RD 2 Ch 13 (Patreon)

Chapter 13

Nyx stared with wide eyes as they mopped up the remainder of the cyclops and the one was still beating on Bran.

“What the fuck is he made of?” Rylan spat, watching the recruit that had been instructing them through battle.

Nyx had already pegged Rylan as just being off a touch. He was just too smiley. Though, it remained to be seen if he was just sort of a salesman type or maybe a more malicious sort of manipulator. Everyone was gauging each other.

“He’s made of dreams. Look, he keeps healing. He’s just like a vampire. I bet his bites are fantastic.” Katie gushed, earning a few eyerolls from the surrounding men.

Nyx smiled. These guys were clearly also in awe. They would run over and help Bran if he asked them to do his laundry.

Really, after Bran spent that one fight working on everyone’s fighting, people were looking up to him, even if he didn’t quite want that attention.

Nyx’s problem was Katie. While a little shy at the beginning, she was the one every guy in this place was eying when they got a moment.

Katie stood out with hair dyed a dark red and a single studded leather bracelet that signaled she might be a little edgier than her personality showed. Also, she had large tits. Big tits never hurt, and she showed them off with a low cut shirt and a skirt.

Everyone else was wearing jeans and a variety of tops. They’d all come dressed like it was a hike.

The jeans and shirts were largely designer, but they were still casual.

Nyx doubted that Bran, one of the few without designer clothing, even knew about the brands surrounding him.

“Do we help him?” Another asked.

Zane had pulled out a book and was quickly leafing through the pages.

“What’s that?” Nyx came up behind him. The area was eerily quiet save for the wet cracks of the cyclops’ attacks and the guttural grunts from its rage.

“Genealogy records. I have some information to help me in here…” Zane trailed off, his finger going down the different branches and flipping to the next page before he stopped. “Oh fuck. He’s Thorin’s son.” Zane closed the book with a snap. “Now it all makes so much more sense.”

“Who’s Thorin? Some Heros of legend?”

“No. Actually, he’s an outcast from a rival clan. Married an Elle Heros. Thus, making Bran over there his son. But the thing is they are crazy fighters. Each and every one of them. Now it makes so much more sense. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Yeah, his father probably beat in battlefield tactics and how to fight by time he could crawl.” Zane let out what sounded like a breath of relief and smacked his hands together.

“Happy?” Nyx asked.

“Yeah. For someone with Borrson blood in them, this is completely normal behavior.” Zane gestured towards Bran. “By the way, I wanted to ask if you’d be interested in joining Olympus?”

Nyx hummed. “Give me some time to think about it? Honestly, I would like to shop my options after the instance.”

Zane sighed. “That makes sense. The branches will snatch up everyone they want the first week or so. If you wait longer than that, it’ll get harder. You’ll get more benefits the sooner you join. Loyalty goes a long way.”

“I’d rather have a place I belong rather than the place with the best benefits. So I’ll wait.” Nyx declined as politely as she could.

Zane held up his hand. “Fair. I won’t pressure you.”

“So… how long do we let this go?” Nyx asked.

“Honestly, we should keep moving and let him catch up. I’m sure he can find us in the forest.” Zane pulled out his sword again. “We need one person to hang back and watch over Bran. The rest of us are heading that direction.” Zane pointed with his sword. “We need to keep moving.”

Katie’s hand shot into the air and she even jumped. “I’ll do it! I mean, someone has to.” The radiant smile on her face faded quickly to a forced subdued pout.

Nyx rolled her eyes, wishing she was as pretty.

Soon she was going to be a fucking monster and… fuck. She hadn’t even slept with a guy yet. At this rate, she was going to die a virgin.

The logical part of her told her she was being stupid caring about sex when surrounded by monsters that could kill, but here she stood. It was poetic really. She was finally out of that all girls boarding school, and now she was going to turn into a damned monster.

She pulled at her hair, squinting at it. Greener. It was totally greener. Next she pulled back the waistband of her pants. Was that a scale on her hip?

Nyx closed her eyes and cursed the world.

“Come on! We are moving.” Zane reminded everyone.

“Have fun Nyx.” Katie smirked and gave her a little finger wave. “Bran and I will catch up later. Much later.”

***

Sometimes when I started training, especially particularly painful training, I entered a sort of meditative state. Really, it was a coping mechanism. I preferred to exit my body a bit as it took a beating.

But my meditative state was broken when the system informed me of my success.

[Regeneration A]

Smiling, I crushed the cyclops in front of me with the bone. “Better.” I rolled my neck, feeling all the injuries heal themselves even faster. Even if I lost a limb now, I could heal it back.

“Bran!” The shy girl rushed up to me, ignoring the blood on my clothes as she gave me a big hug. “You finished your training?”

“Yeah. It’s A rank now.”

“Wow.” Katie breathed. “You already have A rank abilities?”

I scratched my cheek. “There was some training before this.”

“Yeah. Zane told us all that you aren’t just a big hunky vampire, but you’re related to the Borrson clan? I hear all of them get huge. Are you going to become a vampire giant?” She asked me in rapid fire, her hand stroking my arm. I raised my eyebrow as I eyed the gesture and she pulled it back.

I was still trying to remember her name. Kat? No, Katie.

She offered her neck, a smile on her face. “You probably need some blood after that. I don’t mind. In fact, I insist.”

I paused, but in the end, more stats wouldn’t hurt. Nyx’s SSS rank bloodline had given me five hundred, largely focused in agility and intelligence with a touch of vitality.

Katie’s was only S rank, but it was still worth something.

I bit her and used Blood Siphon at the same time to punch two holes in her neck.

She gripped my head hard and moaned. “Oh, that is good. Bite me, suck me. Make me your blood whore.”

I paused, suddenly less interested and I pulled back.

Katie moved with me because she had wrapped her arm around my neck ever so slightly.

Rather than get the message, she pushed further, wrapping her legs around my torso and throwing her head back, opening her neck up to me more. “That’s it, pick me up and ruin me.”

This time, I pried her off my head. “We are in the middle of a dungeon, Katie. This is not the time.”

“But there’s a time later?” She asked, touching the wound on her neck with a big smile.

I healed the wound with blood transfusion.

“You removed it!” She pouted, still clinging to me and making me very aware of her chest. “I wanted to show the rest of the ladies who your blood whore was for the trip.” She pulled her hair to the side again as if it would tempt me.

“I’m full.” I lied. “Don’t need much.”

“You can always take more.” She pushed.

“No, actually, I think that would be bad at this point.” I argued.

Katie groaned and rubbed herself against me. “I’m your blood whore though, right? When you’re hungry again, come and ravage me. It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night. Actually, that might be best. Come to me and make me scream your name all night long.”

I peeled her completely off of me and set her on the ground, holding her shoulders. “Katie, I’m not making anyone my ‘blood whore’.”

“We can use whatever term you want. Do you have hypnosis? Oh, you’ll let me think nothing is happening and then continue to tear my insides apart, bite me and heal me. It’ll be like a mind game.”

Holy fuck, this woman was off in her own world.

Crazy could be fun, but it was also very dangerous. Unpredictable and stupid could be a rough mix when demons were attacking the world. This woman was past the point of fun and rapidly rushing into the realm of dangerous.

“Katie. I have no hypnosis—“

“That’s what someone with hypnosis would say.” She interrupted me. “I bet you’ve already used it on me. Yeah, that’s why I’ve fallen for you so hard. You probably took tons of blood. That’s why I’m so faint all of a sudden.” She wobbled on her feet.

I didn’t catch her as she fell over.

Hands off, figuratively and literally, was probably the best approach. I inspected her.

[Katie Heros

Level: 4

Class: Shadow Dancer S

Status: Delusional, unstable, thrilled

Strength: 122

Agility: 185

Vitality: 92

Intelligence: 121 

Spirit: 80

Skills:

Back Stab E

Throat Slit E

Banshee Bloodline S]

Yeah. Very hands off. Otherwise, I was going to end up waking up with my throat healing closed one of these nights.

Thankfully she wasn’t a real threat.

“You were supposed to catch me.” She shouted.

I started walking the way that Zane had clearly taken the rest of the group. They were not very good at hiding their tracks. “I’m not that sort of guy. Keep up or get left behind.”

“Such a bad boy.” She sounded like she was drooling and hopped to her feet to catch up. “Make sure next time you hypnotize me and drain me so hard you leave a mark I can show off.”

“Pass. Hard pass.” I missed some of my old loves. And I had to admit, I had thought about them once I’d come back to this life. The one I wanted to regain the most was actually far closer than ever. She should be just north, in Amsterdam. She had told me she was an accountant before everything went to shit.

Right now she was probably living a boring, mundane life. We had bonded over the darker times in life.

It would be like sleeping with her very close sister or something, because she’d never be exactly the same. She'd be more different the more ripples I made in this timeline. Going and seeing her now would ruin it all.

I shook my head. Those connections couldn’t be forced. Time was always a factor.

“So. How did you get so strong?” Katie asked, finally leaving the vampire fixation as we walked through the instance.

“Practice.” I kept my answers short, watching for threats.

“Must be a lot of practice.” She tried to continue the conversation. “Mom taught me knife fighting. Said nothing is better than a knife when you’re in trouble.” Katie took out a blade and started flipping it around her fingers. “I thought it was kind of cool to practice and show off. Got me some real fun friends.”

“I can imagine.”

“But now that I’m here and supposed to kill monsters and people. Then it’s going to be useful.” She continued.

I couldn’t help myself. “People?”

“Yeah. You think that Galen is going to let us go? No, he’s going to pick a fight with Zane. I guarantee it.”

My thoughts had been similar.

“Which is why I’m your blood whore now and you get to drink me dry anytime you want. I’ll make sure I stay super hydrated. You won’t let your blood whore die in that fight.”

I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “Stop it. I’m not going to drink your blood again if you keep talking like that.”

“Well, you won’t let me know you are. You’ll hypnotize me so I forget. Right, right you won’t drink from me again. Even though I taste heavenly, and right now you can barely contain the urge of drinking me again. It’s just that if you do that then I might actually pass out.” She continued to make up this strange narrative in her head.

I was getting a headache.

So, when the sound of fighting came from up ahead, I rushed past Katie to try and put my mind on something else, something more enjoyable.

As I entered the area, I paused for just a moment to check stats. I cringed hard. The cyclops were already level five.

[Cyclops Warrior S

Level: 5

Status: Angry

Strength: 350

Agility: 300

Vitality: 400

Intelligence: 1

Spirit: 1

Skills: 

Titan Blooded S

Crush S

Eye Beam S

Enrage S

Shield Proficiency S

Sword Proficiency S]

There were only three cyclops, but the group was having trouble, largely because it fought with skill.

The shield almost seemed like a magnet, finding every weapon thrust its way before its short sword found its mark and tore right through them.

“Bran!” Nyx spotted me. “They need your help.”

I activated Charge and surged the remaining distance, slamming into one of the cyclops, knocking it two steps back and creating space to fight it. “All of you, focus on defense. Under no circumstances should you try to block that sword. Parry, dodge. That’s it. It’s going to be S rank, and with that S rank proficiency, anything but Zane’s weapon will be toast after just one block.

Circle around go at their backs. Stay at range, or duck in and right back out if that’s all you can do.”

Katie appeared behind my cyclops, her short sword stabbing it in the back twice before she jumped back in time as it spun with the shield trying to bash her skull in.

There were already several of our members on the ground, moaning and covered in blood. Our one healer was doing his best to keep them alive with just a single weak healing spell.

I picked the one with ranged spells and cast Blood Transfusion on them while keeping Blood Siphon on the cyclops.

The move occupied both of my hands and made me weave back and forth to dodge the cyclops, but its attack was easy enough to read.

After all, all it was using was weapon proficiency.

A sharp pain pierced my leg as a whoosh sounded a moment later. I felt my leg rip nearly off. Sadly, I recognized the feeling and shifted to a single leg stance as I turned to see a cyclops archer.

“Nyx. Deal with the archer.” I stopped using transfusion because I didn’t have the health to spare anymore.