Fates of Grenora: Return of the Night

"Change of plans Fin, run immediately to the Holy Order and report that-" Arlock was cut off as Aldrin rushed in, his claws raised, teeth bared, and full of hunger and thirst.

Arlock sidestepped the lunge by a hair's breadth. Finston saw them blur with movement with the dull lighting. Each time, however, Arlock looked the loser of the clash. His armored chest heaved up and down as the Vampire eyed him down. Arlock shot a quick sharp look to Finston, prompting him to turn tail and run.

"Aye, godspeed boy," Arlock watched from the corner of his eye as Finston disappeared into the brush. The Vampire called his full attention back with a snarl that would put a bear to shame. It rushed him again, this time his breath left him as the Vampire slid underneath his swing to hit Arlock in the stomach, sending vibrations throughout his body.

"Come on, you son of a goat!" Arlock bellowed out, rushing the monster and wheezing from the blow earlier. He intended to do a feint, but the Vampire smiled greedily as the opening presented itself. It swiped with its claws at the leather gloved hand of the Dwarf, severing it from him. The Dwarf blinked once, then twice, before looking at the bloody stump that used to be his hand. He felt the phantom of the limb at first, then came the nerve shattering pain as he dropped his other hammer and buckled under the pain of his lost limb. He cradled it with his other hand, trying to stop the river of blood that flowed as he stared wide eyed up at the monster that would take his life.

"Please, I have a family!" Arlock pleaded as his mortality came upon him.

Aldrin, or whatever was left of Aldrin, gently cupped Arlock's face with a clawed hand. Pressing lightly enough on his cheek to draw blood. Freshly cooked french fries wafted off the blood, driving the hunger and thirst up the walls. Aldrin gripped the Dwarf by the neck, lifting him from the ground while he tore off the chest guard the Dwarf was wearing. He plunged into the Dwarf's neck, gulping down the taste of the fresh fries and finally his spark of life. He dropped the dried out husk of the Dwarf while searching for his next prey.

Two heartbeats echoed out, signaling the hunt to begin again. Aldrin ran towards them, blurring past trees as he came upon another clearing. The two were in the middle of it, looking directly at him like deers caught in headlights. One of them was another Elf man that smelled like vanilla ice cream, but this one was dressed in green priestly robes and held a large staff with an octagon in the shape of a star at the top of it. The other was a Human woman that smelled like raspberries; she was dressed in leathers and held a shaky spear pointed towards Aldrin.

"You will do no more harm, you foul creature! Be- Wait a minute?! What the fuck?! It's a Progenitor!" The Elf stammered before running away, leaving the woman to fend for herself.

"HEY! YOU COWARD!" The woman holding the spear screamed at him as Aldrin stalked towards her, indecision plaguing her mind. His blood-soaked face held a menacing grin as he closed in on her. He leapt towards her, but she held her spear and adjusted to him, letting him impale himself. The pain made Aldrin roar, waking the sleeping birds in the trees to flee. He struggled as the spear was stuck in his shoulder from going clean through. The woman lost her nerve and let go of the spear as Aldrin continued to thrash around.

Finally, Aldrin snapped the front of the spear and stood hunched over, gazing at the woman as she backed away. The woman blinked and in that moment Aldrin held her heart in his hands. The woman coughed blood, then looked down at the gaping hole in her chest before crumpling lifelessly to the ground. Aldrin lifted the heart above his head, tilted his head back, opened his mouth and squeezed the heart, making all the blood it contained wash over him. Then he threw the remains of the heart next to the woman's body as he tracked the Elf priest.

Luckily for him and unlucky for the rest, the Elf and another were on a fast track to intersecting each other. Aldrin ran towards them, rocketing himself forward with each step. He caught up to the Elf, decapitating him before the Elf even had a chance to scream. Aldrin changed his direction and ran towards the one that was bound to intersect with them. Aldrin stopped at the right point, just in time for the tattooed woman from before to come tumbling out of the bushes. She looked haggard and out of breath as Aldrin watched her fall to the ground with her chest heaving up and down. Slowly and quietly, Aldrin walked up to her, stepping on a twig on purpose.

The snap alerted the woman as she scanned her environment with practiced ease, the tiredness from before nowhere to be seen. She knew she was being hunted, and it displeased her as she spat on the ground. Gathering her wits, she reminded herself she was a Tier 1 Warrior Maiden on the path of the Valkyrie and no creature of the Dark would scare her.

The tall form of Aldrin revealed itself as he stepped closer to the woman, coming out into the open. The same fire engulfed battle axe from before, appearing in her hand. Aldrin's gaze looked at the flames warily, then flicked back to the woman, who seemed to grow confident. She lunged, bringing the ax in an overhead swing. Aldrin sidestepped as his reflexes were at their peak, the trailing flame from her ax illuminating his bloodied face that grinned at her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She continued to swing her ax in all directions, each time barely missing and Aldrin's grin getting wider. However, she took him by surprise when she flung a glowing white sword at him that materialized from thin air. It plunged into his stomach, throwing him back and pinning him to a tree. Aldrin let out a vicious roar as the sword of light burned to the touch. The Warrior Maiden charged her way towards Aldrin, her ax glowing hotter and brighter to an almost blinding degree.

The Beast that was Aldrin heard his system alert chime, then felt his limbs tear and shift into bats before his body became a swarm and his consciousness became the mind of it all. It was a sudden, disorienting feeling. He felt his body become phantom limbs and moved them accordingly, which made the rest of him move in that direction. Thinking with that train of thought, he moved his swarm away from being pinned to the tree and orient himself to the Warrior Maiden that stopped her charge. If feeling his limbs turn to bats was disorienting, then returning to his body was worse. The feeling of vertigo came over him as he fell to his hands and knees. The tattooed Warrior Maiden did not waste the opportunity of weakness and charged forward.

Aldrin caught her flaming axe by the handle as he heard another system alert chime. He felt his reflexes and strength increase even more. The sense of vertigo eased away as he became more in-tune with himself again. He felt thuds against his chest as the woman punched him. He threw her back a few feet as the sensation of strength finally peaked. The woman turned the throw into a roll as she bounced back up in time to see Aldrin backhand her, dazing her into seeing black spots. Her body worked by instinct, but her mind was foggy and sluggish as she tried to reach for the ax.

She saw it within reach and tried grabbing it. Aldrin flipped her over and punched her chest slightly, denting the armor she wore. She wheezed as blood spewed out of her mouth from the earlier backhanded strike. Aldrin looked at her as she struggled to clear her head and breathe. A part of his mind screamed at himself that what he was and has been doing was wrong; but the other part, the other part that subsumed control, delighted in the hunt. Surveying his surroundings, looking at the tree trunks until he spotted what he was looking for. He grabbed her by one of her ankles and dragged her towards a tree trunk that looked thick enough. The Warrior Maiden struggled to crawl away as Aldrin tested the tree trunk.

Aldrin didn't let her struggles go unnoticed as she was beginning to come around. She turned over onto her back and flung another sword of light at Aldrin. It pierced him through his shoulder. Grunting, he stalked forward as she continued to pepper him with swords of light. He grabbed her by her legs and swung her into the tree, forcing her to almost wrap around it. The crunch and pop of her ribs resounded pleasingly in Aldrin's enhanced ears.

Her eyes were enormous and her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as her dented armor squeezed. Aldrin dragged her away and straddled her, looming above her as her fear rose within.

"Please," she gasped out, unable to move from her broken spine.

He paid no attention to her pleas as he inched closer, his mouth opening, revealing the fangs that dripped with saliva. She screamed, but Aldrin kept inching closer, elevating her fear so her blood would pump faster. Finally, a bloodcurdling scream rang out into the darkness as Aldrin latched onto her neck, draining her of life.

Her screams died down to gurgling, drowning in her own blood, then to weak attempts to break free, and finally stopped as the strength left her and death welcomed her as Aldrin kept draining her of life. Satisfied, the Beast that took over Aldrin receded, making his mind and his features return to normal. He collapsed next to the lifeless body of the tattooed woman whose milky white eyes were still open, frozen with the last moments of terror she felt.

The night vision granted to him still held as he stared at his shaking hands that were caked in blood and dirt. He tried to wipe them on his tattered clothes that were ruined from the Dungeon and from the swords of light. Tears streamed down his face when his chest tightened as he struggled to take in air into his lungs. A hoarse cry escaped from Aldrin's mouth when reality truly began to sink in. His system alerts chirped at him again from the corner of his vision, but he didn't care about that right now.

TRANSFORMATION COMPLETE: VAMPIRE PROGENITOR: Congratulations! You have taken your first steps to becoming an apex predator of the night! See to it that you choose your class next as they have been modified, then off you go to conquer the living and subjugate the dead! -K

Aldrin curled into a ball, letting the events of the night work their way through his mind. He tried his best to stop the acts that were committed by him, but no matter how much he tried to regain control, he couldn't. Whenever he felt like he was making progress, he would feel himself meet a brick wall before being pushed back to where he started.

A migraine hammered its way into Aldrin's head, each thump making his body shake in return as his body tried to adapt to its recent changes. The soreness from the change frayed his mind at the edges, beckoning him to sleep. He wanted desperately to give in, but the sun would be up in a few hours and he was in the middle of the woods. The newest part of him urged him to seek cover from the sun. Knowing he needed to find a cave and fast, he picked himself up with struggling attempts at first as he took feeble steps forwards with his mind on autopilot.

"A cave is all I need, then I can rest and recuperate," Aldrin thought to himself. It was the thought that he repeated in his mind like a mantra. Torn clothes, blood everywhere, and a half-dead look to him. Aldrin felt and looked like a walking corpse. Technically, he was a walking corpse, to be exact.

Stumbling for however long, his skin started feeling the effects of the sunrise crest on the horizon. It wasn't uncomfortable yet, but there was a slight itch to his skin. He continued to trek towards the cave where the Dwarf and he fought last and let the Bard escape. Albeit an escapee wasn't the best outcome, but Aldrin was at least glad to be back in control of his mind.

By the time he reached the cave, the itchy sensation turned into his skin, trying to run off his body as the sun shone through the tree canopy. It was an uncomfortable feeling but also a weird feeling, to feel your skin come alive and try to run off on its own. It was a disorientating experience, to say the least.

Aldrin sat against a rocky wall that was deeper in the cave, away from any hint of sunlight. Whatever creature had made this its home probably caught a whiff of Aldrin's true nature and bolted as soon as it could. Not that they were to blame, as anyone coming face to face with a hungry vampire will do their best to run and hide, animals included. With the cave secured, Aldrin could finally go through his system alerts after he rested.

"Finally, I can sleep some," Aldrin groaned before passing out.