Chapter 3-80: A Graves Matter (1/2)
The vylstrigoi was cutting across open fields, and we had to detour around the streets to follow, where Sleipner could have just Ward-rode to follow, if need be. It was fine, we weren’t in a hurry. Easy enough to pick it up on the far side.
“There’s a high school and elementary school close by,” he noticed, eyes agleam with a predator’s instincts.
“You getting any intrusion vibes?” I asked in return. If he sped up, I’d lose the track and have to reacquire.
He coasted Bone Marrow to a halt, and closed his eyes for a moment. I could feel a bloody, hungry presence swell around me, like a lord looking for challengers to his domain.
His eyes were half-red when he opened them. “The elementary school,” he growled, and stomped on the gas.
---
We weren’t far away as the crow flies, but the roads didn’t have a direct connection, and we had to go out and swing back in, coming in on the far side of the school and cruising down the road as we circled it, looking for the disease trail.
“Hup!” My fist closed, and he braked abruptly. I looked across the street, and up to the fence around the schoolyard.
“He’s on the roof or in the bushes,” The Mick said, parking his car. I handed him his Sword, and he took it without looking back, as we both got out of Bone Marrow.
“Give me a boost over the fence, and go hunting. I’ll easily half-kill him if I get a shot at him.” I looked around. “Or drive him towards one of the sewer entrances.”
“Already marked them. You want me to follow him if he goes under?”
“That would be best.” In response, he tossed me to the keys to his car. I put them away, and tossed him a closed glass vial in return. “That’s been Energized by Master Fred’s Wrath. Holy water. I imagine you will get his attention if you hit him with it.”
His smile was ferocious as we sprinted towards the fence. I could tell he was surprised at my speed, while his own pace was light and effortless. He just held out a hand, I put a foot in it, and he heaved me over the fence as if I weighed nothing. I grabbed the top, swung over, and hit the ground on the far side at literally the same time he did.
Without slowing down, he drew his Katana.
I was not expecting to see a Katana as white as milk, with the cutting edge the same hue as fresh, wet blood. I had already Identified it when it was in its scabbard; it was a Ki-bound Blood-Enmity Blooding Weapon, which meant an absolute terror to vampires and anything related to them... or bloodsuckers in general. Blooding meant wounds it inflicted could not be healed by magical means until Renewal, a frightening thought to a vampire. Add in Vivic, and any vampire he killed would simply die on the spot.
It was a Drei-Slot Weapon, which in this place was pretty damn good.
It was also Ki-bound, which definitely raised a flag as I watched him go right up the brick side of the school, and get on the roof, leisurely ignoring physics and gravity with a combination of vampiric wall-crawling and lightfoot.
Ki-Bound could not be found on literally any smith’s website anywhere. Nobody outside the game knew that Enhancement, as it would have been adapted from Soul-Bound, and Soul Magic wasn’t used here...
My Detect range was only sixty feet, so I could only parallel the track of the vylstrigoi, and not very quickly at that. That said, if it was trying to hide from me, there were going to be problems for it. I hadn’t been maxing out Perception because I was dumb, after all.
It had gone up on the roof, and I ran along the side of the school, Clavus whispering out, totally ignoring the heads inside turning my way as I circled around it, The Mick moving much faster and soundlessly up above...
“HAH!”
There was a shriek and a distant crinkle of glass, I saw foul steam arising on the roof halfway along the building, and something leapt fast and furiously off the roof, hit the ground, and bounded away, screeching.
I didn’t have to track the disease now, and just sprinted ahead. It was faster than I was, which was totally annoying, but it stayed in the open for a distance of fifty yards, which gave me time to shoot.
It wasn’t the full Monte, because it didn’t need to be, as the thing was going to heal the damage away, anyway. That said, 5d8+27 +5d6 slammed into it, burning hard and blasting its white shirt and dark slacks to flaming ash as the impact sent it sprawling and tumbling towards the sewer access it was heading for. It fairly leapt forty feet to the rusting steel cover, tore it off with patently inhuman strength, and dove down into the hole, mindless of the drop, before I could take another shot.
The Mick leapt gracefully off the roof behind it, landing weightlessly, and was on its tail, not moving too fast to catch it, and certainly drawing its attention with his bloody sword. He spared only a glance for me when he arrived at the sewer hole, cars in each direction braking abruptly as he ran into the road.
With a ripple and a flutter, he blew apart into a whole flock of white-furred bats, and poured down the sewer hole after the vylstrigoi.
I turned around to the window of the classroom behind me, where a young teacher and a room full of young kids were staring at me, the former in shock, the latter in awe.
I put my pinkie to my lips and thumb to my ear, and Messaged her, That was the undead creature infecting the city with plague. It has seeded the grounds of the school. Lock down the school, let nobody out, and call the closest Aruan Temple to clear the grounds so you can exit and they can purify the place. Do you understand this?
If she was a little shocked that I was speaking to her, she still nodded. I repeated the question, and she finally /replied, Yes, I understand!
I turned and sprinted off towards the sewer entrance, and the backed-up couple of cars there, people getting out of them and wondering what they should be doing.
“You and you! Help me seal up the sewer hole!” I demanded of the first two drivers, while I went through the gestures of purification, and dumping a couple gallons of Cantrip’d water on the cover. “NOW?!” I repeated loudly, and the two men flinched and hurriedly came forwards to help.