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Chapter 152- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
🕑 Added 2024-05-13 22:59:01 +0000 UTCSince its creation, the Territory of Blood had been in a constant state of change. An ugly place of fetid water and undead abominations, the very air was a caustic poison to all things living. Right now, however, it wasn't doing so well. The territory had shrunk dramatically to approximately half its size and its abilities were weakened significantly, hardly any different from the land around it. A vampire would still benefit greatly within its confines, but no longer would they be made near invulnerable.
The city block that had once stood there was little more than rubble, the sparse vegetation that had once injected the concrete jungle with a dose of greenery now centres of rot and decay, twisted trees dead fingers trying to break out of the confines of the earth. Arthur stood beside one such tree, his opponent- the ascended blood beast, revenge of the hydra-on the ground before him. Four minutes remained before it went supernova.
It wouldn’t survive past one.
Arthur spat to the side, resting his spear on his shoulder. The fight had been over the moment his orb of annihilation had finished doing its work. It had just taken a minute for that fact to set in. At only a third of its initial max health following his reality-breaking attack, the battle had passed swiftly into its final stages. Iris had taken a backseat, leaving the monster’s execution to Ayesha and Arthur, who were only too happy to oblige. The monster's stats had been significantly reduced, with vitality no longer being its highest and Arthur now topped it in every department save perhaps charisma.
As easy as the fight had been, it had nonetheless been quite fun, allowing Arthur to fully test his repertoire of skills against a creature strong enough to survive them, at least for a short while. That time had now come to an end, and the ascended blood beast, the failed revenge of the hydra lay in a bloody heap before him. Captain Arencia stood to the side, along with his teleportation mage and two warriors he’d brought along. He was a heavy-set man, with a build that put competitive strong men to shame, massive in a way that was downright excessive in Arthur's opinion.
His beard, though, was something Arthur was definitely envious of, a majestic thing that lent the leaders an air of gravitas and majesty, befitting his position. Damn these shitty genetics. Arthur knew he’d never grow anything quite so glorious on his face, at least not without assistance of some kind. By the time the captain and his men had arrived, the blood beast had been on its last legs, and they’d had the grace to not interfere with the fight and thus steal a portion of the monster’s essence when it died. It was considered poor form in the adventurer circles even if Iris had technically been the one to bring them here. Arthur didn’t know much about teleportation magic besides the fact that it was expensive. Captain Arencia had made quite the loss by coming here.
“Okay, Arthur, if you could do the honour of finishing it off,” Iris said. “I don’t see any last-ditch attacks coming but you’d take the least damage here if it did. Your durability is certainly… surprising.”
“Surprising !” Hamish- Arencia's lieutenant scoffed. “The bastard tanks with his face and he’s still prettier than Franco’s wife.”
“Fuck you,” Franco spat. “You know my wife's a sensitive subject.”
Captain Arencia placed a massive hand on the man's shoulder. “You are my employee, yes, but my friend first. I know it's company policy to not get involved in personal business, but your wife is public property at this point. She’s an incredible woman, trust me, I know, but I think it’s time you find somewhere else to lay down your roots.”
Arthur ignored the rest of the conversation, and he prayed for the man's sake that this was a running joke and not the truth. It looked like they’d descended into hurling insults at each other, with even the dimensional mage getting a few licks in. He brought his attention back to the Bloodbeast. The monster had stopped regenerating a while ago, or at least it no longer regenerated at a rate that could be observed by the naked eye, its stats far too reduced to support such miraculous healing. The creature was trying and failing to get to its feet, its knees mangled messes that Arthur had ruthlessly targeted to remove the monster’s mobility. Its left shin was quite literally hanging on by a thread of flesh.
Ascended Blood Beast; The Hydra's revenge- level 275 (DYING)
Health- 6,400/13,800 (750,000)
The monster managed to get to one knee before it lost its balance and came crashing back to the ground, roaring in pain. Arthur felt sorry for the beast. During the intensity of the fight, he’d forgotten that it had once been an ordinary man, just the first victim in this tragedy that had claimed so many lives. He grimaced as he took in the devastation around him. The streets he’d once called home were hardly recognizable anymore, all rubble and broken glass. The ones to blame were the vampires, not this pitiful creature before him.
Speaking of pitiful creatures, Ashley Rhye- The Failed Bloodbeast had survived the fight, courtesy to a barrier Iris had placed on her some time at the start of the battle. She had a little over ten minutes left to live unless Arthur could do something and he wasn’t inclined to execute the woman in cold blood, something they’d have to do if they wanted to prevent her from going supernova. His healing skill had evolved to legendary+ with his new class and a few lines of description at the end of it suggested that he might just be able to help her. The cost to do so would be quite steep, though. Whatever the case, it was a problem for future Arthur to deal with. Right now, he had a beast to slay.
Stepping forward, Arthur used his spear to flip the blood beast onto its back. It tried to crawl away but he quickly put a stop to it by placing a foot on its chest. The monster clawed ineffectually at his legs, doing little more than shredding the tatters that remained of his pants. Arthur took no joy in this. This creature wasn’t evil and in its final moments, he could see the terror in its eyes, the burning desire to live inherit in every creature that existed. He’d try to make this as painless as possible.
Arthur put his spear under Henderson’s chin- that had once been the man's name- and drove it back so he was looking up at the sky. Quickly as he could, Arthur pushed forward, his spear penetrating through throat flesh like it was tissue paper before stabbing into Henderson’s brain. He convulsed once… twice and then it was over.
Lieutenant Henderson, a soldier who’d served his country and father-to-be, had died on the battlefield.
For once, Arthur didn’t look forward to the massive infusion of energy that suffused his being. It was massive, almost comparable to the dragon's core, enough to push him up a level and halfway to the next, and yet it left him feeling hollow. The increase in stats still felt incredible, as it always would, but it was muted by all the tragedy that had taken place. Conjuring water, Arthur let it run through his fingers until all the gore was washed off.
Congratulations! You have slain Ascended Blood Beast, The Hydra’s Revenge… Calculating contribution… 43%... Difficulty exceeded initially assigned quest… Rewards pending… Please wait patiently…
You have reached level 102…
You have gained 36 Draconic Vitality…
You have gained 90 free stat points...
The notification came out of the blue. He’d seen nothing regarding this so-called quest, but judging by the widening grin on Ayesha’s face, she’d received something similar and it wasn’t wholly unexpected. Arthur checked the time remaining before his imminent refinement, something that should have taken place a level ago but had been delayed due to extenuating circumstances. Now, he had little reason to not accept the upgrade, something he felt he could instinctively allow if he merely gave the go-ahead, but he held off for now. Twenty-two minutes of waiting wouldn’t kill him.
Arthur held off on placing his free stats in Draconic vitality for now, something he’d almost done instinctively as a force of habit. He highly doubted it, but his ‘refinement’ might come along with a few changes that might affect his decisions in stat allotment going forward. Hah, and the sun might rise from the west tomorrow, Arthur thought morbidly. He was brought out of his musings when a shadow came over him, blocking off the harsh red lights that bathed the Territory of Blood. Looking up, he saw the massive form of Captain Arencia, the mercenary leader's face a mixture of levity and caution. He briefly thought of just walking away but tempered the childish notion quickly.
Captain Arencia, from the little he’d heard and the small observations he'd made, seemed like a decent man. A hard man, yes, but a good one nonetheless. The alien-human had run from his troubles, but he wasn’t a coward, at least judging by the threat that had followed him to Earth. That fight was tantamount to suicide and only a foolish leader would consign their men to death to conform to a misplaced sense of honour. Unfortunately for Arthur, all of this meant that captain Arencia wasn’t an idiot.
There was no way he’d look at Arthurs fighting capabilities and not have a few questions. He could just refuse to answer them, but that would come with its own set of problems, primarily amongst them what the man would do with the information he'd already learned.
“That fight was incredible. I can’t say I’ve ever seen such power displayed by three people before reaching their second milestone. I guess it goes to show the apple never falls far from the tree.” He looked pointedly at Iris, who shook her head so slightly he would have thought he’d missed it. Was she trying to tell him something?
“She’s going to be a monster, just like her father in a century or two. She increased your team's output tenfold. Or was it closer to twenty?
The man rumbled on, talking Iris up until a listener would think she’d single-handedly defeated the abomination with nothing but her fists. The excessive flattery was so strange and unexpected coming from captain Arencia, that it took Arthur a moment to realise the man was putting on a performance.
But for who?
Arthur's domain was still active. It covered a kilometre of space, but he couldn’t sense the presence of any observer. Arthur felt a chill go down his spine. Ayesha had explained how little their alien overseers cared if the vampires managed to take over the planet. She’d even gone so far as to say that they would have preferred it over their victory. The prospect was far more probable than leaving the world for newly initiated humans.
This wasn’t a fight we were supposed to win, was it? Sure, they’d never let Iris or Ayesha die, but they probably expected us to flee when shit hit the fan.
How would they react after they’d managed to pull off a decisive victory against such impossible odds? A famous quote came to mind, one his friend Mathew had loved to use whenever Arthur excelled academically. No good deed goes unpunished, back then, it had translated to a heavier workload. Annoying but nothing life-threatening.
Whatever those rewards they were about to receive were, Arthur didn’t know if he wanted anything to do with them.
