Chapter 89 – V Vampire Aftermath (1/2)

...!”

I held my eyes shut and just let go of everything. I just wanted to rest for a bit. Even if I couldn't sleep I wanted to just lay still for a little bit.

My whole body hurt.

I was pretty sure that I wasn't bleeding anymore, but my body was probably as red as a tomato.

Thankfully most of the pain had faded, but the limbs that I lost during the fight had probably not regenerated yet.

(More importantly...)

[How are you feeling Alicia?]

[Mmm...it really hurt...]

[Sorry, but I couldn't think of anything better under that much pressure.]

[No, it's not your fault. It's his.]

Speaking of which, the ashed remains of that bastard was still covering my body.

On a certain level, it felt like he successfully molested me in the end, even if it did cost him his life.

”...!”

On the other side of the shadow cocoon I had encased myself in, something that felt like a sound was lightly vibrating against its surface. On occasion there was some light tapping as well.

(Oh right!)

When I actually payed attention to my senses, there was a familiar presence hovering over my little sanctuary.

Carefully paying attention to my orientation, I opened a hole on what I estimated was the western side and rolled my body so that my head was pointing that way.

”...!”

Claret popped her face over the entrance. There were tears running down her face and her expression was full of relief. Her mouth moved, but no sounds reached my ears.

(Oh...right...)

It took me a moment to remember the sort of damage my body had suffered during that battle. Now that the threat to my life was over, it wasn't a big deal, but it was inconvenient.

[Sorry, I can't hear you Claret. Could you go bring me my bag?]

[Yes Master! Right away!]

The dark spirit rushed off at full speed.

In the meantime I expanded my shelter and pushed off my one arm to reorient myself to a sitting position before Claret got back.

It was only then that I realized the extent of the damage to my body.

Of course my right arm was gone. A bit below my shoulder it simply ended as a stump due to how much I was channelling my [Solar Magic] through it.

Most of my body was in surprisingly good shape, only a bunch of black spots corresponding with bruises and what felt like a few broken ribs. Pretty mild all things considered. But what could be said for my torso couldn't be said for my legs.

Or rather, more accurately, the stumps that stuck out from my pelvis. Everything from my upper thighs down was gone.

I hadn't really noticed due to the pain from the sunburns I was dealing with, but when he raked at my legs with his feet claws, he really did a number on me. It made me real glad that I avoided close combat with him so much.

Forcing my eyes away from my legs, or rather, where my legs should be, I quickly scanned my left arm. Fortunately there wasn't much damage there. Just some traces of a few scratches and a single missing finger. Most likely it got torn off while I was dealing with the bone fragments inside that bastard's arm.

Finally, I glanced at my HP.

104,990/1,892,501

Considering that this was how much I had after recovering a bit from my light regeneration skill masked with the name [Sunlight Vulnerability], I might have gotten closer to death than ever before. A little over 5% HP was putting things quite tight.

If I could, I wanted to avoid such a dangerous encounter for the rest of my life, but a part of me thought that such a thing wouldn't be possible.

[Master! You...you...]

[Ah, don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks.]

The lying was quite blatant and might not even fool Alicia, but it was enough to calm down Claret, at least a little. The level of trust she had hurt a little, but preventing her from panicking was the top priority.

[Now give me my bag. And can you hold on to my so I don't fall over?]

[Alright Master!]

Handing me over the plush bunny bag, I saw that despite everything, there wasn't any signs of obvious damage on it. It was just a dirty. This thing really was quite amazing.

As my trusty familiar held my right shoulder so I wouldn't lose my balance, I shoved my hand down the bunny's throat and fished out the thing I was looking for almost immediately.

A large clay jar wider than the throat of the bunny shaped bag came out smoothly and to little effort despite the fact that it probably weighed at least half as much as I did at that moment. And without waiting a moment, I brought the open rim to my lips and chugged the contents like my life depended on it.

In a sense, it kinda did.

The blood that filled the container poured down my throat so quickly that I grew a little concerned about spilling some of it. But rather than reduce the flow, I simply put in more effort into swallowing it all.

I was sure that this blood was nothing more than that of a charge boar, yet it tasted amazing, like it somehow ranked up there amongst the best blood I've ever had.

It was obvious that it was because my body was craving nutrition to fix itself up, but still, if felt like even if I wasn't so hungry I would've wanted to gorge myself out on this blood.

As I fed on the unusually delicious blood, I felt the bones in my body knit themselves back together, the pain from various bruises and scratches fade, and my limbs slowly regrew themselves.

It didn't take long for the jar of blood, twice the size of my head, to empty.

(Not enough.)

I tossed the empty jar aside and pulled out another one, bringing it to my lips and started to chug once again.

(Maybe a hornbull this time?)

Despite the change, the blood continued to taste amazing as well.

In the end, it took a third jar before my HP had fully recovered and all traces of damage had gone. Aside from my clothes. Most of that was just plain ruined.

My shirt was torn to shreds, and almost all of the legs of my pants were missing entirely.

Fortunately, there were still a few articles that should have survived this battle, and I had spares to replace what was destroyed.

”Claret, could you go find my things?”

Now that I was fully healed, there wasn't any need to talk to her with telepathy.

”Right away Master!”

Like a puppy running off to fetch that red ball in the grass, Claret rushed off to search through the scattered debris. I just hoped that she was going to have better progress than those dogs tend to.

While she went off to get my things, I stood up and stretched my body, doing one last chest to make sure that everything was as it should

It felt good to be whole again.

”Master!”

And just like a puppy wanting attention, that dark spirit of mine came back with her arms filled with things.

”I'm sorry, I don't think I found everything. I'll go and have another look.”

Handing me the things, she turned to go and search again.

”No, this is good enough. You don't need to do any more.”

”Alright.”

I started to go through the things she gathered for me. My robes were obvious, as were my boots. But on top of it all were pieces of shredded cloth.

(...)

There really wasn't any need for the torn bits at all, but throwing it away might make Claret feel bad. I should've just specified in the first place.

Looking up, her eyes were filled with some sort of expectation.

Or maybe not, but it just felt like it.

Reaching my hand up, I plopped it on top of her head. My familiar froze for a moment, but as I started to rub her hair a lazy grin emerged on her face.

”Ehehe...”

Maybe it was just me, but petting the head of a woman both taller and many times older than myself felt strange, but it was hard to argue when she clearly enjoyed it so much. It might be best to make this a habit for the future.

I continued at it as she pressed her head into my hand, but eventually I had to stop, even though she gave me some sort of restrained puppy dog eyes when I did.

(She really is supposed to be hundreds of years old, right?)

I couldn't help but think that Alicia was more mature than her.

Again.

Separating the things that Claret had collected for me, the scraps went into my bag for future disposal when she wasn't looking.

I next pulled my robes on. Even though I was still hiding behind my shadow shelter, the black spider silk on my skin felt many times more reassuring. The thought that I might not be able to live without these robes passed my mind, but I shook it away. It didn't really matter if it did happen or not.

Lastly were my boots.

For some reason, there was something inside of them. I undid the laces and pulled out what was inside.

”Gya!”

In a panic, I almost threw the boots away, but managed to hold myself back.

What came out were a pair of feet. My feet, actually, but it didn't make it any less creepy having disembodied feet come out of a pair of boots.

(...Actually, that makes it even more creepy.)

Taking those feet in hand, I threw them outside of the influence of my shadow and watched as they turned red, then black, then white before crumbling.

”Ah!”

When I looked at Claret after she made such an exclamation, her face had an expression of regret, like what I just did was a waste.

(She didn't...want them for herself, did she?)

That wasn't exactly something I wanted my familiar to think, but I couldn't think of anything else that would have crossed her mind. On top of that, she probably wasn't thinking of eating or otherwise using those feet, so the only other option was to keep them as some sort of souvenir or collection.

Creepy.

I shook such thoughts from my head and put my boots on.

It was nice that my boots managed to survive. Walking bare foot wasn't that pleasant after all.

Now that I was ready to move on, I did a quick check on [Sense Presence]. Below us, there was still a whole ton of hits. For the most part they haven't moved since the last time I checked them, as far as I could tell at least.

The adventurer group on the other hand were out of range. I couldn't sense any trace of them.

After that, there wasn't anything notable within range.

Since there wasn't any point in chasing after the adventurers, the next logical step was to check out the village survivors.