Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

“Alright folks, a special unscheduled event is taking place,” said the announcer over the loudspeaker. “We’re not sure what the event entails. Bird view camera only and no sound. For the first time ever, our arena is being graced by one of our hosts! Alii Pono Nani Victor-Fe An, of…uh, Heiau Maka, Kauwa Kaia Ka, peak Diamond.

“Let me tell you folks, I was introduced to her earlier and she smells just wonderful. Positively delightful. You know my kind have advanced olfactory senses so that’s really saying something. If you get the chance, I highly recommend giving her an extra big sniff. Just take her scent in deeply and enjoy. You won’t regret it, I assure you.

“Facing our host is John Dirt of the dirt race of the brilliantly named planet Dirt, a peak Bronze. I was informed he holds some special [Titles]. Also taking the field in some capacity is her Oliua, Exalted Two-two-two. He does not look happy. They never do though, right, folks?

“Since the details of this event are unknown, only basic win-lose wagers are being taken. Betting closes in six minutes so hurry, folks. And I’d like to remind you all that Yhug’s ‘Widow’s Heart’ will be performed here tomorrow night by the Socan Theater Troupe from Udronrh Four. Don’t miss out. Only a few tickets remain. Get yours before they’re gone, or you’ll look foolish not attending such a prestigious event.”

John, waiting in the entrance-side competitor’s box, tried waiving over the Oliua for the third time, hoping to get some information on what was going on, if he should go all out, or what was expected of him. He didn’t even know if he was supposed to use manifestations. As far as he knew, Alii were never allowed to fight. Their job was to rule.

The brain caste, the Mele, weren’t supposed to fight either, but as inventions slowed down and their traditional paths for mating dried up, recent times had seen them fighting more and more. Or so said the rumors.

The Oliua completely ignored John again. The orange light started blinking green. John waited nervously after arming himself with the same strange pick-bill made of ridiculously heavy metal he had used against the Gold slug.

The Alii wasn’t armed. The Oliua had a rifle slung over his massive back and an axe hanging from his belt. Being a mid-low Transcendent, the brute had no need for weapons and could easily rip John into tiny pieces with little effort.

John had never put much thought into fighting Alii and didn’t know what to expect from one. He heard most of them took a Ritualist [Archetype]. That made sense to him. He thought Lilly would love their sisterhood.

Then the light turned white signaling the event started.

Before John could decide how he should proceed, the Alii lifted her hand and cast a strange feeling spell so quickly he would’ve missed the opportunity to attempt an unbind even if he had been prepared for it.

John had felt something like this spell before – the [Domain] of Ukaraaz.

[Domains] were supposed to be extremely powerful and essence heavy. As he understood it, a [Domain] gave a very strong version of an unrelated concept from the cultivator’s best aspect.

Ukaraaz had ‘telekinesis’ as a concept, a yellow aspect. Yellow was strongly related to the mind and thinking. The [Domain] Ukaraaz used against John had caused him to be lost in nightmares and filled with terror, what Ukaraaz named his [Terror Domain].

‘Terror’ wasn’t anything like ‘telekinesis,’ but both were related to the mind and fit within the yellow aspect.

John didn’t know the specifics of how a [Domain] was chosen, or if a cultivator had a choice in it at all. He did know [Domains] could do anything and be anything, so it was only a coincidence the Alii’s spell was similar to the [Domain] of Ukaraaz.

The spell immediately took hold and John became overwhelmed with despair. Completely and utterly overwhelmed. Every bit of hurt and sadness he had ever felt in his life, he felt again, but all at once. Six thousand years of suffering, loneliness, longing, heartbreak, anguish, and torture filled his heart and soul to bursting.

After collapsing onto the arena’s floor, John shook as if he was having a great seizure. All the times he had been betrayed, and his former wife had betrayed him terribly, all the sins he was guilty of, even his fear and the despair of the cold-dark, deluged his mind, and his mind nearly broke.

Nearly.

John had lived too long and suffered through far too much. He was ready to die. He was born for war, born ready to meet his end violently and gloriously. Soon after taking his first steps as a child, his mother and his tribe had not just indoctrinated him to know he would have a violent death in combat, but to crave such a death, and to see that end as the only right and manly way to die.

John hadn’t had an easy life. He had been grievously wounded in battle on more occasions than could be counted. He had been burned alive, captured, and tortured many times.

What went hand-in-hand with such suffering in life was learning how to carry on through it. To persevere. To never back down and always get back up. To keep going, no matter what. To endure it all, come what may.

John knew the purpose of the [Domain] was to make the recipient feel such unbelievable despair, pain, and sorrow that they took their own life to escape the torment of it. He wouldn’t allow it. He would die in combat, as a man. He would not die in such a cowardly manner. Not after all he had suffered through to get where he was.

Instead of grasping on to something more tangible and substantial, for a reason John didn’t fully understand, the mantra he clung to was, ‘After I die, if I stand before my father, I will look him in the eye as a man does. I will see no shame in his eyes. I will not have a coward’s end.’

Repeating this over and over in his mind, slowly, John shrugged off the effects of the [Domain] and struggled first to his knees, then managed to rise and stand on his feet. He looked around for his massive pick-bill.

The Alii’s eyes went wide in surprise and then her brows furrowed – not in anger, but in concentration. Both her hands rose and pointed at John, the fingers moving around in strange ways as she cast and then channeled her [Domain], this time putting her all into the spell, holding nothing back, as if she were fighting a higher-tier opponent instead of just a Bronze.

John collapsed back to the ground, shaking uncontrollably, his ability to shrug off the [Domain] completely overwhelmed. Things became much worse for him. Much worse.

While channeling the spell, the Alii slowly walked towards John, her brute following closely by her side.

Though John was too lost in his despair to hear her words, when the Alii was a couple paces from him, she told her brute, “Stay ready and act quickly. Same as before, but if you could see his aura, you’d be worried. You’ll need to be quicker than you think. No harm must come to him. You must be especially quick against the blood power, or all will be undone.”

The brute grunted in reply.

After long and uneventful minutes passed, the woman wiped her brow and said, “Great Akua, how is he doing this? He’s only a three. A Bronze. I’m putting everything into this manifestation. He was already close to breaking before my [Domain]. Is that it? Is it too much? Too much despair makes it so he can’t act at all, and can’t harm himself?”

The brute grunted again. “No idea. What are you gonna do if he wins, my Alii? Gonna have to let him compete. And reward him. I told you this was a bad idea. If he dies in a match or is too injured to meet with the Nani later, she won’t be too happy. And this makes us Peerless look bad. There’re already too many rumors our manifestations and aspects are weak. I’m just glad none of the filth here have any clue what’s happening.”

With sweat pouring down her face, the Alii annoyedly snapped out, “Oliua! Some of those you call filth are our Kahaka. You know subhuman is a more acceptable term for our inferiors. He was always going to fight in later matches. This was supposed to knock him down a few pegs, so he’d have the motivation to win against someone we want killed. It was all playing out beautifully. Exactly as she stated it would. Until this. If he loses that fight…”

The brute, a confused look on his face, interrupted. “This is supposed to motivate him? How?”

The Alii sighed. “He hates being put in his place and humbled. He…” Nani Victor trailed off as she thought. A few moments later, she said, “I asked a specific and narrow question, not your opinion on anything else, and certainly not for your questions.”

After seeing John start to move around, the brute laughed. “Here’s the answer to your question, my Alii. He can act. Doesn’t look like he’s gonna attempt to take his own life though. If this is all you’ve got, seems it wasn’t enough. I know his NCUs aren’t much help but maybe it’s his NCS? The Alu has a 4 too. Do those help protect against mind effects?”

“That wasn’t listed as a benefit in the docs I was given,” replied Nani Victor. “And Meleua told me he’d resist my [Domain] minutes ago. I didn’t believe him. Nani Empire said this would work. And this is impossible. He’s only a three. How is he resisting? How is he doing this?”

John struggled back to his knees. His face was crinkled up in agony. He went from shaking on his knees, struggling to stand, straight to jumping at the Alii, fangs bared in a surprise attack.

The brute casually caught John’s face in his giant and meaty palm and said, “Stop.” He placed the vampire in a standing position before releasing his grip.

The terrible [Domain] slowly dissipated from John. He was extremely glad to finally be free of it. He wasn’t sure if he was still fighting or what was expected of him, so he stood ready, disliking the vexed look on the Alii’s face.

The crowd was silent as the two combatants stared at each other. Four of the chest-sacs of the Alii were full, one was puffy.

It distressed John that he no longer found the chest-sacs and udders of the Alii so strange and unappealing. Images of him doing kissing with the gorgeous woman played out in his mind, and he struggled to repress such thoughts.

Finally, in exasperation, the Alii told John, “My lesson failed, Kahaka. We Alii are never allowed to fail.”

The brute grunted again. “He craved death before your [Domain], my Alii.”

The eyes of the woman became sympathetic. “I can feel your pain, Kahaka. So much pain. I wish I could lighten your burden. I cannot. None of us can, but we all wish we could. Though this was supposed to be a lesson and not a competition, the tables turned, and I must reward you. But not yet. Later.

“And I must now allow you to compete. But I beg of you not to. Please stop now. If you continue competing, you’ll face someone you can’t win against. You’ll certainly die. You’re not nearly strong enough.”

Nani Victor stopped talking and drummed the fingers of her right hand on her bare thigh showing through her sheer robes. “This is the hardest part of being Alii. Conflicting goals. We want our boys to win glory and earn stamens bathed in the juices of our flower, but every injury one takes is like a knife through our hearts. When one is killed, a little piece of our soul dies too. It’s constant worry and second-guessing alleviated by too few moments of pleasure.

“I want to see what you’re capable of. I want to cheer on your impossible battles. I want to feel moist dew cover my flower as I watch you fight. And I want to reward you for that. But you’ll receive the biggest reward for prudence and ending your arena participation now. I’ll ensure all your crystals are returned to you. I don’t want to see you die, so please don’t compete. Do you understand, Kahaka?”

“Yes, Nani Victory,” replied John.

Smiling, the Alii said, “Good. It’s Nani Victor, not Victory. Remember, the biggest reward is for prudence and stopping now. If you do stop competing, you’ll remain alive to be rewarded later and attend an important meeting tonight. I hope to see you there.”

Nani Victor turned and faced towards the right. The brute knelt and extended his long arm out behind her. She sat on the arm, placing one of her hands on the brute’s shoulder, her other hand in his own, and the brute flew her back to the noble’s box.

The beauty of those witches eats too much at my resolve, thought John, repressing his desire for the Alii. She thinks I’m not strong enough and should stop competing? Is she mad? I have no use for credits or whatever garbage she’d reward me with.

I beat her [Domain], didn’t I? I would’ve easily killed the one Peerless I’ve fought if that coward hadn’t used their filthy tech either. Not strong enough! I’ll show that witch the true meaning of strength. I need wins and crystals, not credits. I need to replace my gear.

Marbrouk said, “Hey, look at the screen. The program updated. It looks like…yes, they canceled all the weapon energy events.”

John cursed loudly. He was certain to sweep those events. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

Avatar wouldn’t allow John to train with external energy until he was level 26, but level 31 was the level she recommended he wait for – low Platinum or low Diamond.

When John could utilize external energy, his ability to fling weapon energy would increase significantly. He already could throw it further and with more capacity to damage than most Diamonds and Salts. But most Diamonds and Salts cared little about weapon energy.

Once John utilized external energy, he believed all his attacks would be devastating.

It took way too long to charge up a weapon energy attack enough that it traveled a good distance and inflicted decent damage to utilize it that way in true combat. John could fling it much more quickly, but then it only traveled a short distance before dissipating and caused little damage even when it reached its target.

Most cultivators saw weapon energy as a neat but ultimately useless trick outside of a few situational uses. John knew there was real potential there. He practiced with it diligently. And he wouldn’t wait until low Platinum to utilize external energy. He wasn’t like other cultivators. The same rules didn’t apply to him, and when he was Silver, he would convince Avatar of that.

John asked Marbrouk to collect his fees and bets for the weapon energy events and roll all the crystals into a new wager for the Gold FFA. He still had to focus and learn what he could of the opponents he’d be facing in the Free-for-Alls and Duels. The competition was stiffer than he expected. There were some Platinums he was really worried about. Tonight was his only chance to increase his wealth. He had to win, no matter what, and no matter the risk.

As Hux says, though he only follows the advice when it will get him into trouble, and not when it truly matters – no risk, no reward.

John was watching the Gold and Platinum Supremes he missed. One of the Platinum competitors he was really worried about was accompanied by a Gold, but the Gold hadn’t fought in the Gold Supreme.

John could tell the Platinum held back while fighting. Many did, but the Platinum held back while also fighting like a real monster. The Platinum’s race was called Yellow of the planet Yellow, and the NCS said they were biosynths rumored to have positronic neuron enhanced brains. It was also rumored that some Yellow were alpha-types.

Why the NCS didn’t stick to its usual naming convention with that race instead of calling them yellowans or something like that was a mystery to John, as well as why Yellow was capitalized.

Biosynths usually started off as normal organic life that eventually merged with computers or machines in some way, but organic and machine mergers were usually considered cyborgs. There were synthetic-based life forms that naturally evolved, as John was carbon-based, but they were referred to as zeta-types, whereas biosynths were beta-types, the same as John.

Questions of biosynths aside, John knew the Platinum of that race would be a very worthy foe. He was glad he hadn’t bet more on the Platinum FFA and Duels. He wished there was footage of the Gold biosynth fighting something so he’d know if he should be worried about that tier of events too.

Another arena fighter arrived, a woman named Kren, a fan favorite, and the crowd went wild. She was an Exalted so John wouldn’t be facing her.

“Hey,” said Hux as he elbowed John. “Look at the board. They’re really screwing you with this.”

John looked at the board. His heart filled with anxiety and anger. Tiers were now merged into two groups for both the Free-for-All and the Duels.

Silvers, Golds, and Platinums were one grouping. Diamonds and Salts for the only other. Bronze tier was removed completely. Only the Transcendent tiers were grouped normally, holding an event for low, mid-low, and mid tiers.

John had many different bets for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Free-for-All and Duels. He stood up and made his way to the bookmakers. I still won’t stand by peacefully while being robbed.