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BS6 C23
🕑 Added 2024-12-04 01:53:05 +0000 UTCFirst posting day at my new workspace/desk! My crappy laptop is way slower than my PC, but the fact that I have a space where I can go "I'm at work now" is sooo helpful for production and staying on task!
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Eleniah lounged on a bench against the far wall, watching Kay as he exerted himself. “Aren’t you pushing yourself a bit too hard? If you exhaust yourself training you aren’t going to be as useful in what’s to come.”
“I don’t think I am, no.” Kay replied, before triggering the training dummy with the gesture he’d told it to react to. The deep black stone golem took a massive step forward, slamming it’s foot down in a move that would have cracked a weaker floor and thrust forward with all four hands gripping it’s spear. Kay bent to the side, using the twin punch daggers he formed around his fists as guides to channel the weapon up and around him. When the golem had fully extended Kay spun and lashed out at it’s neck. When the “deathblow” hit the construct’s head it disengaged, stepping back and settling into a waiting position. The sequence took less time to finish than it did for Eleniah to eat one of the grapes she had in a bowl on the ground next to her bench.
“I feel like you’re doing too much,” She insisted, her tone countermanding how relaxed she was physically. “The closer we’ve been getting to having everything prepared to move the more worked up and tense you’ve been getting. What’s going on?”
Kay ran through two more exchanges with the training dummy while he thought about her question. He had the prize from the dungeon boss in the Isles starting every exchange with different weapons and attack patterns so that he had to react in a single moment to a completely unpredictable assault. He was training to get more levels in his Dual Daggers Wielder (Punch Daggers) Class but also to be prepared for any eventuality. Ambushes, surprise attacks, someone getting their body taken over, and more, there was no telling what the vampyr could spring at Kay and his people, and he needed to be ready.
After the golem reset again Kay sucked his weapons and armor back into his veins and went to sit next to Eleniah. They were in his private training area, one of his private training areas, the more time passed the more palatial his palace got and the more rooms and wings that were dug into the mountain, and it had nice furnishings that could also stand up to a little bit of roughhousing. No longer did anyone visiting or not sparring have to sit on the floor or on hard stone chairs, now there were divans and sofas available along with padded benches. Kay sat down on the edge of the bench Eleniah was laying on after moving some of her hair out of the way. Eleniah grabbed his leg and dragged him over before laying her head in his lap. Kay smiled slightly and dug one hand into her hair.
“You’re hair’s growing out.” He commented quietly.
“I like to let it get long every once in a while, although I don’t tend to keep it longer than this for very long. With my fighting style it’s a bit of a detriment to keep it long enough for someone to grab at it.” She twisted her body so that she was looking directly up at his face. “What’s going on?”
“Do you ever get the feeling of something bad looming on the horizon, like the edge of a storm cloud you can see peaking over the mountains, ready to sweep down on you?”
“Sure. I used to feel like that a lot right after I ran away from home and cut ties with my cousin. I was convinced she or one of her agents was lurking behind every corner, just waiting to drag me into something or trick me into doing what she wanted.”
Kay shut his eyes and turned his face upward. “It’s like that, kind of. It started… I think I started feeling like this after I first went out to scout things and found that ruined settlement, that place where I found that obelisk or stele or whatever it is that he vampyr are using for their rituals. The feeling has been building and building since then, like the storm clouds I can’t quite see are getting bigger and more dangerous, but they aren’t getting any closer.” He looked down at her. “Does that make any sense?”
Eleniah reached up and pressed her hand to his cheek. “Of course it does. I’d say it’s just stress building up. You’ve got a lot of responsibility now and there’s a lot riding on your shoulders. With something big coming, whether that’s leading a sort-of invasion or having to deal with a potentially massive threat it’s perfectly reasonable to feel the suspense and the tension that comes with all of it.”
“That’s not it.” Kay denied. “I mean, it is, but that isn’t just it. There’s something else to it. Something…” Kay’s nostrils flared, his eyes flashed red for a brief second, and his fangs dropped down before retracting back upward. “Something eldritch. Like the scent of decay on the wind that I’m not consciously detecting but my body knows it’s out there and is screaming warnings.”
Eleniah dug a nail into his cheek for a half second, drawing Kay out of the funk she could see coming. “Alright, so there’s something eldritch coming. We kind of knew that already, so what’s the big deal? You’ve dealt with eldritch bullshit before, and you’ll do it again. It’s almost your specialty at this point.”
“I know it is, and I’ve told you how done I am with it.” He let out a half-grunt half-groan as he settled himself into her palm. “It feels like it’s been eldritch thing after eldritch thing happening to me or me running into them since I landed on this world, and I’m really tired of them. Can’t they go find someone else to bother? And why is this all happening right after I showed up?”
“Well, I did tell you that outworlders tend to have interesting things happen to them, and eldritch anything is definitely interesting in the vein of that curse you told me about. As for why it’s been happening in bulk since you arrived…” She lazily shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe it’s a coincidence, just a matter of two different and unrelated sets of events coinciding with timing. Maybe it’s related and your arrival punch a hole in the fabric of reality keeping Torotia cut off from everything out there in existence. I don’t think the second one is a thing because vampyr have been a problem for so much longer than you’ve been here, but who knows? At the end of the day, none of that really matters. Whether life is all fated and we have no choice in things, there’s a puppetmaster pulling the strings and maneuvering events and enemies your way, or it’s all just a series of really weird coincidences, you just have to keep doing your best. That’s the only thing you can do, and it’s one thing that’s entirely in your control.”
“Right now my best doesn’t feel like it’s enough.” Kay flicked a hand upward as he summoned his status screen, getting dramatic with it as he mentally commanded it to be visible to Eleniah too.
[————————————————————]
Name: Kenneth “Kay” Davis
Race: Vampire
Age: 27
Highest Tier: V
Total Tiers: 46
Class Slots: 14 Combat Class Slots/7 Non-Combat Class Slots
9 Combat Class Slots Used/5 Non-Combat Class Slots Used
Classes:
Combat:
- Lord of Spilled Blood: Tier V -
Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 47
Shape Blood - Level 46
Meld Blood - Level 44
Create Simulacrum (Blood) - Level 45
Blood Transfusion - Level 40
Healthy Blood - Level 43
Purify Blood - Level 49
Blood Regeneration - Level 49
Enhance Blood - Level 43
Blood Boost - Level 44
Leadership - Level 47
Domain of Blood - Level 30
Create from Blood - Level 21
Identify - Level 20
Appraisal - Level 15
Inspect - Level 18
Mandate to Blood Spilled - Level 14
Folded Veins - Level 36
Lord’s Bloody Domain - Sublime
- Blood Manipulator: Tier IV -
Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 47
- Blood Shaper: Tier IV -
Skills: Shape Blood - Level 46
- Blood Melder: Tier IV -
Skills: Meld Blood - Level 44
- Expert Swordsman (Bastard Sword): Tier IV -
Skills: Swordsmanship (Bastard Sword) - Level 39
- Expert Polearm Wielder (Halberd): Tier IV -
Skills: Polearms (Halberd) - Level 39
- Blood Champion Originator: Tier V -
Skills: Create Blood Champions - Level 12
Manipulate Blood - Level 47
Shape Blood - Level 46
Meld Blood - Level 44
Create Simulacrum (Blood) - Level 45
Blood Boost - Level 44
- Blood Army General: Tier V -
Skills: Create Blood Army - Level 16
Manipulate Blood - Level 47
Shape Blood - Level 46
Meld Blood - Level 44
Create Simulacrum (Blood) - Level 45
Blood Boost - Level 44
Leadership – Level 46
- Novice Dual Dagger Wielder (Punch Daggers): Tier III -
Skills: Punch Daggers - Level 29
Dual Wielding - Level 27
- Empty -
- Empty -
-Empty-
-Empty-
-Empty-
Non-Combat:
- Cartographer: Tier IV -
Skills: Spatial Determination - Level 39
Expanded Sight - Level 39
Sharpened Memory - Level 38
Stable Footing - Level 39
Drawing - Level 39
Cartography - Level 39
- Expert Mapmaker: Tier IV -
Skills: Effective Communication (Drawing) - Level 38
Drawing - Level 39
Cartography - Level 39
-Empty-
-Empty-
-Empty-
-Empty-
-Empty-
Non-Class Skills: Writing - Level 5, Reading - Level 5, Running - Level 5, Sprinting - Level 5
Titles: Class Line Progenitor, Class Creator X, System Access (Minor), Blood King of Avalon, First Vampire
[————————————————————]
“I don’t feel like this is going to be enough. That this,” He waved his hand at his status, “Will be enough. The feeling that’s bothering me is getting worse, like whatever we’re going to face is getting more powerful or more dangerous. Any moment I can I need to spend getting better, or harder, or more powerful so that I’m ready to face whatever it is that’s coming at us.”
Eleniah grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down so that their foreheads were touching. “You aren’t lacking in any way. You’re going to pull through this. You’re going to get everyone of us through this.”
“Can I afford to assume that, though? Even without this foreboding feeling, it’s my job to stand between my people and the threats against them. I can’t assume that I’ll win, I have to ensure that I will. The threats we’re set to face are unknown. Even if it’s just leveling my Dual Wielding and Punch Dagger Skills up and hitting tier four with that Class, it’s something. If I can work it all the way up to the end of tier four and get another tier five Class that would be even better.” He slowly closed his eyes and sighed. “I don’t think we have the time for me to do that, though.”
“Do you know what we do have time for?” Eleniah whispered to him.
“Time for me to take a break?”
“Damn straight we have time for you to take a break. Working yourself into a melted puddle of blood will be even worse than not training every moment of every day to get ready. And training yourself isn’t the only thing you’re doing to prepare! You’re giving Cindy time and resources to develop new weapons, you’re creating standard weapons out of your blood as often as possible to give our regular fighters more of a chance, and you’re even supplementing my training of all these new vampires to make some of them Blood Manipulators! You can afford to take a break for your health, both because it’s necessary and because you are working as best you can to get everyone ready for this, and you will be enough.” She pushed his head up so he could see her scowl. “You’ve even given up on playing with your floaty maps you’ve been making while trying to get you non-combat Classes to tier five!”
“I haven’t given up, I’ve just pushed it back in my priority queue. It’s not going to be as effective as growing my combat power.”
“Maybe not, but spending time with your girlfriend while she bugs you about your hobby is a damn fine way to take a break in my opinion, and my opinion is automatically a good one.” She jumped to her feet, grabbed Kay’s arms, and started dragging him toward the exit. “Let’s go do that now, and then we’ll have some food.”
“What about the golem?” Kay protested half-heartedly, a break really did sound nice and as much as it had started as just something to do with his non-combat Class slots he really had grown to like making maps with and without his blood Skills. “Shouldn’t I grab it?”
“It’s underground in a private area of your palace which is full of guards, just let it live here.”
Kay hurriedly wave a hand over one of the enchanted sensors that controlled the lights before his much physically stronger girlfriend, if neither of them used Skills, dragged him off to relax and think about anything other than the impending sense of doom that was hanging over him.
Comments
Person
I'd forgotten about that golem.
