The earth trembled beneath my feet as the blond vampire lunged at me, his cane slicing through the air so swiftly that I heard the whistle before the air itself realized it had been cut. I dodged to the side, my movements instantaneous, and the cane's tip struck the rock behind me, splitting it in two like a rotten nut. Shards sprayed in all directions, sharp as daggers, and stone dust billowed into the air, mingling with the acrid smoke from the smoldering remains, their charred bones crunching underfoot. I was already moving, feeling the ground shudder with each step.
"Not bad," I tossed out, sensing the energy starting to circulate faster, awakening my nerves like an electric current. My power, dormant at a mere hundredth of one percent, began to stir, slowly, like a beast stretching after a long slumber, its growl echoing in my bones.
He didn't respond. His red eyes flared brighter, piercing the darkness, and he attacked again—the cane spun in his hands, transforming into a whirlwind of metal and death. I blocked the strike with my forearm, and a wave of energy from the collision exploded between us, tearing the air with a deafening crack. We were thrown back: me, tumbling over rocks; him, into a cloud of dust. I halted my flight, hovering in the air, as the ground beneath me cracked, releasing clouds of gray ash. My defenses held, but I felt something warm trickling down my arm—blood, thick and scarlet, dripping onto the ground, hissing on the scalding rocks. His weapon had pierced my skin, leaving a deep gash with ragged edges of flesh, but it hadn't breached my defenses. An interesting and puzzling trick. The wound closed almost instantly, the skin knitting together with a wet crunch, but the fact remained: he was stronger than an Elder. Far stronger.
This is getting interesting.
"You're faster than I thought," he hissed, his voice grating like metal on stone, echoing painfully in my skull. "But this is only the beginning, boy. Your aura is too chaotic."
"And you're talkative," I replied, clenching my fists until my knuckles cracked. What's this about an aura? I thought I only had my core and tactile telekinesis protecting me. Whatever, I'd figure it out later.
My power surged to three percent, and I launched forward, the ground beneath me exploding, sending massive chunks flying outward. My fist aimed for his chest, the air before me compressed and shattered the sound barrier, but he vanished—dissolved into thin air, leaving only a faint trail of black smoke that reeked of rot and death. I spun just in time to catch the cane hurtling toward the back of my head. The metal hummed in my hands, alive, vibrating so intensely my teeth ached, but I gripped it harder and yanked, wrenching the weapon from his grasp. A crack—and the cane snapped in two, sharp fragments scattering, one grazing his cheek, leaving a black streak of blood.
He didn't even flinch. Instead, his body began to change—his skin darkened, stretched, cracking like parched earth. Long bone spikes erupted from his back, tearing through flesh with a wet snap, and his arms elongated, ending in claws as sharp as blades, dripping with dark, oily liquid. A beastly form? No, this was something more. A transformation. Ancient vampires, as the rumors claimed, possessed unique abilities, and this one was living proof.
"Alpha-0, this is Alpha-1," Michael's voice cut through the comms, tense and sharp, crackling with interference from the trembling earth. "We're airborne, but something's breaking through from below. The ground's shaking. What's happening down there?"
"Stay at altitude," I snapped, not taking my eyes off the creature, its spikes writhing like living things, scraping with a grating sound.
I hurled the cane fragments aside, the metal clanging against the rocks, and leaped upward, soaring above the cavern. Up. He followed, his spikes extending, twisting like snakes, trying to reach me in flight. One grazed my leg, tearing fabric and skin, blood spraying downward, staining the rocks red as pain seared through my muscles like a white-hot nail. I spun in the air, firing a heat beam from my eyes. The beam struck his shoulder, burning through flesh to bone with a hiss and the stench of charred meat, black blood dripping, evaporating in the air. He howled, crashing to the ground, the cavern floor splitting from the impact, spewing fountains of dust and debris, but he sprang up, the wound on his shoulder closing with a sickening slurp, flesh bubbling as it knitted together.
"Three percent," I muttered, landing a hundred meters away. My power was growing, and I felt the world around me trembling under its pressure, stones crumbling to sand beneath my feet. The ceiling would collapse soon—cracks raced across the vault, showering us with a hail of small fragments.
He charged again, faster now, nearly invisible, leaving only a blurred trail of darkness. If any of the Alphas were here, they wouldn't even realize how they died—their bodies would be torn apart before their brains registered the threat. I raised my hand, blocking his claws, but the impact threw me back across the cavern, straight into the wall. The stone cracked behind me, shards digging into my skin, and he was already there, driving his spikes into my chest. They pierced my defenses, sinking deep with the crunch of breaking ribs and the wet sound of tearing flesh. I groaned, feeling blood gush from the wounds, flooding my chest with a warm, sticky wave, but the pain only amused me.
I could've ended this fight in seconds, but I didn't. Better to learn the threat firsthand, understand all its facets.
"Five percent," I whispered, gripping his spikes until my bones cracked. I tore them out of my body, ripping chunks of his flesh with them—black ooze sprayed across my face, hissing on my skin. He recoiled, hissing like a wounded beast, but I was already charging, my fist slamming into his jaw with such force that bone snapped, his head snapping back, shards of teeth and blood spraying from his mouth. The ground beneath us exploded, the shockwave demolishing the rest of the cavern, stone boulders flying like shrapnel, and we both burst into the night sky, trailing dust and blood.
The planet became our battlefield. I grabbed his head, fingers digging into his skull, cracking bone, and flew, unrelenting in my strikes. Punch after punch—his face turned to a pulp of flesh and blood, bones crunching like dry twigs. A second later, it regenerated, skin knitting with a wet snap. Another second, and he did something, glowing bright red, blinding me momentarily, the rays scorching my retinas. He broke free, claws slashing my side, leaving deep gashes that gushed blood, and darted away, hovering dozens of meters off. He grinned, baring fangs, his elegant suit long since burned away, leaving tattered scraps on his chest, soaked in black ooze. The refined gentleman had become a monster, his skin cracking with strain.
High-speed collision—the impact shook the air, tearing clouds apart. Again. Rapid strikes rained down like a cornucopia, each leaving dents in his body, oozing thick black blood, and I barely held back a grin. Finally, someone who could stand against me, even at five percent. Slowly but surely, our blows ravaged the landscape—trees uprooted, earth cracked like glass, rivers overflowed from shockwaves.
We fought across all three dimensions.
I struck again, and he crashed into a mountainside. Snow and rocks surged upward, an avalanche roaring down, but he rose, regenerating before my eyes—his broken jaw snapping back into place, spikes growing longer, piercing his skin with spurts of blood. He lunged, and we collided in the air, claws against fists, speed against power. Blow after blow, we climbed higher, piercing clouds, leaving a trail of vapor, blood, and scraps of his flesh falling like black rain.
"Seven percent!" My speed surged, and I overtook him, driving a fist into his back. His spine snapped like a dry branch, and he plummeted, crashing through a mountain ridge like a meteor, leaving a crater spewing a column of dust and superheated gas. The earth quaked, avalanches burying everything below, but he burst from the rubble, eyes blazing with rage, as bone tendrils shot from the ground, writhing like giant worms. One pierced my shoulder, pinning me to a rock, blood gushing down, mixing with the dirt, but I surged forward, tearing it out along with a chunk of my flesh—the meat ripped away with a wet smack. I fired a heat beam—he dodged, but the beam sliced the mountain in half, molten debris collapsing, vaporizing snow into clouds of steam.
"You won't win," he hissed, his voice echoing over the ravaged landscape, drowning out the howling wind. "I'm older than every nation on this world. I've seen entire civilizations fade."
"And I'll make you fade," I replied, raising my power to ten percent. My hands glowed, heat pouring from my pores, evaporating the blood on my skin, and I charged, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening boom. The strike hit his chest—ribs snapped like kindling, black blood gushing from his mouth, flooding the ground, and he flew back, crashing into the plain beyond the mountains. The explosion raised a pillar of dust and dirt, uprooting trees, but he rose again, his body crackling as it regenerated, flesh bubbling like boiling tar.
We fought across the planet. From mountains to deserts—sand melted under my beams, turning to glass, cracking from the heat, while his claws carved canyon-deep gashes in the earth, spewing fountains of molten dust. Over the ocean—waves rose dozens of meters from our strikes, water boiling as I unleashed heat waves, steam rising, mingling with blood and scraps of his skin. He breached my defenses repeatedly, leaving ragged wounds—one on my side exposing muscle, another on my thigh oozing blood—but I didn't stop. My power climbed—thirteen percent, and I felt the world trembling in my presence, the air crackling, the planet's atmosphere beginning to collapse, clouds shredding into tatters.
Time to end this. I caught him in the air, gripped his throat, fingers sinking into flesh, squeezing out black blood, and hurled him into a volcano on the southern continent. Lava erupted in a fountain, molten sprays scattering for kilometers as he crashed into the crater, but he flew back out, wreathed in fire, his skin hissing, regenerating, bubbling from the heat. He struck—I caught his arm, snapped it in two with a crunch of bone, and drove the fragments into his chest, piercing his lungs. He howled, claws slashing my face, leaving deep cuts that gushed blood, flooding my eyes, but I only laughed, feeling it drip down my chin, hissing on my scalding skin.
My power reached a point where fighting on the planet was unwise, and I struck him with both hands clasped together. The shockwave reduced the volcano to dust, lava flows exploding, flooding the surroundings with a sea of fire, and his body crashed into the earth, carving a kilometer-wide crater spewing a column of superheated gas. I landed nearby, feeling no fatigue, breathing deeply, my eyes blazing, evaporating the blood from my face, leaving only charred traces.
I was smiling.
He lay in the crater's center, his body broken, spikes shattered, protruding from his flesh like broken spears, one arm hanging by a flap of skin, oozing black sludge. But he still moved. His regeneration had slowed but hadn't stopped—flesh crawled, knitting together with a wet slurp. Resilient creature.
"You… are strong," he rasped, raising his gaze, his throat gurgling with blood. His eyes dimmed, but hatred still burned in them. It seemed he was trying something. "But this… isn't the end…"
"For you, it is," I replied, stepping closer. A burst of speed so fast the world froze around me, I seized his neck—bones snapped like dry twigs, flesh tore, exposing the spine, and I twisted his head, leaving it hanging by strips of skin. But I left him alive. He'd be useful.
During our battle, we'd circled the planet, and my earpiece had long since melted from the heat, so, grabbing the vampire by the leg as he began reverting to human form, his flesh crackling as it contracted, I flew toward the base. Blood dripped from his body, leaving a crimson trail in the sky, while the earth below lay in ruins—smoking craters, shattered mountains, and boiling seas bore witness to our fight.
I tried to fight far from people, but I'd need to check again later.
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