Fates of Grenora: Return of the Night

"You've gotta be shitting me. . ." Aldrin heard one bandit whisper.

A sharp intake of breath followed soon after. "I thought they were supposed to be feral?!" another voice whispered.

With his full vampiric nature out on display, Aldrin unleashed Blood Rage.

Rushing forward in the blink of an eye, he slashed at a group of three on the left of Gýt, letting Cleaving Strikes take care of the rest. Cutting cleanly through the first one, grievously wounding the second, and cracking a rib on the third Aldrin, then used another Roar of the Apex to silence any budding abilities about to activate.

Shapechanging, Aldrin fluttered over to the next bandit, grabbing him up in the swarm, letting his fangs sink into the bandit. A thud resounded as the bandit dropped to the forest floor. The thud shocked them out of their trance as they realized four of their members were killed or seriously injured before they could react. Fear gripped the bandits in a chokehold as the predator stood before them. Two arrows flashed past Aldrin, striking ‌another bandit, killing him instantly as one punctured his brain.

Aldrin slid his cool, calculating gaze to Gýt, who slightly flinched then rushed forward. Aldrin responded the same way, meeting him in the middle, their weapons clashing with a stalemate, surprising Gýt more than Aldrin.

Wide eyed Gýt found his Strength failing him when he tried to push against the blade. Capitalizing on the moment of surprise, Aldrin kicked him in his knee, making it snap backwards. The sudden pain Gýt felt made the last of his strength go as he stumbled back. Quickly glancing at Aldrin, he felt his skin crawl at the way Aldrin had his head cocked at a slight angle, watching intently at his knee that slowly healed.

"You only invested in three abilities?" Aldrin gloated, finally realizing how little danger he was actually in.

Gýt stood watching his opponent with interest. "Who needs abilities when you have technique," he readied his Great Warhammer.

"Mm, either you really are an idiot or a respectable warrior," Aldrin hummed.

"Show me the rest then," Aldrin said, gesturing with wide open arms and a grin that showed his sharpened teeth.

Gritting his teeth, Gýt rushed in, crossing hilt to blade once more. Aldrin pushed him back, his ever-increasing Strength allowing him to go toe to toe with Gýt. Following up the pushback with an upward slash forcing Gýt to continue to be defensive. His acute hearing picked up on the slight creaking of Gýt's reinforced hilt. Changing tactics from outright brute force to calculated strikes, he attacked the hilt instead, hoping to break it.

Gýt caught on to what Aldrin was attempting to do, disengaging himself from the melee. "GET IN THERE AND KILL HIM!" Gýt roared to the bandits that watched the dazzling display.

Aldrin let out the best impression of a deep, menacing laugh. "No," raising his hand for all to see, blue flames sparked to life in his palm. The beast inside Aldrin purred at the looks of terror plastered on the faces of the bandits.

"Raise Skeleton," Aldrin menacingly commanded, the blue flame in his hand snuffing out as fast as it appeared.

Tense few moments went by as everyone waited with bated breath. A few more moments went by before Aldrin worried the Skill didn't work. Luckily, that wasn't the case, as the corpse of‌ one bandit twitched, drawing everyone's attention to it. The corpse moved erratic spasms before slowly sitting up. The dead gaze of the corpse greeted everyone as it did so. No sound emitted from it when it stood next.

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Wet squelching then accompanied it when it peeled the flesh off of itself. One bandit lost whatever dinner he ate as the dead continued to strip the flesh off its face, revealing a bloody skull with only its eyeballs left. Sadly, the eyeballs didn't last long when the skeleton plucked them out and threw them at the feet of the bandits, making them scream in horror.

The skeleton clacked its jaw together before picking up the discarded sword that was next to it. Flourishing the blade, it charged at the remaining bandits while eerie blue flames danced in its eye sockets. Fortunately, that was all it took for the rest of the bandits to break and run for their lives.

Aldrin tried his best not to allow disgust permeate ‌his face, but when it threw the eyeballs, that was the last straw. His face scrunched up as he watched the skeleton give chase to the fleeing bandits. Shifting his focus to Gýt, they both rushed towards each other, each striking and defending. Watching the timer for the cooldown, he pushed back from Gýt, giving him some space to use his Skill again.

"Raise Skeleton," Aldrin said again, making the blue flame appear and disperse. This time the Skill didn't take long to take effect.

The Mage that had died by Aldrin repeated the same process as the first one, peeling its skin off and plucking its eyeballs out, leaving the blue flames to dance. Clacking its jaw madly that resembled laughter, it conjured another bright blue fireball. Throwing it towards Gýt, he rolled out of the way, letting the blue fireball sail past him, lighting the ground on fire. The skeleton continued to clack its jaw together, throwing out another fireball.

"Fuck," Aldrin said as he watched the blue flames grow out of control.

With no time to rein in the newly resurrected skeleton pyromaniac, Aldrin focused on Gýt, who eyed him with hate in his eyes. "You can surrender, you know?" Aldrin shouted at him, earning a rage-induced roar.

"Guess not then," Aldrin muttered to himself, rushing in to meet him for the last time.

The clash between them was now one-sided in favor of Aldrin as he pushed Gýt back. Feeling the air shift around his hammer, Aldrin stepped back, teasing Gýt at the last second when his hammer swung around. Following the momentum of the swing, Gýt came back around, releasing his weapon towards Aldrin, who was on his back foot. Surprised at the sudden change of tactics, Aldrin turned his back step into a roll, his Vampiric Awareness alerting him to the whoosh of the hammer as it flew over him.

The distraction of the flying hammer allowed ‌Gýt to get in close when Aldrin recovered from his roll. The sudden impact of Gýt tackling Aldrin made him let out a surprised yelp. Raining down blows on his disoriented opponent, Gýt didn't let up as all the rage in his body released on Aldrin.

"COVER YOUR EYES!" Aldrin heard Jared yell, barely registering what was going on from the hits he was receiving.

A bright flash soon followed, blinding both Aldrin and Gýt. Aldrin pushed Gýt off him from what he could see. Scrambling to his feet, Aldrin looked for his sword, the blinding effect from the arrow making his night vision fuzzy and forcing him to see double of everything. Gýt fared no better, rubbing his eyes and attempting to get rid of the black dots in his vision with quick blinks

Finding his sword, Aldrin picked it up to come face to face with Gýt, who was still blinded. Thrusting his sword forward, he missed, striking at the illusion of the other Gýt. The miss proved to be a mistake when Gýt grabbed the sword by the hilt when Aldrin struck again. Yanking Aldrin in close, he threw a punch with all he could muster, hoping to at least graze the right form of Aldrin.

Jerking backwards from the blow that snapped one of his ribs, Aldrin doubled back with an uppercut of his own, lifting Gýt to his tiptoes. They traded blow for blow, each battling for dominance over the other for the sword. Beaten, bruised, and bloodied, they no longer resembled themselves.

Gýt's Strength failed him, his grip on Aldrin loosening, giving enough wiggle room for Aldrin to squeeze his wrist.

Pop.

Gýt hissed in pain, immediately trying to resist Aldrin. Emboldened by the turn of events, Aldrin applied more pressure, feeling the bones of Gýt's wrist turn to mush. Desperately clawing and trying to find purchase with his other hand, not caring to let go of the sword hilt. Wrenching free, Aldrin raised his sword, letting his empowered Stats gather power for his swing. Activating Cleaving Strikes, the edge around the blade glowed its sickly yellow. The reddish-black tint from Leech Imbuement interlaced with the sickly yellow as the abilities combined, then Aldrin struck.

His blade jaggedly sliced through the toughened collarbone. Gýt's screams of rage turned to screams of pain when Aldrin pulled the blade free from Gýt's mangled shoulder. The taste of eminent victory seeded the air, making Aldrin swing his blade into Gýt's mangled collarbone again. He hacked and hacked away at Gýt. His screams turning into a gurgled chorus as the blood moved in to drown every area it wasn't supposed to be. Releasing his hold on Gýt's wrist, Aldrin changed into a two-handed grip, continuing to hack away at the Hulk-Berserker.

"Aldrin?" Pierre whispered.

Hack.

Unaware that he too was screaming, Aldrin continued to chop at the bloodied mess that was once Gýt.

"Aldrin?" Pierre said, a little more forcefully this time.

Hack.

"Aldrin?!" Pierre screamed this time.

Whipping around to face Pierre, Aldrin snarled, baring his teeth. "Mine!" he growled, then stalked forward as a warning.

Pierre slowly stepped back with his hands raised, and that was enough as Aldrin returned to hack away at Gýt. The two skeleton summons from earlier came back, both of them dragging a body in each hand behind them. Jared watched from afar when they deposited the bodies next to Aldrin, who stopped at the sudden appearance. Aldrin let a deep growl that rumbled towards the two skeletons, making them drop like puppets with their strings cut.

Slowly, Aldrin's vampiric features faded along with the boosts to his Stats making him drop to his knees out of weakness. Pierre was the first to take a tentative step towards Aldrin.

"Hey, are you alright?" Pierre asked slowly, edging his way towards him.

Aldrin mumbled something that made Pierre strain his hearing.

"What?" Pierre took another step forward, still wary of him.

"I need blood," Aldrin whispered, not deigning to look at Pierre.

Pierre looked back at Jared, who looked just as conflicted. Their emotions passed between the two when faced with the choice of willingly sacrificing someone. With grim resolve, they both agreed they would do what's necessary, like they have always done. A system prompt flashed in each of their visions.