The Dawnbreaker Gambit: Grayscale Book 1, page 28
“Spiral!” I created a column of wind and lifted the man, before slamming him back into the ground with a sickening thud.
“Bullet.” I shot a bullet of air at another one of the fallen vampires, snapping his neck. I did the same to the four other vampires on the ground.
That wasn’t too difficult. It seemed these men were only gifted with knowledge.
No one else seemed to be in here, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to be caught off guard again. My head was still throbbing.
I turned to the scroll floating in the center of the room.
It looked so lonely, almost like it wanted to be taken. I walked over to it and reached out to grab it.
“Well, well, well,” a gravelly voice said. “What do we have here?”
I turned around and saw three men standing in the library’s doorway.
They wore light armor, black leather, and had curved swords strapped to their hips. The blades were curved with jagged edges along the length of the blade, perfect for tearing through flesh.
“I knew it couldn’t be that easy,” I pulled my hand back. “You don’t look like Dakarai’s soldiers, who are you?”
“We’re Reavers. When Lord Dakarai needs someone…taken care of, we handle it.” One of them explained.
“Lovely.” The air around me started rotating violently. “Shall we get started, gentlemen?”
One of the Reavers emitted dark black energy and disappeared from sight. I’d seen this trick a million times from Damian.
“Wind Blade!” I formed a pair of green blades in my hand and threw them as I turned around. The Reaver was behind me like I’d expected, and his armor offered little protection from my attack as it sliced him open.
He fell to the ground defeated, and I turned to face the others.
A shockwave of blinding, white light shoved the other vampires to the ground.
“Spring!”
A girl jumped from the doorway into the room and stood next to me.
“Mika?” I looked at her with confusion. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Damian brought me here,” she said.
“ Where is he, is he okay? ” I asked.
“He’s fine, or he was when I left him.” Mika cast her gaze downward and blushed. “He told me you might be in danger so I came straight here…”
A green aura radiated from my body.
“T-Talion?” She blinked rapidly.
“Spiral!”
I threw her into the wall.
Before she fell to the ground, her body took on a purple glow and she faded away. The Reavers followed the same fate soon after.
“Wow Talion,” an alluring voice called out. “I didn’t know you treated women so…roughly. What gave it away?”
“Well for starters, Damian already decided not to bring her. And Mika cares about all of us. She wouldn’t abandon him just to come see me.”
“Tch, I guess I laid it on too thick.” She replied.
A beautiful girl stepped into view, flipping her violet hair.
“Vela?”
The eldest Rotel smiled at me. “In the flesh. And thank you for the compliment.”
“What are you,” I paused and frowned at her. “You’re a telepath. Since you’re here, I guess that means you and your sister are vampires as well.”
“That’s right.”
That explained quite a bit actually.
“If you’re here, where are the others?”
“Mira’s outside with her fiancé-”
Fiancé? Ouch, I wondered how Lyo felt about that.
“-and Reina,” she continued. “Is right behind you.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Descent
A calm, radiant blue. That was the beacon I found myself drawn to. If I focused hard enough on her aura I could ignore the destruction behind me.
“What are you so torn up about? He got what he deserved after all.” My void said.
He was leaning against the wall, watching me as I walked by.
“It isn’t right,” I replied. “And get back in your cage.”
“Oh no, its way too late for that my friend,” he explained. “C’mon, today’s the day! You should be more excited! We’ll have so much fun; we can rip and tear to our heart’s delight!”
It wasn’t right.
“You’re seriously still having doubts?” My void reappeared in front of me, floating upside down. “Why don’t you turn around and tell me you don’t want this? You should’ve seen the look on his face when we-”
“Shut up!” I snapped. “Just shut the hell up!”
He raised his hands defensively and I walked past him. He didn’t reappear, but he was still with me.
He would always be with me.
* * *
I continued walking until I reached a corner. As soon as I turned it, I spotted a group of five men in black leather armor, sporting curved, jagged blades.
It was like my head was splitting in two. There was something eerily familiar about them and my brain was hurting itself trying to remember.
“Look what we have here,” one of them said. “It’s that Grayscale kid. Guess Lord Dakarai was right.”
“You don’t want to do this,” I warned them. “I’m not in a good mood.”
They all drew their blades as a few of them laughed.
“Is that supposed to scare us kid? Your life ended the moment you stepped foot in this castle.” One man said.
Two of them rushed straight at me while another pair was enveloped in Void energy.
“Breach!” I opened a rift and pulled Twin Shadows to me.
The first two vampires reached me and I parried their strikes with my blades.
I sensed someone appear behind me, so I turned my head and saw another vampire’s blade coming towards me.
I teleported to the far side of the room behind the two that were gathering void energy.
I couldn’t afford to let them surround me like that again, or I’d be in trouble.
One of the vampires turned around and aimed his palm at me. “Bullet!”
One of the first things my shadow taught me was how to absorb void magic, at least when it was on my level or weaker, so that’s exactly what I did.
I reached out and caught the attack, before mixing it with my own power and redirecting the energy into one of my blades.
A beam of void energy shot out of my weapon and flung my attacker across the room.
“That wasn’t enough power,” my void chided. “You won’t win this by being soft, you have to fight to kill!”
“I know!” I shouted.
Despite knowing that, some part of me was still holding back.
All of us stopped moving as we had yet another stand-off.
“Look at him,” one of the vampires pointed at me. “We’ve got him so scared he’s talking to himself!”
“Why don’t you come closer and see just how scared I am?” I taunted.
One of the vampires was enveloped in a dark aura as he activated Void magic. He invoked a spell and one of his buddies disappeared in an instant.
Shouting came from above and I looked up to see the vampire falling towards me, his blade angled down to impale me.
I raised both my blades above my head and caught his. My muscles burned and I shouted back as I shoved with all my might, throwing him backwards.
Two could play that game.
“Breach!”
I opened a set of portals, one in front of me, and one near the ground aimed up at an angle. I threw one of my blades in and he yelped as it found a place in his shoulder. I pulled on the chain as hard as I could and closed the portal, freeing my blade and slamming him into the ground.
“Spring!” I roared as I leaped into the air to pounce on the fallen vampire.
“Rock Bomb!”
A rock exploded in front of me, the pieces slamming into my chest and knocking me to the ground.
I tried to stand back up.
“Stone Pillar!”
The ground underneath me shifted and I heard something smashing through the pristine marble floor. Something round pressed against my back and pushed me rapidly towards the ceiling, which cracked when I was smashed into it.
The pressure disappeared and I started falling back to the ground.
“Spiral!”
An intense wind slammed down against my chest, forcing me back onto the ground. I was trapped, unable to even catch my breath.
“You’re losing,” my void said. “Let me help you!”
The furious gale’s assault ended, and I laid there on the ground bleeding and motionless.
My head was pounding and my vision was blurry. It wouldn’t be long before I was out.
“Hard to believe this is the kid he was worried about.” Someone said.
The entire group laughed at me. The sight of their blurred figures moving to surround me…reminded me so much of that nightmare.
Dancing shadows, laughing as they killed my parents. Mocking my helplessness.
“That wasn’t too hard,” another one added. “Let’s take his head and report to Lord Dakarai. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m kinda looking forward to this wedding.”
Something inside me gave way.
Whatever reservations I had a few minutes ago were gone. These were the shadows that had been torturing me for the past six years. They were the reason why I never had “good” dreams like everyone else. Like normal people. They were the reason that my only solace at night was a dreamless sleep because the alternative was that hellish nightmare.
No more.
A torrent of abyssal power exploded from my body, blasting the vampires away from me.
I stood to my feet and watched them struggling to stand back up. It was so comical I couldn’t help but laugh.
“We’re not done until I say we’re done!”
I slowly walked over to the closest vampire, dragging my blades across the ground by their chains to let him hear me coming.
Once I was standing over him, I lifted him by his throat. He choked as he feebly struggled against my grip.
“What were you saying? You wanted to take my head, right?”
One of my blades was coated in blood as his head was parted from his body. Scarlet warmth splashed across my face as his corpse fell to the ground.
“That’s right,” my void encouraged. “Let’s show them why they should fear us, let’s show them our power!”
“You bastard!” One of the vampires dashed toward me, sword in hand. “You’ll pay for that!”
I waited for him to get closer before I activated my teleportation spell.
His confusion about my whereabouts was short-lived as he soon found one of my blades resting in his heart. I graciously removed it for him, and he dropped to the ground motionless, a pool spilling out from his body.
“Don’t quit just yet, I’m starting to have fun!” I said as I stalked towards another vampire.
“S-stay away from me you monster!” He wildly swung his sword at me.
I stayed out of range, grinning as he flailed around. I spun my right blade by its chain and gathered some energy.
“Breach!”
I opened a pair of portals, one in front of me, and one behind the vampire that led to one of my pocket dimensions. Aside from a few vials of Silver Vein, it was almost completely barren.
I threw my blade into the portal and it impaled the vampire in the back. I pulled on the chain and brought him to the ground, busting open the vials of Silver Vein. I didn’t get to savor his screams for long before I closed my dimension off permanently, leaving him trapped in his own personal hell for eternity. Or however long it took for the Silver Vein to turn him to ash.
Only two more to go.
One of them tried running. That wouldn’t do.
I teleported in front of him. “Leaving so soon?”
“Roc-”
Before he could finish his incantation, I silenced him with one well-placed slash. I stood over his fallen body and aimed at his chest with my blade.
“Umbral Beam.” My blast cut through him like butter.
Only one left now.
The final vampire sat on the ground, clutching his head.
I walked over to him and knelt down before stroking his head.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re the lucky winner today! “If you tell me what I want to know, I’ll let you walk away.” I smiled.
He crawled away from me on all fours. The fear coming off of him was delicious.
“H-how am I supposed to b-believe you? You just killed everyone else! And you’re smiling about it! What kind of monster are you?”
“Watch it. I’m trying to be generous and you’re starting to piss me off,” I warned. “You guys are different than the rest of Dakarai’s troops, so who are you? Hurry up now, or I might decide I want to play with you next.”
The vampire nodded. “We’re Reavers, Lord Dakarai’s elites. We handle r-recon and assassinations for him. If h-he needs something done he calls us.”
“Good boy,” I said. “Has the ceremony started yet?”
“N-no.”
“Excellent,” I stood up and turned my back to him. “As promised, you get to walk away. I’m a man of my word after all.”
I walked away from the lone survivor and whistled as I spun one of my blades.
“What the hell? Why are we letting him go?” My Void asked.
“Because I made a promise,” I said. “Besides, I was in a good mood.”
“If leaving a room soaked in blood is your good mood, I can’t wait to see the bad!” My Void laughed.
* * *
I continued wandering the hallways for a while, the sounds of my chains the only thing keeping me company.
I entered a long stretch of hallway that seemed completely abandoned. Unlike the hallways before which were well-lit, this one only had a few sparse candles illuminating it. I looked at the shadows around me and couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It almost seemed like they were twitching.
Or dancing.
The shadows here just didn’t feel right. I decided to trust my instincts.
I stopped in the middle of the hallway and smirked.
“You can go ahead and come out now!” I called out. “I don’t bite!”
From out of the shadows, more of Dakarai’s so-called Reavers appeared. I slowly spun around as they assembled on both sides of the hallway surrounding me.
It seemed vampires just loved that shadow diving trick. They drew their swords and auras appeared around their bodies as they prepared to attack.
“What, not even some friendly banter?” I asked. “The last group of Reavers I killed was a lot more fun!”
A chorus of whispers answered. They talked among themselves for a moment before one of the Reavers stepped forward from the group.
“Grayscale,” he said. “Lord Dakarai has sentenced you to die.”
I laughed, letting my own aura loose in response.
“Is that right? Well come and get me then!”
Chapter Thirty-Nine: One vs. One Hundred (Lyo)
I had no clue how long I’d been fighting. Had it been ten minutes? Twenty? An hour? I’d gone through so many of these guys even their faces were starting to blend together.
A dagger flew towards my face. I twisted my body enough for it to only graze my cheek.
“Hey…you bastard…I was taking a breather!” I formed a raging orange globe in my palm. “Flare!”
I threw a fireball in the direction the dagger came from and I heard corresponding screams.
I didn’t have time to see the result myself. Someone behind me was gathering mana.
“Bullet!” A shout came from behind me.
I dropped to the ground in a pushup position. Craning my neck to look through my legs, I spotted my attacker preparing another bullet.
“Torch!”
I pointed my index finger at the vampire and lit up the area he was standing in, engulfing him in flames and ending the threat.
While I was still on the ground another vampire charged at me, getting ready to drop his axe on my head.
Gimme a break dammit!
“Spring!”
I launched myself into the air and reached for the causeway talisman in my left pocket. I cracked my dimension open and grabbed onto the edge of the rift, pulling myself inside my storage room.
A few blasts of magic came flying into the opening and I scrambled as far back into the room as I could.
“Dammit, he’s escaped!” Someone below shouted.
“You’ll have to come out sometime boy!”
Great, now I was trapped in a room in midair. I decided to open this thing up on impulse, I didn’t even put too much thought into-
I looked at the ground around me and saw all the Silver Vein vials I’d stashed in here.
Damian, I love you, you bastard.
I smiled and checked the straps on my sheathe, making sure my sword was still attached to my back properly.
I picked some vials up with my right hand and I made a mad dash towards the exit. I concentrated some magical power as I did, preparing for what was probably a stupid idea. I jumped out and put the talisman back in my pocket as I did, sealing the dimension behind me.
“There he is! Fire!”
I unleashed a stream of fire from my left hand and both feet to propel myself, the vampires’ magical assault whizzing by me.
“Who’s ready for some wedding gifts?”
I dropped the vials as I soared over them and they screamed as the poison seeped into their armor, burning them.
I dropped to the ground and pushed both hands together.
I just needed one big blast to clear out the last twenty or so standing over there and that last attack gave me all the time I needed to charge up.
“Mega Flare!” I roared as a massive fireball flew from my hands.
An explosion of fire shot into the air as it collided with my enemy, nothing but cinders left after the inferno died down a bit.
I put my hands on my knees and bent over.
That last one took a lot out of me. It was getting harder to catch my breath.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Sarean asked. “Are you ready for the next round?”
I reached into my right pocket and wondered if it was time yet.
“Bullet.” I shot a bullet of air at another one of the fallen vampires, snapping his neck. I did the same to the four other vampires on the ground.
That wasn’t too difficult. It seemed these men were only gifted with knowledge.
No one else seemed to be in here, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to be caught off guard again. My head was still throbbing.
I turned to the scroll floating in the center of the room.
It looked so lonely, almost like it wanted to be taken. I walked over to it and reached out to grab it.
“Well, well, well,” a gravelly voice said. “What do we have here?”
I turned around and saw three men standing in the library’s doorway.
They wore light armor, black leather, and had curved swords strapped to their hips. The blades were curved with jagged edges along the length of the blade, perfect for tearing through flesh.
“I knew it couldn’t be that easy,” I pulled my hand back. “You don’t look like Dakarai’s soldiers, who are you?”
“We’re Reavers. When Lord Dakarai needs someone…taken care of, we handle it.” One of them explained.
“Lovely.” The air around me started rotating violently. “Shall we get started, gentlemen?”
One of the Reavers emitted dark black energy and disappeared from sight. I’d seen this trick a million times from Damian.
“Wind Blade!” I formed a pair of green blades in my hand and threw them as I turned around. The Reaver was behind me like I’d expected, and his armor offered little protection from my attack as it sliced him open.
He fell to the ground defeated, and I turned to face the others.
A shockwave of blinding, white light shoved the other vampires to the ground.
“Spring!”
A girl jumped from the doorway into the room and stood next to me.
“Mika?” I looked at her with confusion. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Damian brought me here,” she said.
“ Where is he, is he okay? ” I asked.
“He’s fine, or he was when I left him.” Mika cast her gaze downward and blushed. “He told me you might be in danger so I came straight here…”
A green aura radiated from my body.
“T-Talion?” She blinked rapidly.
“Spiral!”
I threw her into the wall.
Before she fell to the ground, her body took on a purple glow and she faded away. The Reavers followed the same fate soon after.
“Wow Talion,” an alluring voice called out. “I didn’t know you treated women so…roughly. What gave it away?”
“Well for starters, Damian already decided not to bring her. And Mika cares about all of us. She wouldn’t abandon him just to come see me.”
“Tch, I guess I laid it on too thick.” She replied.
A beautiful girl stepped into view, flipping her violet hair.
“Vela?”
The eldest Rotel smiled at me. “In the flesh. And thank you for the compliment.”
“What are you,” I paused and frowned at her. “You’re a telepath. Since you’re here, I guess that means you and your sister are vampires as well.”
“That’s right.”
That explained quite a bit actually.
“If you’re here, where are the others?”
“Mira’s outside with her fiancé-”
Fiancé? Ouch, I wondered how Lyo felt about that.
“-and Reina,” she continued. “Is right behind you.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Descent
A calm, radiant blue. That was the beacon I found myself drawn to. If I focused hard enough on her aura I could ignore the destruction behind me.
“What are you so torn up about? He got what he deserved after all.” My void said.
He was leaning against the wall, watching me as I walked by.
“It isn’t right,” I replied. “And get back in your cage.”
“Oh no, its way too late for that my friend,” he explained. “C’mon, today’s the day! You should be more excited! We’ll have so much fun; we can rip and tear to our heart’s delight!”
It wasn’t right.
“You’re seriously still having doubts?” My void reappeared in front of me, floating upside down. “Why don’t you turn around and tell me you don’t want this? You should’ve seen the look on his face when we-”
“Shut up!” I snapped. “Just shut the hell up!”
He raised his hands defensively and I walked past him. He didn’t reappear, but he was still with me.
He would always be with me.
* * *
I continued walking until I reached a corner. As soon as I turned it, I spotted a group of five men in black leather armor, sporting curved, jagged blades.
It was like my head was splitting in two. There was something eerily familiar about them and my brain was hurting itself trying to remember.
“Look what we have here,” one of them said. “It’s that Grayscale kid. Guess Lord Dakarai was right.”
“You don’t want to do this,” I warned them. “I’m not in a good mood.”
They all drew their blades as a few of them laughed.
“Is that supposed to scare us kid? Your life ended the moment you stepped foot in this castle.” One man said.
Two of them rushed straight at me while another pair was enveloped in Void energy.
“Breach!” I opened a rift and pulled Twin Shadows to me.
The first two vampires reached me and I parried their strikes with my blades.
I sensed someone appear behind me, so I turned my head and saw another vampire’s blade coming towards me.
I teleported to the far side of the room behind the two that were gathering void energy.
I couldn’t afford to let them surround me like that again, or I’d be in trouble.
One of the vampires turned around and aimed his palm at me. “Bullet!”
One of the first things my shadow taught me was how to absorb void magic, at least when it was on my level or weaker, so that’s exactly what I did.
I reached out and caught the attack, before mixing it with my own power and redirecting the energy into one of my blades.
A beam of void energy shot out of my weapon and flung my attacker across the room.
“That wasn’t enough power,” my void chided. “You won’t win this by being soft, you have to fight to kill!”
“I know!” I shouted.
Despite knowing that, some part of me was still holding back.
All of us stopped moving as we had yet another stand-off.
“Look at him,” one of the vampires pointed at me. “We’ve got him so scared he’s talking to himself!”
“Why don’t you come closer and see just how scared I am?” I taunted.
One of the vampires was enveloped in a dark aura as he activated Void magic. He invoked a spell and one of his buddies disappeared in an instant.
Shouting came from above and I looked up to see the vampire falling towards me, his blade angled down to impale me.
I raised both my blades above my head and caught his. My muscles burned and I shouted back as I shoved with all my might, throwing him backwards.
Two could play that game.
“Breach!”
I opened a set of portals, one in front of me, and one near the ground aimed up at an angle. I threw one of my blades in and he yelped as it found a place in his shoulder. I pulled on the chain as hard as I could and closed the portal, freeing my blade and slamming him into the ground.
“Spring!” I roared as I leaped into the air to pounce on the fallen vampire.
“Rock Bomb!”
A rock exploded in front of me, the pieces slamming into my chest and knocking me to the ground.
I tried to stand back up.
“Stone Pillar!”
The ground underneath me shifted and I heard something smashing through the pristine marble floor. Something round pressed against my back and pushed me rapidly towards the ceiling, which cracked when I was smashed into it.
The pressure disappeared and I started falling back to the ground.
“Spiral!”
An intense wind slammed down against my chest, forcing me back onto the ground. I was trapped, unable to even catch my breath.
“You’re losing,” my void said. “Let me help you!”
The furious gale’s assault ended, and I laid there on the ground bleeding and motionless.
My head was pounding and my vision was blurry. It wouldn’t be long before I was out.
“Hard to believe this is the kid he was worried about.” Someone said.
The entire group laughed at me. The sight of their blurred figures moving to surround me…reminded me so much of that nightmare.
Dancing shadows, laughing as they killed my parents. Mocking my helplessness.
“That wasn’t too hard,” another one added. “Let’s take his head and report to Lord Dakarai. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m kinda looking forward to this wedding.”
Something inside me gave way.
Whatever reservations I had a few minutes ago were gone. These were the shadows that had been torturing me for the past six years. They were the reason why I never had “good” dreams like everyone else. Like normal people. They were the reason that my only solace at night was a dreamless sleep because the alternative was that hellish nightmare.
No more.
A torrent of abyssal power exploded from my body, blasting the vampires away from me.
I stood to my feet and watched them struggling to stand back up. It was so comical I couldn’t help but laugh.
“We’re not done until I say we’re done!”
I slowly walked over to the closest vampire, dragging my blades across the ground by their chains to let him hear me coming.
Once I was standing over him, I lifted him by his throat. He choked as he feebly struggled against my grip.
“What were you saying? You wanted to take my head, right?”
One of my blades was coated in blood as his head was parted from his body. Scarlet warmth splashed across my face as his corpse fell to the ground.
“That’s right,” my void encouraged. “Let’s show them why they should fear us, let’s show them our power!”
“You bastard!” One of the vampires dashed toward me, sword in hand. “You’ll pay for that!”
I waited for him to get closer before I activated my teleportation spell.
His confusion about my whereabouts was short-lived as he soon found one of my blades resting in his heart. I graciously removed it for him, and he dropped to the ground motionless, a pool spilling out from his body.
“Don’t quit just yet, I’m starting to have fun!” I said as I stalked towards another vampire.
“S-stay away from me you monster!” He wildly swung his sword at me.
I stayed out of range, grinning as he flailed around. I spun my right blade by its chain and gathered some energy.
“Breach!”
I opened a pair of portals, one in front of me, and one behind the vampire that led to one of my pocket dimensions. Aside from a few vials of Silver Vein, it was almost completely barren.
I threw my blade into the portal and it impaled the vampire in the back. I pulled on the chain and brought him to the ground, busting open the vials of Silver Vein. I didn’t get to savor his screams for long before I closed my dimension off permanently, leaving him trapped in his own personal hell for eternity. Or however long it took for the Silver Vein to turn him to ash.
Only two more to go.
One of them tried running. That wouldn’t do.
I teleported in front of him. “Leaving so soon?”
“Roc-”
Before he could finish his incantation, I silenced him with one well-placed slash. I stood over his fallen body and aimed at his chest with my blade.
“Umbral Beam.” My blast cut through him like butter.
Only one left now.
The final vampire sat on the ground, clutching his head.
I walked over to him and knelt down before stroking his head.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re the lucky winner today! “If you tell me what I want to know, I’ll let you walk away.” I smiled.
He crawled away from me on all fours. The fear coming off of him was delicious.
“H-how am I supposed to b-believe you? You just killed everyone else! And you’re smiling about it! What kind of monster are you?”
“Watch it. I’m trying to be generous and you’re starting to piss me off,” I warned. “You guys are different than the rest of Dakarai’s troops, so who are you? Hurry up now, or I might decide I want to play with you next.”
The vampire nodded. “We’re Reavers, Lord Dakarai’s elites. We handle r-recon and assassinations for him. If h-he needs something done he calls us.”
“Good boy,” I said. “Has the ceremony started yet?”
“N-no.”
“Excellent,” I stood up and turned my back to him. “As promised, you get to walk away. I’m a man of my word after all.”
I walked away from the lone survivor and whistled as I spun one of my blades.
“What the hell? Why are we letting him go?” My Void asked.
“Because I made a promise,” I said. “Besides, I was in a good mood.”
“If leaving a room soaked in blood is your good mood, I can’t wait to see the bad!” My Void laughed.
* * *
I continued wandering the hallways for a while, the sounds of my chains the only thing keeping me company.
I entered a long stretch of hallway that seemed completely abandoned. Unlike the hallways before which were well-lit, this one only had a few sparse candles illuminating it. I looked at the shadows around me and couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It almost seemed like they were twitching.
Or dancing.
The shadows here just didn’t feel right. I decided to trust my instincts.
I stopped in the middle of the hallway and smirked.
“You can go ahead and come out now!” I called out. “I don’t bite!”
From out of the shadows, more of Dakarai’s so-called Reavers appeared. I slowly spun around as they assembled on both sides of the hallway surrounding me.
It seemed vampires just loved that shadow diving trick. They drew their swords and auras appeared around their bodies as they prepared to attack.
“What, not even some friendly banter?” I asked. “The last group of Reavers I killed was a lot more fun!”
A chorus of whispers answered. They talked among themselves for a moment before one of the Reavers stepped forward from the group.
“Grayscale,” he said. “Lord Dakarai has sentenced you to die.”
I laughed, letting my own aura loose in response.
“Is that right? Well come and get me then!”
Chapter Thirty-Nine: One vs. One Hundred (Lyo)
I had no clue how long I’d been fighting. Had it been ten minutes? Twenty? An hour? I’d gone through so many of these guys even their faces were starting to blend together.
A dagger flew towards my face. I twisted my body enough for it to only graze my cheek.
“Hey…you bastard…I was taking a breather!” I formed a raging orange globe in my palm. “Flare!”
I threw a fireball in the direction the dagger came from and I heard corresponding screams.
I didn’t have time to see the result myself. Someone behind me was gathering mana.
“Bullet!” A shout came from behind me.
I dropped to the ground in a pushup position. Craning my neck to look through my legs, I spotted my attacker preparing another bullet.
“Torch!”
I pointed my index finger at the vampire and lit up the area he was standing in, engulfing him in flames and ending the threat.
While I was still on the ground another vampire charged at me, getting ready to drop his axe on my head.
Gimme a break dammit!
“Spring!”
I launched myself into the air and reached for the causeway talisman in my left pocket. I cracked my dimension open and grabbed onto the edge of the rift, pulling myself inside my storage room.
A few blasts of magic came flying into the opening and I scrambled as far back into the room as I could.
“Dammit, he’s escaped!” Someone below shouted.
“You’ll have to come out sometime boy!”
Great, now I was trapped in a room in midair. I decided to open this thing up on impulse, I didn’t even put too much thought into-
I looked at the ground around me and saw all the Silver Vein vials I’d stashed in here.
Damian, I love you, you bastard.
I smiled and checked the straps on my sheathe, making sure my sword was still attached to my back properly.
I picked some vials up with my right hand and I made a mad dash towards the exit. I concentrated some magical power as I did, preparing for what was probably a stupid idea. I jumped out and put the talisman back in my pocket as I did, sealing the dimension behind me.
“There he is! Fire!”
I unleashed a stream of fire from my left hand and both feet to propel myself, the vampires’ magical assault whizzing by me.
“Who’s ready for some wedding gifts?”
I dropped the vials as I soared over them and they screamed as the poison seeped into their armor, burning them.
I dropped to the ground and pushed both hands together.
I just needed one big blast to clear out the last twenty or so standing over there and that last attack gave me all the time I needed to charge up.
“Mega Flare!” I roared as a massive fireball flew from my hands.
An explosion of fire shot into the air as it collided with my enemy, nothing but cinders left after the inferno died down a bit.
I put my hands on my knees and bent over.
That last one took a lot out of me. It was getting harder to catch my breath.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Sarean asked. “Are you ready for the next round?”
I reached into my right pocket and wondered if it was time yet.
