herself together when she faced the snaky bastard that was Harold, the city lord, or his far more appropriate monicker, Basilisk.

“You arrived faster than I expected, Madam!” He greeted her cheerfully. Even without the life affinity, he sure knew how to fake that disarming, casual tone of his.

They found themselves right in front of the entrance to the Kraven compound. A large, metallic gate barred entry into it, dyed partly red in the shape of a silhouette of the mythical ‘vampire,’ a creature taking the form of a poshly dressed man. A wall of red-tinged stone wall surrounded the entire area.

Without a response to Basilisk’s greeting, Madam kicked the metallic gate. Although it wasn’t created as a defense but rather a decorative entrance, the fact that Madam could send the several-ton-heavy barrier flying as if it were made of styrofoam made even Harold gulp. Although she was sure that was in jest.

With the giant door crashing down and the loud noise stirring the entire neighborhood awake, they knew it wouldn’t be long before the patriarch appeared.

And, in a matter of seconds, followed by an entourage of three powerful three-star archs, he appeared. “Basilisk, Scorched Fleshmancer,” Janhalar greeted them.

Madam scoffed. “Refrain from using that infantile monicker when addressing me, Bloodlord.”

“I would prefer you used my true name as well, Narcisse.”

“Well,” Basilisk butted in, “you should already know why we’re here. Hand the young man over and pay a fine of—”

“You lied to me, bastard,” Janhalar said. “He has been hiding it all along!”

“Okay, first of all—” Harold started, but before he could get far, Madam raised her hand and interrupted him.

“I interrogated him directly. He couldn’t have possibly hidden it from me.”

“I know for a fact that he owns a unique tied to the concept of bloodshed,” Janhalar said. Then, with a sneer, he added, “You must have gotten rusty.”

“Okay!” Basilisk loudly interrupted them, stepping in between them. “None of this is relevant to the problem at hand. Janhalar, I was rather clear when I gave you the warning. Even if that man has it, no, especially if he does, it doesn’t belong to you. It is rightfully his. Besides, kidnapping? Do you know the kind of disaster your transgression will cause if it becomes public knowledge?”

Janhalar clenched his fist with his right hand and lifted two fingers on his left. In response to his gesture, the three elders behind him moved in front, readying themselves for battle.

“So you’re going through with it anyway?” Harold asked.

“You know damn well that it’s worth it for what’s at stake here,” Janhalar said. Then, he turned to Madam. “And what’s in it for you, witch?”

Madam’s eye twitched. “Are you seriously asking me that?” She asked, appearing genuinely bewildered.  “You realize you’ve just invaded my territory and kidnapped someone under my protection?”

Janhalar scoffed. “I’d be willing to—”

The lithe woman standing to his side barely blocked a spike of bone-like material as it was about to reach the patriarch’s eye. She did so with her unprotected hand, and now, if the elder hadn’t been a blood arch, she would have been bleeding profusely. No matter how hard she pulled, she couldn’t get the bone out.

Madam’s arm had morphed, moving her bones in a configuration that created an improvised crossbow, with her tendon acting as a string and a shard of her bone as the projectile.

A bead of sweat dripped down Janhalar’s neck, and one thing was sure—Madam wasn’t in the mood to negotiate.

All three elders pulled out curved twin daggers, with the woman only managing to hold one due to her injury, and Basilisk shook his head, preparing himself to fight. The atmosphere around them grew tense. All six of the people present were poised to strike, and soon enough, the needle dropped.

The ground beneath the Kraven fighter’s feet morphed into stone serpents, but it wasn’t long until they were dashing out of the way, clearly prepared to face such tactics.

With a loud twang, several more bolts of bone came rushing at them, and while they managed to block most of them, the bulky elder received one of the projectiles directly to his left rib.

Janhalar’s pores seeped out blood, and it wasn’t long until it coagulated into a full-body armor surrounding him. Thin tendrils carrying sharp needles of blood sprang forth, chasing their targets.

Basilisk's skin was soon covered in stone scales, but Madam seemingly had no issue dodging the chaotic attack, and even while avoiding it, she managed to push forward, making her way to the elder who received a bolt to the ribs. His gait was uncertain, and it wouldn’t take much for Madam to catch up with him.

The tall, lithe woman whose hand had been pierced reacted immediately and rushed to her comrade’s help, but the soil beneath her shifted. A gigantic head of a snake appeared below her, its jaws spread wide and ready to bite down on her body. Reacting instantly, she jumped, but that wouldn’t be enough to avoid a four-star arch’s attack while already caught in it.

The snake’s jaws slammed shut, and the woman’s legs were cleaved clean off, just slightly above the knees. She tried to scream, but it took only a moment for Madam to reach her.

Her hand injured and her legs gone, the elder could only lift a limp dagger in defense, unable to even muster a single ability, but that went thoroughly ignored as Madam slammed sharp claws directly into her torso. Just as the woman’s soul abandoned her body, Madam sent a pulse in its stead.

With loud snaps and the sound of flesh stretching to the breaking point, the woman’s body morphed into a freakish biomass roughly in the shape of a monster with two bulky arms. Using its unwieldy limbs, the creature moved forth far faster than anyone could have expected it to be able to.

Janhalar was forced to strike at the body of his subordinate, but just as he was about to do so—

“Patriarch!” The skinny old man yelled, and the mass of flesh began to glow.

“Crap!” Janhalar yelled as he moved all the blood surrounding his body before him, and just in time as the corpse grew bright hot and violently exploded, sending charred flesh and guts everywhere and blasting Janhalar fifty meters back.

Madam immediately used the opening to rush at the other injured elder, and Janhalar used Bloodrush to boost his speed and try to stop her, but after taking a single step forward, another massive serpent appeared, this one slamming his body directly and sending him tumbling.

The second injured elder was reached, but he wasn’t going down without a fight. Activating Bloodrush, he stabbed his twin daggers at Madam’s body, and they reached their target, sinking into her flesh, but there was no blood. Her tissue simply moved out of the way to allow the blades to enter her body, and her claws tore another heart out as the elder joined his comrade in turning into a monstrosity.

“Patriarch’s Domain!” Janhalar yelled.

The air shifted.

Peak abilities that had reached the fourth stage and had an eidolon trapped within needed to be named to be used. At that point, their names held a physical weight, and the weight of this domain ability was clearly not to be underestimated.

Janhalar’s body suddenly exploded in a shower of blood, but it didn’t simply splash to the ground. The blood began floating and spinning around the people present, rapidly expanding its radius and multiplying in quantity every second.

A raging typhoon of blood soon enveloped all the combatants, and Basilisk, despite his best attempts, couldn’t get out of the range of the ability in time.

The thick, oozing blood coated Madam and Basilisk, drastically restraining their movements and attempting to invade their bodies.

Since the moment the ability was used, however, Madam hadn’t moved an inch. And now, she lifted her hand into the air as she uttered, “Vigor Flame.”

Upon contact with her hand, the blood ignited. At first, the flame was a few scarce sparks being washed away by the raging flood of blood, but those sparks spread like wildfire, spreading through the mighty life force within the blood, soon turning the entire area into a raging inferno.

Janhalar screamed as he canceled the ability, and he barely scraped enough blood to return to his body without having to be left entirely drained.

“Ouroboros,” said Basilisk, and the soil around Janhalar’s body morphed into another snake. It surrounded his body, devouring its own tail and constraining until the mighty patriarch could not move.

“Alright! Alright!” Screamed Janhalar, clearly ready to surrender. “I will sell you forty percent!”

Madam frowned. Sell what?

“Sixty percent,” responded Basilisk.

“I—”

Madam rushed at him before the patriarch could continue, dragging the fleshy abomination. The elderly man that had been pushed aside clearly didn’t dare step in her way, as he had seen what happened to the other two, so it didn’t take long for her to get dangerously close.

“Alright!” Said Janhalar, and Basilisk raised a wall of stone snakes to stop Madam from getting any closer.

“What the hell is this!?” Yelled Madam. “Basilisk, you—!”

“Just hear me out, ok?” He said, raising his arms to placate her, but that seemed to be doing anything but. “Look, Janhalar has received a spot for a mining expedition into C-000421.”

Madam’s expression turned cold as she realized what this was about. “So you just used me to force him to sell you a share!?”

“Yes!” Basilisk said as if it weren’t a big deal.

“Alright,” said Madam. “Now that he is restrained, I’ll get the young man myself.

The snakes on the wall hissed at her as they shifted and got in her way again.

She shot Basilisk a cold glare, but he simply shrugged. “I have to be there for my business partners, you know. It’s a matter of reputation.”

The Ouroboros that still held Janhalar tightly restrained crumbled into dust, and the man shook it off his robes as he moved to the side.

Madam clenched her teeth so hard that they began cracking one after another, emitting a sound that resembled chewing on gravel. Until it abruptly stopped. “I will remember this,” was all she said as she turned around and began walking away.

She snapped her finger, and Matt moved through the shadows, beheading the last living elder and vanishing before Janhalar could retaliate, marking the final ‘fuck you’ that Madam could send. For now. But she would show them eventually.

Madam Morleppe wasn’t someone to lightly turn into an enemy.

***

Freddy suddenly felt cold as a splash of water hit his naked body. Panicked, he rushed to get up, but his head hurt so bad that he could barely think straight. The dizziness and disorientation hit him immediately, and he found himself puking the alcohol he had drunk that night.

“Get up!” A coarse voice yelled, and soon, a kick followed directly into Freddy’s stomach.

Someone gripped his hair and lifted his entire body off the ground. He could hear snickering all around him.

Another bucket of water was spilled over his head, but that wasn’t enough to undo the intense trauma his head had suffered.

“This bastard is so soft,” another voice said, clear and manly, and a moment later, a punch landed on Freddy’s stomach, and the hand gripping his head slammed it into the wall, worsening the nausea.

“Hey, Jared!” A third voice said, this time slightly nasal. “Heal his head. He can’t think straight.”

Moments later, a soft, warm touch pulsed through the top of Freddy’s head, and he could finally comprehend what was happening.

“What the fuck!?” He screamed as he reflexively threw Flowing Strike with his leg, kicking at the man before him. His leg landed on the man’s ribs, and he buckled as a loud groan escaped his lips.

Finally taking a moment to look around, he tried figuring out where he was. It was some sort of damp room lined with old grey concrete. It looked like an abandoned construction project, and the only way out seemed to be through a firmly shut metal door.

“You—! You bastard!” The same coarse voice came from the man that had been manhandling him until a moment ago eked out as he got to his feet. He was a bulky, slightly obese man, shaven smooth bald.

The other three were also without any hair, all tattooed from the top of their shiny heads to the bottom of their feet.

Without thinking, Freddy swung another kick at the buckled man’s head, but to his surprise, the bulky man caught his foot with ease and threw Freddy at a wall behind them as if he weighed nothing.

Freddy slammed the wall back first, and all the air in his lungs was pushed out as he fell to the ground, too winded to breathe.

“This fucker kicks like a horse,” the bulky man said, and the others laughed at him.

‘I’m so screwed,’ was the only thing Freddy could think as they approached him again.

Suddenly, the metal door cracked open, and a young woman dressed in red robes entered. Her cheeks were tattooed with thin, red lines, and her eyes held an icy calm that sent shivers down Freddy’s spine.

The four men instantly bowed to the woman as they stepped back.

She approached Freddy, and yet again before he could even see what happened, he was out cold.