Sanguine Paradise

Chapter 96: [Day 54] – “Blood Puppets”

Day 54

Elora

In utter befuddlement, we all just stared at the orc woman who was now clutching her throat as if someone was suffocating her. Her face was turning red and her eyes bulged to the point where they looked like they were going to pop. Falling to the ground, she writhed in what appeared to be agony, but she didn't - no, she couldn't utter a word.

The sudden snap of bone marked the end of the orc's life. However, no one was rejoicing in joy at the death of the natural enemy since everybody was apprehensive at the lack of knowing just what or why this unnerving scene had just played out. An orc simply doesn't choke on air and then suddenly have their necks snapped from a breeze.

Did she have a kill-switch planted in her to keep her from spilling the beans of Ebongrave's secrets?

But before I could ponder this thought any further the words of our leader entered my ears.

"Uhmm... what exactly was it trying to say?" - Adran

Collectively going over what had just happened, both I and the others around me realized that the orc woman had tried to speak with someone. Turning around and looking where the orc's gaze had been directed towards, I spotted the thoughtful face of Micheal.

"Did it know you?" - Adran

Adran suddenly said, with no small amount of venom in his voice.

While I usually wanted to jump Micheal's bones whenever I laid my eyes on the pretty boy, and I'm still quite pissed off that he's so reserved, but now I couldn't help but wonder the same thing. This random but outrageously sexy hunk of meat that looks like some prince of the royal family, who we found butt-naked out in the wastelands, was anything but ordinary.

Did that orc woman really try to talk with him, did they have some connection, or was she just driven insane and cuckoo by knowing that she had no retreat but death?

"Ahem - Oh, come on, why the hell would some orc know me? Maybe she was just dazzled by my handsome looks, who knows?" - Micheal

Micheal said, his tone obviously jovial and joking, surprisingly enough trying to make light of the situation. Although I had to agree that he did have the possibility of dazzling pretty much any woman, this was all too confusing and odd. But it wasn't just me that was confused at everything as Adran was also looking very bewildered.

Just how could somebody possibly from Ebongrave know or have any connection with a pretty boy of some rich Mordrian merchant?

However, it wasn't everybody who was looking confused as Ireli was actually panic-stricken. In stark contrast to everybody, she was actually holding her staff towards Micheal like he was some demon that was going to attack at any moment. It was first now that everybody was noticing her odd state, but it only caused even more dubiety.

"Hey - What's wrong Ireli?" - Adran

Always trusting Ireli's hunches like a puppy, he was now also looking at Micheal with wary eyes. But I could only stand and watch as the sidelines, conflicted as I very much liked this guy, not just for his looks but since I know he's a very decent guy and had this odd but intriguing sense of humor from the small amount of time I've spent with him.

"H-h-his eyes... not human..." - Ireli

At this point, she was practically trembling.

"What?! What the hell do you mean? He's just a weak human, I can barely even sense a shred of strength from him, his aura is like that of commoner..." - Oren

"I saw it. H-his eyes changed when the orc was dying, and I could sense some hidden but almost... primal mana from him. But this isn't the first time, I originally had just thought I was imagining things, but as we traveled and he was apparently resting, I think I sensed the same exact mana fluctuate from him. But it disappeared as fast as it had appeared..." - Ireli

Now everybody's expressions were stern and directed directly at Micheal who was now just frowning instead of looking confused.

"Is this true? But even if he's a mage, he hasn't done anything against us. Sure, him hiding his abilities is... dubious to say the least. But what's the problem? Are you really sure he killed the orc?" - Me

The shock in my eyes was definitely noticeable, but I desperately tried to come up with whatever reason to shoot down whatever it was Ireli was hinting at. But I realized that I was grasping for straws, and even though it appeared that he had actually killed that orc woman, I prayed that Ireli was wrong and this is just some freak coincidence.

"He's definitely the source of the magic, b-but..." - Ireli

"But what?" - Adran

Her face had turned pale, and it was as if she was afraid to even say the words.

"He doesn't have a staff, wand, or any semblance of a mana conductor; meaning he's a..." - Ireli

The whole clearing went silent, the deathly still almost suffocating.

"Monster..." - Adran

Collectively, everybody tightened their grips on their weapons upon hearing Adran finish Ireli's sentence.

"Wait! This can't be, I mean he hasn't even shown any malicious intent towards us, and he didn't help those orcs... h-he can't be a monster..." - Me

Although I tried to mediate the situation with my words, even I didn't believe their hollow tone. With Adran taking lead, everybody started surrounding the frowning Micheal in a half-circle.

It had already turned dusk under during the fighting with the greenskins, and with only the moonlight and torches of the caravan lighting up the surroundings, the whole atmosphere had taken a sudden gloomy turn.

"Just what the fuck are you?" - Adran

Spitting on the ground in front of him, Adran stared daggers at the young man. Locking gazes with Micheal, it seemed that he almost looked regretful that things had taken such a turn instead of afraid or panicked. This... caused my heart to sink with dread.

"Come on now guys, what's up with all the tension. How about we just part ways now, and leave this b-" - Micheal

He didn't manage to finish his sentence, roughly cut-off by Adran's words and the point of his sword pointed directly at him.

"Shut it, monster - Enough with your tricks and games, we won't be fooled anymore. I always knew that was something shady about you, you little piece of shit." - Adran

Shooting Adran an exhausted, almost exasperated gaze, Micheal shook his head with obvious pity.

"(Sigh) - It truly isn't wrong when they say ignorance is bliss... I'm sorry, I tried, but you've brought this upon yourselves." - Micheal

The next thing that happened after those words caused everybody to collectively tense up. Before our very eyes, Micheal started to change...

His long, barely shoulder-length auburn hair turned from ordinary hair into was almost looked like silk or velvet that had a pure and beautiful silvery gleam. He was growing taller, reaching a domineering two-meter height. All around his body, his muscles enlarged and became taut. With his increased muscle mass and height, his shirt started stretching across his chest which he simply ripped off with one swift motion, revealing even more cut and defined muscle tones than before.

But those changes weren't nearly as eye-catching as the transformation of his face. His features turning even more exotic and sculpted, ears turning pointy like those of elven heritage, but his eyes... oh-his eyes...

Two vibrant but cold eyes that had irises of swirling shadows and vicious crimson. Looking into those eyes, it wasn't like he was looking down on us and perceiving us as simply inferior, but it was like a natural part of my own being was instinctually kneeling in subservience towards him. I had thought him beautiful and handsome before, but now he was simply... otherworldly.

While everybody around had fallen into a deathly still silence, the surroundings and its animals were riled up as if they had just been awoken and were all giving their respect and acknowledgment towards this being.

Just who... - no, what was he?

"Monster! You're no human nor elf, just what the fuck are you?!" - Adran

Sighing, the look in Micheal's eyes turned from one of pity, to utter indifference.

"That doesn't matter anymore, I originally wanted to leave you humans be after getting what I wanted. And admittedly, I enjoyed my little stay. But unfortunately, you pushed it too far." - Micheal

Before we could react to his words, he suddenly extended his hand out in front of himself, palm facing upwards. While it looked like Adran was going to charge right then and there, what happened next caused him to pause.

On Micheal's hand, crimson liquid, extremely captivating and vibrant to the eyes, started to ooze from what looked to be his skin itself. Although I had no idea what was happening and I had a hard time even describing it as his blood.

But how come it was moving as if it had a life of its own...?

Slowly swirling around in his palm, the blood continued to ooze while it started to form into three relatively large crimson orbs that barely fit in his hand. Once they grew too large, they suddenly started floating into the air. The flow stopped when all three balls had reached the size of a closed fist.

On awe, bewilderment, and odd mesmerization, we all just stood dumbly around while staring at those orbs of vibrant life. All of a sudden, Micheal swished his hand to the side and with it, the orbs shot out, landing somewhere behind us.

Although it was stupidity itself to break sight of a dangerous enemy, we all for some reason couldn't resist the temptation to turn around and look at where those balls had fallen.

In the center of the bloody battlefield, the orbs laid still and inundated with primal power. Slowly, from every direction, the blood that spattered the surroundings started to coalesce on the location of the three orbs. Almost as if the blood was beckoned by their call. It even felt like my own blood wanted to jump out of my body and join which chilled me to the bone.

However, the next that happened truly scared me. From those orbs and massive amounts of greenskin blood, humanoid looking creatures of coagulating blood started forming. They had no facial features, no genitals, no hair, no nothing that any living being normally would have. Although they didn't have eyes, I could feel their gazes sweeping around, scrutinizing us.

One of the more impatient and panicking guys from our mercenary group seemed to have hit the breaking point as he suddenly charged at one of the creatures with a maddened cry. Once he reached the blood monster, he swung his sword downwards with all the force he could muster. But he didn't even get his swing halfway before he was suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

The blood monster he was attacking had with a swift and quick motion shot its entire arm into the assailant, skewering him through and through. Hoisting the impaled man into the air as if he weighed nothing, his blood dripped down onto the blood monster and seemed to fuse into its very body.

Seeing this, some of the more light-hearted of the mercenaries panicked, and one even bolted away to try and escape. But before he even reached the treeline, Micheal simply scoffed. All of sudden, the deserting man fell over, blood slowly pooling under him. The cause of the escaping mercenary's death completely unknown. With both a sour and furious face, Adran, our leader could only look on at the dire scene.

"We have to fight our way out of this... If he really is a monster and had accompanied us for all this time without attacking us, it must mean that he has his own reservations about our strength. He might even be severely weakened, so he might not have enough mana. He definitely can't keep using that wicked magic." - Adran

Hearing Adran's words, everybody seemed to realize that exact same fact and all collectively got some of their courage to return on their pale expressions. However, I couldn't help but feel that the mocking smirk on Micheal's face indicated anything but that.

"Squad members, take out those blood-things. Officers with me, we'll take out this abomination." - Adran

Reluctantly, I took formation to Adran's right flank with Oren on his left and Ireli at his rear. Battle-ready, we approached the calmly observing Micheal. Feeling the invigorating leadership-buff from Adran's passive skill, my mind could think more clearly about the situation as my head calmed down, but it wasn't by much since everything that had happened was simply too overwhelming.

Once I saw Adran's hand signal, I infused him with Fleeted Strikes, a skill I got from reaching Senior in my Fencer class. I could use it on myself or allies to increase the speed and elusiveness of their attacks. With the buff applied, Adran suddenly shot forward. To my surprise, I could see his weapon had started glowing with a golden sheen, indicating that he was using True Slash.

The reason why I was surprised was because this move was his trump move, the strongest in his arsenal. It was something he got from reaching the Master tier of the Swordsman class, that alone already a testament to its ability and capabilities. It took a quarter of his entire stamina pool but would result in a deadly slash beyond anything that either Oren or I could possibly produce even with our abilities combined.

But was what even more surprising was the fact that Micheal didn't even react and simply looked on as Adran's blade headed for his torso. It was inconceivable that a mage-type monster would try and brunt such an attack unless his speed and reaction simply were that slow. But why Micheal had remained unperturbed by the attack became obvious as the blade struck flesh.

A loud clang rang out and deafened the fighting and roars of the battle behind us, and the succinct blow-out of wind from the attacks buffeted our sight. Once we could see again, we all stared in horror at the blade of Adran that had only barely managed to bite into the chest of Micheal.

"H-how!? You're just mage!" - Adran

"Stop it with these annoying theatrics." - Micheal

Although it seemed that Adran was genuinely horrified by his defense, his eyes suddenly hardened and he jumped away merely a split second before a giant ball of fire engulfed the figure of Micheal.