My world had turned into a sea of red. This pool of blood felt like its depths were endless. Even with the added weight of the squirming Gabriel in my grasp, it felt like we had been sinking for ages, never reaching the bottom. After the first minute passed, I thought I would start to feel the tightening of my lungs and the desperate need for fresh air. However, I found that my current lung capacity was far superior to what I was capable of before arriving in this twisted world. Drowning to death was actually not my biggest worry at the moment. It was the bastard trapped in my bear hug.
I had managed to drag Gabriel into the blood pool, and with the recent addition of the Moon elf, the surrounding blood had taken on a sparkly hue. Even though I couldn't see it, I knew that the blood pool was having a negative impact on Gabriel. His first attempt to pry my arms off him was stable and calm. Reeking of confidence. With him simply exerting force in his shoulders, I felt my arms being forced apart inch by inch. However, right at the moment I thought I had lost my desperate attempt, with just the tips of my fingers interlocking under the strain, Gabriel's strong presence suddenly paused. Within half a second, a roar erupted from the man, the sound somehow piercing through the heavy, blood-soaked air around me.
After that, his attempts to free himself were erratic. He switched from pushing to punching and then to wildly clawing at my back. Luckily, due to the thick liquid surrounding us both, his strike held little force, with only the claws doing damage. However, with the increased self-healing I had found myself in, I was at least for the moment semi-safe. Now, as the minutes ticked by, and the wild actions of the man in my arms lessened every second. I felt hope begin to rise in my chest. The almost ridiculous thought that I might have prevailed over a foe so far over me fluttered at the edges of my mind.
'Maybe, just maybe I can survive this. I thought I would have drowned by now, but at the rate I'm going, I reckon I can last another couple of minutes easily. Haha! I'm a genius! Screw you Gabriel! Thought you could use me as a tool, I'll show you what a big tool really is...' Right as I was gloating about my seemingly assured victory, a sharp stinging pain rose from my neck, followed swiftly by a suction feeling. It was as if someone had stuck a vacuum cleaner to the side of my neck. I was only wrapped in confusion for but a moment, after feeling a sudden drain of my energy, like I hadn't slept for days, fall over me. I knew what that suction feeling was. 'You bastard of a leech! How dare you suck of me!' Roaring in my mind, I attempted to slam my head to the side, hitting the side of Gabriel's head ineffectively multiple times.
Feeling the drain of my very life, the newly lit hope rising within me was already on the verge of being extinguished, as fear flooded my mind. However, after extreme fatigue swept over me, a new force rose from my core, and I was suddenly flushed with energy, as if I had drunk a case of energy drinks. Over the next few seconds, a cycle of severe fatigue and buzzing energy repeated itself. Knowing it must have something to do with my regen talent and the new talent of Limitbreak mixing together somehow. I brought up my status screen and focused on my health bar' stats.
[Health: 122/145 - Talent Effect: Regeneration 10% of max level]
I watched as my health bar plummeted to a nail-biting forty points before swiftly flying back up the full and then plummeting again, starting the macabre cycle anew. The sight caused me to smile, but that lasted only a moment as, to my horror, the slithering voice of Gabriel suddenly appeared in my head. 'You little brat! You don't know what you've done! The years of hard work wasted. Argh!! If I don't suck your blood to the last drop today, then I'll eat shit for a century! Die! Die! Die!" Gabríel's words were at first rational, although filled with an almost tangible hatred, until the end. As if he had finally hit some tolerance limit, he was suddenly stuck on repeat and just continued to roar, "Die!" into my head over and over again.
When the man/vampire spoke directly into my mind, I was petrified, and it took me several seconds to collect myself. After going over the facts presented to me, the fact that Gabriel was some form of necrotic vampire, the idea that he could speak into my mind with a sort of telepathy wasn't as far-fetched as I first thought. After thinking it over more, I imagined many vampires could use some form of mental power considering their apparent charm skill. And the fact that I was clearly stuck in some warped version of a fantasy world, filled with monsters and magic. While thinking over the other possible powers and whether investing my non-allocated attribute points now could possibly give me some help, I felt my descending body pause. Frowning, I shook my feet around but still felt no resistance. I had stopped falling, but I had apparently not reached the floor. Instead, I and the vampire, trying to suck me dry, began to rotate.
Before I could puzzle over this new development, a new feeling of fatigue swept over me. This one wasn't one of the body but felt as if it came from somewhere deeper within me. As if my very soul was feeling strained. Then, to my horror, an invasive notification popped up in my vision.
[Limitbreak has deactivated and has become dormant. You have sacrificed all stored experience points.]
The feeling of draining coming from the leech attached to my neck became significantly harder. As if the Corrupted vampire had felt my strength weakening. My health bar status had also changed. Its dropping state continued past the forty-point mark, reaching twenty before going back up to sixty again. This time, it was much slower than before. I felt the hand of death grip me in that moment, and with no more hesitation, I quickly brought up my stat screen and dumped all eight points into constitution. Raising it from the measly two to ten.
My chest felt as if it inflated for a moment, as a tingling sensation spread throughout my entire body, making me feel invigorated. The grip of death disappeared for a moment as I began to try to work my slow mind into coming up with a new plan. This was, however, rudely interrupted by the bastard still within my grip. 'Haha! Fool! You have just confirmed my victory! Your vital force had become so much more potent! It's delicious! I feel my body healing, even my old injuries! Haha! Livestock will always be livestock!'
Hearing the vampire's scathing words filled with his sneering laughter, I felt my temples fill with heat as an impotent rage built up within me. 'Bastard! Bastard! You're a liar! It's lies!' Screaming internally, my frustration bubbled up as the man's mocking laughter continued to ring in my mind. I wasn't sure if it was a trick of the mind or not, but the man's raspy voice also began to smooth out, filling me with an even greater apprehension, that my actions had actually helped him. Feeling as if I was going to blow a top, I let go of my hold on the vampire and, just as he had tried before, I thrashed about in the heavy liquid encasing us both. Trying my best to slam my fists into his back and head. As if glued on the man moved not an inch.
Whether due to my wild movements, or my lungs just finally giving out, I felt my body begin to scream for oxygen. A wild survival instinct kicked in, and I began to kick and thrash at the liquid, trying in vain to swim up. To my dismay, I found that I could not move from my slowly rotating position. It was like some invisible force was holding me in place, and over the next couple of seconds, the speed of our spinning began to quicken while the blood surrounding us began to thicken even more. I felt as if it were clinging to my skin and trying to enter my flesh.
With flecks in my vision and my body feeling weaker by the second, my body did the instinctive action of trying to take a breath. Instead of sweet oxygen, however, all I received was a torrent of sludge-like blood flowing down my throat. The blood was as if I was swallowing yogurt covered in chili. Burning my throat raw. Feeling as if I was choking, I began to cough, only to hasten the infiltration of blood. Before I could do anything about it, my mouth was filled with blood so thick that I was unable to even close my mouth. The blood surrounding me felt as if it had finally found an outlet and began to flow under some force of attraction.
Oddly enough, the moment my lungs began to fill with sludge-like blood, and my body's insides felt as if it was screaming under a scorching heat, my mind didn't fall into despair. With even the feeling of suffocation disappearing and being replaced with an odd cold calm invading my mind. This odd sensation was once again interrupted by the leech's roaring voice. 'What are you doing, you little worm!? You think assimilating the blood will help you? Foolish! This blood pool has been linked to my resonance for years. It's nothing but poison for the likes of you. Once again, you have chosen another stup... wait... something's wrong... no! NO! The elf! Arghhh!!'
Gabriel's smug voice quickly turned into a scream of pain so loud I literally felt my eardrums burst. Like a thousand stuck pigs screaming inside a tiny room. The moment Gabriel started to scream, I felt the suction on my neck lessen with even his head moving backwards as if he was trying to pull away from a fire. Almost on instinct, and summoning the little energy I had left, I raised my hands and gripped Gabriel's head tightly, pressing his face against my neck as hard as I could. The man's screams filled my mind, while his arms began to thrash around wildly in true desperation.
'Haha! You wanted a drink, didn't you, you bastard? Well then, drink up! Drink all you can.' A sort of crazed feeling of elation filled me as I laughed inside my head, roaring taunts out whether the vampire could hear me or not. Even while this was happening, both entwined bodies kept spinning faster and faster, while a torrent of thick blood ran down my throat. Not knowing how my body could even hold the amount of liquid I had ingested so far, I soon felt a heat roar throughout my body soon followed by a cold that gave my entire being pins and needles before switching back to heat again.
It felt similar to when I dumped all my attribute points into constitution, but it was mixed with a weird sensation of corrosion as well. It was as if there were two elements inside of me battling for domination. While focusing on these two feelings, a sudden roar of unwillingness and fury rang in my head with such force it felt like a physical punch before everything went deadly quiet. The head gripped between my hands, felt as if it had turned into a soft clay before my fingers penetrated the skull with ease. As if a trigger had been pulled, the weight resting against my chest and neck known as Gabriel, disappeared, with the sensation of sand running through my fingertips being the last thing I felt before a deluge of notifications forcefully filled my vision.
What caught my surprise about the notifications besides the first one being a normal one about earning experience points for slaying Gabriel, was that the rest were different from how they had always looked. Originally, all system notifications were bordered by a swirling blue, like a soft mist. Now though they were flecked with a light blood color that swirled and sparkled as if there were stars trapped within the red. After marveling at the sudden design change and giving the system a thumbs up for its stylish change, I read over the notifications. If my mouth weren't already stuck in an open position, it would have surely dropped open now.
[You have slain Corrupted Vampire Gabriel – Tier 2 {3} Level 12 {25} - 12,000 experience gained]
[Warning! Warning! Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 is being assimilated in a bloodline purification ritual of unknown origin – System entity safeguard in effect. Attempting to interfere...]
[Warning! Warning! Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 bloodline assimilation has begun, and any attempts to interrupt will cause Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 to perish – Under System entity safeguard protocol – System will now attempt to assimilate unknown bloodline ritual into universal system]
[Native bloodline heritage of the Silverstar moon elf bloodline has been found – Attempting to merge bloodline with unknown vampiric bloodline and Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 bloodline...]
[Warning! Warning! Vital force in blood pool is not sufficient for assimilation – Subverting Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 experience points into Vital force]
'What the holy hell is going on! What bloodline assimilation?! I'm human, goddamn it, human!! Come on, system! Leave me alone!' Screaming internally, I lamented my horrible luck and also sent the system a barrage of curses. While I was reading over the notifications, the blood continued to run down my throat as if I were a bottomless pit. The warring energies of scorching hot and freezing cold battling inside my veins appeared to be injected with chicken blood, and their fight for dominance became even fiercer. With the helpless me suffering under an endless barrage of burning and freezing that corrode every part of my insides. The pain was so severe that if it wasn't for some odd force protecting my mind, I would have been frothing at the mouth and passed out by the time the newest notification covered my vision.
[Vital force is now sufficient – balance reached – Assimilation has begun]
[Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 – Human Tier 1 Race elevation to Silverstar Vampire Tier 1 has begun – System Safeguard protocols in effect]
Reading the last notification, my cursing and roaring at the world and all its bullshit was finally put to a stop. I was left utterly spent, my thoughts crashing at the mere idea that I was about to no longer be human. While my brain stuttered, a new force rose up from the pit of my stomach and slammed into the two energies running rampant inside me. The three energies merged into one that halted before expanding. Before I could do anything about it, my entire body was swarmed in a vortex of spinning blood and energy from within and out. My last thought before a comforting darkness swept over me was, 'A vampire huh, god, I hope I don't sparkle.'