B2 Ch. 30 The Other Kind of Vampire

The whole group turned and watched in concern as Tilly released his Mana-infused breath ability.  The magic struck Gorock like a physical blow, causing his whole body to flinch and then go rigid.  He releases a deep groan, and all of his wounds begin to seep once again, despite the presence of the living bandages.

But the viscous substance was much darker than blood and as it was expelled from his body, it flowed in tiny rivulets, attempting to join one another.  Amelia let out an annoyed hiss, and she imbued the Blood Weed all around Gorock. It bloomed back to life, consuming the black ichor.  The Corruption was absorbed and spread out amongst the interconnected plants like a circular dark stain of darkened flora with Gorock at its center. Amelia then clenched her fist and all the infected plants died.

Gorock’s body slowly relaxed and he let out an involuntary sigh of relief, color returning to his waxy grey cheeks.

“By the Sanguine Heart!  What ability is this?  How did you achieve what even our greatest have been unable to accomplish?”  The Apprentice asked aghast at the sight of Tilly’s ability.

Tilly looked up to answer him and finally took a close look at his features.  His face was angular and pale, contrasting painfully with his colorful assortment of layered cloth equipment. But it was the mouth hanging open in shock that yanked Tilly’s attention to what was obviously a pair of fangs.  Reaching almost to his bottom lip were two elongated canines.

‘Is this whole region just different kinds of vampires?’

Tilly’s hand fell to his weapons, and the motivation behind Ichiro’s stance and caution suddenly became clear.  He fumbled for an answer to the WIzard’s Apprentice’s shocked question,

“... I got this ability as much by dumb luck as anything else.  But you should know, that this ‘new blackness’ as you call it is not just affecting your region of Nephesh. It is seeping up through the cracks of reality everywhere, offering its dark promises to any who are willing to give up their souls.”  He finished hotly, the adrenaline from the battle and another near-death still pumping through his system.

“Dumb luck you say…” The vampire answered thoughtfully, his eyes sharpening in what could only be hunger. Suddenly the stance of the hulking Knight next to him seemed to take on an even more threatening cast.  The dull sheen of his metallic face plate glinted ominously in the light of several still-soldering corpses.

“I am quite impressed by how effective your power set is against the Strigoi, especially in their newly empowered state.”  The vampire continued looking around in thoughtful consideration.

“Excuse me.  My name is Ichiro Hamamoto, we are on a mission from a newly integrated nation on the border of these lands. Who are you and if you don't mind, why should we trust you?”  Ichiro broke in, calling the distracted vampire’s attention back to him.

“Yes, of course, how rude of me!  I am Hilbert Ferrier, last Apprentice to the Bloodline Sorceror Merllyn and member of the low court of Camelot.  This is Sir. Micheal, Knight of the Sanguine Order.  He currently holds a seat at the High Table.”  The vampire answered formally.

“Merllyn… Camelot?  Wait, are you guys vampire versions of the Knights of the Round Table? Do you serve a King named Author?”  Tilly burst out, unable to hold his excitement at recognizing some of the possible myths represented by this faction of power on Nephesh.

Hilbert’s face fell slightly at Tilly’s words, “Ah, you have heard of us…  I am afraid some of your information is out of date.  I know not what you mean by ‘vampire version’  but I would be happy to share the history of my people after we are away from this location.  More will come from farther afield, even if I reactivate my warding.”

“How much longer do you think we have?”  Ichiro asked as Gorock groaned and sat up, looking much better after only a few minutes of not bleeding out or actively fighting crazy amounts of Corruption.

‘That constitution has to be insane…’  Tilly thought staring down at the Wall Breaker with renewed respect.  He had just gone toe to toe with something almost twice his level and had survived long enough for the others to finish it. After a moment of consideration, Hilbert answered Ichiro’s question.

“We should be fine for a few minutes more.  They would never have found us if I had not tried to scry the newly formed Horde…”  The Apprentice answered sheepishly, the statuesque Sir Micheal moving for the first time, to turn his blank face plate to look down at the Apprentice in what could have been admonishment.

“Yes, yes-” Hilbert said, waving down the look with a weak dismissal.

“How could I have known they would have such a powerful counter to divination?  That has never been a strength of the Horde’s before!  Of course, much has changed in the last few months… but that is why we are here, isn’t it.”

Then he turned to our group,

“We too are on a mission from our order-”  Tilly didn't see the Knight move, but his armor creaked as he continued to watch and Hilbert stuttered,

“Ah, well, what I mean to say is, we are on a mission for our order. They do not know we have come, and they would perhaps be against our reaching out if they knew-”

“So you have no power to broker an alliance?” Ichiro asked, disappointment seeping in at the edges of his formal tone.

“Our Order is not what it once was.  We still present a strong martial presence in the region, but we are declining… The Horde has consumed the Jaingshi to the west, and the twilight elves, who used to possess marshes to the south.  Now all of those lands have been converted to barren grasslands.  You need to understand, each enemy the Horde consumes converts to a Juvenile of their own race.  It has left them with an unsustainable force that has grown exponentially, and will consume itself if it does not continue to expand-”

A barking screech sounded in the distance, drawing the eyes of the whole group toward the distant noise.  Hilbert's head snapped back to the group.

“Look, I can hide us, but we need to be away from here.  On our honor, we will not harm you and yours unless you try and do the same to us,”  he whispered urgently, gesturing more or less in the direction they had already been traveling.

The smoldering corpses had moved into the visual background of Tilly’s mind during the conversation, but at the interruption of the call of more scouts, he had noticed Kindle settling into the largest pile of corpses like a nest of charing grey torsos and limbs. In her presence, the blue embers had reignited and were merrily consuming the rest of the corpses, in a blaze that was so hot that it was producing complete combustion, producing no smoke at all.  Tilly watched in astonishment as her physical form visibly matured in the presence of the fire and the fuel it consumed.

Ichiro reluctantly agreed to the vampire's request,

“We will accompany you for a few hours, but our mission is urgent, and we have little time to spare.  Even now, our people are besieged by this ‘new horde’ as you call it, and we pursue our own objectives here in the Twighlight lands. Come with us to pick up our gear, and then we will hear you out in a different location.”  Ichiro answered, sheathing his sword.

A call sounded again, closer to the group.

“The initial direction does not matter, I can cast the attention ward anywhere, but it would not stand up to the scrutiny such a scene will bring,”  Hilbert answered.

Gorock was helped up, and he shook off his still-healing injuries, eyeing the Kight who was only slightly shorter than him.  With that, the group moved back the way they had come.  Accompanied by the two new members they rounded the hill at an almost dead sprint heading back to pick up dropped gear.  Tilly moved to follow, calling mentally back to his bond as he ran.

‘Kindle, leave the rest,  we have to go!’

‘The coming two legs cannot fly, I will be away before they arrive and come to you.  Worry not Tilly.’ She answered in a warm, confident voice.  Some of her words carried hints of the wild scenes that had shaped most of her messages in the past, but the majority of the mental communication he had just received used human language.  Tilly stumbled and turned in shock to look at the phoenix who was sitting calmly in the midst of the growing blaze.

‘I must grow stronger if I am to help you in your task.  This is how my kind grows.’   she sent calmly.  Another set of screeching howls sounded from only a few hilltops away.

‘Now go silly human, I will be fine.’

‘You better be!’  He mentally growled back as he sprinted off after the others, not at all liking how fast things were changing with her. A few days ago, she was just mastering flight, and now she was using full sentences.

Once their group arrived at the dropped packs, Amelia made sure their cloaks were covered in Bloodweed which earned an appreciative look from Hilbert, and they kept moving.  Tilly kept looking up anxiously but felt nothing but determination from his bond as the scouting calls converged on their old position.

As they continued to run, skirting the small valley they had just fought within, Hilbert slid up next to Tilly and spoke in a low but audible tone.  “If that creature of yours is spotted and gets away, it will be blamed for the destruction.  My skills give me no level identifier with its tag, so they will be unable to know if it was capable of such a thing or not.”

“What about the wounds that were clearly caused by weapons?”

“Ah… yes.”  He answered thinking for a second.

“That will depend on whether they have a Consumer nearby or not.  If the Juveniles are not specifically forbidden, they will eat anything, even their own dead.  They are ravenous, all of them, and this land has long been empty of anything they could eat besides each other.”

Tilly nodded absently at that, looking back and sending a worried mental inquiry.

‘Kindle, where are you? It's been too long.’

In response, Tilly received a strong feeling of exultation through their bond, accompanied by a recent memory from Kindle’s point of view.  This time the overlay of her memory barely caused him to skip a step.  She had packaged it in such a way that as soon as he touched it with his mind, it unfolded, streaming into his mind in a far less attention-demanding form.  Instead of trying to watch it like a mental video he simply let the memory sink in, gaining far more from the scene than he had when they had last shared points of view.

She watched as the first scout and then the second crested the hill, charging up to the pile of burning bodies and pulling up in confusion, unable to make out the figure in the midst of the stoked flames.  Then she did something Tilly could feel but did not quite understand, and the extra energy-rich heat she had been unable to absorb suddenly exploded in a frontal cone, completely enveloping the two Juveniles.  The blast also set the two Consumer bodies alight, and she took off in flight as more Juveniles crested the hill.  A few howled angrily after her, but she had already gained significant altitude.

Then, there was a blur from over the hill, and she twisted on instinct, as a chipped axe whipped by, end over end, carrying extraordinary velocity.   She whirled around to find a Consumer watching her, its hatred palpable even from this distance.

The memory broke off, as she headed away from Tilly’s direction planning to circle around out of sight. She would not lead them to her human.

‘Good girl’ He sent back with the image of a High-Five, not sure if the satisfaction he felt was his own or the lingering echo of her fierce exultation at her first solo victory.