Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

John, without much help from Nine, showed he knew how to behave and understood his place as a slave. Both vampire and biosynth were given a cell with a bed in Gnahad’s gladiator pen.

Plenty of food was provided, but John was never given live animals to feast upon. Since many strange rodent-like creatures ran around the cells, he was still able to top off his vital essence easily enough.

Seeing no reason not to, and since he had far more than the required amount of harmony, John performed the ritual to gain the next [Perk] in the [SupraType] chain called [Inner and Outer]. The [Perk] reviewed and improved upon his integumentary and skeletal systems, increasing his [Conditioning], [Physical Fortification], and [Elemental Fortification] by 3, and the efficiencies of each respectively by 2%, 5%, and 3%.

John would get his [Domain] soon too. Avatar projected he’d have enough harmony without needing to merge old [Skills] in a very short amount of time. He just needed to live until then. And if he didn’t receive any good [Achievements] beforehand to put him over the 87.5% NCU cost reduction cap, he was certain that [Perk] would do it, and he’d soon know what new benefit he’d receive going forward.

Thecla was the only world within the sector with a large Transcendent population not belonging to a specific race, and the only world claiming neutrality. The majority of Exalteds that weren’t sworn to any people, sect, or government made it their home.

But that didn’t mean Thecla was free of influence from the powers that be such as the Sector Council, the umpanian sects, and the Kaw’n Federation. That the Peerless weren’t welcomed on this world made that fact apparent. In the whole sector, only two neutral stations hadn’t caved to pressure from the council and still allowed Peerless to dock and trade.

As John and Nine prepared for their upcoming match, the fact that Thecla wasn’t free of external politics was made more apparent as they overheard a kaw’n arguing with Gnahad right outside the pens.

“You promised these dogs of the Peerless abominations would die in the arena. Tell me, slaver, why are they both still alive?”

“They will, Captain,” replied Gnahad. “I don’t pick the matches. Have you seen what the Great Ring Board and the sponsors have scheduled for them? Tell the admiral they’ll probably die tonight.”

The weird kaw’n voice whined out, “Probably? Probably? Why probably, slaver? And why was the one dog you had fight last week not poisoned before his match?”

“He was, Captain. Ask the Arbiters. The dose was documented. Max allowed for his tier.”

“If that were true, he’d be dead now. My own Arbiter will ensure the same mistake isn’t repeated tonight, slaver. If these Peerless dogs mysteriously survive again, this’ll be the last time you buy from us. You raloins should never have been invited onto the council. You’re all weak and without honor.”

“I was born on this world, Captain,” replied Gnahad calmly. “I’ve never set foot on Raloin. You and I made an agreement, and I’ve kept my end of it. Your Arbiter will confirm. If these dogs live, blame the Great Ring Board and sponsors. I marked them for death. Condemnation by gladiator, beast, or ritual. That’s all I can do.”

Mandibles clicked angrily before the kaw’n said, “You lie, slaver.”

Gnahad laughed. “I lie, Captain? Did you even talk to the two you sold me? They claim to have escaped the Peerless. You know the Sector Council decreed all beings escaping the Peerless must be given refugee status.”

“You have the recording where the biosynth clearly stated he was a full Peerless, slaver. Don’t try and play games with me.”

“So? Have you ever seen or heard of a non-Peerless Peerless? One’s a biosynth and one’s a terran. And they claim to have escaped. Did you ask the biosynth why he lied? I could record that, if you’d like.”

Loud clicking noises came from the kaw’n for long seconds. “Why are my people the only ones concerned about all the blasphemy in this sector? The Peerless are abominations. Terra is an abomination. You never once cared before if those you bought from us should be given refugee status. We have a recording of these dogs admitting they’re full Peerless, and now you suddenly care? Why?”

“It’s obvious they lied,” replied Gnahad. “Since I hold a great deal of respect for your admiral, and for the sake of the future business we’ll engage in, I, of course, will continue to believe that lie. If I thought business would dry up, well, that’s a different story. I’d have no choice but to report to the Sector Council that I suspect the Kaw’n federation sold me refugees as slaves. Just to clear my good name, of course, Captain.”

The strange mouth of the captain clicked in annoyance. He turned to his Arbiter and said, “Make sure there’re no further mistakes! I want these abominations to die in the arena tonight!” The kaw’n walked quickly away, followed by his entourage.

Nine had to wear a device that interrupted his functioning with electromagnetic pulses and caused the biosynth to often have sudden, jerky movements he couldn’t control. John received poison rated for his new tier and a stronger collar rated for a Platinum. Both men had to agree to store and keep stored all their weapons and fight without them.

John tested his collar as a stone platform lifted him and Nine up to the arena floor.

“The primary event tonight is brought to you by Citizens Alliance Against Rot and Decay. Every year we lose more rights. Every year slaves are given more and more rights. If this foolishness doesn’t stop, and soon, everyone will want to be slaves. Visit an Alliance representative to learn more about their mission and which candidates to vote in and which scum to vote out.

“And now, on to the prime event – two dogs of the Peerless! One you already know and hate. The Undying Dog! Yes, boo him. He deserves it. The Citizens Alliance Against Rot and Decay, at great personal expense, has brought the famously deadly screechers of Umpani to put down these dogs.”

The audience went absolutely wild. “A feast for your eyes! Three cheers for our sponsors, the Citizens Alliance Against Rot and Decay!”

After a new round of cheering, the announcer said, “Max legal spread! Four Salts, 19 Diamonds, 16 Platinums, and one Gold!”

John had heard about screechers. The umpanians had many of the Beastmaster [Archetype] and the screechers famously couldn’t be tamed. They were considered paper tigers – deadly but not very durable. Like most beasts, screechers almost always manifested the same aspects – ‘shadow’ at Bronze and Silver and ‘sound’ at Diamond.

Screechers were the only native beast of Umpani capable of penetrating the thick hide of the umpanians with its fangs. They cloaked in shadow and usually killed with their first strike.

Good, thought John. The poison was making him feel too sweaty, shaky, and weak. Good, he thought again. The harder they made it for him, the more glorious would be his victory, or the greater the chance his nightmare would finally end.

John first fought through his collar’s restriction. It was very difficult and caused a tremendous amount of pain that nearly brought him to his knees. After, he forced essence into his cloak, Adumbration. He cast his buffs, activated [Slowing Aura], used [Heal] to help with the poison, and cast [Hide] on himself. He checked his essence, and the poison was depleting it quickly. He had never done it before, but he forced [Hide] to manifest over Nine. He was surprised when it worked, decently hiding his friend in shadow.

John put his hand on Nine’s arm and guided him far back against the wall of the arena. He had talked strategy with Nine before, and this wasn’t any tactic they had come up with. He hoped Nine would go with it.

As all 40 screechers rose to the arena floor and their chains fell away, the beasts also hid themselves in shadow. John snuck forward, away from his friend, searching for a screecher, hoping to find one before the creatures found Nine. He found the single Gold but didn’t want to waste his opening attack on that. He found one of the Diamonds soon after.

Screechers looked like giant snakes with wings. Like chickens, screechers couldn’t truly fly, but could sort of for a very short period. Instead of a normal head, the beast’s head was surrounded by hard bone to help protect against the best means of killing them.

After building energy up around his right fist, something John knew would be easily detected and draw the other beasts towards him, the Diamond turned and hissed. It coiled, ready to strike when it finally detected anything it could target.

John just needed a few more seconds as he was also building up his [Ultimate] in his left hand.

After sensing a lot more screechers around him, John punched the Diamond in its face as hard as he could, and the blunt energy rocked the beast, cracking the tough bone of its head, causing the screecher to fall and convulse from brain trauma.

As he became visible, John immediately let loose his [Ultimate], his collar smoking as he did so. He assumed he’d be fine between the punch and releasing his manifestation, but he had grossly misjudged how fast the screechers were.

Before the [Ultimate] had a chance to form, John’s reflect-shield sent some of a sound burst back to a screecher, his auto-shields activated, as well as his two auto-heals. His right leg, which had been struck by a damaging sound-manifestation, throbbed horribly with pain. Four screechers were latched onto him, injecting venom into his already poisoned system.

Then the manifestation finished forming. John was surrounded by a cage of multicolored essence that extended out well over ten paces now. His knees buckled as his dantian emptied, and he almost failed to fight off unconsciousness before new essence flooded into his dantian from the ten or so of his victims caught in his field.

Besides the essence of the screechers, John was also filled with their vital essence, some healing, and other elements his field stole from his enemies and gave to him. The screechers flailed about in tremendous pain, slowly dying as the [Ultimate] took everything from them.

All the other screechers continuously and futilely attacked the field from the outside. As Nine joined the battle, many orange lights started streaking towards these screechers, killing one and damaging and dazing the others. Right after those lights landed, an orange beam hit a Diamond full in the face, turning its head into nothing but a red mist.

John was happy his instructions on how to bypass the collar’s restrictions worked for the biosynth. Fighting through the pain his own field caused him, he tried raising minions, but the screechers were too large, even the corpse of the sole Gold.

Just as John’s manifestation-field petered out, he reactivated his [Slowing Aura] and immediately slipped through the shadows and away from the many strikes directed at him, barely avoiding blasts of sound that caused the arena floor to tremble and his ears to bleed.

For the next minute, all of John’s concentration had to go towards just staying alive. Most of the screechers were still focused on him, leaving Nine free to cast his solar manifestations at their enemies. [Slowing Aura] really proved its worth, as anything that entered its radius slowed down, be it living creatures, objects, or manifestations.

A striking screecher met John’s fist covered in blunt energy. He didn’t have the time to build up much of the energy, but it was enough to batter the beast and daze it. He had practiced with energy attacks so much and so often that utilizing external energy in his attacks had become second nature and hardly required thought or effort.

And since John had no time to spare for much thinking or tactics beyond staying alive another moment and throwing a punch or kick when the opportunity presented itself, he knew all his effort and training with external energy attacks didn’t go to waste.

Nine’s collar was smoking too, and his puck and bolter peripherals joined the battle. John assumed peripherals counted as weapons, so hadn’t used his own. But if Nine was, there was no reason not to. No other manifestation was needed. The bolters tore through the screechers with ease.

John drained the last remaining beast and tried to raise a minion again with no luck. He was happy to finally have battled alongside his friend, and glad his friend was so doughty.

As soon as he finished that thought, a great pressure brought John and Nine to their knees as a mid-Exalted entered the ring through a hole in the energy field with two new collars in her hand. Another Exalted dressed in an Arbiter robe was also flying into the ring.

John struggled to stand. He couldn’t. The pressure was too great. He heard the announcer saying, “The dogs agreed to not use weapons. According to the Arbiters, their dog peripherals are weapons. As a punishment, both dogs forfeit the purse for winning this match and will be fitted with collars rated for mid Transcendents for the remaining matches tonight. I’d like to see them try and break these.”

The announcer continued but John missed whatever was said. The Exalted hovered in front of him. The Arbiter joined her a moment later and said, “You agreed that you wouldn’t use weapons. You did. Peripherals are weapons. In response, you will be fitted with a collar rated far above your tier. Do you agree to not use weapons, any weapons, for the remainder of your bouts in this ring tonight?”

Having little choice in the matter, John said, “Yes, Exalted,” and had his broken collar exchanged for a new one. As they did the same to Nine, the announcer remained quiet, and the crowd booed and jeered.

Once the two Exalteds flew out of the ring and the pressure disappeared, forty holes opened in the ring’s floor. Whatever things were coming up were all extremely large. He wished he hadn’t missed the announcement of what they’d be facing.

John fought through his collar to wrangle his essence. It was extremely difficult, but he managed to grab on to and move some, but the painful feedback this created caused his knees to buckle as he blacked out for a split moment. He tried a couple more times a little more carefully with no luck, nearly passing out from pain with each attempt. He tried one last time with the same result. Whatever came up would have to be fought the old-fashioned way. He was glad Nine was so adept in unarmed combat.

Massive humanoids crested the arena’s floor, hairless and ugly, all with greenish-grey skin with dark-green blotches all over. Each wore only a dirty and ragged loincloth and carried a giant wooden club.

John and Nine looked at each other as the chains were released from the monsters. Each of the things stood at a height at least three times greater than John’s own and were heavily muscled. After casting body enhancements, a few of the monsters smashed their clubs into the ground, sending a powerful wave of brown energy thirty or so paces out in front of them.

John easily avoided the attacks and rushed his new foes, as did Nine.

For all their size and strength, and their free ability to cast manifestations, the monsters were far too slow to pose a true threat to either John or Nine. The same as most humanoids, their eyes and necks were weak areas, as were joints.

Breaking their bones wasn’t all that difficult either, and John’s teeth were able to penetrate even the Salts, allowing him to outlast the poisons raging through his system, draining his vital essence and weakening him.

Both the poison and venom were gone before the fight ended, leaving John with plenty enough vital essence to enhance his speed with, ready for whatever came next, hoping it would pose more of a challenge than the match he just finished.

Half the crowd booed, and half the crowd cheered. “These dogs don’t go down easily. We’ll see how they fare against some of our best Mortal Tree gladiators.” The stadium rocked with cheers.

Only one hole appeared in the floor. One by one, starting with a single Gold and progressing to the four Salts, a gladiator was introduced, and the crowd went wild with cheers. One of the Salts was a Peerless Oli called the Gorilla, wearing heavy armor instead of a biosuit.

John really wanted to hear that guy’s story. An arena deathmatch was a bad setting for the telling of it, so he’d have to go without.

To John, this looked to be a truly dangerous battle, made more so by his and Nine’s inability to use manifestations or even weapons. Good, he thought, smiling.

No Salt talked trash. Only one Diamond did, and John marked him to be killed last. He hoped he’d be able to tell the strange-looking alien, ‘I win, you lose.’ Then he would stomp on the man’s head after draining him of essence and vital essence.

This fight was about as tough of one as John could’ve ever hoped for. He nearly died at least a dozen times. When it was over he and Nine were battered, bleeding, and badly injured, but alive. That was the last fight of the night. The crowd cheered loudly and enthusiastically for the two victors. He was surrounded by dead enemies and his praises were being sung with cheer. His heart filled with joy.

This is what’s best in life.

That joy changed to annoyance as the nozzles spraying acidic gas exited the arena floor. John covered Nine with his body as he began to madly cultivate the substance. The crowd booed loudly and furiously until switching to a chant.

“Let them live,” was shouted in unison by the giant crowd packing the stadium. Soon after, the nozzles retracted. After clearing more of the substance away, the two friends helped each other back to their feet.

Since John’s femur was poking through his thigh and he was covered in many, many wounds, he leaned heavily on Nine, their arms around each other, as they slowly made their way towards the stone lift used to exit the ring.

Once again, John was glad he was given the opportunity to grow closer to Nine through the rigors of tough battle. He smiled, hoping more fights like this night were to come, and soon.