ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 116 The Master Vampire

Chapter 116

The Master Vampire

Alexa stood defiantly in the middle of so many broken and injured human vampires and vampyres alike. Having already cleared out one direction, behind her. She now heard and prepared for monsters coming from the connected network of tunnels. Her current location was at a larger intersection where two sets of tunnels intersected. This intersection had apparently served as partial living area for those who called themselves the resistance, as beds, open boxes of canned foods and jugs of water lined the different corners of the converted living area.

Realizing she didn’t have much time, she mentally reached out to the vampires that she had just used power word Hope on, and pushed them off to the sides. Their vampiric bodies making it so the majority of pain they felt from having their broken bodies moved would be survivable, though not very pleasant. Initially it was Alexa’s plan to slowly heal these recovering vampires and vampyres, hopefully being able to find a way to cleanse the cell corrupting magical disease from their systems immediately. Sadly, that was not the case, as she now had to prepare herself for more waves of vampires.

Blur.

The monsters were fast, most being of an exceptionally high level making it so their attributes were far above her Title and Rank improved base Attributes. However, what she lacked in attributes, she more than made up for in her skills. In particular her Analyze skill that stood at Tier II with 1,157%, followed closely by her Tier II Unarmed Combat skill of 156% meant she was not only able to perceive where and how her enemies would move. She was also able to react just in time to have her glowing Arcane power infused fist intercept a vampire’s fang filled face.

Crunch, pop.

There was a glow and a pop as energy from her struck out and then burned its way through the brain matter of the creature that was little more than a beast. The beast fell to the ground, as its near weightless body was caught, stopped, and dropped by the one punch. No sooner had the first body dropped, then her glowing foot struck out behind her, catching a second vampire straight in the chest, as a burning wave of destruction caught and then burned its way through to the beasts heart. Alexa’s glowing foot illuminated the room, from behind the now impaled vampire, blinding the attackers that had been following on the first one’s heels. This was good, as it gave Alexa a chance to kick forward, burning her way through the rest of the vampire’s chest as she spun in an arc to strike at yet another that tried to come at her from her right side, where the first vampire came.

What happened next could only be described as a slaughter, as glowing fists clawed and burned their way through monster after monster. Mindlessly the monsters threw themselves at her, over and over again, until finally there was a muted silence.

Alexa could feel them, the master vampires, she could feel how their mind powers probed around, trying to claw at her mind, only to be diverted by her psychic Mind Shield, her first power and the one that she kept secret for so long. The one that now fought to help keep her mind free of the influences of the other monsters that lurked in the dark.

Then Alexa did something she had always wondered about, something that seemed like it should be possible but had never truly been able to understand. Focusing her will, she looked at the nearly invisible strands of mental energy. Looking at them, they almost seemed to be a translucent shimmer of energy, energy that her body craved.

Focusing her own will, Alexa relaxed he mind slightly, though relax is not quite the correct word. No, coiling, that would be the word she would use to describe her current mindset. Like a predator getting ready to pounce, she lowered herself mentally. Most would assume this was her trying to hide, trying to avoid being noticed by another predator, but they would be wrong. She was focused and determined, this time the tentacles reached out, and focusing on her class abilities, she reached out and grabbed the tentacles.

***

“GARAAHHCH!” The master vampire cried out in pain, as painful burning sensations it had never felt before began burning throughout its massively advanced mind. This was a hive mind vampire, just as werewolves had alphas that were groomed, alphas that were granted more abilities to dominate the weaker werewolves around them, so too had the elves bestowed their blessings and powers on this hive mind master vampires. This creature possessed such an intellectual might that she was able to enthrall and enrapture the minds of unawakened humans, and fully turned vampires and vampyres alike. She was the squad leader of the attack, the ones that would faithfully follow and disseminate the orders of her commanders, making sure the newly turned throng of vampires all moved and acted as one.

The master vampire had watched and felt a disturbance in her net, as something had broken through and killed her recently turned followers. While they were weak, this was to be expected, still such a disruption in the mental net of her followers could not be tolerated, she was the master. If numbers were of no use, then she would dominate the unawaked creature herself. From the shadows she watched as the monstrous female destroyed minion after minion, proving to her mind that these humans were weak, that only the elves that were placed under her command deserved any real concern. But those elves also found their lives cut short. Still she had used them all as a diversion, to get close, this piece would make a fine subject. Being an unawakened, her mind would be like putty in the Master’s hands, as her evolved mind and will should be more than enough to dominate the simple mind of anyone on an uninitiated planet, especially those that were unawakened. Yet, there was a problem, her first attempts to grab and subdue the mind before her were thwarted. She could feel the mind, it all but glowed with a massive surge of energy. Energy that a master like her desperately needed to sustain herself.

See that was the problem with Master vampires, as they grew in power, so too did their need for sustenance grow. No longer satisfied with just the power and energy of blood, she now needed the energy of minds to sustain her, the more powerful the mind the better the taste, and the more she leveled. Of course, this only made it so she needed to feast on stronger and stronger minds to sustain herself. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, as the masters always made it so she had plenty, but that was before she was pulled through, before she was sent here. She was to be the one master to control hundreds and thousands of minds, even if they were weak minds it still caused a drain on her resources, still caused her to thirst for more. She had been set loose, her one goal was to conquer the minds of every human sent underground by the dragons, subjugate them, bend them all to her will, and then bring them forth when called upon to be a sacrifice for the masters when they made their attack against the great beasts. It was a tried and true method, one the dragons never seemed to be able to counter. She herself had managed to gain the Dragon Slayer title five times, as part of her efforts. Not that she was ever able to learn magic, not that the titles meant anything other than she was talented at following orders.

This was to be her sixth and then seventh such foray. If she was lucky, the masters would allow her to drink from the mind of the dying dragon, if only to fill her reserves of energy before being directed at the next enemy. Yet, there was something wrong, the target’s mind she was facing was like smoothly polished stone, a perfectly round marble that offered no means of purchase for her mind tentacles to grab hold of. Instead, any and all effects to grab the target’s mind were wasted. To make matters worse, when she first began, the target was unaware of her efforts, seemingly content to operate freely, as if unaware that a greater predator existed, one that was ready to dominate her mind, and drink from their mental essences. Then they hid, at least that is all the master vampire could understand of the action, perhaps they had some item or talisman that only offered momentary protections, focusing her mental efforts once again, the Master vampire struck out. Though rather than being rebuffed like before, she was met with first shock, then growing fear as the tentacles that still were unable to find purchase on the glowing mind before her bounced off. But rather than being allowed to retract, they were held. No worse than being held, they were being drained. Suddenly a burning sensation broke out in her mind, as her already depleted energy reserves were being pulled at, sucked through the very tentacles that she had used to absorb the mental energies of so many enemies before her. How could this be? Was this another master vampire? No, they couldn’t be, her masters would have told her, there was no way two master vampires would be set lose in the same spot. Such a thought seemed preposterous, as that would be a waste of resources, as there were only so many minds to go around. Also, with two there would invariably be a mental dominance match, much like what was going on here.

Realizing that there was no doubt about it, this mind she was fighting was not only far stronger, able to defend against her strikes even when ambushed. This master vampire was also much more talented, able to draw out mind essence at a far faster rate than she ever could. Realizing this was likely one of the legendary masters, she did the only thing she could. The only thing that was acceptable in such a situation. Focusing her mind on the link between them, she did the mental equivalent of getting down onto her knees and bowing her head.

“I surrender.” She said, mentally, letting her thoughts flow freely from the mental tubes, as she gave up resistance on pulling back the energy through her tentacles. This was the only way, show complete submission, knowing that the masters would have ordered this master vampire to stop when such supplication was given. Now all she had to do was sit back and wait for the response. One that would simply ask that she become part of this new master’s web of minds.

Yet, rather than getting the response she had expected, she was instead greeted with just a one word reply.

“Good.”

At that, a slight chill of fear went down her spine as she realized she had made a mistake. She had made a terrible mistake, this was no master vampire, this was something far, far worse. Mentally she tried to get back up, to stand, to fight back the waves of force that were pulling the last reserves of her mental energy, but it was too late, she had let the monster in too deep. Then with a shudder and final surge of fear, she felt the last traces of her mind, her consciousness, and if some were to be believed the final surges of her soul be plucked out from her mind as the world and universe around her went dark.

***

The master vampire collapsed, as the last traces of all mental energy were gone.

Panting.

Alexa smiled brightly as she felt a rush and surge of a new form of energy fill her, fuse with her body and instantly go to reinforce her mental reserves of energy. She didn’t know what that was, what type of energy the master vampire, and that’s what it had been, a master vampire, had used. She didn’t know what type it was, possibly psychic, though she had never tasted anything quite like it, but there was one thing that was unmistakable about the sensation that was flooding her body, she liked it, she liked it a lot.

Down by her feet was a pile of vampire corpses, Alexa had been pushed too far too fast after having used her power word Hope. Logically, she knew there was nothing she could have done to save more of them, even now with the master vampire dead, she knew at least one more use of power word Hope would be required to fully free any new vampires and vampyres that were around her. That was too much, as it was she still felt dizzy, despite her body doing its best to absorb and convert the ambient energy from the vampires she just slaughtered, even the mental energy she absorbed from the master vampire was going to take a while to be fully converted to a form her body could truly use. As it was, she barely had a chance to start Healing the most injured of vampires. These of course were the first wave of vampires she had fought. The first wave before two more waves of enemies decided to come and investigate her.

Pop.

“Ahh.” A male said, as his back and bones audibly popped back into place. “Thank you.”

With that, Alexa went through, Healing everyone she could.  She held nothing back, making sure to use the full extent of her Healing magic on all of the recently freed vampires. Oddly she found that if she focused, her Analyze skill helped make her energy use that much cleaner, that much crisper. Rather than throwing buckets of mana at problems as she would have originally, she found herself working with the bodies, having them first fuse the bones together, then circulate out waste that might otherwise be toxic to the blood stream. Her mind and newly acquired skills making such calculations on the best ways to cycle blood and mana throughout a targeted body easy to interpret.

“Aru’ka?” One female asks, finally looking out with her vampire eyes to see their healer, their savior in the dark.

“Yes.” Alexa said.

“What happened?” Another voice asked.

“Where are we?”

Clamor.

Suddenly everyone that had been healed began speaking out at once.

“Enough!” Alexa said, her voice not quite a shout, but filled with power and intent.

Silence.

“I have been sent as part of the dragon subjugation team. When I got here, I was ambushed and found myself driven down here. That is where I found you all. I will set a series of runes for you all to follow. But I ask that you all wait a day before heading out, so that I might have time to kill the dragon of London.” Alexa said, as she spoke she held out her hand and began weaving a string of lighting runes around the open chamber. The runes were a simple series of runes, one to draw in ambient energy, and a second to glow with the ambient energy.

“You are going out there to face the dragon alone?” A teenage girl asks.

Looking at the girl, Alexa thought she was really young, up until the moment that she scanned the girl and realized she was the same age as her.

Normal-thin Human (Vampire) Teenager (16): Elana Butler: Level 7, Status: Healthy, Disposition: Frightened

At that Alexa realized that her view of the world had changed a lot recently over the last two months, as it seemed like it was only a little while ago that she was going on date consultations, and getting called into the principal’s office. Now seeing the girl before her, one that had been forced to take on a partial race evolution to a vampire, Alexa couldn’t help but wonder how much more her life would change in the coming weeks.

“Well?” The teenager asked, her words pulling Alexa back to the present.

“I’m sorry, what?” Alexa asked, suddenly realizing that the recent battles had taken more out of her than she originally thought.

“I was asking, if you were going to fight that dragon alone.”