Blood Arts (5)
A strange sensation surged through me, starting from my hand. It was nothing like the rush of absorbing a Mystery — a peculiar feeling, as though the energy of the absorbed Blood Core had coursed through my veins and swept through my entire body in a single pass.
Before long, the Blood Core no longer emitted even the faintest glimmer of light. I stared at it for a moment, then took stock of myself. I already knew what Gaskalid's Blood Arts were capable of, but just as when absorbing a Mystery, the nature of the ability etched itself intuitively into my mind.
"Th-the Blood Core's light...!"
Shouts of shock rose from the vampires below the boulder. I wanted to try the Blood Arts right then and there, but there were too many eyes on me. I got to my feet and trudged down from the rock. The chieftain, who had been staring blankly at the now-lightless Blood Core, turned her gaze toward me.
"It's done."
She just looked dazed. A problem that had plagued their tribe for ages, resolved this easily — of course she was stunned. All I'd done was touch it for a moment, after all.
"Did you... extinguish the soul of our ancestor that resided in the Blood Core?"
"That's right. That rock isn't going to act up anymore."
I'd erased the soul and swallowed the Blood Arts for myself, so there was no energy left in the Blood Core at all. It was just an ordinary stone now. The elder vampires looked at one another, then let out sighs that were closer to relief than anything else. The war chief, in particular, couldn't hide how overwhelmed he was.
"S-Sister. There's no need to perform the ritual anymore. You don't have to waste your life force!"
Watching him, I recalled the Elrod Forest episode from the game. After the chieftain who had originally sealed the Blood Core died, the tribe had appointed Gaskalid's direct descendants as chieftain, generation after generation. Those chieftains had offered up their own life force in a ritual to suppress the Blood Core's power. Over the long years since, it had become both the chieftain's expected duty and a tribal custom.
The war chief had inherited Gaskalid's bloodline as well, but he was far too exceptional a warrior for anyone in the tribe to want his life wasted on the ritual — and the chieftain felt the same. And so he had always carried a deep guilt toward his sister, who had essentially taken his place as chieftain. Knowing that history, I understood why he was so overjoyed now.
Well. Anyway, that was that. I was itching to get outside and try the Blood Arts for myself.
Only after examining the lifeless Blood Core for quite some time did the vampires finally accept that the problem had truly been resolved. Once we emerged from the cave, I received their formal thanks.
"We are truly grateful. We also sincerely apologize for having doubted the promise made with our ancestor. Thanks to you, Benefactor, our tribe has at last reclaimed true peace."
The chieftain, the war chief, and the elders all bowed their heads deeply. Their attitude had flipped completely from the hostility and suspicion of mere moments ago, but I didn't particularly blame them. I'd been the one who'd barged in uninvited, so their reaction had been only natural. And it wasn't as if I'd dealt with the Blood Core out of pure goodwill, either.
"I am truly sorry, Benefactor."
The war chief apologized to me once more, looking thoroughly ashamed. Yeah — you should feel sorry. I had a sudden urge to smack him on the crown of his bowed head, but I held back. Instead, I spoke up to test my newly acquired ability.
"Try using your Blood Arts."
"...Pardon?"
The war chief lifted his head and blinked at the sudden request. I repeated myself.
"I told you to use your Blood Arts. The same way you attacked me earlier."
"W-why would you...?"
"Just do it."
I gave him no explanation, so the war chief eventually stretched a hand into the air, still looking puzzled. Then his face gradually filled with bewilderment, and he made a dazed sound.
"...Huh?"
Something wasn't working. The war chief couldn't use his Blood Arts at all. The surrounding vampires stared at him strangely.
So that's how it works.
Having roughly confirmed the ability's performance, I withdrew it. The war chief was immediately able to use his Blood Arts again. Blood gathered in his hand.
"W-what was that?"
"What's the matter, War Chief?"
"Elder, just now my Blood Arts... no, it's nothing."
He stared at his own hand in confusion.
The unique ability of Gaskalid's Blood Arts. It stole another vampire's Blood Arts outright and allowed the user to wield them as their own. Unlike Instant Kill, it didn't even require physical contact — as long as the target was within a certain range, it could be used. A vampire exposed to Gaskalid's Blood Arts would be unable to use their own, just as the war chief had been a moment ago.
In short, it was a broken ability against vampires. Of course, if the opponent was stronger or equal in power, it either wouldn't work at all, or it would take time to fully seize their ability.
I probably won't be running into vampires much from here on, so it's not a particularly useful ability.
The unique ability didn't really matter to me either way. What I'd needed from the start was just the common passive of Blood Arts — the ability to freely manipulate blood.
With nothing else to do, I was about to leave the forest with Ashel right away. The vampires stopped me.
"We cannot simply let our benefactor leave like this. If there is anything you desire, please tell us. We will do everything we can within our means..."
"It's fine. Just take good care of the vampires I brought with me."
I'd already gotten what I wanted, and there was nothing else worth taking from this tribe. At my answer, the vampires gazed at me with even greater reverence, which was honestly a bit uncomfortable. They had no idea I'd absorbed their ancestor's ability from the Blood Core, after all.
Just before I left the forest for the last time, under the vampires' send-off, one of the elders spoke to me. It was the one who had looked the oldest among them.
"It is shameless of me, but might I ask our Benefactor one thing about the outside world?"
"...?"
"Does the Tyrant Lord still hold his seat as the Sixth Lord of Calderic...?"
The Tyrant Lord? I nodded at his question. The elders all made sour faces. I understood their reaction. If you had to name a single being most responsible for dragging the reputation of vampires into the gutter on this continent, it would be the Tyrant Lord. They'd asked because they were curious whether he was still out there causing that kind of havoc.
"Then please take care on your journey. We shall never forget the grace you have bestowed upon our tribe."
And so I left the vampires' home. Once we'd put a reasonable distance between us, I spoke to Ashel.
"Wait here for a moment."
"Yes."
Ashel answered with a puzzled look. Leaving her behind, I moved deeper into the dense undergrowth. I stopped once I could no longer sense her presence at all and looked around. This should be far enough. I stretched a hand into the air and properly used the Blood Arts.
A faint hiss. Blood seeped out through the skin of my palm, rising to float in the air. I stared at it with curiosity, then tried moving it this way and that, even gathering it into a round sphere. The blood swam through the air at my will with surprising ease.
So this is what it feels like.
It was basically telekinesis, limited to blood. It felt like growing a pair of wings I'd never had and flapping them for the first time. I poured all my power into the blood I was controlling and fired it at a tree ahead of me, sharpening it into a spike.
Thwack! The blood shot forward with impressive speed and struck the tree, chipping a bit of bark. That was the extent of its destructive power, and my expression grew a little uncertain.
...Well, it's pretty fast, at least.
It was much faster than something like an arrow, but it had no real force behind it. Earlier, when the vampires had attacked me with Blood Arts, they'd blown away an entire section of the forest with terrifying force. But I couldn't do that. Because I wasn't a vampire — I was human.
From what I remembered of the game's racial settings, a vampire's blood density and regenerative power were on a completely different level from other races. That was how they could draw such an absurd volume of blood from a body no larger than a human's and use it as a weapon. So no matter that I'd acquired Blood Arts, I couldn't produce that kind of abnormal power unless I was born a vampire. In short, I had a machine gun loaded with BB pellets.
Gaskalid's unique ability, Blood Magic Deprivation, seemed to work at full power — I'd completely sealed the war chief's Blood Arts, after all — but blood manipulation was limited to this.
And there's a fair amount of dissonance, too.
It was a vampire racial trait to begin with, so maybe it simply didn't sit right in a human body. The sense of dissonance when controlling blood was considerable. If that dissonance lessened, I figured I could push the speed even higher than it was now.
Will it improve if I keep using it?
The power wasn't actually that important to me, if I was being honest. As long as the blood made contact, I could kill anything. What did a little extra force matter? It was just a bit disappointing, that's all.
And with Super Regeneration, there's no real cost to using Blood Arts, either.
This time I split the floating blood into three streams and fired them. Splitting it made control much harder. That would improve with practice too, I supposed.
Regardless, acquiring an ability that could maximize Instant Kill's efficiency was extremely encouraging. Defense with Immovable Barrier, offense with Instant Kill via Blood Arts, and Super Senses on top of that. With this combination of abilities, most things wouldn't pose a threat to me anymore.
That said, it's not like I have no weaknesses.
If an opponent was too fast to land a hit with the blood, or if they wrapped their entire body in a defensive barrier, Instant Kill would still be hard to use. But Instant Kill's strength also lay in the fact that no one knew about this ability. Even against those kinds of enemies, if I could just bait them into letting their guard down, I could handle them somehow.
I stood there with my arms crossed, lost in thought, then turned my head to one side. A massive presence was approaching.
Squeeeal! A giant boar — the monster I'd run into most often wandering this forest. The moment it spotted me, it snorted and charged. I floated a single drop of blood on my fingertip and fired it at the creature. The instant the blood made contact, every ounce of strength left its body. It slid forward on its own momentum, tumbling noisily across the ground. I stared at the thing lying motionless in the dirt, then waved away the rising dust and turned around.
"Time to go."
I'd tested the Blood Arts enough. Time to get back to Ashel.