Blood Shaper

Book 6: Chapter 10

For a moment Kay considered bringing his two new allies with him to the border, but a number of factors stopped him. There was no formal agreement in place yet, just their word. While he didn’t think Murunel’s cousin’s would break their word and run off on him, he needed to think like the king he was and err on the side of caution. The point of Kay heading to the border was more of a fact finding missions than an attack anyway, and bringing a dragon along would make hi more conspicuous than he planned on being. And from what Isla had told him, Avalon’s “hostages” from the Shatterplate Order and the Itarian Crusade might take up most of his time, which would leave the dragon and his rider sitting around twiddling their thumbs uselessly.

He decided to just take a contingent of his guards with him, leaving everyone else behind. They all had work to do and being able to kill more than one bird with one stone was great, but Kay’s real goal in this was for his own benefit. Sitting off to the side in safety while his people were fighting felt disgusting. He knew that he’d have to get used to it, there would be points in the future where he would have to hold back to be the trump card against enemy elites, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take the chance to be a part of things where he could.

Torotia was a massive planet, one large enough that only the System messing with things kept the gravity from crushing everything on the surface into paste, and traveling from place to place took a lot of time. Focusing on speed and forgoing comfort let Kay and his guards make it to the edge of the border on the northern side of Avalon’s territory in only two days. That level of speed was a testament to his people’s Skills and mana enhanced bodies but also to the level of investment and work Avalon had put into its expanding road system. They only slowed down during the trip when they passed the work crews building out the network and had to travel through wild areas that had only been cleared by the troops who ad previously moved through there.

The faint sound of a fight could be heard as they approached a hastily erected fort that was in the middle of being upgraded. Construction workers and mages were all glancing off to the side as they worked, cautiously watching whatever skirmish was taking place even as they moved stone slabs into place and anchored them to the existing structure. Kay was pleased to note that while the noncombatants were distracted by the potential danger of the ongoing fight, the guards and sentries keeping an eye out were not. One of them spotted the approaching group as soon as they were clear of the trees that had been cut back from the fort and blew a whistle. The sentry pointed and a detachment of soldiers rushed forward to meet Kay and his guards. The approaching soldiers were wearing gear that marked them as regular soldiers of Avalon’s army and the their movement changed from a spirited push toward a potential enemy to a measured march toward an unknown when they saw there weren’t more vampyr coming to attack the fort.

The detachment’s officer pushed their way to the front and called out. “This is a restricted area, entry is permitted to authorized personnel only! Identify yourselves!”

Kay laughed to himself at the “modern” way the officer was talking and wondered if Cindy had introduced those terms while he’d been gone.

One of the Blood Guard stepped forward in response. “His majesty, King Kay of Avalon with guards!”

“You may approach to confirm your identity!”

It only took a few moments to prove he was who he claimed to be and the soldiers got through it with minimal bowing and scraping, which he appreciated. They escorted him inside the fort and to the edge of the walls facing the ongoing fight. Zeia and Leon, the two leaders of the Shatterplate Order members that had been left behind while Edric and Alice Ravenhome went back to their headquarters to explain Kay’s demands were there, looking down at a group of soldiers fighting a pair of vampyr.

Zeia was staring intently at the fight while muttering under her breath and didn’t notice Kay approach. Leon did, but shut his mouth when Kay shook his head at him. He watched as, under the guidance of Shatterplate order members, soldiers from his army trained to fight vampyr. The vampyr they were fighting were obviously completely maddened, showing no signs of coordination, skill, planning, or any rational thought at all and were fighting like cornered animals, which in a way they were. This was training for those who were completely new to the post to get them ready for the unpredictable way vampyr acted in every situation, but in battle specifically.

One of the two vampyr suddenly rotated its neck around like an owl and bit at the arm of the soldier trying to stab it in the back. It took two spears to the front when it’s attention wavered but it slammed its fans into the surprised soldier’s arm. Everyone atop the wall flinched or tensed up. The soldier cursed and ripped her limb away as fast as possible staring at it in dismay as her comrades piled on the vampire and ruthlessly stabbed it to death.

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“Bite on the-“ Zeia’s shout cut out as she noticed a man in stereotypical mage robes with red trim run from just below the gate to the bitten soldier, pulling out a vial filled with red liquid as he ran. He slid to a stop next to her, one hand clamping tightly at her arm and the other holding out an open vial. A trail of blood shakily rose from it and ran into the bite marks on the soldier’s arm. She grimaced and shook as the tendril of blood seeped into her, then grunted in pain as it pulled back out, dragging a clump of dark solidified blood that faintly reeked of the flavor of eldritch corruption that came with vampyr.

“That’s smart.” Kay commented, “I’m glad someone thought about that.”

“What? Of course we though about…” Zeia’s waspish tone trailed off as she noticed who was speaking. “What? When did you get here?”

Kay ignored her and leapt off of the fort’s wall, controlling the armor around him so that he sank at a quick but uneventful speed, preventing a superhero landing. He walked over to the soldier and presumed Blood Manipulator who noticed him coming and stared nervously.

“Ah, uh, ah, your majesty!”

Kay nodded back at the man, then paused. “I don’t know you… Did Blood manipulator classes that aren’t taught by me finally get started while I was gone?”

“Yes your majesty! I passed all of the vetting necessary and graduated top of my class!”

“Excellently done, then.” Kay patted the man on the soldier. “And it looks like you’re doing a good job here too.” He leaned in close to the clump of infected blood, studying it with both mundane and magical senses. After looking it over for a moment he turned to the soldier. “Do you mind if I take a quick look inside? I shouldn’t need to rip anything out so it should be less unpleasant.”

She looked pale, but nodded resolutely. “Of course your majesty.” She held out her arm.

Kay pulled a very thin line of blood out of his finger and dipped it into one of the holes, using the connection to scout around inside the wound. There was a lingering trace of taint but it was the residue left by something that had already been removed, nothing to worry about normally. Since he had the opportunity he destroyed it, then looked around at the various cells and tissues. Being able to see inside someone’s body like this was still a novel thing for Kay and he made a note to look into more healing Classes in the future. He could see why that Adventurer’s Guild healer had been interested in his Classes back in Tumbling Rapids. There were traces of damage and clumps of cells that had been attack and begun to change lingered, but her immune system was already dealing with the damages. White blood cells were destroying the leftover bits a piece at a time and Kay idly noted that meant the corrupted pieces were dissimilar enough from regular bits of the body that people’s bodies saw them as a threat. It looked like her body would be able to recover without issue even without further intervention.

After taking a moment to get rid of all the remaining damaged bits Kay gently withdrew his tendrils and absorbed them back into his body. “Good. As long as its done soon enough that level of treatment is enough to remove any problem of infection. Well done.”

“Th, Thank you, your majesty!”

Kay turned back toward the fort and saw Zeia still where she’d been, but now staring down at him and absolutely fuming. Wondering what she was so annoyed about he floated himself back up to the top of the wall. “Nice to see you again Zeia.”

“Where have you been?” She demanded, stepping in close and looking like she was about to grab his shoulders and start shaking him before the guards on either side of him made her reconsider.

Kay cocked an eyebrow at her. “The Seramist Isles. I don’t think I talk to you about it personally, but I know you were told.”

“And while you were gallivanting off on vacation in a tropical paradise we were dealing with this!” She thrust an arm out and waved it around to indicate everything that was going on.

“Ah yes,” Kay replied dryly, “Getting roped into finding shapeshifting body snatchers that were the forefront of an invasion by eldritch monstrosities that could have consumed the entire world if left unchecked is definitely my idea of a vacation. I did so much gallivanting when the giant monster smashed me into the ground and we had to blow up its power core to kill it and the resulting explosion almost killed me, that was such fun.”

“I… what?”

“A lot happened and I came back as soon as I could. What are you so worked up about?”

Zeia’s face shut down as her taken aback expression shifted to one of complete focus. “You’ve been updated on what’s been going on?”

“Yes.”

“Right. Well, there have been several waves of refugees, and more than one had one or more people that’d been bitten and infected. We’ve got most of them stabilized, but no one has been able to permanently remove the infection from those that are too far gone.”

“It’s unfortunate, but isn’t that when you turn them into vampires?” Kay asked with a frown. “It’s not the best experience, I can tell you that myself, but it beats turning into an insane monster.”

“No one’s been able to.” She said flatly. “We’ve had multiple of your Blood Manipulators try, those with the healing Class you have and without. The best they’ve been able to do is keep the infection fought back and the patients stable. No one’s turning completely yet, but no one’s been healed either.”

Kay’s frown deepened. “Are any of them here?”

“Yes, there’s a handful from the last group of refugees we managed to help that haven’t been moved back yet.”

“Take me to them. I’ll see what I can do and try and figure out what’s going on.”

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