Vae Victis - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Skills

My sire taught me how to fight, really fight. Before, I had learned by watching the cartel’s enforcers, by the fact that I was always in their presence. As a kid I often got into fights with the other children, I was a wild one back there. Intent on proving to everyone that I was dangerous. I had learned early on that making others fear you was the only way that you could survive in a place like that.

Eventually, an old shifter, a sicario for the cartel noticed me. He would come out into the yard and break up fights, one day he found me on top of a boy around my age, my fists raining down on his face. I remember him pulling me off the little shit and taking me to the woods, where the shifters had their training area. He had me hitting sacks filled with grain for hours, only speaking when he had something to correct. I was a quick study, and from the shifters I learned what brutality really meant. Back then, I thought that there was no honor in a fight, and I learned how to inflict as much damage as possible as fast as possible. Often, that was the only way that I could win against men who were taller and stronger than me. Hit them before they realized that I was a threat, gouge an eye, break a limb, crack a rib, the rest of the fight was easier after. I learned how to shoot and care for firearms, I learned what spots on the body caused the most pain.

I didn’t know that I was going to be turned. After I was chosen to be sent to the States to study, I believed that my future would be managing the cartel’s many interests. I had even been set to follow Pablo around, learning his craft.

When I learned about being turned, I was terrified, but I knew enough to understand that there was no refusing the Master of the cartel. I remember that period through a haze filled with memories of blood, the only thing that was clear was the taste of my sire’s blood on my tongue. I had always wondered why I wasn’t turned by the Master himself, but then again, I didn’t know much about the vampire side of the cartel. My sire was a mysterious figure, one seldom seen.

Once I regained my sanity, a few weeks after my transition, I spent all my time with my sire, in his small wooden house in the woods. He insisted that I needed to learn a martial art. He taught me himself, trying to teach me the finer points of body movement and how exactly to use my greater physical abilities. I learned how to see through my opponents, how to watch for the signs of their muscles moving beneath their skin, even before the movement was visibly apparent.

He instilled in me the importance of meditation and calm in order to control my thirst. I had never been that good at it, which was why my thirst often ruled me. It was a failure that had led to a noose around my neck. It was also something that I couldn’t rectify, not when I needed what the thirst gave me in order to survive.

He also taught me how to use many different weapons from his old homeland. I was never any good with most of them, but three had always come easier to me. The bo-staff, the yari—the spear, and the kyoketsu shoge—the chain and blade.

Now, I looked down at Saia and my knife. The blade that I had recovered from the chest was around the length of my forearm, a long knife. Now, the edge was covered in a thin layer of silvery material with tiny hexagonal patterns all over it. At the bottom of the knife Saia had drilled a hole an passed through a ring which connected to a thin chain that was wrapped in behind my belt, the end of the chain was in my other hand with a larger ring attached at the end.

The chain and blade was the weapon that we decided to replicate since Saia wasn’t large enough for a spear or a staff. The chain was thin, but Saia assured me that her structural mass was incredibly tough and that it would hold.

“Right,” I started. “Can you shift back and forth quickly? I want to see how long it takes you.”

Saia obliged my request, turning into silver goo then reforming into a dragon, the transformation took around three seconds, though that was when the chain was tied up. After a bit, she changed again, attaching herself to the blade and becoming a chain. It landed on the ground as she twisted about, she of course couldn’t tie up the chain together after turning into it, she didn’t create any systems that allowed her to mimic muscles as in her dragon form.

Still, I could easily enough do it myself.

“A few seconds either way,” I said. “It’s good enough.”

“Statement: Satisfaction.”

I chuckled and had Saia turn into dragon again. Our plan for the bear required her to start the fight in that form. I already knew what the bear was capable of, the plan we made was meant to rob it of its strengths. I took a deep breath as Saia climbed on my shoulder, then we entered the room. Slowly, I knelt and put my new glaive on the ground, just in case. The two claw improvised daggers were tucked in behind my back, now properly cut down to resemble daggers, and I held the knife in my right hand.

I started to move forward, with all the stealth I could manage, which was significant. A vampire’s control over their own body was substantial, only someone with incredible senses would be able to detect one.

As if I had just jinxed it, the bear’s ear twitched, I froze. It released a whine, its ears still moving around and I could tell that it was about to wake up. I gave the signal to Saia and she shot into the air. Quickly she flew at the bear and just as it raised its head and opened its eyes she mauled his face gouging both eyes out. The bear roared and got up to its full height in what seemed to be an instant. It started swinging its paws wildly, but Saia was already away, heading toward me. I didn’t move as the beast kept smashing everything around it, clawing the ground and the rock beneath which it had slept.

Saia reached me and turned into the chain again. As she clattered to the ground and I caught the chain beneath the blade, the bear turned in my direction. It roared in anger and charged blindly. I dashed to the side, pulling the chain the twisting around my axis and swinging it across the ground until it finally had enough momentum for me to pick it up from the ground.

The sound of metal swinging through the air filled the hilltop as I spun the chain faster and faster, the bear turned toward the sound and charged, spittle flying out of its giant maw. I spun again, then stepped forward and let the chain fly. The end of it struck the bear in the snout, the fist sized ring heavy enough that it hurt the bear and disoriented it.

I pulled the chain back across the ground, quickly wrapping it up around my left elbow. Once I had gathered it all, I let go of the blade part and as the bear charged toward me again I started spinning the blade next to me.

I waited for the last moment before it crashed into me and jumped to the side then let the knife fly at its side from an underhanded spin. It stabbed into its side, and as the bear passed, I pulled, ripping it out of it as I jumped away again.

It roared in anger again, then it shook and a red light exploded out of its body. I was at least two meters away from it, and the red light barely touched me. I felt dizzy and my limbs heavy, but it was no where near the effect that it had before. Still, it was enough for it to whip in my direction and lash out. Blind as it was, it still managed to get me, opening up a shallow cut on my right leg. I ignored it as it wasn’t a serious injury. I jumped back, putting more distance between us and shaking off the last of the numbness.

As I gathered the chain again I ran, trying to make as little noise as possible. Its hearing was good, and often it would turn in my direction even when I was as silent as I could be. I had to run away while I spun the chain, then wait for it to come at me before throwing the blade in its direction and inflicting wounds.

After a dozen or so repeats, the bear was visibly tired, blood flowing from the many wounds. I started spinning my chain again, this time in a slow overhand spin. When it headed in my direction, I waited until it was close then put my foot out in the way of the spinning chain, catching the knife there and halting its momentum. A moment later, I kicked it up and forward sending the knife blade flying straight at the animal’s head.

The blind bear never saw the knife coming as it stabbed in between its eyes. It collapsed in front of my feet, and its body slowly dissolved into particles until only an orb remained. I walked over and picked it up, noting that it was red in color.

“Let’s see what this is,” I said to Saia as she shifted back into her dragon form.

We returned to the main room and I walked over to the shelves on the wall. Next to the [Lesser Leap] I placed the new orb. The bowl turned red and the plaque beneath it filled with writing.

[Debilitating Wave]

Release a wave of energy that will daze   everything hit.

That sounded about right. Again though I saw no signs of a cooldown or anything like that. Or even a cost for it. There was a lot of information missing. I shook my head and picked it up again, then walked over to the pedestal that was my skill. I picked up the [Lesser Strength]. Immediately, I felt weak and stumbled forward, catching myself on the pedestal. A wave of dizziness came over me, a sense of loss. I could tell that I had lost some of my strength. I looked down at my muscles and noticed that I was back to normal.

I grimaced and straightened, then looked at the plaque beneath the bowl. It was blank now, the writing had disappeared, and it had turned gray, like the original plaque above it describing the [Empty Slot].

I placed the red orb into the bowl. Writing appeared on the second plaque, describing the [Debilitating Wave] skill, but it didn’t turn back to gold. I felt nothing, and somehow I knew that it would take some time for it to activate, as the slot skill said. Again, I had no idea how long that would be.

I sighed and turned to look at Saia.

“We are done here, let’s see what happens to you once I leave.”

With one last look on the Mask, I focused on the thought of leaving, and felt the world around me obey.

The switch was immediate. One moment I was inside, the next I was out. Saia was still in my lap, looking up at me attentively.

“Statement: Link with the secondary platform lost.”

“So, you can’t exist in there without me,” I said.

“Feedback: That is likely the case.”

I wondered what it all meant, but I still had no context on it. I stood up and had Saia turn back into the bracer. As I stood, I realized that I was feeling something strange on my leg. I looked down at my torn and bloody pants, but saw no sign of a wound. Then I remembered that the bear injured me. I touched my leg, but the feeling seemed like it wasn’t exactly physical, more like phantom pain. That worried me, if the wounds suffered inside of that place were still felt… what would’ve happened if it was something more serious? What if I died in there?

I resolved myself to proceed with even greater care. I had to survive this place if I was going to unlock its mysteries. With nothing else to do, I settled in to wait for the sun to set.