Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

The first Platinum Duel was to submission and allowed self-manifestations and manifestations from gear. John was in his battle-mind, vital essence already enhancing his speed.

The flashing green signal-light turned white. John cast [Multi-Enhancement] and [Multi-Shield] as he charged his foe, the Platinum qraad that had felt into him with his senses previously. The qraad tried unbinding his manifestations, but John smashed both attempts.

Besides Thirteen, John hadn’t faced any being of any race that was his peer in close-quarters combat. Both Hux and Marbrouk could beat him with their MMA in the Trainer, and Thirteen certainly outmatched him, but he had a feeling the qraad wouldn’t stand a chance regardless of the tier difference.

When John cast his buffs on himself, he had felt the qraad casting its own, but he couldn’t both unbind and defend against unbinds at once. He needed to practice casting manifestations, protecting against unbinds, while also unbinding others, all at the same time.

The qraad was well equipped. As John ran to his enemy, the avian used its wings to fly up in the air, while releasing a barrage of missiles and lasers.

John dodged around the lasers and the missiles as best he could and jumped at the qraad with the ten or so still active missiles curving around and following.

The qraad dove and John couldn’t adjust enough to pursue the avian downwards, so he threw his borrowed weapon. The sword went through a wing, disturbed flight, and sent the qraad crashing into the ground.

John used the momentum of the sword throw to turn in the air, kicked the underside of a missile to send it upwards exploding into the one above it, and the force of the explosion sent him careening downwards.

A few other missiles were caught in the explosion, the remaining six continued following their target.

John landed in a roll. As he got to his feet, he felt the avian casting something, probably a new essence-shield, so unbound it. He had a moment to kill so he recast [Multi-Shield] on himself right before needing to dive out of the way of the missiles bursting into the spot he had just occupied. He sprinted to his opponent and kicked his foe in the ribs before it could finish getting back on its feet.

The qraad unveiled its soul. The pressure didn’t bother John much, but he still unveiled his own soul to counter the pressure. He then dove on his opponent’s back, dug his fangs in, and began draining the avian of its vital essence while clawing into an exposed and unarmored wing.

The qraad tried to continue the fight for a while before finally submitting. John was nearly able to top off his vital essence during that time.

Since draining the dark walker during his last Tribulation, John hadn’t been able to strengthen himself with vital essence. He still used a lot of it for healing and to enhance his speed and such. It could also enhance his strength, or both his speed and strength at once. Enhancing both provided a lesser effect, and he had rarely found his strength lacking, whereas more speed was always helpful, so he usually stuck with that.

John veiled his soul, bowed to his defeated opponent, and said, “Good fight. Thank you, Platinum.”

“Well, that was embarrassing,” replied the qraad. “My friends will never let me live this down, beaten so badly and quickly by a Bronze. At least I’ll make more in crystals than I lost in essence. I wish I submitted before you did so much damage to my wing.”

The avian bowed. “You’re going places, friend Bronze. I can’t imagine the monster you’ll be at my tier. How you can make it…not hurt…but make all my insides vibrate when you unbound me and rejected my unbind attempts…I’ve never seen that. If you’re staying in Kotown, maybe we could meet up and train together. I’m pinging your NCS with my contact info.”

John bowed deeper. “Thank you, Platinum. I don’t think I’m allowed time for myself here, but if I am granted some, I’d enjoy training together. Thank you again. It was an honor battling you, Platinum.”

The qraad bowed again, much deeper than it needed to for courtesy’s sake. “Ha! I wish that were true. Good luck, friend.”

After walking to Marbrouk, John checked his head injury with his orb-eye. It would take hours in deep meditation to fully heal, if not a day or two. He sent vital essence to heal and worked on it a little with his [Heal] manifestation.

“They won’t give you your Free-for-All winnings until the closing ceremony,” said Marbrouk.

“I figured. Thank you for trying.”

“You wouldn’t win much with it anyways. Hux said the payouts for you have gotten a lot worse, and that was before this win. How many more rounds until the finale?”

John kept his eye on the other two ongoing matches. Enough Platinums entered the Duels the arena was sectioned and shielded off with three matches going at once. “The finale will be the sixth from now, so five more until then. So many entered they split the Platinum Duels into two parts. If I win two more, I’ll secure my place in the finale. The makan is in the second part. I think I can win. No, I will. I must.”

The makan’s name was Koni Dral. The name the announcer used for her was Koni of Maka. Why she didn’t use her full name for her announcements when she had one and it was well known was a mystery.

John had thought of many surnames to use for himself since arriving on Gani, but Hux and Marbrouk laughed at each and every one of them. Especially the ones he thought were the coolest sounding.

Accepting any of the surnames John’s friends recommended would be too risky without knowing why they found them so humorous, though he liked many of them, such as Depp, Goodman, Krueger, Leguisamo, Vader, and Voldemort. There were many others too. Legend was his favorite, but he thought it would make him seem too vainglorious.

John would really prefer to be given a suffix such as ‘the Great,’ or ‘the Mighty,’ or ‘the Terrible.’ That way he wouldn’t have to invent a surname for himself.

Next up, John was fighting a raloin, a reptilian race heavily modified by cybernetics controlling one planet, their own low-population home world of Raloin. They were good fighters but their recent invitation to the sector council was controversial. Or so John heard while waiting in a bookmaker’s line.

The raloin’s name, coincidentally enough, was similar to John’s own - Djon.

Djon wore no helmet, maybe because most of his scalp was cybernetic, including one glowing red eye. He wore sturdy armor completely covering his whole torso, hips, and thighs. Both of his arms were completely cybernetic, as were his calves and feet.

The Duel was to first blood and allowed self-manifestations and gear. As soon as the light turned white, John rushed forward while casting buffs, hoping to get a chance to unbind or prevent unbinds now that he could.

But Djon cast no buffs at all and neither did he attempt unbinds. The raloin slowly jogged forward as five small firearm-type weapons extended out of each of his wrists. The weapons shot out something like large essence-missiles that skittered around before circling each other, joining together, and homing right in on their target.

Shortly before the giant, glowing missile hit John, he dove, plunged his sword into the ground, and used his great momentum to flip over the essence-missile roaring towards him at breakneck speed.

As John landed the blast wave from the large explosion behind him almost knocked him off his feet. Djon activated a piece of equipment mimicking a dash attack. The raloin barreled towards John almost too quickly for his brain to interpret.

John’s mind and reflexes barely made the cut. He slipped to the side and grabbed Djon’s arm as the roloin blurred past, avoiding his opponent by a hair’s breadth.

John turned, planted himself, and yanked the arm with one quick and fluid motion. Instead of Djon flipping over him and landing on his back, John flew forward and faceplanted into the ground, holding a cybernetic arm in his left hand. He looked with his orb-eye to see Djon. The raloin, minus one whole arm, was still tumbling over the arena floor.

A loud buzzer signaled the end of the match. Since it was to first blood, losing a whole arm counted despite the lack of any blood.

John got on his feet and rushed to his opponent, bowed, helped Djon to his feet, and handed the raloin his arm back. The reptilian closed its mouth and its neck vibrated as it communicated in its race’s way.

A voice – deep and distant and rattled, somewhat hollow – sounded in John’s mind as the NCS gave a voice to Djon. “Thanks for the hand up, but come on, man, did you have to rip my arm off? That’s a shitty thing to do. This arm and the surgery cost more than two blue-green crystals. It won’t sync up right until I ascend with it again, and that’s a long way off. I’m screwed till then.”

John bowed deeply and said, “Apologies, Platinum Djon. I was only trying to flip you over, not rip your arm off.”

Djon bowed the minimum required of courtesy. “I know. I was just hoping to earn some crystals is all, and I’m frustrated. Good fight, Bronze. I should’ve known better with those [Titles]. I just couldn’t accept a Bronze could beat me. I’m sure there’s a fitting saying about hubris or something, but I’ve never had a mind for remembering shit like that. Good luck tonight, and I hope I never see you again.”

Djon turned and left.

John’s next opponent, an umpanian named Aoh’d, talked to John before their Duel and asked if John was willing to fight as they did in the ancient arenas of Umpani. John agreed.

Umpanians were the oldest and strongest race in the sector. They had two famous sects. The head of one of those sects was on the fourth tier of the Transcendent Tree, and the head of the other was early fifth tier of that Tree.

Two of the three most powerful entities in the whole sector, the only three to have passed that old and famous bottleneck at mid Exalted, and the reason the Peerless were invading only non-council worlds.

A couple decades ago, the Peerless Empire invaded one of the many worlds populated and controlled by the umpanians. They almost conquered the world. Then one of those two famous sects showed up and sent the Peerless running.

Tech could change things, but within the same tech level, having a force on the battlefield a tier higher than everyone else was a game changer. Usually. Unlike most races of the sector that relied heavily on tech, the umpanians kept more to the old martial traditions, though they did have their own tech.

John had a soft spot for umpanians. Their voices were distinct and sounded deep enough to shake mountains. He just had to hear one speak to realize the entity that had saved him, Amber, and Munashi, and cut off the kaw’n’s arms before his first Tribulation was an umpanian.

Though Aoh’d was the first umpanian John had actually spoken with, he thought the whole race seemed pretty decent. All that he had heard of them from other sources only reinforced that belief.

Umpanians looked somewhat like giant rhinoceros, including the horned snout and tough skin. They stood roughly about the height of Gold demons and had massive frames.

Aoh’d had a strong ‘life’ related concept as John could clearly see that aspect in his dantian and a greenish shimmer of it surrounded the man.

The light turned white and both John and Aoh’d nodded to each other and casually walked to the center of their arena.

Vampire and umpanian bowed at the waist and the combat commenced.

John had agreed not to use any manifestations. He didn’t even enhance his speed with vital essence. The match was to submission.

If truth be told, John didn’t decide to not enhance his speed out of some sense of fairness - he didn’t think the umpanian’s [Swiftness] score was anywhere close to his own.

And though Marbrouk and Hux could trounce him in a Trainer, John wasn’t a slouch in unarmed battle, and he wasn’t in a Trainer. Thirteen was the exception, not the rule.

Aoh’d threw the first strike. A truly massive leg kicked at John’s torso. The umpanian was deceptively fast, but not nearly fast enough.

John ducked the kick, trying to make it look like a close thing.

Aoh’d threw a punch and John tried to make it seem like slipping it was more difficult than it was.

And so the fight went - John trying to prolong it and let Aoh’d have his pride.

When John thought he stretched the bout out long enough, he kicked the umpanian’s kicking leg, ending the strike before it truly began. Aoh’d threw a powerful hook and John punched his opponent’s forearm, arresting the strike and causing Aoh’d to hold his arm in pain.

A punch to the chest sent the umpanian tumbling onto his back.

After a few dramatic moans, Aoh’d got back on his feet and bowed in submission. Both combatants walked to each other and bowed deeply.

“Thanks,” said Aoh’d. “I was worried you didn’t understand and would try to end it quickly and I’d get hit with the poor performance fine. This way, I spent nothing and made almost six times the buy in.

“And I know you terrans are slaves of the Peerless now, but if you manage to escape, come to any of my people’s worlds. Our sects would fight over you. You’d live like a king.”

John nearly told the umpanian that Kahaka weren’t slaves but that was Peerless nonsense. They were slaves. He said, “Thank you, Platinum Aoh’d. I appreciate you saying so.”

Both combatants bowed again and departed.

John had the next three rounds off. No one of note fought in any of the three matches of round 4. He was very happy the Platinum biosynth was arrested and taken away, as he didn’t think he stood much of a chance against that monster. Thirteen was a mid-high Gold. The Platinum was at peak. Most cultivators paused at peak Platinum to try and fortify their soul in preparation of refining it while ascending to Diamond. That biosynth could’ve been at peak for a long time.

The gulf between mid-high Gold and peak Platinum was huge. Even with his new ability to unbind and protect against them, John had no desire to risk his wealth finding out just how huge the gulf was between Thirteen and her higher-tiered kin.

John figured Alii Nani Victor had told the arena to throw all the tough opponents at him. She didn’t. Koni faced the toughest Platinum besides herself in round 5 and won the match. It was an entertaining fight and John was glad he had the opportunity to watch the woman battle from start to finish. It helped him come up with a strategy against her.

The next round was a single match seeing Koni versus the third toughest Platinum. John would face the winner. At the very start of the fight, Koni disappeared as usual. Seconds later, she reappeared firing a barrage of pistol shots into the back of her opponent at point-blank range.

Then it was time for the finale.

The terms Koni set were full use of manifestations and to first blood. He really thought she was going to pick buffs and gear only, as she seemed very proficient with her pistols and John had no shield or armor or anything but his essence-shield to block the shots.

The three times John was able to see Koni at the beginning of a fight, she immediately entered stealth. Since John was a Bronze, there was a chance she’d just bombard him from the start. If she went the bombardment route, he’d try to unbind her and keep her shut down. If she stealthed, he’d follow suit.

As the light started to flash green, John entered into his battle-mind and enhanced his speed. When it turned white, he only felt Koni direct a manifestation towards herself.

John quickly cast [Multi-Enhance] and [Hide] as he stealthed forward, keeping against the left hand wall of the arena. His [Stealth] [Skill] was almost at Grandmaster Mastery. He doubted hers was anywhere close to that, and he assumed she relied upon manifestations or tech to hide so well.

The next few minutes were very uneventful, causing the audience to boo and jeer loudly. John snuck around as he looked for Koni, and she either waited in ambush or was doing the same.

Finally, John spotted Koni creeping in front of him. He snuck up behind her, deciding to see if his pickpocketing was up to snuff. While matching her speed, he quickly and deftly withdrew both her pistols from her hip holsters. They were much lighter than he thought they’d be.

John noticed Koni tense as he extended both arms and fired both pistols into her back. In a move as impressive as anything John had ever seen, Koni adroitly rolled forward, the essence-bullets skimming her cloak. She got to her feet while spinning and releasing some sort of lighting manifestation at John, all in the same fluid movement, all in the blink of an eye.

As soon as John knew the bullets missed their target, he felt into Koni while diving and threw both pistols at her.

Koni had attempted to remove John’s presence from herself as she cast her lightning manifestation. As the lightning tracked and struck a metal pistol instead of John, her eyes widened in surprise. Either due to her manifestation hitting a pistol instead of its true target, or due to John violently rejecting her attempt to remove his presence from within herself. He pulled as hard as he could on all her blood.

Koni jerked forward and slumped to her knees, blood leaking from her eyes. The buzzer sounded, indicating the match was over.

John walked to the still kneeling makan. He bowed deeply. “Thank you for the battle, Platinum Koni Dral. It was a true honor. I enjoyed watching you battle very much. The way you move, your adroitness and grace, are a wonder to behold.”

A frown broke Koni’s still face. Without moving her head, her eyes slowly rose and set on John’s face. “Get out of my sight, scum sucking dog of the Peerless. Filthy swine. You’re a coward and your mother’s a whore.”

That Koni hated the Peerless gladdened John’s heart. He did as the lady bid and got out of her sight. He had winnings and wagers to collect. As he left, he wondered if it was possible for a human and a makan to produce offspring together. If so, their children would be very mighty and move as the wind.