Chapter 63: Bottomless Fear (2/2)
“Chocolatine?” Vic’s eyes widened, upon seeing them more closely.
“Oh hi, Vic!” Savoureuse greeted him. Victor noticed a pile of cookies and cheese on the table, alongside some fine, half-emptied wine.
“Oh, hi, Vic!” the werewolf repeated and waved at him. “What’s up with all the racket above? Is there a party?”
Victor glanced at her, then at Savoureuse, who shrugged, then back at Chocolatine.
… no. It had to be the doppelganger. He used [Monster Insight] on her to be sure.
Chocolatine
Werewolf (Humanoid/Beast)
Strong against Moon, Beast, Madness and Fairy effects.
Weak against Silver, Manslayer, and Beastslayer effects.
Your girlfriend, whether you like it or not. She forgets her sadness at her brother’s arrest by drowning herself in Savoureuse’s delicious meat cookies. You don’t want to know what they’re made of… or rather, who they’re made of.
Yep, that was the real one, against all odds. “You’re not a hostage?” Victor asked Chocolatine while keeping an eye on the other people present; especially the piper.
???
A fomor. Damn. Yet somehow he ignored the adventurer to play music, and Victor couldn’t hit him with a fiery projectile without wounding his friends.
“A hostage?” Chocolatine turned to Savoureuse. “I’m a hostage?”
“Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you,” Savoureuse said, before turning to Victor. “I wanted to tie her up, but when she told me all about how her brother’s arrest puts a damper on your relationship, I couldn’t let such a cute couple break up. So I baked her cookies.”
“Poisoned cookies?” Victor asked, finding the scene surreal.
“I could never poison food. People, always, but good food? Only nobles do that.”
“You have to tell me about that secret ingredient though,” Chocolatine continued, oblivious to the current situation. “Is it goblin? Gnoll?”
“It’s a secret, sweetie,” Savoureuse replied with a cheeky smile. “I don’t want to fight you, Vic.”
Him neither, against his better judgment. “We don’t have to.”
“Indeed. [Darkest Fear].”
A familiar dark aura swallowed Victor, who had a horrible sensation of déjà vu. His strength and vitality abandoned him, causing him to fall on his knees.
HP and SP reduced to one!
[Terror] and [Necrophobia] ailments negated!
[Troll Regeneration] activated!
“As they say, if you want something done,” Lucie Lavere said while stepping into sight, a screaming black book in hand and a humanoid made of solid shadows at her side. “Do it yourself.”
Victor had grown to hate, hate assassins hiding in shadows with passion tonight. She must have waited for her minions to soften him up before moving for the kill, like a hyena.
Charisma check successful! Lucie Lavere cannot read your mind!
Horrified and snapped out of her drunkness, Chocolatine instantly rushed to defend her crush, targeting Lavere. “[Turn Undead]! [Turn Undead]!”
Proving herself in a whole different league than her servants, the Nightblades’ leader didn’t even flinch. “[Telekinesis].” She absentmindedly raised her free hand, throwing Chocolatine against a coffin with the mere force of her mind, knocking her out. While Savoureuse watched the scene with terror in her eyes, the fomor briefly stopped playing his pipe, a crooked smirk flaring on his face.
“You should have checked your mansion for tunnels,” Lavere taunted Victor, in a good enough mood to banter with her prey.
“I did!” the Grand Vizier protested, managing to get back on his feet. “I was going to bring architects to check for hidden pathways after my seminar, but I didn’t have the time between Mot and the economic crisis!”
You have recovered a quarter of your HP!
“Annoying,” Lavere said, quickly casting another spell on Victor. “[Accelerated Anti-Teleport].”
Luck check failed! You can no longer teleport away for the next twenty-four hours!
Realizing she could diminish his HP to 1 at any time, Victor decided he could sacrifice some. “[Hades Blast]!”
He unleashed a mighty blast of purple energy at the vampire, sacrificing his very lifeforce to empower it.
The book in Lavere’s hand let out a wail, the cover morphing into a ghoulish face. A shield of dark energy sprung around the vampire and her doppelganger ally, shielding them. Victor exploited her brief distraction to charge at her, scythe raised, as the shield dispelled. The doppelganger shielded his mistress with his body, but she didn’t need any help.
“[Blood Fountain].”
The second the words left her mouth, Victor’s body wracked in pain, as wounds opened beneath his armor. His very blood floated out of him, drained by Lavere’s vile spell.
Warning: Critical health! Your Vitality dropped by three stages!
Congratulations! You learned the [Blood Fountain] Personal Perk!
[Blood Fountain]: Technique, 50 SP. You can expell blood from every target within thirty feet of yourself as if you used the [Vampire Kiss] Perk, recovering half of the damage inflicted in HP and reducing the victims’ Vitality; creatures without blood are immune.
“Finally, I taste dragon blood…” the Nightblades’ leader sucked the floating blood like one would with champagne...
And immediately spit it out.
“Your blood tastes like shit,” Lavere cursed, her fake veneer of sophistication replaced with disgust. “Half-human blood, and half… chili pepper!”
Victor would have happily shoved more down her throat, had he not been forced to use his scythe not to fall on the ground. That perk hurt!
“Finish him off,” the piper said with sadistic glee, Savoureuse glancing away not to watch what would follow.
“It appears you can change type at will,” Lavere observed while spellcasting. “I wonder if you will rise as a zombie due to my field’s effects, or just die. Let’s check.”
“Does that offer of necromancy lessons still hold?” Victor deadpanned.
“No,” Lavere replied, being careful to stay at a respectable distance, in case he had a last trick up his sleeve. “[Crush Heart].”
She opened her free hand, a phantom, spectral heart forming inside her palm.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take up your role,” the doppelganger said, before duplicating. The shadowy blob divided into two, one taking the shape of Chocolatine, and the other of Victor himself, “And more and more.”
No way around it then. He didn’t wish to do it in an enclosed space, but… “[Black Horseman],” Victor activated his trump card. The vampire may prevent him from teleporting away, it wouldn’t stop a call for help.
“Calling your horse?” Lavere mused, closing her fingers to crush the fake heart in her palm. With her foe at her mercy, she allowed herself a moment of smugness; a fatal mistake. “Fighting me is foolish.”
Yep.
But fighting was for gladiators.
A Vizier Reaper Assassin used cheap tricks.
“Summon Vainqueur!”
And then the entire crypt shook, as the legendary dragon teleported right on top of Lavere herself and her bodyguard, in a sitting position. His crown hit the ceiling above, causing the ceiling to crack; the teleportation effect blew dust in all directions, upturning the table and the coffins.
“Minion,” the dragon grumbled, the artificial darkness summoned by the vampire already dissipating. “You better have a good reason to summon me in the middle of a golden shower.”
Victor knew there was a dirty joke to make here, but it was beneath him.
While Savoureuse didn’t find her words, the piper fomor’s eyes had bulged out at the unexpected sight. He silently opened a circular rift in space and quickly fled without looking back, shaken.
Vainqueur smelled his chief of staff, unaware of the vampire and doppelganger crushed beneath his imperial bottom. “Have the bats bled you?”
“Yeah, but Lavere didn’t like it.”
“What do you mean by, she didn’t like it? How dare she not appreciate the blissful perfection of dragon blood?” Vainqueur asked, infuriated. “This only showcases her complete lack of taste! I will eat her cattle for this insult!”
Victor glanced at the spot where Lavere used to stand with a smug look until he noticed purple mist slipping out of Vainqueur and fleeing through the tunnels. “Not again!” the Vizier cursed, as Lavere quickly escaped.
First blood was on him, but from the lack of level-up, the war was far from over. Why they decided to attack him while he had Kia at home though, that was beyond him.
…
Unless… unless they wanted to keep her busy as a secondary objective. Another way to hit Vainqueur through others. “Your Majesty...”
“Yes, minion?”
“Have you called your niece lately?”